Zombie Road , Simpson, A. [best authors to read TXT] 📗

He didn’t know what the future held, he’d seen a couple of different ones and there was no way of knowing what caused each. He was fine with that.

He spent a final night in the lighthouse in the lantern room and watched the stars for hours. The other him was out there, Scarlet was out there and Maddy would take care of them both. He was at peace and with Bob snoring at his side, he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

When Jessie started packing the car the next morning, the Shepherd jumped in and waited patiently in his seat. He was ready to get moving again, too. The Mercury thundered down the winding roads, sending animals scurrying away in fright. Many of them had never seen a human or heard human noises. He cut across the middle of the country and passed a convoy of trucks running supplies. The chatter on the CB was upbeat and light hearted, most of the truckers still laughing about how Gunny had tricked his wife into becoming the next president. Neither Radio Lakota or Tower Broadcasting had any news other than local happenings. Bastille went on a long-winded rant about the dangers of letting in outsiders during his news hour. There had been a few incidents of drunk and disorderly conduct from some of the traveling nomads and some of the high school kids had been in a fight with the zoo kids and there had been some serious injuries. He blustered on about letting people unfit for civil society inside the walls. He kept alluding to an incident where a mother and her newborn had been attacked by some scurrilous men who had gotten through the gates without any sort of background check. It was hard to make sense of a lot of it, Jessie had been away for so long and he still had a hard time separating true memories from those that didn’t apply anymore. They were all true but some hadn’t happened. As he listened to Bastille blather on for an hour, he gleaned that the feral children he’d met had made the trip and the two with the polar bears had survived. He was glad, at least something he’d done in all the time traveling had turned out good. The other big story was his mom was president. He didn’t remember that ever happening but he hadn’t stuck around when he’d jumped back and forth into different times. Just long enough to determine where and when he was, if he was too late or too early.

If Scarlet was still alive.

He turned off the radio when a rerun of Casey Kasem’s Top 40 from 1977 came on and Shaun Cassidy started singing Da Doo Ron Ron.

20

Takeo and Sandy

“I know of two places.” Takeo said as they passed through the sally port, Mizuki right behind him in her Rossa Red armored Ferrari.

“Mad Ruby’s lodge is on a hilltop; it is well defended and very few people know of its exact location. The women are fierce warriors, they will protect your secrets and the child with their lives. Babies are their world, the most important thing for them.”

Sandy settled into the deep leather seats of the Countach and rubbed a teething gel on baby Jessie’s gums. He was being cranky and she hoped the gentle vibrations and noise would lull him into sleep once they got going.

“I’m not sure if I want him to be around all those prisoners.” She replied. “What’s the other place you mentioned?”

“It is a lonely place. I think Jessie is the only other person to know of it.” He said. “There are four people there, it is very safe but the two children are much too old to be playmates for him.”

Not at the rate he’s growing she thought.

“The truckers don’t go there?” she asked “What about supplies?”

“It has everything.” He said “But if you need something specific, you can reach me on the ham.”

“I think I would like that, then.” She said.

She needed privacy as her baby grew. If he kept it up at the same rate, he’d look like he was five or six in another year.

“It is only thirteen hundred miles.” He said as he punched in the coordinates and lowered his goggles. “We can be there tomorrow, depending on how often we need to stop.”

He engaged the turbine, flipped on the heads-up display and lay down a little further in the seat. The array of gauges and monitors gave him confidence when traveling at high speeds. The infrared sensors, the collision detectors, night vision and empty highways allowed for safe triple digit travels. The Hell Drivers ran the roads hard and the profits they earned kept them cleared and in good repair. They had their own road monitors similar to Mad Ruby’s girls and way stations like the pony express riders of old. They could relay a package anywhere in the territories within twenty-four hours if it absolutely positively had to be there the next day.

Takeo and Mizuki had been to the underground storage facility deep inside area 51 a few times over the summer. They’d helped the Atwater family set up a Ham and installed an antenna so they could listen to the two radio stations. They didn’t need anything else but they enjoyed the company when the two Hell Drivers stopped in for a visit. He and Mizuki had decided to keep the secret place secret. There were powerful artifacts and inventions and it would be best if word didn’t spread too far about the facility. Christopher and Valerie had made it their permanent home, they felt responsible for the repository of the world’s greatest inventions. It was true that a lot of them were outdated, had modern counterparts available at any department store, but some were truly amazing, technological marvels. He and Mizuki had borrowed a few to make their high speed runs a little safer and some simply because they were cool. Other devices were