White Flag of the Dead

by Joseph Talluto

  “What’s the plan then?” Tommy asked.

  “Simple.” I said. “We kill them all.”

  Planning became lively after that, and we talked and long into the night.

  11

  The next morning, at precisely 8am, the radio crackled to life.

  “Hello? Is anyone there, hello?” The voice seemed calmer, but I could hear other voices in the background. I picked up the radio.

  “Hi there. How are you all holding up?” I asked.

  “People are pretty excited, I have to say. They figured they were going to die up here either through starvation or suicide.” The voice said.

  I could understand that. Tommy and I had talked about such things as well. “Can you hang out for a little while longer?” I was curious about our time schedule. If we could wait until it rained, that would be so much better for trying to move a large group of people without attracting so much attention. My plans were shifting away from hiding, but even I knew when to cut and run. We could be running into thousands of zombies, we just had no way of knowing.

  “We can hold out for about a week, then things will get ugly.”

  “Understood. Listen, we think we can get you out and moving, but it’s going to take some coordination.” I outlined the basics of the plan, and heard some exclamations from the other end as the voice responded.

  “We don’t have much choice, do we?”

  I waited a second before responding. “I’m not going to lie to you. We’re going to have a running fight the second we get this going. If you don’t want to go through with it, that’s your choice. We’ll leave the door open to the gas station and you can try to get your food from here after we leave. But we are going. You need to decide if you are staying.”

  The radio was quiet. I could almost hear the arguments going on. Then the voice came back on. “Okay. We’re with you. What do you want us to do?”

  I spoke for about fifteen minutes, and then signed off. They had promised to be ready whenever we were, and we had no real idea when we were going to go. I was hoping for rain within the time frame, but the best laid plans always seem to go wayward, as I had already seen.

  I fed Jake and then spoke with Tommy and Duncan about being ready to move as soon as possible. They had already been to their car, and managed to get most of their essential gear, as well as the rest of the ammo, back into the gas station. They had also moved the dumpster right next to building as needed.

  Duncan had found some duffle bags in the back room, and he and Tommy both filled two of them with gear. I still intended to move with the bike and trailer, so I was good. I looked around the store and selected a few items I thought might be useful, but for the most part, a lot of the stuff was useless. I saw some magazines near the front, so I wandered up that way. I looked over the selection, and picked up two of them that looked interesting. A gun magazine and a news magazine. Both were a month old.

  I stood up and looked straight into the eyes of a zombie. One of the posters had fallen, and I hadn’t noticed it until I had stood in front of the store. The zombie looked at me, then opened its mouth and moaned loudly. It was a nasty one, with no shirt and huge tears in its flesh. Its skin was stretched over its skull and bared teeth snapped at me as I stepped back, my hand going for my SIG, then the zombie smashed his head into the glass. The window held, but a crack formed and grew longer as the zombie moaned again and struck the glass with its fist. Behind it, I could see more zombies coming over to investigate.

  Crap. Well, we needed to go, why not now? I bolted back to the back room and grabbed Jake, getting him in the seat of the bike and giving him a toy to play with. I put some hearing protection in his ears, as it was about to get very loud.

  “Duncan, Tommy! We got company! We gotta start the plan NOW!” I yelled

  Duncan didn’t hesitate, he grabbed his rifle and extra magazines and headed to the roof. Tommy came running out of the back area and grabbed up the radio and hollered for them to get moving, we’re bugging out.

  I grabbed my carbine and an extra magazine and headed back for the front. The zombie who had been pounding on the window had broken a large portion out of it, and was starting to climb through, like a big greasy worm. I raised my gun and blew his head in half, shifting my aim immediately to the zombie behind him. I shot that one down as well, and saw many others begin walking my way. I cleared away another one, then heard Duncan open up on the roof. It was gratifying to see several of the shuffling dead go down for good, head shots taking the unlife out of them. I shot another one that was close to the front, too close for Duncan to see. It was a young boy, likely no older than twelve, with a hideous neck wound. Black fluid leaked out of the big vein in his neck, and he dropped with a coughing moan.

  Tommy was not sitting idle. He went out the back door and shot two zombies that had been around the side, out of sight of the roof and front. He dashed back inside for his and Duncan’s duffle bags and brought them outside.

  Two minutes into the fight I heard a crashing fusillade of shots, and then another. I smiled grimly to myself. Looks like the squatters are rebelling against the landlords, I thought. I looked out into the street and saw that Duncan had done his job well. He had waited until the zombies had reached his ‘killing zone’, then proceeded to drop them systematically. Thirty corpses were stacked on each other in a wide semicircle like a grotesque fence. Damn fine shooting.

  I heard Duncan jump off the roof onto the dumpster, then push it over to the fence for the wave of people we were sure to have. I pushed the bike and trailer out of the gas station, and checked on Jakey. He was fussing and his bottom lip was out, indicating he was about to cry, he started squirming a little and wanting to get rolling, but I needed to make sure we had everybody first. I pushed the bike out to the center of the station and looked around. Down the street towards the west was a lot of movement, and we were going to be in serious trouble in about ten minutes.

  People were starting to stream over the fence. They had backpacks and duffle bags, some were even carrying garbage bags of stuff. I pointed at the gas station’s back door. “You have two minutes. Grab what you can then get out here.” I wasn’t going to let anything go to waste if these people needed it. Tommy and Duncan were helping people over the fence, and protecting their rear. Several zombies had come for the noise and more than once I heard the crack of their rifles.

  I rolled to the street and scanned the road. God, there was a lot of zombies to the west. We had no choice but to run south and hope for the best. I checked the north road and saw several zombies coming out of the subdivisions. I shot one that was getting too close, and added to the fence Duncan had created. We needed to move.

  I looked back and saw Tommy and Duncan running towards me, their duffle bags banging around their hips. They were followed by a crowd of people, ranging in age from one to fifty years old. I got on my bike and rode ahead, figuring with my mobility I would act as scout. We headed south on Oak Lawn Avenue, passing by several burnt-out homes and businesses. I made a brief stop at a small gun shop on the way, but found it to be looted of guns and ammo. I did find two crossbows and a bunch of bolts, so I passed those out to two men who did not have guns.

  The group had organized themselves well, with those who had firearms on the outside, protecting those on the inside who were unarmed. There were about ten children on the inside, corralled by their mothers and older children. Tommy and Duncan led the way, and I rode point.

  Behind us, the dead followed. We were able to keep ahead of them simply by walking, but if we got delayed, we were going to be in trouble. I hoped to hell we would be alright. I was trying to make it to the junior high school at the end of the road, figuring it would make a great place to make a stand and regroup.

  It wasn’t until we had gone about a mile when we hit trouble. I was coming out of a side street and heading down the main road when three men stepped out of a building and blocked the road. I was so busy looking for zombies I didn’t notice them
until I was on top of them.

  The leader of the trio, a scruffy-looking specimen, held a shotgun casually in the crook of his arm. His wide face split into a grin as he looked over my gear and my son. His comrades, two smallish individuals with several pierced body parts, had each a rifle and two pistols shoved into their belts. Tommy and Duncan were too far behind to be of any help, so this was my mess to deal with. Perfect.

  I stopped my bike about ten feet from the trio, and was immediately covered by the two riflemen. I dropped my hands to my lap and sat back. My SIG was holstered and my carbine was slung over my shoulder. This was going to take some negotiation. Jakey had recovered from his grouch and waved his arms at his new friends, not realizing they were actually enemies.

  The leader walked towards me and straddled my front tire. He placed a hand on my handlebars and kept smiling that stupid grin of his. “How’s it going?” he asked, his eyes lingering on my sidearm and carbine.

  “Just fine, thanks.” I moved my hand ever so slightly, unlocking the safety on my Enfield, which apparently, Smiley hadn’t seen.

  “Good.” He said. “You realize you’re on my road, now.” His smile never reached his eyes, and I could see this was going to get ugly. I didn’t have time for diplomacy, but I also had Jake.

  “That’s too bad.” I said, thinking to myself, Are you kidding me? “But I am in a hurry and didn’t know it was your road. Any chance of letting me and my son and the people behind me just heading on our way?”

  Smiley laughed, and his two sidekicks laughed with him. “Oh, no, no, no. What kind of businessman would I be if I just let any asshole who wants to get away without paying?”

  My eyes turned hard and Smiley stopped smiling. “What do you want?” I said, already knowing the answer.

  “Your gear, your ride, your weapons, and…” looking over my shoulder at he approaching crowd. “Oh yes, your women.” Smiley was grinning again at the thought of the haul he was going to score.

  I pretended to think about it and Smiley removed his hand from my handlebar. He grinned at his companions while jacking a round into his shotgun. He already had a round chambered, so a live round went spinning off over his shoulder. His friend, a short blond with a tattoo on his neck, snickered, and Smiley glared at him.

  That was the opening I needed. I pulled the trigger on the Enfield, and the booming report echoed off the buildings. The bullet punched through Smiley’s crotch, blowing open his scrotum and severing his testicles in the process. The bullet entered his lower abdomen, exiting through his ass. Smiley screamed and dropped to the ground, clutching his ruined manhood and bleeding profusely through is fingers.

  I didn’t wait for his companions to realize what had happened. Right after I pulled the trigger on the Enfield, I was drawing my SIG and punched two holes into Smiley’s companion to my left. I ducked down as the one on the right fired his rifle more in surprise than anything else, and the bullet passed harmlessly over my head. I swung the SIG around and fired twice more, the handgun’s crack sounding puny after the military gun. The second thug dropped to the ground, his life’s blood pouring out of the two holes in his chest.

  Smiley kept on screaming. He tried crawling to his knees, but the pain knocked him down again. I had no pity. How many people had he robbed, possibly killed? He would have killed me and Jake without a thought had I not been able to get the drop on him. For his part, Jake was letting me know he was unhappy by screaming his head off.

  By this time, Tommy and Duncan had caught up to me, their rifles at the ready.

  “What’s up?” Tommy asked, looking at the now-whimpering Smiley and his two dead companions.

  “Would you believe this moron wanted to charge a toll?” I ejected the spent round in the Enfield, chambering a new one. I turned to Jake and tried to comfort him.

  Duncan snorted and gathered up the weapons and ammo from the dead and dying. He took it back to the group and distributed it. Some people looked curiously at the scene and then at me. I decided to make sure there was no misinterpretation.

  “This piece of shit wanted to rob us of the ability to defend ourselves. By his confidence, I figure he and his friends had done it before. I changed his mind.” I was not in the mood to be judged. “Let’s keep going. The dead are catching up.”

  And indeed they were. We could hear their moaning now as they got progressively closer. We moved away and heard Smiley’s screams cut off as the dead caught up to him and reduced him and his companions to bones.

  We headed down the street and I was hopeful about holing up at the school, but when I got closer to check it out, I realized it was not going to be an option. The school had apparently caught fire at some point and large gaping holes were in the burned out roof. I waited for the rest of the group to catch up, and discussed options with Tommy and Duncan.

  “Well, we need to keep moving, and I was hoping this place could provide us with a little respite.” I said, indicating the burned building behind me.

  Tommy looked doubtful. “I’m not from this area, so I have no idea what’s around here.”

  Duncan piped up. “There’s a concert place nearby, with fence all around.”

  I thought about it. I knew the place, and initially it sounded good, but long term would not be useful. “Not defendable enough if they come in force, and they will.”

  Tommy spoke up. “So where then? We can’t walk forever.”

  I racked my brain. All of a sudden, I knew where to go. There was a two story school nearby that had been built within the last ten years. The windows were high enough off the ground that entry would be difficult, and there would be plenty of room for everyone. The doors were all steel, and there were only a couple that might prove problematic. We’d fall off that bridge when we came to it. Right now we needed to get moving.

  “Come on, I know where we’re going.” I said, mounting up and moving out.

  “Where?” asked Tommy.

  “Another school.” I said, giving him my best smile. “Trust me.”

  Tommy sighed. “Why not? You’ve been good so far.”

  Duncan punched him on the arm. “He just took out three armed men. You want to argue?”

  Tommy shook his head at me as he began walking again. “Not really.”

  12

  We headed down a west-bound street, toward a huge intersection. There were a lot of cars, and I could see many of them were occupied. We needed to be careful. I led the small procession down the left hand side of the road, there were fewer cars on that side, and we could stick to the shoulder much easier. We passed the convention center and hotel, not bothering to stop and check it out. I had heard they used that area for treatment of early infected people, and I really did not want to wander into a zombie convention if I could avoid it.

  There was a scream behind me and everyone tensed and spun around. I looked and saw a woman who had gotten too close to a car managed to get grabbed and bit before she managed to pull herself free. One of the other armed men finished off the zombie, but the woman sat down on the ground, staring at the bite mark on her arm. Her husband sat down next to her, tears forming in his eyes. Tommy spoke to both of them, and then came up to me.

  “She got too close to a car and got nabbed. Zombie bit her before she could get help. She says to leave her, and her husband wants to stay with her.” Tommy sounded sympathetic.

  I sighed. How many more? I thought. How many have to die? I made the decision. “We need to keep moving. Ask if she wants someone to end it for her, talk to her husband, and see what he wants to do. But we need to keep moving.”

  Tommy nodded. “Will do.” He headed back to the couple, I waved to Duncan to keep moving. We needed to get to somewhere safe and do it now. The dead were still following us, and it looked like they were growing in number.

  There was a commotion behind me. The man had pulled a gun and was waving it around. “Don’t come near me! You can’t kill her! Stay away from her!” Tommy was backing up with his hand up, t
he other still holding his rifle.

  I called from where I was. “Leave them! We don’t have time!” I realized I had grown a little cold, but all of a sudden I was put in charge of dozens of people, and I was not going to risk them for this.

  Tommy ran from them, and the dead started to close in. I saw the man holding his wife, then I turned away. I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

  Sure enough, a shot rang out. Then another. I looked back briefly and saw two forms lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath their heads. Jake started crying briefly at the noise, and I realized he was going to need to eat soon. What a mess. I got back on the bike and headed back to the front of the procession, passing Tommy and the rest. We crossed the intersection without further incident, and headed towards another intersection. As we passed the mental hospital, a man came running out. Duncan ran out to intercept him and the two had a brief conference. Duncan ran back to me.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Man says he has about seventy people holed up in the hospital, but they’re nearly out of water and food, and need to move on. Can they join us?” Duncan asked with a lopsided grin, like a boy asking if he can keep the puppy he just brought home.

  “Why not?” I said. “See if you can get a small detail to help them get moving, and form an armed perimeter around the group. We have enough guns for that. But they have to move.” I pointed to the small army of living dead that slouched along behind us. “They have five minutes, otherwise they aren’t going to be going anywhere.”

  “You got it.” Duncan ran to the main group and soon six armed men headed off. Looking at the hospital, it would have been ideal if they had a source of water and food. The building didn’t have a first floorsave for one access door, and if that was blocked, the dead had no chance to get in. Something about that nagged at my mind, but I pushed it back for the time being.