We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  Seth agreed with my terms, “Okay, but it better not be too long.”

  I tried to reassure him, “Seth, I can’t give you a timetable, but I give you my word. Okay?”

  With a serious look in his pained face, “Okay.”

  Makalyn looked over at me “Does that mean that you’ll also help me look for my family?”

  I looked over at Makalyn, “Actually, I was starting to give it some thought. Doesn’t your mom and dad have a cabin around Lake Eufaula?”

  She looked at me with accusing eyes, “They did. Why?”

  I ignored the look that she gave me, “Well, I’m thinking that we could stop there and search for them. It would also give us a chance to rest and look for supplies. Who knows, your family might be there waiting on you.”

  “I doubt it.”

  Bothered by her solemn mood, I asked, “Why would you say something like that?”

  Her mood saddened, “Because…...because……”

  Curious, I asked, “Because why, Makalyn?”

  Her eyes began to moisten, and her bottom lip began to quiver, but she didn’t say a word.

  I pushed for an answer, “Makalyn? Because why?”

  She looked up at me, her eyes were wet. She spoke barely above a whisper. She said something I couldn’t hear.

  I pushed her a little further, “Makalyn, I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear a word you just said. Can you please repeat it?”

  Out of nowhere, she screamed, “I SAID IT’S BECAUSE MY BROTHER AND SISTERS ARE DEAD!”

  Calmly, I replied “I’m so sorry, Makalyn. I…. I…... Wait a minute, how do you know that they’re dead?”

  She began crying, “Because……. Because……. I found them.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She was on the verge of breaking down, “I…... I…... found them. They were still at my house. They were still wearing the same clothes from the day that I left, only stained and torn. My mom and dad weren’t there.”

  I tried to stay positive, “Well, maybe your mom and dad are at the cabin waiting for you.”

  Makalyn shook her head, “No. They would never have left one of us kids behind.”

  Her face became pale, “I don’t think that they even made it out of the hospital.”

  I think that Seth was thinking about his own father when he asked, “Why would you think that?”

  Makalyn looked back at Seth as if he had asked her a stupid question, “Because they would have NEVER left one of US kids behind.”

  “Where did you escape from again?”

  “You mean El Reno?”

  Seth’s attitude changed, “Yeah, El Reno. Maybe, they went there looking for you.”

  Makalyn shook her head, “I don’t think so.”

  Seth seemed genuinely concerned, “Why not? You gotta have hope that they came looking for you. Don’t you?”

  She replied sharply, “Why? You mean like the ‘hope’ that you’ll find your dad waiting on you?”

  I could tell by Seth’s face that he wanted to argue but didn’t.

  He showed restrain by stating, “My dad’s alive, I know it. He’s a survivor. You’ll see.”

  JoJo on the other hand asked Makalyn a simple question, “Why would you say something like that to Seth?”

  Makalyn turned towards the front of the car, “Because it’s true. I have seen what happens to people who are bit or try to survive out here on their own.”

  “We’ve survived out here.”

  “No, you haven’t. Your living on borrowed time. We all are.”

  “Okay, then explain how you’ve survived out here on your own.”

  Makalyn’s eyes took on a distant, “Only because I was forced to learn how to.”

  My curiosity peaked. Maybe, Makalyn was going to start trusting us.

  I just needed to probe a little deeper, “What do you mean by that?”

  Makalyn looked over at me, “Do you really want to know?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  Makalyn looked towards the back, “Do you ‘really’ want to know?”

  JoJo responded with a simple, “Yes.”

  Seth kind of shrugged, “I guess.”

  He looked over at me, “Uncle Jimmy, do we have any pain medication left?”

  “I’m sorry Seth, we do not. Maybe, we can stop and look for some in a few gas stations or abandoned cars along the way. There is also a small town about halfway between here and the lake called Henryetta. We can stop there and search for supplies. Do you think that you can bare the pain until then?”

  I guess when his anger and adrenaline subsided, his pain became noticeable, “I…... I can try.”

  I was trying to sound upbeat and sure as hell wasn’t trying to sound sarcastic, but it ended up sounding like that anyway, “That’s the spirit. While we search, I’ll also keep my eyes open for you a brace. That should help your foot heal straight.”

  He grunted out, “Tttthhhaaannnkkkssss.”

  It was nice to see everyone getting along again, “No problem. I promise just as soon as we come across someplace to search for supplies, we’ll stop. Until then though, how about Makalyn’s story to take your mind off the pain.”

  “Sure. I guess we can try. What would it hurt? No pun intended.”

  I looked over at Makalyn, “I’ll drive, if you’ll begin your story.”

  She sighed, “Do I have a choice?”

  I glanced over at her, “Makalyn, you always have a choice.”

  She turned her head away from me, “What if I don’t want to remember what happened to me?”

  I encouraged her, “Well, they used to say that the only way to properly heal is to talk about your pain. It’s a way to allow your pain to go away. Otherwise, you’ll hold onto it and it’ll end up eating you alive.”

  She exhaled, “Okay. I’ll give it a shot. It all started after we left Chandler the next morning.”

  Chapter 9: Makalyn’s Story

  We arrived in El Reno around 9 in the morning. We were scheduled to play at least two softball games that day and our first game wasn’t for a few hours. It was one of those double elimination type tournaments.

  With my dad being the head coach and, in the hospital, the coaching staff didn’t want to deviate from our morning ritual (I guess that they were a little superstitious). They wanted us to eat a healthy breakfast, then go through our warmups early. It was our tradition to warm up hours before our first game, so we would be nice and loose when came to game time.

  When we got to the outskirts of El Reno, we stopped at a local diner just off the highway. It looked like one of those ‘Mom and Pops’ type of places, you know, the kind of place referred to as a ‘Greasy Spoon’. It tasted good, but I doubt that it was very healthy.

  For the next few hours, everything seemed to be going okay. There was nothing out of the ordinary. We ate a big breakfast and made it to the playing fields early. We didn’t see a lot of people there, but that wasn’t unusual for that time of morning.

  The other teams arrived about thirty minutes before the game started. I noticed that few of their players looked kind of sick but didn’t pay it too much attention. After all, being in high school and playing sports, you come across many different people. Germs can spread quickly. I just hoped that they didn’t have what my dad had.

  Me and few other girls from my team were playing catch when one of the coaches called me over.

  “Makalyn, you have a phone call. It’s your mom.”

  I grabbed the phone, “Hello. Mom?”

  My mom spoke up, “Hey Makalyn. I’m sorry we’re not there. Your dad’s health has taken a slight turn for the worse. He’s spiked a high fever and is kind of in and out of consciousness.”

  Worried, I replied, “Oh, no. Is it serious? Do I need to come home?”

  My mom cut me off, “No. You don’t need to come home. Your dad said to have a great game and he’ll see you tonight.”

  I could hear my mom starting to get upset and asked, “Mom
? What’s wrong?”

  I could hear the worry in her tone, “It’s nothing really. They’re not entirely sure what’s wrong with your dad, all though, they’re pretty sure it’s a virus. More and more sick people are being admitted into the hospital each minute. They’re not sure if it’s an airborne sickness or if it’s spreading from contact.”

  My heart sank over the thought of my dad, “Mom. I can come home if I need to.”

  My mom shut the idea down, “No, no. You have a great game and we’ll see you tonight. They just gave your dad some experimental antibiotics to fight the virus. Hopefully, it’ll work quickly. Your dad’s not one who gets sick very often. Oh, let’s talk about something else before I get myself worked up. What position are you playing today?”

  “Well, it’s my turn to play catcher.”

  My mom returned to her normal self, “Catcher? I didn’t think that you liked playing catcher.”

  “I don’t, but you know how dad is. He wants all of us girls to be able to play every position. He wants us to be at our best.”

  The sadness returned to her voice, “Yeah. Yeah, I know how he is. Hey, they are making announcement over the intercom and the nurse just came in. I got to go. I’ll see you tonight. I love you.”

  I tried to sound positive, “I love you too mom. Tell dad that I love him and that I’ll see y’all tonight.”

  She giggled a little “Okay, I better go before I get in trouble. Bye”

  Hearing her giggle caused me to giggle, “Okay, bye mom.”

  I hung up the phone. I’m not sure why, but suddenly, I had a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. Little did I know at the time that it was going to be the last time I would ever hear my mom’s voice again.

  I got off the phone just in time for the game to start. I grabbed all my catcher gear and slowly walked up to home plate. The further I walked, the worse the feeling in my stomach became. My legs became like concrete, refusing to move.

  By the time I got to home plate, something told me to investigate the stands. I began to look around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I noticed that most of the people in the stands were family members of the teams playing. We even had fans there from Chandler, only it was a lot smaller than we were used to. I wondered if it had something to do with the virus going around back at home.

  I was lost in my own thoughts and jumped out of my skin when the umpire unexpectedly yelled, “Play ball.”

  I looked around one last time and squatted behind home plate. I gave the pitcher the fast pitch sign and waited. The ball came quickly, and the batter swung the bat.

  The ball hit my glove, causing the umpire to yell, “Strike.”

  I leaned forward onto my knees and grabbed the ball with my right hand. I pulled my arm back and threw it to the pitcher, but she wasn’t paying attention. The ball landed in the spot she had just been at. Confused on why she didn’t catch the ball, I slowly began to stand up.

  Almost instantly, I heard screams coming from the stands behind me. I wasn’t even on my feet yet when I began to turn around. I was hit on my right side and knocked down for my actions.

  My turning motion and playing catcher probably saved my life that day. It caused me to end up falling on my back and having the added catcher gear kept me from getting bit.

  I lady fell on top of me and pretty much straddled me. She had my arms pinned by my sides. She had that same crazed look in her eyes that the guy who bit my dad had. As she kept leaning her head down towards my head and kept biting my facemask. I have never so relieved to have been playing catcher.

  Every time she pulled back; I could see a large chunk of skin missing from the left side of her neck. The white El Reno shirt she was wearing had a dark reddish color on her left side, underneath where the skin was missing on her neck. She didn’t talk but kind of grunted as she kept lowering her head towards my face, opening and shutting her mouth.

  When I realized what was happening, I screamed out for help as I fought against her weight in order to free my arms. I was struggling to say the least. I’m not sure if it was her weight or the weight from the gear I was wearing or maybe even a combination of both, but I was struggling bad. Before I even realized it, I began to cry as I continued to scream for help.

  It seemed hopeless and it felt like I was about to die at the hands of this, this crazy person. I felt so helpless while trapped under her. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see how I was going to die. It’s funny how things work out because when all hope seemed lost, my prayers were answered.

  Amazingly, I heard a loud thump sound over the screams around me. I opened my eyes, just in time to see the crazy lady’s head tilt backwards in an unnatural way. Her body rock backwards, allowing me to pull my arms out from under her knees. I reacted by grabbing her around the stomach area with both hands and pushing her towards my left as hard as I could.

  When she was mostly off me, a hand reached down towards my head, just out of my line of sight. Without thinking, I reached up and grabbed the hand. Thankful for the help, I held onto the hand as if it was my lifeline.

  With the help of the person’s hand, I slowly crawled to my knees and eventually my feet. I turned my head to see who it was and realized that it had been my best friend and teammate, Beth, who had saved me.

  Beth was breathing heavy and was leaning on a softball bat to catch her breath. She let go of my hand and grabbed my arm to help me stand, both of us were unsteady on our feet.

  I leaned over to catch my breath and looked around at the chaos. What I saw that day would haunt my dreams for a very long time.

  I noticed that one of our coaches was laying face down next to the dugout, two people, a man and a woman, were apparently attacking his back. Blood stained his already red shirt, turning it a deeper red color. The couple’s hands were bloody and were getting more and more bloody the more they touched the coaches back.

  I heard a couple of screams for help to my left. I turned and noticed that two of our teammates were cornered by a dozen or so, crazy people. I took a step towards them, but Beth grabbed my right arm to stop me.

  Frustrated, I looked over at her and asked, “What? We need to go help them.”

  “It’s no use. They’re trapped. We couldn’t save them even if we tried.”

  I stared in disbelief at her, “You don’t know that.”

  She nodded her head, “Yes, I do.”

  “Look.”

  I looked over and sure enough, she was correct. In that short amount of time, they were attack. The crazy people were on them. Even if I had taken off sprinting towards them without the catcher gear, I still wouldn’t have been able to get to them in time. It happened that quick.

  I heard screaming and turned around again. This time a couple of the crazy people had grabbed a little boy of seven or eight. The chaos just kept coming.

  I saw another set of crazies grabbed a toddler out of her mother’s arms as the mother was being attack by other crazies. It was a complete madhouse. I didn’t think that it could have gotten much worse.

  As if on cue, the people who were attacked by the crazies, were beginning to move. Even though blood was still gushing out of their open wounds, they were still getting up. It seemed so unreal, like it was a scene out of a horror movie.

  Beth grabbed my arm and brought me out of my thoughts, “Makalyn, we need to get out of here. Now!”

  I looked around one more time and realized that she was right. We needed to leave. More and more people who were attacked and presumed dead were beginning to move. We were quickly being surrounded.

  I looked over to the gate, “Look. There’s the gate!”

  Before I could say anything else, Beth was already sprinting towards the gate. I took off after her, but quickly realized that I wouldn’t catch up. The catcher gear I was wearing was slowing me down. It was hard to look around, much less behind me. Somehow, I knew that I wouldn’t have time to take it off.

  “Beth, wait up!”

  Bet
h responded without looking behind her, “Hurry up. We need to get out of here.”

  Out of breath, I yelled, “I’m trying, but this catcher gear weights a ton.”

  Beth responded, “Hey, that catcher gear saved your life.”

  I tried talking, “Yeah, I know.”

  I risked a glance behind me and ended up running into the back of Beth.

  “What the? What happened? Why did we stop?”

  Beth pointed, “Look. Isn’t that our bus?”

  I looked around her just in time to see our bus start to drive by. Some of the windows had blood stains on them.

  I waved my hands, “Stop. Help us!”

  Beth did the same thing, “Please, help us!”

  The driver came into view. It looked like one of our coaches, but something was terribly wrong. We could hear screaming. It looked like a crazy person was biting his neck because blood was splattering on the door.

  We stood there dumbfounded on what to do. We watched as coach lost control on the bus and rammed into the back a couple of parked cars. He must have been wearing his seatbelt because the other person obviously wasn’t. The crazy person went headfirst through the windshield and landed halfway on the hood of the bus.

  Without saying anything, I began running towards the bus.

  Beth asked, “What are you doing?”

  “My cellphones on the bus. Maybe, we can use it to call the police and our parents.”

  Beth seemed surprised, “Really?”

  I frowned, “Yeah. Isn’t yours?”

  She shook her head, “No. I always had mine with me.”

  “Do you have it with you?”

  She frowned, “No. It’s in the dugout with the rest of my stuff.”

  I shrugged, “Okay. So, that means we need my phone? Unless, you want to go back and get yours?”

  She looked behind us, “No, I’m good. We’ll go get yours.”

  She took off running towards the bus. I turned around and saw that the crazy people were almost to the entrance gate. I noticed that there were more of them now. In fact, our teammates and coaches were among them.