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.”
I shook my head. “Any good news?”
Charlie thought for a minute. “Didn’t see any zombie activity, so I’m guessing they moved on. On a side note, I could see my house from up there.” He flashed a stupid grin at me and for that I made him carry the gas can back to the boat.
We moved back towards the boat and when he were halfway there, realized we had company. About ten zombies had stumbled out of the burned out subdivision and were following us down the road. Charlie motioned towards the pack. “Feel like exercising today?”
I looked back and shrugged. “No need, they’re not any… whoops.” Three of the zombies were clearly moving faster than the others, moving at what I considered a fast walk. They would be on us if we just kept walking in a matter of minutes. “Better move to a defendable position.”
Charlie looked back and saw the trio. They were moving quickly for zombies and had already outstripped their companions. Their tattered clothing hung from gaunt, burnt frames and it was hard to tell what they might have been in life. One might have been a female, but it was impossible to tell, and we sure weren’t going to ask.
I started to run to gain some ground and Charlie kept up with me. We moved to the grassy area where we first got onto the road and Charlie spun around to fire at the Z’s chasing us. His bullet went wide but struck one of the slower zombies. That one fell down, but immediately began getting up again. The faster zombies actually increased their speed to a trot, and started to spread out. That was new and not welcome at all. That showed some sort of modicum problem solving intelligence and if more of these things started to do that we were screwed.
Charlie and I reached the edge of the woods and managed to get about fifty yards between us and the Z’s. We got behind trees and lined up our shots. I took aim at a desiccated corpse with numerous holes in his dark flesh. His fast motion made aiming difficult, but I followed his movement and fired. The bullet took him square in the face and the heavy caliber blew the back of his head completely out. He backflipped onto the ground and I swung my rifle to the next one just as Charlie fired. His bullet entered the eye of the Z on the far left, whose head flopped to the side as its body tumbled forward. I fired at the last one, but the Z tripped at the last moment, causing my bullet to go wide. Charlie took aim as the zombie started to get up again, and nailed it in the back, hammering it down to the ground. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and unsheathed my pick, moving forward to finish it off. Charlie pulled one of his tomahawks and moved forward as well.
We moved cautiously forward in the knee-high grass, keeping an eye out for the Z. Charlie may have broken its back, then again, he may not. We approached the spot where we last saw it and got a surprise. The zombie was gone. I looked at Charlie and shook my head, and we immediately scanned the area. I unholstered my SIG and Charlie did the same with his Glock. We didn’t have time to hunt for the bastard, the remaining zombies were getting closer and tall grass hid them until you were on top of them, or they were on top of you.
Charlie and I stood back to back and waiting quietly, I heard movement to my right and looking down, sure enough the zombie was creeping slowly towards my leg. I bumped Charlie and he looked down and saw the Z as well. A skeletal hand reached through the grass and was just about to grab my ankle when my SIG barked and put the zombie down for good.
A groan got my attention and the rest of the zombies had reached the edge of the road and were now looking down at us. Their groans and our gunshots had attracted a lot more attention and what Charlie had said was zombie free turned out to be zombie full. I guessed we were looking at about fifty ghouls. Several of them started down the embankment, lost their footing and tumbled the rest of the way down. It was a putrid avalanche I had no intention of waiting for. I tapped Charlie on the arm and we ran back to the boat.
Tommy and Sarah and the others all had questions for us when we boarded the boat again and I gave them the long and short of it. Romeoville was dead, there was nothing to salvage that would be worth the risk of zombies. I also told them about the fast moving zombies and I saw Bev and Casey shudder as they considered the ramifications. The thought gave me the creeps as well.
6
We pushed off the canal edge and drifted away. Charlie nudged me and pointed back to where we had come
