Rot & Ruin (25 page)

“What about Nix?”

The guard answered, “It was just after all the excitement, you know? The Hammer had that big equipment bag of his— you know the long canvas one? It was slung over his back and looked heavy, but the guard didn’t even think to ask what was in it. He assumed it was filled with guns and stuff. Bounty hunter’s stuff. He figured Charlie and the Hammer had gotten a job because of what happened.”

“Yeah,” Tom said tightly. “What about the Mekong brothers?”

“They left a few minutes later. They both had their kit bags strapped over the saddle of that ugly donkey they have. The one they call Uncle Sam.”

Tom had never thought much of the Mekong brothers’ sense of humor.

“Thanks, Billy,” Tom said.

“Are … you going out after them?”

“Yes. Benny and me.”

Billy leaned out of the saddle. “Listen, it’s not my place to tell you how to do your job, Tom, but if they are the ones who did this, they’ll be expecting someone to follow. You follow too soon, and they’ll kill you in the dark. You’ll never see it coming. And torches at night out there in the mountains … Hell, they’ll attract every zom for a hundred miles.”

“Then we’ll leave at first light.”

“Wait,” Benny interjected, “what about Nix?”

“Billy’s right. We can’t find her if we’re dead.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence. They did not sleep at all that night. They got cleaned up, ate a large high-protein meal of meat and eggs, and dressed for hiking. They packed only those supplies they needed to take, including several bottles of cadaverine and two tough but lightweight carpet coats. They took plenty of weapons—after all, this was no longer just a hunting trip. It was a rescue mission. And it was even more than that. The Imura brothers were going to war.

When they stepped out onto the porch an hour before first light, Benny turned and looked back at their house. A
shiver ran up his spine and raised bumps on his arms, and he had a dark feeling that he would never see the house again, maybe never see the town of Mountainside again. The feeling lingered for a long moment and then passed, leaving him as abruptly as it had come. What remained in its place was a coldness of spirit that he had never felt before, and it had nothing to do with his house or this town. His world had changed again, and he knew it. This time it had not been the removal of veils from naive eyes. Benny knew that much for sure. No, this time he felt as if a piece of him had been carved out, forcibly taken, thrown away. Although he had not been tortured as Mr. Sacchetto had or beaten as Mrs. Riley and Morgie had, he had been hurt just as surely. He could feel it. It was a dead place on his soul, as insensate as scar tissue and as violently earned.

He turned away from the house and stood on the top step of the porch with Tom. Without speaking they adjusted the straps of their packs, patted their pockets for the necessary things they would need out in the Ruin, and made sure of their weapons. Benny had his wooden sword, and he had a sturdy hunting knife that Tom had told him to hang from his belt.

The last thing he’d packed was Nix’s small leather notebook. He hadn’t opened it yet. Nothing in there would be a clue to finding her, but having it felt like a talisman. He slipped it into his back pocket.

“Tom?” he asked.

“Yes?”

“Are you sure it’s them? Charlie and the Hammer?”

“Yes.”

“Not the Mekong brothers?”

“If they’re involved at all, it’s because Charlie’s paying them. Or maybe Charlie planted that coin there to frame them. Maybe he thinks he can come back to Mountainside after he—”

“After he kills the Lost Girl?”

“Yes.”

“He’d know that he couldn’t come back as long as you’re here,” Benny said. “And me, I guess. We know about the Lost Girl, and we know about what he’s done. Even if we can’t prove anything to Captain Strunk and the others, we’d be able to cast suspicion on them, right?”

“Right.”

“So … even if we didn’t go out there, we’d always be in danger.”

The moon was down, and Tom’s face was almost invisible in the darkness. The street lamp torches were too far away for Benny to read his expression, but he could feel Tom searching his face, trying to read him.

“That’s right, Benny.”

“Then no matter what else happens, we have to face them.”

“Yes.”

“Can we … I mean, can
you
take them?”

“We’ll see.” Tom paused. “You don’t think too much of me, do you?” Before Benny could answer, Tom pressed on. “Little brother, you may never have said it in so many words, but I know that you think I’m a coward. You think I ran away and left Mom to die back on First Night.”

Benny didn’t dare say a word.

“I did run, Benny. I ran like hell. I left Mom and I took you and I ran. Is that what you want me to say? Does it help that I said it?”

“I—”

“The world is bigger and harder to understand than you think, Benny. It was before First Night and it still is now. You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

“What does that mean?”

Tom sighed. “It would take too long to explain it now, and we don’t have the time. It’ll be light in forty minutes, and I want to be outside the fence the moment it’s bright enough to see. Are you ready?” Tom asked.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure? I’ll give you one chance, Ben. You can stay here, with the Kirsches or Chong’s family . … Or you can go with me into the Ruin.”

“I
have
to go.”

Tom nodded. “I hope that means the same thing for you as it does for me. I’m not going to baby you. We’re going to have to move light and fast, and we’re not going out there for fun. This is going to be ugly work. Can you deal with that?”

“I was at the Rileys’ too,” said Benny, and that was enough answer for both of them.

“Okay.”

“There are two of them now.”

“Two?”

“Lost girls. Nix and Lilah. We have to save them both.”

Tom put his hand on Benny’s shoulder and gave it a single, solid squeeze. “Then let’s go.”

They started out walking toward the fence, but after a block they were running.

30

A
TALL, SLIM FIGURE STOOD IN THEIR PATH, AND AS THE BROTHERS JOGGED
past, he turned and fell into step between them. They ran down the length of Main Street and then cut over toward the Red Zone, the wide, flat area that lay between the town proper and the fence line.

“I heard,” said Chong as he ran, and the shared awareness of what those two words meant carried them for a dozen yards. “I just came from the hospital. Morgie’s in bad shape, but Doc Gurijala says he’ll make it.”

“Thank God,” said Benny as he exhaled a knot of hot tension that had hung burning in his chest. “When you see him again, tell him we’re going to get Nix back.”

“I will. He’s going to need to know that.”

Despite the early hour—or perhaps because of everything that had happened—the streets were filled with people. The closer the brothers got to the Red Zone, the thicker the crowds. Eventually they had to slow to a walk. A lot of people stepped forward to offer condolences to Tom, and some school friends of Benny’s asked about Morgie. Tom said very little and kept moving, his face set and grim. Those people with common
sense stepped back and gave him room when they saw the look in his eyes.

The crowd thinned abruptly once they crossed over into the Red Zone, and for the first time in his life, Benny realized this: On some level he’d always known that people avoided the Red Zone, but he’d always assumed that it was because they were afraid of zoms. Now he realized that they stayed on the far side of the line because in town, and away from the fence, it was easier to pretend that there was no wasteland of zombies outside. This realization made him feel both sad and disgusted.

When they were out of earshot of the other townsfolk, Chong said, “Tom, my dad was talking to Captain Strunk and Deputy Gorman. I heard them arguing about the coin they found at Nix’s house. The one Vin is always tossing and catching.”

Vin Trang was one of the two men known as the Mekong brothers. The other man, who was not even related to Vin, was Joey Duk. Despite their clear Vietnamese heritage, both of them had grown up in Los Angeles. The closest they’d ever been to Vietnam was selling
ph
and
bánh cu n
out of their food cart on the campus of UCLA before First Night.

“The captain said that Vin and Joey are the ones who attacked Nix and her mom. And probably that artist guy.” Chong looked at Benny. “Did Morgie say anything?”

“No,” Benny said. “All he said was that they took Nix. He didn’t give any names.”

Chong looked back at Tom. “Did … did Mrs. Riley say anything?”

Tom kept his eyes fixed on the fence as they walked through the Red Zone. “She only had the breath to say one thing.”
He paused for so long, the boys thought he wasn’t going to finish, but then he said, “‘Save my little girl. Save Nix.’”

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Chong wiped tears from his eyes. “My dad said that the Mekong brothers sometimes work with Charlie Matthias.”

“I know,” said Tom.

“Dad told Captain Strunk to have Leroy Williams look at the footprints you found. I think he was going to.”

Tom nodded.

“What can he do?” Benny asked. He knew Williams as a farmer who had lost an arm in a car wreck while driving an SUV filled with refugees through the Ruin.

“Before First Night,” Tom said, “Leroy was a robbery detective in San Diego. He’d have been captain of the guard here if it hadn’t been for the arm.”

They reached the blockhouse that was used as a guard station. A pair of horses were tied up outside, and Leroy Williams and Captain Strunk stood near them. A knot of fence guards and deputies from the town watch were clustered behind them.

Leroy, dressed in denim coveralls and a white cotton T-shirt, came to meet them. He offered Tom his left hand, and they shook.

“Sorry about Jessie, Tom,” said Williams. He was a black man in his late sixties or early seventies. His dark skin was crisscrossed with terrible scars, but he had kind eyes. “This is a bad, bad business. Whole world gets wiped out, and people are still preying on one another. People just don’t learn.”

“No, they don’t,” agreed Tom bitterly.

Leroy glanced at Benny, sizing him up. “Maybe some of you kids will have better sense.”

“We will,” Benny said, although he wasn’t as sure as he sounded.

“Leroy,” Tom said, “Lou Chong here told me that you’re going to look at the crime scene at Jessie’s place.”

“We just got back,” said Strunk as he joined them.

“And … ?”

“Well,” said Leroy, “the town watch pretty much walked over most of the footprints you found.” He shot a disapproving look at Strunk, who stared at the dirt between his booted toes. “But I found some useful footprints in Nix’s room … and Jessie’s. I took five or six sets of boot prints and took them with me over to that piece of crap shack where Joey Duk lives. I found shoe prints in his laundry room that matched. He was there, Tom. Vin Tran too. No doubt about it.”

“Don’t try to sell me on that bull, Leroy,” snapped Tom, but the big farmer held up a hand.

“Hush, son.” Leroy stepped closer, dropping his voice, so that Benny and Chong had to bend forward to hear him. Strunk did, too. “The Mekong brothers weren’t home, so I went over to the Matthias place. I asked Big Zak if I could look in Charlie’s room, but Zak told me to … Well, I won’t say what he suggested I do with myself. He said that Charlie was innocent of anything connected with what went on tonight, but I wasn’t buying that because Big Zak don’t open his mouth unless he wants to lie. He was also sweating and looking shifty. He tried to throw me off his porch. Me, an old cripple-man.”

“What happened?” Benny asked.

“What you think happened, young ’un? I put my foot up his fool ass and threw him off his damn porch, then I went through the house and kicked Charlie’s door off its hinges. Thought I was going to have some trouble with Big Zak’s boy, but once he saw his dad lying in the rose bushes, Young Zak decided that he liked hiding in his closet better than messing in matters beyond his years.”

“You find anything?” Tom asked. “Did you match the prints to Charlie’s shoes?”

“No. Charlie’s probably wearing those shoes right now, wherever he is. But that big ol’ white boy wears size fourteen triple-Es. How many people in Mountainside got kickers that big?”

“It’s circumstantial evidence,” muttered Strunk, but Benny could tell that there was no emphasis left in the captain’s voice. Benny realized that Strunk’s resistance had nothing to do with his personal beliefs, and certainly not his intelligence. Strunk was a smart, caring man, but the truth was that it was easier to accept that the Mekong brothers had done the killings, because they only rented a room in Mountainside. They lived in a smaller and rougher town a hundred miles south. Charlie, on the other hand, lived
here
. If he was guilty, then Strunk would have to gather a posse and track him out into the Ruin. It was fear that was going to let Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer get away with it.