know that I’m a hard guy to lie to, but you’ll also know I keep my word. You walk out and go somewhere else. I don’t see you again. You don’t work these hills ever again.”
Stosh snorted. “What’s it to you where we work? Heard you were leaving town.”
“Says who?”
“Says everyone. People are talking about it all through the Ruin. Fast Tommy Imura’s leaving town for good. Going on some kind of quest to find that jet plane, or at least that’s the cover story.”
“Way I heard it,” said Redhead, “is that you lost your nerve, that you’re running from White Bear. White Bear says this whole area is his now. He’s bringing in more muscle than you can handle, so you’re cutting out to save your butt. The jet thing is just a cover story to save face.”
“Anyone really believe that?” Tom asked, amused.
“Doesn’t matter. With you gone, the Bear will own the whole Ruin, and folks will believe what he wants them to believe. Bear’s like that.”
“Everyone needs a hobby,” said Tom neutrally.
“What is it you want to know?” asked Stosh. “To let us walk?”
“First, I want that piece of paper,” demanded Tom. “It’s a bounty sheet, right? Give it to me. Don’t get cute about it either. Put it on the ground, weigh it down with a rock. Then step back.”
Redhead did as he was told. He backed up until Tom ordered him to stop. Tom stooped and plucked the paper from under the rock and glanced at it. There were four sketches on the sheet. The text read:
Reward for Four Murderers
Payment on Delivery at G
Nix Riley: ALIVE (one year’s ration dollars);
DEAD (one month’s ration dollars)
Benny Imura: ALIVE (one year’s ration
dollars); DEAD (one month’s ration dollars)
Lilah (aka the Lost Girl): ALIVE (two years’
ration dollars); DEAD (one month’s ration
dollars)
Tom Imura: ALIVE (five years’ ration dollars);
DEAD (one year’s ration dollars)
Tom stuffed it in his pocket. “Who’s looking?”
“Everyone’s looking,” said Redhead. “Whole Ruin’s filled with hunters working your trail.”
“You’re the first I’ve seen. Except for Stosh’s dead friends.”
“Then you’re looking in the wrong place. Everyone knows the routes you usually take, and we got word from town that you were heading out yesterday. Everybody-and I mean everybody-knows that White Bear’s got a stack of cash on this.”
Tom considered. He’d taken Benny and the others out on a route he hadn’t used in months. His intention had been to keep the kids away from the areas of heaviest zombie infestation, but now it seemed as if that decision had saved all their lives. At least so far.
“Paper says ‘payment at G.’ G for Gameland?”
“Yeah. This is all off the record, so to speak,” said Stosh, grinning at Tom with uneven yellow teeth. “From what I heard, they’ll pay double if the young’uns are brought to Gameland with some spunk left in ’em. People say you’ve been training ’em a bit. That means they’d last a whole week, maybe two in the pits. There’s serious money in the Z-Games.”
“This is a lot of money. What’s White Bear’s stake? Especially if I’m leaving?”
Both men looked momentarily confused. “What do you think, man?” asked Stosh, totally perplexed.
“If I knew, I wouldn’t ask,” said Tom. “And you’re wasting my time.”
“Oh man,” said Redhead, “this is great. This is like those old comedy shows from back in the day. This is fricking hilarious!”
And suddenly Redhead made his move. He kicked a baseball-size rock at Tom and charged forward in a powerful tackle. They must have shared some kind of signal, because Stosh was only a half step behind him. Redhead caught Tom around the chest, and Stosh slammed his shoulders into Tom’s thighs. The three of them crashed backward into the bushes in a cloud of torn leaves, dust, grunts, and yells.
And then a single male voice let loose a high-pitched scream.
A death scream.
FROM NIX’S JOURNAL
Information on bites (zombie and human) that I’ve collected.
I copied some of this from notes Tom put together for us to study before we leave.
Male adult humans bite with more force than adult females.
Adult humans bite with more force than human children.
Zoms do not bite as hard as humans, because their teeth ligaments have decayed.
A “fresh” zombie will be physically stronger in both limb and bite-capability than a weak one, but still less than a human. So the more the zoms decay, the weaker they’ll get.
Dr. Gurijala said (after I bugged him about it fifty times), “Teeth are not fused to bone but rather are attached to the bone by a ligament system. As decomposition occurs, this ligament breaks down and releases the teeth. Morphology of the tooth root will sometimes cause them to be retained in skeletal remains, but the cone-shaped roots of the incisors tend to make them more prone to postmortem loss.”
The act of biting through skin and actually avulsing or tearing out a piece would require forces at the high range of the human biting force. So zombies aren’t likely to tear out large chunks of a person, as people claim in their First Night stories. If they do tear off something, it’s probably from a weak and vulnerable piece of anatomy (e.g., an earlobe).
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
55
BENNY, NIX, J-DOG, AND DR. SKILLZ STOOD IN THE ROAD AND WATCHED the three zoms shuffle toward them. Sister Shanti was out in front, with Brother David and Sister Sarah close behind. They were still sixty yards away.
“They’re still moving slow,” said Benny. “Not like the ones from the barn.”
“Totally,” agreed J-Dog.
Benny looked at him. “So how come the others were fast? I never heard of fast zoms before. Have you?”
“Tall tales out of the east,” said Dr. Skillz. “No one I know’s put goggles on ’em, though.”
“That’s crazy. How can zoms be fast?” demanded Nix.
J-Dog grinned. “Dudette… how can they be zoms?”
Dr. Skillz pulled down his sunglasses and peered over the dark lenses at the monk and the sisters. “That’s a bummer. Brother David’s trippy but totally boglius.”
“I can’t understand anything you’re saying!” grumbled Nix irritably.
“Yeah, okay,” Dr. Skillz chuckled, “busted. Let’s see if you grok this. The Dog and me are friends with Brother Dave. Between you and me, cutie, I think Dog’s sweet on Shanti.”
“She’s bootylicious-,” began J-Dog.
