We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  I pulled back my leg and kick at his ankle as hard as I could. I could feel his ankle as my foot connected with it. I heard a crack as his foot stayed in place while the lower part of his leg went inward. He swayed to his side for a second before toppling backwards into the zombies behind them. He was so big that when he hit the zombies behind him, they went down like dominos.

  Trying to take advantage of my opportunity, I turned over to my stomach and quickly raised up to my knees. I began to crawl towards them when I felt something grab my foot. I looked back at my feet and saw the short looking Joker zombie. Behind her was the one that I had cut his knee off, he was struggling to drag his body.

  I knew that I could easily kill her. All it would take was for me to turn my body just a little, but that wouldn’t solve all my problems. I still had the zombies in front of me, struggling to get up. Plus, there was also the crawling zombie behind the Joker zombie. I knew that if I acted fast enough, I could kill them all while they were down. I quickly planned it out in my head.

  It was almost like an out of body experience when I tried to follow my plan. I turned and stabbed the Joker girl through her temple. When her grip relaxed, I turned my body around and pulled my leg free.

  I scooted a few feet until I was directly over the massive zombie. I held his chest down as I drove my machete through the center of his forehead, just above his eyes. With his body weight on top of the other zombies, they were stuck.

  I scooted to the next one and drove my blade through her temple. I continued to do this with the downed zombies until all that was left was the legless one.

  He had just managed to successfully crawl over the Joker girl when I stood up and turned. I carefully walked over the dead zombie bodies on my way towards him. I stopped within a foot and watched as he reached out to me with both hands. He went for my right shoe.

  I was just out of his reach, but he was not out of mine. As he extended himself, I quickly stepped on both hands with my left foot. I then shifted all my weight to my left foot by kneeling and turning. With my weight on his hands, he tried to pull himself to me while he was opening his mouth in an attemp to bite me. I made sure that I stayed out of his mouth’s reach as I leaned over him. Without thinking, I let go of the grenade and grabbed his head with my left hand.

  I whispered to the zombie, “I’m sorry for what had happened to you.”

  I silently prayed for him as I drove my blade into his left temple. As soon as my machete blade was in his temple, I immediately knew that something was off. I froze in place and listened. When I didn’t hear anything, I slowly turned my head to look around. I didn’t want to move because I was trying to be as quiet as possible.

  When I didn’t see anything, I slowly stood up and pivoted on my heels in a three hundred and sixty degree turn to get a better view. I wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything around me that I might have missed. I still didn’t see anything that could have been see as an immediate threat. So, why did I have the feeling that something was terribly wrong?

  My mind raced frantically trying to figure out why I still had an uneasy feeling. I glanced down and realized that I was no longer holding the grenade with my left hand. Was that the reason for my uneasiness? Could my mind be trying to tell me to run before it went off?

  Nope, I knew that grenades had a timer of only a few seconds. So, that means that I would have already died and if, by some miracle, I had survived the blast then the noise would have drawn more zombies towards me. It was a powerful weapon and somehow, I had just misplaced it. What would happen if I needed it to protect myself against the people shooting? The people? Damn, I had completely forgotten about them.

  Well, the good news was that I think that I found the source of my uneasiness. The bad news was that I really couldn’t hear automatic gunfire anymore. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  I tried not to panic. Instead, I tried to focus on listening. Before long, I heard the shooting continue. It was kind of faint, sort of muffled but it was there.

  Forgetting all about the grenade, I ran towards the side of the building. Once I got there, I edged part of my head around the corner to see what was happening.

  I could see the SUV and a verity of different vehicles directly behind it. From where I was standing, it looked like there were five vehicles but could have easily been more. I couldn’t really see anyone alive around the vehicles, but I did notice a long line of zombies piling into the doorway I had tried earlier. I saw what looked like dozens of camouflage bodies around the zombies’ feet and countless zombie bodies mixed in with them.

  Hope began to spring up in me. Could it be Robert and his people? Seeing the line of zombies meant that they had chased someone inside, maybe more than just someone. I did some quick calculations in my head and figured that the group couldn’t have had many people left alive. I knew that if I played my cards right, I could trap the remaining people and the zombies inside together.

  A plan began to formulate in my mind. What if I used the grenades to blow up the entrances and exits? Being a military building, I figured that there couldn’t have been that many exits to the building. I was hopeful that there was just two. If I blew up the two exits, it would trap the people inside. If the blast didn’t kill them then maybe the zombies would.

  I slowly edged myself along the building, trying to stay as quietly and invisible as I could. I watched in amazement as the last of the zombies ignored me while they piled into the doorway.

  I needed the grenades and absentmindedly reached for my front pockets. I instantly felt lumps that reminded me that I had two grenades. Two grenades? What happened to the third one?

  I replayed the scene in my head. I started from when I found the grenades until here. I remembered having it until I grabbed that zombie’s head. Oh, that’s right. I let go of the grenade in order to grab the zombie’s head, so I could steady it while I drove my blade in. Well, since there should be only two doors, I guess I didn’t need the other grenade.

  I looked at the front entrance door and began pulling the grenade out of my front left pocket. When I had successfully got it out, I grabbed the pin that would arm the grenade. I slowly began pulling the pin out of the locking mechanism whenever I heard another vehicle pulled up.

  I stood there in awe as five or six-armed people started exiting the car. Without so much as a word, they began firing their guns in my direction.

  I immediately dove to the tall grass and lowered my head. I could hear the bullets fly close by as they flew overhead. Come to think about it, I could swear that some of the bullets were hitting the ground all around me. I was thankful that the grass was tall, it probably saved my life that day. I thought about throwing the grenade at them, it was the only weapon I had, minus my machete.

  I froze in place whenever an older female voice spoke up, “Ceasefire you idiots. We need him alive.”

  Right after the last gun stopped firing, she immediately demanded to know, “Where’s Robert?”

  Robert? I laid there speechless, it must have been Robert and his guys who had showed up earlier.

  She stated, “I know that you’re not a zombie, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t hesitate to kill you if you don’t cooperate. What am I saying? I’m sorry that was way out of line. Where are my manners? I want to start off by apologizing for my guys. You see, they got a little antsy when they saw all the dead bodies of our kin lying all over the ground and noticed that you were standing over them holding something in your hands.”

  I didn’t respond. How could I? They would be able pinpoint my exact location and rush me.

  She spoke again in a more serious tone, “I know you can hear me. If you don’t respond, I swear we’re just going to kill you. You hear me? I don’t have time to play games with you. I need to know where Robert is?"

  I finally found my voice, “Who?”

  I could see through the tall grass at the lady and noticed that she was looking in my direction. She sm
iled and turned around as she began to pace back and forth. She was walking in front of the SUV.

  She immediately began talking, “Robert was tracking some killers and for some reason, he ended up stopping here. We were following him and got lost. Luckily, we were driving by when we heard gunfire and decided to stop and check it out. When we pulled into the yard, we noticed that you were standing over our kin’s dead bodies. I know you didn’t kill them because their bodies looked like they had been torn to shreds.”

  I continued speaking, “You’re right. I didn’t kill anyone. I was searching on the other side of the building for supplies when I heard gunfire and came to look. I saw all the weapons on the ground, surrounded by the dead and thought that I had just gotten lucky. As you know, weapons are a valuable commodity nowadays.”

  She sounded surprised, “Yes! Yes, they are. I’ll tell you what. If you come out from hiding and help us search for our remaining kin, I’ll give you a couple of guns. You’re choice of course.”

  I tried to sound sincere, “That’s a very tempting offer. How do I know that you’ll keep your word?”

  You could hear the annoyance in her voice, “Because my ‘word’ is law and I give ‘you’ my word. Wait. Hold on to that thought. It looks like our gunfire has attracted some unwanted attention.”

  Through the grass, I noticed that a few zombies were coming back out through the door that they had just went in.

  The people opened fire. The zombies went down easy, but from the sound coming from the doorway, it sounded like more were fixing to come through. To make matters worse, some of their dead kin were beginning to move around on the ground.

  I could barely hear the lady over the gunfire, but it sounded like she said, “Whoever you are, this is your last chance. If you don’t come help us now than when we’re done with them, we’re coming for you.”

  If that was the case, it didn’t sound like they were giving me much of a choice at all. If there was one thing that I have learned in the apocalypse is that you must be the first to react. If you wait, then the odds were no longer in your favor and you would most likely be dead.

  I had two grenades handy and could easily take care of these two threats. I could kill Robert’s people and the zombies at the same time. With a plan in mind, I slowly made my way to my feet.

  I’m not entirely why, maybe it was because of my unexpected movement, but they began shooting in my direction again. I dropped to my stomach once again. I could hear the lady tell them to stop shooting at me, it seemed that they just ignored her. Fine, if that was the way they wanted it. I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  Expecting to be shot at, I carefully pushed my upper body up and back, so I could balance on my knees. I heard gunfire but thought that it was odd that I wasn’t being shot at. I didn’t even look in their direction. I knew that if I did then I wouldn’t throw the grenade at the building. I needed to stop or trap the zombies inside.

  Without another thought, I pulled the pin out of the grenade, counted to two and threw it towards the door. As soon as it knocked on the door, it exploded. I ducked into the safety of the tall grass (which wasn’t much). I laid on the ground and prepared myself for more gunfire to come in my direction. Lucky for me, none came.

  I’m not sure if it was old age or the lack of maintenance, but the explosion caused the front of the building to collapse in on itself. Pieces of the door, concrete, and zombie body parts flew outward. Red mist and dust mushroomed out of the new opened area. When part of the wall came down, it exposed a damaged second story. I could feel the ground tremble.

  The group of people immediately cheered at the damage I had just caused, but quickly stopped. Their cheering was quickly followed by sounds of confusion. I could see through the grass that the woman was talking to them. Before long, they began pointing their guns in my direction.

  The woman turned around and demanded to know, “Where did you get the grenade?”

  Without saying a word, I slowly reached in my right pocket and began pulling out my last grenade. I tried to make my movement as stealthy as I could. While keeping an eye on the group from my hiding place in the grass, I noticed that there were still a few zombies moving around and making their way towards the group. None of the zombies seemed to have even noticed me. It was probably the fact that the group had been shooting guns while I hadn’t.

  It sounded like the lady was getting annoyed as she kept asking, “Where did you get the grenade? Are there anymore?”

  I ignored her while I worked on removing the grenade. It wasn’t until they began shooting the zombies that I had successfully removed it from my pocket.

  The lady might have seen me with the grenade because she began yelling at the others to shoot me. They had been so preoccupied with shooting the zombies that they didn’t seem to have heard her at first, but I did, and I was not going to give them the chance to kill me.

  I quickly bolted upright to my knees. I held the grenade with my right hand and reached for the pin with my left. Most of them were still occupied with shooting at the zombies, so I figured that I had the advantage. I decided that I wasn’t even going to count. Nope, I was just going to pull the pin and throw it. That way if they did start shooting at me, I could just drop to my stomach again and hide in the tall grass.

  My momentary pause was enough, for some of them at least, to shift their attention towards me and start shooting. I had run out of time and quickly pulled the pin. I threw it sort of like one of those old irregular shape Nerf footballs sideways towards their vehicle as I fell backwards. You know what? It seemed to have worked.

  It bounced underneath the front of their car, hidden among the tall grass. The woman screamed something intangible to her people and dove for cover. The others weren’t so lucky as the grenade went off.

  The explosion flipped the SUV backwards onto the people who had been using the rear as cover. The ones that were still in the vehicle got caught up the initial explosion causing them to lose different limbs as they went flying out. The ones in front of the vehicle went flying forward, most of their lower bodies were missing. The zombies that were still alive (so to speak) and making their way to the SUV, were almost there when the grenade went off. They flew backwards, losing body parts in the process. All in all, I thought that it was a success.

  My ears were ringing from the explosion. I instantly cupped my ears as I quickly rolled over onto my stomach. With my hands on my ears, I struggled to get to my feet. I couldn’t believe that my ears were still ringing.

  I looked over my left shoulder to see how much damage the grenade had caused and was surprised at all the destruction. It seemed like body parts were everywhere. Without realizing it, a bad feeling crept over me. My shock from all the damage quickly turned to that of being suspicious. I removed my hands from my ears and looked around to make sure that I was not in any immediate danger.

  My eyes stopped when I noticed movement on the passenger side of the upside-down SUV. I saw one survivor, it looked like the boss lady was struggling to stand up. She was unsteady on her feet. The right side of her clothing looked kind of burnt. Like me, she began looking at the destruction.

  She continued to look around until she noticed me. With a looked of hatred on her face, she lifted her left hand to fiddle with something on her left waistline, just out of my line of sight. My first thought was that she was reaching for a side arm.

  My suspicions came true when she produced a handgun. With an unsteady hand, she lifted it towards me. It looked as if she was struggling in her attempt to aim. By the time she was able to aim down the barrel, a miracle happened. A few surviving zombies began walking towards her as they got between us.

  As soon as I heard the first shot, I turned and ran back towards the edge of the building. With her having a gun, I figured that my only chance for survival was to go for the grenade I had dropped.

  Before I got to the edge of the building, I heard a few more shots ring out. I thought that it was kind of weird
that I didn’t hear any bullets flying past me.

  As I continued to run, I kind of turned my head to see what was going on and noticed that the group of zombies were quickly thinning out. I figured that the gunshots I heard was from the woman shooting at them.

  Before I could turn my head back around, I noticed that the woman pulled down her gun. She ignored the few remaining zombies and began hobbling in my direction. She looked like she was trying to run with a noticeable limp.

  I knew that since she was running with a limp, I could easily distance myself from her and her gun. I turned my head back around and willed myself to run even faster. I blindly turned the corner of the building and immediately regretted it.

  It looked like the gunshots had attracted a few more zombies, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. Not sure on what to do, I kind of froze in place.

  The woman with the gun was behind me and a nice size group of zombies were in front of me. To top it all off, the only weapon I had was a knife. Granted, it was a long knife but a knife just the same. Well, there was the last grenade.

  I looked down at the zombies that I had killed with my machete and knew that the grenade was somewhere hidden in the pile of bodies. The only question was, did I take the chance and search for it? If I did and found it, I had a chance to survive. If I searched for the grenade and failed to find it then I was surely dead. If I didn’t search for it at all then I was dead anyway. It felt like my only option was to look for the grenade.

  I did a quick estimation in my head and figured that if I was lucky, I had a few minutes before the zombies would be on top of me. Hopefully those few minutes would give me enough time to search for the grenade. If I failed to find it then I could always use my machete to try and fight them off. It was still better then facing the alternative that was coming my way.

  I turned and rushed towards the downed bodies. I was about halfway to the bodies when I heard a metallic creak that sounded like a door opening. Naturally, I looked around.