White Flag of the Dead wfotd-1

by Joseph Talluto

  “I’m guessing this was what killed the kids in the basement. Came from a McCard's home store.” Charlie said without preamble.

  “We’re missing one.” Tommy said, pointing to the wall portraits.

  Charlie’s eyes narrowed and he looked at me. “Parents?”

  “Dead upstairs.” I replied. “Mom worked over pretty badly, looks like Dad was forced to watch.”

  “What do you want to do here?” Charlie asked.

  I looked around. As nice as this place was, it was a tomb. “Light it up.”

  Tommy and Charlie nodded and went to work. Twenty minutes later, we were driving away. In the rear view mirrors, I could see flames starting to lick at the edges of the windows. Rest in peace. I thought darkly.

  We pulled into the outskirts of Leport and immediately could see that there was something wrong. The first subdivision had another pile of headless zombies, and all of the houses had been broken into. We split up and checked a few houses each. I found a few corpses in a couple houses, and none of them had been infected when they were killed. Charlie and Tommy reported finding similar things. The three of us looked at each other and it was pretty clear what we all thinking. There was a group out there that was not only killing zombies, but killing survivors as well.

  We got back into the truck and proceeded into the city proper. Devastation was all around us, and we had a difficult time navigating around some of the blocked intersections. Many of the homes had been burned to the ground, and large swaths of devastation covered much of the town. We passed a grocery store but didn’t even bother looking in, as the doors had been smashed in long ago. We headed down the hill towards the river, and could see from the top of the hill the line of cars that choked the road and doomed many people to the rampaging dead.

  Turning down the side road to the older part of town, we parked the truck and got out. There were several streets but oddly there were no cars. I wondered if they were on the road above us but was shaken out of my reflection by Tommy jostling my arm.

  “Look over there” he said, pointing to the river.

  I looked and smiled back at him. A small marina was tucked up next to the river, and a boat landing was evident. There weren’t any boats, and I hadn’t expected any, but we had our waterway access. Looking back to the town, I realized that the older homes and businesses had been spared the devastation, and the newer part of the town up the hill had been destroyed. A cathedral was still standing, as well as a large school. Either would make a good defensive point if necessary, and the bell tower was perfect as a watchtower. The lands around would do nicely for farming and raising animals, if we ever found any, and the woods would provide shelter and materials.

  All right, then. I waved Charlie and Tommy over and we spent the next two hours going through businesses and houses. We found no survivors, but we did find quite a few zombies frozen in the snow and ice. We dispatched all that we found, fifty-six total. We found signs of violence here and there, but this part of the city seemed to be mostly abandoned. Charlie found a child’s clothing store, and came out with armloads of clothes for little Julia. Tommy checked every bar he found, but there wasn’t a drop of liquor in the town. I happened across a construction company and found a back hoe and a bulldozer, which would be useful later if we could get them running.

  Getting back in the truck, we headed back to the condo complex. Our mood was sobered when we passed the burning mansion but lightened as we came within sight of our condo complex. I wouldn’t call it a good day, but it was productive.

  Sarah and Jake met me and I told Sarah about the mansion and what we had found and what had occurred. She looked thoughtful for a second, and then asked, “Do you think there might be a connection between this incident and the one you had at the drugstore last year?”

  I thought about it and realized that was what had been nagging at my mind when I came across the scene. “Now that you mention it, it does seem similar. I guess it would be too much to hope for that I had stopped them back then, wouldn’t it.?”

  Sarah nodded and handed me a hot cup of coffee. “Nate called in and wanted to know how things were going. I told him you would get back to him later tonight.”

  I sipped the coffee and nodded. “I made it to the river today.”

  Sarah suddenly smiled. “You did! I knew you would! How did the town look?”

  I turned serious. “There’s a lot of work to do, but it will serve. It most certainly will.” I spent the next hour talking about what we had found and what we were going to do before Jake demanded to be fed and played with. Duty called.

  30

  The next month was a whirlwind of activity as we cleared the town of Leport and started to move ourselves in that direction. I decided to use the big school on the hill as a temporary base, as it provided the best source of protection in case of attack. We had found several more homes that had shown signs of violence, and many individuals who had died of gunshot wounds, not infection. We found a large population of zombies in the upper west neighborhood, and Duncan concluded that these must have come from the freeway that was near that area. We killed them all, and dumped them in houses that we set on fire. By the middle of February, we had cleared the area around the old part of town and were just about ready to start our move.

  Charlie had come up with an interesting idea. He had found a chain link dog pen around four feet by six feet by six feet tall. He secured it to the ground using some tent pegs and chain, and disappeared for the day. When he came back, he surprised all of us by dragging and tossing in the cage a zombie popsicle that hadn’t been neutralized yet.

  When I asked him about it he just shrugged. “I figure the best way to know when these things are thawing out and moving again would be to have one nearby and when it starts to get active, that’s when we know the rest are likely active as well and had better be ready once again.”

  I just shook my head once again at what Charlie called ‘country-boy-brilliance’ and let it go. I did call Nate and tell him about it and was rewarded with just one word. Nate then said he would be heading out to do just the same thing in the morning. I also told Nate about what we were finding, and he said he had begun to find similar things to the south. I started to wonder if perhaps there was a group operating right in between us, but I didn’t have the resources to go checking thoroughly. Any group that could behead as many zombies as we had seen was one to use caution with.

  March brought warming weather, and keeping an eye on our imprisoned friend, we started to see increased activity. At around thirty degrees, our pet Z’s movements were slow, but definitely dangerous in a swarm. At forty degrees, the movements became faster, and on a particularly warm day, one of those rare sixty degree days we sometimes saw in March, our zombie friend was moving quite well and seemed back to normal.

  About the second week in March I decided that the threat was real enough, the zombies were able to revive after being frozen, and we needed to be on the lookout once again. The areas around us had been cleared and could be counted on to be relatively safe, but after three months of being frozen, I figured the little critters were going to be hungry as hell and would be on the roam worse than they had been before. I warned my people to be as on guard as they had ever been, even with areas that had been cleared; if there was any chance a zombie could have gotten in, treat it as a hostile environment.

  On the morning of the third week of March, Sarah, Kristen, and Jason were out on a search for a boat or something for the river. I had directed them towards the town of Freeport, as I figured there would more likely be a boat in that direction. I was helping John Reef, our resident plumber, with a water system that would allow us to have running water. The good news was we could still use the sewer system in place, although at some point things were going to get ugly, but we would cross the bridge later. This was going to be a trial run for the condos, but we would move the system to Leport when we moved out there permanently. John said if we could get a power source to the
pumping system, we could have running water for a lot of homes, but since that required a foray into the city, I opted for local control.

  Charlie was spending the day with Julia and Rebecca, and it was amusing to see the three of them outside walking around, with Charlie armed to the teeth. Tommy and Duncan were hunting a couple of ghouls that had been spotted in the woods, and Pamela was helping Mark Wells, our electrician, re-wire some of the lines so we could have electricity on a fairly regular basis.

  I was wearing about thirty feet of garden hose and wet up to my knees when the Honda came rolling in. I could immediately see something was wrong. One tire was flat and there were bullet holes in the windshield. I dropped my hose and ran over to the vehicle as it limped to a stop. Charlie saw me running and came over to see what was going on.

  I pulled open the driver’s door and jumped back as Jason fell at my feet. He had been shot twice, and how the hell he managed to make it back here was a mystery. He rolled onto his back and I yelled for Rebecca, who came running over with Julia.

  “Jason! Jason! Can you hear me? What happened?” I didn’t see any other signs of violence in the car, except for where Jason had bled on the upholstery. I had a sneaking suspicion about what happened, but I needed to hear it from Jason.

  Jason looked up at me, his eyes cloudy with pain. His breathing was labored, but his mouth was not bloody, so at least he hadn’t been hit in the lungs. It took a huge effort, but he managed to speak.

  “Came out of nowhere…we were securing a boat when they attacked.” Jason coughed thickly. “Sarah shot one of them, but they overwhelmed her and Kristen. There was six of them…” Jason’s voice faded and I was afraid he was going, but Rebecca was working on him feverishly. Lisa had been called and she was kneeling by his side, tears running down her face.

  Jason shook himself and continued. “They grabbed the women and carried them off to their truck. One of them knocked me to my knees and then shot me. He laughed as he shot me…” Jason looked into my eyes. “I couldn’t help them…I should have helped them…” His voice faded away as he fainted. I squeezed his shoulder and motioned for Charlie to help me get him up to his apartment.

  We carried Jason to his bedroom and Rebecca worked on him with supplies we had retrieved from an ambulance. I got on the radio to Nate and had the Doc talk to Rebecca to walk her through some of the harder procedures.

  I left the room and looked at Charlie. The cold fire of battle had started again, and this time I welcomed it. I allowed my rage to extend itself into every corner of my being, and breathed deep the air of revenge.

  “What’s the move?” Charlie asked, already knowing my answer.

  I looked at him slowly. “We go hunting.” was all I said. I turned on my heel and went to my condo. Jake was playing with Julia, and Amy Strickland and Sally Kowalski were watching them both. A sense of urgency had descended upon the complex, and everyone stepped up to help however they could.

  I didn’t say a word as I belted on my knife and SIG. My extra magazines went into my holder and two more went into my jacket pocket. I loaded up my M1A magazines and placed them in my outer pockets of my jacket. I put an extra box of cartridges in a pocket of my backpack, and made sure my supplies were fresh and ready. I opted not to bring my crowbar, instead bringing a hand axe that had a long handle. I didn’t have any real reason for choosing the axe or the heavy rifle over my crowbar and carbine other than I thought they would hurt more. My mind was filled with images of the woman at the drugstore and the family at the estate, and my rage increased with each passing minute. I passed Jake and he smiled up at me. I smiled back at him and said “Daddy has to go take care of some bad men. I will be back. I promise.” I looked at the women with the children and they nodded at me, giving me silent consent to the violence I was about to do.

  I met Charlie in the hallway and he was geared up as much as I was. His AR was on his shoulder and his tomahawks were secured. His knife was on his belt along with his Glock. I was sure he had plenty of ammo with him, and I could see the rage was in him as well. Sarah and Kristen were more than friends, they were family, and we were not about to let their kidnapping go unanswered. Jason was just hanging on, and if he died, I would not let it be in vain. If he had not managed to make it back to us, we might not have known for days.

  We ran into Tommy and Duncan in the office area, and they were dressed as we were. They didn’t say a word as we passed, they just fell in behind as we headed down to the cars. We were grim men as we climbed into the truck, and the holes in the CR-V and Jason’s blood on the parking lot pavement pushed us on.

  Duncan was driving. “Where to?” he asked, firing up the truck.

  I thought about that. Where would they be? What clues were right in front of my face that I was not seeing? Thinking back, I realized I knew where they were, the evidence given to me by Charlie at the estate house.

  “McCord’s” I said, indicating the road west.

  We drove in silence, the only sound was the click of ammunition into magazines as Tommy topped off his rifle and handgun. Charlie topped off Duncan’s magazines and handed them back to him. Charlie then tapped me on my shoulder and I handed my knife back to him. Charlie sharpened the knife slowly with a small whetstone he carried in his pouch for his tomahawks, the rasping sound stroking the fire of revenge and nearly causing me to urge Duncan to drive faster. We wanted to fight, to kill, but we also wanted to come out alive.

  We turned south on Bell Road and when we came to the top of a hill, I motioned Duncan to pull over. I got out and pulled my binoculars out from my pack. From behind a tree, I looked out towards the massive home improvement building. I could see several vehicles, including a small fleet of snowmobiles and motorcycles. That in itself was not an indication that Sarah was there, but it did give me enough to investigate further. I didn’t see any guards or watchmen, so I figured it was safe to proceed.

  Going back to the vehicle, I directed Duncan to drive slowly down the hill, so as to attract as little attention as possible. There was a house on a small bit of land next to the store, so I told Duncan to turn in there. It was about a hundred yards from the building, and would serve as a rally point. I looked at the building again, and still didn’t see any lookouts or guards. Strange.

  I got out of the car and the other men did the same. We passed out the radios and I signaled for Tommy and Duncan to scout the back of the building while Charlie and I headed for the front. The garden center seemed to be the place where they came and went, so I wanted to see about alternate entry.

  Moving quickly, Charlie and I crossed the parking lot and worked our way to the front of the building. A pile of bricks and paving stones covered the exit doors, so there was no worry of being seen from there. We went over to the front door and found it to be similarly blocked. I hunkered down and used the radio. “Tommy, do you read, over.” I clicked the radio twice. “Loud and clear, over” came the reply. “The front is blocked, how’s the back? Over.” I asked. “Same. Looks like the only way in is through the garden center. Over.”

  “Right. Meet you in five. Over.” I motioned to Charlie and we made our way to the Garden Center exit. Waiting a moment, we saw Tommy and Duncan come around the corner and join up with us. I motioned Tommy and Duncan to move to the right while Charlie and I would move to the left.

  We slid into the Garden center and worked our way along the wall. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for an odd lack of garden tools along the south wall. We reached the interior door and waited for Tommy and Duncan to clear the other side. The door to the inside was a large garage-type door, and very effective against zombies. But not so effective against people who retained their fine motor skills.

  Charlie tested the door and found it to be locked. Moving to the other door, he tried it and it was open. Not wanting to announce our presence just yet, we conferred briefly and decided to try stealth and see if it worked. Opening the door slightly and with as little motion as possible, Charlie and I
pulled up the door about three inches very slowly, with Tommy and Duncan on their stomachs with their rifles at the ready in case of detection.

  Getting the thumbs up, Charlie and I raised the door a few more inches. We waited for the signal from Duncan, then raised it another few inches. Not arousing any undue attention, I bent down and looked to the right while Charlie checked to the left. I didn’t see anything and Charlie signaled he didn’t see anything either. Nodding, we rolled under the door and into the building. Coming up into a crouch I covered the right while Charlie covered the left, and Duncan and Tommy rolled out from underneath the door. We could hear a large number of voices, and they seemed to be coming from the center of the building. We moved along a storage corridor which ran the length of the building, edging closer to the source of the noise. There was a lot of trash and discarded items littering the walkway. There was a humming noise coming from somewhere which sounded familiar, but I was uninterested in anything but getting Sarah and Kristen back.

  We moved towards the back of the dark building and heard a cheer go up from the voices. A scream sounded briefly and I could hear cursing. Gritting my teeth I moved forward to an opening in the wall which led to the main floor. I looked around the corner and got my first look at my enemy. It was a group of teenagers, roughly 20–25 of them. They were wearing the most outrageous collection of clothing I had ever seen. The girls were wearing loops of necklaces and fur coats, while the boys wore leather coats and designer jeans. Abercrombie was well-represented, as was Hollister and GAP. They were standing on a platform that overlooked the store, and were cheering on some sort of dispute happening on the floor. Hawaiian torches lit the scene in grim shades of orange and red. I heard a smacking sound, another curse, and then a thud like someone being hit in the gut. Another cheer arose and then a voice rang out, silencing the group.