We headed out again, stopping when the road finally ran out of North. Charlie looked at me and I told him to head West. We were nearly there, and I was getting anxious. I did not want to have to do anything in the dark. We passed another subdivision. God, there was enough of the stupid things. This one had huge homes, any of them could pass for a fortress if the people had sense enough to barricade the first floorwindows. As I looked, I saw the inevitable white flags decorating several expensive mailboxes. We would have passed by if it hadn’t been for a person standing on a second floor porch waving a pillowcase at us. Here we go.
“Are we stopping?” Charlie asked, slowing down the car. He had seen the pillowcase, too.
“Have to.” I said.
“Why?” Kristen asked, making a teenage face.
“You never know who lives in these places. Maybe that’s a surgeon or even better, an electrician. Be nice to have someone around to patch holes up or rig up some power.” I said, trying to put the best face on what could become a difficult situation.
“Yeah, right.” said Charlie. “You’re just hoping to score some points to make up for that fall you took.”
“There is that. But I am first a humanitarian.” I said loftily. It was a good thing I couldn’t see how much Kristen was probably rolling her eyes.
Charlie just snorted and pulled into the gated community. I could see we were not going to get out without a fight, as we had attracted the attention of about ten zombies loitering around two of the houses.
Charlie waved to Tommy and Sarah, and they pulled up alongside the car. “We got people who need help. Turn your cars around in case we need to get lost fast.” Charlie said to the other vehicles. As they hurried to comply, I took a look at the situation. We actually were in a decent spot. The community was gated, and had a fence running along the outside of the subdivision. We were blocking the only access road, and there was a large pond to our right. The houses were up on a hill, and we had a clear field of fire across the fairway of the golf course that was on our left. Could be worse.
I hopped out of the car and got us set up. “Jason and Lisa, you watch the road and protect our exit. Chelsea and Kristen, you watch their backs and keep an eye on the cars. Kristen, Jake’s your responsibility unless I say otherwise. Tommy and Duncan, you’re to clear a path to the house. Charlie and Sarah, we’re cleaning up and going in. Any questions?” All heads shook negative. “Let’s go.”
I headed towards the house while Tommy and Duncan lit up the zombies headed towards us. It would have been scary to have bullets whipping past your head to take out a zombie in front of you if you hadn’t been through it before. I never slowed and reached the house in short order. The door had been caved in and I imagined there were several little sweeties waiting for us. Tommy and Duncan stayed out on the lawn, dropping the zombies that were coming from the other houses and covering our backs.
I moved in and aimed my gun left while Charlie slid in and went right. Sarah went in the middle and we all had targets. Eleven zombies of all shapes and sizes came shuffling from their various hiding places, and we had our hands full. I dropped the two closest ones to me, and Charlie’s rifle cracked loudly in the small space. Sarah’s rifle boomed once, and then again. We could hear loud moaning coming from all angles, so this was a heavily infested house. Great. The garden level of the house consisted of a central room, with hallways to the left and right. We were going to have to be careful, as more zombies started to come from the other rooms. We could wait for them to come to us, but there was a stairwell in the middle which made coverage difficult.
I motioned Sarah to the stairs and she took up a position to nail anything coming down. Charlie went right and I went left. I went to a bedroom door and checked the knob. It was locked. Good. No worries about something hitting me in the back. I moved down the hallway, the light fading as I moved away from the windows of the central room. It was quiet, and I could hear my own breathing as I moved slowly down the hall. God, I hated this. Give me a stand up battle every time. Hunting these bastards sucked. I moved down the hall and checked the last room. The door was open, and I pushed it further with my rifle barrel. It was empty.
I turned around and was confronted with the biggest zombie I had ever seen. He was six foot six if he was an inch, and was headed my way. His huge frame was dressed in torn sweats, and his face bore the marks of several confrontations. Dried blood covered his chin, and his lips curled back in a grimace as he moved towards me. I backed up and raised my rifle, but he brought up his hands to grab and knocked the barrel out of the way. I brought up the butt of the rifle as a barrier and shoved as hard as I could. I barely managed to slow him down, and he bore me backwards to the wall. His hands grabbed my shoulders and tried to bring me within biting range of his gaping maw. I pushed back and managed to keep myself from being bit, but I couldn’t let go of the rifle, as it was the only thing keeping the teeth from me. The zombie’s decaying face moaned into mine, and his graveyard breath made me gag. I pushed off the wall and we began a dance of death around the room. I couldn’t afford to go down, as he was too heavy, and I couldn’t draw my SIG as I needed two hands to keep this thing off me. I pushed it back into the bathroom in the room, and while I had the momentum, shoved it into the bathtub. The edge of the tub tripped the zombie and he fell with me on top. I used the opportunity to shove knee into his chest and rip away from him. I fell back and landed on the floor, with the zombie moving to get out of the tub. I shot it in the head from the ground, and nearly deafened myself from firing in such a small space. The zombie slowly sank into the tub, his big head coming to a rest on his big chest.
I took a moment to catch my breath and take stock of my injuries. My shoulders were going to be sore for a while, but I was alive, which was the important thing. I got up and headed back down the hallway. The locked door I had passed earlier was broken off its hinges, no surprise where Tiny had come from. I peeked in and didn’t see anyone else, so I went back to Sarah at the stairs. Outside, I could hear an occasional shot as Tommy and Duncan honed their shooting skills.
“You okay?” Sarah asked, keeping her gun on the stairs.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I said, rolling my head and shaking my shoulders a bit. “Had a big son of a buck give me a moment, there.”
Sarah shook her head. “I saw him head your way, but I couldn’t help out. Sorry.”
I understood. Sarah had her job and would do it, which was making sure we didn’t get jumped by anything coming down the stairs. The small pile of corpses at the first landing was evidence of that. “No worries. Just inconvenient.” I tried to make light of the fact that I nearly bought it. If it had been Sarah in there, the big Z would have easily overwhelmed her. Charlie came back from the other hall way, and I could see a zombie half in and half out of a back room.
“All clear?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Charlie said. “You?”
“Just a big bugger that gave me a good run.” I took a second look at the corpse in the hall. “Say, Charlie, is that your knife in his chest?” I inquired, smiling a little.
Charlie looked back at the body. “Uh, yeah, that’s mine. Not sure how it got there.” He wandered back to the zombie and pulled out his knife. Wiping it off, he came back to the stairs. Both Sarah and I were grinning at him. “What?”
Sarah broke the silence. “Did you miss his head?” she asked, giggling a little.
Charlie glowered. “He surprised me, okay? Sometimes when they’re fresh you forget they’re zombies.”
I laughed. “Guess this lets me off the hook for falling on my ass.”
Charlie refused to dignify me or Sarah with further comment.
I patted Sarah on the shoulder and brought my gun up to the ready position. I jumped to the landing, sliding a little on a spot of Z-goop, and aimed towards the top of the stairs. Charlie leapfrogged me and went to the top. Sarah jumped past him and I ran up to take a position on their left.
We had a minute to take in our surroundings before they came for us. The room was massive, with vaulted ceilings and a walkway on the second floor that opened out to the room. I could see some survivors up there, and reminded myself not to shoot too high. The kitchen was a mess, with tables and chairs thrown about the tile floor, and the hallways had blood smeared on the walls. A decomposing body was in the center of the room, and it was interesting that it had no head. I motioned to Sarah and she looked over.
“Great. Some idiot has a sword.” She was not amused.
I smiled inwardly. We had run into a guy a while back who insisted he was the greatest zombie killer in existence, and his weapons were two cheap samurai swords. He didn’t last long after he charged a group of five zombies by himself. We buried his swords with what was left of him.
I didn’t have much time to reminisce. There were about fifteen zombies in various states of decay that were coming for us. A small woman was immediately in front of me and she was almost able to grab my arm when I dropped her. Sarah had slung her rifle and was using her Ruger to drop zombies. Charlie fired three times and took out a set of twins and their grandmother. I moved to my left and killed two more, an old man and young boy. I was moving towards the kitchen, clearing a path. I shot my last one and turned to see Sarah finishing off hers and Charlie using his tomahawk to take out a zombie that was crawling out from under the table where it had been feeding on what looked like a small dog or cat.
“Clear.” I said.
“Clear.” said Sarah.
“Clear.” said Charlie
I looked around. The place was nice, but useless as a place of defense unless you shored up the windows. I motioned to Sarah. “Check for transportation for these people. We don’t know how many there are or if any of them are infected, so I don’t want them riding with us.”
Sarah nodded and went off to find the garage. Charlie came over and I motioned to the stairs. “Go see what we have up there. See how they are provisioned for the winter, and see if they have anything of use. I’m going to secure the rest of the house.” I could still hear shots outside from Tommy and Duncan. “We need to be out in ten minutes, max.”
Charlie nodded and went to the stairs, where he had to navigate over a pile of debris and doors to get to the second floor.
I shouldered my carbine and unholstered my SIG. There were a couple of rooms to check and the front door to secure. I didn’t need any leftovers ruining my day, or any wandering Z’s coming to call. I went by the dining room and admired the chandelier in there before heading to the front door which was wide open. I checked the lawn and shot a zombie that was dragging itself across the grass, its lower legs having been torn off. I closed the door and locked it, noting that it was steel and could hold off quite a few zombies.
Oh well. I could hear Charlie talking to the people upstairs and heard more than one raised voice. Great. This should be fun. I headed towards the back rooms and checked the furthest one, finding nothing. The second one nearly drove me over the edge.
It was a nursery, with a changing table and dresser, and Winnie the Pooh was the theme. In the corner was a crib, and I could see movement under the blanket. I couldn’t stop my feet from walking over to the crib, and my hand gripped my SIG like I was trying to break it. I looked over the side of the crib and saw the Winnie the Pooh blanket covering something alive. It wasn’t crying or making any noises, so I knew what I was going to see. I reached out and pulled the blanket away, and had to turn away, nearly retching in my disgust. A baby was in the crib, roughly four months old, and it apparently had become infected and turned. Its skin was blue grey, and its eyes were milky like the rest. It saw me and reached out with tiny, grasping hands, its face becoming a mask of anger at the meal it couldn’t reach. The mouth opened and closed, and I could see one small tooth coming through the gums.
I couldn’t leave it there, and I couldn’t ask anyone else to finish it off. I never asked anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I’ve had so called leaders like that in the past, and I swore I would never be like them when I became an administrator. I raised my SIG with both hands, lined up the tiny head, and pulled the trigger. The blast was loud in the room, and my hands dropped to my sides. I closed my eyes and thought of Jake. This will never happen to you, I swore for the thousandth time. Never.
I holstered my SIG and used the blanket to cover the baby. I turned around and saw Sarah standing in the doorway. Apparently, she had seen me shoot the child. As I walked past, she reached out and touched my arm.
“You had to, John.” she said softly.
“I know.” I said. “But that doesn’t make it easy.”
Reading my mind, Sarah tried to reassure me. “I’m glad its not.” She said. “It won’t happen to Jake, John. I promise it won’t.”
I shook my head. “I need to get out of here.” I moved past Sarah and stopped in the hallway. “Thank you.” I said over my shoulder.
“You’re welcome.”
I headed back to the main area with Sarah behind me. A group of nine people waited by the stairs, in various states of disarray. There were three men, four women, and two teenage boys. One of the teenagers was carrying a sword. A Scottish Claymore reproduction, by the look of it. He glared at me as I walked past, challenging me silently with his hand on the hilt. Moron. A fourth man was engaged in a lively conversation with Charlie, who was not known for his people skills.
“And I do not see your point. Yes, we are grateful, but if you think we are going to leave the relative comfort of this home to go who knows where, you are crazy.” It was a fat, balding man with a weak chin expressing his views. He wore a “tactical” vest, the kind many mall ninjas surely invest in. He had a handgun in the holster, what kind I couldn’t tell. He had a Ruger Mini14 slung over his shoulder and what looked like several magazines in his vest pocket. He should have been able to clean house on his own. Something to consider. I stopped by Charlie and signaled Sarah to stand by.
“I’m going to check outside. I’ll be right back.” I said to Charlie in a low voice.
Charlie nodded and the look on his face clearly indicated he wanted to get away from his antagonist.
I headed downstairs and went to the door we originally came in. I could see Duncan and Tommy outside, and by the way they held their weapons, the immediate danger had passed.
“Heads up, gents. What’s the word.?” I said, startling Duncan.
Tommy answered. “We’re good out here. Some movement back down the street, but nothing to worry about. Jason and Lisa nailed a couple, and Chelsea shot one that came out of the water.”
“Really?” I was impressed. “Wonder how it got in there?”
Duncan shrugged. “Probably saw a frog and went after it. Who knows?”
I had to admit it was probable. Zombies were the definition of stupid. Deadly, but stupid. I went back inside. I could hear Fatty raising his voice. Like that was going to improve his argument, whatever it was.
I headed back upstairs and asked Sarah about the vehicles. She told me that there were three cars in the garage and they were all working and ready to go. Finally, some good news.
I moved over to Charlie and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked at me and promptly walked downstairs, leaving the fat man sputtering at his loss of audience.
I decided to be direct. The baby was still on my mind and I was in no mood for bullshit. “Hello, all. My name is John Talon, and we’re glad you folks are still alive. We have cleared the area for now, but the shots will attract more in a little while. You have roughly fifteen minutes to pack up and get out. We are leaving immediately. We’re glad to have helped you all escape, but we need to leave. If you want to join us, you need to move now. I have been told there are three cars in the garage that are working and ready to go. Best take them and go.”
Fat man stood in front of me. “I am Dane Blake, and these people have chosen me to represent them. I can assure you, we will not be going anywhere. Your help was not needed, and I see no reason to leave a comfortable position.” His jowls wobbled as he spoke and it was distracting.
I was past caring. I went over to the group and asked them. “Anyone want to go?” All hands except the teen with the sword went up. I waved them to the garage. “Go now.” They started to leave, carrying what small belongings they had with them. Dane Blake stood in the way, with his hand on his gun.
“Those cars are my personal property and I have not authorized their use.” He said imperiously.
Authorized? I wondered why the rest of the group had not mutinied. Then I realized he was the only one armed save for the teen. I guess that makes sense. When one person has the weapons, that person makes the rules. Since I was armed, I decided to push the issue.
“Go to the cars, get in them, and get out. Your time is running out.” I said moving towards Blake. Sarah moved in behind me.
“Stop where you are! You will not take my cars or leave this house!” Blake started to unbuckle the strap that held in his gun.
I stepped towards him placing myself directly in front of him. I put my hand on my SIG and stared into his eyes. “Pull it, bully.” I said, my voice mean. “Pull it and see what happens. I have just rescued those people and that means I am responsible for them, not you. You’ve had a nice thing going here, I’m sure, stroking your ego and making those people miserable because of your power trip. They are leaving.” My tone of voice made it clear to even the most stupid of individuals that I meant everything I said, and severe violence would follow my words if pushed.
Dane blinked and flicked his eyes over to the group. Then a small smile appeared on his pudgy face. I didn’t blink. I knew what was happening and what was going to happen.
Sure enough, there was a loud crack and a cry of pain, followed by a metallic clattering on the floor. If I trusted my instincts, I would bet everything I had on the fact that Blake had given a signal to his trustee, the kid with the sword. The kid probably had drawn the sword, then Sarah made her move. I didn’t look, not trusting to take my eyes off Blake, but I was sure the kid was now looking down the barrel of Sarah’s gun. I gave a little smile of my own. Blake blanched and kept his hands away from his guns.
What I did not expect was one of the women to jump on the downed teen, who was holding his wrist and glaring at Sarah, who in turn was replacing her blunt weapon to its place on her pack, its purpose served. The woman landed on the teen’s back forcing him to the hardwood floor. She pummeled him mercilessly, smacking his head to the floor and cursing him in a most inventive way. I didn’t know you could use some of those words together. I took another look at the headless corpse and it dawned on me that it was not a zombie I was looking at, but an example, ordered by Dane and carried out by this sadistic teen with the sword. My estimation of Blake dropped even further, if that was possible.
I shook my head and motioned to Sarah, who pulled the woman off the teen. He was bleeding from several places and his face was a pulpy mess. He was making little mewling sounds, and curled up into a ball as soon as the weight was taken off his shoulders.
I pointed to the garage and the group headed there. Sarah pushed the woman along with the other survivors, then headed downstairs. I looked back at Blake. “We’re leaving. You can have your weapons and your little buddy there. If you do anything stupid, I will personally hang you upside down from the nearest tree, call in the zombies, and watch them eat your face off. If you’re lucky, you’ll die before they’re finished with you. Understand?” Blake just glared hatred at me. “I will take that as a Yes.” I headed for the stairs, still keeping my hand on my gun. I had a feeling I would not see the last of Blake, but if I was lucky, maybe I would see him first.
I ran outside and saw my group was ready to go. I jumped into the CR-V and got rewarded with a squeak from Jake. I gave him my hand to hold, and I almost had tears in my eyes when I thought about that baby in the house. We headed back onto the road, and I could see in the rear-view mirror that the three cars from the house were following us. Good enough.
We headed West, and I saw less signs of violence and mayhem than I expected. In all likelihood, this extreme end of the suburbs of Chicago had been spared the devastation, but the virus had infected so many so fast. When it first hit, people were infected and didn’t even know it. With the concentration of population in the cities, the virus could have been contained in the cities, but with the early long incubation period, and the commuter population, it was inevitable that it would spread to the suburbs. Once it got out of the confines of the population centers, it was over. Where we were was actually behind the wave of the dead, dealing with the ones that couldn’t travel as fast or were trapped indoors. But there were still millions out there, and we had to deal with them all. You never knew where they were. You just had to keep your guard up all the time.
We reached another intersection, and passed by a burned out gas station. There were blackened cars in the lot, and a couple of shriveled corpses. Two of the cars had several bullet holes in them, but that could have been caused by anything. I had a suspicion about the holes, and glancing at Charlie; he had seen them and was suspicious about them as well.
No time for that now. We turned north and after a small subdivision we were flanked by forest preserve. I didn’t need to see it, but I would bet there was a small smile on Charlie’s face as we left most traces of civilization behind. Charlie had been born to the country, and in all likelihood grown up to farm like his father before him. But he managed to go to college, met a woman, married and settled in the ‘burbs. But the call was still strong, and after all this, I expected him to head back home. The only thing stopping him was his sense of duty to the group. He would do the job until finished. I, for one, couldn’t imagine any success of the plan without him.
At the next intersection, we turned right. I told Charlie that if pushed, our absolute last stand was down this road. There was a large lake just down the hill, and with boats available and several islands, we could make do for a long time. He just nodded and pointed at another car on the side of the road. This one had bullet holes in it, too. I nodded. “Once a coincidence, twice a pattern.” I said, “We’ll need to keep an eye open.”
We headed down the road and finally managed to bring our little convoy to our destination. We parked the cars in the parking lot and looked at our new home. It was an office/condos building, sitting on an intersection. Across the street was the forest preserve, and across the second street was a small spring-fed pond. There was a small subdivision and town home complex around the pond, but I didn’t think it would be a problem. The best part of the building was the fact it did not have a ground floor; the parking lot was under the building. There was a single doorway/stairwell that led to the upper floors. Properly provisioned, we could withstand the worst siege for years.
Charlie and I got out of the car and looked around. Our convoy had attracted a little notice, and a few lone Z’s were coming to investigate. They were moving pretty slowly, so I was hopeful that the coming winter would make them nearly immobile.
Duncan and Tommy came over. “Nice digs, chief. How do we secure the stairway?” Duncan asked, eyeing the entrance. It was a glass enclosure, and several dedicated zombies could easily break in if they had reason. I pointed to the cars.
“We park those right by the glass, and that should hold for now.” I said, indicating the larger vehicles.
Tommy looked around. “You know, I’ll bet there is deer and rabbit in those woods.”
Charlie nodded. “We’ll be fine for food and firewood. What about water?”
I pointed to the pond. “Last I heard, that was spring-fed, so we’re good there. Also, down the road that way,” I indicated east. “There’s two big grocery stores and a strip mall, as well as two gas stations and a drug store, about a mile away.
Duncan whistled. “You can pick ‘em.” He motioned to Tommy and Charlie. “Let’s go check out our new home.”
The other two nodded and Charlie patted my shoulder as he went past, the best compliment one could expect from the man. I took it for what it was and watched as the trio checked weapons, loaded magazines, secured masks and goggles, then headed for the stairs. I smiled to myself as I realized that this had become so routine, we never even thought about it anymore.
I went over to where Chelsea and Kristen were entertaining Jake. He was crawling around the bed of the Jeep, and standing on the side looking out the windows when he could. Chelsea was watching him while Kristen was keeping an eye on our slow-moving friends. I left them and went over to the group of survivors we had rescued. They looked to be in a depressed state, although that seemed to be improving. They huddled together, and Sarah was talking to a few of them. Several heads kept turning to look at the zombies, and I knew any discussion would have to wait until they were dealt with.
The zombies were about a hundred yards away, but moving slow enough that it would take a while before they were a threat. I held up a finger to Sarah and wandered out towards the zombies. It took a minute to reach the first one and he was in bad shape. His head was nearly devoid of hair, and his skin was stretched tight around his face. His lips were pulled back and his blackened teeth opened and closed as he worked to get to me. His right arm hung down uselessly, but he reached out with his left. I walked up to about five yards of him and shot him once in the head. He dropped with a grunt, and I moved towards the second, never breaking stride. This one was a female, but I couldn’t be too sure. I didn’t waste time and put a bullet between her eyes, knocking her backwards and onto her back. The third was a longer shot, but I figured it was worth it. I fired and blew the top of its head off. Lucky shot, but I would never admit it to Tommy or Duncan.
I went back to the group and addressed the people. I was sure Sarah had been filling them in as to what we were doing and where we were from. I wasn’t going to waste time. “Good afternoon. I’m sure Ms. Greer has been filling you in and answering questions. My name is John Talon and I lead this little group. We survived the Upheaval and we are surviving the aftermath. We have a plan and this building is part of our efforts take back what we lost. If you want to stay with us, you’re welcome. We will train you, find a place for you in our community, and use you if you have skills we need. We are going to take back our world and our lives. It will be a long battle, but if you want to be part of it, come along.”
I winked at Sarah and went back to Jakey. I figured the group had some things to talk about, and I wanted to spend some time with my son. He was playing with a small pile of books, stacking them and knocking them over. I lost myself in his antics until Sarah came over.
“Want to talk about it?” Sarah asked, sitting down next to me.
“About what?” I knew what she was referring to, but I have been wrong before.
“About the baby in the house.” Sarah searched my eyes, looking for who knows what.
“No need, really. I had a bad moment, let my imagination run away for a bit. But I’m fine. Really.” I said.
Sarah’s face said she didn’t believe me. “Really? For a moment back there, I thought you were going to execute that Blake and his little toady.”
I laughed. “I’d be lying to you if I told you I didn’t think about it. Especially after that woman jumped that kid. I thought she was going to push his head through the floor. But he was no danger.”
Sarah didn’t say anything. She just looked at me.
I sighed. “Look. I just got twitchy when I realized that baby had been left to die and turn alone. That its last thoughts were of loneliness and abandonment. How long did it cry before it died? How long did it reach out for its mother or father who were not coming? Someone could have done something. That worthless piece of dog shit let that child die alone. If there is any justice, he’s trapped again in that house, with just that little turd for company.”
Sarah stood up and adjusted her jacket. She checked her Ruger and her pack. She leaned over and placed a hand on Jakey’s cheek, earning a smile from him. Sarah then looked back at me and I could see a funny look in her green eyes. She leaned over and placed a hand on my cheek. “You’ll do.” she said, and walked away to talk with Jason and his wife Lisa.
Shaking my head at women in general and one in particular, my attention went to the stairs where Tommy, Duncan, and Charlie were coming out of the building. They weren’t dragging anyone or anything, so I guessed all went well.
Tommy spoke first. “Place was empty. We checked and double checked every possible hiding place and came up empty. Looks like it was cleared before the big mess hit and whoever worked here never came back. The offices look pretty new, and the condos look like they were furnished, but never lived in.”
“Sounds good.” I said. “What about numbers? How many per condo?” I was curious because we had picked up a few more people.
Charlie spoke up. “There’s eight condos, and all of them are two bedrooms.”
“That’s not a problem then.” I said. “Tommy and Duncan have one, Jason and his wife can share one with the teens who can share a room or one of them can bunk with Sarah, and Jake and I can share one with Charlie.”
Duncan piped up. “When are we going raiding?”
I considered that. “We’ll go once we’re settled in. I don’t want to get cocky and lose someone. There’s another element out here that we need to be careful of.”
Tommy frowned. “What do you mean?”
I explained about the cars with the bullet holes and Charlie backed me up on that information. “We don’t know for sure, but I can personally vouch for some scumbags I dealt with a while back when everything was breaking.” I didn’t go into detail, but they got the hint. We would need to watch for others as well as zombies.
“Let’s get unpacked.” I said, picking up Jakey and my duffel bag. I had another trip to make for another bag, but these days we traveled relatively lightly.
Unpacking the cars and getting settled in took a very short amount of time. The condos were very nicely furnished, and as we discovered, furnished exactly the same. Even the colors of the furniture were identical. The offices were on the first two floors, and the condos made up the top four. Tommy quickly found the stairs to the roof, and set up an observation post. Old habits, I guess. The girls were happy to be sharing a bedroom, since it was just like old times, and Jason and Lisa were happy for the opportunity to be a positive influence for the girls. Jakey liked the new place and immediately began exploring. I was grateful to see that the condos had functional fireplaces, and Duncan had found the office copier paper supply, so kindling was taken care of. I had the odd thought that if the plague had hit later, the gas station would have a supply of those ever last logs that burn for hours. How inconvenient some viruses can be.
I got a surprise when I learned that only two of the couples we rescued wanted to stay with us. The other couple and the woman whose husband was beheaded, as well as the teen, wanted to head south for warmer weather. I tried to tell them that the zombies seemed to be slower in the cold and we could have a few months of relative safety as opposed to the warmer climes that favored the Z’s. But they were having none of it, so I waved goodbye as they headed out. They didn’t take me up on the offers of food and supplies, so I think they just wanted to escape this place and every memory associated with it. I could respect that.
I got another surprise when I went back into my condo. Charlie had apparently been strong-armed into trading with another crew member and was no longer sharing a place with me. I got a shock as I went into the condo and found Sarah playing with Jacob.
“Where’s Charlie?” I asked, looking into the bedroom and seeing Sarah’s gear.
“He and I traded. I figured Jake could use a woman’s influence. Any problems with that?” Her tone held both trepidation and challenge.
I shook my head. I came to the realization that even though I was the leader, I really wasn’t in charge.