Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)(60)

“But … why?”

“Because we have to save the Lost Girl from Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer,” said Tom. “And just pray that we’re not already too late.”





28


BUT THE NIGHT WAS NOT DONE WITH THE IMURA BROTHERS.

First they had to remove the artist’s body from the house and turn it over to the town watch. Two men came with a horse-drawn cart to remove the body, accompanied by Captain Strunk, who

looked haggard and worn from the night’s activities. Once upon a time Strunk had been an acting teacher and director, but during the madness of First Night, he’d stepped up and organized

the defense of a school that was attacked by zombies during a late rehearsal of a new play. The students held out for three weeks against the dead, always hoping that help would arrive. It

never did, but eventually the zoms outside were drawn off by other distractions—people fleeing, animals trying to escape the small town in which the school was set. When there were fewer

than a dozen of the dead in the schoolyard, Strunk dressed his kids in heavy coats and choir gowns; armed them with golf clubs, hockey sticks, and baseball bats from the gym; and led his

makeshift army out of the danger zone. Of the thirty-seven kids and four other adults who left the building with him, twenty-eight kids and two adults were still alive and uninfected by the

time they discovered another group of refugees who were bound for a fenced-in settlement in central California. Strunk helped organize the town’s defenses and served as its first mayor, and

now he commanded the fence patrols and the town watch. And although he and Tom agreed on many things, Strunk had no inclination to expand the town or reclaim the world. He was haunted by

those kids he had not been able to save.

Strunk watched as the artist’s body was loaded onto the cart by a cluster of deputies, and he listened to Tom’s account of what happened. Mayor Kirsch came out of his house next door and

joined them.

“And you think this was Charlie and the Hammer?” Strunk asked, running his fingers though his thick, curly gray hair.

“Yeah, Keith, I do.”

Mayor Kirsch sighed. “I don’t know, Tom. You’ve got nothing but circumstantial evidence, and pretty thin evidence at that. Guesswork isn’t the same as proof.”

“I know,” said Tom. “But the pieces fit as far as I’m concerned.”

“What do you expect me to do?” asked Strunk.

“How about arresting them?” said Benny.

“And charge them with what?”

“Murder. Torture. How much do they have to do before you’ll do something?”

“Hush, Ben,” cautioned Tom. To the others he said, “I know you can’t do much based on my say-so, but I have to do something.”

“Whoa now, Tom, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the mayor said quickly.

“Don’t worry, Randy, I’m not going to do anything in town. Not without proof.”

“We have to do something!” Benny said, and then realized he was yelling. He dropped his voice to an urgent whisper. “Tom, we have to do something. You said—”

“I know what I said, kiddo. Go inside and get washed up. Try to get some sleep.”

“Sleep? Sleep? What are the chances that I’m ever going to be able to sleep again?”

“Try,” said Tom.

“And what are you going to be doing?”

“Your brother asks a fair question, Tom,” said Strunk. He had his thumbs hooked into a Western-style gun belt, and it made him look like a gunslinger that Benny had seen in a book about

the old West. Benny realized that Strunk was willing to use force, or at least imply that he would, to keep Tom from taking the law into his own hands. Benny wanted to knock Strunk’s teeth

out. How could the man want to give Tom a hard time when Charlie Matthias was walking around free? When he opened his mouth to say something, he caught Tom’s eye, and his brother gave him a

small shake of the head.

Reluctantly Benny lapsed into silence.

To Strunk, Tom said, “I’m going to go over and take a look at Rob’s place. I can do that alone or you can come with me. Rob was tortured, and I’m betting it was done there. Who knows

what we’ll find?”

“And then what?”

“Then tomorrow morning, at first light, Benny and I are going out into the Ruin to try and find that girl.”

Mayor Kirsch snorted. “Every bounty hunter and way-station monk for five hundred miles has looked for the Lost Girl, and nobody’s found her yet.”

“I found her,” said Tom. “Twice. And I can find her again.”

The other men gaped at him. From their expressions it was clear they didn’t want to believe him, but Benny knew that Tom never bragged. He had his faults, but lying wasn’t one of them.

“Why would anybody care?” asked one of the deputies.

“Gameland,” said Tom.

“That burned down.”

Strunk sighed. “Tom thinks they rebuilt it and that they’re dragging kids off to play in some kind of zombie games. He thinks the Lost Girl knows where it is.”

The men looked at one another and shifted uncomfortably. Benny noticed that not one of them asked Tom to verify this, and no one asked where Gameland might be. They said nothing. Tom made a