Joseph Talluto - White Flag of the Dead

We carried Jason to his bedroom and Rebecca worked on him with supplies we had retrieved from an ambulance. I got on the radio to Nate and had the Doc talk to Rebecca to walk her through some of the harder procedures.

I left the room and looked at Charlie. The cold fire of battle had started again, and this time I welcomed it. I allowed my rage to extend itself into every corner of my being, and breathed deep the air of revenge.

“What’s the move?” Charlie asked, already knowing my answer.

I looked at him slowly. “We go hunting.” was all I said. I turned on my heel and went to my condo. Jake was playing with Julia, and Amy Strickland and Sally Kowalski were watching them both. A sense of urgency had descended upon the complex, and everyone stepped up to help however they could.

I didn’t say a word as I belted on my knife and SIG. My extra magazines went into my holder and two more went into my jacket pocket. I loaded up my M1A magazines and placed them in my outer pockets of my jacket. I put an extra box of cartridges in a pocket of my backpack, and made sure my supplies were fresh and ready. I opted not to bring my crowbar, instead bringing a hand axe that had a long handle. I didn’t have any real reason for choosing the axe or the heavy rifle over my crowbar and carbine other than I thought they would hurt more. My mind was filled with images of the woman at the drugstore and the family at the estate, and my rage increased with each passing minute. I passed Jake and he smiled up at me. I smiled back at him and said “Daddy has to go take care of some bad men. I will be back. I promise.” I looked at the women with the children and they nodded at me, giving me silent consent to the violence I was about to do.

I met Charlie in the hallway and he was geared up as much as I was. His AR was on his shoulder and his tomahawks were secured. His knife was on his belt along with his Glock. I was sure he had plenty of ammo with him, and I could see the rage was in him as well. Sarah and Kristen were more than friends, they were family, and we were not about to let their kidnapping go unanswered. Jason was just hanging on, and if he died, I would not let it be in vain. If he had not managed to make it back to us, we might not have known for days.

We ran into Tommy and Duncan in the office area, and they were dressed as we were. They didn’t say a word as we passed, they just fell in behind as we headed down to the cars. We were grim men as we climbed into the truck, and the holes in the CR-V and Jason’s blood on the parking lot pavement pushed us on.

Duncan was driving. “Where to?” he asked, firing up the truck.

I thought about that. Where would they be? What clues were right in front of my face that I was not seeing? Thinking back, I realized I knew where they were, the evidence given to me by Charlie at the estate house.

“McCord’s” I said, indicating the road west.

We drove in silence, the only sound was the click of ammunition into magazines as Tommy topped off his rifle and handgun. Charlie topped off Duncan’s magazines and handed them back to him. Charlie then tapped me on my shoulder and I handed my knife back to him. Charlie sharpened the knife slowly with a small whetstone he carried in his pouch for his tomahawks, the rasping sound stroking the fire of revenge and nearly causing me to urge Duncan to drive faster. We wanted to fight, to kill, but we also wanted to come out alive.

We turned south on Bell Road and when we came to the top of a hill, I motioned Duncan to pull over. I got out and pulled my binoculars out from my pack. From behind a tree, I looked out towards the massive home improvement building. I could see several vehicles, including a small fleet of snowmobiles and motorcycles. That in itself was not an indication that Sarah was there, but it did give me enough to investigate further. I didn’t see any guards or watchmen, so I figured it was safe to proceed.

Going back to the vehicle, I directed Duncan to drive slowly down the hill, so as to attract as little attention as possible. There was a house on a small bit of land next to the store, so I told Duncan to turn in there. It was about a hundred yards from the building, and would serve as a rally point. I looked at the building again, and still didn’t see any lookouts or guards. Strange.

I got out of the car and the other men did the same. We passed out the radios and I signaled for Tommy and Duncan to scout the back of the building while Charlie and I headed for the front. The garden center seemed to be the place where they came and went, so I wanted to see about alternate entry.

Moving quickly, Charlie and I crossed the parking lot and worked our way to the front of the building. A pile of bricks and paving stones covered the exit doors, so there was no worry of being seen from there. We went over to the front door and found it to be similarly blocked. I hunkered down and used the radio. “Tommy, do you read, over.” I clicked the radio twice. “Loud and clear, over” came the reply. “The front is blocked, how’s the back? Over.” I asked. “Same. Looks like the only way in is through the garden center. Over.”

“Right. Meet you in five. Over.” I motioned to Charlie and we made our way to the Garden Center exit. Waiting a moment, we saw Tommy and Duncan come around the corner and join up with us. I motioned Tommy and Duncan to move to the right while Charlie and I would move to the left.

We slid into the Garden center and worked our way along the wall. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for an odd lack of garden tools along the south wall. We reached the interior door and waited for Tommy and Duncan to clear the other side. The door to the inside was a large garage-type door, and very effective against zombies. But not so effective against people who retained their fine motor skills.

Charlie tested the door and found it to be locked. Moving to the other door, he tried it and it was open. Not wanting to announce our presence just yet, we conferred briefly and decided to try stealth and see if it worked. Opening the door slightly and with as little motion as possible, Charlie and I pulled up the door about three inches very slowly, with Tommy and Duncan on their stomachs with their rifles at the ready in case of detection.

Getting the thumbs up, Charlie and I raised the door a few more inches. We waited for the signal from Duncan, then raised it another few inches. Not arousing any undue attention, I bent down and looked to the right while Charlie checked to the left. I didn’t see anything and Charlie signaled he didn’t see anything either. Nodding, we rolled under the door and into the building. Coming up into a crouch I covered the right while Charlie covered the left, and Duncan and Tommy rolled out from underneath the door. We could hear a large number of voices, and they seemed to be coming from the center of the building. We moved along a storage corridor which ran the length of the building, edging closer to the source of the noise. There was a lot of trash and discarded items littering the walkway. There was a humming noise coming from somewhere which sounded familiar, but I was uninterested in anything but getting Sarah and Kristen back.

We moved towards the back of the dark building and heard a cheer go up from the voices. A scream sounded briefly and I could hear cursing. Gritting my teeth I moved forward to an opening in the wall which led to the main floor. I looked around the corner and got my first look at my enemy. It was a group of teenagers, roughly 20–25 of them. They were wearing the most outrageous collection of clothing I had ever seen. The girls were wearing loops of necklaces and fur coats, while the boys wore leather coats and designer jeans. Abercrombie was well-represented, as was Hollister and GAP. They were standing on a platform that overlooked the store, and were cheering on some sort of dispute happening on the floor. Hawaiian torches lit the scene in grim shades of orange and red. I heard a smacking sound, another curse, and then a thud like someone being hit in the gut. Another cheer arose and then a voice rang out, silencing the group.