by Mark Tufo
“My ereader! You shouldn’t have, Winke,” she squealed as she kissed his cheek. “Winke, you’re hot.” She touched his forehead. “You’re burning up! Come on, go sit down.”
“Now that you mention it, I don’t feel so good,” he told her.
“Is Santa making bacon?” Ben-Ben asked coming down the hallway.
Patches was at Jessie’s room, meowing loudly.
“Cat, you’re going to wake her,” I said.
“I know, I’m trying to, we need to get out of here,” she answered .
“Bacon, bacon, bacon,” Ben-Ben kept repeating as he walked around in small circles in the food room.
“Patches, what?” Jessie asked as she opened her door. She first looked down at Patches who was now running back toward me and over to the room of living where Faye was helping Winke lay down.
“Is he alright?” Jessie asked as she also came down the hallway.
“He’s burning up—could you please get me some water?” Faye asked.
Jessie ran to get him some water and then handed it to Faye. I saw her put her hand to her mouth and that’s never a good human gesture.
“He’s almost a zombie, Riley, make the girl get moving,” Patches said.
“What?” I asked. I wasn’t putting everything together.
“When a zombie bites a human, that human becomes a zombie. And that man is almost a zombie—we need to leave.”
“I don’t believe you,” I told her.
“These humans feed me, they clean up after me, they provide me with a warm, safe place to rest—why would I want to leave?” Patches said.
I ran down the skinny room and into Jessie’s rest room. I grabbed her fake paws, ran back down the hallway, and I placed them down loudly by her feet.
“I’m busy, Riley, I’ll take you for a walk later,” she told me.
I barked aggressively.
“Are you okay, Faye?” Jessie asked.
“I think so,” Faye answered without looking up from her husband.
“I need to get dressed, apparently someone needs to go outside real bad.” She rubbed my head.
I barked loudly at the doorway to baby Zach’s room. No response. I barked louder.
“Stop, Riley, you’re going to wake—dammit,” Jess said as Zach began crying in earnest. “Now I’ll have to take him, that’s not a good girl.”
I was fine with it. Not much time passed, but it was enough. I was beginning to get anxious and Ben-Ben wasn’t helping.
“Riley, she’s burning the bacon,” Ben-Ben said. “I mean, I’ll still eat it, but I like it when it’s all wet and soggy like when the humans drop it on the floor. Santa needs to come over here and get the bacon.”
As he tried to walk past, I barred his way.
“Riley, I just want bacon,” Ben-Ben moaned.
I stalled him long enough; Jessie was coming back down the skinny room. “A walk first and then bacon.”
“A walk? Why? Santa doesn’t care where I go,” Ben-Ben said.
“Have some pride, you’re coming out and then we’ll get some bacon,” I told him. If he questioned me again I was going to nip him and I think he knew it.
“Promise?” he whined again.
“Sure, let’s go,” I told him. Patches was already at the door.
“You too?” Jessie asked.
“Faye, I’ll be right back,” Jessie said as she let us all out, including herself. She had no sooner shut the door and walked a few steps away when we heard a blood-curdling scream from Faye.
Jessie turned to run back, I got in her way like I had with Ben-Ben.
“Riley, stop!” Jessie said, trying to force me out of her path. I kept jumping back. Faye’s screams got louder and finally stopped as Jessie fought her way through me and to the door. She opened it and stuck her head in, letting out a small gasp before quickly closing the door and then the heavy metal one in front. Something banged up against the now closed door.
“Santa?” Ben-Ben asked.
“Not anymore,” Patches said.
“So no bacon then?” Ben-Ben asked.
I answered him by walking away.
Jessie was crying as we started out again to find Justin. It was the two-leggers’ day of Christmas but none of us felt like celebrating.
The Book of Riley: PT 2
My Name is Riley
Mark Tufo
This book is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places and events are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual names, characters and places are entirely coincidental. The reproduction of this work in full or part is forbidden without written consent from the author.
Copyright 2012 Mark Tufo
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Cover Art:
Cover Art by Shaed Studios, shaedstudios.com
Electronic Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Dedications:
To the missus, thank you for all that you do. (Especially when I injure myself in a variety of new and unusual ways)
To Katherine Coynor, your input and attention to detail is always appreciated.
To Paul Erickson, thank you. (I could go into a long and detailed explanation but he’d probably get embarrassed.)
To Max Heron, be well little one.
To the men and women of the armed forces, my unflagging gratitude for your sacrifices.
My Name is Riley - From the Book of Riley - Volume 2
Part 2 continues the saga of Riley and her pack, picking up exactly where part 1 ended.
CHAPTER ONE
We got back into Jess’ car. Her hands were shaking as she placed the janglers into their resting spot. Water leaked from her eyes, splashing off the steering wheel. Ben-Ben was licking it up.
“It’s salty like bacon. Do you want me to save you some?” Ben-Ben asked me.
“You thought him worth saving?” Patches asked me as she sighed from the back seat.
I turned my head to the side, which I think is near the same as when a human shrugs their shoulders. “He has his good parts,” I told her.
“Let me know when they show, get the girl moving,” Patches told me.
“You are a bossy little thing,” I snarled at her.
“I’m a cat and I’m female, I fully expect others to do my bidding.”
“Shouldn’t we allow her to rest?” I asked Patches. “She just watched two of her own die.”
“More will be coming. I cannot imagine you with that preposterously large nose not being able to smell them,” Patches said.
Ben-Ben’s water slurping was not allowing me to think clearly. “Sit down!” I barked at him.
“I just wanted some bacon,” he whined. “I miss Santa, and the Alphas, even Alpha-cub,” he whined softly.
I missed them, too, and I felt for Ben-Ben; but we needed to leave. Survival was all that mattered. Instincts that had been muted my entire life were now coming to the fore. I barked to get Jessie’s attention and again when she didn’t respond.
“Riley, what?” she asked with a pained expression.
I barked through the front viewer.
“I don’t see anything,” Jessie said, peering.
“She really needs to learn animal-speak, this is as bad as Lassie,” Patches said.
“Who’s Lassie?” Ben-Ben and I asked.
“If you two stopped playing tug-of-war with your tails you’d know,”
Patches said snidely.
I turned to the front when the four-wheeler awoke.
“Again you guys saved me,” Jessie said, stroking the side of my face. Ben-Ben nudged me away so that his face was now in contact with Jess’ front paw. “Oh, Ben-Ben,” Jess said as more water flowed from her eyes.
“Think she could fill a bowl with that?” Ben-Ben asked me. “I’m very thirsty. I ate the casing the bacon came in.”
“Dumb dog,” Patches chimed in.
“What? Faye threw it in the giant dog bowl…I figured it was mine to eat!” Ben-Ben exclaimed.
“That’s the trash,” I said, shaking my head back and forth.
“Yum! It’s all the same to me!” Ben-Ben said excitedly, his tail wagging furiously.
“I have got to start thinking on my own,” Jess said to us. “I have Zachary to think of. It’s just us now,” she said as she snuggled up to my face. My whiskers tickled as she did so; I sneezed in her face. “Why thank you for that!” Jess said, pulling back a bit.
She put Zach in his special seat. I could tell from the smells that were leaking from him that he was in desperate need of elimination. I have yet to figure out why the two-leggers make their young keep the waste in their fake skins. Even the lowly cat doesn’t walk around with offal in its coat. When I was a summer younger I thought it might just be my Alphas that did that, and then I went to the kid zoo—or they may have called it the park, I can’t remember—but all the little ones there had fake skins on, and more than seven had waste tucked in with them. Two-leggers are a funny animal. And then I remember Ben-Ben when I think sometimes that we dogs are the superior being; he brings it all back. Patches might have it right, not that I’m going to let her know it. The only thing we have in common is that we’re both females.
The wheeler was moving, and just in time, I saw zombies coming from around Winke’s house.
“Something is wrong with Santa!” Ben-Ben howled.
I turned; my fur bristled as I saw him standing at the window. He looked to be eating a particularly large hunk of meat, it was not bacon, of that I was sure. Jess did not see, and I was thankful for that, she would have just leaked more eye water.
“I need to get to Justin,” Jess said aloud. I could sense the desperation in her voice. “Until then, though, I’m going to start doing what it takes to keep us alive,” she said with some determination; not much, but at least it was there.
“Finally, now I can take this burden off my back,” Patches said as she puddled her tail around her body.
“As if,” I snorted at her, she paid me no attention. “Typical cat, do nothing and take all the credit.”
“I’m sleeping, dog, why don’t you be a good second-class animal and shut up,” she told me.
If I thought I could get into the back without hurting Zachary, I may have done so. I wouldn’t hurt her, mostly. Maybe just fit her whole body in my mouth and give her a shake or two, let her know who was boss. I drifted off to sleep with that image in my mind; one of the better sleep thoughts I’d ever had.
“Nevada!” Was what I heard Jessie shout as she took me out of my sleep; good thing, too. I had been chasing a fat squirrel, and then when I got close, he stopped and turned towards me. His eyes lost the fear of the pursued; they turned as black as the night my pack died. And then he started to run towards me! A squirrel started to chase me! I would have been embarrassed if any of my dog friends had seen. Like sometimes during the autumn months when the two-leggers would parade me and Ben-Ben around in fake skins like theirs. Ben-Ben loved when they dressed him up. Last time he had looked like an orange toy ball, they kept calling him a pumpkin, but he sure didn’t smell like one.
They put some frilly scratchy thing on me, said I was a ballerina, whatever that is. I tried my best to get away from the two-legger tether, but they offered a peanut butter cookie, and I’d do just about anything for a peanut butter cookie. Walked around the whole neighborhood with the Alphas, Zachary, and Daniel. They made sure to go to every house, kept saying something about ‘tricks or treats’ it was alright at some of the houses as the two-leggers that lived there would give me and Ben-Ben something. And then it got bad when that big Siberian Husky, Duke, saw me. He was howling in laughter. I made sure to mark his fence. He couldn’t get past it to get to me. He was soooo angry!
“We’re in Nevada!” Jessie shouted again.
“Cat, what is Nevada?” I asked. I hated to, but what choice did I have.
“We crossed an imaginary line in the dirt the humans created to mark their territory. We left what they call California and are now in Nevada,” she answered.
I didn’t have a clue what ‘imaginary’ meant, but I didn’t want her to think I didn’t. “So we’ve almost completed the big move?” I asked, trying to sound smarter than her.
“Dogs had to team up with humans or you would have never made it,” she said, curling back up to go to sleep.
I looked around trying to figure out what made Nevada any different than California; I couldn’t see anything besides dirt and rocks. Yup pretty much looked the same…except for the change in Jess. She seemed happy once we crossed that funny line. I would be happy with her; I just wished I knew how many more funny lines we would need to cross to see the pheromone boy.
“I think we’ll go to Las Vegas,” Jess said as we were driving along.
As long as they had food I would go willingly. We stopped once so that Zachary could get a new set of fake skins. I gladly got out and relieved myself behind the wheeler, I made Ben-Ben get up too and go outside. He would have been just as happy to go on the back seat. Patches hopped down and walked right under me, her tail smacking into my nose. I had visions of grabbing her by that offensive tail and sending her for a little ‘fetch’ ride.
Zachary was screaming; I went over to sniff him while Jess was busy digging the fake skins out. His bottom was the same color, Jess’ skin had been this summer when she fell asleep outside. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be, he was sitting in his filth and he had no fur to protect himself. I smelled something else, too, the baby cub was sick. I could smell it in his breath. It wasn’t bad yet, but it would be. I could only hope that this ‘Las Vegas’ would offer some help.
***
Zachary had been full-throated screaming since we left our relief station. The wheeler was traveling faster as maybe Jess realized something was wrong and was trying to get some help. If she was merely trying to outpace the noise, she wasn’t doing such a good job.
“Shit!” Jess said, slamming her hands against the wheel. “We need gas.”
I thought that was actually pretty good since we were just about to pass one of the smelly liquid dispensers. That was until I saw the dead ones walking around the pumps.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Jess said. “We need gas or we’re going to be walking.” She looked over at the three dead ones who were now approaching, as she pulled in.
I alternated between looking at Jess and the dead ones. Jess was alternating between looking at them and looking down at the number gauges on the wheeler. She reached behind the back seat and took out a metal stick, and then she got out of the car. She almost slammed my head in the heavy door as I tried to follow her.
“You watch out for Zach,” she told me. I barked furiously at her.
“Cat, what is she doing?” I kept barking.
“This is bad,” Ben-Ben said as he piddled.
“And that’s going to help?” Patches said as she jumped into the front with me to get away from the stench and flow of Ben-Ben.
“I wish Santa was here,” Ben-Ben said as he watched Jess.
“She’s going to try and kill the zombies,” Patches said.
“She’s a fool!” I growled.
“Get me out of the wheeler, cat, NOW!” I was barking so loud I was actually making the baby cub stop his screaming as he looked in wonder at something that was actually complaining louder than he was.
Patches moved her paw to a button on the door.
I heard something click on all four doors.
“Wrong button,” Patches said, looking down at her paw. “I think I locked the doors.”
The zombies were getting closer to Jess as she had come to my side of the car. She started to wildly swing the hooked metal stick. “They’re going to kill her, cat. Get me out of this thing!” I was howling.
I heard a whirring sound as the window in the back on the driver’s side began to go down. I had already jumped into the back seat and into Ben-Ben’s urine when the other windows began to go down. The triumphant words of Patches were cut short as I dove through the opening.
“A thanks would be nice,” I thought I heard her say as I came to a skidding halt when I landed.
I yelped a moment when I felt something in my paw tear. I turned my body and started to run around to the front. Jess had just hit the first zombie on the shoulder with her stick. It had no effect; his hands were reaching out and were about to close on her neck as I launched off the ground, my momentum taking us all to the ground.
I saw Jess’ look of surprise and relief as I wrapped my muzzle around the creature’s neck. Skin practically sloughed off in my mouth as I dug my paws into the ground pulling the monster off of her. She scrambled and got out from under us; she stood back up as I was shaking back and forth violently. I wasn’t satisfied until I heard the bones in its neck begin to snap, and still the thing tried to bite at me.
“Back!” Jess screamed loudly.
I had just let go as she brought the metal stick down on the top of its skull. The splintering of its head was loud. Finally, it lay still. Jess was heaving from the exertion and the stress; I turned to face the remaining two.
“Oh God!” Jess bawled.
Unlike the Alphas’ home, these zombies were much more interested in me than they had been. I knew what was happening. They were hungrier now, I might not be the favorite food choice for them, kind of like my kibble, but they’d eat me in a pinch. I darted to the side. One of the zombies turned to follow me, but she was slow, even slower than the fat Alpha-cub. I got behind her and snapped at the small fleshy tendon behind her ankle. She went down face first, a few of her two-legger fangs cracking as she hit the fake ground.
