Chương 18: Truly Home

Mill Valley looked both the same and nothing like itself. The bones of the town were intact. Streets, houses, fences, mailboxes. But the details had shifted. Barricades blocked side streets every few blocks, assembled from whatever was available. Overturned dumpsters. Stacked furniture. Cars pushed bumper to bumper across intersections. Behind them, people stood watch, tracking the three cyclists with wary eyes as they passed. Nobody tried to stop them.

The red film that had coated everything since the rain began had almost completely evaporated, leaving behind a faint discoloration on concrete and asphalt, like a stain that hadn't quite come out in the wash. If not for the barricades, the abandoned cars, the sentries on every other corner, the bodies laid out in driveways under stained bedsheets, and the occasional shriek of an Eater somewhere in the distance, you might have actually mistaken it for a normal summer afternoon.

They had to detour twice where streets were completely blocked, once by a collapsed tree that had taken a power line with it, and once by a barricade that spanned the full width of the road with no gap and no one willing to move it. Both times, Sumi checked the map on her phone, which still worked as a map even without signal, and found a way around. At one point, a woman standing behind a chest-high wall of sandbags raised her hand and waved. A genuine wave, not a warning. Enzo squinted at her.

Something about the face was familiar.

"Who was that?" Val asked. He shrugged.

"I think she was a year below me at Tam High." The town thinned as they moved west, commercial blocks giving way to residential streets and then to narrower lanes that wound uphill between the trees. The redwoods closed in around them as the road climbed, their trunks towering overhead in columns of reddish-brown bark. Enzo had grown up under these trees. He'd biked this lane a thousand times. Something about them was different, much like all the other plants and trees they'd seen.

The bark seemed darker than he remembered, denser, the texture more pronounced. The canopy overhead felt heavier, filtering the afternoon light into something cooler and greener than it should have been at this hour. The road steepened, and his knee made the decision for him. He called for a stop and dismounted. The others joined him, walking the bikes until the path leveled out, revealing the lane their parents lived on. Murph trotted alongside Val, sniffing the air.

Driveways branched off on either side, winding up between the trunks to houses set above the road. Fifty meters ahead, two cars sat nose to nose across the road, blocking it completely. Behind them, a pair of lawn chairs sat under a large beach umbrella. The seated men stood, reaching for weapons. Against the glare, it was hard to make them out. The one on the left was of average height and build, hefting a tire iron. The man on the right was harder to miss.

He towered, built like he'd been carved from the same redwood trunks lining the road. Sunlight reflected off his bald head. The big man rested the baseball bat on his shoulder.

"Hold up. State your names and business." Enzo recognized that overly dramatic baritone. He raised a hand to shield his eyes and stared.

"Kenzo?" A beat passed. The bat came off the man's shoulder.

"Lorenzo?" Val let out a long-suffering sigh. Sumi glanced at her, confused. Another beat.

"Enzo!" he and the big man said in unison, the sound of their laughter echoing off the redwoods. Kenzo dropped the bat. It rang against the asphalt, the sound still bouncing off the trees as the big man covered the distance between them in four long strides. Before Enzo could brace himself, arms thicker than his legs wrapped around him and his feet left the ground. His old friend smelled of woodsmoke and the faint metallic tang of blood.

"My ribs," Enzo wheezed.

"I need those." Kenzo set him down with a wide grin. He held Enzo at arm's length for a second, looking him over with the same quick assessment Enzo had just done to him. Whatever he saw, he didn't comment on. Then he turned. Val had already let go of her bike and was backing away, hands raised. Murph circled at the end of her leash, feeding off the energy.

"Kenzo, don't you dare." He dared. She yelped as he scooped her off the ground.

"Little sis!"

"I am not your little sister, you enormous oaf." Her voice was muffled against his chest. Her fists beat against his shoulders with about as much effect as rain against the redwoods.

"Put me down." He did, still grinning. She straightened her shirt, glared up at him from a height differential that bordered on comedic, and then punched his stomach. Kenzo rubbed it theatrically and turned to Sumi, who had been standing very still beside her bike with the expression of someone trying to calculate whether she was next.

"This is Sumi," Enzo said.

"Val's friend. She came with us from San Francisco." Kenzo's entire demeanor shifted. The grin softened. He extended his hand, palm open, the way you'd offer it to someone you didn't want to startle.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Kenzo. Enzo's best friend." Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Sumi took it. Her hand and most of her wrist disappeared into his grip. He shook once, gently, and let go.

"Come on." He jerked his head toward the lane behind the barricade.

"I'll walk you home." Then, to the older man who'd been watching the whole reunion with the patient expression of someone who'd seen enough sentiment for one afternoon: "You good here for a bit, Frank?" Frank settled back into his lawn chair and propped the tire iron across his knees.

"Yeah. Just bring me back a beer when you're done." As Enzo wheeled his bike through the gap between the cars, Kenzo retrieved his bat. He recognized it. Remembered the games where Kenzo had hung over the edge, calling to his favorite players for their autographs.

"You used to love that thing." Kenzo glanced over his shoulder and slowed, letting them catch up.

"Still do, bro. But I like living more than being sentimental." Enzo nodded.

"Didn't realize you were back home. Glad you're safe, man." The big man shrugged.

"Been back for a year. Ma had a fall, and I had to come home to look after her. Good thing, too, eh? Fucking zombies, bro." He looked at his friend for a few moments. They'd known each other since they were four years old, and became inseparable from the instant they realized their names were similar. Lived in the same neighborhood. Went to the same schools. Made the same friends. When Kenzo had left Mill Valley on a full athletic scholarship, he'd been set for life.

He was the pride of everyone who knew him, not least his adoptive mother. The tiny Asian woman was the only person in the world capable of reining in the six-foot-six slab of muscle besides Enzo and maybe Signe. He'd torn through college football as if he'd been built for it, because he had been, and by senior year the scouts were circling. Went pro as a top-five draft pick. Left tackle. His friend had it made. His mother's declining health wasn't a secret. It was always just a matter of time.

Most people would have paid for a carer and left it at that, especially with a professional career on the line. Kenzo wasn't most people. But he'd always been like that. His best friend was probably just appreciative of the time he got to spend with his mother. It didn't stop him feeling bad for Kenzo's lost opportunities. He knew what that was like, deep inside, where things had a way of festering. Though the apocalypse would have made the decision for him anyway.

"What about you?" Kenzo asked.

"We've missed you these past few years at the families' Christmas get-together." Enzo glanced down.

"Yeah, sorry. Just been really busy with the shop."

"Bullshit." He turned to his right, where Val was walking beside Sumi, glaring at him.

"More like he didn't want anyone seeing him being all crippled and woe-is-him." Enzo raised an eyebrow, but she just huffed and turned away. He knew the anger wasn't really there anymore. Not like it had been. She was just exploiting her sibling privilege to call him out. Kenzo glanced down at his leg.

"Sorry, bro. I should have reached out. Stayed in touch. I guess I just got kinda busy with everything the past few years." He looked up, meeting Enzo's eyes.

"Last we spoke though, you said it was getting better. I'm guessing that didn't happen?" Enzo fell quiet.

"It was." He paused, hesitant to admit the truth, even to his best friend.

"I… fucked up. Tried to get back to normal too quickly. Made one dumb mistake. Injured it again, only permanently that time." He swallowed.

"I didn't want to see anyone after that. Didn't want to explain how much of an idiot I was." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Val open her mouth, close it, then open it again, only to close it a final time. She hadn't known the last bit. He'd kept it from everyone. Let them believe the accident was responsible. It was easier than explaining. Kenzo reached over, grabbed his shoulder, and squeezed.

"Well, we all missed you, bro. Glad to have you back." Enzo laughed.

"I'd be a pretty shit son and friend if I didn't at least drop by during the apocalypse." They walked past the next few houses in silence. Val leaned forward to look at Kenzo.

"So, did you get magic, too?" He glanced between them. Shook his head.

"Nah, I stayed inside with Ma during the rain. I read the guide entries, but didn't realize we had to touch the blood. Just like me to fumble the chance to get actual magic." He smiled wryly.

"What about you guys?" Val smirked and held up a fist. Fire manifested, the flames licking at her flesh for a few seconds before she dismissed them.

"Whoa. That's freaking cool." He turned to Enzo. Enzo nodded, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Have you spoken to our parents?"

"Yeah. Checked in on them after the rain. I brought them some supplies from the local store." Then he laughed.

"Not that your old man needed the help, of course." Enzo let out a breath. The uncertainty had plagued him since witnessing the first people seizing and dying from the blood.

"What about Sin and Claire? Matt? Heard from them?" Kenzo shook his head.

"Sorry, bro. Ain't heard from either of the girls. Signe's living up in Santa Rosa, but Claire's on the other side of the country doing who knows what. She's gotten all mysterious the past few years." He smiled.

"But Matt's in town! I saw him yesterday. He's part of the group that's been collecting food and rationing it out to people. They're also… taking care of the bodies." Enzo didn't say anything for a long moment. Worry over Sin and Claire's whereabouts clashed with the knowledge that most of his friends and family were safe and sound. Hearing that Matt had thrown himself into helping people get through the apocalypse didn't surprise him at all.

Of the five of them, he'd always been the first to volunteer for anything and everything.

"Kenzo, if you'd like, I can heal those wounds," Sumi said, filling the silence.

"When we stop, I mean."

"What? With magic?" The big guy lit up when she nodded, as if he'd just been told it was Christmas morning.

"Hell yeah! I'd appreciate that." They turned up the driveway, the narrow path snaking between the trunks of two ancient redwoods before leveling out at a two-car garage set into the hillside. The house rose above it, three stories of wood and glass climbing the slope, its large windows catching the afternoon light through the canopy. Enzo had grown up behind those windows.

Had watched the fog roll through the trees from the top floor on winter mornings, and spent summer evenings on the deck listening to the creek that ran behind the block. Steps led up from beside the garage to the front door. As they leaned the bikes against the wall and started up, the door opened. The man who stepped through was broad across the shoulders and thick through the arms, with a beard that had gone mostly gray in the years since Enzo had last seen him. His face was serious. It was always serious.

Enzo had inherited that trait, along with the habit of evaluating everything he looked at. Enzo smiled up at him.

"Hey, Pops. Sorry to just drop in on you like this." His father looked him up and down. A slow, thorough assessment that lingered for a moment on the cane, then came back to his face. He nodded.

"Son." His gaze moved to the others. A nod to Kenzo, familiar and brief. A nod to Sumi, polite and measured. When he saw Val at the bottom of the stairs, the serious face cracked, and something warm broke through. He turned back to Enzo.

"Welcome home." Then his mother appeared behind his father's shoulder, and whatever composure the household had been maintaining fell apart. Her eyes were red and wet, her hands already reaching before she'd made it through the door. She pushed past her husband, pulled Enzo into her arms, and held on as if the world might try to take him back.

"Mom," he said, patting her on the back.

"We're okay." She pulled back just enough to look at his face, touching his cheek, his jaw, reading him with her fingers the way she always had. Then she looked past him, saw Val, and the tears started fresh. Val made it up the stairs in three steps, dragging Murph in her wake. Enzo sidestepped the whirlwind as their mother folded her youngest into a full hug.