Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

I stepped towards him placing myself directly in front of him. I put my hand on my SIG and stared into his eyes. “Pull it, bully.” I said, my voice mean. “Pull it and see what happens. I have just rescued those people and that means I am responsible for them, not you. You’ve had a nice thing going here, I’m sure, stroking your ego and making those people miserable because of your power trip. They are leaving.” My tone of voice made it clear to even the most stupid of individuals that I meant everything I said, and severe violence would follow my words if pushed.

Dane blinked and flicked his eyes over to the group. Then a small smile appeared on his pudgy face. I didn’t blink. I knew what was happening and what was going to happen.

Sure enough, there was a loud crack and a cry of pain, followed by a metallic clattering on the floor. If I trusted my instincts, I would bet everything I had on the fact that Blake had given a signal to his trustee, the kid with the sword. The kid probably had drawn the sword, then Sarah made her move. I didn’t look, not trusting to take my eyes off Blake, but I was sure the kid was now looking down the barrel of Sarah’s gun. I gave a little smile of my own. Blake blanched and kept his hands away from his guns.

What I did not expect was one of the women to jump on the downed teen, who was holding his wrist and glaring at Sarah, who in turn was replacing her blunt weapon to its place on her pack, its purpose served. The woman landed on the teen’s back forcing him to the hardwood floor. She pummeled him mercilessly, smacking his head to the floor and cursing him in a most inventive way. I didn’t know you could use some of those words together. I took another look at the headless corpse and it dawned on me that it was not a zombie I was looking at, but an example, ordered by Dane and carried out by this sadistic teen with the sword. My estimation of Blake dropped even further, if that was possible.

I shook my head and motioned to Sarah, who pulled the woman off the teen. He was bleeding from several places and his face was a pulpy mess. He was making little mewling sounds, and curled up into a ball as soon as the weight was taken off his shoulders.

I pointed to the garage and the group headed there. Sarah pushed the woman along with the other survivors, then headed downstairs. I looked back at Blake. “We’re leaving. You can have your weapons and your little buddy there. If you do anything stupid, I will personally hang you upside down from the nearest tree, call in the zombies, and watch them eat your face off. If you’re lucky, you’ll die before they’re finished with you. Understand?” Blake just glared hatred at me. “I will take that as a Yes.” I headed for the stairs, still keeping my hand on my gun. I had a feeling I would not see the last of Blake, but if I was lucky, maybe I would see him first.

I ran outside and saw my group was ready to go. I jumped into the CR-V and got rewarded with a squeak from Jake. I gave him my hand to hold, and I almost had tears in my eyes when I thought about that baby in the house. We headed back onto the road, and I could see in the rear-view mirror that the three cars from the house were following us. Good enough.

We headed West, and I saw less signs of violence and mayhem than I expected. In all likelihood, this extreme end of the suburbs of Chicago had been spared the devastation, but the virus had infected so many so fast. When it first hit, people were infected and didn’t even know it. With the concentration of population in the cities, the virus could have been contained in the cities, but with the early long incubation period, and the commuter population, it was inevitable that it would spread to the suburbs. Once it got out of the confines of the population centers, it was over. Where we were was actually behind the wave of the dead, dealing with the ones that couldn’t travel as fast or were trapped indoors. But there were still millions out there, and we had to deal with them all. You never knew where they were. You just had to keep your guard up all the time.

We reached another intersection, and passed by a burned out gas station. There were blackened cars in the lot, and a couple of shriveled corpses. Two of the cars had several bullet holes in them, but that could have been caused by anything. I had a suspicion about the holes, and glancing at Charlie; he had seen them and was suspicious about them as well.

No time for that now. We turned north and after a small subdivision we were flanked by forest preserve. I didn’t need to see it, but I would bet there was a small smile on Charlie’s face as we left most traces of civilization behind. Charlie had been born to the country, and in all likelihood grown up to farm like his father before him. But he managed to go to college, met a woman, married and settled in the ‘burbs. But the call was still strong, and after all this, I expected him to head back home. The only thing stopping him was his sense of duty to the group. He would do the job until finished. I, for one, couldn’t imagine any success of the plan without him.

At the next intersection, we turned right. I told Charlie that if pushed, our absolute last stand was down this road. There was a large lake just down the hill, and with boats available and several islands, we could make do for a long time. He just nodded and pointed at another car on the side of the road. This one had bullet holes in it, too. I nodded. “Once a coincidence, twice a pattern.” I said, “We’ll need to keep an eye open.”

We headed down the road and finally managed to bring our little convoy to our destination. We parked the cars in the parking lot and looked at our new home. It was an office/condos building, sitting on an intersection. Across the street was the forest preserve, and across the second street was a small spring-fed pond. There was a small subdivision and town home complex around the pond, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. The best part of the building was the fact it did not have a ground floor; the parking lot was under the building. There was a single doorway/stairwell that led to the upper floors. Properly provisioned, we could withstand the worst siege for years.

Charlie and I got out of the car and looked around. Our convoy had attracted a little notice, and a few lone Z’s were coming to investigate. They were moving pretty slowly, so I was hopeful that the coming winter would make them nearly immobile.

Duncan and Tommy came over. “Nice digs, chief. How do we secure the stairway?” Duncan asked, eyeing the entrance. It was a glass enclosure, and several dedicated zombies could easily break in if they had reason. I pointed to the cars.

“We park those right by the glass, and that should hold for now.” I said, indicating the larger vehicles.

Tommy looked around. “You know, I’ll bet there is deer and rabbit in those woods.”

Charlie nodded. “We’ll be fine for food and firewood. What about water?”

I pointed to the pond. “Last I heard, that was spring-fed, so we’re good there. Also, down the road that way,” I indicated east. “There’s two big grocery stores and a strip mall, as well as two gas stations and a drug store, about a mile away.

Duncan whistled. “You can pick ‘em.” He motioned to Tommy and Charlie. “Let’s go check out our new home.”

The other two nodded and Charlie patted my shoulder as he went past, the best compliment one could expect from the man. I took it for what it was and watched as the trio checked weapons, loaded magazines, secured masks and goggles, then headed for the stairs. I smiled to myself as I realized that this had become so routine, we never even thought about it anymore.

I went over to where Chelsea and Kristen were entertaining Jake. He was crawling around the bed of the Jeep, and standing on the side looking out the windows when he could. Chelsea was watching him while Kristen was keeping an eye on our slow-moving friends. I left them and went over to the group of survivors we had rescued. They looked to be in a depressed state, although that seemed to be improving. They huddled together, and Sarah was talking to a few of them. Several heads kept turning to look at the zombies, and I knew any discussion would have to wait until they were dealt with.