We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  Impatient, I asked again, “Where’s James?”

  She looked up at me wide-eyed and shook her head from left to right to indicate that she didn’t know. I glanced over at the book again. Was that the weapon? Curious on where it came from, I glanced around and noticed a tiny walled off book section. The shelves contained old looking books, but they looked in decent shape after all this time. I guess when the apocalypse started, books weren’t considered a necessity.

  I yelled out one more time, “James!”

  The result was the same as before. Nothing. I was about to get up to go look for him when we heard a scream, followed by a shot, that came from outside. Worried, I glanced over at my sister and Bobby. She was brushing his hair lovingly but didn’t move.

  Without looking up, she calmly asked, “Can you find out what that was?”

  Without hesitation, I got to my feet and turned in the direction of the front door. Before I knew it, I was already sprinting. When I reached the door, I forgot about the rust and glass as I hurdled the handle.

  Once outside, it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust from the near darkness inside the building to the bright sunlight. I stood still, relying on my senses to help me if the was any trouble.

  When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I took in my surroundings. Lying face down in front of the driver’s door of our vehicle was James. My daughter was standing over his motionless body with her gun out in front of her, pointing down towards his back. Next to James’s left hand was a rusted looking wet tire iron. On the back of James’s shirt, it looked like blood was beginning to stain his left shoulder area.

  Seth was also on the ground, only he wasn’t motionless. He was curled up in the fetal position with both hands holding onto the back of his head. It looked like he was wiggling around in pain.

  Confused, I yelled out, “JoJo?”

  Before I knew it, I began jogging towards her. She was visibly shaking as she looked over at me.

  “What happened?”

  She replied, “I.....James came out of nowhere and hit Seth in the back of the head. Before I could do anything, he knocked me down and ran towards our car. As he reached out for the door handle, I pulled out my gun and shot him. When he fell, I ran over to him. I didn’t want him to get back up and attack me again or steal our car.”

  I proudly smiled, “You did good JoJo. You did really good.”

  She smiled back at me, “Thanks Dad.”

  I looked over at Seth and told JoJo, “Watch him while I check on Seth.”

  “Okay, Daddy.”

  She turned back towards James, who was beginning to move.

  I began walking towards Seth when I heard JoJo say, “Don’t move!”

  I stopped and turned to see who she was talking to. That was when I noticed that James had rolled over onto his back and was trying to sit up.

  JoJo screamed, “I said, Don’t Move!”

  James looked up at my daughter and then over to me.

  With venom in his voice, he stated, “I guess these kids aren’t as helpless as I thought.”

  I smiled, “I did tell you that they could protect themselves.”

  James kept his eyes on me as he nodded up towards my daughter, I guess he was trying to point out the gun.

  “I never told you that our kids couldn’t take care of themselves.”

  “I thought you were trying to keep the boy out here because he wasn’t trained to kill.”

  I heard groaning and turned around to see Seth trying to stand up on unsteady feet. I could see that the right side of his face was beginning to bruise. I reached my right arm out to help steady him.

  “Seth. Are you alright?”

  He shook his head to clear the cobwebs out and stated, “I.....I think so. It feels like I was hit with something. I.....I heard a noise coming up behind me and when I started to turn around to see what it was, then nothing.”

  His eyes looked around until he noticed that James was sitting at JoJo’s feet, his right hand was on his left shoulder. The face James made indicated that he was in pain. Seth put two and two together. Without saying a word, he began walking towards James. His face had the look of pure hatred on it.

  When Seth got within a few feet, he screamed out, “You! You did this to me didn’t you?”

  I grabbed his shoulder with my right hand, “Seth. You need to calm down. I will deal with him when the time is right.”

  Seth began to object, but I cut him off, “I need you to go inside and help your mom with Bobby.”

  At the mention of Bobby’s name his demeanor changed. His face went from angry to that of worry.

  Understandably, he asked, “What about Bobby?”

  “Bobby was attacked. Just like you, he was hit in the head from behind. I’m not sure how bad his injury is, but I’m pretty sure THAT tire iron was used.”

  I pointed towards the weapon next to James.

  Trying not to get off subject, I once again told Seth, “Go inside and help your mother. Be careful going through the door. Once you’re inside, you need to turn right and follow the wall.”

  I turned back to face James as I told Seth, “Make sure that you’re careful.”

  I watched as Seth carefully made his way inside the building. Once he was out of sight, I slowly walked towards James.

  Once I was directly in front of him, I squatted down. James was tall. Even squatted next to him, we were close to the same height. I leaned in close to him, our faces were a few inches from each other.

  I spoke softly, “What am I going to do with you?”

  He replied, “You could let me go.”

  With a sadistic smile, I asked, “Why would I do that?”

  With tears in his eyes, he replied, “Because you’re nice.”

  “Interesting. Why do you think we should let you go?”

  “Because.... Because, I’m the only one who can stop Robert from killing all of you!”

  I studied his face, “So, you were working for Robert all along?”

  He didn’t respond as he looked at me with sadness in his moist eyes. He didn’t have to speak, his silence told me everything thing that I wanted to know. Well, maybe not everything.

  “Why did you attack Bobby?”

  He didn't respond.

  I pushed further, “Why did you attack Seth?”

  Again, no response.

  Frustrated, I asked, “Are you wanting to die?”

  With that last statement, he looked away. Ah, he didn’t want to die. Good. Now we were getting somewhere.

  “James? Is James even your real name? You know what? It really doesn’t matter if you speak or not. I’ll speak for you. Though, please feel free to jump in to correct me if you want.”

  I rocked back and stood up to stretch my legs. It felt like my age was starting to catch up to me. To keep my legs from cramping, I began to pace back and forth as I talked.

  I began thinking out loud, “The way I see it. You grabbed an old tire iron that was just lying around inside, most likely from the last person who searched the supercenter. With the tire iron, you thought that you could pick us off one by one. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. It wouldn’t explain why you only attacked Bobby inside the building and immediately fled right after. Unless, your intent was to distract me while you tried to escape. Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. You then must have thought that your luck had gotten even better when you didn’t see my sister outside anymore. You only saw the kids.”

  I stopped pacing and looked down at James. He was just silently watching me. His expression said it all, I was on the right track or at least close to it. I turned around and started pacing once again.

  “You must have thought that you could easily overpower Seth and figured that my daughter would crumble after seeing Seth go down. I mean come on, your kind of intimidating since you’re over six feet tall.”

  I stopped once again and waited for him to deny it, to make up an excuse on why he had done it. He didn’t say a word. Hi
s silent stare, of course, spoke volumes.

  I turned towards him and pushed a little as I asked, “Why? Why did you do it? We saved you! We accepted you!”

  I finally got to him as James painfully smiled up at me and laughed, “You saved me? You accepted me? Who are you kidding? I let you think that you saved me and as for y’all accepting me. Well, tell the truth. You never accepted me. I saw how you all looked at each other before answering my questions, as if you could be sneaky. Who knows why you did it? Maybe, you were trying to protect your little secrets. But, I guess we all have our little secrets.”

  Suspiciously, I asked, “So, what’s YOUR secret?”

  Be didn’t respond. Instead, he turned to looked at something in the distance to his left.

  I walked up and stood directly over him. I tried to look intimidating as I looked down, “What’s YOUR secret?”

  He continued to ignore me.

  Frustrated, I bent down and grabbed James by the shirt with both hands. Without waiting for a reply, I began lifting him up to his feet. He let out a painful gasp. His left arm just dangled at his side. His right arm was trying to fight me off by holding onto my left arm.

  When James was close to being on his feet, he looked up at me. Eye to eye. I could tell that he wanted to say something defiantly to me but looked afraid to say anything. Somehow, I felt like I wasn’t the one he was afraid of.

  I think I began to shake him as I got close to losing my cool, “WHAT’S YOUR SECRET? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?”

  Just like before, he didn’t answer me. Instead, James spat in my face.

  Anger rushed through me as I let go of his shirt collar with my right hand. I balled it up into a fist and pulled it back. I clinched my teeth as I struggled to control my emotions.

  Behind me, I heard a sluggish manly voice say, “K-k-k-k-kill h-h-h-h-him!”

  I turned around and saw my sister and nephew helping Bobby walk towards us from the far edge of the building. It must have been how James exited the building.

  Bobby had an old stained towel wrapped around his head. His clothes also had wet, red bloody stains on them. Worried about my nephew, my attention shifted over to Seth. From where I stood, it looked like most of the right side of his face was bruised and swollen.

  Bobby repeated himself, “K-k-k-k-kill h-h-h-h-him!”

  My daughter objected, “Dad, don’t do it!”

  Seth groaned as he chimed in, “Uncle Jimmy, kill him.”

  “Go ahead and do it. Prove that Robert was right about you.”

  I looked back at James’ pain filled face and noticed my daughter standing behind him. The sad look on my daughter’s face caused me to hesitate. The anger that had once been flowing through me had instantly disappeared. I seriously wanted to beat James to a pulp, but I couldn’t. My daughter was right. I shouldn’t do it. Because if I did that then I would be no better than Robert or his goons.

  Instead, I asked in a calm voice, “Where’s Robert?”

  James struggled to smile, “He’s around.”

  I turned my head to look, “Where?”

  He looked up as if he was seriously thinking, “Actually, I’m not sure.”

  Frustrated, I stated, “Don’t play games with me. Where’s Robert?”

  James looked at my still cocked back hand and said, “Let me guess. If I don’t tell you, you’ll beat me? Then what? You’ll beat me so bad that you’ll end up killing me? Come on, you’re not going to kill me.”

  James was right. I wasn’t going to kill him, and I wasn’t going to let anyone else kill him either. That didn’t mean he was going to survive though. Instead, a plan was beginning to formulate in the back of my mind. I let go of his shirt, causing him to fall back to the ground on unsteady legs. He let out a loud, painful groan.

  Out loud, I said, “You’re right James. I’m not going to kill you.”

  He glanced over in Bobby, Seth, and my sister’s direction.

  I smiled sadistically, “Don’t worry, they’re not going to kill you either.”

  Confused, Seth asked, “We’re not?”

  I turned to look at him, “No, we’re not. At least, not directly anyway.”

  “Why not?”

  I turned back to face James, “Because we’re going to give him a fighting chance. Something his people never gave our people.”

  It was James’s turn to look confused, “What do you mean by that?”

  I smiled even wider, “I’m not sure if you know this, but a few miles up the highway from here is an Air Force Base called Tinker. When we lived at the Warehouse, we often talked about going there and searching for supplies. You know, to look for guns, weapons, stored food, etc. A search party went there to scope it out and to them, it looked too dangerous to try to get in, a little too risky for their taste. I personally haven’t been around that way in years, so I’m not sure what it’s like there now. The group however stated that the yard had over a hundred of the dead walking around inside gate and appeared too risky to try to enter. They didn’t even know how many dead were inside the buildings. Most of the zombies in the yard looked like they had been military personnel and were armed with guns. It looked like they had died fighting the dead.”

  James, “So? What’s your point?”

  I answered, “Well, as you know, I know Robert pretty good and personally know how good of a tracker he is.”

  He just stared at me as if he was trying to understand where I was going with my statement.

  “I know that Robert’s coming. He’s looking for all of us! You because your family, us because he blames us for killing your kin.”

  James finally found his voice, “You’re right. He’s coming for all of us. You’re also right, I’m a spy. You started it by killing my wife and our kin!”

  Everyone gasped out loud, but his admission didn’t surprise me. I knew that there had been something off about him from the beginning.

  I sighed, “I’m tired of trying to explain things to you. They attacked us, and we defended ourselves. Besides, the dead killed most of your kin. You know what? I’m not going to even try to explain it anymore.”

  I genuinely smiled as I continued, “I know Robert’s not going to stop until we’re dead, that’s why we’re going to set a trap for him and YOU’RE the bait.”

  It was James’s turn to gasp, but defiantly stated, “He’s too smart to fall into your little trap.”

  I watched him in amusement, “Maybe. But, I’m willing to test that theory. Are you? As you can see, we’re the last of our group and because of YOUR PEOPLE, I’m the last Council Member. But, before I lose my train of thought, I want you to know that placing blame won’t change anything. My family and friends are dead and so are YOURS. Pretty soon, YOU will also be dead.”

  At hearing that, he looked up at me with anger in his eyes but didn’t reply. You know what? I was just fine with that.

  I continued, “So, where was I? Oh yeah, the trap. I’m going to make it seem that we tried to break into Tinker looking for supplies. You in turn, get bit. Seeing you as a zombie will cause Robert to go into a fit of rage and fight his way into the base to find us. Before you say it, I know that Robert is smart, but I also know that he has a weakness for family.”

  I looked around at my remaining family, “Most people do!”

  James defiantly spoke up, “Robert won’t fall into your trap, no matter what you do to me!”

  I looked down at James, “You’re right. Robert may not fall into my trap, but I’m willing to risk YOUR life on it.”

  My daughter gasped, “Dad?”

  I looked over at my daughter’s pale face as she stood guard behind James.

  I looked at her shocked face, “I’m sorry JoJo, but this is the only way that can guarantee that Robert will stop hunting us. Just remember that it was James’ family that killed your brothers, Nana Jean, Shaelynn, and everyone else we ever cared about.”

  She nodded her head up and down, but I wasn’t sure if she really understood wha
t I was trying to do. After all, she was still so young and innocent.

  My eyes shifted back to James. It looked like tears were beginning to form in his eyes. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost! I had to remind myself what he and his family had done to us. All of us!

  I turned towards my sister, who had remained silent the whole time.

  “Sister? Do you have a problem with what I plan on doing?”

  She looked to her left, at her injured husband (might as well refer to Bobby as her husband instead of fiancé) and son.

  With venom in her voice, she stated, “I don’t have a problem with it. But how do you know that the trap will work?”

  I didn’t respond to her question, instead I told her, “I need you and Bobby to stay out here and help JoJo watch James. Seth will go back inside with me to look for supplies. As soon as everything’s good, I need you to find another working vehicle and transfer our stuff from one to the other.”

  Confused, she asked, “Why?”

  Seth looked at me in surprise as he answered his mother, “Because, our old car is going to be part of the bait.”

  I smiled at my nephew, “You got it. I figured that if Robert saw our car and a zombified James in the yard would be enough to push him over the edge. With him losing control, he would push his people to fight the dead in order to get to us inside one of the buildings. With him doing that, he would trap himself inside or worse.”

  I turned back around and looked down at James, “You see, that is Robert’s two weaknesses. Family and control. Once he loses control of a situation, he’s reckless and that’s what I’m counting on.”

  I turned back around to face everyone, “But before we do anything else, we need to bury Danny and Austin.”

  I wasn’t sure how much time we had until Robert and his people showed up, but I figured that it was always his plan to wait until James returned before doing anything. If that was true, it meant that we could have a day or two before he starts to come looking.

  Seth helped me search the building for a couple of shovels. With Bobby out of commission, my sister and daughter busy, it left just Seth to help me. We found a nice spot next to a tree, right between the road and the parking lot. We only dug a few feet down but made sure that it was big enough for both of them to fit.