Aftermath (Book 2): Chicago Calling

by Duncan McArdle

  “Everything okay?”, John asked again.

  “Well now I told you son, I’m just fine”, Sandra replied with another fake smile.

  “Sandra?”, John asked for a third time.

  “Oh it’s nothing”, Sandra said, making eye contact with John briefly before continuing, “Just getting a little worried about the food supplies around here is all”.

  “The food supplies?”, John asked, confused, “I thought we were good on that?”.

  “Well we are for a few days, maybe even a week or so, but after that, we’ve got a problem”, Sandra explained.

  “Well you know we’re gonna bring in more, we always do”, John insisted.

  “I know”, Sandra replied, “You’ve never let us down, but recently things have kind of… dried up, you know? You’ve been coming in with a few cans, nothing major, and there are almost seventy people here including you folks, that’s alotta’ mouths to feed John”.

  John knew she had a point. Whilst the stockpiles now were high, and were being topped up slightly every few days, there were almost two-hundred meals a day being dished out, and that was going to eradicate supplies quickly. Shortly after he arrived he’d learnt of how Sonja and Lester had been stockpiling food for days before and after the world had finally collapsed, but they’d never anticipated having this many mouths to feed, and certainly not with so few guards to go out on runs.

  “I tell you what”, John said, breaking the silence as he sensed tension and nervousness in the eyes of the woman who sat in front of him. “When I head out tomorrow, I personally guarantee you that I will bring back at least two days of food, okay? And the next time, and the next time, and I won’t come back until-“.

  “Young man”, Sonja interrupted, “Even if you came back empty handed, I would rather have you here protecting us from the bad people, than out there on your own in the dark still searching”.

  John smiled at the concern that had become apparent on Sandra’s face.

  “Fair enough”, he said, “Then I guess I promise I’ll be back before nightfall too”, he said, to which she just about managed a real smile.

  John stood up and moved towards the edge of the rooftop, where he slowly began to survey the area, looking further into the distance in search of somewhere that might be worth raiding on their next trip out. It was strange, but even now, having spent many weeks inside and on top of the building, he found himself spotting locations he’d never noticed before, even if they were right there in front of his eyes. In that moment, he found himself making a mental plan based solely around one particular building, and suddenly realised he needed to discuss it with someone.

  John turned to see Sonja over in the corner, watching over the building’s front. Quickly he made his way over, making his presence as obvious as possible – scuffing his feet and clearing his throat – so as not to frighten her into falling over the edge upon his arrival.

  “Morning John”, came Sonja’s gravelly voice as she noticed him approaching, a common side effect of being on watch for so long.

  “Morning”, John replied, himself keen to jump straight into his latest plan. “You ever thought about growing stuff here? Food and such?”.

  Sonja smiled. “We tried that, right there”, she said as she pointed to the grassy central reservation just in front of the car park.

  “And?”, John asked.

  “It got trampled by biters, by people, hell even by our own cars, and every time we went outside to check on it, it was a risk. It just wasn’t worth it for a couple tomatoes every once in a while”, Sonja explained.

  “Alright”, John conceded, “But what about if we had it somewhere more secure, easier to get to, away from the outside world”, John asked.

  “Hey, if you can find somewhere like that, I’m all ears”, Sonja insisted.

  “Well”, John said, before turning and pointing to the next building along from the car park, an apartment block just a storey higher than them, “How about on top of that?”.

  Sonja looked to see what John was pointing at. The flat rooftop of the building adjacent had metal bars running around its outside, most likely put there with the intention of stopping people from falling. However it also had a second purpose, and that was to indicate that there must be some reason to go up there in the first place, and so Sonja looked long and hard at the top of the building, until she eventually caught sight of exactly what John had; blades of grass.

  “You don’t think-“, Sonja began.

  “Rooftop garden? I reckon so”, John replied before Sonja had a chance to finish.

  “But how do we get to it?”, Sonja asked.

  “We’d have to clear it out first from the ground up, then barricade it up and make some kind of bridge or something”, John began, “Who knows, it might end up being a better place to live out the winter than here, less exposed and all”.

  “Yeah you might be right about that, the days are getting colder out here”, Sonja replied.

  “Look, I know we need food more than anything, so I’m gonna focus on that on the runs just like normal, but as a side project, I think this might do some good”, John explained. “Hell if nothing else, it’s the sort of thing that’ll give these people hope”.

  Sonja nodded, “Sounds good to me”, she agreed.

  John was a little surprised. He’d envisaged more objection than he’d received, and had even prepared a series of convincing statements to try and win Sonja over, but instead, it seemed he’d found his biggest supporter.

  “Good”, he said, the surprise evident in his voice, “I’ll go clear it out then, if I can find someone to come with”.

  Immediately Sonja’s head turned and her mouth began to open.

  “Not you”, John said, stopping her short. “You need to rest when you’re done”.

  “Yeah… okay”, Sonja conceded, before turning back into her position, and continuing to scan the area in front of the camp.

  * * *

  Shortly after lunch had been consumed, John picked up and holstered his Ruger and blade – happy to for once be going out with a light-load – and headed for the ground floor. News had spread quickly through camp of his plans, and an air of excitement was present all over. Not only were residents thrilled at the prospect of having a virtually unlimited food supply, but also at the idea of clearing out another nearby danger, and at the possibility of having somewhere warmer to stay come winter time. The plan had worked so well in fact, that news had reached Harvey even sooner than John had anticipated.

  “I hear you’re headed next door”, came Harvey’s voice over John’s shoulder, himself having barely made it down a single flight of stairs.

  “You heard right, you looking to join?”, John asked rhetorically, knowing Harvey wouldn’t be able to resist a run that was not only so close to home, but one that had the possibility of generating so much glory.

  “Well…”, Harvey started, pretending to consider the matter briefly, “Yeah, alright”, he agreed.

  John would of course never have gone alone, not anymore anyway, but he knew that asking Harvey to accompany him was a tricky situation. Instead, he’d learnt that one thing the man hated more than anything was being excluded, and so sometimes the best way was to let him come to you.

  The two made their way downstairs and headed for the front entrance, where Lester stood once more, having been relieved by Andrew during the night before. John had already made his plans known to Lester, in a bid to secure some extra security during their mission, and happy at the fact things were moving forwards, the bulky man had immediately agreed to keep watch over the front of both buildings. In a worst case scenario, this might have meant putting himself slightly more in harm’s way, but he seemed to think it was worth the risk. This of course was all confirmed through little more than a simple nod as the duo left the confines of the car-park.

  Soon enough, John and Harvey arrived at the front door of the apartment block next door, and assembled themselves on either side
. Lester meanwhile stood just in view, outside and towards the edge of the car park, now surveying the area in its entirety.

  “You ready?”, John asked of Harvey, drawing his Ruger and flicking off the safety with his left hand, whilst also holding his knife tight in his left.

  “You bet”, Harvey replied, his own pistol at the ready.

  With that confirmation, John began the procedure he had carried out so many times since the beginning. He took a few steps back, and then moved briskly forwards, raising up his right leg and kicking forwards hard against the door, sending it flying open and cracking off of its once electronically operated locking mechanism. A loud thud signalled that the barricade had fallen to the ground, at which point both men moved in.

  The entranceway was shrouded in dust, its mailboxes and noticeboards the first items to come into sight once inside. Off to the left were the laundry and maintenance facilities, and to the right, the first apartment. The centre of the building meanwhile housed a now defunct elevator, and a set of stairs.

  “Two per floor”, John said as he stared at the various mailboxes, “We’ll be done in no time”, he said confidently.

  With a nod of agreement, Harvey moved over to the laundry room door and slowly pushed it ajar, sparking surprise from neither man when nothing of interest was revealed inside. If ever there was a place to hide out in the event of an apocalypse, a small cramped room full of inedible items was probably lowest on the list.

  “Clear”, Harvey said to John, after having quickly swept the room’s interior.

  With that, John moved on to the maintenance room. Twisting the handle, it became apparent that it was locked, and probably had been most of its life. But John was keen not to leave any stone unturned, for fear of it causing them a problem further down the line, so he once again took a few steps back, and then kicked the door clean open with a loud accompanying snap.

  Inside was little of any real value, brooms and mops mostly, as well as various buckets and cleaning products which might someday be helpful, but were not an essential item for now. There also appeared to be a machine used to cut new key cards for all of the apartments above, but without the electricity needed to power it, this too would be of little use when trying to gain entry, so he headed back out in the main area.

  Now confident that each of the non-accommodation areas was clear, the duo then set their sights on the first apartment, located just across the hall. The door – just like all the others from here on out – was electric, meaning it would have become locked the second the power went out, if of course it wasn’t already. Knowing this, John wasted no time trying the handle, and instead moved to his usual position, and then forced the door open.

  The pair moved in immediately, amidst rising volumes of vision-impairing dust, and began to get to grips with the typical layout the building used. The apartment was large and open-plan, with a communal area, kitchen and dining room all present in the first portion, and off to the rear was a hallway, which appeared to house the rest of the rooms. On first inspection, there were no signs of life inside, and so after the pair had split up slightly to quickly cover the initial space, and had ascertained that the kitchen in particular was completely empty, they moved towards the hallway.

  Making their way both slowly and cautiously along the hall, they soon found three doors, two of which led to bedrooms, and one to a bathroom. They headed for the latter first, itself representing the least likely of the three to house anything they ought to be concerned about. John moved in initially, slowly twisting the door knob before giving the door a gentle shove open, gun in hand and ready for whatever lay behind. Once more however, he found nothing in front, save for an empty bathroom, complete with toilet, shower and sink.

  Happy with the lack of activity so far, John led Harvey on to the first of the two bedrooms, and opened the door. Inside was a reasonably sized room, with a double bed on the back wall and a large wardrobe and desk covering the others. The bedroom itself was in pretty good shape, but judging by the empty and open cabinets, John guessed that both the owner of the apartment and their contents were long gone, as was probably the case for the rest of the building. This of course was not a bad thing in itself, as it meant that they were unlikely to encounter much resistance on the way through the multiple floors above. However the hidden meaning behind this was that there was unlikely to be any supplies left behind, which would of course have been a happy consequence of clearing out the building.

  “Clear”, John said once more, before Harvey then took the lead and headed for the next room, only for the same word to be uttered just moments later.

  “Clear”, Harvey said this time, concluding their search of the apartment’s final room and thus the last part on this floor.

  “Well”, John said, “One floor down…”.

  Chapter 12: Bang

  Things in the apartment block progressed quickly, taking little over an hour to reach the final floor despite moving with incredible caution every step of the way. This speed came courtesy of what appeared to be an entire building devoid of life, not a single soul – or evidence of one – having been found throughout the floors searched so far. It seemed as if everyone in this building had either gotten out early, or not lived there in the first place.

  “Last floor”, John whispered as the pair began ascending to the final stage of the building’s innards.

  The stairs were only barely wide enough for two people, and so the duo had opted to move in single file, John leading and Harvey covering the rear. Harvey had struggled with his footing when moving in reverse, but was also a little relieved to not have the job of entering potentially dangerous areas first.

  Just a few steps from reaching the top of the staircase however, Harvey found himself abruptly backing into John, who had stopped dead in his tracks. Harvey peered around nosily to see if something had confronted the leader, but saw nothing.

  “What is it?”, he asked impatiently, before his focus returned back to covering the rear.

  “Quiet”, John replied dismissively.

  “Well tell me what it is then”, Harvey insisted, clearly agitated at not being in the know for once.

  “A noise, shut up and listen”, John responded, himself now a little aggravated.

  “I don’t hear a damn thing”, Harvey said stubbornly, this time with no care for how loud he spoke.

  With that, the stealth factor was broken. Whatever John had heard would most likely now have heard them too, and so moving slowly no longer carried the same merit as before. Bearing this in mind, John moved forwards quickly but still carefully, the barrel of his gun leading the charge as he conducted a quick sweep of the landing area, before focusing his attention on the closest door once he was sure nothing stood watch. Harvey followed behind, apparently having no concern for the move he had forced John to make, nor for the sound he was still unable to hear.

  John’s hand rose up and pointed to the western-room’s door just as Harvey’s mouth opened, in a bid to stop him from asking the same question again, and with that, Harvey finally heard it. The noise was low, an odd combination of groaning and scratching, as if one of those things were trying to escape by burrowing out. That said, given the persistence of the undead, there was a good chance that if one was trying to escape through the wall, it probably would have done so by now.

  John carefully approached the door, listening intently for the slightest change, before placing his ear gently against the wood in front. Harvey meanwhile continued to stand watch, briefly inspecting the door on the other side of the hall before moving into the final stretch of stairwell that he assumed led to the roof, their end destination. His visibility was limited by the thin rays of sunlight that breached the hall through small windows to the side, as well as a dirtied skylight above, but it was enough to tell him that they at least appeared to be alone.

  Back at the door, John was busy trying to decipher what it was that he was hearing. From what he could tell – and using the layout of t
he apartments on the floors below for reference – one of them was located on the far side of the kitchen, itself placed against the back wall. John couldn’t be certain, but it sounded like it was scratching away at one of the cabinets, whilst also making a low moan, seemingly in response to each scratch. One other thing he observed was that it didn’t seem like the target inside had heard them, as whatever action was causing the noise didn’t seem to have been interrupted by the sound of Harvey’s voice. Having ascertained everything he could, John eventually leant away from the door, and signalled for Harvey to prepare for their penultimate breach.

  The problem in situations such as these was that John knew the best way to enter a room populated by one or more of the undead was to do so quietly and slowly, so as not to be overwhelmed by numbers, or by an individual that had managed to get into a well hidden position. In this case however, there was no way of them entering without breaking the door, something that was certain to make noise. Accordingly, the breach presented a risk, but as John found himself visualising the sustainable food source they might be able to build just a few metres above, he knew it would all be worth it.

  The usual procedure followed, a sturdy step back, a quick movement forwards, and a colossal amount of force being directed just next to the handle. The door flew open, exposing the contents of the room to John, and also to Harvey, who stood just behind and to the side of him. The apartment – like all of the others on this side of the building – was big and open plan, and there was indeed a member of the undead exactly where John had anticipated, propped against the counter in the kitchen on the far side. What John had not anticipated however, was the presence of a second biter alongside the first, or that of the other three bodies that suddenly turned their attention to the door from various other parts of the apartment.