Taking It Back

by Joseph Talluto

  We pedaled steadily for another twenty minutes and with the night breeze coming out of the east, I could smell water on the wind, enough that I knew we had to be coming near a significant body of water. Remembering the map, I reasoned the LaSalle Fish & Wildlife area was getting close.

  I let Tommy know we were getting close and he just nodded in the dark, his eyes straining and his hands gripping the handlebars tightly. I didn’t blame him. Up ahead was a pack of zombies, around ten of them, walking along the road, and headed towards us. Their glowing eyes marked each one and I had to decide what to do. We were near enough to where I thought the renegades were that I didn’t think we could risk a shot and there were too many of them to take out in hand to hand combat. There was no cover and the Z’s would simply overwhelm us.

  “I’m going to head right at them to bunch them up, then I’m going to swerve to the edge of the road and go around them,” I said to Tommy as I pedaled faster. I could hear the groans of the dead as they saw us coming, carried on a wind that brought also the scent of decay and death.

  “Gotcha.” Tommy braked a little to get behind me and then pedaled to catch up so he was only a foot or so behind me. He had the more dangerous position, since the zombies would be reacting to me, but Tommy would be closer to their reaching hands. I pedaled quickly, staying close to the right side of the road, as I approached, I could see several of the zombies moving to the right, trying to cut me off. A couple moved too far, falling into the ditch on the side of the road. I sped towards the groaning mass, then just before I would have plowed into them, I swerved sharply to the left, veering away to the other side of the road. Tommy followed closely behind and we pedaled furiously away from our now confused pursuers. I chanced a glance back and saw they had turned around and were now chasing us, although they were fading quickly into the darkness.

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “That went well,” I said, as Tommy resumed his place next to me.

  “If we never do that again it will be too soon. I swear that last guy nearly caught my shirt. I felt a tug as I went past.”

  “Any encounter you walk away from uninfected…” I said.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Did you notice the eyes?” I queried.

  “What about them? Were they different colored this time?”

  “Only four of them were glowing.”

  “Perfect,” Tommy said, bouncing over a bad repair to the road.

  I smiled as we went farther east, passing the fourth mile crossroads. I began to wonder if I had guessed wrong and we were risking our sorry necks for a wild goose chase. If that was the case, we were going to have to find a place to spend the night and in the middle of nowhere that would present a few problems.

  19

  We came across the power plant unexpectedly, with the dark building looming large in the night. I could make out the outline of several utility towers stretching away from the plant and the complex was ringed with a tall, barbed-wire tipped chain link fence. Off to the east, I could see stars reflected in what appeared to be a significant body of water and I could see several buildings in the outlying areas. We moved closer for a better look and I could see three buildings which looked like maintenance sheds off to the west. We crossed a parking lot and moved into the shadows by a maintenance office building. There was a large guard house at the entrance to the plant with a gate that slid out of the way. The fence was impressive, two parallel lines with a walkway in between large enough for a vehicle to travel. There was an administrative building about seventy-five yards back from the gate and I could see several large trucks parked in front of it.

  Tommy touched my sleeve and pointed to the second story of the admin building. There were small flashes of light and I realized the windows had been covered or painted and we were seeing light through the cracks. Pretty smart. Whoever was running this show was smart enough to realize a light would attract every Z for miles.

  As it was, we could see several pairs of glowing eyes in the darkness, headed our way, attracted by our scent and sound. We had very limited time before we would be in a serious fight.

  I motioned for Tommy to follow me and I sprinted for the gate. It was the only part of the fence that didn’t have barbed wire on the top. I jumped for the fence and climbed over the top, dropping down and looking around. The parking lot had several zombies shuffling across and I could see more on the road and fields outside the area. There was no guard posted outside and I could see why. The fence was more than sturdy enough to withstand an assault and with two lines running completely around the complex, this place was as secure as any. Had I lived in this area, I would have chosen this place as a good spot to make a stand.

  “What’s the plan?” Tommy asked as he dropped down beside me.

  “I want to make sure this is the place we have been looking for. I wouldn’t want to wipe out a group of people who were just trying to survive. So let’s scout a bit and see what’s here,” I said, unslinging my rifle from across my back. Tommy did the same with his AR, checking the magazine and making sure our ride hadn’t moved around his spare magazines too much.

  We moved towards the office building and when we were about twenty yards away, we could hear faint sounds of activity from within. There seemed to be muted cheers and yells and what sounded like a bottle breaking. We may have found the right place after all.

  I moved around to the corner of the building and stopped. I caught the scent of something odd in the wind and when I smelled it again I recognized it. Blood. Something had lost a lot of blood recently and it was on the wind. I signaled Tommy to circle wide and together we rounded the corner, guns at the ready.

  Sprawled out on the grass was a man or what was left of him. He had been completely wiped out, not enough of him left to reanimate. Some of the bones had even been cracked open to get at the marrow inside. His head had been smashed open and his brains were completely missing. Blood was all around, leaving a large dark stain on the greening grass. Bloody footprints lead away into the dark, dark blotches on the sidewalk.

  I looked at Tommy and we both realized the same thing at the same time. There were dead things out here. We didn’t want to alert anyone to our presence, so we reslung our rifles and pulled out our blunt weapons, trusting in our side arms for firepower as needed. We stepped farther around and I could see the power relays in the distance, dwarfed by the tall towers as they reached for the dark of the sky. I could see several shadowy shapes moving among the towers and I knew them for what they were.

  I pointed them out to Tommy and we moved quickly, spreading out and trying to take out as many as we could before they could swarm. The grass gave way to sand, which muffled our approach. The wind was still coming out of the east, which allowed us to attack from downwind. The gross side was we could smell the bastards and I have yet to meet a walking corpse that didn’t smell like someone had microwaved a bag of garbage. The sad part was I was used to it. I came to one zombie who was just standing still, swaying slightly as it smelled the wind. I swung the pickaxe and sent the Z back to oblivion.

  The sound of my pick cracking the Z’s head open carried like a shot and three more turned in my direction. Tommy put his down and was approaching a third when I sprang towards the ghouls.

  The first one rushed at me with slavering teeth only to be driven back by a spike to the head. The next one, a slight female with half her hair torn off, came slowly forward, her right foot turned around backwards. I hooked her foot and sent her tumbling, finishing her off with a spade to the head. The third one caught me by surprise, moving a lot faster than I had expected. He plowed into me, knocking me down and clawing at my back. I shoved back as hard as I could, but he was on too tightly. I couldn’t do much except watch as he brought his teeth down onto my shoulder. I felt his teeth bite something and then he brought his head back. I felt a tug at my back and realized he had bitten my backpack shoulder strap and had it in his teeth. I drew my knife as he chewed the strap and when he realized
he hadn’t bit me, he leaned back for another lunge. I took that opportunity to shove my knife up under his chin and into his brain, ending his career as a deader. His glowing eyes looked into mine as he died and if I hadn’t known better, I would have sworn there was a spark of recognition.

  I threw him off of me and climbed slowly to my feet. Tommy was finishing off his second with a golf swing to the Z’s head. He walked over to me as I was inspecting the damage.

  “Holy shit. He got that close, did he?” Tommy said, peering at the teeth marks.

  “Yeah.” I said shakily. “One inch left or right and Sarah would be raising Jakey alone.”

  Tommy had nothing to say. I needed to get through this one on my own. I had just nearly bought the farm and brushing that close to death had a tendency to refocus your priorities.

  I shook myself and looked around. There weren’t any more immediate threats but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there.

  Tommy was inspecting one of the corpses, then he walked over to another, and another. “That’s weird,” he said, half to himself.

  “What is?” I asked, cleaning off my weapons.

  “All these Z’s have a stab wound in their throats.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, and it looks like it was done after they had turned.”

  That was odd. “Any theory as to why?” I asked.

  Tommy pondered for a second. “Its almost like they wanted to make sure they couldn’t moan, like when people used to do that surgery on dogs to keep them from barking.”

  That made no sense. Why would someone go to the trouble of silencing Z’s and not finish them off altogether? Oh well. We had other things to do. I motioned for Tommy to follow me and we went over to a small building next to the main administrative building. I saw a lot of footprints in the sand going to the building and was curious.

  I tried the door with Tommy standing guard and I was surprised the door opened. I let the door swing outward and was rewarded with the foul odor of sweat, urine, feces, and something else I couldn’t identify. I didn’t smell the dead, so that was a good sign. I couldn’t see in the darkness very well, so I unholstered my SIG and pulled out my flashlight. I scanned the building and saw it was a warehouse of sorts. A skylight allowed natural light to illuminate the interior, although that didn’t help at night. There were boxes of supplies and alcohol, stacks of dried goods, and piles of clothing and shoes. Walking into the stores, I was surprised at how much there was. This group had done well, considering where they were.

  As I walked slowly down the center aisle, I became aware of a sound. It wasn’t loud, but it was there. It sounded like crying, but it was muffled, like someone was trying to keep themselves from sobbing out loud. I still hadn’t found anything that created the smell and it was getting stronger as I moved farther back.

  Towards the back of the building it looked like where they had stored the leftover material for the fence that went around the complex. I flashed my light over this material and froze as I shone the light on a living face.

  I stopped suddenly. It was a woman, but it was difficult to tell her age. She was thin and filthy and her clothing barely covered her. Her hair hung in dank strips over her face and outside the circumstances, she might have been pretty. She was in a cage fashioned out of the fencing material and as I played my flashlight over the area, I could see several more cages similarly occupied. I could hear shifting as more women moved to see what had disturbed their sleep. In all, I counted sixteen cages, all of them occupied. They were roughly eight feet long and eight feet wide, six feet in height. Each contained a bucket, a cot, and a threadbare blanket. The blankets were whatever was grabbed in a hurry and some of them looked like children’s blankets.

  “Tommy.” I spoke softly, but the woman I was looking at flinched as if I had struck her. She looked like she had been used badly and had resigned herself to the fact she was going to be used badly again. I could see the remnants of a bruise on her cheek and could see more on her arms and legs.

  Tommy trotted over and turned on his flashlight, the beam playing over the cages and captives. “What the hell?” he said softly, as more women woke up and looked out at us.

  “What’s going on here?” I asked the nearest prisoner.

  “We’re the slaves,” came a voice from the center of the cages. “That’s what they call us. Didn’t they tell you that?”

  20

  I walked down to the center and looked at the woman who had spoken. She was a thin blonde with a decent figure, dressed in a threadbare sundress that barely covered her. She looked at me with large brown eyes that had seen a lot of nasty things in recent times.

  “I’m not with them,” I said, noting the stir that caused. Several women stood up and came to the doors of their cages, holding the chain links and looking at Tommy and me with new eyes. I imagine we looked different than what they were used to. I was dressed for combat in my jacket, cargo pants, and vest, festooned with weapons. Tommy was similarly dressed.

  “Who are you?” The woman’s voice lost its disinterested drawl and became much more alert, more hopeful.

  I thought for a second. “I’m John Talon. This is Tommy Carter. I’m here to kill the sons of bitches that slaughtered a family and terrorized the towns around here. I didn’t expect to find anyone here worth saving, but I guess I was wrong. If you want to leave, you’re coming with us right now.”

  The women rushed the doors of their cages and in short order we had freed them from their prisons. After being hugged and kissed several times, I told them to get to the stores and help themselves to whatever they wanted. Several grabbed bottles of water and headed off to the corner to wash up, while others picked through the clothing for more appropriate attire. While we were waiting for the women to get their fill of food and water, as well as being washed and dressed, Maggie, the woman who first spoke to me, filled me in on what had happened and what was going on around here.

  The men had descended on the towns like thunder, sweeping through and taking whatever they wanted, including women. When they met resistance, they killed the dissenters and cowed the rest. They took the women back to this complex and kept them in these cages to be used however the men felt fit. No women were allowed in the “command center” as the men called it. The leader, a man called Art, was as ruthless as they came, killing with impunity any who crossed him. His favorite method of dealing with dissent was to release someone out into the yards where a few zombies were allowed to roam freely. The hapless victim would run themselves ragged until eventually being torn apart by the zombies while Art and his cronies watched from the rooftop. The zombies had their throats cut, so they couldn’t moan and warn their victims. The women couldn’t go anywhere if they got out of their cages, since the zombies would get them, too.

  “Sounds like this Art guy is a real sweetie,” I said to Maggie.

  “He’s a bastard,” Maggie said around a mouthful of dried apricots. “And he’s gotten meaner since his brother was killed on a raid.”

  Well, well. Now I knew I had the right place. I waved Tommy over from his discussions with two other women and filled him in on what I had been told.

  Tommy nodded. “Sounds like what I had been hearing as well. What do you want to do about it? We can’t find bikes for all these women and some of them are in bad shape, needing medical attention. We can’t fight ‘cause some of them will get killed for sure. I don’t want to run, but I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

  Tommy had good points. As much as it galled me not to be able to put a bullet in Art’s face, I had another job to do. I walked outside for a second and looked over the area. From where I was standing, I could see a fairly large crowd of zombies wandering around the outside fence. That wasn’t too much of a concern, since zombies were usually easily distracted. But transportation was my big problem. I looked over to the trucks parked in front of the main building and realized suddenly that I could do both.

  I went back into
the building and outlined my plan to Tommy. He looked at me like I was nuts, but as the plan unfolded, he got a grin on his face that got wider as I explained further.

  We waited for the lights in the building to die down, Maggie explaining that the men talked about plans and such before going to bed. They were not allowed to visit the women every night, since Art believed that the men had to “Earn their Turn” as he called it. The more loot a man produced, the more action he could get.

  When the last light was out, Tommy and I ran around the front of the building and inspected the trucks. The only one that had the keys in it was the smallest one, a Chevy S-10. Cursing my luck again, we pushed the truck over the grass and near the building. I was dubious about all of the women being able to fit in the truck, but Maggie assured me that they would find a way, even if they had to lay on top of each other. I could understand their desire to get away. I was disappointed that we couldn’t take any of the stores, but if things went well we could always come back and get them. I was interested in seeing if this power station could be restarted, but that would have to wait.

  Tommy and I trotted towards the fence for the second part of my plan. We split up as we passed another building, with me ducking behind it and moving towards the far edge. I looked out as Tommy approached the fence, exciting the glowing-eyed ghouls on the other side. He moved slowly down the fence, drawing the crowd away, taunting and waving at them. When he had led his undead groupies away, I ran to the fence and opened the railway gates, an opening that allowed a small train to pull into the yard. I secured the gates open and ran back to the harem building.

  “Okay ladies, let’s get going,” I said as I reached into my pack and pulled out a couple of flares. Maggie looked at me quizzically, but didn’t say anything. I went over to the main admin building and opened a side door. I sparked the flare and stuck it in the sand next to the door. I ran back to the truck and climbed in. The truck bed was dangerously low, but we had to risk it. I started the engine and pulled away from the building, wincing as I hit unseen bumps and dips. I heard squeaks and gasps as knees and elbows bumped the truck bed walls. When I reached the train opening, I parked the truck and waited. About a minute later, Tommy came running in out of the darkness.