Slow Burn: A Zombie Novel (31 page)

I couldn’t sleep yet and followed Dan down into Stephen's basement to listen to him get on the HAM Radio, which was still powered by Stephen’s UPS power supply. It came to life with the flick of the switch. Dan started to search the 2-meter band, reminiscing back to the nights when he could make dozens of contacts using the radio. He told me he had always liked the idea of talking to random people and was amazed that they would sit there and listen to his stories, hardly ever interrupting him, unlike the guys at work.

“
Well things have sure changed,” Dan remarked as we listened to all the static. He was hoping to at least make one contact tonight, Phil from up in Chicago. The last time he talked to Phil things weren't looking too good for him and his small band of holdouts in the city. Dan sat there giving his call sign, expecting to hear Phil give his call sign in return, and then Dan would start the usual back and forth sharing of information and ideas. Instead, we heard a very frantic reply come over the radio. Phil wasn't using the normal protocol – it was more of a scream for help.

"Dan, we need help badly, we have lost all of the houses in the block except ours and I don't think we can hold them much longer!"

Dan tried to reply, but Phil walked all over his transmission.

“
You need to get us help fast; we’re not going to make it!” Phil cried. “Our ammunition is nearly spent and there are only six of us left. We are trying to secure the house, but I think it may already be too late!"

In the background of Phil’s transmission I heard what sounded like a medieval battle, along with one or two shots. It was obvious Dan didn’t know what to do. He had gotten to know Phil from the nights of talking with him on the radio, and I could tell that for the first time this was personal for Dan, who was now headed up the stairs. I had to run to catch up.

"I need a vehicle and some gas. I’m going to go help Phil," Dan calmly stated as he reached the front door and ran right into Stephen. “How about the Colorado, it’s ready isn’t it?”

Stephen and I both just looked at Dan as if he just asked to borrow the Starship Enterprise.

"Are you out of our mind? That’s a one way ticket, and you’ll do no one any good by going,“ I responded. “You’ll just end up dead!"

Stephen said basically the same thing and tried to reason with Dan. Of course, Dan was never very good at listening to reason and started outside, carrying his backpack that he’d left by the front door.

The next thing Dan knew, he was spitting up a mouthful of grass after he was tackled by me. Thankfully we landed in the small patch of Stephen’s lawn that wasn’t covered in dead zombies. He tried to struggle to his feet, but with both Stephen and I on top of him, it was impossible. Dan fought on for a while but finally snapped out of it.

"I know you want to go help Phil but it’s too late,” I sadly stated. “They’re not going to make it, and you can’t stop it. It’s a long ways from here, it’s dark outside, and there may be a million zombies between us and him. If you really want to help someone make it, stay here and help us."

The more Dan thought about it, the more I saw that he knew Stephen and I were right.

"Damn you guys, I think you might have broken some ribs," Dan groaned.

"Well, we had to get your attention somehow,” Stephen replied. “You old stubborn bastard."

Dan asked one favor of Stephen and me.

"If you guys aren’t going to let me go help Phil, you are going to have to come down and listen to his last broadcast,” Dan asked. “And I won’t take no for an answer.”

Dan drew his 1911 and shot a zombie in the head. It had crawled towards us unseen in the dark, managing to get mere feet from Stephen’s leg.

“
Fuck this shit!” Stephen yelled as he jumped to his feet. “I’m getting the hell inside. I’ve had enough close calls today!”

We walked back into the house and down the stairs, garnering some strange looks from Mattie and Chris, especially with the dirt and grass still plastered on Dan and Stephen’s face as white as a ghost. When we got to the radio, Dan keyed up the microphone and called for Phil’s call sign. When Phil responded we could hear it both in his voice and from the sounds of fists beating on a wooden door that the fight was almost over.

"I understand why you couldn’t help; it was way too far anyways.” Phil calmly stated. “Don’t worry about it, don’t take on that responsibility, it’s not your fault and always remember that, friend.”

And that was it. Just before the transmission ended, we heard the sound of something all too familiar to us, the sound of someone screaming as teeth ripped flesh from their bones.

The three of us stood there looking at the radio silently. Dan was the first to speak.

"That’ll never happen again!” His voice was again firm. “If we find someone who needs our help, and are deserving of it, by God we are going to give it a shot."

As Dan was saying those words, he turned on the radio’s scanning feature. It started scanning through the different frequencies while Stephen and I nodded and started to walk away. Dan was sitting on a chair in front of Stephen’s radio when it stopped on an active frequency, catching the end of a transmission. He stopped the radio from scanning and sat there listening. The frequency it stopped at was one that Dan’s brother and Sgt. Ogle had used to talk about hunting, fishing and women. Dan didn’t think he would ever hear anything come across that frequency again but certainly didn’t want to miss a transmission from whoever was talking. The silence finally got the best of him.

"KC9#%# calling anybody!" Dan asked, and then repeated.

Dan almost fell off his stool when he received a response.

"KC9#%# this is KC7@%#, how the hell are you?"

It was Tom Ogle, his sergeant from work.

Dan called up to Stephen and I just as we were reaching the top of the stairs.

“
Now what,” I asked Stephen, who rolled his eyes.

Dan keyed up the microphone and asked Tom how he was holding up. Tom excitedly relayed to Dan all about his trip down to the hunting cabin. How he went home and filled his Bronco with gear, his wife and kids and headed toward Peoria. His family was in near hysterics, and it was quite the adventure. He explained how the roads were pretty rough traveling, and they came across several groups of stranded motorists, some of whom turned violent.

“
People got nasty real quick when they got desperate, Dan. Thank you again for giving me a head start.”

“
Anytime, brother,” Dan replied. “Any zombie contact along the way?”

Tom told Dan that whenever he plowed into a disgusting zombie blocking the road with the three-inch steel pipe that made up his homemade brush guard, he would turn to his wife and tell her, “It’s not such a waste of money now is it!”

“
Of course she would just roll her eyes and give me that look of annoyance we have all seen,” he joked.

Tom went on to explain that once he got down to the hunting cabin he found everything in order. The orchards were still there along with what was left of his garden from this summer. He told Dan that they were set up pretty good. With the two deer and three turkeys he shot in the last few days, they had some meat to dehydrate. As Ogle was explaining all this to Dan, he heard someone in the background speak up.

"Hey dumb ass what about me?" was all Dan could make out.

"Oh yeah, I found someone sneaking around the property and almost shot him,” Tom replied into the radio. “It’s your younger brother Dave. We have him to thank for getting the radio up and running today.”

There was a grin on Dan’s face from ear to ear that only Stephen and I could see.

"Okay,” Dan replied, “but first tell me more about dehydrating the deer meat."

On the other end, Dave grabbed the mike from Tom Ogle.

"It’s nice to hear from you too asshole!"

And now everyone was grinning.

The crackling static of the emergency FM radio the next morning cancelled out the voice coming through it until Stephen made some needed adjustments. We were all up and listening to the broadcast over breakfast cereal and ate in silence. There he was again, young Troy Lundell, apparently becoming the official voice of the Zombie Apocalypse, making his broadcast from the FEMA safe zone at Joliet West High School. He relayed that several carloads of refugees had arrived the previous day and more that morning. It seemed that the infected had increased their presence overnight, but the hard work done by the city’s employees was paying off. A barrier was being expanded, and it was safe and secure inside with a growing stack of resources. After listening for a good hour, we again debated our favorite fallback spots. The five of us were not all on the same page as to where to head.

Stephen and Chris wanted to leave the city and head for the hills, possibly for Stephen's place in Wisconsin. They argued that we needed to get as far away from population centers as possible. Mattie thought we should head to the safe zone to try to help out. I explained my reservations over living out of trucks, but relayed that if we did try for the city safe zone instead, we needed a backup plan if we could not reach it or if things there didn’t work out. Dan would prefer we head to his buddy Tom’s downstate, where his brother was also staying, but agreed to stay with our group. As long as he could kill some zombies and stare at Mattie’s chest, he was happy.

As we continued to listen to the broadcast, we heard they were asking for people to bring any and all firearms, food, water, and medical supplies.

“
We have plenty, but there is always a need, my friends,” Councilman Lewis pleaded over the radio. “I have arranged to protect everyone under my care.”

“
You see guys?” Mattie pleaded. “They need our help. Look, there are five police officers here in this room. We have the ability –duty really— to make a meaningful contribution to those men and women. Just think of the poor people who we swore an oath to help and who depend on us. That doesn’t stop just because of some sort of pandemic!”

Dan snorted in disagreement. “Well when that same pandemic causes people to feed on the flesh and organs of other humans, I think all bets are off. They can go pound sand, I don‘t want to end up in a refugee camp.”

“
And they said no pets, remember?” Stephen added. “Buddy comes with me wherever I go.”

“
We can sneak the little guy in, get real,” Mattie objected.

I finally stood and addressed the group. “Listen up gang. For one, if another mess of zombies like the one we just had ever put up a real determined attack, we’d be overrun. It coulda happened yesterday. I think there’s safety in numbers, and if this safe zone has more like-minded peeps then we’ll be better off fighting a large scale attack there.”

“
I agree,” Chris chimed in. “We have enough supplies loaded into that school bus we commandeered to last us a long time, but that won’t do us any good if we’re dead. I vote for the safe zone, but you’re right, we need a fallback location if it doesn’t work out.”

“
It appears that we have taken a vote of sorts. I'm in,” Stephen decided. “Buddy will just have to keep a low profile. Let’s round everything up today and make sure we are ready to go at sunrise tomorrow. Maybe hit some more houses in the neighborhood this afternoon. Until then, everyone think of a possible fallback location in case this so-called safe zone doesn’t pan out.”

The morning progressed, and ideas began to be floated. Dan’s suggestion was the National Guard Armory in Joliet, near where I used to live. It was not a bad idea, and we could check it out on our way to the safe zone to see if it was still intact. Chris liked the idea of the armory as well, since he was in the Guard himself and had been attached to that very duty station. He added that the small barracks could easily accommodate us and several others. He and I probably could work on any vehicles that were parked there as well. Mattie, who seemed to trust in people too much, didn’t think we would need to go anywhere other than the safe zone to ride out this pandemic.

Stephen had the best idea of any, and as soon as he said where it was we all knew it was perfect. The old abandoned Collins Street State Prison. It had been closed for several years, but the place was huge, made of large limestone blocks that were quarried here in Joliet in the early 1800's. The prison had been made famous by its use in the
Blues Brothers
movie as well as season one of the Fox show,
Prison Break
. It would take a lot of work to get it into livable shape, but it was easily defendable against zombies and any living people who might have ill intentions towards us or our supplies. After Stephen mentioned the prison, Dan and Chris also agreed that place would be freaking awesome as our base camp. Since most of our supplies were already loaded in the ambulance, GMC 2500, and the school bus, we did not have much in the way of personal property to gather. We ran Stephen’s generator long enough to heat up some water for showers and also ran the washer and dryer, cleaning all of our laundry. As a result, Dan was forced to run the suppressed AR-15 heavy to keep up with the increase of zombies attracted by the noise. Stephen and I then loaded the generator in the back of Chris’ truck. That left a little time to search some of the abandoned houses, but nothing of any real use was located.