America the Dead (10 page)

The next part was harder. I knew I was going, but I needed someone else not to go. I motioned Charlie to come talk to me and we headed outside. Sarah and Rebecca looked at us quizzically, but didn’t say anything.

Charlie was confused but came along. When we were outside, he asked me what was up.

I didn’t waste time. “I want you to hang back from this trip, Charlie.”

Charlie stared hard into my eyes. If I didn’t know him as I did, it would have been unnerving. After a minute, he said, “Can I ask why?”

“I got a feeling about this one, bro. I got a feeling that if we both head off on this trip, our home won’t be the same,” I said. “I managed to get myself into this mess and I’ll get myself out. But I would rest a whole lot easier knowing my old partner is watching the home fires.”

Charlie turned thoughtful. “You think this Major fellow would come calling?”

I nodded. “If he’s half the bastard Simon made him out to be, he might just want to be the only wolf in the woods. That means taking us out any way he can.”

Charlie mulled that one over, then nodded. “If I was going, I’d want you to look after my family as well. All right.”

I smiled and shook his hand. “Thanks, brother. I feel a lot better.”

“Promise me one thing,” Charlie said as we turned back to the house.

“Anything.”

“Don’t hog all the action. I get to kill me some scumbagstoo.”

I laughed. “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I’ll see what I can do.”

We reached the house just as a teenage girl came running up. Nate spoke with her for a minute and then sent her on her way.

“News?” I asked.

“Yeah. That Dan Winters took off this morning, stealing one of the recon cars and making off with a bunch of food and ammo. Looks like he left with a couple of his cronies as well,” Nate said.

“Good riddance, says I,” I said, not giving it much thought.

“Maybe,” said Nate. “I have a feeling that little punk will cause us trouble one way or the other.”

We planned for a little while longer, then set up a time table. We would leave the day after tomorrow, giving us a full day and a half to gather what supplies we needed and fully plan our route. I had been through the country before, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t recognize it now.

I went to visit my brother while I was in Leport and I was surprised to see how big my niece and nephew had become. Mike was very glad to see me, as was Nicole. We spent a good deal of time together and towards the end, I began to get the suspicion that Mike wanted to ask me something.

“Well, I need to get Sarah and Jake back to the house, they’re heading out in the morning, going back to Starved Rock. It’s been great seeing you all again.” I gave the kids and Nicole a hug, then gave my brother one as well.

“John…” Mike began.

I looked at him. “What’s on your mind, bro? You’ve been avoiding an issue since I got here. What is it?”

Mike looked at the ground, then looked at Nicole. Nicole broke the silence. “We were wondering if you had any room for another family out at your lodge.”

I was taken aback. After Charlie and I had rescued my brother and his family from the Visitor Center at Starved Rock, I figured they wouldn’t be in any hurry to return. “Of course, you’re welcome. We have plenty of room. Get your stuff and we can take you on the boat back.”

Mike gave me a big hug, then gave Nicole a hug and a kiss. Nicole hugged me and whispered “Thank you.” in my ear. Sarah smiled and I found myself glad that my brother was coming with.

“Of course, there is a condition,” I said ominously.

Mike looked at me, his eyes apprehensive. “What’s that?”

“You have to train with Charlie to get your skills up. You’re out on the frontier now and the only thing between you and living death is the skill and strength of your arm and the preparedness of your mind.” I slapped him on the shoulder. “I ain’t coming back to find you dead because you did something stupid.”

Mike nodded and it seemed like he was looking forward to the challenge. I hoped he was, because Charlie took no prisoners.

We walked back to the house and Sarah and I spent some alone time together. Jake took a nap, which was convenient as hell.

Holding Sarah in my arms, I told her about the decision to keep Charlie back and she agreed with me, “Rebecca will be happy.”

“I hope it all works out,” I said, playing with a loose strand of her hair.

“Anything you need for us to do while you’re gone?” she said, running a finger across my chest.

“When you pass the towns, pass the word on what we are doing and where we will bring the documents once we get them. Have each community send a representative here and we’ll start the government process over.”

Sarah sat up and leaned over me, her hair spilling across my face. “Are you serious?” she said.

“Very,” I replied, running a hand down her back. “Once we get this thing settled, we’re restarting our country. I’ve avoided it long enough, and we have to do something.”

Sarah kissed me deeply, then rolled over, pulling me on top of her. “You have knack for hope, my dear. It’s oddly arousing.” She said as she settled herself beneath me.

“Indeed.” I said as I kissed her, and then stopped talking for a while.

12

The next day I saw the loading of my family and my brother’s family onto the boat. They headed off to a large crowd waving goodbye and as they pulled away, Charlie raised a hand to me, then made a fist, placing it on his heart. I repeated the gesture, knowing that he would defend to the death the families placed in his care. I would have done the same in his shoes. Mike waved goodbye for a while, then turned his attention back to his children, who were thrilled at being on a boat. Sarah held Jake up and they both waved goodbye. I stayed on the dock until the boat was out of sight, burning the image of my wife and son into my mind. It would be the image that I would draw strength from, should I ever need it.

Preparations went well and by nightfall the big vehicle was stocked with food, filled with fuel and armed with ammo. I was bringing my faithful AR, my ever present SIG and my M1A. The latter was to be used for serious fights. Tommy, Duncan and Nate were bringing their favorite toys as well. We were going to move out in the morning, keeping to the back roads. We were hopeful in finding more people out there, but after two years in the post Upheaval world, it was anyone’s guess as to their state of mind. I had the feeling some were going to have to be brought back kicking and screaming.

I was standing on the dock, looking downriver at where my family went, when Tommy came up to me.

“I heard you were sending word that the towns should send up a representative, that we are going to start government again.” He pitched a rock into the river.

“I did. Sarah got me thinking about it and I figure its time we did before too many ‘Thortons” spring up and completely ruin what’s left of this country. We need the good people to get up and fully make a stand. We need to wipe out the zombie threat and get our lives back once and for all.”

“What’s our role in that?” Tommy asked and I realized that Tommy and Duncan were at loose ends, looking for some definitive meaning to what they were doing. I had thought about it and had come up with a solution.

“To be honest, if we get the manpower, you, Charlie, Duncan, and I were going to lead the charge to get rid of the zombies once and for all. We’ll turn over every rock, root out every Z we can find, and obliterate this damn virus once and for all,” I said.

Tommy mulled that one over for a minute. “You know, a year ago, I would have thought you were crazy. But given how far we’ve come, you actually manage to give me hope that it can be done.”

“Thanks. A year ago I would have thought I was crazy also, but since then I …what’s that?” I stopped midsentence and pointed to what seemed to be flickering lights coming up from the south on the far side of the canal.

Tommy stared for a moment then cursed. “Shit. Zombies,” he said.

I realized he was right, the flickering lights were several pairs of bioluminescent eyeballs headed our way. Their path would take them up the hill to the overpass which would bring them down into the town. How the hell they got past the guard tower was a mystery, but irrelevant now.

I ran back to the town, stopping at Nate’s to yell into his yard “Zombies reaching the bridge!” I bolted down the street towards the guest house where my gear was still stowed. Tommy was right on my heels and we both grabbed our favorite fighting tools.

Running out into the street we nearly collided with Nate who was rushing our way. He was armed with a .45 and a crowbar.

“What the fuck?” he growled, running alongside us to the intersection that would bring us to the long bridge that crossed the river.

“Tommy and I were on the docks when we saw the little dancing lights of zombie eyes across the way. They were headed for the hill to get across the water,” I said, running at a steady pace. We passed several onlookers, who ran when Nate yelled out at them.

“Get inside, zombies inside the perimeter! Spread the word and arm yourselves!”

We reached the bridge and began the long run to intercept the zombies. I hoped like hell there weren’t any of the little fast ones. Fighting them during the day was bad enough, but at night it was ten times worse.

We crossed the highest point and started down the other side. At the bottom of the hill were about ten dark shapes moving up from the shadows of the brush. I shouted to get their attention and to keep them from spreading out too far. I wanted them to come to us. I had no desire to go chasing down a zombie in the dark in the brush.

Nate and Tommy and I spread out as we slowed down and approached the zombies. There were eight of them, not too difficult a fight for the three of us. Their glowing eyes locked on us and the group as one sounded a chorus of moaning that echoed over the hills of the town.

Nate reached the zombies first and drew a bead with his .45. The heavy gun barked once and the nearest zombie’s head turned inside out. Nate fired again and dropped a second. I had pulled my SIG out at this point and was firing. I killed two in short order, then heard Tommy open up on his side. We all retreated a step as the remaining three zombies moved around their fallen comrades and came towards us, oblivious that they looked death in the face. We all fired as one, the crashing volley reverberating over the hillside. Three zombies dropped in their tracks, staining the road with dark fluids.

I held up a hand and walked forward, looking for further signs of more enemies. I waited at the road’s edge and listened intently. Sure enough, there was a dragging sound and the snapping of underbrush. I fished out my flashlight and shined it into the bushes. I caught a flash of grey moving behind the shrubs and I backed away, waiting for the inevitable.

The zombie fell through the bushes with a crash, then slowly began dragging itself to its feet. I could see why it was slower than the rest, one leg had been broken and was forced into a weird angle, keeping it from its speedier brethren. I shined the light in its face and noticed its neck had been torn open, explaining why it wasn’t groaning. Its eyes were also not glowing, so this one would have been a nasty hunt in the dark if it had been whole. I lined up a shot and fired as it straightened to take a charge at me. It toppled back into the bushes, spreading out as if it had decided to lounge there all day. I turned the light off and listened again, but in the quiet I heard no movement.

I walked back to Nate and Tommy and they were just finishing up piling all the corpses for a fire.

“That the last of them?” Nate asked.

“Don’t hear any more, although you might want to send out some searchers to make sure that wherever these got through, they’re aren’t any more on the way,” I said, holstering my SIG.

“Got that, right after I kick the shit out of whatever guard let them through without warning.” Nate grumbled.

“There is that,” I said, looking over to the dark guard tower. Whoever let this happen just opened a fresh can of whup-ass.

We walked back over the bridge and found ourselves facing a crowd of about ten men with rifles trained on us. When they saw who we were they lowered their weapons, although there were questions in their eyes.

Nate spoke up. “Clean-up tomorrow! Check the lists to see whose turn it is. Search team beta needs to cross the river tomorrow and do a sweep of the whole area. Search team Alpha needs to check the guard tower first thing in the morning and find the breach.”

There were nods as people packed up their weapons and headed back to their homes. I was impressed with the efficiency of these people and told Nate so. He waved off the compliment.

“We do what’s necessary. We’re all the fence that keeps the demons at bay. You taught us that, John,” Nate said. “You insisted everyone train for battle. If we didn’t have the barriers, we’d still have the fence of arms.”

I was glad to hear it and very glad that this community was destined to survive. All we needed to do was to make sure the country survived so we could make up for the mistakes of the past.

In the morning, we piled about our battle wagon and pointed it south. I sat next to Nate who drove. Tommy and Duncan sat at the little kitchen table and cleaned and sharpened weapons. Boxes of ammo were open and extra magazines were loaded.