Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

Tommy nodded. “Will do.” He headed back to the couple, I waved to Duncan to keep moving. We needed to get to somewhere safe and do it now. The dead were still following us, and it looked like they were growing in number.

There was a commotion behind me. The man had pulled a gun and was waving it around. “Don’t come near me! You can’t kill her! Stay away from her!” Tommy was backing up with his hand up, the other still holding his rifle.

I called from where I was. “Leave them! We don’t have time!” I realized I had grown a little cold, but all of a sudden I was put in charge of dozens of people, and I was not going to risk them for this.

Tommy ran from them, and the dead started to close in. I saw the man holding his wife, then I turned away. I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, a shot rang out. Then another. I looked back briefly and saw two forms lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath their heads. Jake started crying briefly at the noise, and I realized he was going to need to eat soon. What a mess. I got back on the bike and headed back to the front of the procession, passing Tommy and the rest. We crossed the intersection without further incident, and headed towards another intersection. As we passed the mental hospital, a man came running out. Duncan ran out to intercept him and the two had a brief conference. Duncan ran back to me.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Man says he has about seventy people holed up in the hospital, but they’re nearly out of water and food, and need to move on. Can they join us?” Duncan asked with a lopsided grin, like a boy asking if he can keep the puppy he just brought home.

“Why not?” I said. “See if you can get a small detail to help them get moving, and form an armed perimeter around the group. We have enough guns for that. But they have to move.” I pointed to the small army of living dead that slouched along behind us. “They have five minutes, otherwise they aren’t going to be going anywhere.”

“You got it.” Duncan ran to the main group and soon six armed men headed off. Looking at the hospital, it would have been ideal if they had a source of water and food. The building didn’t have a first floorsave for one access door, and if that was blocked, the dead had no chance to get in. Something about that nagged at my mind, but I pushed it back for the time being.

I rode up to the front again, and Jakey was starting to get really fussy. I knew I was going to have to stop somewhere and feed him. Trouble was I couldn’t stop until I knew we were safe, and we still had a little ways to go. I quieted him with a binky and rode on.

I passed the Turley Park Police Station and quickly rode around the building. I wanted to check out the armory to see if there was anything worth taking. Tommy caught up to me and started checking the cars in the parking lot. After about two minutes, he had broken into three of them, and the unarmed men in our group managed to secure more AR-15’s, more ammo, and a couple of shotguns. I couldn’t find a way into the building, but I figured we’d be back.

I turned south on the next cross street and headed for the I-80 overpass. I felt a little like Moses leading people to the Promised Land, although unlike Moses, I wasn’t exactly happy with God these days. I swung back to Tommy and gave him some directions.

“I’m heading to another school. It’s roughly a mile down this road on the left. If you can get the people moving quickly enough, the dead might just pass us by. If not, we’ll be in a pretty defensible position. I’m going to scout it out and try to open a way in for us. The place is Watson School. The homes surrounding it have fenced back yards, so there hopefully won’t be too many on the welcoming committee.” I said quickly, spinning around and heading back over the bridge.

I rode as quickly as I could, and for the most part the passage was nearly silent except for the sound of my tires on the road. In a way it was kind of nice. In another way, it creeped the hell out of me.

I spun down the driveway to the school and headed towards the back of the building. I didn’t see any signs of activity or damage, so I was hopeful that the inside was undamaged as well. I pulled up to the garage door and pulled out my crowbar, snapping the padlock that secured the door shut. I pulled it up and scanned the garage with my SIG out. Lately, I have learned I do not like surprises. Seeing it clear, I pulled the bike inside and pulled the door down. I picked up Jake out of his seat and grabbed a bottle. He was getting really antsy. I decided to feed him now while I knew this area was safe and just listen for a little while. I figured I had about half an hour before the groups showed up.

Jake immediately became quiet when I started to feed him, and I sat back on a pile of bags of sidewalk salt. I reflected on the past two days, and I just had to shake my head. All I wanted to do was head south and start over. I never expected to be trying to save a hundred people in an abandoned school.

Jake finished his bottle and promptly fell asleep. I wasn’t surprised, given the morning we had. I unwrapped the towel from the Enfield and laid him down on it. I took several of the salt bags and made a little fence to keep him safe in case he woke up when I wasn’t there. I needed to check the building and I hoped like hell I wasn’t walking into a crowd of infected dead. I reloaded my magazines for my SIG, and topped off the magazine for my M1. I made my way to the door and stepped into the hallway.

Immediately I smelled something. It wasn’t heavy, but something was definitely dead in here. Great. Here we go. I decided to work my way from the back to the front, so I went down towards where I thought the gym was. I passed a glass doorway, which let in a lot of light, and went towards a commons area. The smell was stronger, but I didn’t hear anything moving around. I checked the bathrooms on the way, but they were clear. The commons was clear, but the smell was definitely coming from the kitchen area. I moved towards the door and opened it, jumping back to give myself room.

Nothing came out, and I poked my head around the corner. It smelled awful, but the room was unoccupied. Weird. I moved towards the fridge and noticed the smell was coming from the refrigerator. I smiled to myself and figured some teacher’s lunches had gone bad. I opened the fridge and jumped back cursing as a body fell out at me and thudded to the floor.

“Jesus!” I said loudly, quickly sighting the corpse’s head with my guns. I needn’t have bothered. This one had been seriously dead for a long time. It was a young girl, probably about fifteen, but it was hard to tell. How she managed to get into the fridge, I had no idea. I watched her for a second to see if there was any movement, then I grabbed her shirt and dragged her to the door. There was an awkward moment when I tried to throw her outside, but after a little heaving, I managed to toss her out.

The gym and locker rooms were clear, and I worked my way through the building. I didn’t find anything out of order and I was more and more impressed with the building as I went through it. We had a lot of room for all the people we had with us, and there was minimal access to cover. The weak point was the front door, being all glass, but could be secured with materials in the building.

Circling the outside of the building, I was thrilled to see a creek off to one side, so our water supply would be assured. I headed towards the back of the building and got a shock. The corpse I had thrown outside was gone.

I spun around with my carbine at the ready and saw nothing. Did she get up on her own, or did someone come and get her? Her walking away actually made me more comfortable than the thought of someone coming to get a corpse. I thought about Jake and ran towards the garage. If someone had seen me enter, they might have gotten in the same way. I skidded to a stop in front of the door and opened the garage. Light flooded the garage and I ran in to check on Jake. He was still sleeping in his area, and relief flooded through me.