Taking It Back Read online

I went back up and met with Mark, who told me the upstairs bedrooms were clear. We went outside and checked the rest of the complex, not finding anything untoward. I let Mark kill a zombie wandering the street. He moved in quickly, brushed aside the outstretched arms, and planted the crowbar in the back of its head. It went down without a sound, and he gave it another whack just to be sure. I knew we couldn’t knock them unconscious, as some people claimed, but it never hurt to double check.

  We decided to check out a recreation center before heading back to the school. We had secured a good piece of the area, and were going to wrap it up with the center.

  I approached the glass front doors and tested one. It was open, surprisingly, and we stepped inside. Skylights lit the dim interior, and we could see the first floor clearly; the offices and back rooms looked empty. A sign read ‘Courts’ and pointed down a big flight of stairs. Mark and I approached and listened for activity. We heard nothing and stepped down the rubberized stairs into the darkness of the basement. The skylights’ illumination could only reach so far, and it got darker the deeper we went. I flicked on my flashlight and Mark did the same. At the bottom of the stairs we went right and checked the offices and bathrooms. We could see signs of activity but nothing looked recent.

  We went towards the courts and froze at the doorway. There were about a hundred cots covering the gym floor and several aid stations set up around the gym’s perimeter. What spooked us was the copious amounts of blood splatter that covered the cots, the walls, and the floor. Bits of meat were scattered here and there, and under one cot I saw a severed hand. The gym had a huge canvas opaque curtain that separated it into two areas. I turned my flashlight off and Mark did the same.

  We heard a shuffling sound. It sounded like it came from the other side of the curtain. I moved along the wall towards the side opening, my footsteps silenced by the rubber floor of the gym. I reached the doorway while Mark checked the aid stations for first aid supplies.

  Peering around the corner, I looked into the darkness and didn’t see a thing. I clicked on my flashlight and illuminated about a hundred zombies covering half the floor. The sudden illumination caused the zombies to turn around and they immediately began a chorus of moans that echoed off the walls of the gym. As one, they started for me.

  I didn’t hesitate, turning on my heel and running like hell for the stairs, Mark only a step behind. The zombies poured from the gym, clamoring for our blood. Mark and I bolted up the stairs and paused to throw the couches and chairs we had passed in the lounge down to the first landing to try to slow them down.

  “Jesus, what the hell happened here?” Mark yelled as we levered a couch over the edge.

  “I don’t know, but I imagine they set up a treatment center, not knowing what the virus did, then the first infected killed the rest and the workers too.” I said as I tossed my end. We threw another chair then ran into the offices to grab desks. We threw the first one down the stairs just as the first zombies were trying to climb over the furniture pile. The desk flattened one, and effectively blocked others momentarily. We grabbed two more desks and threw them down as well.

  I motioned Mark to go and we ran out the front door. I looked over the parking lot and spotted the maintenance shed. Running to the shed, I pulled on the door and found it locked. Mark attacked it with the crowbar and we broke the door open. I flung the door open and looked around before grabbing two cans of gasoline stored there and ran back to the building. We checked inside and saw the zombies hadn’t made it past our barrier yet. We went to the stairs and poured gasoline down on the barricade and the zombies groaned again when they saw us. Mark emptied his can and I emptied mine. I threw the can down and bounced it off the head of a female crawling over one of the desks. I dug into my backpack for my matches, and lit the whole package. I stepped back and tossed the flaming brand down the stairs.

  Thankfully, Mark and I were not at the top of the stairs when the gas went up. The building shook with the whoosh of the lighting gas and the skylight above the stairs shattered from the explosion. Mark and I fell back and headed towards the entrance. One zombie managed to reach the top of the stairs, and a flaming figure limped towards us for about twenty feet before succumbing to the flames and falling to the floor, setting fire to the carpeting. Mark and I left the building, and headed back to the school. The center burning brightly, with flames shooting out of the skylight. With luck, the blaze would consume the zombies for good. If not, we were going to have to search around for a few ‘extra crispy’ Z’s that had managed to escape.

  3

  When we got back to the school Sarah was waiting for me with Jake. She wrinkled her nose, and I explained to her and Jake what had happened. Sarah shook her head and handed me Jake after I had stripped my gear off.

  “Got a surprise for you.” She headed into the hallway.

  I followed with Jake, who was pulling at my collar and cooing.

  Sarah stopped at a classroom and peeked in. She stepped aside and motioned me in. I went in puzzled, then went into defense mode as something grabbed me from behind. I held Jake out with one hand, slammed my elbow back and spun around, hoping to dislodge whatever had me.

  I heard a “Whoof!” as my elbow connected and then a “Whoa!” as my spin tossed the person off of me into a cluster of desks. I put Jake down and stepped in front of him as the other person climbed painfully to his feet. Jake sat down and waved his hands, excited as he recognized the newcomer. Sarah covered her smile with her hand as Nate stood up and rubbed his ribs.

  “Nice shot, John. Good to see you too.”

  I relaxed. “Nate!” I went over and wrapped the big man in a bear hug. Nate groaned as I squeezed his sore ribs. “Oops Sorry about that. Can’t be too careful.”

  Nate shrugged it off. “My fault. I should know better than to mess with someone who just came in from the outside. Your nerves are still on overload.”

  I nodded. “No kidding. You should have seen what Mark and I found at the recreation center.” I filled Nate in on the details and Sarah just shook her head and put an arm around my waist. Nate noticed her but said nothing. I finished, pointing to the burning building out the north window. “That glow? That’s mine. The good news is the building is isolated so no others will go up. The bad news is the building could have been useful.”

  Nate shrugged. “At least you dealt with it. Some people would have stayed and fought.”

  I hoisted Jake and rubbed his belly with my head, getting a giggle out of him. “I didn’t have enough ammo.” I said. “I only brought enough for about half of them.” Jake leaned towards Nate and he took him from me, giving Jake a big kiss on the cheek and smiling at him. Jake grinned and grabbed Nate’s collar, burying is head in his friend’s shoulder. Nate gave Jake a hug and was silent for a little while. I didn’t say anything, knowing how Nate felt about Jake. A lot of people loved Jakey, and I began to realize he represented the future, something to hope for. If Jake was ever lost, that hope would be gone, and people would have nothing to live for. I know I wouldn’t, Sarah not withstanding.

  After a minute, Jake leaned again, this time towards Sarah. She took him and said, “Dinnertime,” as she left the room. Sarah knew Nate and I needed to catch up, and to plan our next move. I winked at her as she left and she flashed me a quick grin. I looked back to see Nate looking at me.

  “What?” I said, starting to feel defensive.

  Nate smiled at me. “Nothing. I was just thinking it was about time you two got together.”

  “Why does everyone say that? Was it that obvious?”

  Nate laughed. “You might not have been obvious, but she sure was. You were her pick from the first and I don’t know what happened out here, but a lot of people are rooting for you two. I’m glad in this messed up world, someone has found a little happiness.”

  I thought about it. “Thanks, man. I kind of needed to hear that.” I talked about the trip I had taken to my house and how I broke away from that old life, leaving my wedd
ing band behind.

  Nate nodded. “Good for you. At least you got the chance.”

  “So, getting back to the situation at hand, how are we set up?” I asked, changing the subject. I sat in a chair and pulled a table close. Nate pulled up another chair and dumped the contents of a small bag on the table, It contained some maps and lists of names, as well as a candy bar and juice box. Nate shrugged as he put the last two items back.

  “We pushed hard for the river, coming up through Freeport. We managed to use all of the cargo containers from the depot.” Nate said.

  That raised my eyebrows. “Really? There had to be a thousand of them.”

  Nate laughed. “One thousand, three hundred, and forty-six. We spread out not only west but east. There was a lot of farmland to the southeast.”

  I nodded. It was sound move. “If ever we decide to tackle the city, there’s another storage depot near Chicago.”

  Nate shuddered. “No thanks. I’ll do that when I’m bored with life.”

  I smiled, wondering when that might ever happen.

  “We managed to free up an additional seventy-eight people in our push west and would you believe it? Twenty of them are young guys, between nineteen and twenty-five years old who had banded together to save each other when the crap went down.”

  I whistled. That was a good force to send against the Z’s if they were trained right. Who was I kidding? They had Nate. Of course they were trained. I motioned for him to continue.

  “We have quite a few families, lots of kids, and we are in a good position for food and supplies right now. We will need to forage until the first crops come in, and we will have to start some animal raising, but I imagine we have the land for that.”

  I nodded. “The forest preserves we went through to get here have a lot of clearings surrounded by heavy woods. Once upon a time these were farms, so they can be farms once again. There are enough homes nearby for people to manage the herds and protect them as needed. We can trench them for defense and also to keep the animals from straying.”

  Nate seemed impressed. “Always looking ahead, hey?”

  I shrugged. “Looking back these days puts some strain on your soul, you know what I mean?”

  “Amen, brother. Amen.” Nate shifted his position. “Any troubles?”

  I looked at him. “Depends on your point of view.” I told him about the problems I had with Pamela and Dane Blake. Nate’s eyes darkened when he heard we were set up for an ambush. I told him about Sarah and Kristen’s kidnapping, and Kristen’s subsequent murder. Nate dropped his eyes at that. I told him about Kevin and Frank.

  “Holy shit! A pit full of zombie heads! Who comes up with shit like that? Not that I’m sad to see those two gone, but that’s a hell of a way to go.”

  I nodded. “We haven’t been back since, so I’m sure there are a lot of supplies there, but I have no rush.” I talked about leaving Duncan in charge and his standing orders to leave a corridor open to refugees, and also what happened to Chelsea.

  Nate shook his head. “Maybe you should have stayed put.”

  I thought about it for a second. “No, we needed to make the push to re-establish a workable zone for survival and re-taking what was lost, and we couldn’t do it from just one place. So how about you?” I asked.

  Nate held up his hands. “Nothing so dramatic. We had a few bands of zombies to deal with, some survivors to train and acclimate. Most of them are anxious to meet the great John Talon.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The only reason I keep going out to risk my neck is because I haven’t any useful skills like plumbing or electric work.”

  Nate laughed. “We’ll get you elected yet. Anyway, in our push to the river, we happened across this home that had a ham radio set up in it.”

  That piqued my interest. “Really? Anyone know how to use it?” I knew ham radios were used to communicate all over the world, and if we could get one working, we might actually be able to communicate with other people and find out if there was anyone left in the world.

  “As a matter of fact, Jim Bigelow knew how to work it. We didn’t have a power source at the time, but we took it with us anyway.”

  I got the idea Nate was holding something back. “What are you not telling me?”

  Nate leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. He looked down and it was a long time before he looked up. He sighed and said, “We’re not alone.”

  I leaned back in my chair and stared at him. When I found my voice I asked, “How do you know?”

  “We had a generator we found in the home of a carpenter, and we hooked the radio up to it. Jim worked on it for a while, then we heard the voices. We were pretty excited about that, until we started to seriously listen to the people on the radio. We got broadcasts from all over the place, all kinds of languages.” Nate paused. “There’s survivors all over, but not much else. Some people are screaming for anyone to help, others are just trying to find a link to keep themselves from committing suicide. Several times, we could hear the dead moaning in the background. After a while, we just turned it off.”

  “Must have been bad, hearing people and not being able to help or even let them know you could hear them.”

  Nate looked down again. “I actually felt guilty knowing what we have and hearing about people starving or about to be overrun.”

  I tried to be reassuring. “You can’t save everyone. We’re on our own as much as anyone else. We got lucky, but we fought for it too.”

  Nate turned cryptic. “Maybe we can save some.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking at his maps for a clue.

  “We got a broadcast we actually answered, and they know about us, and we know about them,” Nate said. “Turns out they managed to escape the virus itself, and have barricaded themselves against the hordes. But they know they can’t hold out forever and were wondering if we could lend a hand.” Nate looked at me questioningly.

  I chuckled at his look. “Phase three.”

  Nate’s face turned quizzical. “Phase three?”

  “Sure. Phase one was to survive the Upheaval. Phase two was to establish a safe zone we could live in permanently. Phase three was to go out and see who else might be out there and either bring them in or establish communication and increase the size of our community.”

  “Is there a phase four?” Nate asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “You haven’t lost your wonderful sense of humor” Nate said.

  “The secret to a spicy relationship is a little mystery. Didn’t you know that?” I grinned at Nate who rolled his eyes. “Tell me about our new friends.”

  “Okay. Here we are.” Nate opened a map of Illinois and indicated our position with a pencil. “We know that State Center Bravo is located here.” He pointed to an area located about ten miles southeast of Morris in a spot that looked like it was surrounded by waterways and state parks. “The town that contacted us is located here, called Coal City.”

  I looked at the map. “How have they managed to survive? They’re in between two interstates and a major road passes through their area. Not to mention having a state center nearby with who knows how many infected that might have headed that way, not knowing they had the virus until it was too late.”

  “Actually, they did it pretty much the same way we did. They are a junction of rail lines, so they used cargo containers. One of their people was a train driver and he made the run to this rail yard here,” Nate indicated a spot north of the town, “and grabbed train movers and flatbeds, along with a mess of cars. They made a fence like we did.”

  “So what’s the trouble?” I asked. “Far as I can see, they should be all right.”

  Nate nodded. “They were, but the situation changed and they’re seeing a lot of zombie activity and they just don’t have the resources to take care of it.”

  “And we do?” I arched an eyebrow at Nate.

  “You’ll think of someth
ing, I’m sure. Did I mention half the town is under the age of 10?” Nate said.

  “You really fight dirty, you know that?”

  “Call it revenge for my ribs, which are still sore by the way.” Nate said, pulling out a pad of paper and a pen.

  We planned for another two hours and then called it a night. I went to the classroom I shared with Sarah and sat down next to my son, who was just getting finished with his bath.

  Sarah rubbed Jake’s head dry and put him in his jammies. “How’s Nate?” she asked, slipping Jake’s arm through his sleeve.

  “Doing his dead level best to make me age.” I told her about the town and what we needed to do.

  “What about Jake and me?” she asked, passing him over to me so I could help him practice his walking.

  I held Jake’s hands and walked backwards while Jake waddled along, babbling the entire time. We moved around the room, edging away from the desks, which Jake liked to latch on to when he wanted to cheat. “You’ll be coming with. I wouldn’t expect you to just stay at home with my son, fraught with worry and crying yourself to sleep each night, wondering if I will ever come home.”

  I had my back turned to Sarah and I tensed. Sure enough, I got punched in the back. I let Jake grab the desks and turned around, blocking the second punch Sarah aimed at me and wrapped an arm around her waist. I hoisted her up and trapped her arms with my other arm. She glared at me and tried to bite my nose.

  “Easy, I was just kidding.” I lightly kissed her forehead. She struggled for a second, then stopped, softening against me. I sat down with her in my lap, and she put her arms around my neck. “I need you and Jake there.” I said, rubbing her back.

  Sarah smiled slightly. “Really? Why?”

  “If I leave you two behind,” I explained, “then I might not be as careful as I normally would. If you’re there, then I do everything I can to stay alive and protect the two of you. I know you can take care of yourself and there isn’t anyone I would rather have watch my back.”

  Sarah leaned in and kissed me and I returned her kiss with the same enthusiasm. If a couple of little hands hadn’t started pulling at my leg, things might have gotten interesting. I broke the kiss and Sarah and I both looked down to see Jake smiling up at us.