Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

“It’s going to take a lot of work, but right now time is of the essence. It’s October now, and we all know what winters are like in the Midwest. I figure we have two months before the really nasty stuff comes after us. If we are really lucky, the zombies will freeze in the winter and allow us to establish our posts unmolested; however, nothing in our short history tells me we have much in the way of luck.

“I’m not asking you to believe in the plan. I’m not asking you to believe in me. What I am asking is this — In forty years when you look back on your life and the Upheaval, don’t you want to be able to say to your children “I stood and fought. Not I ran and hid.”

I didn’t know what I expected. I half expected to have a lot of shouted questions and epithets. I half expected to be threatened. What I did not expect was to have one person, Jim Bigelow, our oldest community member, stand up and address me personally.

“John, you’ve constantly put this community first, and many people have wondered why. You never asked for anything in return and you have fought for us at every turn. Some people here owe you more than they could ever hope to repay. You’ve never made a move you didn’t think through first. If you tell me we need to move, then I’m with you. Where are we going?” He sat down and people started to clap. I have to admit I was touched. I never realized that people noticed what I did. I thought I was being selfish, doing what I thought was best for my son and his future. I guess everyone got caught up in that as well. That’s okay, they can come with.

When the clapping died down, Nate stepped up and addressed the assembly. He had a map of Illinois tacked to a piece of cardboard, and there were areas outlined in red, blue and green.

“The red areas here, those are the ones John and I consider too hot to attempt any penetration. We just don’t have the manpower or resources. Maybe later, but for right now, it’s out of the equation. It is not, however, out of the realm of containment, and we can use natural terrain to our advantage. We will begin by sectioning off one area at a time, eradicating every zombie in the area, and moving on to the next area. We expect to increase our ranks as we find survivors. The blue areas are considered to be areas of little zombie activity, and the green areas are what we consider to be relatively safe zones. These are the rural areas and outlying towns and farms, and we think in all likelihood there are entire towns which have been spared the devastation. The end goal is self sufficiency, and we have the resources at our disposal to rebuild better than we had before. We just have to go and get them, and establish ourselves at points where we can support each other and combat the threat.

“I’m not going to lie to you. Not everyone will welcome our efforts with open arms. There are likely groups that are existing to take advantage of the situation and establish themselves as warlords or kings of certain territory. They will show no mercy and shoot first, without asking questions. We will deal with them when the time comes.

Nate paused to gather his thoughts. “We are going to head to the condos at the corner of the road. They are ideally situated, and provide a good measure of security. There is water there, and people can actually have their own condominium, not just a room in a school. They have no ground floor, and you won’t have to worry about getting your ass chewed by a ghoul every day.” People brightened at the thought of resuming some sort of normalcy. “We will still have school and training, we will just be in a different area. We will begin cleanup tomorrow. We want to be completely moved in two weeks. Any questions?”

The room was quiet, then Frank raised his hand. Before Nate could explode, I said “Yes, Frank?”

All eyes turned to Frank and I could see him reveling in the attention. “What if we don’t want to leave?” He asked smugly, as if this was a revelation I missed.

I decided to burst his bubble. I addressed the group. “Does anyone wish to stay in the school?” No one raised their hand. I could not blame them. We had fought for this place, but it was time to move on and get busy living.

Frank looked defeated. I had no pity for him, or his new friend. “If you want to stay, you’ll get two weeks of provisions, one firearm, one blunt weapon, and a hearty ‘Good Luck!’” A huge part of me wished he’d stay, but I knew Frank would never be self-reliant. He preferred to live off the work of others. Hence his political career.

“Okay people. Let’s get to work!”

The next five days were busy. We spent a lot of time casing the condos, and we had to be on the lookout for roaming bands of zombies as well. There seemed to be an increase in the number of zombies out for a stroll, and I wondered if the ones from the city were finally making it out to the ‘burbs. We got lucky with the first building, as it was relatively empty, just stinky from rotting food. We did find a dead old woman in one of the bedrooms, but it looked like she died of dehydration instead of the virus. We moved five families into the condos, and set them up with provisions. Nate took on the task of securing the water supply, and after an interesting moment with a ghoul in the high grass, declared the water secure.

Charlie and Sarah were clearing out the second and third buildings, and it was rather entertaining to hear “Heads up!” as another zombie came flying out of a window to smack noisily on the ground below. We figured it was easier to toss them out the windows than drag them down the stairs and make a huge mess. It was tricky, killing them without serious fluid loss, but Charlie and Sarah were pros. Their backup teams were pretty good, too. Funny what it takes sometimes to have a successful career change.

The weather was getting colder, and I really didn’t notice any difference in zombie movements. They were still trudging along, and there were the occasional faster ones, but nothing out of the ordinary. When you live in a zombie-filled world, that is.

I was taking the RC (Recon Car) down the interstate, checking on passageways and clearance for vehicles. Martin Oso was with me, but we didn’t talk much. I needed to be able to move a semi truck, so clearance was a priority. Strangely, the freeway was mostly clear, and I was able to make extremely good time. I headed past New Lawrence and towards Joslin. There were more cars on the roadside, and I saw more than one which was occupied by ghouls. They looked to be in pretty sorry shape, having turned near the beginning of the Upheaval and been stuck ever since. One was barely able to lift its head to watch my car go by. Poor Stinky.

I crossed the river and from my vantage point on the bridge, I could see quite a few zombies wandering the streets of Joslin. They were kept in check by the river, but I was sure they had fanned out to the surrounding countryside. Martin stiffened a bit at the sight of so many zombies, but we were safe on the bridge.

We rolled past Casino Street, and I was sorely tempted to go take a look, but I had a feeling that place was wiped out by people having one last fling before the end. I spotted my exit and took it, keeping an eye out for the usual problems. Martin was curious as to our destination, since I had kept it from him the whole trip. I pulled up to a high gate, and stopped the car. The whole area was surrounded by a high man made hill, too steep for zombies to navigate and perfect for keeping safe what I considered precious cargo inside. There was a guard shack next to the gate, and a sign that said “NO ENGINE BRAKING” Moving out of the car, I approached the guard shack as Martin scanned the street we had turned off of. No zombies yet, but you could almost feel them coming out of hiding and shuffling in your direction.