Last Stand of the Dead - 06 (17 page)

Dad paused again, and took another drink.  He held Aaron’s hand again, and gave Jake a hug.  “When I hit Georgia, I decided to just keep going south.  I figured the Keys would be a good place to get away and hold up for a while, so I headed that way.  Along the way, I heard about a big crowd of people who decided to make Disneyworld their little fortress.  Don’t know what happened to them, but I wished them luck.”

Tommy spoke up.  “They didn’t make it.  Duncan and I were there a few years back.  By the look of things, they tore themselves apart from within, without help from the Z’s.”

Dad absorbed this information with a simple
,
“Huh.”  He continued his narrative.  “Well, then, I moved south, avoiding people and zombies. 
Seemed like there were more of the latter and less of the former every day.
  I made it to the Keys three days before they blew the bridge.  That was a sorry sight, but it had to be done.  Once there, I found myself a small apartment, and we got down to trying to survive.  We had fish to eat, and the near daily rain kept us in fresh water.  Fruit was all over, although I doubt I’ll ever eat another orange as long as I live.  We made it work.  We had simple rules and everyone just tried to get through the day.  Every once in a while
,
a boat would come by, and we’d keep an eye on them for a while, then either take them in or tell them to leave.”

“What if they wouldn’t go?”  Duncan asked, leaning forward like a kid getting a scary story at bedtime.

“We changed their minds.  I was in the security detail, and between
me
and a half dozen retired Army men, thirteen fresh Marines, and a quartet of Air Force mechanics, we made it work.  If they didn’t want to go, we persuaded them otherwise.  The whole time I was there, we only had six encounters that involved shooting.”

Dad paused again and then looked straight at me.  “It was about three years in when I began to hear your name.  Travelers from the north talked about a group that was putting the country back together, and there was a man leading the charge.  I nearly had a heart attack when I found out it was you.”

I smiled.  “Just did what I had to do.” 

Sarah shook her head and leaned back into me as I wrapped an arm around her.  Everyone else just grinned.

“I have to tell you son, I was damned proud to hear what you had done.  You dug in and found out what I knew you had in you all along.  These days, you mention you
r
name and people remember you with respect and admiration.”

I shook my head.  “Not so much these days, I’ll bet.”

Dad looked at me again. “We’ll see. Anyway, I nearly dropped into the ocea
n when I heard you were in the K
eys.  I was with a group looking for a band of pirates off the coast, and I made it back in time to see you sail away.”

That was it!  I knew I had seen him in Florida.  “I remember.  You were watching me as we sailed away.  I thought I knew you then, but I wasn’t sure.”

“That was me.  After that, I couldn’t stay there.  I began
preparing
to head north, but things always came up and I didn’t get to leave for a few years.  But then I heard about your war, and knew I had to get back to you before you went off and got yourself
killed
,
” Dad said.

I looked down.  “No, I tend to get other people killed.  It’s a curse.  Nate died on the trip to DC, Mike died when I went out to Iowa.  I can’t tell you how many followed me out west
,
and how many didn’t come back.”

“Not your fault, John.  You never forced anyone to do anything.  They knew the risks, and accepted them.  I wish I had left earlier.  I might have been able to be here and keep Mike alive.”

We all were silent for a moment.  Mike’s death was a still an open wound, and I was about to say something when the phone rang.  Everyone froze, and my dad looked at me.

“
You going
to answer it?” Dad asked.

“Nope.
  I’ve given enough.  Someone else has to do
it,
” I
said.

Dad sighed and lifted Jake off his lap.  He put him on the chair and walked over to the phone.

“John Talon, Sr.”

Chapter 30

“John!  Thank
G
od,
you answered the phone!  Where the hell have you been?  We’ve got outbreak reports from all over, and they seem to be converging on the capital! Wait, did you say
,
John Sr.?” We could hear the excited voice chattering on the other end.

“Go on.”

“Holy crap, there’s two of them.  Could you tell him he needs to call the capital right away?”

“I’ll tell him.  ‘Bye.”  Dad hung up the phone and walked behind me.  He put a hand on my shoulder.  “Let’s head out to the patio.”

I wasn’t about to argue, so I disentangled myself from my family and followed my father outside.  I had a good idea what he was going to say, or what he planned on saying, and I believed I could get the better of the argument.

Out on the porch, my dad looked around f
or a while, before drifting
over to the side and staring out over the changing colors of the trees.  I knew he was looking for Mike’s grave, but he’d have to wait a bit before he could see it from here.

Dad turned and faced me.  “You’re wrong. 
Dead wrong.”

“Wait, what?”  I was taken off guard, which was a strange, uncomfortable feeling.

“Leaving these people to fend for themselves is the wrong thing to do.  You may as well drive from town to town and kill them
yourself,
” He
said.

“They can take care of themselves.  They don’t need me.” I said, defensively.

“More than ever, they need
you,
” Dad
said.  “They have nearby
,
the one man who stood up and gave them a reason to go on, a reason not to put their last bullet through their own heads, and he’s sitting this one out?  You owe your brother more than that.  You owe your sons more than that.”

I looked him hard in the eyes.  “You’re damn right I owe them more.  I owe them
me
.
I’ve been running all over this country, from one fight to the next, and they’ve been left behind, wondering if their father is ever going to come back again, wondering if they are ever going to see
both
their parents again.  Every time I wander off the reservation, someone close to me dies.
First,
it was Nate,
and then
it was Mike.  Who’s it going to be this time, Dad?”

Clearly,
my father hadn’t thought of this line of attack, and he was on the defense.  “Well, I’d be staying with them this time, that’s what would make this different.”

“You ever see a horde of zombie kids up close?” I pressed my advantage. “They are fast and they are smart.  They don’t just come at you.  They ambush and work around you.  When you think you’ve got one pinned down, another comes from a direction you never thought of.  In an instant, you can be overwhelmed.  They aren’t the slow, stupid ones we cut our teeth on.  These will nail you to the wall and pick you apart in little bloody chunks.”

Dad looked back at me.  “That wasn’t what I was talking about, anyway.  You started this country back on track, and you owe it to your sons to make sure it stays that way.  Right now, they can go just about anywhere and not have to worry too much about a zombie attack.  They can set up homes of their own without having to make sure it can withstand a swarm.  But if you let this go, if you let everything you
ever fought for slide away, then you’ll condemn them to living here, hoping for scraps to live on.  Is that what you want?”

I hadn’t thought about it that way, and the little seed of guilt that had been itching the back of my brain
,
suddenly sprouted and began to grow.  I knew it was just a matter of time before I was saddled up and moving again.

I turned away and looked out over the forest.  It truly was beautiful this time of year, and if you listened carefully, you could hear the falling water of the creek nearby that sustained us and kept us in good water.

I spoke to the river, flowing quietly away to the west.  “I’m so
tired,
” I whispered.  I didn’t expect any answer, but my father must have heard me
,
because he put a hand on my shoulder. 

“I know, son.  But like the great men of the old days, they did what was asked of them, because they knew it was the right thing to do.  How they felt about it was irrelevant, and beneath consideration.”

That kind of stung, but I knew what had to be done. 
“All right.
 
Once more, into the breach.”
  I turned around and to my
surprise;
my father had tears in his eyes. 

“Just something in the air, don’t mind
me,
” Dad said, wiping his face with his sleeve.

I let it go, mostly because it was a little weird, and I had other things to do.  I went back inside where everyone was still waiting.  I looked at each of them in turn, and said to the group, “Change in plans.”

Charlie looked at me out of the corner of his eyes. 
“Meaning?”

I looked back.  “We’re finishing this. 
All the way.
  I want all gear out and ready in an hour.”

Duncan and Tommy jumped up, and raced each other to the supply room.  Sarah and Rebecca gathered up the kids and hustled them out of the room.  Janna and Angela followed, and I swore they were smiling.

I picked up the phone and dialed the capital.  I had a direct line to the White House, and I knew Dot would take the call.

“White House, please state your business.” The voice on the other end seemed strained,
as if
it had been receiving a lot of calls lately and was getting tired of being nice.

“I need to speak with
Dot,
” I said.

“Madame President is busy at the moment, and will likely be busy in the near future.  May I take a message?”

“It’s John Talon.”

There was a long pause,
and then
Dot’s voice came through. “John?  Good to hear from you.  Listen, we’ve been getting a lot of reports of attacks by a large horde of child zombies and…”

I cut her off.  “We’re on our way.  Fortify the capital and set up the communication links.  I need the names of the last three towns hit, and I need to make a general call over the system.  Can I have your permission to do that?”

Dot didn’t hesitate.  “Yes, and we will.  We’ll get you the names in a couple of minutes.  Are you coming here?”

“If I have to, but we’re going to run these bastards all the way.  Call me soon.”  I hung up the phone and went over to a small room next to the bar.  We had brought
the
long-range
communication equipment up from
its
hiding place, and used it now to make a general call out.  Every veteran of the Zombie Wars was required to have a radio in his or her house, turned on and tuned to one channel.  If they received a message, they were required to act on that message.  It was a modern version of the minutemen.

I turned on the equipment, which hummed satisfactorily.  I flicked the switch to send and turned on the microphone.

“Attention.
Attention
.
  This is John Talon.  Reserve battalions are hereby called up.  All able reserves within the sound of my voice are recalled to duty effective immediately.  You are to report to the capital within three days.
Repeat, three days.
”  I switched off the
mic
, and then turned off the equipment.  We might get a hundred, we might get a thousand. 
Didn’t really matter, because we were getting someone other than that poor excuse of an army.

The phone rang and Charlie picked it up.  “Okay, okay, okay.  Thanks.  You heard the call?  Good.  We’ll see you in a bit.”  He hung up the phone and pulled out a map.  “South
Ottowa
had a sighting, and Grand Ridge was hit two days ago.  If I
were
a betting man, I’d say the best place to hit them is at
Marsielles
Wildlife Area.  Those woods are dense, and will slow them down.”

“Good, we’ll make for that area as soon as we
can,
” I said.

“John, there’s something
else,
” Charlie
said.

I didn’t like the sound of this.  “What?”

“The army is gone.”

Chapter 31

“What?  How? 
Where?”
I nearly fell over.

“They got hit three days ago outside of Morris.  There’s a huge horde and they’re headed right for
Leport
.”