Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

I jumped back from the doors as a rotting face slammed against the glass. Broken teeth cracked against the upper window of the door. It was so torn and rotted I couldn’t tell what it used to be. It moaned loudly and began pounding on the door. Since the door opened outward, it would be a while before this was a serious threat. But the message was clear: The dead had arrived

I could hear pounding echoing throughout the building, and glass crashing. Shots were being fired, but I couldn’t tell where they were coming from. Shouts could be heard, and I could hear Tommy yelling “Kill them, kill them! They’re getting in! “Kill them! Aim for the head, damn you!” I desperately wanted to run down to see what was happening, but things were getting interesting on my end. The window of the door had been smashed in and two arms were reaching through the opening. They belonged to two zombies that looked relatively fresh, although they were cut up badly from putting their arms through the glass. The center of the door was about chest high, so they couldn’t quite climb in, but I hesitated at killing them. I didn’t want to give the ones behind them a step up to get in the door.

More shots and shouts. I couldn’t take my eyes off my door, since all it took was a second and you were done. I chanced a glance behind me to check on the other guys in my hallway and found myself alone. Fuck it, I thought. Oh well. At least I didn’t have to worry about getting shot by accident or clubbed by somebody. All I had to worry about was being torn to pieces by zombies and consumed, or infected by the virus and turning into a zombie myself. Spiffy.

With my back clear, I decided to slow things down at my door. I shot the two that were hanging in and they slumped to the ground. They were immediately trampled by the zombies behind them and because these were able to stand on the first ones, they were able to leverage more of themselves into the window. I was astonished at their tenacity, especially when they jagged glass tore open their abdomens and ropey intestines spilled out over the door. I didn’t waste any time on introspection, and shot them as they raised their dead faces and groaned at me. They slumped over the window and effectively blocked the next two, which were pushing forward. I shot them as well, trying to block the door as much as possible. But the crowd outside was surging, trying to get at the prey they knew was within, and the door started to bulge and strain. The first zombies to fall were pulped as others trod on them, and the windows of the doors were full of grasping, groping arms.

I realized that piecemeal wasn’t going to work. I needed to go on the offensive and really make trouble. I shouldered my carbine and went to work. I shot every head I could see, whether it was trying to get inside or if it was outside. I missed a few shots, but hitting such small targets in such circumstances was miraculous at best. I reloaded my carbine with my second thirty round magazine and stepped closer to the door, trying to hit more of them outside. I had made a pile about three feet high of corpses, but more were crawling, tearing, groaning to get in. I looked at a sea of dead faces, bloated stomachs, and reaching arms and hands. I had the wild urge to throw my carbine aside, draw my knife and crowbar, and dive into that morass.

I fired again and again, killing and killing. I started to have difficulty seeing my targets, as the corpses piled higher and some of the zombies were shorter, managing to stay out of sight. There was a lull in the firing, and I could hear sounds down the hall. There were shots and screams, cursing and crying, and over all the constant sound of zombies on the prowl.

I looked over my shoulder and received a shock. Two zombies were shuffling their way towards me, their slow, shambling gait evident in the low light of the school. Beyond them, I could see many more zombies walking and littering the floor. As I watched, I saw a zombie’s head slam sideways and bounce off a wall, struck by something and someone unseen.

I shifted my attention back to the two in the hallway. There were two classrooms between myself and the Z’s, so I darted into one of them, the zombies shuffling in pursuit. I kicked a couple of desks towards the door and shoved a few more for good measure. The two zombies came into the room, scanned the area and saw me standing there. They immediately started towards me, and crashed into the desks, falling to the floor. I stepped up quickly and smashed one on the head with my crowbar, ending its killing spree once and for all. The other, twisting on the floor and getting to its feet, rose slowly and locked eyes with me. Its lips peeled back in a snarl and a high pitched wheeze came out of a hole in its throat. I didn’t waste time and smashed the crowbar’s business end onto the top of its head, slamming it to the floor where it lay still.

I ducked back towards the door and quickly peeked out. The exit door was still holding, but I could see that it was not going to hold out much longer. I needed to see what else was going on. I didn’t want to think that everyone else had bugged out and I was in here all alone save for a few hundred zombies. I ran towards the front door, jumping over several corpses along the way. When I reached the main foyer, I could see the door had been smashed open, and there were dozens of downed zombies, each one having some sort of head wound. I could see a mass of blood in the area, suggesting that someone had been caught by the zombies and killed. I didn’t see where Duncan and Tommy had gotten off to, but I hoped that they had fallen back to the rally point. I heard bunch of shots coming from the commons area, so I turned and headed that way.

As I moved over a neat ring of dead-for-good zombies surrounding the main stairwell, I looked back down my hallway and saw that the door had caved in, and the zombies were pouring in the opening. Great.

I chanced a glance over my shoulder at the front door and ducked as a decayed hand swept towards my head. I dove forward and sprang to my feet, spinning around and facing my attacker. Correction. Attackers. About five of them had come in the door while I was ruminating, and I nearly got nailed for it. I whipped my carbine up and shot down the first one, snapping off a lucky one-handed shot that entered through its chin and blew the top of its head off, spraying brain all over the ceiling. I didn’t have time to shoot the second one, he was on me too fast. I kicked him backwards and he fell over another corpse that was on the ground. The third came from the side and I swung the crowbar viciously at his head, connecting with his neck and breaking it. He went down, but his mouth still snapped, his eyes tracking me as I moved. I shot the second one as he got up and nailed the fourth to the ground. The fifth moved slowly enough that I was able to sling my carbine over my shoulder and get a good two-handed grip on my crowbar. It came within reach, a decaying woman with dank hair and half her cheek missing, along with her nose. I swung hard and literally took her off her feet, tossing her aside and slamming her into the wall. She wasn’t dead yet, so I needed to smash her again to finish her off. I was running out of room on the floor. Literally most of the floor was covered in some sort of gore or decaying flesh, or eaten flesh, by the looks of some of it. We were losing people, but the question was, where were they, and how many had we lost?

I quickly checked the doors to the upper floor and saw they were still secured on the inside by zip ties. Good. No one had been that way. I briefly wondered where the big guy Charlie was, but I realized I maybe didn’t want to know if the worst had happened.

I ran towards the firing and skidded to a stop by the atrium. Three zombies were feeding on a corpse, and they were so engrossed in their task they didn’t know I was there. I looked at the body and to my horror, the hand on the ground closest to me was still moving, the fingers curling into a claw of pain. It may have been reflex, but part of me was sickened by the notion that this poor person was still alive as these creatures were feeding on him. I unslung my carbine, and placed my crowbar up against the wall. I clicked off the safety and got busy. I killed the three in short order, then shot the downed man as well. If he was still alive, he was coming back as one of them, and I could only hope someone would do me the courtesy should the need arise.