Free Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto

the city had fared. We had seen bits and pieces of it when we were retrieving cargo containers last year, but we hadn’t gotten as close as we were now. We began to see more buildings and homes near the river and several bridges. Coming into view as well was the appearance of several hundred zombies. In one area alone I figured there had to be three hundred zombies milling about in a perverted, slow moving dance of death. They raised their voices as we passed and several moved towards the canal, but the way was blocked and they were unable to follow us. Several fell into the canal and we all watched carefully to see what would happen, but as far as we could see the damn things couldn’t swim, nor did they float.
    I began to get an uneasy feeling the farther we drifted into Joslin, and the feeling was punctuated with the sounds of what was clearly gunfire. Somebody was shooting at something and by the sound of it, something was shooting back. I motioned for the women on board to go into the shelter and Charlie and I readied our weapons. We were in a bad way if someone opened up on us because we had no shelter and were pretty slow moving.
    I motioned for Tommy to start the engine and get us past the town. As far as I was concerned, Joslin was a dead zone to be as avoided as much as Chicago. It sounded like there was a war going on and I personally did not want to get involved in it. Tommy fired up the engine and we moved quickly downriver, getting past four bridges and moving closer to the big interstate bridge. We saw zombies nearly everywhere and I realized this area was going to be a constant worry as long as it remained active. If someone was alive in there, they were welcome to it.
    The river widened after we moved under the interstate bridge and I began to breathe easier as we were able to move farther away. I went over to the shelter and gave the all clear. Sarah glared at me as she came out.
    “What now?” I asked.
    “If there’s trouble why would you hide the women?” she asked, poking me in the chest.
    “Because you and the other women are tempting targets to men who may not have seen a woman for a while, at least not a live one,” I said. “I’d rather fight just the dead right now.”
    “Why?”
    “Because the dead don’t shoot back,” I concluded. I glanced over at Charlie who was getting a similar earful from Rebecca. We shared a sympathetic look and went back to our poles.
    Tommy ran the engine for a half an hour and we made significant progress. I was monitoring our trip on a roadmap and judging by the bends in the river and roads we were passing, I figured we were coming close to where we were going to have to get out of the boat and walk to our destination. We passed the town of Channahon and as I looked it over I could see it had been hit hard as well. A lot of zombies from Joslin must have traveled south and descended on this area as well. Charlie looked at me and I just shook my head. We didn’t have the manpower to take this on yet.
    The sun was beginning to set lower in the sky and I figured we would need to camp. According to the map, we were passing the Des Plaines Conservation Area and I reasoned it would be a good place to settle for the night. I had Tommy turn down a side area on the river and we were pleasantly surprised to find a small marina nestled in the crook of the river. I could see a road that crossed the river farther up and effectively blocked any water passage in that direction.
    I directed Tommy to bring us up alongside the pier and Martin and I jumped off with the mooring lines. We secured the boat and all of us got off to stretch our legs. The sun was lower in the sky and the east was darkening with purple streaks. The moon was making its appearance and I figured we had about two hours left of daylight. Tommy immediately began working on the grill to get dinner ready and the women pulled out the coolers. We were going to have hot dogs, having discovered the vacuum sealed