by Jack Flacco
Ranger buckled in his spot, whipped out the magazine he had stolen from the library, and at the moment of impact, tackled the one-eyed, jawless zombie to the ground, shoving the magazine down its throat. Amid the undead’s flailing arms, he pressed on the tube with all his might until he heard a crack. Then, a sudden green spurt exploded from the other end of the roll into the air.
When the other zombies saw their brother lying in a pool of its own ooze, they shrieked. In unison they pounded, pounded, pounded on the glass of the North Administration Building. They thumped so hard it cracked. Their eyes widened and their mouths twisted to smiles. They banged some more until it shattered. Without wasting time, they punched through the glass, making their way to Ranger. Hundreds of them.
Five minutes left.
Wildside inched closer to the bomb as the zombies began to scale the fence.
Randy disappeared into the trees after a group of undead began to chase him.
Matty and Jon darted from one vehicle to the next, hoping to find one with keys.
And Ranger? Ranger? Ranger scuttled to the end of the east hall with a horde of rotting, meat-grinders trailing behind. He rammed the side door to the building to make his escape.
“Ranger!” Randy slipped from the trees, his own army of dead people pursuing their dinner.
“Where’s Wildside?”
“He didn’t make it—”
“What do you mean?”
“We can’t talk now. We have about three minutes to get out of here!”
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. Head for the gate.” Ranger rushed behind, pulled his shotgun and blasted as many as he could. He dropped some of them, but the rest didn’t yield. Ranger caught Randy at the gate.
Zombies spilled from the building and the trees, joining together as one large mass. They charged for the zombie slayer and his companion.
Ranger and Randy locked the gate and sprinted violently across the street to the parking lot, leaving the famished throng with thrashing arms behind.
Matty and Jon waved them in. She threw Ranger the keys to a black four-seater Camaro as they piled inside. Ranger examined the car with raised eyebrows.
“I couldn’t find a truck with keys.” Matty said.
Ranger nodded his approval. “Nice ride.” He hopped in and started the engine.
“Wait.” Jon said. “What about Wildside?”
“Your arm.” Matty said. “You’ve been shot!”
“I’ll tell you both when we get out of here.” Randy answered.
Ranger slipped the car into gear and took off, crashing through all the unmanned gates and barricades.
Twenty seconds, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…
The zombies had made it to the top of the fence. Their nostrils sucked Wildside’s broken scent.
Ten, nine, eight…
One of them dropped all the way to the ground and dragged its parts to face the boy sitting in a pool of blood trickling from his foot.
Three, two, one.
Wildside’s sleepy eyes met those of the fiend’s. He smiled. He whispered. “Boom.”
On their knees, Jon and Matty peered through the backseat window of the fleeing Camaro when the ominous mushroom cloud consumed the sky over Worship Square.
A wall of sound thundered from the epicenter of the explosion, shattering windows and splitting doors within a one-block radius. The impact of the blast hurled zombies through the panes of the North Administration Building, splattering their rotting corpses on the inside walls and furniture. Green blood patterns trailing on the floor flowed as art. A firestorm swallowed the remaining undead, turning them to ash. The stench of death floated through the air.
Flames curled and danced in the trees, jumping back and forth, consuming bark, leaves, and branches. The inferno crawled the white walls of the glorious temple, diving into the blown doorways, devouring a path across its foundation. Luxurious red carpets ignited. Pews cracked. The monolithic pipe organ smoldered and cried its last bellowing song. The towers fashioned after Gothic Revival architecture collapsed inward, crashing to the ground.
The Williams Auditorium laid waste in a pile of molten metal and scrap. The blaze reduced the South Administration Building to rubble.
Nothing of the complex remained.
Chapter 28
Between the crevices and rock formations, the midnight black Camaro sat parked to the side in a canyon. The wind howled through the gully lifting and throwing dust to the empty vehicle’s windshield. A few yards away, near a corner of a clearing, as the sun sunk into the horizon, Ranger and the kids stood solemn, staring at the post in the dirt placed there with Wildside’s name on it.
Each had their hands tucked in front except for Matty who had hers at her side and Randy who had his arm in a sling. They reflected on Wildside and his contribution to their lives.
“I guess someone should say something.” Matty said.
Other than Ranger who remained fixed in his gaze, they all looked at each other with darting eyes. No one stepped forward. The realization they will never see their friend struck them and hadn’t let go.
Clearing his throat, Ranger spoke. “Well,” he paused, “we’re here to say good-bye to our friend who gave his life for us. I never thought I’d have to do this for anyone—burying them— but we’re here. And we’re doing it. He wasn’t a boy in my eyes. He fought along side me and took the hurt much like a man would. We had our differences like everybody else but I knew him loyal. We trusted him with our lives. You know, before this whole mess started, the change, we were ordinary folk, doing ordinary things with ordinary talents. After the change, Wildside proved ordinary folk are capable of extraordinary things. And that quality is what we humans have that will win this war. No one can tell me he died in vain. What Wildside did, his sacrifice for his friends, was beyond hero.”
Everyone touched their chin to their chest and closed their eyes.
“We’ll have him always in our minds the next time we have an encounter with the changed. He is why we live. He is why we need to win. He died so we could live.”
* * *
That same evening, Ranger poked at the fire with a crooked stick. Matty and Jon sat at either side of him, and Randy strolled next to Matty. Having taken his seat on the log and passing her a bottled water, they watched the fire as it flickered into the air producing a random pattern of sparks.
“I can’t believe Wildside’s gone.” Matty said, staring into the fire.
“I can’t believe it either.” Jon said, nudging closer to Ranger and fanning his hands to the fire. “He thought of everything when he built that bomb. The detonator. The timer. I don’t get how he couldn’t have thought of a Plan B.”
“Well,” Ranger threw a bundle of sticks into the fire, “He had his own way of doing things.”
No one said much of anything for a long time. They watched the flames roll and the smoke rise. Not until Randy cleared his throat did anyone let a word slip.
“What did you want to say?” Ranger asked.
“I don’t know.” Randy scratched his head. “I’m wondering about all those people trapped in the auditorium—”
“They weren’t people.” Matty said, throwing a rock beyond the fire.
“Right. The changed. Who were they?”
“I had met that one-eyed zombie before. It kept coming after me when I drove around in my old truck. It never surrendered. The military must have captured it and sent it to the auditorium. There really is no other explanation.” Ranger said.
“I can’t see that happening.” Matty said, rubbing her eyes from the smoke that had shifted from the wind’s breeze. “The military would have wasted them in the desert.”
Everyone drew a collective breath as if to agree nothing made sense, but Randy had one more thing on his mind he needed answering. “Ranger, how did you get into Worship Square to set those explosives at the Williams Auditorium and the North Administration Building? The military had that place sealed tight.”
“Oh, that.” Ranger jabbed the fiery logs releasing a dazzling stream of sparks into the air. “The military were so worried about zombies infiltrating the compound that when I’d appeared faking a broken leg at the South Gate, they let me right in. I didn’t even have to shoot anyone. Once I’d bound the guards to chairs, I stole their keys, and found a stash of timers with explosives locked in a cabinet inside the sentry. Then, it was all a matter of planting the explosives and finding y’all.”
After a yawn, Matty said, “I’m heading to bed.” She rose, handed Randy the water bottle and walked to the car. A moment later, she swung her head to the group. “Randy? Didn’t you say you needed to get something in the car before I went to bed?”
“I did?” Randy searched for a memory of his words. “You’re right. I did.” He jumped from his place, said goodnight and joined her.
Alone, Ranger and Jon looked at the stars. The sky, a deep black, the stars appeared as sparkles.
“You know he didn’t say that, right?” Jon said.
“Yeah, I know. They need some time alone anyway. Maybe he can soften her up a bit.”
“I think you got that wrong, Ranger. Nothing’s gonna soften Matty up.”
Ranger chuckled, “You know, kid? You’re right. I don’t think anything’ll soften your sister up, unless she gets three zombies in her crosshair and cuts them down in one fell swoop.”
Jon laughed. By now, he knew Ranger well enough to know he had his sister pegged. Nothing fooling this zombie slayer.
“Look there.” Ranger pointed to the sky. “Did you see that?”
“I saw it!”
“A shooting star.”
It flew through the blackened sky, leaving a faint trail of white dust in its wake.
“There goes another one.” Jon followed it with his finger past the horizon.
Ranger kept his eyes fixed to the center.
Jon’s seen that look before. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I thought I saw something. Maybe it’s my imagination.” He said, but he kept his gaze pointed at the one spot.
Searching the sky, Jon’s eyes shifted from the stars, to Ranger and back to the sky. He didn’t know what Ranger saw. Whatever it was, it held Ranger’s interest.
But then, a funny thing happened. Jon saw it too. “What are those?”
They saw five dots in the sky of five different colors. They almost didn’t appear to exist, yet, they danced in the night above.
“Are you seeing this, too?” Matty asked, as she stepped from the dark with Randy to rejoin the boys staring into the sky.
“They’re getting bigger.” Jon said, noticing what first appeared as dots now spun in circles in the night.
“And there are more of them.” Randy’s jaw dropped.
The lights grew in intensity. Colors spun leaving trails like chalk dragged on a blackboard. More lights clustered together to form a group. Five turned into ten, turned into fifty turned, into a hundred. Dominating the sky, the vibrant display glowed on the faces of Ranger and the kids.
As the lights got closer to earth, Ranger said, “I hope those are fireflies. If they’re not and if that alien dog we met in the tunnels is any indication of what’s ahead, we’re in trouble.”
They all stared at the sky.
Matty gulped, then whispered. “Big trouble.”
Table of Contents
RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
For LuanaChapter 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28