supposed to be sleeping.” I bounced him gently and he laid his little head on my shoulder. He was getting bigger all the time, and starting to pull himself up on the furniture. His favorite game was to walk around the coffee table, chasing his daddy who crawled around.
Sarah rubbed his back. “He seems more upset these days when you’re gone, like he knows what you’re doing.”
I shook my head. “I know I should be spending more time with him, but it’s critical we move as much as possible while the zombies are slow.” I was actually looking forward to the deep freeze days of January when we could move in relative safety and clear out hundreds of homes and businesses. “Don’t worry little buddy, Daddy will always come back.”
Sarah looked at me. “You make that promise a lot?”
I glanced back at her. “Every time I leave.”
“Thought so. When are we heading out?” Sarah was already dressed for success, having spent her morning in training with Kristen and Chelsea.
I thought about it. “We’ll head out when Tommy and Duncan get back. I don’t like to leave the place without a veteran around.” It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the other members, but Tommy and Duncan had been through enough that they would be less likely to make mistakes. And since we still had no idea who was responsible for the bullet riddled cars we had seen on our way here, I didn’t want to take any chances. “Where are the new couples? John and what’s her name?”
Sarah smiled. “They are out getting firewood for the condos, and the other new couple, Ryan and Amy, are with them.”
“Okay. Well, we’ll head out when the boys get back. You want a crack at Charlie?” I asked, tossing a thumb towards the big lunk.
Sarah’s eyes turned predatory, and she took a step towards Charlie, who retreated with his hands up. “No way, man. She’s too fast for this old country boy.”
Sarah turned on her heel and walked out of the office we used for training. She winked at me in passing and I laughed out loud. I left with Jake while listening to Charlie ask “What?”
Tommy and Duncan returned from their trip an hour later. They reported that the grocery store had been looted, but they still managed to get quite a bit of canned and dried goods. Duncan had found a decent amount of baby food for Jake, and a goodly supply of diapers, for which I was very grateful. They had also looted the pharmacy, grabbing whatever they thought would be helpful. I had told them to look for anything that had ‘cin’ or ‘cillin’ in the name, as chances were it was an antibiotic. They had also grabbed a bunch of aspirin and cold medicine. Although, when I thought about it, I hadn’t had a cold in a long time, probably because the population had been reduced to the point where we didn’t have the same contact with germs like we used to. Odd bonus, but there it was. They also had picked up some supplies for John Reef, one of our new people. He was a plumber and had an idea about using a reservoir tank and giving us running water. If it worked, I would personally kiss him.
With Tommy and Duncan back, Charlie, Sarah and I geared up for our excursion. We were heading to the subdivision which was north west of our current home. This was an older community, but it butted up against a forest preserve and a retirement community, so I wanted it out of the way as a possible threat. We were going to leave the town homes that were immediately to our north, as they could be used for any survivors we may come across this winter. I hoped to find many, but one never knew, and the old saying I needed to be careful of what I wished for kept running through my head. I snared Kristen to watch after Jake while I was away, and it pained me that the little guy cried as I left, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I certainly was not going to send someone out in my stead. This was my job, and I had to do it.
We took the CR-V and headed out, moving north on 104 ^ th avenue until we reached two subdivisions, one to the east and one to the west. We passed a large ‘active living’ community, and I made a mental note to check that building out for supplies and such. I figured there might be some food stores in there, as most of those places had restaurants and such. Worth looking into.
We rolled into the west subdivision and stopped at the first house. It was one of those two-story cookie cutter homes that builders loved to charge too much for and were put together too quickly. They had interesting names for the things like ‘The Appletree” or ‘The Chesapeake’ or some such nonsense. Right now, its name was Kindling.
The weather was cooperative, mostly sunny with a few clouds. There wasn’t any snow on the ground yet, but we had a couple freezing rains. I had forgotten how much I had grown dependant on the weatherman, and trying to figure out what the weather was going to do sent me back to my days on the golf course grounds crew when we would gauge how much time we had before the rains would catch us too far from the garage. It was cold, around twenty degrees or so. There wasn’t much wind, but what there was tried very hard to get into every opening in my clothes. Typical Chicago winter.
We stepped out of the car and checked weapons. I was carrying just my SIG and my trusty crowbar. I was getting low enough on ammo for the carbine that I was seriously considering a run back to my home to pick up the extra ammo I had left behind when Jake and I made a run for it. Sarah had her Ruger. 22 and a long steel bar with a right angle bent into it. The end had been pointed but not sharpened, the idea being to crush the skill but not to open it to keep the infection contained until it could be burned. Charlie had his Glock and his tomahawks, as well as his knife.
I walked up to the front and checked the windows. I didn’t see any movement, but that meant nothing. Charlie circled around back and when he came back reported nothing moving. I signaled to Sarah, who checked the front door and found it locked. That usually meant the people had left, but not always. Punching the glass panel next to the door with the end of my crowbar, I waited a minute to see if the noise had attracted any attention. One of our guys a while ago managed to get killed reaching in to open the door. A zombie grabbed his arm and had torn off huge chunks of meat before we could pull him out. He bled out screaming on the lawn.
No activity so I reached through and opened the door. Sarah went through first, her pistol sweeping the living room and stairs. Charlie glided past and headed down the hall towards the back, checking the rear family room and bathroom. I went upstairs, SIG at the ready. The upstairs was dark, and for the millionth time I wished I had bought a tactical light for my SIG. Oh well. I improvised with a small Maglite, and checked the bathroom at the top of the stairs. I didn’t hear anything, but that wasn’t a sign all was clear. The room at the back was empty, as was the small room at the front. The master bedroom door was closed, which was never a good sign. I kicked the door and heard a small shuffling sound. Contact. I waved down the stairs at Charlie who came up and crouched beside the door, tomahawk held to trip up anything that might come out of the door.
I nodded to Charlie and kicked the door in, the cheap hollowform door splintering around the handle. The door flew open and I got a quick look at the bedroom. It was indeed the master suite, and occupied. A single woman lay on the bed, her face grey and taut in the rigor of death. Her eyes were closed, and did not show any signs of violence. Her clothes were neat and tidy and her hands were folded across her chest. By the look of her, she had been dead for a long time. So what had made the noise?
I motioned to Charlie to check the closet while I covered him. He threw the door open and fell backwards as a dove flew out of its nest and into his face. His momentum carried him to the bed, where he fell onto the woman lying there. Jumping up like he had been stung, Charlie glared at me and said “Clear.”
I calmly holstered my SIG, propped my crowbar against the wall, and then proceeded to laugh like I had not laughed in a long time. By the time I had finished, I had tears running down my face and my stomach felt like it had been subjected to a thousand sit-ups. Charlie had begun to laugh as well, and when Sarah came up to see what the hell was going on, the two of us were bent over at the waist, laughing our fool heads off. She shook her head at us and went downstairs to wait outside.
We went back downstairs and met up with Sarah, who had gone through the downstairs looking for anything useful. She had some foodstuffs, but nothing else. I left the door open and we went to the next house.
We proceeded like this down the street, picking up supplies here and there, a couple of rifles and shotguns, and batteries and tools. We did find zombies, but the cold weather had slowed them down so much it was almost ridiculously easy to kill them. They could barely move, and it was no trouble to smash their skulls and end their existence. After a few of these, Charlie and I started to get creative. I speared one using my crowbar like a javelin, and Charlie spent five minutes practicing throwing his tomahawks at a teenager who was stiff in a corner. With
