We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  They were covered in blood and open wounds. Beth was correct, we needed to get my phone and fast. I took off after Beth and caught her just as she reached the bus.

  Blood covered the door glass. I could see coach’s head on the steering wheel. His eyes were wide open with a blank look in them. He was still wearing his seatbelt and had a huge hole on the side of his neck. The person who had went crashing through the windshield was moving, but they looked kind of stuck.

  I looked over at Beth, “Open it.”

  She looked at me with a surprised look, “What?”

  I repeated myself, “Open the door.”

  She shook her head, “I’m not going to open it. It’s your phone, you open it.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  I reached out to the door and touched it. I wanted to puke; the other side of the glass was nasty. Having one older brother and a couple of older sisters, I had seen blood before, and it didn’t look anything like this.

  Beth made me jump, “Makalyn, hurry!”

  I snapped at her, “Okay! Don’t rush me.”

  “You have to. We don’t have the time.”

  “Okay!”

  I began to push on the door and noticed that the crazy person who was stuck in the windshield, their feet were frantically moving around. Only their feet weren’t touching the ground. In fact, the person’s frame was kind of small. Sort of like a young teenager or a small person.

  The door didn’t want to open, so I had to put more of my weight into it. Eventually, Beth had to help me. With our combined weight, we managed to open the door.

  With the door open, I took a step up the steps. I made sure that I kept an eye on the person trapped in the windshield. I gradually made my way up the steps to the top. I did my best to ignore the sight of coach and the massive amount of blood everywhere.

  “Did you get your phone yet?”

  I snapped at her, “I’m working on it!”

  She snapped back, “Well, work harder! The sick people are almost here.”

  I rushed towards the seat where my bag was and found it wasn’t there. I began looking around. Where was it?

  I quickly realized that most of the bags were under the seats. They must have fell off the seats when the bus crashed. I squatted next to my seat. I ducked my head low enough to see under the seats. Where did my bag go?

  Beth came running up the steps, “Makalyn, were out of time! We got to go!”

  “Hold on. My bags here somewhere.”

  She responded, “We don’t have time.”

  Without another word, she began shutting the door.

  “What are you doing?”

  The door must have been stuck or something because she began using both hands to push on the door, “Look. They’re here.”

  Fear gripped me when I heard the sickly groans outside the bus, “How? How many are there?”

  “A lot.”

  She began to strain while pushing on the door, “Makalyn help me. I can’t hold the door closed.”

  I began to rise to my feet when I saw my bag, it was four seats down from my location, “Beth, I found my bag.”

  She grunted, “Good. Get your phone so we can get out of here.”

  I took a step towards my bag when the bus kind of rocked sideways.

  I looked around and asked, “What was that?”

  I turned around and saw the crazies, hundreds of them coming towards us. Beth was right, we needed to leave quickly. Otherwise, we were going to be trapped.

  Without a second thought, I took two steps and dove under the seat. The sound of my catcher gear echoed throughout the bus. I didn’t care, I needed my bag.

  I grabbed the bag with my right hand and pulled it towards me. Once it was close enough, I shifted the bag to my left hand and grabbed the zipper with my right hand. I pulled.

  It unzipped as fast as I could pull the zipper and opened the lid. My phone wasn’t there. Oh God! Where was my phone?

  I began freaking out, “My phone’s gone!”

  Beth grunted, “What do you mean your phone’s gone?”

  I screamed, “I mean, it’s not here!”

  Beth panicked, “Where could it be? Who would take your phone?”

  I began freaking out, “I don’t know. It was in the bag and on top of my stuff.”

  She suggested, “Could the crash caused it to shift in the bag?”

  I felt helpless, “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  I reached into the bag and felt around. It wasn’t there.

  I began to cry, “It’s not here. I led us to our deaths for my stupid phone.”

  Beth grunted again, “Wait. Is that it in coach’s pocket? It sure looks like it. It looks purple, kind of like your phone case.”

  I jumped to my feet and ran towards coach, “Which pocket?”

  She was straining to hold the door closed, “Front. Front left pocket. It’s under the seatbelt strap. You. You can barely see it.”

  I squatted just enough to see under his arm, “Yes! That’s my phone. Why did coach have it?”

  “Who? Who cares? Just grab it so we can go.”

  I was grossed out, “But.... But there’s blood everywhere.”

  She grunted, “Makalyn, you have to. I.....I don’t know how much longer I can hold the door.”

  As if on cue, the weight on the outside of the door pushed her forward.

  “Makalyn! Hurry!”

  I lifted my left arm and reached across his blood-stained shirt, “Eww. This is gross.”

  She blurted out, “Come on, hurry up already!”

  I felt like passing out, “I’m trying.”

  She snapped, “Well, try harder.”

  I grabbed the tip of the phone case with my first finger and thumb. I was afraid that coach was just faking being dead and would lift his head just to scare me. Coach had always been that kind of prankster.

  I’m not sure why, but I watched him closely as I slowly pulled my phone out of his shirt pocket. It’s hard to explain, but the closer the phone got to me, the worse the feeling of dread I had. It just felt like something bad was fixing to happen.

  I pulled the phone up to my chest. I realized that the feeling of dread was for nothing because as luck would have it, nothing happened.

  I stood up and held my phone out towards Beth, “Okay, I got it. Now what?”

  Beth grunted, “Now? Now, we get out of here!”

  I looked through the blood-stained glass door, “How?”

  She nodded towards the back of the bus, “The rear emergency exit door.”

  I followed her gaze, “Okay. Let’s go.”

  I turned towards the rear of the bus and ran. I got about halfway down the length of the bus when I heard Beth scream for help. I immediately stopped and turned to see what was going on.

  Coach had grabbed Beth’s arm and was pulling her hand towards him. She was doing her best to fight him. But it appeared to be a losing battle for her.

  She looked over at me, “Makalyn, help me!”

  I turned and rushed back towards the front of the bus. I made it to her just as her hand was at coach’s mouth. With my padding on, I threw my shoulder into his head. It was the only thing that I could think of to do to help my friend.

  My tactic worked, sort of. He let go of her hand, but not until after he was able to bite down on it. She reacted by pulling her hand back towards her body. In doing that however it ripped the flesh back, exposing the tendons and bones on her first two fingers. She screamed out in pain.

  With coach momentarily distracted, I grabbed her shoulder and led her to the back of the bus. It was a good thing that coach was strapped into the seatbelt because he started flailing around, trying to get to us.

  I guess that Beth’s screamed riled up the crazies outside the bus because it began rocking back and forth. I could hear the main door slowly give way to the combined weight of the crazies.

  As we made our way to the back of the bus, I grabbed a shirt from my bag. Her hand was bleedin
g bad. Blood was going everywhere. I knew that we needed to stop the bleeding.

  When we got to the back of the bus, I noticed movement out the corner of my eyes through one of the windows. It looked like more and more crazy people were coming. If we didn’t leave soon, we were going to be trapped.

  I turned towards Beth and without thinking about it, I began to wrap her hand up, “How’s your hand?”

  She squirmed, “It hurts like hell.”

  “It looks like it.”

  I looked into her eyes, “Are you up for this?”

  She looked out the window at the crazies and winced, “Yeah. We need to hurry.”

  I looked back towards coach and watched him struggle in the seat. No matter how hard he fought, he was stuck with the seatbelt on. I for one, was happy about it. The front door creaked as it opened a little bit more.

  I opened the back door, “Okay Beth. Let’s go.”

  I jumped down towards the road and turned around to help Beth down, but she had already jumped. As soon as she landed, she started running. I took off after her and ran as fast as I could with the gear still on. She had been our teams fasted runner and I was losing ground, quickly. She ran towards an outlet mall and ducked inside one of the stores. It sold clothes.

  She stood at the doorway and held it open as she waved me on, “Come on Makalyn, you can do it.”

  I reached the door and ran inside. The people working were confused and demanded to know what was going on.

  I was breathing heavy and managed to get out, “Crazy people are chasing us…attacking and eating people…”

  We must have sounded crazy because someone was already on the phone, I’m assuming with the police, because they were saying that they thought that we were on drugs or something. He began describing us to the police, saying that we looked like softball players but were kind of bloody.

  While that person was on the phone, a couple of other employees were trying to usher us out the door. We were about five feet from the door when the crazies showed up. We all jump backwards whenever they slammed into the door. You could visibly see the glass bend inward.

  I turned and yelled at the person on the phone, “Tell the police to hurry!”

  The person, in turn, responded, “I couldn’t get ahold of the police. I’m on the phone with my manager.”

  Beth managed to tell the employee, “Well, tell them to call the police. We’re going to need them.”

  One of the female employees who had been ushering us towards the door asked, “What’s wrong with them?”

  “I don’t know. We were playing a softball game when they showed up and started attacking people.”

  The other employee asked, “Why are there softball players mixed in with...What do you call them?”

  “We call them crazies. Because they act crazy.”

  The person on the phone asked, “Crazies? Okay, so why are there softball players mixed with the crazies and why do they look like that?”

  Beth responded, “We’re not sure. Some of the softball players were on our team and who we were playing against. They were attacked, that’s why they have wounds all over them. They in turn, turned crazy and began attacking other people.”

  The other employee asked, “So? They’re like zombies?”

  “Yeah, I guess. I never really thought about it, but yeah. They’re sort of like zombies.”

  The employee on the phone asked, “Zombies? Are you out of your mind? Zombies are a folklore that people made up for entertainment in books and movies.”

  The employee on the phone started talking back into the phone, “Yes. They said zombies. How would I know what a zombie looked like? Well, the video from the outside camera’s make them look scary, I guess. No, I don’t think that’s blood on them. I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s ketchup. Yes, I did try to call the police. I got no answer. It was a busy signal. I guess whatever is going on is a big deal. So, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to kick the girls out before I lock the doors? No, they don’t look like a threat. One is wearing catcher gear and the other one’s hand is wrapped up in a bloody shirt. She looks like she’s in pain. I’m sorry that I didn’t mention it before.”

  The employee on the phone yelled to one of the other employees, “Could one of you go to the back to get our medical kit?”

  He then told the other one, “Lock the door.”

  “With the girls still inside?”

  The guy on the phone nodded, “Yes. The boss doesn’t want to take any chances with those things outside.”

  I replied, “Thank you.”

  He replied, “Don’t thank me. It wasn’t my idea. The manager has a soft spot for people in need.”

  “Well, tell him thank you for us anyway.”

  He frowned, “I can’t. The phone’s dead.”

  I frowned, “The phone’s dead? Phone? Crap, I forgot I had my cell phone.”

  I dialed my mom’s phone number. All I got was a busy signal. I then tried my dad’s phone number and got the same thing. What was going on? I then tried my brother’s cell phone, still got nothing but a busy signal. I tried my two older sister’s phones. The same thing.

  I looked up at Beth and noticed the she didn’t look too good. She had turned a ghostly pale color. She was beginning to have beads of sweat coming down her face and looked exhausted. She looked like she was going to fall over any minute.

  “Beth, are you alright?”

  With her eyes halfway closed, she responded, “I…. I think so. I just started feeling dizzy.”

  I lifted my hand and touched her forehead, “Man, you’re burning up. Come on, let’s go sit down.”

  The other employee rushed past us with the keys in her hand. She had just reached the door whenever the glass part of the door broke. Not all the glass shattered off, some huge chunks were still in the door frame.

  The girl screamed as one of the crazies reached his arm inwards towards her. His arm got caught in some glass around the middle part of the door frame. The glass probably saved her. The crazies in the back were pushing their way towards the door. The crazy person that was stuck on the glass was starting to have his left arm amputated. With the glass digging into his arm, blood began to spurt out i all directions. The strange thing about the whole ordeal was that the crazy guy didn’t seem to react to the pain. No screaming or wincing. He just kept trying to push his way through the door.

  The other girl, who had gone to retrieve the medical kit, wanted to know what why there was screaming. She saw the other girl race past her towards the rear of the store and looked over to see who she was running from. She dropped the medical kit and screamed. She ran after the other girl.

  Abandoned by the two girls, I yelled at the third employee, “Can you help me with my friend? Please.”

  He dropped the phone and ran towards us. By the time the employee made it to us, the crazy guy had made it through the door. His left arm dangled by his side. It must have been cut deep because blood continued to spray all over the store clothes. Especially, the clothes closest to the door. Lucky for us, the crazies in back were pushing hard enough that he tripped over the bottom part of the doorframe. Others kind of made their way in behind him and began tripping over each other.

  The employee reached down and grabbed Beth’s right shoulder and easily lifted her up to her feet. Without missing a beat, he then lifted her into both arms and turned towards the rear of the store. I have to admit the guy was a lot stronger then he looked.

  Without looking over his shoulder, he said, “Come on. Follow me. Unless, of course, you would rather stay out here?”

  I got up and quickly followed him to the back of the store. The other two employees were nowhere to be seen.

  The guy stopped at the rear exit, “Okay. I’m going to let you out here.”

  “Aren’t you coming with us?”

  He shook his head, “Not yet. I need to look for my co-workers.”

  “You don’t think that they already left?”


  He continued shaking his head, “No, I don’t. Our back door has an alarm on it, and it goes off every time the door is opened. I didn’t hear it go off. Did you?”

  “Come to think about it. No, I don’t remember hearing an alarm go off.”

  “So, that means they are still here somewhere, and I need to find them.”

  “Are you sure that you don’t want to come with us?”

  “No. If this is what I think it is, then I’m going to look for my family.”

  Curios, I asked, “What do you mean by that?”

  He frowned, “What, my family? You don’t think that family is important?”

  I tried to back track, “No, no, I do. I was talking about what you meant by ‘what you think this is’ part.”

  He began, “I think……”

  He stopped talking and listened when a loud crash came from the front of the store. The guy put Beth down on her feet and motioned for me to take her shoulder.

  “I think that was one of the store windows. You need to grab your friend and get out of here. Now!”

  “What about you?”

  He pointed down a hallway, “I’m going to get my co-workers first. Then we’ll be right behind you.”

  The first crazy person made his way to the back, with more behind him. The guy opened the back door, causing the alarm to go off.

  Somewhere down the hallway, his co-workers screamed, “DON’T LEAVE US!”

  The guy turned in the directions of the screams, “I think I know where they’re at.”

  He looked back towards us, “Go!”

  I began to object, “But….”

  He cut me off, “No! Go now! I’ll get my friends and we’ll be right behind you.”

  He pushed me through the door and just as soon as we were through the door, I heard a click behind me. I turned back around and saw that the door had been closed behind us. I was about to knock on the door when I heard what sounded like a female scream coming from the other side of the door.

  Fear gripped me, causing me to look over at Beth. It seemed that she was looking worse by the minute. I…...I didn’t know what to do. Should we wait here for the guy?

  I paused momentarily. I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to run away or at the very least, go hide like I used to do when I was a little girl. When I was little and got scared, I would run and hide in my closest. I couldn’t do that now, even if I wanted to.