Joseph Talluto - Taking It Back

“Get moving,” I said with a smile.

While I was getting things together, Sarah, Jake, and I had a visitor. Dot came by to talk. We caught up for a while, then Sarah went off to feed Jake his lunch, leaving Dot and I on the porch.

“Been busy, hey?” Dot asked.

“Yeah, it’s been a trip. Several, as a matter of fact,” I said, shaking my head at the rush of memories.

“You’re doing fine,” Dot said. “As a matter of fact, I’d say you’re doing ten times better than anyone could have hoped for.”

“Thanks.”

“Tell me one thing, though, John.”

“Sure, anything.”

“Why haven’t you told Sarah the other reason why you are taking this trip?” Dot asked, seeing through me better than anyone had ever done before. It was downright creepy.

“It wouldn’t be fair to her and might cause feelings to get hurt. Besides, I need this closure. I thought I had it at my house, but over the last few months, it’s been like a cobweb in my head, tickling me from time to time, never letting me forget it’s there.” I looked down. “I hope you won’t tell Sarah,” I said.

Dot smiled at me. “I won’t on one condition.”

“What’s that?” I asked, giving her the same look I give a zombie right before I plant a chunk of metal in its frontal lobe.

“That you marry that girl before you get much older,” Dot said, standing up and patting me on the arm. “No telling how much time you have, especially these days.”

My mind was paralyzed for a moment, then I managed to speak. “Deal,” I said, before I fully understood what I was saying.

“Good. Tell Sarah I’ll be by to help her with Jake while you’re gone.” Dot walked off, whistling an old Irish tune, her rifle slung over her shoulder like she was heading off to war.

I had the feeling I had just been bamboozled, but in all honesty, couldn’t find a downside. I finished packing up and joined Sarah and Jake, trying to squeeze in as much quality time as possible before I headed out. I was sure Charlie and Tommy were doing the same.

In the morning, we packed up the pontoon boat and shoved off. The enclosed space had been taken off and the deck was surrounded by a small wall of wood secured to the railing. The wood only went waist high, but it was sufficient cover if we needed it. It wouldn’t stop bullets, but it would allow you a small measure of security in case things got ugly. We each had our packs, rations, and weapons. I was back to the M1A and Charlie and Tommy were carrying their AR’s. Charlie had done some modification to his AR, swapping out the carbine upper for one with a flat top and lengthened bull barrel. He topped it with an ACOG site he had recovered from State Center Bravo, so he was clearly ready. I preferred iron sites myself. Tommy did as well. We had enough ammo for defensive killing and escape, not eradication. I carried a lighter and small squeeze bottle of kerosene for that.

We drifted north, the purr of the motor moving us at a decent clip. It hadn’t rained in about ten days, so the canal wasn’t moving as fast as it could have. We were all quiet, each of us tucked away in his own thoughts, wondering what this trip might bring, wondering if we had sufficiently said our goodbyes in case this trip was our last. I had left before Jake had awakened for the day and as usual, I had made my promise to return to him. Despite all the progress we had made, he was still my whole world. Sarah had gotten up with me to send me on my way and the way she was smiling made me wonder if she and Dot hadn’t cooked up something between them.

At first we didn’t pass anything of interest and for the most part, couldn’t see that much beyond the foliage on the banks of the canal. After about a half hour, we reached the split in the canal that would take us east and to the lake. There was a refinery on our right, the silent storage bins seeming to watch us pass on the canal. I didn’t see any activity on the ground, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Big refineries and places like this weren’t attractive to zombies as a source of food. There just weren’t enough people outside of a skeleton crew to watch the gauges and make sure everything was running smoothly. Besides, when everything went south, anyone who worked here would have tried to go to their families.

The sun climbed higher, throwing a wave of brilliance that promised to be a beautiful day. Because of the depth of the canal, we were still in shadows, which helped us move relatively unseen. We couldn’t do anything about the noise of the motor, but a pontoon boat was meant for quiet cruising anyway, so the motor wasn’t that bad.

We moved on and in a little ways we found another industrial area. This one looked like a power transfer area, but I couldn’t be sure. There were actually zombies here, and they shambled over in our direction, but we were going to be past them long before they reached the canal banks.

The only real indication of zombie activity was the roads that crossed the canal and through our binoculars and rifle scopes we could see several of the cars that were occupied by the undead and several other zombies wandering among the vehicle debris. They raised a forlorn moan at our passing and one actually fell into the canal and disappeared beneath the dark waters. We kept a close eye on that situation, since we were pretty certain the zombies stayed away from water for a reason, although we weren’t entirely certain it killed them. If it did, it probably took a long time, so caution was necessary.

We went past a huge complex big enough to be seen from where we were and it took me a minute before I realized what it was. It was a distribution center for a parcel carrier, one of the largest in the area. I thought about all the undelivered items stored there and made a mental note to check it out in the future. I had no idea the canal went right past it.

“Big place,” Tommy said from his perch at the steering wheel of the boat.

“It’s huge and full of goodies,” I said, shifting my pack.

“Really? How do you know?”

“It’s the distribution center for United Shipping.”

Tommy looked around. “So that’s where we are. I thought this area looked familiar, but I’ve only seen it from the expressways. Weird how things change when you’re moving slow and from a new direction.”

Wasn’t that the truth. Charlie nodded in agreement and returned to watching the canal. He was making sure the way was clear of obstacles, like branches and other debris. We hadn’t seen much so far, but in the catches along the canal banks we could see things like suitcases and other floating castaways, reminders of people who chose the canal as their escape route. I idly wondered how many people drowned just trying to get away any way they could.

“Contact,” Charlie said from the front and I shifted my weapon to the ready. Tommy steered the boat towards the middle of the canal and I could see what Charlie was talking about. On the right side of the canal was a subdivision and from what we could see this one had been hit hard. Burnt out homes and smashed windows, doors torn off their hinges, black marks everywhere. We could see rotting corpses down every street and it took little imagination to figure there were more in the homes. Several cars had smashed into homes and blood splatter was all over the interiors. The streets had dozens of zombies lurching around and for the most part, they were ignorant of our passing.

I looked at Tommy and shook my head. There was nothing here. It wouldn’t even be worth it to try and scavenge something from the homes. Until the zombies eventually rotted away on their own, they were the lords of this area.

Some of the zombies turned our way on account of the noise of our motor, but they didn’t do much, just shuffled in our direction. By the time they reached the road that ran along the canal, we were past them. There was also a fence that ran along the road, so we were in no danger. As I looked back at the subdivision, I saw the telltale white flags adorning nearly every mailbox.