Rot and Ruin

Page 25

Not with Nix out there somewhere.
After a long time, Tom lay Jessie down and tugged the sheets around her, so that she was completely covered. He got shakily to his feet and stood over her, head bowed, and Benny saw his brother’s lips moving. Was it a prayer or a promise?
Benny said nothing. He knew that he was an outsider to this, an intruder into Tom’s privacy … but he could not leave. He could not abandon his brother any more than Tom could abandon Nix’s mother.
When Tom turned to him, his face was calm. Or at least it appeared to be calm. Benny wasn’t sure if his brother’s air of unshakeable poise was genuine or a mask he wore when he needed to fend off the rest of the world. Before now, that calm demeanor had annoyed Benny; now it unnerved him. It seemed so alien, so unnatural.
Tom passed Benny and went out into the living room, where the town watch was making a thorough examination of the crime scene. One of them, the short Navajo named Gorman, snapped his fingers. “Got something!”
Tom and Strunk hurried over, and Benny had to crane his neck to see past them. Gorman pushed aside some broken crockery, and there on the floor was an old battered coin. On one side was an exotic flower, on the other were the words: “Chúc may m n.”
He handed it to Strunk, but Tom took it from him.
“It means ‘good luck,’” said Tom.
“What language is that?” asked Gorman. “The Rileys are Irish. Is that Gaelic?”
“No,” said Tom, “it’s Vietnamese.”
Strunk frowned. “Then … this wasn’t Charlie and the Hammer?”
“It was the Mekong brothers,” said Gorman.
Tom turned the coin over and over between his fingers. He didn’t nod, didn’t even grunt to show that he agreed with this assessment.
“Benny … let’s go home and pack.”
“Pack for where?” Strunk demanded. “I’ll bring the bloody Mekong brothers in.”
“Go right ahead,” said Tom, “but in the meantime my brother and I are going to go after the people who actually did this.”
“What are you talking about? We have proof right here.”
Tom didn’t bother to answer. He dropped the coin on the floor and walked toward the door.
Outside, they had to push through a crowd that was ten deep. Everyone had questions, but Tom’s face was a stone. Benny shoved and pushed to stay at his brother’s back. The medics had taken Morgie to the hospital.
When they were through they walked down the street. The sky above them had cleared, and there was a surprisingly cold wind. Benny waited until they were out of earshot.
“Tom … I’m sorry about Mrs. Riley.”
If Tom heard him, he didn’t reply.
“Are we going to find Nix?”
“We’re going to try.”
“They killed Mr. Sacchetto and Mrs. Riley to get information on the Lost Girl. Why hurt Morgie?”
“You saw him. He was dressed nice, carrying flowers. He was calling on Nix, and he showed up at the wrong time, poor kid.”
“So why take Nix?”
Tom’s bleak expression was answer enough. Nix would either be killed … or taken to Gameland.
One of the town watch guards caught up to them and reined his horse to a stop. “Tom,” he said, “the gate guards said that Charlie and the Hammer left almost three hours ago.”
“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.