Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

I looked at my stairwell, and figured it was the weak point in my plan. I needed a way to secure the stairs, but I also needed to think about escape. Mike and his family brought that into focus. What if they got in here and I was trapped upstairs? What could I do? I thought for a bit and realized that I needed a ladder. Fortunately, I had an extension ladder in the garage. It was a real trick to maneuver that thing upstairs, but I did it. It was long enough to reach to the roof of my neighbors, so I figured I could go from roof to roof if I needed to.

Getting back to the stairwell, I needed a way to block it. Nothing was jumping out at me so I decided to worry about it later.

I fed Jake and put him down for his nap, and thought I saw movement outside. I went to the window and watched for a bit. Sure enough, something was moving in the field behind the houses. I had three guesses as to what it was and the first two didn’t count.

I went downstairs and picked up the. 22. I was curious if a. 22 would be effective at all against a zombie’s head, and since there didn’t seem to be any more out there, I figured it would be a good time to see. I went outside to the fence and stood on one of the chairs. I didn’t see anything right away and looked around. For the moment, all I could see were the two corpses I had thrown over the fence the previous day. They didn’t look too good, as the flies had done a number on them.

As I was looking at them, another zombie stumbled into view. It was walking along the ditch, and was hidden from view by one of the trees I had near the fence. It was a young man, about twenty-five as near as I could tell, and he was in rough shape. His clothes were nearly gone, hanging in shreds from his body. Raw wounds covered his torso, and his left leg sported a six inch gash that went completely around it. Maggots covered the wounds, and fell off every time he lurched one way or the other. He hadn’t noticed me yet as I hadn’t moved, and I began to wonder about their sense of sight. If you didn’t attract attention to yourself, and they couldn’t hear you or smell you, it seemed you were just part of the scenery.

I checked the clip and chambered a round, the bolt sounding loud in the stillness. The zombie’s head turned my way, and he groaned when he finally saw me. I lined up the sights on his head as he came closer, and when he was no further than fifteen feet away, at the base of the hill my fence sat on, I fired the round at his head. The shot echoed off the condominiums across the way, and a neat little hole appeared in his forehead. He collapsed without another sound.

“That worked well.” I said to myself as I heard answering groans coming from across the way. Three more zombies came stumbling out from the condo’s parking lot, seeking the source of the noise. I waited until the first one came near and then dropped it with a shot to the head. I was still hidden in the tree branches, so they hadn’t quite zeroed in on where I was. The second was a bit further out, about twenty yards, but I tried it anyway. It too, fell with a round to the head. I wondered what the true effective range was, and tried a shot at about fifty yards. The zombie’s head jerked, but he didn’t go down. I waited for him to get closer, then I hit him again. This time he went down for good. I could see that the first shot had hit him, but the bullet had not penetrated the skull, but traveled around the skull under the skin. Not pretty, but a lesson learned.. 22’s were good for close in work, and they had to get hit straight on.

I didn’t hear any more groans, so I stepped off the chair and started back toward the house; as I did, a figure suddenly appeared in the window of my neighbors’ house. I was startled enough to raise my weapon and get a sight picture before I realized it was Erica, my neighbor’s daughter. She raised both hands and her eyes got really huge. I lowered the weapon and gave her a thumbs- up, hoping it was reassuring. She smiled and waved, and retreated from the window. I went back inside and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what I was going to do about my stairs.

During the night, the gas turned off. I didn’t realize it until morning, when I went to take a quick shower that hot water was gone. This was not convenient. Not unexpected, but still inconvenient. Well, it was only a matter of time. Jake was going to have to get used to some room-temperature baths. I filled a gallon jug and placed it in the sun, figuring it would help a little. Jake was a little trooper; in his world, as long as daddy was around and somebody, didn’t matter who, changed his diapers, his day was golden.

Speaking of diapers, I realized that things were critical when it came to diapers. I needed to get another supply and do it today. I didn’t want to have to leave the homestead, but I needed some things and I needed to go as soon as possible before everything had been looted and taken. I wasn’t sure about the looting, but with police pretty much non-existent, and the National Guard pulled back to the safe center, if there was one. People were pretty much on their own. And as any disaster survivor will tell you, calamity brings out the best and worst in people. That’s just the way it was. Besides, I needed to get out there and see just how bad things were. For all I knew, it wasn’t too bad. Yeah right, and maybe I’ll be named king next week.

I packed Jakey up in his car seat and got myself ready. I had my big crowbar out in the car, and I had my ever-present SIG. I took my Winchester with me as heavy firepower, figuring that if I couldn’t get it done with full power 45 Colt loads, it couldn’t be done. I had eleven rounds in the gun and put ten more in my pocket. If it came to a firefight, I was bugging out. I had Jake with me and couldn’t take chances. The lever gun had been a faithful companion, and I felt more secure in taking a shot with it than most of my other guns. Besides, with my Cowboy Action Shooting practice, I could empty that gun fairly quickly.

I checked the street before I opened up the door, as I didn’t want to have to engage a zombie right off the bat if I could avoid it. I unlocked the door and rolled it up as quietly as I could. No one was in sight, so I re-engaged the lock and started the car. I pulled out of the garage and headed out into the street, closing the garage door behind me. I had locked the door leading to the house, so I wasn’t worried about zombies breaking into my home if they managed to get into the garage.

I drove through the neighborhood, again noting the signs of violence and hasty exits. No cars blocked the way, which was good, so I was able to head to the main road fairly quickly. I did see a few zombies, and they turned towards me, but lost interest after I pulled from their sight and they saw they couldn’t catch me.

I drove down to the crossroad, a small highway tucked away from the main roads. It had a couple of cars parked on the side of the road, and a car was in the ditch by the local body shop. All the businesses were closed, and the golf course on the west side of the street was deserted, except for some zombies strolling around the eighth green. They were interested in something in the water, so I didn’t think it was polite to disturb them.

I turned up towards the main road and found a few more abandoned cars. Some had blood in the interior, and more than one had a corpse in it. Several had movement, and I could see that the zombies were trapped in the cars, unable to figure out how to free themselves. I drove the car into the small lane that went between a gas station and a bank, and led to the drug store around the back.

Immediately, I sensed something was wrong. A car had been forced to the side of the lot near the back, two other cars bracketing it and preventing it from moving. I drove to the side of the building and parked it under the drive-through. It was out of the way and in the shade, and gave me a chance to hide the car and Jake. I was not going to bring him with, as he was safer in the car, and if I needed to move quickly, I didn’t want to have to worry about him. Besides, he was falling asleep, so he wouldn’t miss anything important.