White Flag of the Dead

by Joseph Talluto

  We waited in silence for the ghouls to show up, the only noise was Jake slurping on his bottle. He fussed a bit from time to time and my heart was in my throat. We didn’t have long to wait. The first one, a bald zombie with a hand missing, slowly walked through the gas station. His head turned slowly from side to side, and I could see his nostrils flaring. Right behind him was another man, this one a grayish color, and in an advanced state of decay. Skin was hanging off him, and in more than one place I could see bone showing through. A woman came next and she gave us the worst scare. She came around the corner, with a ripped up shoulder and bite marks down one bare arm. She was right up to the window, and we all froze in place. She slid along the front, leaving a greasy trail on the glass, and stopped right at the door. She faced the door, and looked right into the store. None of us dared to move, and we all wondered how to get her to move on. Her dead eyes just stared, and I could see her nose flatten a little as she pressed her face to the door.

  I suddenly realized what she was doing. She was trying to sniff us out, and if we had passed through that door, she would have found us. We waited in silence, and I was afraid to even look in another direction. She stayed at the door, and one hand rose to scrape against the glass. Another zombie saw what she was doing and came to investigate. He wasn’t in as bad shape, and I couldn’t see any trauma on him. He must have turned from internal infection. He walked up to the door and put both hands on the glass. I was getting anxious. Jake was about to finish his bottle and was going to need to burp. If I didn’t move him, he was going to get fussy and loud.

  The zombies stopped moving and slowly put their hands down at their sides. I was stunned when I saw them actually close their eyes. What the heck was up with that? I wasn’t about to question their motives, I just decided to use the opportunity. I slid down further towards the floor and sat behind a shelving unit. I couldn’t see the zombies, and hoped they couldn’t see me. I shifted Jake, and he let out a small but forceful belch. I couldn’t see the zombies, but I saw Tommy tense.

  “Their eyes just opened again” he whispered in a barely audible voice, not daring to move even his lips.

  “Christ, they have good hearing,” I whispered back, just as quietly. I was silently praying that Jake would not make any more noise. I had to assume the store was currently surrounded, and we would be in serious trouble if they found out we were in here. For right now, I had to assume they knew we were somewhere, they just didn’t know where.

  “How many are out there?” I whispered to Tommy. I couldn’t see from my hiding place behind the shelves.

  I could see Tommy’s eyes darting around the station, and he hissed, “At least fifty that I can see, God knows how many more.” I felt bad for him. Being at the counter, he was directly in the line of sight of the zombies at the door, and couldn’t move at all. I felt Jake shift, and looked down to see that he was starting to get sleepy eyes. The fresh air and the excitement, not to mention the recent bottle, had done a number to put the guy to sleep. I held him to my shoulder and rocked him gently, praying he would go to sleep. Knowing my luck, he’d probably snore for the first time in his life.

  I heard a scratching at the glass again, and figured the two ghouls were still trying to figure out if food was available in the store. I just hoped they wouldn’t decide to smash the glass and find out.

  Tommy suddenly let out a breath and whispered, “They’re leaving. Something distracted them and they’re heading away.”

  Duncan slid away from his position and went back by Tommy. “Thought that woman zombie was going to find us for sure.” He said, shaking his head and placing his rifle on his shoulder.

  “Same here.” I said. “I thought a burp was going to be our undoing.”

  Tommy shrugged, “We’d have figured something out.”

  We were still speaking in whispers, as we could see dozens of zombies in the streets. The risk of one coming to investigate was still high, so we decided to retreat to the back areas of the convenience store. Jake had fallen asleep, so I brought him back to the manager’s office and laid him on a Mexican blanket I found in the store. I closed the door most of the way, and went to exploring our new home. At least for a while.

  I checked the back area, and found the storeroom mostly intact, save for a scattering of towels and such on the floor. I found a box of energy bars, and added it to the supplies I had in the bike trailer. Duncan found a supply of batteries that would be useful, and some cheap two-way radios. He unpacked them and put batteries in, giving me one of the radios when he finished. Tommy was checking out the bathrooms, making sure there weren’t any surprise visitors waiting for us.

  Duncan and I were sitting in the employee’s break area, enjoying a lunch of Ho-Ho’s, peanuts, and stale Doritos’s, when Tommy came back and sat with us.

  “Well, we’re alone, thank God, no surprises in the building. I was able to look out the window of the women’s bathroom and see our car. The zombies were crawling all over it like sniffing dogs, but they didn’t break in or anything.” Tommy said, picking up a Ho-Ho and having some lunch himself.

  “Any idea what might have distracted them? Not that I’m not grateful, but if there’s someone else out there, we might be able to help them.” I said, opening another package of Doritos’s.

  “Not a clue. Anybody willing to change the focus of so many Z’s has to be slightly crazy.” Said Tommy.

  “ ‘Z’s’?” I asked.

  Duncan piped up “Z for Zombie. Like calling them Zack or Zed.”

  I shrugged. “Works for me.” I looked around our little haven. “Well, gents, what’s our next move? I personally would rather not spend the rest of my days in a gas station. Kind of lowers your ranking when you finally head to the Great Divide, you know?”

  Tommy laughed. “I hear that. So what’s the plan?”

  I pointed at the ceiling. “We should probably send someone up top to get a look at the situation, and see if there might be a break in the Z migration for us to make a run for it. We should also fortify the front windows, as they are our weakest point. If we can’t fortify them, we should at least find a way to keep from being seen from the outside.”

  Duncan spoke up. “I can handle that. I saw some advertisement posters in the back area, I can tack them up without too much trouble.”

  “Sounds good,” I said, “Just make sure our girlfriend doesn’t come back.”

  “No joke. I swear she looked right at me.” Duncan stood up and headed to the back to get the posters. Tommy looked at me.

  “You want to go climbing, or should I?” he asked.

  “I’ll go.” I said. “Jake’s good for a while, and I am curious to see what kind of hole we managed to dig for ourselves.”

  “What do you mean?” Tommy asked, his face scowling.

  “We stopped here, but we could have kept going and put more distance between them and us.” I said.

  Tommy shook his head. “You might have, but we would have been meat. We ran out of gas, remember?”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “I forgot about that.” I said sheepishly.

  “Yeah. When I saw you had just the bike, I thought you were nuts. But right now, you look like a freakin’ genius.”

  “Got it. I’m going to head up. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

  I headed to the back room, where the ladder was to get to the roof. I had already found the key to the padlock in the office where Jake was sleeping, and it was a simple matter to climb up, unlock the lock, and get on the roof.

  Once up there, it was different. I had to stay low so as not to be accidentally seen by the zombies roaming around the area. The roof was covered in tar paper, so I was able to move quietly to the edge and peep over at the car. The zombies had abandoned it as uninteresting, and I could see them starting to shuffle down the street towards the east. Their walk was mesmerizing, the slow, steady gait, swaying from side to side as their virus infected brains worked at remembering basic motor functions. They
had no direction, just wandering where they would until something attracted their attention.

  I rolled to the center of the roof, then crawled up to the front. A four-foot false front afforded me a good bit of cover. I slowly raised my head over the top and looked about. There were still about twenty or so zombies wandering around, but none seemed interested in the store. They seemed to be heading in circles, and some were just standing still, waiting for stimuli to motivate them. I was curious enough to try a little experiment, and I looked around the roof to see if there was anything I could use. I spotted a tennis ball at the corner and belly crawled over to get it. Bringing it back to the front, I positioned myself and using a hook shot throw, lobbed the ball to the middle of the intersection.

  The outcome was amazing. Even before the ball hit the ground, zombies had already zeroed in on it and were chasing it. Those that had not seen it, spun around at the sound of it hitting the pavement. The group as a whole converged on the bouncing ball and became a tangled mass of arms and legs. Several zombies fell to be stepped on by their comrades, and the group only lost interest when they realized there was nothing for them to eat. I did manage to move most of the zombies away from the gas station, and they were now focused primarily on the parking lot across the street. Useful bit of information, that, I thought. I didn’t figure a tennis ball would do any distracting if they were chasing live prey, but if they didn’t know you were there and got distracted enough to move, that could buy you some very precious seconds.

  I turned around and as I made my way to the ladder I happened to look over the stone wall and into the backyards of the subdivision behind the gas station. I saw a lot of white flags on mailboxes and shook my head. I also saw a lot of zombies milling about and couldn’t figure out why they were there. That was until I looked at the second floor windows and saw what had to be thirty people looking at me. To say I was stunned stupid was an understatement.

  The people had rigged together four homes by the upper floors. Ladders extended between the houses, and I shuddered to think what it must be like to crawl on an extension ladder suspended over a sea of hungry ghouls. I raised a hand in greeting, and got twenty in return. There was no way to communicate outside of hand signals, and I needed to get back inside. I went back down the ladder and met up with Tommy and Duncan.

  Duncan had effectively managed to cover the front windows, so we were okay with anything looking in. We still needed to be as quiet as possible, since sound seemed to attract them in droves. We sat down at the employee section again and I had Jake in my lap. He was playing with some stuffed animals I had found in the store, and taking turns hitting them on the table, trying to eat them, and talking to them.

  “So how was the roof? I saw the Z’s go running after a tennis ball. That your doing?” Tommy asked, sipping on a warm bottle of water.

  “Yeah, that was me. Just running a little experiment.” I said.

  “Well, it was exactly the right thing to do at the time. Duncan couldn’t put up the posters without attracting attention, so you gave him just the opening he needed.”

  Duncan nodded. “I had everything taped and ready to go, but couldn’t move because three of them were too close. Thanks.”

  I nodded back. “Speaking of close. Have either of you taken look out back, over the wall?”

  Tommy shook his head. “Can’t see anything over the wall unless I stood on the dumpster, and I sure ain’t one to try that right now. Why?”

  “Well, you’re not going to believe this, but behind the wall, there’s a subdivision of houses, and at least three of the houses are occupied with a number of people.”

  Tommy and Duncan just stared at me. If I didn’t know better, I would swear Jake stared at me, too.

  I continued. “They are living on their second floors, and have connected the houses with extension ladders on the roofs. It looks like several neighbors came together and have created a sort of refuge, but I can’t imagine they have enough food for all those people.’

  Duncan halted in his eating of a granola bar. “What do you want to do?”

  I thought for a second. “We need to communicate and see what their situation is. For all we know, they’re fine and just enjoying the show of three lunatics trying to make a run for it. Duncan, do you remember where you put those radios you found?”

  Duncan nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Are you thinking on tossing one over?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have an arm like that. We need to think of some way to launch one over without attracting too much attention.”

  It was Tommy’s turn to shake his head. “Why worry about attracting attention? Why not just throw it in the yard?”

  “There’s about thirty zombies wandering around the yards, and likely as many in the houses on the ground floors. We’d be witnessing a slaughter if they tried to get it.” I said.

  Tommy looked down. “Hadn’t figured on that.” he murmured. Then he brightened. “What if we tossed the radio into the yard, distracted the zombies from the roof here, and they could get to it.”

  I thought about it. “What about the zombies on our side? Won’t they hear us?”

  Tommy got more excited. “Yeah, but if we’re on the roof, near the false front, they’ll never know where the noise is coming from, and lose interest in a little while. All we need to do is get the ones in the yard to see us, and they’ll be wandering over to the fence in no time.”

  “Works for me”.

  Duncan got the radio ready by wrapping it in a towel and putting it in a coffee can. We didn’t need to throw it too far, but a good fifty yards. Tommy said he’d give it a throw. I had no problem with that. Jake was getting antsy, so I needed to spend some time with him before I gave him his dinner. Duncan and Tommy would let me know how it went.

  They were gone for half an hour, then came scrambling back down the ladder. Duncan was slapping Tommy on the back and Tommy was grinning like a loon. I looked up from feeding Jake and asked, “So, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?”

  Tommy slumped into the seat and took a swig of water. “I’ve never felt so wanted in my life. We climbed up on the roof and waved to the people in the houses, and then Duncan whistled. Holy shit. You would have thought he just farted in church. Every zombie in the yard came limping over and clawing at the wall. I saw several come out of the houses and join the group.” He took another drink. “After that, we just sat there and let the group see us. Duncan would occasionally wave at the zombies, but it gave me time to throw the can.” Another sip. “I had no idea I could throw that far.”

  I glanced over. Jake was nearly done. “How far?”

  Tommy grinned. “I bounced it off the porch and it landed near a smashed-in sliding glass door. I have no idea how they’re going to get it, but we did what we could.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. We had no real obligation to those people in the houses, and they had no obligation to us, either. But since the dead seemed to be outnumbering the living these days, we kind of needed to try to stick together. Duncan clicked the radio on and we waited. I gave Jake a bath in the big sink in the back area, and he loved it. He played with the faucet and laughed when I used a bottle of water to wash his hair. I really envied his inability to understand the situation he was in. Yeah, we had a scary moment there, but we recovered and now just needed to plan our next step.

  10

  The sun was starting to set, and that was when the radio crackled to life.

  “Hello? Hello? Anybody there? Are the guys who threw the radio to us still there? Hello?” The voice sounded frantic.

  Duncan picked up the radio. “Hello, we read you. How are you all doing?” He looked at Tommy and me when we came over to hear.

  “We’re okay for now, but we’re running out of food. We’ve been rationing for a week now, and are nearly out. Any way you can get some to us?”

  Duncan looked at Tommy , who shook his head. “Negative, it’s too risky right now. How many people are up there?”

/>   The answer stunned us all. “We’ve got sixty-two people on the second floor of four houses. We’ve been going back and forth with the ladders. The zombies know we’re here and won’t leave.”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “Can’t get them out without serious help. Do they have vehicles?” I asked.

  Duncan asked the question to the person on the radio. “No, our vehicles are gone. A group passing through took them two weeks ago.” the voice said sadly.

  I ground my teeth in frustration. People suck, I thought. A thought occurred to me. We could get them out, and moving, but we were going to have to do it soon. I reached over for the radio.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Yes?” came the reply.

  “Do you have any weapons?” I asked, formulating a plan as I spoke.

  “Yes, we have about fifteen guns and everyone has a weapon of some kind”

  I raised my eyebrows. That was a lot more that I ever had expected. “Do you have any ammo?”

  “We have about four shots each. We used a lot when we set up our little forts.” the radio said back.

  I hoped it would be enough. “I have a plan, but it’s going to take a serious concentrated effort. We’ll talk again tomorrow. Can you hang on until then?”

  The voice sounded determined. “We’ve made it this far. What time?”

  “I’ll call you back at 8 am. Turn off the radio so you don’t waste batteries. Out.”

  “Will do. Out.” The voice sounded off.

  Tommy and Duncan looked at me. “We have some planning to do, and I for one, am tired of playing nice with these decaying bastards.”