“Wow,” I said. “I'm surprised he planned an escape route. The way he acted last night was like he never planned on leaving this place, no matter what.”
“It wasn't for him,” she explained. “It was for me. He said he wanted to make sure when the time came I could just grab food and leave. He really was the most thoughtful man I knew.”
“Benji,” I said. He turned and stared up at me again, ungluing his eyes from the floor. “Why don't you grab some plastic bags and help Felicity pack up all these portable meals? We don't want to leave anything behind that might be helpful on our trip. Got it?”
“Yeah,” he said, wiping tears off his face and standing up.
“What are you going to do?” Felicity asked.
“I'm going to grab my sword and check out the Lexus. Make sure it's fired up and ready to roll with no surprises. I want to be out on the road in the next ten minutes. Who knows how long we have?”
“Okay,” she said, sounding aloof as she turned and sauntered into the kitchen. I shook off her attitude, chalking it up to grief over Jackson's suicide. I jogged back to the guest room and fetched my sword, then made a pit stop at the bathroom before heading off to the garage. I splashed some cold water on my face to wake myself up. There was a bottle of pills on the counter with the lid off. I picked it up and read the label. Soma. I wasn't sure what they did but I was certain they were responsible for Felicity's condition.
Cut her some slack man, I thought. It's been a very traumatic morning for her by any standards.
I decided not to bring up her apparent relapse, but that didn't mean I wanted her doped out. We might literally be running for our lives at any moment, fighting these undead monsters. The last thing I needed was a spoiled celebrity with a pill habit slowing us down because she was high and thought they looked pretty. I stuffed the rest of the bottle in my pocket and headed out to the garage.
The Lexus was fully gassed and stocked as promised. The keys were in the ignition. I fired it up and the engine purred to life. This was a true luxury vehicle. My heart practically sang with joy. With this car and the supplies we were bringing, there was no reason we couldn't finally get to Hueneme and safety at last. I didn't mean to get my hopes up. If the last few days had proved anything it was that things could turn out horribly different than you expected, with little or no warning at all. Still it didn't hurt to be optimistic, did it?
“Wow,” Benji said, setting down a shiny black trash bag full of ready-to-eat gourmet meals. “It even has television screens in the back of the headrests. I wonder what's in the DVD player?”
“Jackson's last tour footage,” Felicity said as she popped open the back and set another shiny black bag inside. “The car was a gift from his record label. They thought he'd like seeing himself. They really didn't know much about him.”
“So he never drove it?”
“Oh he did,” she said, “but mostly to the store and back to get supplies. He used the CD player, but he didn't have long road trips to take with small children. That's what the players in the back of the seats are really for. Can you imagine Jackson taking friends on long distance trips and making them watch him play a concert in Prague? He was way too humble to do something so egotistical.”
Yeah, I thought, but he's still the same guy who played his video version in Guitar Hero and when he lost, threw an impromptu concert in his living room to prove his expertise. Not really what I'd call humble.
I knew I shouldn't be so hard on Jax. I had only met him once, but it didn't take much to see the guy was plagued by the types of demons that traditionally torment all creative types. His inability to conquer them cost him his life at a young age. If we didn't get moving, we'd be tortured soon by worse.
“Hop in,” I said, sliding into the driver's side and positioning my katana between my right leg and the center console for easy access. Benji didn't hesitate to climb into the back. The idea of watching a free rock concert in a comfy leather luxury vehicle while drinking a Coke didn't strike him as all that bad. Felicity seemed to be taking a bit longer to get her act together.
It's probably the drugs, I thought, tapping my pocket. Here we go.
“I was going to grab something,” she said.
“We really need to get moving,” I told her. She hesitated for a minute then gave up.
“Shouldn't you open the garage door,” she said. “We don't want to get carbon monoxide poisoning in here.” Benji's head shot up at the suggestion.
“It's far too ventilated in here for that,” I said, thinking back on the pile of dead people in the gym from the day before. “Besides we're only going to be in here a minute. The last thing I want to do is risk opening the door and having an unexpected guest come barging in.”
“The gate didn't stop you,” she teased.
“Get in,” I repeated. “And put on your seat belt.”
Felicity finally complied. Once she was in and buckled up, I locked the car doors and hit the garage door opener. The door rolled up blasting us full on in the face with bright sunlight. Luckily there were no signs of zombies, probably owing to the high walls and iron gate. I pulled out of the garage and rolled down the driveway.
“How do I open the gate?” I asked Felicity.
“Just pull up and it will open automatically,” she said.
“Even without electricity?”
“It's wired to the backup generator,” she informed us, “in case of earthquakes.”
I pulled up and the gate slowly swung open. We pulled out onto the asphalt and a loud thump hit the right side of the car. Benji screamed at the top of his lungs. I turned to see a wet, rotting corpse in a sailor’s uniform pounding his fists on the side of the Lexus.
“What are you waiting for?” Felicity yelled, finally shaken from her pill-induced state of relaxation. “Drive!”
I pulled down the street to the main gates. They were already open. The Escalade was where we had left it, but the doors were torn off now and one of the tires was missing. Whoever hit it had left it up on the spare tire jack.
“Glad we didn't try to make a run for the Escalade,” I said.
“Me too,” Benji chimed in.
I looked over and noticed Felicity was violently shaking.
Poor thing, I thought. She probably hasn't seen a lot of zombies, being locked away in that prison palace with Jackson this whole time. She doesn't know how common it is to see these creatures, or what worse horrors await. She's in for a huge surprise!
We pulled down the Mesa and back toward the highway. Along the way, Felicity gasped as we passed carcasses of dead people and animals left out for the flies and scavengers. The air was hot outside and we had a nearly unlimited supply of AC, thanks to the Lexus, so she didn't have to smell the scent of rotting death that had settled over most of the world. Surprisingly, we only saw a few zombies on our way to the freeway onramp and they were all a long distance off.
I drove around a stalled car abandoned in the middle of the freeway and took off south toward Ventura. We were driving past Santa Claus lane in Carpenteria when she spoke again.
“I want to go to Ojai,” she said.
“It's a little out of the way,” I responded. “For now we need to stick to the plan and just drive straight through to the military base.”
“I want to go to Ojai,” she said again, stubbornly.
“It's beautiful out there,” I said, trying not to sound condescending, “but now's not the time.”
“You don't understand,” she argued. “My mom lives there. I haven't seen her since the zombie outbreak.”
“Maybe you can talk some of the soldiers into taking you on a trip out there,” I said.
“They are going to lock us up like prisoners,” she retorted. “I don't want to stay there. Who knows how long we have left? We could die at any moment out here. If I am going to die I'd rather be at home with my mom.”
“It's not a great idea,” I repeated.
“Isn't it? Listening to you tal
k about your brother all the time made me miss my family,” she said. “Why should you be the only one who gets to do what he wants? Why are your plans more important than mine?”
I rolled my eyes. She was just trying to guilt trip me into doing what she wanted, and I knew it. Sure she missed her mom, but it just wasn't safe to go wandering off into the countryside.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“Don't change the subject,” she said. “Don't be passive aggressive.”
“No,” I said. “There is something going on up ahead.”
We'd reached the point in the road where the freeway veered off along a narrow strip between the ocean, a set of rail road tracks, and high cliffs. It was the final stretch between Santa Barbara and Ventura. Usually cars flew up the five lane road on both sides as fast as they could. Instead, we saw a line of cars stretching the wrong way across the road three deep, effectively creating another road block. Surly looking guys with beards on motorcycles rode up and down the freeway on either side.
“Unity Gang,” I mumbled.
“What?” Felicity asked. “Who the hell is the Unity Gang?”
“It's a coalition of bikers and gang bangers from all over the State working together to rob, rape, murder, and extort survivors. This is bad.”
“What are we going to do?” Benji asked, looking terrified again.
“I don't know.”
“Turn around,” Felicity shouted.
“I can't,” I said.
“Then stop the car and just back up,” she yelled.
“You don't understand,” I said. “They can easily run us down with those bikes. I don't think it's a good idea to agitate them.”
“So we're just going to surrender to them and let them have their way with us?”
I realized that Felicity had a lot more to lose than we did because she was a girl. While we might escape with just being target practice, there was no way they would let her go. She looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Obviously the pills had worn off.
“We're going to play it cool,” I said, trying to be calm. “When the time comes we will fight, but not until I give you the signal. We'll bust through those cars if we have to push them all out of the way and haul ass to Ventura. We're not leaving anyone behind. I promise.”
I put my hand on her arm and looked her in the eyes.
“Do you trust me?” I asked. Her lip trembled but she nodded.
“What's the signal?” Benji asked.
“Me pulling out my sword,” I said. “Don't make a move until I do. If I have to get out of this car, I'm leaving a trail of bodies for zom food in my path.”
Two motorcycles loudly roared next to us as they pulled up alongside the Lexus to escort us into position. I pulled toward the front of the blockade and let the car idle as I put it in park. The good news was that the hybrid was so quiet it might have sounded like I turned off the ignition, especially with all the ruckus from the bikes.
A greasy looking biker in a leather vest with long black hair walked over to us and tapped on my window. I rolled it down. His name was sewn on his cut. RABBIT. That's an odd name for a tough biker, I thought.
“Where are you coming from?” He asked. I could feel Benji's eyes burning a hole through the back of my head from his seat. We couldn't tell him that we were in New Lompoc. For all we knew, John might be looking for us. I wouldn't put it past him to put a bounty on our heads for what happened to Tank.
“Are you retarded?” he asked when I didn't answer.
“Sorry,” I said. “We are coming from Santa Barbara, up on the Mesa.”
“How long you been there?”
Why did he want to know? And how was any of this his business? I could feel Felicity starting to squirm in her seat.
“Since the outbreak started,” I said.
“So why did you leave?”
Who does this guy think he is? Mister twenty questions?
“A tanker washed up full of zombies,” I said. “They came ashore and started taking over the neighborhood. I thought we might be safer in Malibu.”
“You're not gonna have much luck down there,” Rabbit said, sounding more like an overly helpful gas station attendant than a thug. “Whole place is overrun with the walking dead.”
“We still gotta try,” I said.
“Suit yourself,” he snapped. The words left me feeling kind of relieved. It sounded like they planned on letting us pass. Then I noticed that Rabbit hadn't taken his hand off the car. He leaned in and looked around past me.
“Whatcha carrying,” he asked, looking back over to Felicity and winking, “aside from this pretty girl?”
Felicity pulled her skirt down and put her legs together. Man, I thought, it must be scary as hell sometimes to be a girl.
“Just some food rations and water,” I lied. If they found out about the gas they'd want it for sure. For a biker, fuel was maybe even more important than air. It was how they maintained control over the area. Without it they were just a scary tribe of guys on foot.
“We're going to need to take a look,” he said.
“We're kind of in a hurry,” I explained. “And we don't have much to spare.”
Rabbit chuckled.
“You don't get it do you, sport?” He spat on the ground. “I'm not asking.”
“We're not looking for any trouble,” I said, holding my hands up. For a moment I considered flooring it and trying to fight our way out right then and there while we still had the element of surprise on our side.
“Well I guess this is our lucky day then, isn't it?” He scoffed at us. I could feel Felicity trying to make herself smaller in her seat.
“Now this is what's going to happen,” Rabbit said. “You're going to step out of the vehicle and we are going to search it for things we might find useful to our cause.”
“So basically you're just going to steal all our stuff.”
“We've claimed this road,” he said, undisturbed by my outburst. “The toll for driving on it is generally half of whatever you are carrying, depending on how valuable we determine your cargo to be. We're not monsters like them Unity Gang. We're Sons of the New Dawn. We use what we take to fight them off, keep them from taking over all of Southern California. You might not think it's noble, but then again who cares what the hell you think?”
I began to fidget with the blade. I saw Felicity cast me a wary glance. The last thing she wanted was a fight. I was fairly certain that, noble or not, it was going to come down to that. There was no way I was letting a gang of deluded bikers steal all our stuff and kidnap Felicity.
“Now get out of the car,” he said coldly, adding with a smile, “pretty damn please.”
“No,” I said casually, wrapping my hand around the base of my blade. I figured I could yank the door open and knock him over, then hop out and begin carving up anyone who got in my way. It wasn't the best plan I had ever come up with, but I was starting to get really angry. I'd been through too much to let them take my chance of getting back to my brother away from me. I was sick and tired of other people derailing my plans with their nonsense.
“Excuse me?” he said, looking genuinely shocked. “I don't think I heard you correctly, little man.”
“You heard me,” I said in a low growl.
He shook his head in disbelief and laughed.
“All right then, you little idiot,” he said, reaching in and grabbing me by the shirt. “We're going to have to do this the hard way.” I smiled at him. My right hand was crossed over my lap with my fingers on the door handle. My left hand was now wrapped around my blade.
“What are you smiling about?”
I didn't answer. I'm smiling, I thought, because in just a few moments the same fingers that are pulling on my shirt are going to be laying on the hot asphalt permanently detached from your body, you punk biker scum.
Just as I was getting ready to make my big move a loud booming voice came from behind Rabbit.
“Rab
bit! What's taking so long?”
His expression changed and he let go of my shirt, backing out of the window. He turned and I could see his buddy, a much larger version of himself with the name SCAR stitched on his jacket.
“Nothing,” Rabbit said. “They are just getting out of the car now.”
Scar walked over to the window and looked in. His expression changed dramatically when he saw Felicity.
“Holy Jesus,” he said, sounding almost like a convert. “Do you know who that is? That's Felicity Jane!”
Rabbit looked confused. Felicity came back to life. The guy was obviously a fan.
“Who the hell is Felicity Jane?” Rabbit asked.
“Only one of the hottest and most talented actresses of her generation,” Scar said. Felicity blushed and pulled down the visor on her side to check her makeup. I rolled my eyes.
This isn't happening, I thought. A second ago we were ready to battle for our lives with hardened biker scum and now we're being accosted by a die-hard fan. Unbelievable!
Scar leaned in the window to get closer.
“You probably don't remember me,” he said, the heat of his breath practically in my face. “I met you at Comic Con last year. I stood in line for over an hour to get a picture with you.”
“You were at Comic Con?” I asked, laughing dismissively. “What for?”
Scar turned and gave me a nasty glare.
“You see what I've been dealing with?” Rabbit protested.
“I was in Starfire Galaxy,” she said. “I played the child queen of the warrior Amazonians.”
“Ursa,” Benji said from the backseat. “They made that poster from the movie stills of her in the fur bikini. It sold like a million copies.”
I suddenly remembered the poster on the ceiling in New Lompoc.
“What are you doing here?” Scar asked.
“My friends and I are heading to see my mom in Ojai,” she said. “I haven't seen her since the outbreak and I am worried about her. We were taking her and my stepfather food and water. He's diabetic so I am really concerned, you know?”
“Right,” Rabbit scoffed. “A minute ago they said they were going to Malibu.”
Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde Page 17
