White Flag of the Dead wfotd-1

by Joseph Talluto

  Mark nodded and continued his story. “Teri and I grabbed what we could and headed for the lake. I figured our best bet was to try and get a boat and at least sail away from the mess. We made it about a block and a half before we were spotted and had to run for it. We made it four blocks to an apartment building and hid there. That happened to be where we hooked up with Bill and Sally and the kids.”

  Bill took up the story. “We had abandoned our apartment after the neighbor was attacked. We went down the emergency stairs and luckily no one was there. We were hiding in the maintenance room when the door crashed in and Mark and his wife tumbled in.”

  Mark smiled. “We had three of them sniffing for us, and we just managed to fall in out of sight. Luckily the smell of chemicals masked our scent and they left us alone. Of course, back then, we didn’t know how good their sense of smell had become. Sometimes I wonder how many hiding places were discovered by the smell of fear?”

  I remember thinking the same thing when I was trying to figure out how the enemy operated and their strengths and weaknesses.

  “Anyway,” Mark said, “We found ourselves stuck in a basement with nowhere to go. But we got lucky. Bill’s son found an access panel behind an old mattress to the electric tunnels under the city. We had a way out, but if any of those things were down there, we were dead for sure. We moved as best as we could, checking every place we came to for a way to get out and to find food and such. We had a close moment when we were discovered at a business, but we gave them the slip in the tunnels. We headed south as best as we could, and then we ran out of tunnels.”

  Bill and Mark looked at each other, then Mark continued. “We spent a lot of time moving from place to place, avoiding not only zombies but other predators as well. I picked up the shotgun from a home we broke into, but it wasn’t good for much against the dead. Everywhere it was the same. People dead or dying, walking dead trying to eat the living, fires, looting. I saw a man running down the street from a pack of zombies carrying a plasma TV. Dumbass.”

  Bill picked up again. “We managed to find a car and we headed south, but the roads were choked with cars and dead people. We heard the announcements about the state centers, but we had no way to get to them. In hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t, when we heard they had been overrun with infected. Anyway, we moved as quietly as we could, at one point floating down the canal to escape zombies. We found a car in what used to be Westchester, and headed south again. Everywhere was death.”

  Mark started again. “It took us 9 months to get that far, hiding and scrounging and living in fear. We were at the end of our string when we saw your truck pull up to that house. I was scared stupid when you pulled that gun on me.” indicating my SIG. “Why?” I asked. “You had a shotgun. You could have nailed me when I opened the garage door.” Mark looked sheepish. “I was out of shells. I had been out for a month.” I shook my head. “Good way to get killed.” Bill smiled. “Looks like you have things under better control out here.”

  I smiled back. “You have no idea. This is a small group. To the south, there’s another community of over a hundred people.” I enjoyed the look that showed up on both their faces. “We’re making a push to the river, then we’ll hook up and the real work begins.”

  Mark asked, “What’s the real work?”

  I stood up and answered simply. “We’re taking it back.”

  I left them wondering about that and went out into the main office area. Charlie and Sarah and Tommy had gone on a recovery mission. I had sent them to the small gun shop that was several miles to the west, in a town that was right on the river. They took the plow and cleared the road, since we were going to need it later this winter. Duncan and Pamela and several others had taken the axe and tools I had brought from my house and were making serious piles of firewood for the winter.

  The truck pulled up and Charlie swung down from the cab. Sarah scooted out the other side and ran towards the building, carrying something long. Charlie motioned me to the back of the truck. Stepping back there, I whistled when I saw what he had found. Ammunition of all types was back their, in boxes and crates. Apparently, the locked storage room had been left alone. I had a lot more ammo for my carbine, and there was a lot more ammo for the AR’s we had, as well as plenty of ammo for the handguns. Hell, looking at the stuff, we were ready to go to war.

  Charlie spoke up after I had whistled my appreciation. “Storage room was right where you said, still padlocked and everything. Everything else was pretty much looted. There weren’t any guns to be found, but we did find a lot of cleaning supplies and extra magazines.” He handed me three additional magazines for my SIG. “P226, right?” I gratefully accepted the magazines and put them in my pockets to be filled later. “Anything else?” “Not from the shop, but we found something weird.” “What’s that?”

  “We were headed back and Tommy thought he saw something in a subdivision we passed. We went back and there was a pile of zombie corpses in the middle of the street.” “Really.” That was interesting. Maybe were not alone out here. Charlie nodded. “Really. Want to hear the weird part?” “That wasn’t the weird part?” I asked, perplexed. “Nope. The weird part was all of the corpses were headless.” Charlie waited for my reaction. I scowled. “What?” “Want to hear the really weird part?” Charlie seemed to be enjoying himself. “It gets weirder?” I was almost afraid to ask.

  “We found no fewer then eight piles of zombie corpses, all of them headless. I figure there had to be over three hundred zombie heads missing.”

  I was stunned. No wonder the activity around here was less than I expected, environment not withstanding. Somebody had been hard at work and had been really effective. But why remove the heads? The heads were still alive and still able to bite and cause infection. Something was definitely wrong here, and I said as much to Charlie.

  “Definitely need to keep our eyes open. I’ll radio Nate and give him a heads up.” I said.

  Charlie nodded. “Good enough. I’ll take this stuff upstairs and distribute as needed. I heard we have an electrician?” he asked hopefully. I nodded. “Grab him and see what he can do with our generators. I’m looking forward to a meal not cooked over a fire.” Charlie laughed. “Amen, brother, amen. I went upstairs to find Sarah playing with Jacob. She had a funny look on her face when I came in and I asked her what was up. “Got a present for you.” She said, indicating with her eyes the bundle on my bed.

  Curious, I went over and undid the towel that had wrapped what appeared to be a rifle of some sort. When the towel fell away I was holding a beautiful Springfield M1A rifle.. 308 caliber with a twenty round clip. A very effective rifle out to 600 yards or better. I couldn’t imagine a better rifle to go into battle with.

  My expression must have revealed how I felt. Sarah just called from the floor “You’re welcome. There are extra magazines and ammo

  I was speechless for a moment. “Where did you get this? Charlie said you didn’t find any firearms.” I checked the action and found the gun to be in excellent working order.

  Sarah laughed. “I told Charlie to lie to you. He was very accommodating.”

  I put the gun down and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you very much. I’ve always wanted one of these but never could justify the expense.” Sarah changed the subject. “Charlie tell you about the heads?” I grimaced. “Yeah. That’s a new one. We’ll have to see where it leads.” “So what’s the plan for today?” Sarah wanted to know. I shrugged. “Beats me. I’m staying home today. Jake has been without his daddy for a few days and I need some baby time.” Sarah smiled. “Sounds good.” I smiled back, but I had a strange feeling it was going to be a wild spring.

  29

  The coldest days of winter were the hardest. The sun would be out but the bitter north winds would rip at clothing, and claw at exposed skin with fingers of ice. We stayed indoors for the worst of it, but we went out at every opportunity because this was our one chance to drastically impact the zombie population. A small part
of me thought about the city and the area to the north of the canal, but I realized that the zombie population up there would be in the millions, and I realistically could not hope to finish all of them in one winter.

  If all went well, maybe next winter, when I could return with a larger contingent of people and weapons, but right now, that was impossible.

  We cleared out several subdivisions and homes and we warmed ourselves on several burning homes. We stayed away from the city of Oakland Park proper, working at the fringes and gathering supplies where we could. I absolutely forbade anyone from trying to go to the mall there, as I figured the cavernous building might have enough residual warmth to keep hundreds of zombies moving.

  The winter wasn’t all work. Jake had his first birthday, and Sarah and I invited everyone to the party. We managed to put together quite a feast from the food and supplies we had scrounged, and the generators provided us with light and music for a while. Jake loved the attention, and Sarah even managed to get him a present. She and Charlie found a baby store and picked up a little walk-behind car. Jake was moving around pretty well, and the car let him practice his walking skills. He gave a squeal of delight when he used it, and Sarah said it was the best ‘thank you’ she had ever received.

  The party was a welcome relief from the stress of our situation, and it was also the opportunity for Charlie to bring out the little girl he had unofficially adopted. She had recovered remarkably well, and her brilliant blue eyes took in everything around her. Jake was fascinated with her, and was constantly trying to give her toys to play with. Charlie had decided to name her Julia, which Sarah received with a small smile. I gave her a hug and she assured me it was all right. Julia had a host of admirers, not the least of which were the women from the adult center, most of whom had lost a child or more in the Upheaval.

  The winter brought out some interesting changes in our group as well. I was as surprised as anyone when Pamela moved into Duncan’s room, and Tommy began hanging out with a young widow named Stacey Wood. Charlie was getting friendly with Rebecca, our resident nurse, and Kristen was complaining about her lack of prospects.

  A week later, I decided it was time to hit the town of Leport. It was a river town and older than most towns in the area. As a river town, I wanted to make sure it was going to remain intact, as it was going to be another community after we had cleared it out and declared it safe. I just hoped we had the population around to make it work.

  Charlie came with me, as well as Tommy, and the three of us rode in silence, taking in the snowy landscape and each of us lost in our own thoughts. As we passed the forest preserves, I could see several herds of deer moving like ghosts among the trees. The lakes were frozen and swept by winds that created drifts like whitecaps on top of still waters. The road was clear, since we had been this way several times with the plow, but a drift or two was still blocking the way, making travel difficult as usual.

  We passed a subdivision of enormous homes, an area we had already been through. We had managed to secure a large amount of supplies from several of those homes, as well as some interesting vehicles. Tommy found a Mercedes convertible he was proud of until Charlie asked where he was going to put the supplies. We didn’t burn any of the homes, as they were made of brick and likely able to survive for a while. There was a huge estate on one side of the road, and we decided to stop for a look. Charlie navigated the truck into the driveway and Tommy whistled at the size of the home. We got out of the truck and spread out. I took the front door while Charlie checked the windows and Tommy started towards the back. I checked the door and found it unlocked. Pushing it open, I held my new M1A rifle at the ready, not expecting trouble, but not relenting in my vigilance, either.

  The place was huge, and expensively furnished. Polished hardwood floors peeked out from beneath oriental-style carpets, while a marble fireplace commanded attention in the ornate living room. High ceilings added to the overall effect and the whole place reeked of money. Nice digs in a regular world, not so great in the current one. The only detriment to the place was the fact that the expensive furniture was tossed around, like someone had been stumbling around in the dark, bumping into things.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye showed Charlie making his way to the front door, and I expected Tommy to come rolling in from the back. What I didn’t expect was gunshots from the side of the house. It was too cold for zombies to be moving quickly but this was something else.

  I ran past Charlie, and he looked at me in askance. “That wasn’t Tommy’s gun.” I said as I flicked off the safety of my M1A and followed Tommy’s footprints to the side of the house.

  I could hear the snarl of engines as I raced to the edge and rounding the corner, the distinctive whine of snowmobiles. Tommy was taking cover behind the fireplace and getting ready to engage when I burst around the corner. Swinging wide, I circled out into the lawn and was able to see three snowmobiles racing away, two of the riders with rifles strapped to their backs, while the third had a large duffle bag. They were roughly two hundred yards off and moving fast, but I decided to take a shot anyway. Bringing up the barrel, I sighted in the retreating figure and pulled the trigger. The rifle punched the air with sound and I was rewarded with one of the retreating figures swerving sharply and nearly colliding with a tree. But he corrected in time and sped away.

  Bringing the gun down, I went over to where Charlie was helping Tommy to his feet. “Did you get hit?” I asked, checking him for any blood.

  “No, they missed me by a mile. More like surprise shots, than anything else. I came around the corner and we stared at each other for a second. I was about to hail when one of them whipped up his rifle and fired at me. I dove for the building and was getting ready to return the favor when you came around. Wonder who they were?”

  “No clue, but I actually am surprised we hadn’t run into some other survivors like that until now.” I said, looking off to where the snowmobiles had gone. Southeast, by the look of it, and if memory served, there wasn’t anything really off in that direction except a couple of home improvement stores.

  Charlie broke off our reflection with his usual charm. “I’m going inside, you two hens can talk out in the cold all you want.” He said and stomped off towards the front door.

  Shaking my head, I followed him, with Tommy coming in behind.

  We went back inside the house, but with the likelihood of the place being already visited, we didn’t expect to find much. Tommy went to the kitchen, while Charlie headed to the basement. I decided to take the upstairs and look around. Maybe I would get lucky.

  I went upstairs and checked the rooms to the east of the main stairwell. There was a nicely furnished library and I picked up a few books to take back to the condo. Many books were on the floor, as if someone was looking for a safe or something, but nothing serious. Another room had a home theater set up in it with a huge plasma television mounted on the wall. Useless now, but fun when it was working, I’d bet. There was a nice suite near the stairs that looked like a guest area, and it was nicer than any hotel I ever stayed at. It even had its own small kitchen.

  I moved to the bedrooms and checked them out one by one. The first two were unremarkable, just your standard bedroom with a sofa, television, and bathroom. After seeing the other rooms, I was actually looking forward to the master bedroom.

  I opened the door and immediately when into combat mode. There was blood splattered over the walls and furniture, and I could see a pair of legs sticking out from around the corner. They weren’t moving, but I took nothing for granted.

  Checking behind the door and moving in with my rifle up, I edged around the body and looked at the rest of the bedroom. I cursed when I saw what was on the bed. A woman in her late forties had been stripped and tied spread eagle face down on the bed. Her husband had apparently been forced to watch her be raped by her attackers until they were both killed. Seems like they had been caught trying to survive here and paid a brutal price for it.

  T
he way they had been killed struck a familiar chord in my memory, but I brushed it aside and cut the woman’s bonds. I turned her over and saw the bruises and scratches that mapped a horrific experience. I laid her to rest and struggling, managed to heave her husband up next to her on the bed. I then covered the two of them with a sheet and looked up to find Tommy staring at me.

  “What happened here?” he asked, looking around.

  “I’m not fully sure, but I would guess these two were trying to survive and happened to get in the way of a few animals who relished the idea of a lawless nation.” My voice was grim and hard, thinking of the others I had encountered who used the Upheaval as an excuse to satisfy their baser instincts.

  “Well, that matches what Charlie found in the basement.” Tommy said, stepping out into the hallway.

  I followed him. “Why? What did he find?”

  Tommy shook his head. “Charlie found three bodies down there, two of them children, the third likely a teenager. All of them had been killed, none of them infected.”

  I felt a familiar rage starting to build, frustrated that I had no one to vent it on. I headed downstairs and stopped at the landing. Tommy bumped into me. “What’s going on?”

  I pointed at a portrait on the wall. “If there was a family here and they have been all killed, then we’re one short.” The family photo showed four children, two teenagers and two kids under twelve.

  Tommy looked thoughtful and we mulled that one over in silence as Charlie came up the stairs. He was holding a small hatchet which was covered in dried blood, which he held up to us.