Ranger Martin and the Search for Paradise Read online

  “These big hotels are all the same,” Jon said. “They used to build them like an assembly line. The rooms are different in the smaller hotels. They might have hot tubs. They might have sun lamps. All sorts of things.”

  Matty walked back into the bathroom with her hair down, humming.

  Leaning against the chest of drawers, Sunglow said, “Sounds like you’ve gotten over from what happened last night.”

  “I had a good night’s sleep, that’s all. After that incident with Randy and the pool, all I wanted to do was drown in clean water and sleep for a week.”

  “I could tell. When you showed up downstairs soaking wet last night, and seeing Randy drenched in zombie brains, I would have wanted to sleep for a week, too. What happened up there at the pool anyway? Randy didn’t say a word and I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with finding a place to relax.”

  “I don’t know.” Matty reappeared and sat on the bed clasping her hands together between her knees. “I think Randy lost it. I’ve never seen him so crazy. He butchered one of the chewers, stabbing it so many times. Blood was everywhere. He was covered in it.”

  “Were you scared?”

  “You mean to say, did he scare me? Yeah. He did. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do next.”

  Jon sat on the other side of the bed with his legs crossed, listening to the girls talk. “He sure did look scary. But you know what? Ranger didn’t seem to think anything of it.”

  “Maybe he’d seen him that way before.” Sunglow rubbed her chin thinking about Ranger’s reaction.

  “Then again, Ranger looked pretty beat up, too.”

  “Anyone know what happened to him?” Matty asked.

  “I don’t.” Sunglow strolled to the window and looked at the city below. “But I don’t know him that well.”

  Matty smiled, then said, “I do know him, and anytime he shows up with that big smirk on his face, know he had either killed a group of chewers or found something worth keeping.”

  “What do you think he found?”

  “I don’t think he found anything. That means he must have had ‘a killin’ party’ as he would say.”

  Jon laughed at the idea then said, “Are we going? I’m getting hungry. I’m hoping we can find some more of those canned peaches. They were so good last night.”

  * * *

  Stepping from his fifth floor room adjacent to where Sunglow had slept, Silver stared at the door ahead. A moment passed, his gaze drifted to the door next to it. Ruffling his hair, unsure which one to choose, he chose the door ahead and knocked. His hand hovered over the door for a time before he knocked again. When it opened, the light of the room filled his face.

  “Come on in.” Ranger said. “Are you the first up?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I heard voices, so I think the girls are up.” Silver stepped into the room and closed the door.

  “Good. I’m thinkin’ it’d be a good idea leavin’ today. There’s not much left here and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Yosemite is waitin’ for us.”

  “What’s the hurry? I thought we were sticking around here for a few days. There’s running water, electricity and plenty of food in the hotel’s kitchen.”

  “You’re right, kid. I’ll miss the coffee, too.” Ranger sipped on a mug he had prepared with the maker on the table next to the window. “But I know more than anybody we shouldn’t stay here longer than we have to. Ugliness happens when we’re in one place too long.”

  Silver stood in the center of the room studying Ranger’s shotgun. He wondered how many of the stomach churners he had killed with it. He saw notches on the weapon’s barrel, but after further inspection, he realized they were gnaw marks left from a fly breeder who must have died at the hands of the zombie slayer.

  “How long have you been on the run?” Ranger asked, placing his mug on the table.

  “I don’t know anymore. Months? At least. My parents were the first to go when a horde surrounded our house in the middle of the night and tore through the windows. We locked ourselves in the bedroom upstairs, but even that didn’t stop them from ripping apart the door.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They pushed me into the closet and I was able to scurry up the ladder into the attic. I thought they were right behind me, but when I saw the faces of those miserable rot bags at the foot of the ladder, I knew my parents were dead. All I could do was use a broom I’d found leaning against the wall to pound the chewers off the ladder so that I could pull it back up. I then closed the door and I stayed there a long time not knowing what I ought to do.”

  “How did you find your way out?”

  “After a couple of days it all went quiet. At first, I thought I was slowly going deaf, but when I cracked the door open to the attic, I saw three eaters standing there doing nothing. They were either waiting or dormant. I closed the door and I was shivering with fear. I thought the only way out was through that door, but then I remembered how I used to play ball outside in the yard with my friends. I used to see a window high above next to the roof along the side. It wasn’t easy finding it. I had to squeeze through a crawlspace behind the chimney.”

  “Did you jump out the window?”

  “Are you kidding? Three stories high? I would have broken my neck. No. What I did was I took that broom, poked my head outside, and smashed the window to the bedroom on the floor below. I made sure it was good and loud. When I saw their arms sticking out, I knew I had their attention. I took off as fast as I could through the attic door, down the ladder, through the closet and though the other bedroom window. I landed on the overhang to the yard and fell on the deck.”

  “You must have broken a leg.”

  “I’d broken something, but you wouldn’t know it by how fast I was running, hopping fences into the street.”

  With his right hand, Ranger grabbed his cup and took another sip of the steamy liquid. With his left, he rubbed his face to shake the leftover sleep from his eyes. His mind wandered about the boy and his escape. Soon, he stared at one spot beyond his feet, reflecting on his own escape from the world of the undead.

  “Thanks.” Silver said.

  “What for?”

  “For not asking if I’d seen the bodies of my parents when running.”

  “How did you know I wasn’t curious?”

  “I didn’t. I just figured you wanted to respect my privacy.”

  Ranger smiled slightly. “You’re a smart kid, Silver.”

  “Sometimes. I wasn’t so smart when nuking those soldiers back at the silo.”

  “It’s forgotten. You had me worried, though. I wasn’t sure if you’d turn on us.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “Good.” Ranger once again placed the cup on the table, “We should see if everyone else is awake.”

  * * *

  Inside the hotel’s kitchen, pots and pans littered the floor. Jon sat on one of the aluminum tables eating from a bag of corn chips. He wondered what a hotel restaurant would be doing with corn chips. He imagined they went great with salsa and melted cheese to make an awesome nacho snack. While the girls rummaged through the pantry searching for more of those corn chips, Jon spotted a jar of salsa on the shelf next to the olives. He hopped from the table, ambled to the pantry and seized the salsa jar, bringing it back to where he was sitting. The freezer stood side-by-side with the pantry. Jon didn’t dare walk in there. He didn’t know what lurked beyond that door.

  He twisted the salsa top a few times, plying it with his fingers, but it was good and shut, stubborn under his hand. He dropped to one knee and tapped the top a few times on the hard floor. It brought a smile to his face when it didn’t make a loud sound. While his attention was on the jar, the girls walked from the pantry into the kitchen. Before they knew it, Randy had appeared at the doorway, tall and slim.

  At first, Matty wanted to say hi to him, but then remembered how they had left together not speaking with one another the night bef
ore. She turned in the opposite direction and leaned against a wall as she ripped apart a box of crackers. She found the crackers more entertaining to look at than him.

  “Hey, Randy.” Sunglow said.

  “Hey.” Randy said. He smiled at her then stepped forward. “Are there more of those?”

  “Yeah. There’s a whole box full of them in the pantry.”

  “I’m not that hungry. Did you want to share?”

  Sunglow wasn’t sure what his motives were. Sharing a bag of pretzels seemed intimate. She wondered why he wouldn’t want to share crackers with Matty instead. The bag inched toward him.

  As Jon sat back on the table with his jar of salsa and bag of corn chips, Randy approached Sunglow. When she edged the bag’s opening forward, he stopped a few feet from her. While Matty glanced over her shoulder, Randy slowly introduced his hand into Sunglow’s bag.

  “Thanks.” Randy said, as he pulled a handful of the salty treat. He nibbled at one of them until he broke a piece in his mouth.

  “Are Ranger and Silver in the restaurant waiting for you? I mean, you didn’t come alone, did you?”

  “I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”

  “You came alone? You heard what Ranger said. We should come and go in pairs. I would have thought you would have done that.”

  “Call me stupid.” Randy didn’t take Sunglow’s comment to heart. The only thing on his mind was Matty, who found the crackers more important than him.

  Except for the slight sound of mouths chewing on breakfast, silence fell on the room. With Randy thinking about Matty’s rejection the night before, and Sunglow staring at the floor wondering if she had come between them, he bit into another pretzel and dumped the rest into the trash in the corner of the room. He checked his ammo in his gun and walked out into the restaurant.

  “Wait. Where are you going?” Sunglow tossed the bag on the table next to Jon and ran after him.

  “Out.” Randy said, pushing his gun between his belt and his navel.

  “You can’t do that.” She said, as she scurried through the casino’s main floor where the gaming tables stood empty, perhaps waiting for a time when patrons would once again take to gambling to forget their troubles.

  “Watch me.”

  Ten feet behind Sunglow, Matty and Jon followed with worry on their faces. Randy was always the cool-headed one. If a situation got too intense, he would be the guy who would jump into the fray to put things into perspective. Seeing how he marched to the door, Matty sped her pace to catch up with her friend. Jon wasn’t far behind, not missing a move his big sister made.

  Randy grabbed the door handle, and the little dog they’d rescued the day before sprinted across the casino floor to bite his pant leg. It knew better and didn’t want Randy out there. But Randy shook it off only to have Sunglow grab him by the arm instead.

  “You shouldn’t leave.” She said.

  “Let go of my arm.”

  “Wait until Ranger shows up downstairs, maybe he can fix what’s going on between you and Matty.”

  “Randy?” Matty stopped a few feet from the door. “I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry for hurting you. Don’t go anywhere. Okay. Please?”

  Randy glanced at Sunglow. “I said, let go of my arm.”

  “Randy, don’t go.” Jon said. “We need you.”

  Randy had other plans. He ignored them and shoved Sunglow’s grip away, unlocked the door and walked into the foyer of the casino’s entrance, then on to the street. The morning air hit his face as a welcome relief after having been stuck inside for what seemed like forever.

  Everyone stepped from the casino entrance into the street. The dog whined and stayed behind the safety of the glass leading into the foyer.

  Having seen how Matty passed her, Sunglow didn’t move from her spot on the sidewalk and held Jon back. The look she had given him said it all. She thought Matty and Randy needed time to work through their differences. She hoped Jon trusted her enough to let his sister go. When she saw how Jon didn’t make a fuss by running after his sister, she knew she’d made the right decision.

  Matty ran ahead and into Randy’s path. When he stepped left, she stepped left. When he stepped right, she stepped right. She was going to have the last word whether Randy liked it or not. “What are you doing?”

  “Get out of my way, Matty.”

  “Not until you tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”

  “We have nothing else to talk about.”

  “I think we do. Just because I don’t want our friendship to go any further doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

  “I’m not talking about this. I’m done.”

  “Oh, no you’re not. I’ll follow you wherever you go even if it means dying with you, if we don’t get this resolved here and now.”

  “Who said anything about getting anything resolved? All I want is peace in my life. That’s all.”

  “You can have peace once we talk this through and get this mess between you and I fixed. Don’t you see I care for you enough to not want to let you go?”

  “All I see is a self-centered girl who cares about no one else but herself.”

  “How could you say that to me? After what happened in Temple City and in Kansas. How can you say that?”

  “Face it, Matty. Nothing else matters to you other than everyone doing what you want them to do.”

  “Where is this coming from? Who are you? You’re treating me like you don’t even know me.”

  “Shouldn’t it be the other way around? After all, weren’t you the one who wanted to be friends with me? Weren’t you the one who made it a point to choose me over Wildside?”

  “Wildside? Are you kidding me? Why would you even bring him up?”

  “To show you how coldhearted you’ve become. Who’s next in your long line of victims? Silver?”

  “No one comes close to you, Randy. No can touch you.”

  “Is that why we’re best friends?”

  “I told you. If we get too close, we’ll regret it. I can’t bear thinking about dealing with the feelings of not having you there. I’ll die.”

  “Again, it’s all about you.”

  “Stop saying that.”

  “You’re a narcissist and you can’t even see it.”

  At that point, Matty backed away. Silence cut through their conversation like a cold steel razor.

  “It’s always been about you. You’ve been living in this fantasy where you’ve placed me in this cozy little box and you can pull me out whenever you want to play with me. Then, once you’re done, into the box I go, on the shelf where I belong.”

  Matty stood there without uttering a word. She rubbed her forehead as if a dump truck had run over her. She thought back at all they’d gone through—the good mornings, the good nights, the knowing smiles between them. She held on to the little things, the secrets they had talked about, and their love for rainy days. She loved the chats they had about Christmas and what life would be like once everything turned back to normal. Then darkness fell over her. She heard the word narcissist and couldn’t let it go. She gulped, internalizing the word, what it meant in all its meaning.

  “Now, get out of my way.” Randy said, staring at her with cold eyes.

  She stepped aside, doing as he asked.

  He turned to face Jon and Sunglow, and simply began walking. No backpack. No provisions of any kinds. He simply began walking with thoughts of Matty running through his head.

  As they looked on, they saw him stride across the street, through a set of parked cars and on to the sidewalk where he entered The Egyptian Tomb Casino.

  Chapter 11

  Ranger grabbed a handful of shells and loaded his pockets from the box he had stuffed in the glove compartment of his truck. The shotgun went into the holster strapped to his right leg. His knife landed into its own holster next to the shotgun. He then marched back into the hotel, locked the glass doors, and spied on The Egyptian Tomb Casino across the street where Randy had entered.
The morning had yet to turn hot and Ranger wanted to be ready for anything.

  Each totting their own weapons, the kids readied for the worst. Matty, who took the blame for Randy running away, hid her gun under her shirt behind her back. She had prepared a number of clips in advance to carry with her in her jean pockets. The others did the same. Silver had a stash of ammo he kept for himself. He had hid it in a special pouch he carried around his waist. Sunglow carried a knife, but the sharpshooter slipped her gun in a holster she wore under her arms. As for Jon, he carried a knife around for a long time. He didn’t use it often, as Ranger had always saved him from the insanity zombies brought, but he carried it anyway for those special moments that he had no choice.

  In spite of their efforts, the kids would get a shock with what Ranger was about to tell them.

  “Everyone stay here.” Ranger said.

  “I’m coming.” Matty said.

  Ranger turned to her and made it clear, “Especially you. All of ya stay here. Best I go in there myself and take care of it my way. I don’t need anyone slowin’ me down.”

  “I don’t care what you say, Ranger. I’m coming with you. It’s my fault Randy left and it’ll be because of me he comes back alive.”

  “Not this time. Jon told me what happened. He didn’t seem to think Randy’ll be back. Not with the way he’s feelin’. I got to convince him we’re the only family he’s got. With you there, you’ll do nothin’ more than distract him. I need to talk with him one on one. There ain’t nothin’ you can say to change my mind.”

  “Ranger, nobody knows Randy like I do. He’ll come back if I ask him.”

  “That’s why he’s here now. Right? Because nobody knows Randy like you do. Right?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Matty.” Jon said, “Forget about it.”

  “Shut up!” She snapped at her little brother.

  Ranger headed toward the front door.

  “I wanna know what you mean by that, Ranger.”

  He stopped and twirled on his heel to stare at Matty, “You’re stubborn. You always think you’re right. You know what else?”