We Are The Survivors

by Vanessa Marie

  I’m surprised as well. I never had to hurt anyone before today. It scared me how my rage took over when I killed him. I just have to remember that I did it out of self-defense not hatred or maliciousness. I don’t even want to think about it.

  I hear the young soldier start yelling and the passengers start cheering. I turn to see several army vehicles driving up to us, our transportation. My enthusiasm fades when I see a huge crowd of zombies behind the army vehicles. They must have followed the trucks. The crowd notices the zombies and everyone starts freaking out. The people run into the crowd trying to escape while the soldiers start shooting. People are screaming and getting eaten. Gavin, Xavier and my newly made friends are standing there. Bloodcurdling screams and gunfire is the only thing I hear. Gavin grabs my shoulders; he asks me something but I can’t hear him over the noise. The zombies are coming closer. I feel like I’m going to throw up. I can’t do this, I can’t. Gavin yells louder. He asked me where the car is. The young soldier backs up by the door next to us. He takes the pistol out of his holster and puts it up to his temple. I close my eyes.

  I hear the shot go off. I open my eyes. The zombies start eating all the soldiers too fast for us to do something about it. Gavin picks up the dead soldier’s sniper and starts shooting. The only soldier left is the older one that was by the entrance. He is still by the entrance. He runs out of ammo. He takes his pistol out of his holster and shoots himself in the head right in front of Nya, his back facing her. He falls on her making her fall. She is laying on the ground with him on top of her. Dave takes him off and helps her up.

  There’s nowhere to run. I can’t scream. I can’t cry. I’m just standing there watching the dead come closer, only a few inches from grabbing me to eat me alive. I look at the army trucks. Zombies are climbing on top of them trying to eat the soldiers inside. There’s no way we can drive those.

  Gavin starts shooting. “Haul ass to the car!” he yells. We do with Gavin shooting the zombies that get close. They grab at our clothes. I push them away from me. By some miracle we make it to the car. Xavier pulls me into the car. Dave and Nya get in the front. Gavin is the last to come in. We drive away leaving all the people at the airport dead in the crowd. They’re all gone. Xavier was right civilization did fall fast. How many people have died today?

  Gavin is sitting next to me.

  He nudges me. “Mom, said to give you this. It means a lot to her. You will probably figure out why she gave it to you at all.”

  He puts her charm bracelet in my hand. She wears it every day. It has a charm for me: an umbrella, Mom: a gold heart that says sisters on it, Dad: a computer: he couldn’t live without electronics, Gavin: a hunting rifle. He hunts with uncle Kevin, that’s why he is a good shot. This is hers. She wouldn’t let Mom have it. I wonder why she would give it to me. I turn it over in my hands. There is a new charm. It’s a red rose, May’s favorite flower. She gave it to me because she knows she’s dying. I know because I asked her one time if I could have it. She said she would put it in her will for me. I thought it was a joke. No, no, no. Not today.

  “She’s dying?” he doesn’t answer and he doesn’t have to. I know.

  After I asked her why it was special she said that she lives so far away that sometimes she gets homesick. All she has to do is look at it and she thinks of us. It’s like having a piece of us. I now have a piece of my family. The zombies have literal pieces of them.

  CHAPTER THREE-SHELTER

  This grocery store was abandoned. Fortunately, it was unlocked also. The adults checked the whole place out. Nobody was here. All we did was hang here. I was starting to get hungry. I went over to the desserts and bread. Nya saw me looking at them and told me to take some. I took a box of chocolate chip muffins. I ate two muffins.

  That’s one good thing coming from the apocalypse. It really isn’t a big thing but it’s something. I walk down the aisles with the cupcake box in my hand. I find Xavier in the boys clothing aisle. “Do you want a muffin?”

  “Thanks.” He takes it.

  I hear yelling. It makes us both turn. It’s Nya’s voice and another’s. I walk toward the front entrance. There is a girl standing in front of Nya. She has bright, natural red hair and freckles on her nose. I step closer by Nya’s side. The girl looks about Gavin’s age: seventeen. She has bright green eyes. She is dressed in a pink sweater, jeans and pink sneakers. Her clothes are dirty. Her curly red hair is a little disheveled.

  She steps forward. “Please, I want to stay here.” She shakes her head. “You don’t know how bad it is out there.” Yes, I do. I have a pretty good idea of it.

  “You can stay here,” Nya says.

  The girl walks slowly with us. We go up to the register two where Dave and Gavin are. Their backs are facing us. Dave turns around and bumps into Nya.

  “Watch it,” she says.

  Dave looks at the new girl. She puts her head down a little. “What’s your name?” he asks.

  She looks up. “Sarah.”

  “Okay, Sarah get comfortable. This place is home for a while. I will secure the doors.” He walks down an aisle and comes back with a bundle of rope.

  Gavin is staring at Sarah. I don’t get why. He looks down at his feet then up again. His cheeks are red. Sarah smiles and looks at her feet. Why are they acting weird? It hits me. They like each other. Love at first sight. That’s how Mom said it happened with Dad. It took a few months for Mom to fall in love with Fred.

  It makes me sick to think of that man. Why does every thought travel to him and his actions? How much other bad stuff did he do? Why did he do that to Mom? What other stuff did he do? It makes me think of how scary it is, this man was living with me, supposed to be family. I knew something was wrong. Mom told me I was overreacting; I should calm down. I believed her, partly, then.

  How can I just keep going? My parents are gone. Both of their deaths my fault. When my Dad died, he was getting a cake I insisted on having. Mom died because I couldn’t get up to stop it. How can you forgive yourself for that?

  “Hey, come with me.” Xavier is standing in front of me holding his hand out.

  “Who are you anyways?” Gavin asks.

  I say a friend and Xavier says boyfriend in unison with me. He smirks at me; I return a look. Why did he have to say that? This isn’t the right time to be more.

  “Friends,” I say taking his hand.

  “Okay,” Gavin says smiling trying not to laugh.

  We start walking. He takes me to the aisle he was in before. He stops and steps in front of me. He takes my hand in both of his.

  “I wanted to tell you this before.” He takes a breath but before he finishes what he is going to say yelling interrupts him. It’s coming from outside. I can see the doors from here. Dave opens them. A boy steps inside. Dave wraps the rope around the door and they start talking. They walk away and I see zombies banging on the doors. The boy must have gotten their attention.

  I turn to Xavier. “What did you want to say?”

  “Back there when I said boyfriend I meant it. I wanted you to know that. Do you want to be my girlfriend? Now isn’t the right time but I wanted to ask.”

  “I have to ask my cousin if I’m allowed to date, but it’s a yes either way,” I say. I have to ask him since he’s my guardian now.

  He smiles, he’s blushing. I’ve never had a boyfriend before. I hope Gavin lets me date him. Usually my cousin acts like my big brother, trying to protect me. In a way, he is. We’ve always been close like brother and sister. I also consider my aunt and uncle my other parents too. That’s how it’s been my whole life.

  I think Xavier is going to kiss me after a few moments of just standing there. Suddenly he starts walking to where the others are. We meet up with the group by the registers. They aren’t saying anything to one another. I wonder why. The boy I saw earlier is standing in front of them. He turns around sensing our presence.

  His brown hair is dripping with sweat. His clothes, a green T-shirt under an unzipped
black hoodie, jeans and black and green sneakers, have blood and dirt on them. He looks troubled.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  “The sickness, infection whatever it’s spreads by bites,” The boy says.

  No need to state the obvious.

  “That’s why the military isn’t coming.” He sighs.

  “Yeah, they died,” I say.

  “No, abandoned is the correct word. They were in front of me on the Strip. On the walkie talkie, I heard the military tell a soldier to abandon evacuation efforts because they can’t tell infected from uninfected. The military left us to die.”

  I let go of Xavier. I put my hand on my hip. I at least thought that the military was going to do something not just leave us. I have so much to say and so little at the same time. I want to yell, use profanity instead I just ask,

  “What do we do now?”

  The new kid answers me first. “We survive. I’m Alex by the way.” He holds out his hand. I’m thinking Nya’s phrase I like you. I shake his hand. “Rain.” He seems like he isn’t fazed by the apocalypse. He didn’t see the worst of it is my thinking. “How?” I ask, “Is it like the movies? Do we shoot them in the head?”

  “From my experience stabbing them in the head with a chopstick works pretty well, too,” Alex says.

  He looks at our expressions and decides to explain more. “I was eating at a Chinese restaurant. It was the only thing I could use.”

  I nod in agreement. Few words are said the rest of the day. It could be fear or silent panic from the group that keeps them from talking. Sarah says nothing, I’m not sure why. I thought shyness at first, now I think she saw something bad like the rest of us. As long as she’s okay mentally she’s all right. Alex is the more talkative one. He blurts out sentences and paragraphs or random thoughts. I engage in the conversation occasionally sharing opinions about his most common subject: school.

  How mean some teachers are and our least favorite classes. I tell him I couldn’t wait until spring break and summer now I’m getting an extra-long vacation. Not the kind I wanted though.

  Once dusk comes Gavin gets sleeping bags and puts them on the floor down the canned food aisle. I choose a purple one. I set up next to my boyfriend.

  I decided not to ask Gavin about dating Xavier today. I’ll ask him tomorrow, today is really not the day. Everyone sits on their sleeping bags to relax except Gavin. He walks off for a little bit. I hear glass break. He comes back with blood splattered on his face.

  “What is that?” I ask.

  “Something that they missed,” he says pointing at Nya and Dave.

  “Where?” Dave asks.

  “Men’s bathroom.” He sits on his sleeping bag beside Sarah.

  Blood is dripping from a red gash in his hand. I open my mouth to ask him what’s wrong with his hand at the same time Sarah chimes in.

  “You cut yourself, you’re bleeding,” she says, her eyes are wide.

  He’s bleeding profusely.

  “You need to clean that now,” she says.

  “When the zombie lunged at me I fell into the mirror. I broke it and I picked up a glass shard and stabbed him. There is no water from the sink. The water must be turned off. Go get me bottled water, please,” Gavin says. The last sentence is told to Sarah.

  Sarah stands up and walks to the end of the aisle. She comes back with a water bottle. She hands it to Gavin. He walks away to the bathroom. A few minutes later he comes out and sits on his sleeping bag. The cut has stopped bleeding. His face is washed but not his clothes.

  In this moment, my normal life is gone. My world is not mine anymore. It’s like I’m living in a video game, the ones me and Gavin always play together. Gavin, he’s looking at me. He’s covered in blood and even being the most optimistic person, look’s broken. He’s looking at me with a sad face. He doesn’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do either.

  As much as I would love to take over a millionaire’s mansion I don’t want to go outside. The dead people are banging on the doors we tied shut with rope. We’re just sitting here waiting for the dead to go away. If they ever do.

  I couldn’t imagine today being like this. I couldn’t imagine that the boy I like would be lying next to me asleep on the floor. I couldn’t imagine that I’d be sitting in a room full of strangers except for two familiar faces. I couldn’t imagine that I wouldn’t be sleeping in my bed tonight but on a freezing linoleum floor scared to fall asleep because I have a good reason not to trust these people. Worst of all I couldn’t imagine the dead coming to life and them eating and killing everyone.

  The rest are asleep or laying down in a few minutes. I lay down without closing my eyes. I stay awake for a long time. I decide to stay awake the whole night. I can’t sleep. I will have a dream about Mom. I lie here. I need to stay awake. Energy drinks would be good. I get up and walk to the back of the store. I’m looking for them and I see an iced coffee which I drink down in a few minutes. I leave the bottle by the door. I feel more energized.

  I go up to the front door. I sit down in front of the doors. I’m intrigued by the dead people. They are pressed up against the glass. They are growling and banging on the window. They want to eat me. What made them this way?

  I have a theory. The reason the military left us is they created the apocalypse. They messed up. To avoid it they just left. There’s no hope they will create a cure. No hope they’ll be coming back. They’re still might be hope itself though. Hope for a normal life? I don’t count on it.

  The zombies get more hostile, banging on the windows harder, pressing their chomping mouths closer to the glass. It reminds me of how a cat looks at a fish in a fish tank. They growl louder sounding angry.

  I feel a hand on my shoulder which makes me jump. I turn around to see Nya standing behind me. “Sorry, I can’t sleep.”

  “Me either.”

  She sits next to me cross-legged. “Why are you sitting here?” she asks.

  “I’m observing them.”

  She looks at me. “Why?”

  I shrug. “I want to know how they think, why they do what they do. I’m interested. Maybe I think if I stay here they will just talk to me like a normal person. I don’t know. I…,” I trail off.

  “I want to figure them out too. This morning when Dave picked me up I was scared. We drove to the restaurant to check on our boss. She was there getting eaten by a zombie, there was barely anything left of her.” She has tears welling up in her eyes. “I ran screaming to the car. Dave drove through the city. People were dying at every turn.”

  “What was your life like before this?” I ask changing the subject. I can’t hear the stories any longer.

  She tells me she met Dave in Junior High School during a fight. She saved him from two kids beating the crap out of him. He was getting beat and she saw it so she beat the bullies up. Afterwards Dave asked her to teach him to fight. She taught him moves and the bullies went after Dave again because he let a girl fight for him. He beat them up and they never picked on him again, no one did. She tells me Dave prefers to tell the story the other way around.

  She tells me about her coworkers, her family, all different stuff. I’m glad to be talking with her. She seems like a cool person. She is smart and funny. She keeps the conversation on happy topics. I tune out the zombie noise even though it’s really loud now.

  For some reason, we’re on the topic of pets when the lights flicker. Alex runs up to us.

  “Did you see that?” he asks.

  I nod. The lights flicker again, worse than the first time. I look at the glass door and one of the zombies has cracked the glass. The one crack starts growing into several different cracks going in different directions. The zombie bangs on the spot one more time. Glass shatters and the zombie stumbles inside.

  “Son of a bitch!” Alex screams.

  There is no time to move. Nya and Alex run. The zombie trips over the door and lands on top of me. I scream. The lights go out leaving me in total darkness. I
scream hoping someone will hear me. The zombie pulls on my clothes trying to bite me. I punch him hard with both fists rapidly. Once one fist connects with him I punch him with my other fist. I feel something wet drip on my nose. I realize it’s blood dripping from the zombie’s mouth. I scream “Help!” dragging out the word. I want this thing off me now. I see a flashlight shine on the zombie’s head. Xavier hits the zombie over the head with it. The light looks like a strobe light against the wall each time he hits the zombie in the head. On the fourth hit the zombie is down. I push his dead again body off me. Blood is on my face. I wipe it off with my sleeve smearing it on my face.

  The zombies stumble through the shattered glass doors. Xavier grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet. He drags me with him while he’s running. “Where are we going?” I ask.

  “On top of the freezers.”

  I leave it at that. We go down the freezer aisle. He shines the light on the top of the freezers. I see our group. Sarah is holding a flash light shining it down the aisle. Dave holds his hand out. I jump and grab it, he pulls me up. I stand up. Xavier gives him the flashlight which he hands to me. I shine it on the both of them. Dave pulls him up.

  The zombies are in the freezer aisle as soon as Xavier is up here. They are growling and reaching up to grab us. There is a crowd of twenty of them. That’s more than our small numbers can handle. In other words, we are screwed.

  I was wrong, I shouldn’t have sat by the door. I tempted them to get in here. This is my fault. I couldn’t sleep thinking of the monsters now I won’t be able to sleep with them being in front of me. That was stupid.

  “The gun section is far; I’ll go get some guns. We can shoot our way out,” Dave says breathless.

  Nya leans over the edge to peek at the zombies and steps back quickly. “You can’t. I’ll go. I was sitting there I’ll go.”

  They start arguing on who should go. It’s my fault. They saw me. I should at least do something. I walk to the edge of the freezer. The kids have jumped in now adding comments about who’s faster. I grab Xavier’s flashlight and run. I sit on the edge and jump off. I land on my feet at first but lose my balance and fall on my left side. The flash light still in my hand. I hear Xavier screaming something and everyone jumps in. I take off running.