We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to fight with Seth. I was tired, and I know he was tired. I was just ready to find someplace safe for us.

  We turned right on to the long and winding road that would take us to the hidden away campsite. We followed the road and came up on the Marina and the gated guard shack. The hope that I just had, quickly vanished.

  The Marina and its cafe were totally wiped out. It looked like the cafe had caught fire and burned down to the ground. The surrounding cabins off the water didn’t look much better. Windows were shattered, and doors were missing. The few motorboats that were left in the water, were sunk.

  I turned to everyone, trying to stay positive, “Maybe it’s safer inside the campsite. The campers I saw looked in good shape.”

  Their faces told me all that I needed to know. They were thinking the same thing that I was. There was no safe place out there.

  We drove past the broken guard shack gate and continued to follow the winding road to the camping areas, hoping to find it in better shape then the Marina. We came into the area and I knew that I had made a mistake bringing us there.

  The grass had turned into overgrown weeds. Tents were torn and tattered. Campers were damaged or turned over. Over to the right, I could see the couple of campers that I had seen from the road. They were still upright, but they had been hollowed out from being burned. We followed the asphalt road around the outskirts of the camping area, hoping to find something positive.

  Without realizing it, it was beginning to get dark. The sun was starting to go down. We needed to find a safe to stay the night. I looked down at the fuel gauge. It only had a quarter tank of gas. It wasn’t enough gas to go anywhere that I was familiar with. We needed to find someplace here. At least for the night.

  Dry mouthed, I whispered, “Well, what do y’all think we should do? We don’t have enough fuel to go search somewhere else before it gets dark. Makalyn? Do you remember where your family cabin is? Do you know if it’s close?”

  Without glancing in my direction, she said “Sorry, I really don’t remember. Like I said, I was a child the last time I was there.”

  Seth sounded defeated, “So, this was pointless?”

  I tried to sound positive, “Seth, nothing’s ever pointless. Feeling down is not going to help us find a safe place to stay the night.”

  JoJo spoke up and pointed to something across the lake, “What’s that?”

  Hope once again sprung up into my voice, “It looks like a houseboat!”

  JoJo asked, “What’s a houseboat?”

  Excited, I stated, “It was a type of boat people would rent to drive around the water and stay in. It’s basically a house on the water. Though, it looks like on that one, someone had set the anchor so that it wouldn’t float off. THAT could be a good sign for us. It means someone knew that zombies can’t swim and therefore tried to protect themselves. If it still runs, we could use it to safely drive around the lake. We don’t even have to touch land until we need supplies.”

  I looked at Makalyn, “Or look for your family cabin.”

  Seth mumbled something from the backseat, but I ignored it. I knew that he was in pain and unhappy. I just didn’t want to fight with him anymore.

  Makalyn asked, “Okay. So, how are we going to get to it?”

  JoJo pointed down at a tied-up rowboat sitting a few feet out of the water. The nylon rope wrapped around a tree looked rough. Did it mean that someone was coming back? Could it be a trap? Could they be watching us right now? Could we pass up the opportunity to find out?

  I pulled into a campsite driveway, “Stay here while I check it out.”

  I opened the driver’s door and slowly got out. I looked around at the trees and overgrown grass. I glanced at the closest camper. It was destroyed, completely burned to the ground. No one could have hidden in there.

  Makalyn asked, “What are you looking for?”

  I glanced in her direction, “Nothing. I just wanted to be sure that it wasn’t a trap. Keep an eye out just in case.”

  I turned and slowly walked towards the rowboat. I looked up from the rowboat to the houseboat. Was this the boat they used to get back and forth?

  I walked up to the mildew covered metallic rowboat. To my surprise, it was filled with filthy, cloudy water. Does it mean that the rowboat hadn’t been used in a long time?

  I turned around to face the car and waved, “It’s okay. Come on down.”

  JoJo and Makalyn walked up to me. Seth had obviously stayed behind in the car.

  I pointed down at the rowboat, “After I untie the rope, help me dump the water out.”

  Makalyn frowned, “Are you sure? The water’s disgusting.”

  Sarcastically, JoJo asked, “What? Are you too good to get dirty?”

  Makalyn looked at her, “No. Just look at the water. Anything could be in there.”

  I spoke up, “Exactly.”

  The girls looked at me confused when I asked them, “Do you see the rowing oars?”

  JoJo asked, “The what?”

  I looked at her as if she had just asked a stupid question, “The rowing oars. They are the things we need to make the rowboat move on the water.”

  JoJo and Makalyn began looking around, I interrupted, “Don’t worry about it right now. Just help me push it over.”

  I got down on both knees and grabbed the edge of the slimy rowboat. JoJo and Makalyn flanked me.

  I glanced at each of them, “Okay. We push on three. One, two, three, push.”

  There had to have been more then a few hundred gallons in the little boat, but with a group effort, we managed to push it over. The nasty water sprawled out everywhere, causing us to crawl backwards.

  I stood up and walked around the rowboat. There they were, a pair of them. The rowboat oars must have been in the boat all along. They were covered in moss.

  I reach down and grabbed the slimy oars, “Here they are. By the condition of them, it looks like they had been there for quite a while. Push the rowboat back over. It’s getting dark and we need to check out the houseboat.”

  Makalyn asked, “What makes you think that no one’s in the houseboat?”

  JoJo answered, “Because, the rowboat wouldn’t have that much water in it if it was still being used.”

  I proudly looked at my daughter, “JoJo, that’s a great use of deducted reasoning. What else can you tell me?”

  She looked down at the rowboat, “The condition of the metal boat looks slimy. It had water in it for a long time.”

  Gleaming with pride, “You’re right. I’m just thankful that it’s not rusted. Otherwise we would need to look for another boat.”

  I looked back up at the car, “Seth? Will you be alright by yourself? I’m going to take JoJo and Makalyn with me.”

  Seth stuck his head out of the car window, “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

  I nodded, “Okay. Just honk if there’s trouble. We’ll come back as fast as we can.”

  I looked at the girls, “Are y’all ready? We need to get there and make sure it’s safe before we bring Seth.”

  Seth opened the car door and limped his way into the driver’s seat.

  Makalyn asked, “What’s he doing?”

  I answered, “I told him to honk if there was trouble. He can’t do that from the backseat. Don’t worry. He wouldn’t leave us. Now, help me get this rowboat into the water.”

  I reached down and grabbed the front edge of the rowboat. The girls reached down, and each grabbed a rear corner. We lifted it up in unison and walked to the edge of the water. We lowered it into the water.

  Suddenly, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Because of it, I turned and noticed that Seth was watching us closely. I figured that he was just worried about us. Maybe, my gut was just trying to tell me about the houseboat. Maybe. Whatever it was, I couldn’t help but feel that it had something to do with Seth.

  I pushed the feeling down and glanced back to the girls, “Okay. Get in. JoJo sit up front. Makalyn
, grab an oar and sit onto the left. I’ll take the right. We paddle together, in unison. Okay?”

  Makalyn, “Yeah.”

  We carefully climbed into the rowboat. JoJo shakily made her way to the front of the boat. I just remembered; she had never been in a boat before. Makalyn on the other hand, confidently climbed in. The bad feeling in the pit of my stomach returned, causing me to look back towards Seth. I needed to be sure that he was okay.

  He was watching me. I figured that he was just doing what he was supposed to do. I nodded my head towards him to acknowledge that he was watching us. He nodded back.

  I pushed the feeling back down and turned back towards the boat. I pushed the boat out to the water and jumped in. I almost slipped. I had completely forgotten how slimy the inside of the rowboat had been. And smelly?

  I wrinkled my nose, “Man, my pants are wet and what’s that smell?”

  JoJo spoke up, “I think that it’s the boat. It’s probably from the mold.”

  I nodded, “Yeah. You’re probably right. There’s no telling how long it had water in it.”

  We slowly paddled the estimated thirty feet or so to the houseboat and had nice small conversations along the way. It was such a relief to have a decent conversation without being at each other’s throats. When we were within a few feet of the houseboat, I motioned for them to stop talking. We pull up to the back part of houseboat and I used the rope to tie off the boat.

  I whispered, “JoJo, carefully climb onto the edge. Makalyn, you next. Be careful and quiet. We don’t know what’s here.”

  When we were all safely onboard, I pulled out my knife and nodded for the girls to do the same. With my knife in my right hand, I used my left to motion towards the back door.

  When we were next to the door, I whispered, “Okay. JoJo, you open the door for me. Makalyn, follow me in. JoJo, you bring up the rear. No arguments. Alright?”

  Makalyn nodded, while JoJo whispered, “Okay.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded for JoJo to open the door. She reached for the door handle whenever we heard a car motor start. For a second, I thought that maybe someone had started the motor on the houseboat. But I quickly realized that wasn’t it. A normal boat motor would vibrate the whole boat and the sound kind of came from the shore. I turned around and saw the car beginning to backup.

  I stood there opened mouthed, while JoJo screamed out, “Seth? What are you doing?”

  Where was he going? Oh God, was Seth abandoning us? Would he do that?

  I found my voice, “SETH? What are you doing?”

  He answered back, “I’m Sorry, Uncle Jimmy, but I need to find my dad.”

  I became frantic, “Seth don’t do this! I told you that we’ll find him together!”

  Seth replied, “Well, now you’ll have to find Makalyn’s parents. Goodbye everyone. I’m Sorry, JoJo. I love y’all.”

  I screamed, “SETH, DON’T DO THIS!”

  Without another word, he shifted into drive and pulled forward.

  Makalyn jumped into the rowboat, “Come one. If we hurry, we can catch him.”

  I looked at her, “No, we can’t.”

  She argued, “Yes, we can. He’s hurt. We need to try something.”

  I shook my head, “We will, but not right now.”

  She frowned, “Why not?”

  JoJo pointed to the shore, “Look! Zombies.”

  I looked from Makalyn, to JoJo, back to Makalyn, “Even if we wanted to go after Seth, he would already be miles away way before we even reached shore. Then we would have to fight our way through them, without our weapons.”

  Her forehead wrinkled, “But, we have knives.”

  I nodded in agreement, “True, but knives can only do so much. Without our main weapons, or our supplies, we’re as good as dead. Our only option is to clear out the boathouse and stay the night where it’s safe. Hopefully, in the morning, they’ll be gone.”

  Wide-eyed, she asked, “Are you sure?”

  I took a deep breath, “Yes.”

  I turned around and noticed that JoJo was crying, “JoJo, what’s wrong?”

  She choked out, “He left us! Dad, Seth left us!”

  Seth had become more then a cousin to her, he had become like a brother and she felt abandoned.

  I tried to comfort her, “JoJo, it’s going to be okay.”

  She wasn’t having it, “How? How is it going to be okay dad? He took off with all our weapons and supplies? Seth left us! He left me! He told me that he would always be here for me. He lied!”

  I reached out to hug her, but she shrugged me off and wiped away her tears, “Don’t worry about it dad. It’s like you said, we’ll be alright. We have each other and Makalyn. We don’t need Seth. We can survive without him.”

  I sighed, “JoJo, don’t be like that. Seth loves you. He just wanted to find out about his dad. Maybe, if we would have looked for his dad sooner then he wouldn’t have left.”

  JoJo looked at me, “If we had done that, we wouldn’t have found Makalyn.”

  I tried to stay positive for my daughter, “Maybe. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it now. We need to clear this houseboat out so we can be safe tonight. Tomorrow morning, we’ll figure out our next move. Okay? JoJo grab the door handle. Makalyn, get behind me.”

  JoJo once again grabbed the door handle. I nodded to her to open it. She nodded in response.

  She pulled open the door and the stench of death hit us like wall of bricks. I took a deep breath and cautiously walk in. To my left was an old couch and to my right was an old-style recliner. It looked like a living room area. I surveyed the small room I was in for any sign of danger. Nothing. I turned around and motioned for Makalyn to come in.

  She hesitated, “Are you sure? It smells like something died in there.”

  I squeaked out, “Something probably did, but we won’t know until we check it out.”

  She shook her head, “I don’t think I can do this. I’m going to be sick.”

  I looked at her, “Are you serious?”

  Her face became ghostly white, “Yes. I think the smell, combined with the rocking of the boat, is making me noxious.”

  JoJo spoke up, “It’s okay dad. I’ll come with you. Makalyn can watch the door.”

  I nodded at my daughter, “Okay. JoJo, lets do this.”

  JoJo walked up behind me, I whispered, “Get your knife out.”

  JoJo spoke up, “Dad? Why are you whispering? We were just yelling outside. If something was in here, it would have shown up by now.”

  Continuing to whisper, “Not necessarily. They could be stuck somewhere in here. Follow me and be quiet.”

  We moved from the living room area to the kitchen area. It was trashed and I mean trashed. Old filthy dishes covered the counter tops and sink. Open cans covered the kitchen table, counter tops, and floor. Trash even littered the floors. The smell seemed worse than it did in the living room. Maybe, it was rotten food?

  JoJo whispered, “This place is nasty.”

  “I agree, but we need to keep searching.”

  We came to a small hallway that might have been ten feet long with a left turn midway down it. Sort of like a small trailer house. On the right was a decent size dirty window that you couldn’t see out of.

  We walked until we got to the turn, “JoJo, I think this floor plan is like a trailer home. If I’m correct, the master bedroom is straight ahead while the other bedrooms are down this way. We’ll check out the other bedrooms first.”

  She looked at me, “Okay, dad. Lead the way.”

  We turned left and immediately came to a small door off that little hallway. I reach out to grab the door handle.

  “Get ready.”

  I turned the knob and pushed. It was a small bathroom and it was clean. Well, cleaner than it should have been.

  Dust covered everything, but towels were neatly folded. Three cartoonish toothbrushes were sitting in the toothbrush holder. A full roll of toilet paper was next to the toilet on the to
ll holder. Bath toys were in a plastic tote next to the bathtub. I couldn’t help but wonder if this had been a child’s bathroom. I’m not sure why, but it felt as if I had just intruded on someone’s privacy. I closed the door behind me.

  I glanced at her, “Come on, I think the spare bedrooms are this way.”

  We continued our way and came to the end of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was two doors that were opposite of each other. We walked up to the two doors.

  “Which one should we try first?”

  She pointed to the left door, “Let’s try this one.”

  I reached out and grabbed the door handle, “Okay. You ready?”

  I slowly pushed open the door. The stench of death rushed towards us out of the room. I turned my head and puked. The same with JoJo. Was this where the smell was coming from?

  I turned to my daughter, “Are you okay?”

  She looked up at me and choked out, “I.......I think so. That’s disgusting. What is that smell?”

  I shook my head, “I’m not sure. Let’s look.”

  I lifted the front collar of my shirt over my mouth and nose. I intended to use it as a filter mask. I looked at JoJo. She was still struggling to not be sick.

  “JoJo use your shirt collar to filter the smell. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  I entered the room and immediately regretted it. Against the furthest wall were a set of small metal bunk beds and on the bottom bunk was a set of rotting petite bodies. Flies were buzzing around the cuddling bodies.

  I slowly walked up to the little bodies. They each couldn’t have been much more then six years old. Their mouths were open like they had been screaming while their eyes were open and looking upward. The sheet under their upper bodies was stained a dark red color. The more I looked at the little rotting bodies, the more I realized that their throats had been slit. Who could have done such a thing?

  Next to the bodies were a set of stuffed teddy bears with names sown into the place where the heart would have been. Next to the bed were boy and girl toys. Dolls, cars, action figures, legos. They looked similar in age. Could they have been twins? The thought of twins brought back memories of my own boys.

  I heard JoJo from the hallway, “Dad? Is everything alright?”