Joseph Talluto - America the Dead

“Not my decision to make right now.”

“Oh, God, please! You look like you two could handle the zombies, just pull that truck close to the building and let her jump down! Why won’t you help?” The woman seemed nearly hysterical.

Nate sounded compassionate, but cynical, if that was even possible. “Like I said, it’s not up to me.”

The woman turned to Duncan, who clearly enjoyed the attention. “Please,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “My friend needs help. I drove out here to see if there was anyone in these homes that could help and the truck broke down. She’s been with me since the beginning and I can’t just leave her.” I couldn’t see her face, but I was willing to bet she was nearly crying. I was almost convinced myself.

Duncan nodded and the woman seemed to brighten, but slumped her shoulders when he said, “We’d love to help, but it ain’t up to us.”

The woman took a step back and cursed. “Well, dammit! Who the hell is in charge and why aren’t they out here?”

I stopped walking and was positioned about ten feet behind her. “Turn around,” I said as the woman jumped slightly at the sound of my voice. She spun about and stared at me, not sure where the hell I could have sprung from. I could see her quick inventory of my weapons, followed by a quick personal inventory of my physical features. What she saw was probably not comforting. A six foot-two, broad shouldered man in his thirties, wearing a vest full of ammo, a belt with a pistol and knife on it and holding a fully loaded battle rifle. A funny look flashed on her face, but it was gone before I could get a read on it.

I introduced myself. “Name’s John Talon, these renegades are my crew. You’ve met Nate, the big guy over there and Duncan, the skinny fellow. Tommy Carter is the gent to the rear. Who might you be?”

The blonde tossed her hair back with a shake of her head and said, “I’m Janna Thorne. Are you going to help my friend, or not?” Her tone was belligerent, which could be excused as worry for her friend.

“We’ll see,” I said, motioning for Nate and Tommy to go back into the RV. Duncan went back with obvious reluctance and Nate had to pull him in just so he could shut the door. Tommy wandered over to the truck and was poking around in it.

I faced Janna. “Tell me about your friend. Where is she, what’s the best route to get to her, how did you get away, etc. If I am to help and I haven’t said I would, I need as much information as possible.”

Janna’s eyes lit up with hope at the possibility of helping her friend, a good sign that she was sincere. She spilled out her tale so quickly I was nearly lost three seconds after she started.

In a nutshell, she was working as a hairdresser in a small town when the Upheaval hit. She was able to fight her way to her parent’s house, only to find they had been infected. Her little brother was killed by zombies when she was trying to get him out to safety and she spent the last couple of years on the move. She met her friend Gina out on the road and the two stayed together for obvious survival reasons. They got surprised by a large group of zombies and when she jumped from the roof to a dumpster, the dumpster tipped over and before she could right it, the zombies chased her away from her friend.

“What’s with the scissors?” I asked, just out of curiosity.

Janna smiled at me. “They work as weapons. I’m used to them and they easily penetrate zombie skulls if you know what you’re doing.”

I had to agree. One pair of the scissors seemed to have blades over seven inches long, longer than my knife blade.

“All right,” I said. “Climb aboard. We’ll see what we can do for your friend.” I held out an arm at the RV, which Nate had started and was waiting for us.

“Thank you,” she said, clasping my hand with hers.

“Don’t thank me yet,” I said, taking my hand back to open the door. “Your friend is still in danger.” Janna stepped inside as Tommy came up to the door.

“Truck really broken down?” I asked under my breath as he passed by.

“Battery cable came off. Might be on purpose, might be on accident. Can’t tell.”

“Keep your eyes open. I don’t trust this at all.”

“Ditto.”

We moved slowly into town, as I told Nate to take it easy. I wanted to give the appearance of a group just looking to see if things were okay before they stopped. If we were being watched and the hairs standing up on the back of my neck told me we were, then I wanted to present as much of a humble front as possible. It was one thing to try and trap someone. It was another when the person you trapped turned into a much bigger animal than you thought..

I felt like we had a huge target on the side of the RV and were getting closer to the order to fire. Trouble was, I had no idea who might be waiting for us. I just had the feeling. In all honesty, if it was an ambush by zombies, I would probably feel better.

Janna and Duncan sat at the kitchen table and he tried to get more information from her. Zeus the cat came down from his perch to meet the new arrival and he was currently lounging on the table in front of Janna. She idly stroked his back while telling her tale. She had been travelling with two friends, as it turned out, but the guy she was with had been killed. She didn’t go into any more detail. I was standing by the side window, watching the town move past.

We drove past several homes and turned onto High Street, which looked like it would take us through the center of town. We passed Harrisburg United Methodist Church and it looked worse for wear. All of the homes looked like this town had had a rough go of it, since it was so close to the interstate and all the blocked cars. When people fled their cars, where did they go? Right to Harrisburg. Who followed them? You got it.

As we passed Sycamore Street I noticed a truck sitting in the middle of the street. It seemed wildly out of place. The truck was of a military style, with a high cab and bias-ply tires. The back was canvas covered and it was just sitting there. It seemed to be a vehicle capable of hauling a lot of stuff over heavy terrain, so why anyone would leave it seemed odd to me.

“Nate,” I called up front. “Stop here. I want to take a look at something.”

“You got it.”

The RV slowed to a stop and Tommy immediately went to the ladder to the roof. Duncan reluctantly broke away from Janna and picked up his rifle. Nate stayed at the wheel, ready to gun it and get us out of there if need be.

I went over to the door and waited and in a few seconds, Tommy thumped the roof to let me know it was clear to go out. As I went, I heard Janna talking to Duncan.

“You guys act like you’ve done this before…”

I didn’t hear the rest as I was outside and moving around the front of the vehicle. The sun was brighter and I was wishing I had brought my sunglasses with. I moved down the center of the road, careful to make as little noise as possible. From experience, I knew that zombies might be waiting in ambush, but they would have to cross some open ground to get to me. I knew my back was being watched by Tommy and unless he was way off his game, the first shot I would hear would be his taking out a Z.

I moved over to the truck and pulled myself up to the cab. I didn’t see anyone in it and a quick look through the canvas showed some supplies, but no clues as to why such a truck was here. Strange.

I was about to jump down when a map caught my eye. It was tucked into the small storage area that ran the length of the dashboard. I took it out and opened it, figuring to see just another map of Ohio. What I didn’t expect was to see three areas circled. One was Harrisburg, which made a certain amount of sense. The other was a small forest preserve southwest of here and the last was a larger forest preserve called Stroud’s Run State Park. There was a red question mark over the area we had stayed the other night and Route 50 was heavily penciled over. There were cross marks on several towns and some were boxed in. It made no sense at all.