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Wawona was likely to be the safest place along the route. Before First Night, the small town had been home to about 170 permanent residents and a few thousand campers during the tourist seasons. Tom had told them a wild story about the Battle of Wawona, in which a small group of uninfected fought off the rest of the town as the zombie plague swept through the population. The siege of the hotel lasted four months, and when it was over there was a mass grave with more than two hundred living dead in it along with sixteen of the initial uninfected. The only survivors were a grizzled old forest ranger, his two young nephews, and a couple of women scientists visiting from the San Diego Zoo. The ranger still lived up there, and Tom often referred to him by his nickname, the Greenman. The others had gone to live in the towns. Apparently the ranger had become something of a deep-woods mystic.
Nowadays the old Wawona Hotel was a traveler’s rest and temporary storehouse for scavenged goods, and there were always a dozen people at the hotel. Rumor had it that a fire-and-brimstone evangelist named Preacher Jack had taken up residence as well. He was happy to share his version of the word of God with everyone who passed through, and was even reputed to have tried to convert and baptize some zoms.
When Benny asked what Tom thought about Preacher Jack, his brother shrugged. “I haven’t met him yet, though I think just about everybody else out there has. A bit eccentric from what I hear, but I guess he’s harmless enough. A guy doing what he believes is the right thing. Nothing wrong with that.”
Nix sighed, and Tom asked her what was wrong.
“What if we don’t find the jet?” she said cautiously.
r /> “We’ll keep trying until we get it right.” Tom smiled at the looks of alarm on their faces. “Understand me, guys, we are going, let’s not kid ourselves about that. The only question is whether you’re ready to go now.”
Nix nodded. “I’m ready,” she said grimly.
Tom gave a noncommittal grunt, which Benny interpreted as I’ll be the judge of that.
“One more thing,” Tom said. “You can ask Chong and Morgie if they want to go with us. Not all the way, just overnight. If so, I can arrange to have Brother David or one of my friends out there take them back to town. J-Dog and Dr. Skillz are always working that part of the Ruin.”
“I met them once,” Benny said, “at the New Year’s party year before last. They’re goofy.”
Tom shrugged.
“I couldn’t understand a lot of what they said,” Benny said.
“I can’t either.” Tom laughed. “They were just breaking into the professional surfer scene when First Night hit. Surfers have their own lingo, and those two use it like a personal language. I don’t think they want people to understand them.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a defense mechanism. Remember that story about Peter Pan and the Lost Boys?”
“Sure, the kids who never grew up.”
“They’re like that. On one hand they work the bounty trade and they can fight like demons, but on the other they don’t really want all this to be real. For them it’s like living inside a video game. Remember when I told you about video games?”
“Sure,” Benny said, though the concept was incredibly alien to him. “With Dr. Skillz and J-Dog … they don’t actually think they’re at the beach, do they?”
“Hard to say,” said Tom. “Everything’s a big game to them. They can be ankle deep in blood or fighting a hundred zoms with their backs against the wall and they’re cracking jokes in their surfer lingo. It’s their way of surviving, and I guess it works for them. Don’t ask me how.” He paused and smiled. “Lot of people can’t stand them. I like them a lot.”
“Weird world,” said Nix.
“You have no idea, sweetie,” said Tom. Benny noticed that he didn’t get the ninja death stare for calling Nix sweetie. Tom gestured to the southeast. “Now … the Greenman has a cabin up there. I got word out to him and a bunch of others that we’re coming. We’ll have friends out there and safe places to rest.”
“Chong’s mom might go for the overnight thing,” Benny said hopefully. “She’d probably think that it would scare the pants off him and get the whole ‘go and see the world’ thing out of his system.” He thought about it. “Probably will work, too. Chong’s not big on roughing it.”
“And Morgie?” Tom asked.
Nix shook her head. “No, Morgie won’t go.”
Benny and Tom looked at her. “You seem pretty certain,” Tom said.
“I am.” But she didn’t explain, and they didn’t press the issue.
“Okay,” said Tom. “If we’re going to get out of here, then I have a week’s worth of stuff I need to get done today. You two better say your good-byes.”
“There’s no one I need to say good-bye to,” Nix began, but Tom cut her off.
“That’s not true and you know it. We’re leaving Mountainside, Nix … we’re not discarding the people who live here. The Kirschs, Captain Strunk, the Chongs … they’ve been kind to you, and they deserve the courtesy and respect of a proper good-bye.”
Nix gave a contrite nod, her face flushed with embarrassment.
