The forgotten World

18. The Return Trip

When we all got back to Cunnamulla the whole town celebrated, and so many times I got asked how I did it, and then I spread my hands wide in a general gesture to everyone “they helped” that night was calm, and so with the request complete I went back to my car, and dad was standing there “leaving so soon?” I nodded “I got no reason to stay” dad shook his head “you saved the town, if it was not for you being able to draw their attention away from the van crews activities it would have failed, and from what the van crew said you gave quite the speech to the zombies” and with that I went bright red “I umm… kinda… hoped no-one heard it…” he laughed “even us outside could hear your yelling when you said defend your king” that made me even brighter red “oh great… so now everyone knows we killed the zombie hoard because I told them to attack… I’m going home now” he laughed some more and hugged me “not in this car you’re not” I looked at the car over his shoulder “any why not?” he let go of me “because you have not had a good night sleep since you left Toowoomba, would I be right” I looked at him “yah it would be” dad grabbed me by the arm and led us to the motel we usually go to at Cunnamulla, the truck was parked outside and just seeing it while walking next to my old boss made my smile and think of the days back before the car crash. Not that I had my licence when I was involved in that I was still on my now expired learners that I don’t have any more and I was so close, I was glad I was assumed to have died in the intensive care unit. And now I realized I would need a new identity, but the first one that came to mind was well, if anything I assumed to be true was true I knew it would be taken, Ral Zarek was the name I wanted, but I would have to ask Ral in person if I could use his name and that involved a visit to the Guild Izzet, I was glad I knew where that was.

We soon booked into the motel room and due to dad telling the attendant I was the new zombie king and saviour of Cunnamulla we got a free room and dinner, not that there remaining supplies aloud for a normal dinner. That night after dinner I went and had a shower and sleep very well. The following morning the truck and trailer had been restored to their former glory, the packing, tie boxes, trollies and everything had been put in the trailer and the gun safes and other racking had been removed, the local metal worker made a pair of ramps that I drove the car up into the back of the truck after folding its mirrors in. I found myself climbing out of the car by folding down the back seats and opening the boot and then stretching almost losing balance as I stood in the back of the truck at the back of the car. I climbed down and climbed in the passenger seat at the front of the truck. Put my bag behind my seat, puts dad’s overnight bag and kit behind his seat. And we departed, the gate had been pulled down and the rest of the fence was being pulled down also. I looked down at the travel charger for the lap top, even after I had stopped working for dad the travel charger for the work lap top was still here. Then the most unexpected thing happened, dad handed me the lap top that he had in his motel room. The first thing I did was check the charger was compatible with the lap top I was holding, he went back to both our rooms to do a final check and then jumped in the driver seat and we left.

We headed for home, well office for me and Ron and also home for dad. On the way back we paused for fuel at St George and Dalby and when we got back to the office we backed the trailer down where it lived drove the truck forward and backed the car out of the truck. I told dad I would be back soon, I got to return the car to grand mum then I told him that when I got back we would talk about the reward for the request. I returned the car and keys to Grand Mum and Grand Dad and made my way back to dads. When I got there I walked in the back door and flopped on the couch, looked in my old room, the bed was still the same steel spring frame I had when I got my first bed. I looked at dad and down at the request “about the reward” dad looked at me and moved to a safe I didn’t know he had “I only want half” I said before he opened it.