Taking It Back Page 5

  We needed breathing room. I slapped Charlie on the shoulder and said, “Up.” He leaped to the shelving unit, climbing nimbly to the top, scattering rice side dishes. I climbed quickly to the top of the opposite unit then swung my crowbar down to haul up the rest. Sarah grabbed the steel and I pulled her up quickly. I waited a second for her to gain her balance, then pulled up Kyle. Jim and Steve were pulled up by Charlie just in time as decayed hands grasped and clawed at the top shelves. We moved to the middle of the units and looked down at our attackers. They filled the aisle and hungry arms reached upwards. Thank God they couldn’t climb.

  Charlie looked at me from across the aisle. “Hey Moses! Wanna part the Dead Sea?”

  “What’s the plan?” asked Steve, nervously looking down at gaping maws.

  “How’s the front look?” I asked, stepping back as a hand groped for my foot. Sarah was keeping her rifle trained on the horde, and thankfully, the rest of the guys were keeping their cool.

  Charlie moved down the aisle, ducking under a light and sign that advertised organic foods. “Clearing. Looks like we have most of them in here with us.” He had to shout to be heard over the cacophony of the dead.

  “Good enough.” I motioned to Steve and Jim. “We can’t get out of here without a fight. Do not shoot unless Charlie tells you to.” I placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder and spoke in her ear. “Go to work, babe.”

  Sarah opened up with her .22. The red dot sight was perfect for this close work and the GSG-5 sang with clarity. She dropped fifteen of them in about twenty seconds, a small round hole being the passage to the next life for the zombies. Others moved up as Sarah fired and we had to be careful as the second group stood on the bodies of the first and were thus closer to us. I could hear the heavier caliber guns bark as Charlie and his group opened up on his side and we cleaned out the grasping mass quickly.

  We walked on the shelves until we made to the front. I jumped down and looked outside, stepping around the zombies we had killed. I didn’t see any danger and motioned the rest to follow. Charlie jumped down and I helped Sarah down.

  Moving outside, we spread out and scanned for trouble. A couple of stragglers were in the parking lot, but no immediate danger. We piled into the vehicles and were immediately aware of the extra space. Can’t be helped, just a freak accident, I thought as I started the Xterra. That’s why we check everything.

  I pulled out of the lot and maneuvered around the carts. I stopped close to one of the zombies and let Sarah shoot it. It dropped with a grunt and I went over to the next one. She shot that one too, then sat back.

  “I don’t like that I’m used to it” she said, checking the gun.

  I held her hand. “Me neither.”

  I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that Jim had tears in his eyes as he thought about his friends. Some things you’ll never get used to, I thought as I moved towards the school.

  On the plus side, we wiped out a good portion of zombies. Down side, we lost two men we could ill afford to lose. We were going to have to get back to the basics. But first, we needed to head south and see if we could help out a town that needed it. I felt something I hadn’t felt for a while. Hope.

  5

  Despite our losses at the grocery store, we managed to press on with clearing the living area and at the end of three days people were moving into homes and condominiums. I chose a brick house overlooking the river that had a fenced, wooded yard. It was probably larger than I was going to need, but it seemed like a good place to settle into. Sarah was going to be settling in with me, so that worked out well, too.

  The first thing she did when we moved our stuff in was to remove any remnants of the previous owners. That included taking down pictures and albums. I had enough ghosts on my tail, thank you very much.

  I spent half a day looking for a crib for Jacob then another half day making sure the wooden shutters on the house worked. That was another reason I chose the house. It was older, but it had functioning wooden shutters which added to the defense.

  I was clearing the yard when Nate rolled up in a truck. I expected him since we were going to be heading south on the river later that day to see what we could do for Coal City.

  “Hey John!” Nate called.

  “Hey Nate. What’s the good word?” I put down the branch I was dragging and came over.

  “Not much, just wanted to see what was up with the trip.” Nate stepped out of the sun into the shade of a large tree that was in the front yard.

  I scratched my chin. At some point I was going to have to shave again, but I was holding at once or twice a week. “We’re heading out later today, using one of the boats we found up on the hill.” I was referring to the subdivisions outside the trench. “We’re provisioned up and ready to go. I figured we’d head out around 11:00 and see how far we drift after a couple of hours. I want to save as much fuel as I can.”

  Nate nodded. “Sounds right. Who’s going with you?” he asked.

  “Charlie and Rebecca are coming, Tommy is coming, and Sarah is coming along as well. Jason Coleman, and Martin Oso said he’d come too.” I thought for a minute. “Bev Shoreman said she wants to come and Casey Steele as well.”

  Nate whistled. “Your boat big enough for all that?”

  I nodded. “We got one of those big pontoon boats and Charlie and Tommy have been making some modifications to it, so we should be good to go.”

  Nate chuckled. “I can only imagine what modifications those two came up with.”

  I smiled. “As long as it floats I don’t care.”

  Nate laughed. “Amen, brother. Better pack your Jesus shoes just in case.”

  I changed the subject. “How’s things coming along here?”

  Nate turned serious. “Trevor is still smarting over the two men lost at the grocery store, but he doesn’t blame you. He figures they made a dumb mistake by not clearing the room first. But the incident gave his crew some fire in their bellies and they have cleared the area with a vengeance. They want to push back the trench, but Tommy wouldn’t let them have the ‘dozer.

  “John Reef and Dean Cotton have teamed up and they have been playing with water wheels and pumps, and think they might be able to get us running water by the end of the week.”

  That was news I hadn’t expected, but it was welcome nonetheless.

  Nate continued. “Mark Wells is looking over our electrical situation, but hasn’t figured out any solution yet. He’s looking at water wheels too, but no luck.

  I ruminated for a second. “Maybe we could do solar, or set up some windmills.” I said, pointing to the highway overpass. “We could set up as many panels as we wanted up there and run the lines down to the houses.”

  Nate looked up. “I’ll ask him about it. Good idea.” He looked back at me. “Who’s watching the kids? If you and Sarah are going and Charlie and Rebecca are going, who’s watching Jake and Julia?”

  “They’re coming with” I said, anticipating Nate’s reaction.

  Nate responded just as I thought. “Are you nuts?” he yelled. “You’re heading to a dangerous situation and you’re bringing your babies?”

  “What can we do?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

  Nate shook his big head. “No way. Jake and Julia will stay with me and Patty.”

  “Patty?” I asked. “Who’s that?”

  Nate blushed. I never thought I would see the day. With reddened cheeks he said, “She’s a survivor we found about a week after you left last winter. She’s a pediatric nurse, so they’ll be as well taken care of as possible.”

  I laughed. “I’ll think about it. Now get gone so I can get ready.”

  Nate looked at me. “You don’t have to go, you know. You can send others.”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “I used to be an administrator. That was what I did. After the Upheaval I became a survivor, trying to help others survive. This is what I do.”

  Nate nodded and got back into his truck. He headed off to the school and
I went into the house to get everything ready.

  Sarah was packing backpacks and making sure we had everything we needed. I figured the whole trip should take no longer than five days, but we needed to be ready for at least seven. Stuff we weren’t going to carry was already on the boat and we just needed to get moving.

  Jake was playing on the floor with a tool bench toy and was managing to get himself stuck every few minutes. He’d fuss and we’d free him, then he’d do it again. It was a welcome bit of normalcy. I had been getting increasingly concerned Jake was going to be adversely affected by all that has happened. But he managed to stay his happy self, and was getting bigger all the time. He was taking tentative steps more and more lately and I was sure as soon as he had his sea legs he was going to be moving all over the place.

  I took out my SIG and laid it on the table. Sarah took out her Ruger and handed it over without a word. I quickly field stripped both weapons and gave them a once over with the cleaning kit. I regularly cleaned my weapons anyway, but it never hurt to run a patch through and check the actions for debris or residue. I reassembled the weapons, cursing the Ruger engineers yet again, then reloaded them and chambered a round in each before holstering my own and giving Sarah hers back. It was a testimony to the world we lived in that it never occurred to me that this was somewhat out of the norm once upon a time. I cleaned her .22 rifle and my M1A. I figured I might need the heavier firepower. I was bringing an additional AR-15 as well, which was already on the boat, so Charlie and Tommy and I could share ammo.

  Sarah finished packing and handed me mine. I helped her with hers and we grabbed up Jake. Sarah looked at me. “Are we taking Jake with us?”

  I thought about it and finally decided. “No. As much as I would love to bring him with to keep him close, he’s safer here than anywhere. Nate will die for him if it comes to that and I can’t guarantee his safety out there. We don’t know what we’re going to run into and I have enough to worry about with you coming along.”

  Sarah cocked her head at me and I continued. “I don’t want to lose you, either.”

  Sarah’s expression softened and she stood on tiptoes to give me a quick kiss. Jake leaned over for a kiss as well and Sarah laughed as Jake tried to slobber one on her cheek.

  We all went out the door and walked over to Nate’s house. Nate and Patty lived two homes down and Nate was waiting for us when we walked up. Jake waved his arms at Nate and received a “Hey, big guy!” in return. I put Jake down and he took three steps to Nate, who scooped him up in his big arms and held him tight.

  Nate looked at me. “Good choice. Charlie just dropped off Julia, so we’ll get to play family for a few days.” Sarah handed over a bag of supplies for Jake, including food, diapers, clothes and toys. Nate brought Jake over to a blanket where Julia was playing. He crawled over and patted Julia on the head. Patty got up from her chair and came over to us.

  “Hi, I’m Patty. Nice to meet you at last. Nate has told me a lot about you.” Patty was about forty years old, with brown hair and blue eyes. She seemed nice and a good match for Nate.

  “About half of its true” I said and everyone laughed. Patty just smiled. “Thanks for watching the kids.” I said.

  “Our pleasure” Patty replied, looking back at the babies. I got the feeling there was a sadness to her, but I wasn’t going to pry. We all had stories of tragedy these days and it was a rare thing for people to survive intact.

  I walked over to Jake and picked him up for a second. I looked into his eyes and he smiled at me as I silently promised to come back to him. He seemed to understand and grabbed my nose in response. I kissed him and held him, then put him down and went back to the group.

  “Thanks again, Nate. I owe you.” I shook his hand.

  “Luck, brother. When will you be back?”

  Sarah answered “We’ll be back within five days, seven at the most.”

  I nodded. “We should have a pretty quick trip down, all things considered. Since we’re not taking the highway we don’t have to worry about cars and blockage and trapped Z’s.”

  “Good luck, then.” Nate shook my hand one more time, then Sarah and I walked down the road to the slip where the boat was waiting.

  Charlie, Tommy, and the others were waiting at the dock. We were actually going to be following the Illinois and Michigan canal until it intersected with the Des Plaines River. I figured we could be assured of having enough water to travel by, since barges used to use the waterway. I just hoped a barge wasn’t blocking the waterway.

  Sarah and I boarded the boat, and I got a good look at Tommy and Charlie’s handiwork. They had enclosed the aft section of the boat to provide shelter from the weather and keep our gear relatively dry. The two of them had rigged up a propane grill for cooking and cases of bottled water occupied a corner. I guessed we would sleep where we could and there seemed to be enough room all around.

  I put our gear next to everyone else’s and said, “Let’s go.”

  Tommy nodded and fired up the motor. We were going to use the motor sparingly, to conserve fuel for the return trip, and would drift most of the way down. We knew where we were going, but we had to be careful getting there. Charlie, Martin, and myself all had long poles which we would use to steer around debris in the river. If we needed the motor we would fire it up, but for the most part we were returning to the days of Huck Finn.

  We started downriver and moved along pretty well. The canal was slightly swollen as a result of melting snow upstream, but nothing dangerous. The good news was the extra water allowed for a swifter current, so we moved well. The trees along the waterway were tinged with green buds, which reminded us all that life goes on regardless of the circumstances. There was not enough vegetation yet to obstruct viewing the lands outside the canal and we could see wildlife scurrying about through the underbrush.

  We drifted under the I-355 overpass and I couldn’t help but wonder when we might be able to build such things again. Certainly not in the near future.

  As we moved along, I noticed a zombie ambling along the canal bank. He hadn’t noticed us yet, and was drifting back and forth. I was curious about them and water, so I whistled as we approached. The zombie’s head whipped around and saw our boat. He reached out and came towards the water, stopping at the edge of the canal. His arms stayed up in a futile attempt to reach us, but he stayed put.

  “Interesting,” I said as I lined up the zombie in the sights of my rifle.

  “What’s that?” Tommy asked as he steered us closer for a better shot.

  “He won’t come into the water. It’s like he knows it there or senses it somehow and won’t go in,” I said. “Wonder what it means, not that I’m ungrateful for another barrier.”

  Charlie chimed in from his side of the boat. “Maybe since the virus needs oxygen, the zombies are steered away from water and suffocating environments.”

  I fired once and the Z dropped as if someone had cut his puppet strings. I lowered my gun as the sound of the shot echoed down the canal and reverberated off the hills to the south.

  Tommy chimed in. “If that’s the case, then all the rivers and canals should be safe, shouldn’t they?”

  “Right now, I wouldn’t take anything for granted until we know more, but it looks that way.” I put my rifle down and picked up my pole once again to push us away from the embankment. “If so, then we can assume these things breathe in some way, although I have seen a zombie or two with their lungs ripped out.” I pondered that for a minute, then realized it was way beyond me to speculate on zombie biology and turned my attention to the task at hand.

  We drifted farther south and I could see another bridge in the distance. There were numerous cars on the expanse and again I wondered how they came to be there. Did they run out of gas or were they abandoned as the Z’s descended upon them? We’d never know. And without the resources to get them out of the way, most roads were useless to us. Hence the river. I found it ironic that we were using the highways of the past
, drifting under the highways of the present.

  We moved along slowly, coming up to the town of Romeoville. Charlie suggested making a side trip to see if anything was there. I had no reason to argue so when we came to the bridge we went over to the side of the canal and Charlie and I hopped onto land. We only had to go about twenty yards before we could get onto the road and we moved quickly towards the town. We skirted around the abandoned cars and headed towards a populated area.

  At least it would have been populated. A subdivision on the north side of the street had been completely devastated. Burned out homes outnumbered the remaining wrecks and they were in sorry shape as well. It was one of those cookie cutter subdivisions where the construction was cheap and the homes were not built to last twenty years. They were piled on top of one another and I am sure when the fires started, the flames just leapt from house to house. Here and there we could see fluttering white flags on the mailboxes, limp reminders of the start of the blight. We could see signs of struggles and there were numerous bodies and parts of bodies rotting in the spring sun. Fortunately, none of them were moving, so we pressed on.

  At the first intersection there was a restaurant that was still standing and a gas station across the way. Beyond that were many homes and they were not in any better shape than the first. Charlie and I went to the gas station to see if there were any supplies, but the place had been cleared out. We did find a can of gas in the garage area and decided to take it along for the boat. I was curious about the rest of the town, but we had no time for a thorough investigation.

  Charlie figured out a quick solution. We went over to a power line tower and with a little lifting and a lot of grunting managed to get Charlie started on his way up the tower. About halfway up he stopped and looked around, using a pair of binoculars. After about ten minutes, he headed back down.

  I handed his pack back to him and said, “Well?”

  Charlie took a drink. “Bad news. The whole town is gone. It’s like a war zone. What wasn’t burned has been turned inside out. What I thought was a burned out area turned out to be corpses covered in insects and crows. It looks like the town tried to make a stand near the high school and got overrun. There’s nothing but death here. Romeoville is dead.”