Taking It Back

by Joseph Talluto

  Back at home, Sarah and Jake were waiting for me. I laid down on the floor and let Jake crawl on me while I played Daddy monster and made him giggle. I told Sarah what Trevor had told me and she just shook her head.

  “You know, when you think about it, what we have here is pretty much the best we could hope for. If the government had won, we’d be virtual prisoners of the state, forced into slavery, threatened with the possibility of being turned into a zombie or torn apart by them if we resisted,” Sarah said.

  “That’s what I was thinking, too. As rough as life has become, all it would have taken for it to get rougher would have been the government getting involved,” I said, tickling Jake on his tummy, eliciting a squeak of protest.

  “Change of subject,” Sarah said.

  “Go for it.”

  “When are we moving?” she asked.

  I smiled. “Been talking to Rebecca, have you?”

  “Can’t help it. We’re women. Besides, Charlie is much less resistant to Rebecca’s charms than you are to mine.” Sarah slid down on the floor.

  “Guess you’ll have to just work harder,” I said, wiggling my nose into Jake’s.

  “Answer the question,” Sarah said, taking a turn tickling Jake.

  “Probably at the end of the week. Charlie and I have to find another boat so we don’t deprive the community of one and we have to make sure we have everything packed and ready to go. I want to be firmly established before the fall comes and I want to make sure we are able to survive the winter. Plus, Charlie and I need to secure the area as much as we can.”

  “Anyone else coming along?”

  “Not that I know of.” I had spoken to very few people about our plans as I wanted to avoid any conflicts, but I was starting to feel a bit crowded in our current community. I know Charlie felt the same way, which was why he had asked to come with to our new home.

  I broke the news at the next council meeting. I didn’t expect a lot of resistance, but there was a lot of ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Did someone offend you?’ ‘We still need you.” and so on.

  “I appreciate the sentiments, I really do,” I said. “But in a strange way, I feel like my work here is finished and I need to move on, maybe help another community get things together. I will not fade from the scene entirely, as Nate knows, we have a final campaign scheduled for this coming winter and I will definitely be here for the fun. For right now, though, I am moving on.”

  We finished the meeting with a few hours worth of planning for the upcoming offensive and as I left I felt the familiar pang of regret when I made a big decision. Was it the right thing to do, was it right for Jacob, etc. In the end, though, my gut told me it was time to move on. I had done what I had set out to do here, now I needed to see if I could do for myself.

  32

  The week passed quickly with a lot of well wishes from most of the community. We had a lot of supplies to load and I was surprised at the amount of stuff we managed to accumulate. It was a far cry from the beginning of my journey when I had packed up my belongings and my son on a bike and headed out into the zombie world.

  Charlie and I were still looking for a boat after three days and it was becoming frustrating. We had found several small boats, but we didn’t want to take more than one trip. So we were looking for something a little bigger. I had suggested we try some of the boat storage facilities, but lacking a trailer, we had no way to get the boat to water. Which left us with searching many homes, usually finding bass boats and small fishing boats, but nothing useful like the boat we took to Starved Rock in the first place.

  We were driving down 191st street, very close to the Condo Community we had started in Frankfort after we had left the school when I had a bit of inspiration. “Pull in here!” I shouted to Charlie.

  Charlie cursed and hit the brakes, causing us to swerve slightly as the tires squealed in protest. We came to a stop and Charlie swore again.

  “Dammit, are you trying to kill us?” he said, irritated.

  “You’re driving, you’re the one who nearly caused an accident. I was just navigating.” I tried to sound contrite, but I didn’t think it would work.

  Mollified, Charlie asked, “What are we stopping here for?”

  I pointed to the small industrial park. “Sometimes the guys who own the businesses store their toys in their unused space. I remember a sealant company having a large boat in the warehouse owned by the same guys who owned the business back when I worked for a living as a kid.”

  Charlie shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to look, we’ve struck out so far.” He pulled the truck into the parking lot and cruised to a stop in a parking space. I smiled when I saw he had avoided the handicapped space.

  Old habits never really go away, I thought.

  We got out of the truck and I looked around. The little industrial park was laid out like a couple of squares with a road passing in between the buildings. There weren’t the usual signs of violence or infestation, so I took that as a positive sign. Across the road was an identical business park, but it looked like it had some problems. Several windows of the businesses had been broken into and there was an abandoned van slewed across the front of one area. I nodded to Charlie in the direction of the van and after a moment’s look he nodded. We’d keep an eye on that area. In our experience, a vehicle parked in front of a door like that meant someone was trying to keep something out.

  I pulled my crowbar and went to work on the nearest door. It was a paving business and the door opened easily after some persuading. Taking a quick look around, I made my way past decorative piles of brick samples and to the back room. I knocked on the steel door and held my ear to it.

  I heard nothing, opened the door and looked around. There were large pallets of bricks and other types of paving rocks, as well as barrels of tar and repair kits for driveways.

  I met Charlie and shook my head. No dice on this one. We checked the next two in line and found nothing of interest. The businesses were actually interconnected, so one business could actually occupy two or three spaces. It also allowed us to access each business without having to go outside every time.

  On the last business, we got hopeful. It was an insulation company and Charlie noticed a lot of stuffed fish on the walls. I looked around and saw a couple of family photos that showed several smiling people sitting on a largish boat.

  “Maybe, maybe,” I said, working my way to the back door. I opened the door and shined my flashlight around. At first I didn’t see anything except piles of insulation, but tucked out of the way was pay dirt. It was a beautiful Bayliner Express Cruiser, thirty two feet long with twin engines. I moved over and climbed aboard. It had two cabins, one fore and one aft, a full galley, and a small dinette area. The deck had a nice U-shaped lounge area, and a low diving platform. It was, in a word, perfect. Well, almost. It had been christened “Wetter Dreams”, obviously by someone who thought they were being clever.

  Charlie came over and inspected the boat, giving me an approving nod and the name of the boat an eye roll. We inspected the trailer and we were pretty sure we would be able to tow the boat, but as to the route back to Leport to put it in the water, we weren’t so sure.

  We argued back and forth about possible routes and alternates, each one having its merits, although none easy, since there were still hundreds of cars blocking easy access.

  I was about to make a remarkably poignant argument when a knock on the garage door stopped us cold.

  I looked at Charlie. “Did you order take out?” Another knock.

  “Not me. I hate Chinese food.” More knocking.

  “Hmm.” I went over to the back door and put my ear against it. Sure enough, there sounded like a few people were walking around out there. The door didn’t have a window, so I couldn’t see what was happening. I didn’t worry about anyone on the outside getting in, since these warehouses generally had doors without handles on the outside, offering only a deadbolt for entry.

  I started to leave the warehouse wh
en something caught my eye and I ducked back into the darkness. Charlie was right behind me and we collided in the gloom. Shaking his head, he assessed the situation correctly. “How many?” he asked.

  “At least four by the front windows and if they see us they’ll be on us in no time,” I said.

  “Four isn’t too bad,” Charlie mused.

  “That’s just what I could see. I’m pretty sure there’s more out back.” I said, trying to keep quiet.

  “What’s the plan, then?”

  “Hold on. I’m going to see if we can get to the roof.” I headed back to the storeroom and looked around. No luck. We checked the other storerooms, being very careful to avoid being seen. The last one in line had roof access, so we headed up and carefully looked around.

  The roof was a simple affair, with a three foot false front around the front and sides of the buildings. There was nothing of note on the roof except for a couple of bodies in the corner. I approached them carefully and Charlie did the same, but we relaxed when we saw they were dead and staying that way. I looked closer and couldn’t see a cause of death, although they were both just skin and bones. They were lying with their arms around each other and judging by their clothes, they were just teenagers.

  “What do you think?” Charlie asked, tilting his head towards the couple.

  “If I had to guess, they got chased up here and died of dehydration. Not a pretty way to go. Wonder why they didn’t hole up in the storerooms until the zombies lost interest?” I mused.

  “They were just scared kids. They weren’t thinking all tactical like you do,” Charlie jibed.

  I ignored the barb. “Let’s take a look at our friends.” We walked over to the front side and carefully looked over. The four I had initially seen had been joined by four more, making the equation a little more untenable.

  Moving over to the side of the building, I looked over and my shoulders slumped. There had to be twenty of the fetid things wandering around and bumping into each other, standing by the wall, and generally making a mess of things. I could smell the nasties all the way up on the roof, and ducked back before they could see me. Charlie looked over and shook his head.

  “Where the hell did they come from?” Charlie asked. “They weren’t here twenty minutes ago when we pulled up.”

  I shrugged. “My guess is they were over in the other building, saw us pull up, and located us by our conversation in the storeroom.”

  “Are we shooting?”

  “Don’t know as we have much choice, except we’ll attract every Z in the neighborhood and we still have to get the boat out of here, not to mention the truck.” I looked over the roof edge again. I checked my ammo supply. “I haven’t got enough ammo for a long fight,” I said.

  Charlie felt himself and confirmed a lack of ammo. “We could get these guys, but if another swarm shows up, we’re screwed.”

  I was beginning to understand how the dead couple wound up where they were.

  Suddenly, Charlie brightened. “I’ll be right back.” He headed down the ladder, leaving me wondering what the heck he was up to. Two minutes later he reappeared with two large bricks from the paving business.

  I immediately caught on to what he was going to do. “Oh, you magnificent genius,” I said, relieving him of a brick.

  Charlie grinned like a kid who found his dad’s porn. “It just came to me. Let’s see if it works.”

  We went over to the front of the building and looked over. Two of the zombies were in sight, the other two were nowhere to be seen. Charlie waited until one was within range, then hurtled the brick down at the corpse. The brick slammed into the Z’s head with a sickening thud and the body dropped heavily to the ground. We waited for a few seconds to see if it would get up again, but given the serious dent the brink had put into its skull, I doubted that Z was going anywhere soon.

  The small commotion caused the second zombie to come over and investigate and I launched my brick. The zombie, a grayish, older specimen that might have been a black woman once, happened to look up at the last second and took the brick right between the eyes. The impact knocked her completely off her feet and drove her head to the ground. She lay there with a brick sticking out of her head and moved no more.

  “Nice one,” Charlie said as we headed back down to grab some more bricks.

  It took the better part of half an hour, but we managed to bring up a number of bricks and paving stones to deal with the zombies. We had a good pile by the side of the building and looking over the side, it seemed like our little swarm was starting to disperse. We needed them to get closer to the building as I had no illusions about my ability to hit a moving zombie at thirty yards with a rock.

  “Any ideas?” Charlie asked as he hefted a brick.

  “Just one,” I said. Leaning over the side, I waved my arms and yelled, “Oh boys! Lookee what I got here!”

  Charlie smiled and leaned over. “Where the white women at?”That worked. Zombies came shuffling over, moaning and grasping at the air. Charlie and I both took aim and started throwing bricks. Meaty thuds and smacks reached our ears as assorted zombies fell to our missiles. Some took more than one hit, as our aim wasn’t perfect on every shot and we learned you had to actually throw the bricks, just dropping them didn’t do sufficient damage to permanently put them down. It stunned them and took them a moment to recover, but they got up again and clamored for our flesh.

  After about ten minutes of playing Whack-a-Zombie, Charlie and I found ourselves without targets. We waited for another ten minutes to see if any of them moved, but they were still.

  We moved quickly, pulling the truck around and moving the boat into position. I was glad to have Charlie with me, I had no idea how to hitch a boat and watched intently as he went through the process. I was paying such close attention to Charlie that I nearly got nailed by the two zombies we hadn’t accounted for earlier. They came shuffling around the garage door and I only noticed them when I saw a shadow moving that shouldn’t have been moving at all.

  I turned around and lunged back as the first zombie reached for me. Its hands grasped empty air as I backpedaled. The second zombie turned and made for Charlie as I moved to place some insulation between the first zombie and myself. It was a gruesome sight. Fat maggots wiggled out of gaping holes in its flesh as its dead eyes fixed themselves on me. Yellowed teeth bared from blackened lips and it’s groaning was hampered by a large chunk out of its neck. Bluish dead veins spider-webbed its greenish-hued flesh, and lank hair swayed as it lurched forward.

  I threw a bundle of insulation at the Z, knocking it over and giving me a second to unhook my crowbar. As it unbent I took a baseball swing and smashed it in the side of its head, spinning it around and dropping it on the floor. I stepped up quickly and delivered another blow to its head, finishing it for certain. I stepped back, ready to engage the second one, but on the other side of the boat, I saw a tomahawk rise and fall, then saw a dead zombie slump to the floor with a caved-in head.

  I stepped over to the truck just as Charlie popped his head over the bed.

  “That it?” he asked, wiping off his blade.

  “God, I hope so,” I said, wiping of my crowbar and re-securing it in place. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We started up the truck and pulled out just as another stray zombie wandered around the corner of the storeroom. Charlie didn’t even bother to try to avoid it, he just drove, crushing it to the pavement. If it was still moving after the truck, it was finished when the boat trailer pulverized it.

  We stopped briefly at the condo complex for a quick reunion and a chance to burn off the zombie glop from our weapons. We exchanged stories and news and found out that the group had been especially active in finding other survivors and killing zombies. The entire area south of the complex was clear and I could see for quite a ways, as many buildings had been burned down. The fence was still in place, as there was the occasional roaming Z, but the people were happy and prospering. I told them about the other to
wns we had encountered and shared the belief that there was no reason not to think that far more people had survived than we thought.

  33

  Charlie and I drove back to Leport after another argument about the best route. We ended up taking the same route we took when we first headed out nearly a year ago. We got nostalgic as we passed the little house where Dot used to live and we shook our heads when we passed the home where we first encountered Dane Blake.

  We reunited with Duncan briefly and there was lots of well-wishing and wishing in particular. I told Duncan he was welcome to join us when he finished and he said he was sorely tempted. He gave us a letter to give to Tommy and we rolled on to Leport. We ignored the burned out home where we first encountered the lunatics from the home improvement store who had eventually killed Kristen.

  Charlie and I brought the boat to the dock and unloaded it. We got some approving glances and a few envious stares. But no one said anything, as we were the ones who went out and got the damn thing.

  By the next morning, we had packed up our belongings and were ready to head out. Jake and Julia were happy as clams to wander around the inside of the boat and Rebecca and Sarah had their hands full chasing those two little demons and keeping them out of the cabinets. Just as we were about to pull out, Tommy came strolling by, with Angela in tow. Those two had become closer as the time had gone by and Angela rarely left Tommy’s side.

  “Ready to go?” Tommy called as I gathered up the lines and Charlie worked the controls.

  “Just about,” I called back.

  “Nice place you’re headed to?” Tommy said.

  I looked sideways at him. “Pretty nice,” I said carefully.

  “Safe?”

  “Needs work, but I’m bringing my son if that means anything.”

  “Big place?” Tommy asked.

  I grinned. “If you don’t get aboard, we’ll leave you behind.”