Taking It Back

by Joseph Talluto

  “They’re coming! They’re about to round the bend!” he panted as he jumped into the cab.

  I stepped out and lit the second flare, planting it in the ground in the middle of the opening. The zombies would flock to the light and find their way in to the compound. The second flare would draw them to the open door to the gang and to dinner. With the men sleeping, they would likely wake up as zombies in the morning.

  Not a perfect plan and there was a possibility that Art and his men would be able to regain control, but they would be severely weakened. I personally hoped Art got his nuts chewed off while another lovely nibbled his face away.

  We pulled away from the compound, following a maintenance road that paralleled the railroad. I didn’t want to go too quickly, since I couldn’t afford a blowout. We reached the main road that went in front of the power plant and turned left, heading back to Coal City. I figured our little foray was finished. Charlie was probably sleeping in a nice bed, after a good meal. Oh well. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Maggie caught my eye and smiled.

  Okay, I thought, it was worth it.

  We drove quietly through the night, passing the occasional zombie or two, but nothing that was really a threat. Tommy was looking over the map, and glanced at the speedometer.

  “I figure we have about twenty miles to go to get us to Coal City,” Tommy said. “If we stay at this speed, we should be there in about an hour.”

  I looked at the dashboard. “No we won’t.”

  “What? Why?” Tommy looked over and saw what I had seen. “You gotta be kidding me.”

  “Nope. We’re almost out of gas.” I shook my head as the empty light came on, indicating I had a gallon of gas left in the tank.

  Fifteen miles later, the S-10 gave a lurch. I knew what that meant and increased the speed of the truck, figuring to coast as long as I could. With a final surge, the truck shut down, coasting to a stop. We had turned north at Mazon, skirting the death field, and were sitting on Route 47, according to the map. We had roughly six miles to go. If it was just Tommy and me, it would have been feasible, but trying to herd sixteen unarmed, untrained women through the dark made it mission unbelievable.

  But we didn’t have any choice. We couldn’t stay where we were, since the ghouls would be able to find us and there was not a farmhouse in sight. We had to go, and go now, since I was sure we had attracted the attention of a lot of the local dead with our truck driving. Even though I had run with the lights off, the noise was such that it carried a good distance out here.

  We got the women off the truck and I was grateful to see that all of them had managed to get some sort of footwear. I had no illusions about being able to carry someone for six miles. The wind was dying down and the moon was finally cresting high in the sky, casting a pale light over the landscape. Cornstalks rustled in the wind, causing Tommy and I to finger our weapons and glance around. We needed to move.

  I took point, walking in front of the women, while Tommy brought up the rear. We had the women walk in a single file line down the middle of the road, the reason being if something came out of the fields in the center of the line, there would be a few seconds to react and deal with it.

  We walked for about an hour, passing by two farm houses. I didn’t bother to stop and look around or even consider them as a stopping point for the night. White flags fluttered in the night breeze from the lonely mailboxes by the side of the road, indicating these homes’ surrender to the disease.

  It wasn’t until the fifth mile that we saw our first zombie. He was moving down the center of the road, ambling along as if he owned it. He was pretty tall for a zombie, roughly six foot three, with broad shoulders and long arms. At the sight of him, several of the women gasped, but to their credit, they didn’t scream. I limbered up my pickaxe and advanced on the ghoul who hissed as he saw me and moved quickly forward.

  Damn. A fast one. His success as a zombie was evident by the copious amount of dried blood about his face and hands. His shirt was filthy with blood. As he reached out I ducked aside and swung my pickaxe as hard as I could. The chisel end connected solidly with the Z’s knee, cracking it and tumbling the large zombie to the ground. It tried to stand up, but its leg buckled and wouldn’t support it. A large hand reached out to grasp me as I got closer and I used a baseball swing to crush the skull of the ghoul at the temple. He went down with all the grace of a falling tree and I hooked his belt with the pickaxe. It was a trial trying to get this thing into the ditch, since he weighed over two fifty if he weighed an ounce.

  The women cautiously moved forward. Maggie approached me as I wiped off my weapon.

  “You’ve done that before, I guess?” she asked, looking down at the body.

  “Yes.” I was getting tired and was not in the mood for conversation. Any further explanation would have been pointless and likely last until morning. We needed to move.

  I figured we had two miles to go and the horizon was starting to look a little lighter. I started walking again and Maggie fell back in line, understanding the need to continue.

  We walked for another half hour, passing field after field. It wasn’t until I began to see homes closer together that I realized we were nearing Coal City. Staying on the road, we passed the high school, and I could swear I saw a zombie wandering around the running track.

  We stopped at a restaurant that had a beer garden and made our way inside. The garden had several tables and a wrought iron fence that enclosed it. Tommy did a quick check of the premises and declared it clear. Exhausted women collapsed on the tables and chairs, several of them lying out on the floor. I stretched out on a table and Tommy sat next to me.

  “We going in?” Tommy wanted to know.

  I closed my eyes. “Not ‘til morning. We don’t need to wake anybody just yet.”

  Tommy just nodded, then nodded off. I spent a moment with a lighter, burning the virus out of the strap on my backpack.

  I was nearly asleep when a felt a touch at my shoulder. My eyes popped open and I looked into the startled face of Maggie, who was looking down the barrel of my SIG.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, putting the weapon back in its holster.

  “I just wanted to say thank you,” Maggie said. “We figured our lives were over until you and Tommy came.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said, closing my eyes.

  In the morning, Tommy and I went over to the wall and shouted until someone noticed us. I climbed the ladder and spoke with one of Harlan’s deputies, conveying our needs and leaving him to alert the rest of the town. In short order, Tommy was leading the women to the main gate, with a lot of people gawking at what we had accomplished. Sarah gave me a fierce hug and when she saw the chewed-on strap of my backpack, she looked into my eyes and started to cry. I didn’t have anything to say, I just held her close.

  After the women had been taken in, thanks to the arrangements made by Sarah and the women of Coal City, I gathered our band together. Charlie had arrived early in the morning, riding nice and easy in a comfortable truck on the railroad tracks. After hearing what Tommy and I had gone through, he muttered something about the luck of fools again and thumped me for nearly getting killed.

  We were heading out today, going back to Leport. We had a long way to go and with the stars in proper alignment, we’d make it without incident. I told Sheriff Harlan about our plans and he wished us luck, thanking us for all we had done. He promised to stay in touch and we would be setting up some sort of regular communications soon. As it was, several towns were now in contact thanks to our work on the rails and with good fortune, we’d be able to get more going.

  As we gathered our things for the trip north, I reflected on what this trip had cost us. We lost three people, but we gained several towns. I’d take that any day.

  We drove out of Coal City to the waves and gratitude of the town. I felt good about what we had managed to do, but I knew we had other things to take care of first. One thing had been nagging me for a while, ever since To
m Harlan had mentioned his brother.

  Where was my brother? The question would not leave me alone, and when we got back to Leport, I intended to do something about it.

  After I spent a lot of time with Jake and Sarah.

  21

  We made it back to the boat and returned to Leport later in the day. Nate came down to the dock to greet us, bringing Jakey and Julia along as well as a large number of other people. There were a lot of questions, not the least of which was why we were three people short. After hugging Jake for a while, I explained to the people what had happened, what we had accomplished, and what had happened to our lost companions. There were head shakes all around, but no looks of blame. I downplayed what Charlie and I had done at Coal City and only briefly mentioned what Tommy and I had done. Everyone was excited about the prospect of new people and possibly being able to communicate and trade. We had realized on the trip up that the tracks that ran through Leport ran all the way down to Streator. We could set up a line of communication or we could get a train or something running.

  While we were away, Duncan had been sending people back at a steady pace, with the list of incoming survivors reaching over two hundred. Tommy realized he was going to have to dig another trench, this one farther out as people moved into homes outside the safe zone. Everyone had to be quarantined for a bit to make sure no one was bringing the infection into the area, but no one complained.

  One real piece of good news was the town had running water. Our plumbers and engineers had rigged up a pump system using a big water wheel and a whole lot of garden hose, not to mention the judicious use of gravity, and there it was. Not a ton of pressure, but it beat walking to the river with a bucket every day.

  I spent the next few weeks just taking things easy, dealing with minor problems as they came up in the community, talking to newcomers, working out on the farms. I spent three interesting days with Nate as we scouted the local area, trying to find a suitable place for livestock. Eventually, we settled on a spot north of the farms. It had decent water, plenty of grazing and was surrounded on three sides by water. The only way any zombies would get at the livestock would be to come through a narrow gap and we had posted men to keep an eye on it. Charlie took off into the country side and came back later with a few cows, a horse, and several goats. It was a start and the animals actually seemed to be glad to have human company again.

  Charlie and I spent a little time with our doctor because she wanted to run some tests on us. We shrugged and gave a vial of blood each, not thinking about it, or questioning her motives. I figured she’d tell us in time.

  Summer was getting closer and more and more I was finding myself looking up the river, wondering about things that had no answer. On one such occasion, I was holding Jake, rocking him gently in the evening breeze. His little head rested on my shoulder, while his feet occasionally kicked at the SIG on my hip. I kept my eyes on the north and began to formulate an idea which refused to let go. It was one of those things that stayed with me. No matter what I was doing, during any down time my mind went back to it.

  I whispered to Jake and he smiled sleepily, his little hand hooking into the collar of my shirt. I felt a ghost of a touch on my shoulder, and turned to see Sarah at my side. Jake saw her and reached out with a hand, wanting to go over to her.

  “Hey, big boy,” Sarah said quietly, rocking Jake and putting his head on her shoulder. In her arms, Jake looked twice as big, even though he was still tiny. He was roughly fifteen months old, give or take, and was walking around and getting himself into all kinds of trouble. I didn’t mind any of it, I was just glad to have him with me.

  “How’s the school coming along?” I asked, curious as to its progress. Sarah and three other women were getting the school in shape for classes. We had several teachers and they were willing to pick up where they had left off after the Upheaval. We had enough children to actually have a couple of classes, although the children’s ages varied widely, it wouldn’t be anything different from turn of the century schools. Being a former administrator, I had been asked to head the school, but I declined. That was something I did before, not something I did now. Besides, it was my opinion that the best teachers did their best work when they were allowed to be creative and have few administrative restrictions.

  “It’s fine,” Sarah said, settling Jake on her hip. He played with her hair, which looked lighter in the waning sun, then leaned his head into her neck and shoulder. “We’ve finished the classrooms and the teachers have the textbooks, getting themselves familiar with the lessons and what they want to teach. Nate says he wants to run P.E.”

  I thought about that for a second and let out a short laugh. “Sweet Jesus, those kids will learn a new language as well as physical education.”

  Sarah smiled. “Nate thinks it would be good for the kids to be trained to defend themselves, like we train everyone else.”

  I thought about it for a second, then nodded. “In ancient times, the Spartans did not bother with any walls or fortifications, relying instead on the strength of their people to be the wall. I can see his point. Let’s do it.”

  Sarah looked at me funny. “I used to teach world history before I became an administrator,” I said to her.

  “Can I ask a question?” Sarah said after a while. Jake was falling asleep, his little hands curling his hair and his eyelids were struggling to remain open.

  “Sure. Anything.”

  “When are you leaving?”

  I smiled. “Is it that obvious?”

  Sarah didn’t return the smile. “I’ve known you for a while and when you get that faraway look in your eyes, you’re thinking about heading out to some other place, looking for God knows what.”

  I couldn’t deny it, I was thinking about another trip, and this time I was heading into the mouth of the monster. I decided to be candid. “I need to know what happened to my brother. The last time I spoke with him it was a year ago. I would like to try to find out what happened, if anything.”

  Sarah contemplated in silence, then her eyes got wide and she shook her head. “No!” she whispered, since Jake was asleep. “You can’t go there! You know it’s suicide!” A tear began to form in her eye. “You can’t, please don’t.”

  I took Jake from her and put him to bed, covering him with his blanket, watching him for a moment. I went back outside where Sarah was sitting on the porch, watching the river as tears fell down her face. I pulled her to her feet and held her close. She held me tight, burying her face in my chest.

  “Please tell me you’re not going.” She said.

  “I have to. For a few reasons, not the least of which is my brother. I need to see what’s left and I need to see if there are any survivors. Duncan cleared the road on this side of the river and the only thing we have on the other side is our farms. We don’t know anything else. Lastly, I will not send anyone else on this mission. I can’t and you know it.” I kissed her on the top of her head and she raised her face to mine. “You couldn’t be with a man like that, could you?”

  Sarah stood on her tiptoes and kissed me. “If you were anyone else, I probably would have killed you by now.”

  I smiled. “That’s my girl.”

  In the morning, I called a meeting with the council, a group of people elected by the populace to voice their concerns and to keep people informed as to the goings on. I tried to have a meeting once every two weeks, but sometimes things needed to be discussed earlier.

  Nate was there, as was Charlie and Tommy, and various others representing parts of the community. Trevor was there and so were Rebecca, Dot, and Sarah. I headed the council and gave the general direction of the agenda, but I had passed over my full leadership role for a more democratic one. Except in times of emergency, then I was the sole authority. That was something Nate put in there, since he realized that a council cold not effectively make timely decisions when needed. Besides, Nate told me, nobody else was stupid enough to take the job.

  We met in the town�
�s old community center, the newer one having been burnt down by yours truly. It was a nice old brick building that once had been a high school. We gathered in the conference room and I got things under way.

  “I know we weren’t supposed to meet for a couple of days, but I am going to be heading out and I wanted to make sure everyone knew the where’s and why’s.”

  Charlie looked at me with a knowing eye and Tommy just rolled his. Nate shifted his chair and I was sure he was curious.

  “Things have been going pretty well here. We’ve established communication and trade with the towns on the rail line, except for Joslin, and we have taken a number of steps to ensure our long-term survival. What I am going to do is both for the community and for myself.” I paused, keeping the attention of everyone in the room.

  I took a deep breath and let loose the bomb. “I’m going to the city.”

  Everyone tried to speak at once and I managed to hear tidbits here and there. Words like ‘suicide’ and ‘dumbass’ assailed my ears, as well as ‘crazy’ and ‘stupid’. I had thought this out and didn’t really believe it was going to be too bad. Of course, that’s what I thought about Coal City and nearly got chewed in that one.

  When the commotion died down, I raised my hand for silence. Nate was glaring at me and Charlie was sitting with his arms crossed. Tommy was shaking his head and Trevor was eyeing me funny.