Undead L.A. 1 (41 page)

“You know I'm gonna make you pay for that, right?” Caesar taunted me and I smiled.

“
Yeah but it was worth it, my man,” I fired back, sticking my tongue out. “I fucking got all of that wave!”

“
What's that sound?”

“
Just your wounded pride, Cheeser,” I teased.

“
No, hold up. I'm serious.”

We sat in silence, the water jogging us around, and then I heard it. It started out like a low hum in the distance but it got louder as it came closer.

“Sounds like a plane,” I said.

“
No man, it sounds like a lot of planes,” Caesar corrected me. We both looked toward the shore at the same time. What I saw didn't make any sense at first. There were DLU guys running around on the grass and out by the boardwalk, chasing guys around. I could see flames starting to grow on the top and sides of several of the buildings facing us.

“
Goddamnit! Those One Blood fuckers are trying to make a move on us. They're burning our buildings down.”

“
I thought we had a truce with those fucking people,” I said.

“
Yeah well, I guess the ceasefire is over. It's a sneak attack.”

“
We gotta do something.”

As I said it I could hear the sound growing louder. There were guys fighting on the sand now. One of the One Blood gang members was bleeding, leaving a trail of red on the soft blonde sand as he made his way toward the water. I saw Bronan ride in on white water and head right for him. Bronan dragged the guy to the surf's edge and began to hold him under. The drowning gang banger’s limbs flailed as he fought to free himself, but eventually he stopped moving and sunk into the break.

“Stay here,” Caesar said, starting to paddle back to shore.

“
No fucking way,” I yelled. “I'm part of Dogtown Locals Union. This is my fight, too. I'm not a kid anymore.”

“
Yeah, you're not a kid? Then act like it and take orders.”

I felt hot anger burning in my cheeks, but Caesar didn't back down.

“Are you fucking serious right now?”

“
Dead fucking serious, bro. You gotta follow the rules or you know what happens.”

“
Bullshit. You're not going to report the only family member you got left for trying to fight off a hostile fucking takeover.”

“
I'll tell you what I'm not gonna do. I'm not gonna watch as my kid brother gets his ass stabbed to death or skull fucked by some crackhead ex-con. If I give you an order, you better obey it. Do you understand me?”

I just stared over his head in shock. I'd found the source of the commotion. Heading our way in formation was a line of military planes, all dumping bombs as they went. I could see bright balls of fire coming up in the distance like something from a war movie. The sounds of the explosions finally reached us, fighting their way against the onshore breeze. I saw people screaming and running all over the boardwalk in total panic not knowing which way to go. Some of the buildings weren't just on fire, they were blown wide open. It was like a Dali painting on acid, like a music video for a death metal band.

“Fuck me,” Caesar said as the planes moved over us. We looked up to see soldiers in full gear inside the plane. The moment they spotted us they began shooting, strafing the water with hot lead. Luckily for us they were already too far past us to get a clean shot. The water hissed out steam as the bullets plunked in and vanished beneath the tumultuous surface.

“
What the fuck do we do now?”

Caesar pointed out toward the ocean away from Venice.

“We paddle.”

“
Where are we going to paddle to? Japan? We got nowhere to go.”

“
Catalina.”

“
It's way too far for us to reach,” I argued.

“
No it's not. It's less than thirty miles. They hold paddle battle competitions every year, you know, to see who can get to Catalina from Manhattan Beach the fastest.”

“
Those are trained professionals.”

“
Nonsense. Greg Noll did it when he was your age, and that was back when all they had were redwood boards to ride on.”

“
How the hell do you know that?”

“
He talks about it in his book.”

“
What about the DLU?”

We both turned back at the same time to look at the chaos onshore.

“I'm not sure we can do much for them right now. Looks like anyone on the street just got ass-fucked by Satan; hard. If you were still up in Travis's apartment you'd probably be dead. Shit, I guess we both would. Good thing neither of us likes to sleep in late.”

“
I don't know, man.”

“
We don't have a lot of choices right now, bro. We can either stay here and fucking die or we can make a break for it and pray to God the island is fucking clean. Come on.”

Caesar didn't wait for me to answer. He turned and started paddling away from the shore, out toward the open waters that lead to Catalina. I took one last look, then followed him. The planes made a wide bank to the left, then headed into the Marina. I was super nervous that they were going to head back our way to finish us off, but they vanished out of sight. Soon all I could hear was the sound of my own hard breathing as I paddled, and the slap of the water on my board. I could feel the muscles of my chest burning and began to wish that I'd gotten into long board riding like those old timers in Malibu. It was a lot easier to push around a whaler than it was to navigate long distances on a potato chip high performance board.

“Keep up, man,” Caesar said, picking up the pace and pulling ahead.

“
I feel like my fucking arms are gonna fall off,” I whined. “I can't even see the island. How much longer is it gonna take?”

“
We've only been at it like thirty minutes.”

“
So how many hours does it usually take people who do this stupid paddle trip for fun?”

“
The best time I've read about is six hours,” Caesar said, slowing down so I could catch up with him. “But that's guys like Laird Hamilton and Chuck Patterson. With the way the currents are, and all your complaining, we'll be lucky to make it there by tomorrow morning.”

“
We gotta paddle all night in the dark?”

“
Looks like it,” Caesar said. I put my head down and stopped paddling. He turned back to me and sighed.

“
I know it's hard, man, but we gotta do this. Think of it like this, at least we aren't dead back on the beach.”

“
We just left them,” I yelled, feeling my anger surge now that I was out of harms way for the moment. “We didn't even try to help! Bronan! Gus! All those guys are probably dead now. We let them die. We ran away like cowards!”

“
I couldn't watch you die, all right?”

Caesar's face turned red as he shouted over the sound of the water.

“Besides, what good would it do the rest of them if we died with them? How would running back on land to get shot or burned or bombed help anyone? It wouldn't. So you can just push that thought out of your head right now. We're survivors, man. We fucking survive. Period. There will be plenty of time to sit around and feel bad about what we could have done or should have done and all the friends we lost, but for now all we can do is keep paddling until we're safe.”

“
That doesn't mean I have to like it,” I said, feeling like an idiot.

“
No it doesn't,” Caesar replied. “And neither do I. Just remember this, you have to live if you want to get revenge.”

Revenge. It was like a light switch went on in my brain at the thought of the word. I picked my head up and paddled with renewed strength. Caesar was surprised, but he quickly caught up with me and kept pace. He seemed relieved not to have to fight with me anymore. I didn't say a word as we paddled side by side.

I could feel the tears running down my face. My eyes burned with anger. My breath shook in my body as I dug into the water and pushed it behind me, a new fire in the pit of my stomach fueling me, spurring me on.

Maybe the island will be clean
, I thought as I continued to paddle.
Maybe I'll be safe there and then one day we can come back to search for survivors
.

Even as I thought it, I knew it was wrong. There weren't going to be any survivors back home, no matter what was on the island. Bombs were raining down on my beloved city, tearing it apart. By the time we reached Catalina there would be nothing left of Venice Beach, not even the famous sign hanging in Windward Circle over by Mao's Kitchen would remain. Venice would be nothing more than a memory we shared.

We are the last of the Z-Boys
, I thought.
Dogtown, rest in peace.

No sooner had I thought it than I saw something in the water to our right side. As a surfer I'm always on the lookout for sharks and shit. Usually all you see in the water are seals and dolphins. One time a gray whale came up in Breakwater, not more than a hundred feet from us. Scared the shit out of me. I pulled my feet up onto my board and started freaking out. This was like that time only it was happening all around us.

“What is it?”

“
A whale maybe?”

“
What do we do, man?”

“
I don't know. Just hold on.”

Whatever was rising up was really long and matched the color of the water. Fear coursed through me. I knew it wasn't a Great White. They're more likely to come up underneath you, throw you in the air without warning and bite you in half. Whatever this was, it was manmade and big and coming up beneath us. I felt a rush of bubbles and then something metal under my feet. Slowly from under the surface it rose, displacing water rapidly over its smooth hull as it breached the rolling waters. I heard my board clatter on the metal and saw Caesar kneeling across from me now. We were standing on the deck of a U.S. Navy submarine.

In the distance there was a hiss as one of the hatches wheeled open. Caesar and I froze, expecting more guys with machine guns to pop out and cut us down in a hail of gunfire. I was too tired to fight. No matter what happened I knew this was the end. A man in a sailor's uniform and hat stuck his head out and stared at us. We didn't say a word. I felt like my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth with peanut butter, just like a dog. My eyes were still burning. I was beyond exhausted.

“
Sorry to scare you fellas. We didn't expect to have company, but we couldn't let you paddle all that way just to find out Catalina was overrun with Romero's too. We would’a picked ya up sooner, but frankly there was a disagreement between some of the fellas as to whether or not you were still clean. We hadda letja go for a bit and see if ya sank. Zed's don't surf!”

He laughed at his own joke.

“You know? From the movie Apocalypse Now? It's funny.”

There was a twang to his accent that, along with his friendly manner, put me a little more at ease. I still wanted to piss myself and could taste the adrenaline in my mouth, but I no longer thought we were in immediate danger. The fact that he wasn't waving an automatic weapon at us didn't hurt either.

We just stood there staring back, dumbfounded. Finally when it became clear we weren't going to talk he waved his hand at us, beckoning us to follow him into the belly of the metal beast.

“
Don't just stand there gawking like a chicken waiting to have its head twisted off; let's get a move on. We have hot soup, warm showers, and clean clothes down in here. We’ve even got electricity since this sucker’s nuclear. I'll explain everything once you’re fed and rested up some. And boys, you're not gonna believe what I have to tell you…”
He vanished back down below with a smile.

I turned to Caesar and stared with my mouth hanging open, waiting for him to give me a sign. The last thing I wanted to do was jump back in the water, especially now that we knew Catalina was no longer an option. Still, I needed my big brother to make the call. He shrugged and started walking slowly toward the hatch. I turned to look back in the direction we'd come. Tiny wisps of black smoke curled in the sky over the only home I'd ever known. I turned back again to see Caesar sliding into the tube and hurried to catch up with him as the submarine began to slowly sink back into the depths of the ocean.

*** *** ***

END UNDEAD LA 1

*** *** ***

Thanks to my loving wife Angie for her constant support and encouraging words.

Thanks also to my hardworking editor Patricia Bains-Jordan.

Without her this book wouldn't be possible!