by Jimmy Bird
“Weren’t you able to find something a little cleaner?”
I already knew the answer to that question. We had just gone through the same thing with Austin as she shook her head ‘No’ to indicate her answer.
I took the shirts from her, “Well, I guess it’ll have to do. We really don’t have any other choice. JoJo, I need you to push the shirts against the bleeding part of his stomach like this. Can you do that?”
She did as she was told and pushed the shirts against Danny’s stomach while we slowly walked him the rest of the way to the car. Austin was already holding the door for us. He wasn’t looking too good either.
After everyone was inside the SUV, I climbed into the driver’s side. I started the SUV and immediately told everyone my theory about the homeless family’s camp.
I stated, “With Danny hurt, there is no more Council. Meaning, I’m not in charge anymore. From here on out, we make all the decisions together. So, what do you want to do?”
Danny’s eyes were shut as if had passed out or worse. It looked like Austin could barely hold his own head up as he watched his dad.
My sister spoke up, “I think that our best bet to save Danny and Austin was to look for that family’s camp.”
Bobby and I agreed. I put my foot on the brake and shifted it into reverse. I slowly backed up until we were back on 29th street. I then shifted it into drive and turned down the service road that would take us to the closest hotel.
As soon as we pulled up into the first hotel parking lot, we knew right away that we were in the right place. It looked like they had moved cars and objects around to make a makeshift barrier around the perimeter of the hotel. The cars looked like they were in a reverse funnel shape, with the entrance just wide enough to allow one car in at a time. Not only that, it looked like they had cleaned up the debris that had been lying around the parking lot. It wasn’t trashed out like a lot of other places around.
Not taking any chances of a trap, I parked just outside the funnel entrance. We looked carefully around before we even got out of the vehicle.
When we were sure if it was safe to proceed, we slowly opened our car doors. I slowly pulled my gun from my waist and held it out in front of me.
JoJo and Seth stayed in the SUV with Danny and Austin. We wanted to make sure that they were protected. JoJo wanted to come with me, but I knew that it was better if she stayed. She was having to grow up fast in this new world, I just didn’t want it to be ‘that’ fast.
With my gun in my hands, I slowly made my way up the left side of the car funnel. Bobby flanked me on the right side of the funnel while my sister brought up the rear. She was between both of us. Her gun out in front of her, angled towards the ground. We made our way towards the nearest of the buildings.
The hotel was a little different than the old model style that had external staircases and railings. The stairs were usually located on the outside of the buildings, facing the parking lot as a safety measure. This hotel, however, seemed to have been modeled after an apartment complex. The stairs were in between the buildings, sort of like how an apartment complex would have them. The buildings were attached to each other by the roofs and railings. The rooms were located between the buildings, facing the stairs. I swear that if the sign out front hadn’t said motel, I would have thought it was an apartment complex.
Anyways, as we slowly made our way to the two closest building, I noticed that the staircase located between the two buildings were blocked. It didn’t look like it was anything serious, but it did look like it would be enough to stop zombies from going up.
On the bottom four steps were dressers, sort of like the short ones that you would find in a hotel. You know, the medium size looking heavy ones. Placed on top of them were wire framed grocery store style push carts. It looked like there were more then twenty of them, most of them were marked like they had come from the grocery store off 44th street.
The closer we got, the more it looked like the grocery carts were set up like a maze. It truly looked like they were lined up in a certain pattern. I wasn’t sure how long these people had been there, but it looked like they put some thought into their makeshift defenses.
We carefully walked up to the bottom of the steps. We weren’t sure how many people were here, if any and we still didn't want to take the chance of walking into another trap. With my sister bringing up the rear, she made sure to keep an eye out for trouble while Bobby and I took a closer look at the defenses.
I walked up to the bottom dresser on the left side, careful not to get to close in order to examine it closer. It looked dirty, like it was covered in a years’ worth of dirt. Now that I think back on it, it had been close to a year since the dead started to take over.
The dressers kind of looked kind of weathered, like they had been outside for a very long time. You could see that mold had begun to accumulate around the bottom edges. It looked like the wood had soaked up whatever moisture was at their base and began to splinter out.
The dirt on top of the dressers looked like it hadn’t been touched since they were originally placed there. Seeing that the dirt looked untouched brought up a few questions. If the family or small group had been staying here, why weren’t there hand or foot prints in the dirt? If they were staying here, could there be another way up? Was this way just a decoy for a trap?
Before we could investigate further, the car horn from our SUV began honking. We had been so focused on what was in front of us that all three of us literally jumped from surprise when the horn went off. It noisily echoed around the buildings.
Furious, I turned around to look at the SUV. The kids knew better than that, stealth was our primary goal! If the family had others around there and if they didn’t know we were there, then they surely knew that we were there now.
I half expected to see members from the small group gathered around our vehicle. Sort of using our kids as ransom for what we had done, but what we saw was much worse.
It seemed that the shooting had drawn some unwanted attention, a lot of unwanted attention. Zombies were coming towards us from the other side of the highway and were about to cross the bridge. It looked like they had just come from the direction of the Warehouse as they walked down 29th street. I wasn’t sure where they had been when we had returned to the Warehouse just a few hours before but at that moment, I pretty much didn’t care. We needed to leave!
Before we could take a step, we heard a knocking type of sound directly above us. I froze as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my eyes widened. It was an unknown sound, yet it seemed strangely familiar.
My head tilted slightly backwards as my eyes darted upwards, searching the bottom of the balcony for the source of the knocking. Within seconds, the knocking sound doubled. Before long, one of the knocking sounds turned into a thump-thump type of sound. It sounded like someone was walking with a wooden shoe or a severe limp.
My eyes slowly followed the noise above us as it moved around. Without realizing it, the sound was making its way towards the steps. I turned around in time to see, what looked like a young teenage boy rolling down the steps towards us. I wanted to ask if he was alright, but something seemed alarmingly off about him.
I stood there motionless, watching while the boy rolled into the back end of one of the dressers. He didn’t scream or make a sound after hitting the dresser hard. Before I could say anything to my sister or Bobby, another person, this one looked like a young teenage girl, came rolling down the steps right behind him. While I didn’t get a good look at the boy’s face, hers was visible enough.
The skin on the left side of her face was missing. It looked like it had been savagely ripped off, but it didn’t look like a fresh wound. Instead, it looked like it was covered in dirt and something else that I couldn’t quite make out. I did notice that she had a hole where her left eye should have been. Also, the skin around her lower jaw seemed to be missing. You could easily see her dried, blood stained teeth. Reality of what was happening
hit me hard. This wasn’t the family’s camp!
In unison, we turned around and ran as fast as we could to the SUV. I looked over and saw the zombie horde begin to turn the corner of the bridge towards us. They were less than a block away.
We reach the SUV just as they had gotten within a few feet of us. Bobby was the first to reach the driver’s side passenger door and opened it for my sister. She jumped in without breaking her stride. Bobby jumped in right behind her and slammed the door closed. I opened the driver’s door with my left hand and put the gun in my right waist side as I jumped in.
When I sat down, I noticed that my daughter was in the passenger seat next to me. She must have been the one who had hit the horn.
Without giving it much thought, I reached out to the ignition and felt the keys. I couldn’t help but think that it was probably a good thing that I had previously decided to leave the keys in the ignition just in case we needed to make a quick getaway. Let’s face it, this was just that kind of emergency. Without any more hesitation, I turned the ignition.
Nothing! Well, that wasn’t entirely true. It turned over, but it wouldn’t start. Why was this happening?
The zombies must have reached the back of the SUV because I could hear Seth scream out. I looked in the rear-view mirror and noticed that Seth was laying on our clothes and supplies, with his shoes angled towards the rear broken windows.
Everyone seemed to have joined in the chorus of panicked screams. Trying to keep myself calm, I turned the keys again. I got the same results as before. It just turned over, only this time I gave it a little gas.
I could see in the side mirror that the zombies were beginning to make their way up the length of the SUV. If something didn’t happen soon then we would be surrounded and stuck.
I looked over at my screaming daughter. I didn’t want her to die, I wanted so much more out of life for her. I glanced upward and shut my eyes. I shut everyone’s panicked screams out as I silently prayed to God and my wife for help. First, I addressed God and then my wife. I reminded her that I had made her a promise to protect our daughter and needed her help, in order to keep that promise.
After I was done, I opened my eyes. I looked in my side mirror and noticed that they had made it to my door. Without hesitation, I reached out and turned the keys once again. This time however was a different result. It fired right up.
I put my foot on the brake pedal and shifted it to drive. I silently thanked God and my wife as I shifted my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal. I immediately floored it and heard Seth scream out in pain.
I looked in my rear-view mirror towards him, “Seth. You alright?”
Seth replied, “Yeah. The zombie had one ‘hell’ of a grip.”
He pointed towards his left shoe. The shoe looked a little torn, but otherwise looked okay. From his worried look, the zombie must have had a really tight grip.
I looked out the driver’s side mirror and noticed that a few of the zombies were starting to stumble forward before they eventually fell. I figured that the one that had a hold of Seth’s shoe must have fallen after losing his grip, causing the others to fall over.
My attention went from the side mirror to the rear-view mirror to see if everyone was okay. I noticed that Seth had turned his body, so he could examine his foot. My sister was shifting her attention from her son to Danny and his son. It was only when she was satisfied that her son was okay, she turned her whole attention towards Danny and Austin.
I could see that Austin had curled up next to his father. It looked like both had turned a ghostly pale white while we were out looking for the family’s camp.
Without thinking, I stupidly asked my sister, “How are they doing?”
She sadly replied, “They are struggling to breath.”
She then began choking on her words, “I... I don’t think that they have much time left.”
I silently cursed our luck. As fast as they were dying, they wouldn’t have even made it to Midwest City. It looked like we had made the right call on looking for the camp, but with all the zombies behind us that was no longer possible.
I looked towards Danny’s pained face and fought back tears. His eyes were squeezed shut as he held his son’s hand tightly. You could visibly see that he was struggling to breath. The gun shot must have been more serious then he let on.
Guilt was beginning to rise in my stomach. We had been through too much together for it to end like this. We were the last two surviving Council Members and soon our dream of a Utopian society would be over.
I looked over at my daughter and noticed that she had been silently watching me. Her eyes were moist, as if she was on the verge of crying. As if waking up from a dream and noticing that I was watching her, she smiled sadly.
I asked, “JoJo. Are you okay?”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Instead, she nodded her head up and down to indicate ‘yes’. She took a second to gather her thoughts and glanced behind us before turning back towards me.
She leaned over and whispered, “Uncle Danny and cousin Austin are going to die soon. Aren’t they?”
Shocked, I asked, “Why would you say something like that?”
She turned away from me and faced the front dash to avoid eye contact.
When she didn’t answer, I asked again, “JoJo? Why would you say something like that?”
She took a deep breath and turned to face me. With a worried look in her eyes, she stated, “Because they look just like Momma and Bubba did when they had died.”
The guilt I was feeling hit me like a ton of bricks. We hadn’t really talk about what happened to her mom or brother. Well, not since right after they had died. When I had talked to her about them, we always talked about happy memories.
I smiled sadly at my daughter. I knew what she was thinking. She was worried that Danny and Austin would die and return as zombies just like her mom and brother did.
I searched for the words that would explain what had happened to her mother and brother, but I just couldn’t find any. Instead, I decided to just tell her the truth.
I explained, “I want you to know that while it’s true that they had turned an unnatural color of pale white, Uncle Danny and cousin Austin will not die and return as zombies.”
I could tell from look on her face that she didn’t believe me or at the very least, she wasn’t sure if she believed me. I was about to push the subject even further, but I noticed movement out the corner of my eye. I turned my head in time to see three people come around the corner of one of the old hotels off 44th street and the service road we were on. A middle aged tall skinny white guy flanked by two younger looking white guys. The two younger guys looked like they were in their early teens.
They were dressed like the family that we had just encountered. I don’t know why, but the first thought that came to my mind was that this must have been the camp that we had been searching for.
When we got within ten feet from them, they raised their automatic guns towards us. The older man held up his right hand up as he took a few extra steps forward and demanded that we stop our vehicle. I just stared at him, I couldn’t believe what I had just heard.
I slowed down and was about to challenge him when he turned his head and said something to the younger guys behind him. The guy closest to the hotel turned and said something to someone who was just out of our line of sight.
I was stunned when more than twenty people emerged from around the edge of the building. All were heavily armed and pointing to something behind us. They looked like their ages ranged from middle teens to well in their sixties. It looked like they had been waiting to spring their trap on us before being called out from hiding.
I got curious on what they were looking at and stopped the SUV. I glanced in the rearview mirror. What I saw reminded me who was behind us and why we were originally driving down that road. Zombies!
I looked back over and noticed that the group had formed a defensive line, readying themselv
es to fight the oncoming horde of zombies. It looked like half had went down to one knee while the rest stood directly behind them. Almost like the old Civil War military fighting style. The middle-aged guy looked like he was the one calling the shots as he continued to bark out orders.
Without hesitation, the group obeyed him. You could tell that they were well organized and trained. Heck, they didn’t even look scared.
Now that I think about it, they looked a lot like some of Robert’s people. Who knows? Maybe, they were. Maybe, he planted them there just in case we had ever returned to the Warehouse.
The guy glanced in our direction and told us, “Get out and be ready to battle for your lives.”
I glanced toward the driver’s side mirror and thought that they had to be over twenty feet away. We still had time to escape before the zombie horde was upon us.
Seth brought me out of my deep thoughts when he screamed out, “Uncle Jimmy! We need to get out of here!”
I looked over my shoulder towards my nephew and noticed that they were now within a few feet of us. How could that be? They were just around twenty feet away. I turned and looked in my side mirror again. I noticed that they were still a good distance away. That didn’t make sense! Just then a harsh reality hit me, I remembered an old phrase that used to be stamped on mirrors that read ‘objects are closer then they appear’.
Seth was right. We needed to get out of there fast. Without a second’s thought of the group next to us, I shifted my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal and pushed down hard. The engine revved up as the back tires chirped on the old dirt covered road.
The guy yelled out for us to stop and help them, but I ignored him. My priority was to my family. I knew that if we helped them and somehow survive the zombie horde, they would immediately attack us. Besides, we really didn’t have time for that. I glanced back over my shoulder towards Danny and Austin. Time was running out for us to save them.
We got about a half block away when a single shot rang out. A loud thump sounded from the rear somewhere. Thinking the worst, I quickly glanced at my side mirror and noticed that one of the middle gunmen was facing towards us with her gun raised. To my amazement, the guy walked straight up to her and began yelling.