The Book Of Riley A Zombie Tale ebook set 1-4 + bonus short

by Mark Tufo

I walked over and let the man rub his paw over my fur.

  Jess paused. “If Riley trusts you, then so do I.”

  Alex rose, I stepped away quickly.

  “We’ll work on this.” He stooped down to place his face next to mine. If he trusted me enough to not rip through his face, then I would take that as a good sign. There was goodness in him; it however was covered in a deep sadness.

  “There’s more of us,” Jess told him.

  Alex began to sob anew when he saw Zach. “He’s not much younger than my boy. Can I hold him?” he asked through a curtain of tears.

  “Most certainly not!” Patches said, getting in between the two.

  “You have any bacon?” Ben-Ben asked, jumping on the man’s leg.

  “Ben-Ben down,” Jess told the dog.

  “Riley, why did you let this strange man down here?” Patches asked, her tail swishing back and forth.

  “Jess trusts him…and so do I for that matter. He’s lost his family and there is a deep sadness around him.”

  “I don’t care,” she replied, “humans are bad.”

  “Not all of them. Now let him hold Zach, it will give him some comfort. He is going to help us find Justin.”

  “What?!” Patches shrieked. “We are not leaving this place. We have everything we need and more.”

  “It’s what Jess wants.”

  “What about me…us, what about what we want?”

  “Patches, Jess is suffering. She wants to be around her own kind. I know as a cat that is not something high up on your list of priorities, but two-leggers crave being around others. They are like herd animals in that regard.”

  “I like it here, dog,” she said haughtily. “The road is no place for us.”

  “For once, cat, you and I are in agreement. Where Jess goes I will follow, though. Do you like it enough here to stay by yourself?”

  “I will think on this.”

  And she was serious. She moved out of Alex’ path and allowed him to pick up Zach.

  “His face has fur, too.” Zach pulled on the man’s scraggly-bearded cheeks.

  “He likes you,” Jess said with a smile. “When should we leave?”

  Alex and Zach were staring intently at each other. “Are you sure?” he asked. “It’s just not safe.”

  “Nowhere is safe, Mr. Carbonara. I’d rather die trying to get to Justin, than spend the rest of my life here.”

  “I understand that…I do. Tomorrow then? We’ll leave in the morning. Now that I’m not…umm…planning on doing what I had originally intended on, I find myself to be extremely hungry. Do you have any food you could spare?”

  Jess laughed and led him to the food room.

  He just stared and gazed upon it.

  “Eat what you want. Pretty sure we’re not going to be able to take it all with us.”

  “I helped get all this,” he said as he walked into the room.

  ***

  The burning-disc had no sooner broken over the sky than Alex shook Jess awake. “We should get going, kiddo,” he said gently.

  “Dad? Sorry,” she said as she sat up. “He used to say that to me when it was time for soccer practice. I guess for a second I was hoping this was all a bad dream.”

  “It is,” he said, walking away. “I packed my truck with as many supplies as I could fit in it. Got plenty of diapers and formula and food for the animals.”

  “How long have you been up?” she asked while stretching.

  “I didn’t sleep.”

  Patches was nowhere to be seen as we gathered up a few more things. I was going to miss this second home. While maybe not happy here, we had been safe, and that was a lot to give up for the unknown.

  “Patches, I can smell you. Are you coming or not?” I asked.

  “You and that damned elephant nose of yours,” she said haughtily as she came out from under a bush.

  “Have you made up your mind?”

  “I have.” She didn’t tell me what it was, but when she hopped into the open door I was able to figure it out.

  Once we were all in the car, I spoke to Patches. “Now I’m not saying I would have missed you, but I’m glad you came.”

  “I know,” Patches said, and then curled up her tail around her body and went to sleep.

  “Are we going to get some bacon?” Ben-Ben asked softly.

  The day was going by quickly. I was saddened about leaving Little Turtle, but had happy thoughts at the idea of meeting this Henry. If he was half the dog George was, we would get along great. I loved Ben-Ben, but I’d eaten biscuits that were smarter than he was.

  “What was that?” Alex asked as the car sputtered. “That was weird.” He smacked his front paw on what he called the dashboard. “Never done that before.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t do it again,” Jess added.

  “So what’s your story, Jess?”

  “Do you mind if I give you the short edition? The long one is too painful.”

  Alex nodded as he grabbed her hand for support. She seemed to appreciate that.

  “That first night…I was dead asleep. Wow, that was a bad pun.”

  Alex laughed.

  “I hear my dad screaming to my mom about getting his gun. Took me a lot longer to wake up and realize what was going on back then than it does now, that’s for sure.”

  “Constant vigilance will do that to you.”

  “Daniel, my brother, was saying something about zombies. I thought for a minute he was having a bad dream and then I heard my dad’s gun go off. I’d never been as scared as I was then, at least up until that point in my life. I’ve been plenty more scared since then.”

  “Me too.”

  “My mother is screaming about calling the cops. Then my dad is telling us all to get in the bathroom. I still had no idea what was going on. Riley was covered in blood and I couldn’t see Ben-Ben, but I could hear him barking savagely.”

  “She said I was savagely,” Ben-Ben said proudly.

  “And then, when I was finally fully awake, I was in the bathroom with mom and my two brothers.”

  “I was there as well,” Patches said indignantly.

  “Dad came in a few minutes later. He was covered in blood just like Riley. He was crying…said something about having to kill our neighbor’s daughter. It made no sense. I asked him why Emily was here in the first place and what could she have possibly done that would have necessitated him killing her. Now I was afraid because I thought he was going to have to go to jail. Then they started to hammer on the door. My dad’s eyes became wild until he opened the bathroom window. He told me I had to go out there first so I could catch Zach…we were on the second floor. I told him I wasn’t doing it. My brother told me it was zombies outside our door and that I had to go down. I thought they were all nuts, but something was smashing at the door and it was easy enough to tell it wasn’t going to hold out for long.

  “It was a tight fit I got through, though. My dad held on to my arms as long as he could. By the time I dropped down, it wasn’t more than five or six feet…maybe less. Then my mother is at the window hanging Zach down. I was like…you have got to be kidding me? I play soccer, I use my feet a lot, but I never really catch stuff, no real hand-eye coordination and now my mother wants me to catch my baby brother. I mean, this is life or death stuff, I can’t miss. I was freaking out. My mom is telling me to focus, and all I can think to do is throw up. She didn’t even tell me when she was going to let him go, she just did. He seemed to hang in the air for ten seconds. He didn’t cry, though.”

  “I was too scared to,” Zach said.

  “I could hear the wood of the door starting to give way in the bathroom. My other brother’s face peeks through the window above me. He’s coming out headfirst and I remember thinking I wanted to smack him. There was no way I was going to be able to catch him—he outweighed me by twenty pounds. Didn’t really matter.” Jess hesitated. “His…his screams still wake me up at night.” She looked over to Alex. “We’ve been on
the run since.”

  “I’m sorry for your losses,” Alex said to her sincerely.

  “I’m so sorry for yours,” Jess told him.

  “Thank you.”

  The somber silence was welcome after Jess’ retelling of that first day. It had brought back the pain of missing our home and the he and she alphas. Life was much simpler when all I had to worry about was whether or not I would get caught sleeping on the off-limits couch. I was thinking about dozing again when the wheeler shuddered.

  “You feel that?” Alex asked.

  “I did, did you run over something?” Jess asked.

  “No, there’s nothing in the road. The car’s been acting funny since we passed Bennett. Okay…well, it stopped now. Could you please get me a pen out of the glove box…and a piece of paper, too?”

  Jess handed him the items he’d requested.

  “This might work better if you do it.” Alex pulled a folded up piece of cowhide from his pocket.

  “What’s this?” Jess asked as Alex handed her a piece of paper from within the cowhide.

  “It’s Mike’s address and directions. I want you to copy it and stick it someplace safe.”

  “You already have it, what do I need it for?” Jess asked. I could sense the tension in her voice.

  “No, no, it’s not what you’re thinking. I’m good for now. I’ve got you guys to think about and it would be good to see Mike and his family again. This is just in case. The world is so dangerous, and if something should happen or we somehow get separated, I would feel a lot better knowing you still knew how to get there.”

  “Okay, but this is just a precaution?”

  The wheeler shuddered again and this time it shut off.

  “What the hell?” Alex asked. He turned the janglers and a bunch of the small false burning-discs came on, along with some bells and alarms. Then the wheeler started again.

  “That’s not good,” Jess said with concern.

  “Not good at all,” Alex echoed. “I wonder.” He peered intently at a sign on the hard pathway.

  “What?” Jess questioned.

  “We’re coming up on a town called Vona.”

  “Okay?” she asked, clearly confused.

  “I think we’re going to need to switch out cars before this one dies for good and I have just the one in mind. Won’t he be surprised? Thought the man was going to cry the day we left it behind.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jess asked. She was smiling, though, because so was Alex.

  “How well do you know the Talbots?” Alex had a broad grin on his face.

  “I dated Justin for two years before we moved. Spent a lot of time with them. Why?”

  “Do you know what Mike drove?”

  “He had an old Jeep right? A red one. Treated it like one of his kids. I remember Justin wanted to take it one time when his parents were out of town. Nicole talked him out of it; she said their dad would disown him if he got caught.”

  “He had to leave it in Vona. We were attacked and there was just no way to get it back. I wonder if it’s still there.”

  The wheeler had pulled off the large pathway and was now on a much smaller one. We passed a few small two-legger dwellings and places that they exchanged paper and metal discs that the two-leggers called money.

  “Holy shit,” Alex said as he stopped his wheeler.

  “Is that it?” Jess asked.

  “I can’t believe it’s still here. You stay put, I’m going to see if it still runs.”

  I kept a watch out for him. There were a fair number of zombies on the ground. They were enshrouded with a heavy covering of dirt and sand. Whatever had happened here had been a while ago. I saw no signs of life or un-life.

  “Sounds great!” Alex said excitedly as he started the wheeler. “We’re not going to be able to fit as much stuff in here, but at least it runs…and that’s much more important. Let’s take what we can, although I’m really hoping to be there in three days at the most. Can you drive a stick?”

  Jess shook her head.

  “Okay, maybe four days then.”

  The Jeep was much smaller than the truck. Even with Ben-Ben on the floor rooting around for food, the backseat was tight. There was hardly enough room for Zach, the cat, and myself. Patches seemed to be the most disturbed by our proximity. I loved the new smell of Henry; the Jeep was heavy with it.

  “Floor-fries!” Ben-Ben yelled triumphantly. There was some snorting and chewing. “And floor-jerky! And floor-something!” He ate it all.

  We had gotten back onto the large pathway, but had not been there long when Alex stopped the wheeler.

  “Everything alright?” Jess asked, looking around.

  “Fine, fine. Sorry, but I just thought of this. You really need to learn how to drive a stick.”

  Jess was about to ask him why. I could see her lips forming the words and then she figured out why that would be a good idea.

  “Okay, show me what to do,” she said as she got into the driver’s seat.

  “First, you want to press the clutch in, put the Jeep in first gear and then let—..”

  I was nearly flung from my seat as Jess had the new wheeler bucking around. The wheeler stopped after a few feet.

  “That wasn’t too too bad,” Alex said with a laugh.

  Jess tried it many more times than seven before she got it out of what Alex called ‘first gear’ and then into higher numbers. A few times it sounded like hard metal was breaking apart underneath us.

  “Glad Mike isn’t around to hear this.”

  “Am I hurting the Jeep?” Jess asked with concern.

  “It’ll be alright, you’re starting to get the hang of it. First gear is always the toughest.”

  She had the Jeep up to a fast speed. I figured at this point it would be safe for me to once again try to get some sleep.

  “Kansas is huge.” Jess was stifling a yawn.

  “We’re almost through it. Want me to take over now?”

  “Let me just get to the end of the state.”

  The next time I awoke, we were in a place called Missouri. Jess was outside, first cleaning Zach and then feeding him. Alex was walking around. Patches and Ben-Ben were already outside.

  “With both of us driving we should make good time. I’d like to get gas soon and also top off these tanks.” Alex tapped a red can on the back of the wheeler.

  “I hate getting gas,” Jess admitted.

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed that for some reason zombies like to congregate at gas stations. I wonder if they like the smell.”

  “Or it masks theirs,” I said, stretching and getting out.

  “Hi, Riley, I put food out for you and Ben-Ben.” She pointed to the side of the car. Ben-Ben was muzzle-deep in the rapidly emptying bowl.

  He looked up as I approached, food bits flying all around him. “Starving,” he offered as an apology. He didn’t stop eating though.

  “He’s your friend,” Patches said as she dipped her head delicately into her bowl, grabbing one or two morsels and chewing slowly.

  Alex started driving. He pulled into a gas station not too long after. The burning-disc was just beginning to hide for the night as we pulled out. “I hope all of our refueling stops are that easy,” he said, finally relaxing. He was as tense as I’d ever seen him while we were there, and constantly made sure his weapon was ready.

  The night was a blur. As far as I could tell, Alex had not stopped again. When Jess awoke, he let her know that they were in Indiana.

  “Already? Wow. You must be exhausted. Want me to drive now?”

  “I do, I’m going to pull over refuel the tank with the gas from the cans. Then we’re going to have to look for a good place to fill up again.”

  “Where is everyone?” Jess asked as she stood guard. “I’m having a hard time believing there are no more people left.”

  “There are some people left, maybe as many as six million or as little as three. But in a country this big, we could drive for days and
not see any of them, especially when the majority of those survivors are hiding.”

  “Wait, you’re saying that out of a country of three hundred or so million people, there’s only three to six million left?”

  Alex nodded.

  “How…how many are zombies then?”

  “That’s a harder number to figure out. At first I think their goal was infection, turn as many people into zombies as they could. It was victory by mob, a sort of survival instinct. What defense civilians and the military could muster was largely ineffectual—the odds were too great. But millions were destroyed. When the zombies somehow realized the tide had turned and they were winning, their goal became not recruitment but—”

  “Sustenance,” Jess finished for him. “And now?”

  “They pulled a truly human trait, they over-harvested. At some point they realized this, and many of the zombies that are still around have gone into a stasis-like hibernation. On the low end, I think there’s fifty or so million up to a maximum of a hundred million zombies still out there. And I’m just talking the US. I have no idea how the rest of the world faired…probably worse because they didn’t have as many guns.”

  “Worse? Is that possible? What are we going to do?”

  “Right now our goal is tomorrow. Okay, we’ve got gas, let’s get rolling again.”

  I braced myself as Jess once again got the wheeler going. I only banged my head once against her seat.

  “This car reeks of this Henry dog,” Patches said.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” I replied.

  “There’s no more food down here,” Ben-Ben whined.

  “You’re getting fat,” Patches told him. “You keep that up and the zombies will catch you and eat you.”

  “I am not fat. Riley, tell her.”

  I said nothing.

  “Riley?” the small dog beseeched.

  “You have been eating a bit more,” I said.

  “A bit? The dog is starting to look like a furry foot stool.”

  “I eat when I’m nervous,” Ben-Ben said in defense.

  “You eat when you’re nervous, happy, sad or afraid. You even eat in your sleep. I see your mouth chewing while your eyes are closed.”

  “Riley, make her stop. She’s hurting my feelings.”