Read Online Taking It Back by Joseph Talluto - Free Book Online

allowed for a swifter current, so we moved well. The trees along the waterway were tinged with green buds, which reminded us all that life goes on regardless of the circumstances. There was not enough vegetation yet to obstruct viewing the lands outside the canal and we could see wildlife scurrying about through the underbrush.
    We drifted under the I-355 overpass and I couldn’t help but wonder when we might be able to build such things again. Certainly not in the near future.
    As we moved along, I noticed a zombie ambling along the canal bank. He hadn’t noticed us yet, and was 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