White Flag of the Dead wfotd-1

by Joseph Talluto

  “And I do not see your point. Yes, we are grateful, but if you think we are going to leave the relative comfort of this home to go who knows where, you are crazy.” It was a fat, balding man with a weak chin expressing his views. He wore a “tactical” vest, the kind many mall ninjas surely invest in. He had a handgun in the holster, what kind I couldn’t tell. He had a Ruger Mini14 slung over his shoulder and what looked like several magazines in his vest pocket. He should have been able to clean house on his own. Something to consider. I stopped by Charlie and signaled Sarah to stand by.

  “I’m going to check outside. I’ll be right back.” I said to Charlie in a low voice.

  Charlie nodded and the look on his face clearly indicated he wanted to get away from his antagonist.

  I headed downstairs and went to the door we originally came in. I could see Duncan and Tommy outside, and by the way they held their weapons, the immediate danger had passed.

  “Heads up, gents. What’s the word.?” I said, startling Duncan.

  Tommy answered. “We’re good out here. Some movement back down the street, but nothing to worry about. Jason and Lisa nailed a couple, and Chelsea shot one that came out of the water.”

  “Really?” I was impressed. “Wonder how it got in there?”

  Duncan shrugged. “Probably saw a frog and went after it. Who knows?”

  I had to admit it was probable. Zombies were the definition of stupid. Deadly, but stupid. I went back inside. I could hear Fatty raising his voice. Like that was going to improve his argument, whatever it was.

  I headed back upstairs and asked Sarah about the vehicles. She told me that there were three cars in the garage and they were all working and ready to go. Finally, some good news.

  I moved over to Charlie and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked at me and promptly walked downstairs, leaving the fat man sputtering at his loss of audience.

  I decided to be direct. The baby was still on my mind and I was in no mood for bullshit. “Hello, all. My name is John Talon, and we’re glad you folks are still alive. We have cleared the area for now, but the shots will attract more in a little while. You have roughly fifteen minutes to pack up and get out. We are leaving immediately. We’re glad to have helped you all escape, but we need to leave. If you want to join us, you need to move now. I have been told there are three cars in the garage that are working and ready to go. Best take them and go.”

  Fat man stood in front of me. “I am Dane Blake, and these people have chosen me to represent them. I can assure you, we will not be going anywhere. Your help was not needed, and I see no reason to leave a comfortable position.” His jowls wobbled as he spoke and it was distracting.

  I was past caring. I went over to the group and asked them. “Anyone want to go?” All hands except the teen with the sword went up. I waved them to the garage. “Go now.” They started to leave, carrying what small belongings they had with them. Dane Blake stood in the way, with his hand on his gun.

  “Those cars are my personal property and I have not authorized their use.” He said imperiously.

  Authorized? I wondered why the rest of the group had not mutinied. Then I realized he was the only one armed save for the teen. I guess that makes sense. When one person has the weapons, that person makes the rules. Since I was armed, I decided to push the issue.

  “Go to the cars, get in them, and get out. Your time is running out.” I said moving towards Blake. Sarah moved in behind me.

  “Stop where you are! You will not take my cars or leave this house!” Blake started to unbuckle the strap that held in his gun.

  I stepped towards him placing myself directly in front of him. I put my hand on my SIG and stared into his eyes. “Pull it, bully.” I said, my voice mean. “Pull it and see what happens. I have just rescued those people and that means I am responsible for them, not you. You’ve had a nice thing going here, I’m sure, stroking your ego and making those people miserable because of your power trip. They are leaving.” My tone of voice made it clear to even the most stupid of individuals that I meant everything I said, and severe violence would follow my words if pushed.

  Dane blinked and flicked his eyes over to the group. Then a small smile appeared on his pudgy face. I didn’t blink. I knew what was happening and what was going to happen.

  Sure enough, there was a loud crack and a cry of pain, followed by a metallic clattering on the floor. If I trusted my instincts, I would bet everything I had on the fact that Blake had given a signal to his trustee, the kid with the sword. The kid probably had drawn the sword, then Sarah made her move. I didn’t look, not trusting to take my eyes off Blake, but I was sure the kid was now looking down the barrel of Sarah’s gun. I gave a little smile of my own. Blake blanched and kept his hands away from his guns.

  What I did not expect was one of the women to jump on the downed teen, who was holding his wrist and glaring at Sarah, who in turn was replacing her blunt weapon to its place on her pack, its purpose served. The woman landed on the teen’s back forcing him to the hardwood floor. She pummeled him mercilessly, smacking his head to the floor and cursing him in a most inventive way. I didn’t know you could use some of those words together. I took another look at the headless corpse and it dawned on me that it was not a zombie I was looking at, but an example, ordered by Dane and carried out by this sadistic teen with the sword. My estimation of Blake dropped even further, if that was possible.

  I shook my head and motioned to Sarah, who pulled the woman off the teen. He was bleeding from several places and his face was a pulpy mess. He was making little mewling sounds, and curled up into a ball as soon as the weight was taken off his shoulders.

  I pointed to the garage and the group headed there. Sarah pushed the woman along with the other survivors, then headed downstairs. I looked back at Blake. “We’re leaving. You can have your weapons and your little buddy there. If you do anything stupid, I will personally hang you upside down from the nearest tree, call in the zombies, and watch them eat your face off. If you’re lucky, you’ll die before they’re finished with you. Understand?” Blake just glared hatred at me. “I will take that as a Yes.” I headed for the stairs, still keeping my hand on my gun. I had a feeling I would not see the last of Blake, but if I was lucky, maybe I would see him first.

  I ran outside and saw my group was ready to go. I jumped into the CR-V and got rewarded with a squeak from Jake. I gave him my hand to hold, and I almost had tears in my eyes when I thought about that baby in the house. We headed back onto the road, and I could see in the rear-view mirror that the three cars from the house were following us. Good enough.

  We headed West, and I saw less signs of violence and mayhem than I expected. In all likelihood, this extreme end of the suburbs of Chicago had been spared the devastation, but the virus had infected so many so fast. When it first hit, people were infected and didn’t even know it. With the concentration of population in the cities, the virus could have been contained in the cities, but with the early long incubation period, and the commuter population, it was inevitable that it would spread to the suburbs. Once it got out of the confines of the population centers, it was over. Where we were was actually behind the wave of the dead, dealing with the ones that couldn’t travel as fast or were trapped indoors. But there were still millions out there, and we had to deal with them all. You never knew where they were. You just had to keep your guard up all the time.

  We reached another intersection, and passed by a burned out gas station. There were blackened cars in the lot, and a couple of shriveled corpses. Two of the cars had several bullet holes in them, but that could have been caused by anything. I had a suspicion about the holes, and glancing at Charlie; he had seen them and was suspicious about them as well.

  No time for that now. We turned north and after a small subdivision we were flanked by forest preserve. I didn’t need to see it, but I would bet there was a small smile on Charlie’s face as we left most traces of civilization behind. Charlie had been born to t
he country, and in all likelihood grown up to farm like his father before him. But he managed to go to college, met a woman, married and settled in the ‘burbs. But the call was still strong, and after all this, I expected him to head back home. The only thing stopping him was his sense of duty to the group. He would do the job until finished. I, for one, couldn’t imagine any success of the plan without him.

  At the next intersection, we turned right. I told Charlie that if pushed, our absolute last stand was down this road. There was a large lake just down the hill, and with boats available and several islands, we could make do for a long time. He just nodded and pointed at another car on the side of the road. This one had bullet holes in it, too. I nodded. “Once a coincidence, twice a pattern.” I said, “We’ll need to keep an eye open.”

  We headed down the road and finally managed to bring our little convoy to our destination. We parked the cars in the parking lot and looked at our new home. It was an office/condos building, sitting on an intersection. Across the street was the forest preserve, and across the second street was a small spring-fed pond. There was a small subdivision and town home complex around the pond, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. The best part of the building was the fact it did not have a ground floor; the parking lot was under the building. There was a single doorway/stairwell that led to the upper floors. Properly provisioned, we could withstand the worst siege for years.

  Charlie and I got out of the car and looked around. Our convoy had attracted a little notice, and a few lone Z’s were coming to investigate. They were moving pretty slowly, so I was hopeful that the coming winter would make them nearly immobile.

  Duncan and Tommy came over. “Nice digs, chief. How do we secure the stairway?” Duncan asked, eyeing the entrance. It was a glass enclosure, and several dedicated zombies could easily break in if they had reason. I pointed to the cars.

  “We park those right by the glass, and that should hold for now.” I said, indicating the larger vehicles.

  Tommy looked around. “You know, I’ll bet there is deer and rabbit in those woods.”

  Charlie nodded. “We’ll be fine for food and firewood. What about water?”

  I pointed to the pond. “Last I heard, that was spring-fed, so we’re good there. Also, down the road that way,” I indicated east. “There’s two big grocery stores and a strip mall, as well as two gas stations and a drug store, about a mile away.

  Duncan whistled. “You can pick ‘em.” He motioned to Tommy and Charlie. “Let’s go check out our new home.”

  The other two nodded and Charlie patted my shoulder as he went past, the best compliment one could expect from the man. I took it for what it was and watched as the trio checked weapons, loaded magazines, secured masks and goggles, then headed for the stairs. I smiled to myself as I realized that this had become so routine, we never even thought about it anymore.

  I went over to where Chelsea and Kristen were entertaining Jake. He was crawling around the bed of the Jeep, and standing on the side looking out the windows when he could. Chelsea was watching him while Kristen was keeping an eye on our slow-moving friends. I left them and went over to the group of survivors we had rescued. They looked to be in a depressed state, although that seemed to be improving. They huddled together, and Sarah was talking to a few of them. Several heads kept turning to look at the zombies, and I knew any discussion would have to wait until they were dealt with.

  The zombies were about a hundred yards away, but moving slow enough that it would take a while before they were a threat. I held up a finger to Sarah and wandered out towards the zombies. It took a minute to reach the first one and he was in bad shape. His head was nearly devoid of hair, and his skin was stretched tight around his face. His lips were pulled back and his blackened teeth opened and closed as he worked to get to me. His right arm hung down uselessly, but he reached out with his left. I walked up to about five yards of him and shot him once in the head. He dropped with a grunt, and I moved towards the second, never breaking stride. This one was a female, but I couldn’t be too sure. I didn’t waste time and put a bullet between her eyes, knocking her backwards and onto her back. The third was a longer shot, but I figured it was worth it. I fired and blew the top of its head off. Lucky shot, but I would never admit it to Tommy or Duncan.

  I went back to the group and addressed the people. I was sure Sarah had been filling them in as to what we were doing and where we were from. I wasn’t going to waste time. “Good afternoon. I’m sure Ms. Greer has been filling you in and answering questions. My name is John Talon and I lead this little group. We survived the Upheaval and we are surviving the aftermath. We have a plan and this building is part of our efforts take back what we lost. If you want to stay with us, you’re welcome. We will train you, find a place for you in our community, and use you if you have skills we need. We are going to take back our world and our lives. It will be a long battle, but if you want to be part of it, come along.”

  I winked at Sarah and went back to Jakey. I figured the group had some things to talk about, and I wanted to spend some time with my son. He was playing with a small pile of books, stacking them and knocking them over. I lost myself in his antics until Sarah came over.

  “Want to talk about it?” Sarah asked, sitting down next to me.

  “About what?” I knew what she was referring to, but I have been wrong before.

  “About the baby in the house.” Sarah searched my eyes, looking for who knows what.

  “No need, really. I had a bad moment, let my imagination run away for a bit. But I’m fine. Really.” I said.

  Sarah’s face said she didn’t believe me. “Really? For a moment back there, I thought you were going to execute that Blake and his little toady.”

  I laughed. “I’d be lying to you if I told you I didn’t think about it. Especially after that woman jumped that kid. I thought she was going to push his head through the floor. But he was no danger.”

  Sarah didn’t say anything. She just looked at me.

  I sighed. “Look. I just got twitchy when I realized that baby had been left to die and turn alone. That its last thoughts were of loneliness and abandonment. How long did it cry before it died? How long did it reach out for its mother or father who were not coming? Someone could have done something. That worthless piece of dog shit let that child die alone. If there is any justice, he’s trapped again in that house, with just that little turd for company.”

  Sarah stood up and adjusted her jacket. She checked her Ruger and her pack. She leaned over and placed a hand on Jakey’s cheek, earning a smile from him. Sarah then looked back at me and I could see a funny look in her green eyes. She leaned over and placed a hand on my cheek. “You’ll do.” she said, and walked away to talk with Jason and his wife Lisa.

  Shaking my head at women in general and one in particular, my attention went to the stairs where Tommy, Duncan, and Charlie were coming out of the building. They weren’t dragging anyone or anything, so I guessed all went well.

  Tommy spoke first. “Place was empty. We checked and double checked every possible hiding place and came up empty. Looks like it was cleared before the big mess hit and whoever worked here never came back. The offices look pretty new, and the condos look like they were furnished, but never lived in.”

  “Sounds good.” I said. “What about numbers? How many per condo?” I was curious because we had picked up a few more people.

  Charlie spoke up. “There’s eight condos, and all of them are two bedrooms.”

  “That’s not a problem then.” I said. “Tommy and Duncan have one, Jason and his wife can share one with the teens who can share a room or one of them can bunk with Sarah, and Jake and I can share one with Charlie.”

  Duncan piped up. “When are we going raiding?”

  I considered that. “We’ll go once we’re settled in. I don’t want to get cocky and lose someone. There’s another element out here that we need to be careful of.”

  Tommy frowned. “What
do you mean?”

  I explained about the cars with the bullet holes and Charlie backed me up on that information. “We don’t know for sure, but I can personally vouch for some scumbags I dealt with a while back when everything was breaking.” I didn’t go into detail, but they got the hint. We would need to watch for others as well as zombies.

  “Let’s get unpacked.” I said, picking up Jakey and my duffel bag. I had another trip to make for another bag, but these days we traveled relatively lightly.

  Unpacking the cars and getting settled in took a very short amount of time. The condos were very nicely furnished, and as we discovered, furnished exactly the same. Even the colors of the furniture were identical. The offices were on the first two floors, and the condos made up the top four. Tommy quickly found the stairs to the roof, and set up an observation post. Old habits, I guess. The girls were happy to be sharing a bedroom, since it was just like old times, and Jason and Lisa were happy for the opportunity to be a positive influence for the girls. Jakey liked the new place and immediately began exploring. I was grateful to see that the condos had functional fireplaces, and Duncan had found the office copier paper supply, so kindling was taken care of. I had the odd thought that if the plague had hit later, the gas station would have a supply of those ever last logs that burn for hours. How inconvenient some viruses can be.

  I got a surprise when I learned that only two of the couples we rescued wanted to stay with us. The other couple and the woman whose husband was beheaded, as well as the teen, wanted to head south for warmer weather. I tried to tell them that the zombies seemed to be slower in the cold and we could have a few months of relative safety as opposed to the warmer climes that favored the Z’s. But they were having none of it, so I waved goodbye as they headed out. They didn’t take me up on the offers of food and supplies, so I think they just wanted to escape this place and every memory associated with it. I could respect that.