The Zombie Wars: Call To Arms (White Flag Of The Dead Book 7)

by Joseph Talluto

  “Getting a weird vibe here, hoss,” I said, mostly to myself.

  “Same here,” Charlie said. “Tommy, pull over, let’s see what this place is about.”

  Tommy pulled his truck over in a church parking lot. It was a nice looking building with an attractive façade and what looked like formerly nice landscaping. A canopy covered the entrance and the driveway past the entrance so patrons could get inside if the weather was bad. A small bell tower was located near the back, and there looked to be a small school on the other side.

  We stepped out of the trucks, and I looked over at Duncan. He pulled Tucker out of the truck and held him for a minute. Tucker turned his head to the wind, and I could see his little nose moving as he tested the available scents. He didn’t react to anything, so at least from that direction there was nothing to worry about. While the rest of the crew waited, I did a quick walk around of the church. Nothing seemed out of place, and the windows were all intact. All in all, it seemed like it would do as a stopping point for the night.

  Duncan led the way with Tucker, and opened the front door. Suddenly Duncan was spinning in place trying to keep a clawing, biting, and scratching demon from shredding him to pieces. Tucker had gone from complacent to insane in a matter of seconds.

  “Jesus! Tucker! God almighty!” Duncan managed to get the little cat immobile by pressing him against his shoulder. I was standing behind the two of them and could see the wild look in the little cat’s eyes.

  “Duncan, put him back. Guys, heavy weapons,” I said, turning back to the truck. Without another word, we all took our battle rifles out of the trucks. I checked the chamber on my .308 while Charlie inspected his AR. Duncan put the cat back in the truck completely calmed down, and Tommy armed himself with an AR as well. We went back towards the church, and this time I opened the door. I had a flashlight attached to the hand guard of my weapon, and I swept it around, looking for anything that might have sent Tucker over the edge. The interior of the building was dimly lit through cloudy skylights, and I could see a little, though the light was fading.

  We stepped into a large foyer, which extended back and around what must have been the sanctuary area. Across the way I could see some sort of counter with what looked like drink and snack menus. The room was neat and had a fine layer of dust over everything. I couldn’t see anything that would have made our resident zombie detector go nuts.

  “Left!” Tommy yelled, flashing his weapon light down a hallway. All of us crouched and brought our weapons up, lighting up the entrance with four beams.

  I looked over the sights of my rifle and saw exactly…nothing.

  “Tommy?” Charlie asked, staring down his barrel as well.

  “I must be seeing things,” Tommy said. “I swear I saw a group of kids standing there.

  “Not another lodge,” Duncan said.

  I was thinking the same thing. We’d seen our share of ghosts this trip and I wasn’t in the mood for more. I brought my light around back to the main foyer. There was a hallway off to the right, and I headed over that way.

  “I’ll check this one out. Tommy, why don’t you and Duncan head down that hallway? Charlie, there’s a bunch of offices it looks like over on the other side of that counter. Give them a look, and we’ll circle back here in ten,” I said.

  Tommy looked determined to clear the area he said had kids in it, so he went forward without a word. Duncan followed, keeping his light and rifle covering the left side while Tommy covered the right. Charlie broke from the group and went across the foyer, while I went down the hallway I had seen.

  Without the light from the skylights, the hallway was considerably darker. I moved slowly along, checking the doors and windows of the small classrooms I found back there. It looked at one point like the church had a kind of day care for attendees’ children, because there was a small counter outside two rooms filled with toys. I walked down the hallway past the windows and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw movement. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as a small ball slowly rolled down the hallway and bounced off my foot.

  I gave the ball a nudge, sending it back down the hall. Turning back to the task at hand, I tried not to feel the chill that ran across my neck. A few more steps, and I felt something hit my foot again. Looking down, it was the ball bouncing off my foot again. I gave it another nudge, harder this time, sending it down the hall and out into the foyer. I don’t remember ever playing soccer with a ghost before, so this was a first.

  The hallway ended at a cross hallway, and as I looked right, I could see the lights from Tommy and Duncan swinging about. I flashed my light three times in their direction, receiving the same in response. I turned and followed the hallway in the other direction, nearly tripping over the ball at my feet. I picked the ball up and tossed it back down the hallway, bouncing it into the foyer. If it came back again I was going to roll it towards Duncan and let him play with the ghost.

  The end of the hallway opened up into a large gymnasium. The polished floor had a small layer of dust across it, and as I shined my light on it, I saw what looked like small footprints crisscrossing the floor. The cold chill crept across my back as thought about what could have caused the prints after the dust had time to settle.

  At the other end of the gym, the hallway opened up back into the foyer. I was a hallway closer to the café counter than I was when I turned down the other hallway. Charlie, Tommy, and Duncan all rejoined the foyer at the same time.

  “Anything?” I asked.

  Charlie shook his head. “Nothing here.”

  “Same down the other hall,” Tommy said.

  “Wonder why Tucker lost his head?” Duncan asked to no one in particular.

  “No idea,” I said. “Anyone check the sanctuary?”

  Three shaking heads was all the answer I got. “Okay then. Well, let’s see what’s behind door number two.”

  I went over to the middle door to the sanctuary and pulled it open. I had to take a step back as a chill wind of death blew into my face. I held up my arm to my nose as I walked into the sanctuary.

  The setting sun shone through the stained glass window on the west side casting multicolored lights all over the pews. The stage was built up high, at least six feet in the air. On the altar was a large bowl with several cups of brownish liquid pooling at the bottom.

  “Jesus.” Charlie’s voice came behind me, and I knew he saw the same thing I did.

  “I’d say Jesus had turned his face from here, wouldn’t you?” I said.

  The pews were filled to about half capacity of men, women and children. They were sitting in neat rows, and they looked like they had just been sleeping. Some had their heads back, while others were slumped over. A couple of women were still holding infants.

  Every adult was holding a cup similar to the one on the altar.

  “Wonder what made them all decide to cross over?” Duncan asked.

  “Suicide cult?” Charlie asked. “Doesn’t seem likely in the middle of downstate Illinois. They take their religion seriously down here, but not that seriously.”

  “Maybe they felt like they had no other choice,” Tommy said.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But this isn’t a church anymore. It’s a tomb.”

  “You shouldn’t be here,” a new voice said.

  Four weapons covered a small man standing in the doorway. He was short, maybe a buck twenty soaking wet, and dressed in a simple plaid shirt and jeans. He carried a small .22 rifle, and his eyes were dark, contrasting sharply with his pale skin.

  I dispensed with formalities. “Why?”

  “Did they see you?” The man was intense, staring at each of us.

  “Did who see us?” Duncan asked.

  “The kids. Did they see you?” The man was whispering hoarsely now.

  “What kids? Only thing I thought I saw was a group of kids standing down a hallway. They weren’t there when the light shined on them,” Tommy said.

  “Thank God. Then there’s still time
. Did any of them contact you?” the man said, looking at each of us in turn.

  “I played a little ball with someone, that’s all I did,” I said, getting some stares from my crew.

  “We have to go now. While there’s time. I’ll explain outside. Please, you have to leave before they see you, before they know you see them!!” The man looked almost frantic as he gestured us towards the door.

  I shrugged at my friends and we followed the small man towards the door. I looked over at Charlie and held up two fingers with my right hand. He nodded and made the same gesture to Duncan. I got Tommy’s attention and made the same gesture with my left hand. He nodded and brought his rifle up to the low ready. I did the same with mine. When we hit the outside, Charlie and Duncan swept right, while Tommy and I swept left. If the little man brought us out into an ambush, they were going to get the surprise of their lives.

  It was with no small relief that we saw there was no one out there. Just the trucks and a small pickup parked nearby.

  I swept my rifle up to my shoulder and faced the little man.

  “All right, we’re outside. What the hell happened here? Why were you so damn spooky inside?” I asked.

  The man put his rifle in his truck before answering. “My name is Emmet Jordan. This was my hometown before the Upheaval. When the zombies came, they didn’t come from inside the town. They came from the north, killing everything.” Emmet looked off into the setting sun. “People panicked. Instead of banding together and fighting, they ran for the most secure building they knew.”

  “The zombies surrounded them. Night and day, they groaned and scratched. People thought they could wait them out, but how do you out wait the dead?” Emmet asked of no one. “So they decided they would go meet their maker instead of turning over into one of those demons. Everyone took the poison that killed them all,” Emmet said.

  “How do you know this?” Duncan asked.

  “My wife and son are in there,” Emmet said. “I was a truck driver. I was in the far side of Nebraska when everything went south. By the time I got here, everything was over.”

  I looked at our small friend with new eyes. Anyone who could cross the country in the middle of zombie apocalypse was a good survivor, and a man worth knowing.

  “What was that stuff about them seeing us?” I asked.

  Emmet sighed. “You may not believe this, but what I tell you is the truth. If a ghost sees you, and sees you looking at them, they’ll follow you. They’ll take up residence where you live, make your life hell. Farmer up the road took a look inside not too long ago. Three weeks later he hung himself. I’m not taking any chances.”

  “Why not just burn it down?” Charlie asked.

  “Nope, then they’re free to go anywhere.” Emmet said. “Better they just stay there, and everyone leaves them alone.”

  I sighed. “Sounds like a good plan. But if we’re playing with one superstition, let’s fight it with another. Duncan, Tommy, follow Emmet into town. Find me some iron bars, bring them back here.”

  The three drove off, leaving me with Charlie and Tucker. Tucker was back to his purring self. I refilled his water bowl with my canteen and put a little more food in his bowl.

  “Why iron bars?” Charlie asked.

  “Old superstition I read about a very long time ago. Spirits hate the touch of iron, won’t cross an iron barrier,” I said.

  “You believe that?” Charlie asked.

  “Four years ago I didn’t believe real zombies could walk the earth. Yet here we are. I’ve re-evaluated what I believe in the meantime,” I said.

  Charlie looked at the church. “Amen, brother. Amen.”

  Macon, IL

  “Christ, how many more?”

  “I’ve got two mags left, then we’re in trouble.”

  “Perfect. I’ve got one.”

  “Just one? You’re a lousy shot then.”

  “Shut up. We can’t all be Mr. Hero who never misses.”

  “That’s right, there’s only one of me. So why do you suck at shooting?”

  “Ha! Two with one shot! Beat that!”

  “Don’t need to. I have more ammo.”

  “You suck.”

  “Well, we have two options. We can stay here, shoot up our ammo, and pray to God Charlie and Duncan show up and rescue our asses, or we can figure out how to get out of here,” I said.

  “Christ, that’s the best you got?” Tommy said.

  “I’m open to suggestions.”

  Tommy sighed long and deep. “All right. What do we do?”

  “Get some carts. Fill them with anything heavy. I’ll hold the fort here,” I said.

  “Why you?” Tommy asked.

  “I have more ammo,” I said, smiling sweetly.

  “Back in a minute,” Tommy said grumpily.

  I watched him duck through the aisles and disappear into the gloom of the store. We had been scouting this area after meeting with the community around Lake Shelbyville. Turns out that lake had managed to bring together over four thousand people. They made the lake the center of their existence and used it for sustenance, defense, and water. It was ideally suited to that purpose, and the group had fared well. We were the first outside group representatives they had seen in a long time that hadn’t wanted to try and take over. They had an effective cure for that. They simply overwhelmed the opposition with their superior numbers, and the rest were swinging in the trees outside of town.

  Tommy and I had decided to head west to check on some reports of activity and wound up getting ourselves into a mess. Turned out that Decatur was completely killed off, and most of not all of the zombies from that small city headed south. We found each other in the small town of Macon, and right now Tommy and I were trapped in a small grocery store. The sides and back of the building were secure, but the front was not. We knew the zombies were waiting out back, so we had little choice in how to engage. The bodies were piled up in front of the windows, and that helped created a barrier they couldn’t easily cross, but it was just a matter of time. We were shooting them now, but we were low on ammo, and there were still probably four or five hundred zombies in the immediate area, with another couple thousand on the way.

  We had to get out, or we weren’t going to, at least not alive. I noticed this was beginning to become a pattern for us. Stuck in a building, have to fight our way out. Stuck in a building, have to fight our way out. Next town we visit, I am going into no building whatsoever. Period.

  Tommy returned with two shopping carts filled with bags of dog food. I guess that made a certain amount of sense since a lot of dogs died at the hands of zombies. Loyal pets didn’t want to think their owners would hurt them until it was too late. Cats were another matter. They were survivalists, pure and simple. When one situation didn’t work out, they were gone.

  “What’s the plan?” Tommy asked.

  “We take these out the back by the loading dock. There’s a ramp there, right?” I said.

  “I think so,” Tommy said.

  “Run these two down the ramp, let them make an opening, and we run right through,” I said.

  “That’s the plan?” Tommy asked, his eyes opening wide.

  “That’s what I got outside of using up all our ammo, fighting hand to hand until we’re exhausted, and dying in a grocery store in the middle of a town in Illinois no one will remember,” I said.

  Tommy shrugged. “I liked the first one better.”

  We took the carts back through the storeroom, past the three Z’s we killed back there. The shelves were mostly bare, with an occasional box here and there. Those had cleaning supplies we didn’t need. Towards the back was a curtain of plastic strips and a loading dock where trucks would unload. A ramp led to a small garage door, and I told Tommy to wait while I rigged the door.

  I unlocked it carefully and looked out the small window to see where the zombies were. There were several zombies milling about, clearly agitated about the shots being fired, but they hadn’t quite figured out to g
o to the front of the store. When the garage door went up they were going to be moving quick. I looped an extension cord around the handle and tossed it over the door railing. Pulling back, I hoped it would not catch until too late, leaving the door open.

  I trailed back to Tommy and we both made sure our weapons were ready and we had full magazines in our guns. Our rifles were empty, so they just rode on our backs. I put my pick on the handle of the cart, and Tommy did the same with his weapon.

  “Here we go,” I said, yanking on the cord.

  The garage door lifted quickly, and as it hit the top, I held on and wrapped the cord around the railing. Tommy was already running down the ramp, shoving his dog food battering ram ahead of him.

  I was about fifteen feet behind him and moving fast. We burst out of the door, and I moved to get along side of him. Tommy had packed the carts well. There was dog food under the basket and piled about three feet high in the basket. The carts probably weighed three hundred pounds apiece.

  The first ghoul I hit bounced off like I was driving a truck. The second I caught only part of him, but I spun him away to knock out another Z. Tommy was doing well, knocking away two or three on his side.

  “Split!” Tommy yelled, and I broke away from him.

  “Release!” he shouted, and I let go, swinging my axe in front of me as my cart plowed down three more zombies. Tommy’s cart cleared away two more, and suddenly there was a path to the field behind the grocery store.

  “Go, go, go!” I yelled, swinging hard to take out a ghoul. The ones we hit were getting back up, although a few were crooked since we broke some of their bones.

  Tommy didn’t waste time. He bolted for the field, killing the lone zombie left to oppose us. I jumped over spilled bags of dog food and ran after Tommy, working to create as much distance as we could from the horde.

  “Come on!” Tommy yelled. He was going flat out, running for all he was worth. I stayed with him, crossing a four-lane highway into the next field. There was a tree line ahead, and we made for it, trying to get something between us and the zombie’s line of sight. If there were any kid zombies there, we were screwed.