Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

Movement out of the corner of my eye showed Charlie making his way to the front door, and I expected Tommy to come rolling in from the back. What I didn’t expect was gunshots from the side of the house. It was too cold for zombies to be moving quickly but this was something else.

I ran past Charlie, and he looked at me in askance. “That wasn’t Tommy’s gun.” I said as I flicked off the safety of my M1A and followed Tommy’s footprints to the side of the house.

I could hear the snarl of engines as I raced to the edge and rounding the corner, the distinctive whine of snowmobiles. Tommy was taking cover behind the fireplace and getting ready to engage when I burst around the corner. Swinging wide, I circled out into the lawn and was able to see three snowmobiles racing away, two of the riders with rifles strapped to their backs, while the third had a large duffle bag. They were roughly two hundred yards off and moving fast, but I decided to take a shot anyway. Bringing up the barrel, I sighted in the retreating figure and pulled the trigger. The rifle punched the air with sound and I was rewarded with one of the retreating figures swerving sharply and nearly colliding with a tree. But he corrected in time and sped away.

Bringing the gun down, I went over to where Charlie was helping Tommy to his feet. “Did you get hit?” I asked, checking him for any blood.

“No, they missed me by a mile. More like surprise shots, than anything else. I came around the corner and we stared at each other for a second. I was about to hail when one of them whipped up his rifle and fired at me. I dove for the building and was getting ready to return the favor when you came around. Wonder who they were?”

“No clue, but I actually am surprised we hadn’t run into some other survivors like that until now.” I said, looking off to where the snowmobiles had gone. Southeast, by the look of it, and if memory served, there wasn’t anything really off in that direction except a couple of home improvement stores.

Charlie broke off our reflection with his usual charm. “I’m going inside, you two hens can talk out in the cold all you want.” He said and stomped off towards the front door.

Shaking my head, I followed him, with Tommy coming in behind.

We went back inside the house, but with the likelihood of the place being already visited, we didn’t expect to find much. Tommy went to the kitchen, while Charlie headed to the basement. I decided to take the upstairs and look around. Maybe I would get lucky.

I went upstairs and checked the rooms to the east of the main stairwell. There was a nicely furnished library and I picked up a few books to take back to the condo. Many books were on the floor, as if someone was looking for a safe or something, but nothing serious. Another room had a home theater set up in it with a huge plasma television mounted on the wall. Useless now, but fun when it was working, I’d bet. There was a nice suite near the stairs that looked like a guest area, and it was nicer than any hotel I ever stayed at. It even had its own small kitchen.

I moved to the bedrooms and checked them out one by one. The first two were unremarkable, just your standard bedroom with a sofa, television, and bathroom. After seeing the other rooms, I was actually looking forward to the master bedroom.

I opened the door and immediately when into combat mode. There was blood splattered over the walls and furniture, and I could see a pair of legs sticking out from around the corner. They weren’t moving, but I took nothing for granted.

Checking behind the door and moving in with my rifle up, I edged around the body and looked at the rest of the bedroom. I cursed when I saw what was on the bed. A woman in her late forties had been stripped and tied spread eagle face down on the bed. Her husband had apparently been forced to watch her be raped by her attackers until they were both killed. Seems like they had been caught trying to survive here and paid a brutal price for it.

The way they had been killed struck a familiar chord in my memory, but I brushed it aside and cut the woman’s bonds. I turned her over and saw the bruises and scratches that mapped a horrific experience. I laid her to rest and struggling, managed to heave her husband up next to her on the bed. I then covered the two of them with a sheet and looked up to find Tommy staring at me.

“What happened here?” he asked, looking around.

“I’m not fully sure, but I would guess these two were trying to survive and happened to get in the way of a few animals who relished the idea of a lawless nation.” My voice was grim and hard, thinking of the others I had encountered who used the Upheaval as an excuse to satisfy their baser instincts.

“Well, that matches what Charlie found in the basement.” Tommy said, stepping out into the hallway.

I followed him. “Why? What did he find?”

Tommy shook his head. “Charlie found three bodies down there, two of them children, the third likely a teenager. All of them had been killed, none of them infected.”

I felt a familiar rage starting to build, frustrated that I had no one to vent it on. I headed downstairs and stopped at the landing. Tommy bumped into me. “What’s going on?”

I pointed at a portrait on the wall. “If there was a family here and they have been all killed, then we’re one short.” The family photo showed four children, two teenagers and two kids under twelve.

Tommy looked thoughtful and we mulled that one over in silence as Charlie came up the stairs. He was holding a small hatchet which was covered in dried blood, which he held up to us.

“I’m guessing this was what killed the kids in the basement. Came from a McCard's home store.” Charlie said without preamble.

“We’re missing one.” Tommy said, pointing to the wall portraits.

Charlie’s eyes narrowed and he looked at me. “Parents?”

“Dead upstairs.” I replied. “Mom worked over pretty badly, looks like Dad was forced to watch.”

“What do you want to do here?” Charlie asked.

I looked around. As nice as this place was, it was a tomb. “Light it up.”

Tommy and Charlie nodded and went to work. Twenty minutes later, we were driving away. In the rear view mirrors, I could see flames starting to lick at the edges of the windows. Rest in peace. I thought darkly.

We pulled into the outskirts of Leport and immediately could see that there was something wrong. The first subdivision had another pile of headless zombies, and all of the houses had been broken into. We split up and checked a few houses each. I found a few corpses in a couple houses, and none of them had been infected when they were killed. Charlie and Tommy reported finding similar things. The three of us looked at each other and it was pretty clear what we all thinking. There was a group out there that was not only killing zombies, but killing survivors as well.

We got back into the truck and proceeded into the city proper. Devastation was all around us, and we had a difficult time navigating around some of the blocked intersections. Many of the homes had been burned to the ground, and large swaths of devastation covered much of the town. We passed a grocery store but didn’t even bother looking in, as the doors had been smashed in long ago. We headed down the hill towards the river, and could see from the top of the hill the line of cars that choked the road and doomed many people to the rampaging dead.

Turning down the side road to the older part of town, we parked the truck and got out. There were several streets but oddly there were no cars. I wondered if they were on the road above us but was shaken out of my reflection by Tommy jostling my arm.

“Look over there” he said, pointing to the river.

I looked and smiled back at him. A small marina was tucked up next to the river, and a boat landing was evident. There weren’t any boats, and I hadn’t expected any, but we had our waterway access. Looking back to the town, I realized that the older homes and businesses had been spared the devastation, and the newer part of the town up the hill had been destroyed. A cathedral was still standing, as well as a large school. Either would make a good defensive point if necessary, and the bell tower was perfect as a watchtower. The lands around would do nicely for farming and raising animals, if we ever found any, and the woods would provide shelter and materials.