White Flag of the Dead (30 page)

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.

I got another surprise when I went back into my condo. Charlie had apparently been strong-armed into trading with another crew member and was no longer sharing a place with me. I got a shock as I went into the condo and found Sarah playing with Jacob.

“Where’s Charlie?” I asked, looking into the bedroom and seeing Sarah’s gear.

“He and I traded. I figured Jake could use a woman’s influence. Any problems with that?” Her tone held both trepidation and challenge.

I shook my head. I came to the realization that even though I was the leader, I really wasn’t in charge.

23

I leaned to the left as Charlie’s knife flashed past my neck. I lunged forward with my shoulder and knocked his arm up, while stabbing towards his midsection with my own blade. Charlie deflected the blow with his free hand while his knife hand stabbed downwards. Spinning away to the right I avoided the stab and backed away, forcing Charlie to come to me. His face was impassive, and moved fluidly towards me, his knife held low with the blade pointing upwards. My own blade was held the same way, and each of us looked for an opportunity to strike.

Charlie glided close and struck with the speed of a rattler. I stepped back just out of his reach and grabbed his wrist with my free hand. He pulled me in close in an attempt to free his hand and I released his wrist suddenly, causing him to jerk his blade back out of the way and stumble slightly backwards. I lunged forward and my blade tagged his neck, causing Charlie to grunt and swear.

“Dammit! I knew you were going to do something like that but I fell for it anyway.” Charlie exhaled loudly and rubbed his neck. “Thank God we keep the sheaths on our knives. Did you have to stab so hard?”

I laughed. “Quit whining, you baby. I notice you didn’t pull your stab when you nailed me in the kidney last time. I’ll be pissing blood for a week, thank you.”

Charlie grinned. “Best out of three?”

I hefted my knife. “Love to. Gun cleaning for the loser?”

“Deal.”

Charlie and I had agreed that we needed to keep up with training, since we were going to be heading out later that day to clear out homes and hunt for supplies. Tommy and Duncan were gathering supplies for the winter from the nearby grocery store and drugstore, and Sarah was working with Kristen and Chelsea to get the new people to the community situated and up to speed with what we were trying to do. I accepted the fact that the world as we knew it was gone, and not coming back for a long time. But we had a chance to remake what had been lost, avoid the mistakes we had made, and use this plague as an opportunity to hit the Restart button on the world. That is, if we managed to live that long.

I had been in contact with Nate when we arrived here two weeks ago, and he had both good and bad news. The good news was the fence was being expanded very well, and they had begun firing the homes south of St. Andrews Road, a major roadway in that area. They had also made a push to the north and were firing the homes and subdivisions along the Route 45 corridor. He figured the burning would take at least a month, but thought winter was a fine time for a fire. I agreed, and was going to get started on some nearby homes today. The bad news though I am sure Nate didn’t think so, was that my old friends Frank Stearns and Kevin Pierce had left the community, and were headed in my direction. Great. Maybe I’ll just shoot them once and for all. Accidentally, or something. Of course, I could hope that the zombies get them, but since it was winter and we had managed to determine that cold weather effectively slows them down to the point of immobility, Kevin and Frank’s chances were actually pretty good.

Charlie and I faced off again, and were grappling quite well when Sarah walked in on us. She was holding Jake, who looked like he had been crying. Sarah eyed the two of us, then asked “Who won?”

I rebuckled my knife onto my belt and attached the leg clip. I took my son from Sarah, and said “We both lost once. You interrupted the tie-breaker.” I turned my attention to Jake. “What’s the matter, buddy? You were supposed to be sleeping.” I bounced him gently and he laid his little head on my shoulder. He was getting bigger all the time, and starting to pull himself up on the furniture. His favorite game was to walk around the coffee table, chasing his daddy who crawled around.

Sarah rubbed his back. “He seems more upset these days when you’re gone, like he knows what you’re doing.”

I shook my head. “I know I should be spending more time with him, but it’s critical we move as much as possible while the zombies are slow.” I was actually looking forward to the deep freeze days of January when we could move in relative safety and clear out hundreds of homes and businesses. “Don’t worry little buddy, Daddy will always come back.”

Sarah looked at me. “You make that promise a lot?”

I glanced back at her. “Every time I leave.”

“Thought so. When are we heading out?” Sarah was already dressed for success, having spent her morning in training with Kristen and Chelsea.

I thought about it. “We’ll head out when Tommy and Duncan get back. I don’t like to leave the place without a veteran around.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the other members, but Tommy and Duncan had been through enough that they would be less likely to make mistakes. And since we still had no idea who was responsible for the bullet riddled cars we had seen on our way here, I didn’t want to take any chances. “Where are the new couples? John and what’s her name?”

Sarah smiled. “They are out getting firewood for the condos, and the other new couple, Ryan and Amy, are with them.”