We Are The Survivors

by Vanessa Marie

  He saved me a few times, he came back for me. He could be in trouble with something, which would be better than being dead. It could be zombies, maybe people. I hope, I do, that Kay is fine. I couldn’t deal with another person dying. We need Dave too. We need a ride to Las Vegas and we need to get Gavin there.

  I scan the parking lot not seeing any movement. I see a few zombies stumble from the street. I tell May where they are. She tells me that she doesn’t have that many bullets. I tell her maybe leaving the zombies is a good idea. They could be our clean-up-crew, they could kill the men for us. I hear someone scream and see a man being torn apart by zombie.

  The men ignore him completely focusing on us. They shoot the sign by mistake trying to hit us. I shoot the car they picked for cover and I shoot the hood. The car alarm sounds. It attracts the zombies to them. The men climb on the car. We use the opportunity to shoot the guys. We shoot five of them. Their bodies drop to become food for the zombies. They rip the men apart while they scream from the pain of it all. I don’t want to watch them do it but I do because I must make sure they are dead.

  A car pulls into the parking lot. The type of car it is isn’t clear in the darkness. The headlights shine on the zombies eating the men we shot. I can hear the slurping of organs and the snapping of bones from here.

  The car drives to the back. I follow it. I aim my gun at the driver. The man gets out.

  “Where are you guys?” he yells. It’s Dave’s voice.

  I wave to him. He waves and climbs the ladder. “Kay?” I ask.

  “She’s fine. She lost a lot of blood but it’s not that serious.”

  “My cousin was shot. You need to take him to Sierra,” I say.

  “I took her with me. Kay is pretty stable and Oliver and Melissa can handle it,” he says.

  “Okay.”

  Sierra climbs onto the roof with a duffle bag on her shoulder. She sets it by Gavin. She grabs a suture kit. She rips the napkin and sleeve off his arm. She pours hydrogen peroxide on his wound. She starts stitching.

  Dave opens the bag to reveal guns and boxes of ammo. He loads a silenced sniper rifle. He stays at the front with us. He hands a few of us night vision goggles. We don’t care to ask where he got them. I put mine on and start scanning the parking lot.

  A small group of guys is behind one car. There is another group behind a car on the other side of the parking lot. I spot another. I see one guy from this group holding something green. “Grenade!” I say.

  “They can’t throw it all the way here,” May says.

  The grenade lands in between us. Dave throws it to the car. It bounces off the hood rolling to the guys. They run trying to escape it. The car explodes taking a man with it. The others are running to the gas station. May sits on the right side of the roof.

  The rest of the car is on fire, shrapnel rains down.

  “Shit! They are on the roof,” she says.

  I grab a sniper rifle from the duffle bag. I load it. I aim at the roof using the scope. The men hide behind the air conditioning unit that is there. I kill one guy that leans too far away from the unit. Blood gets on the side of the air conditioner.

  May gets a guy in the leg. He topples over the side of the roof. Zombies stumble up to him to eat him.

  I kill one of them with a headshot. They all look the same with those leather jackets on. All part of a pack.

  A well-armed pack. Are they preparing for another World War? They have well over fifty guns. Maybe we should go to where they were. That weaponry and ammunition would be wonderful. We will let the girls go too.

  One guy shoots the roof a little too close to May. She jumps from the sound of it hitting the roof. I kill that guy with a headshot.

  The last one throws another grenade. It hits the wall. It blows up on the ground, shaking the building.

  Sarah helps us with her own sniper. Gavin is groaning while Sierra is stitching his arm.

  The guy is a real pain. He is hiding. I shoot twice to startle him. He stays put.

  He slides his gun across the roof with his foot. He walks in our view slowly with his hands up in surrender. We are still aiming at him. He grabs a handgun from his waistband and aims. I shoot him in the neck. He holds his neck while falling.

  “Are they all gone?” Gavin asks.

  “Maybe,” I answer.

  A grenade hits the wall I’m facing. It rolls down the wall to the ground. It shatters the window below. My ears ring because of the sound. I search everywhere. There is no one in sight. I see three people come out of the gas station doors carrying gas cans. They splash gas on the side of the building we are on. I shoot one of the guys. The other two move fast splashing gasoline on the walls so quickly they get it on themselves. I kill one of the guys. May runs to the other side where the guy moved. I move with her. He finishes the side almost to the ladder. May shoots him in the leg. He pulls a lighter from his pocket and drops it. The lighter lights up the trail of gasoline around the building with flames.

  Sierra, Craven, Sketchy, Drew, and Nya are already down the ladder. I throw my gun on the ground. I climb halfway down then jump, I land on my back. It only hurts me a little. I pick up my gun. Sarah gets my cousin in the flatbed. Sierra, Nya, Drew, Jimmy, Craven and May sit in the car. I sit in the flatbed of the car.

  I forgot someone. “Wait I have to see something,” I yell to May.

  I kick the back-door in. I open the freezer door. Nothing is inside. Blake is gone. He escaped while we were shooting. I bang my fist on the counter.

  The building starts to go up in flames. The front doors are completely engulfed. I run outside and jump in the flatbed. “He’s gone,” I say.

  “What now?” she asks.

  “I’ll show you where the girls are,” I say.

  She starts driving. I tell her to turn where I shot the girl at the gas station. She drives.

  I don’t think that we shot all the guys. That didn’t seem like fifty people like Gavin said he saw. Thirty give or take at the most. That’s how they know when to attack and what to do. Blake is behind it like always. I promised I would kill him; I intend to keep that promise.

  A car catches up to us. They are Thrill Killers. I grab the bag of guns in the flatbed. I reload my sniper. I aim at the driver. I shoot the driver. The car swerves left to right then stops in the middle of the road. The guys get out. I shoot all of them one by one.

  None of them are Blake. Where the hell is he?

  We turn down the road where I shot that girl. We drive at a hundred miles per hour. I give May directions through the window in the cab of the truck. I tell her the description of the house. My heart nearly stops when she pulls to the door. I swallow and take a deep breath. Are they still here?

  I run in the house. The living room is empty except for the dead bodies on the floor. I cover my nose so I don’t breathe in the smell of death. “Alyssa! Amber! Pam!” I call. There isn’t a response. I check the rooms. They aren’t here. I told them to leave if I didn’t come back. I regret that now.

  Nya walks in the house. I go up to her. “We have to find them. They aren’t here. I told them if I wasn’t back in a certain amount of time to come find me. They’re out there alone I need to find them.” I start crying.

  She hugs me. “We will find them.”

  “They’re my friends I can’t leave here without them.”

  She hugs me tighter. “It’s dark, too dark too see much. We should get rest, in the morning we can search,” she says.

  “No, Pam was shot I need to find her,” I say.

  She pulls back from my embrace. “Rain, I’m sorry to say but she could already be dead. It’s been several long hours. There is no way that she made it.”

  I wipe at my tears. “I promised them…”

  She off to the left just staring into space. She is trying not to cry. She sniffs trying to hold back her tears. I’ve never seen her cry this whole time. So many horrible things happened and she never cried.

  Did she even have a
nyone to cry for? Did she have family or was Dave the extent of it?

  “Promises don’t work out sometimes.” She wipes at her eye to cover the fact that she is crying.

  I thought this whole time that Nya was tougher than that. The kind of person who doesn’t show emotion when she needs to express it. The kind of person you want to unravel because she never speaks about her feelings. I was wrong.

  I just stand there. There is an awkward silence for a few minutes.

  “What was your promise?” I ask.

  She doesn’t meet my eyes. “It’s not that I…just can’t do this. There is a little girl out there. Alex is dead, Oakland is too.”

  “What?” I ask.

  She looks at me. “Damn, no one told you. He was going to commit suicide but he got killed by some crazy guy that we let in.”

  I can’t believe it at first. None of us knew him that well. I didn’t even know his last name. If it was before the dead, I wouldn’t have understood why he wanted to do it. Now I get it. I wouldn’t do that to myself but I understand him doing it.

  If he hit his breaking point this soon it makes me wonder, when will we? When do we give up? When do we give up hope?

  Dave and Xavier suggested going to a grocery store. They suggested going to the one where they met a guy named Earl the Magician. They told me he died. His assistant stayed there when Xavier asked her to go with them.

  Xavier knocked on the door. A girl answered it. She was wearing a grey hoodie with jeans. She opened the door and let us in. The whole place was lit up. They must have generators.

  I left my night vision goggles in the car fortunately. Otherwise the light would have blinded me.

  We laid sleeping bags on the floor in an aisle.

  It reminds me of the first day of the apocalypse. That day we were stuck in the store. The world falling apart around us. It was scary, not as scary as today.

  May sits by my sleeping bag. She holds my hand. “Feeling okay?” she asks.

  “I’m okay.”

  She smiles. I hug her. I see Xavier talking to Carrie. She lets go of me. “Mom…” I start.

  “I know. I don’t want to talk about it. I have to leave. I have to make sure Kevin is okay,” she says.

  I didn’t even think to ask about Kevin, I was so caught up in everything. It’s a miracle they’re both alive and that they are here. My cousin and I can’t make it without them.

  “I’m not leaving you. I will bring Kevin back here,” she says.

  “No. Going back and forth is ridiculous. Draw us a map of where it is or tell us. We get the girls and we come to you,” I say.

  “What do I tell Alyssa’s brother?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “Nothing. We don’t know if they’re alive anymore.”

  She gets up and walks to Xavier and Dave. They ask Carrie if she has a car. She says it is in the parking lot. May leaves waving goodbye before closing the door.

  Xavier sits by me. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you. We are all happy. Everybody stuck together to get you back.”

  “I’m happy to see everyone too,” I say.

  He holds my hand. He brushes a lock of hair from my face. He stares at the floor. I know he wants to ask me a question. Maybe he wants to tell me something.

  “What happened when you were in there? What did they do?” he asks.

  “They hit me. Scared me a lot, that’s it. They only kill people,” I say.

  “I’m sorry,” he says.

  I don’t say anything. We lie down together. Sarah and Gavin sit in the sleeping bag across from us. Sarah puts her head on his shoulder. They make a good couple.

  He gives us a look. “Mom is gone. I’m in charge now. Too close love birds.”

  Xavier sits next to me.

  “Speak for yourself,” I tease while sitting up.

  “Hey, I’m almost eighteen, so is Sarah,” he says.

  “Almost,” I point out.

  He rolls his eyes. “I get lectured now? I already got shot, how much more do I need to be punished?” he asks.

  Sarah pushes him jokingly. “Stop fighting. Let’s sleep.”

  Carrie announces that her and Dave will guard the store. The four of us settle into our sleeping bags. Rest doesn’t come at all for me. I stare at the ceiling. Why am I not asleep? I should be exhausted from the shooting I did today.

  Thinking of shooting, hopefully my aunt left us guns. I spot them in a bag at the door. Carrie comes over to me.

  “Sleep. I’m guarding,” she says.

  “I can’t. It must be the adrenaline,” I say.

  She doesn’t respond.

  I shrug. “I could drink twenty energy drinks and wait until I crash from a sugar high.”

  She laughs. “Or you have a heart attack. Think of nothing and relax.”

  I joke with her. “Don’t you think I tried that? This is going to sound weird but do you know how to hypnotize people?”

  She laughs. “You’re hilarious,” she says.

  “You don’t mean it,” I say.

  “I’m delirious too,” she says.

  Gavin moans. “I’m trying to sleep shut up.”

  We stop talking. She stands by the door with Dave. I sleep on my side. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the sleeping bag,” I say.

  I close my eyes. I focus on my breathing to fall asleep. I pray that life will be like this always. Joking with my family and friends. Life can be that. In my darkest moments, I found Xavier and with him love. May and Kevin made it here. May isn’t sick anymore. From bad events came miracles.

  Life is not lost. The world isn’t lost. Civilization is. When the world ceases that doesn’t mean life has to. I’ve been through some bad stuff; I came out fine.

  What I’m getting at is the world isn’t against me. There is more than fear and pain. You climb to the top of the hill of death and fear to be happy. I will always miss my parents. I can’t change their destiny; I can change mine. I’m alive to be someone.

  I was a shy, peaceful girl before the apocalypse. I changed a lot. I like who I am now. The bravery and confidence part. I don’t like killing people. I can’t leave Blake alive though.

  He will come for us. He will send people to us. I don’t have a choice. He will find me. He always has. He must be killed.

  “Rain! Get up!” Nya screams.

  I sit up. There is a group of zombies at the doors. A huge crowd of them. They bang on the doors. Some of them have blood covered hands that are making bloody handprints on the glass. Carrie, Dave and Nya have their backs against the door. Everyone else is standing around in the middle of the store asking what to do.

  I grab my rifle that was set next to my sleeping bag last night. “What are you doing? Do something!” I yell.

  “What do you expect us to do?” Carrie asks.

  “On the shelves everybody,” I say.

  Everyone, except for the three holding the doors, get on the shelves.

  “On three let go,” Dave says. “One…two…three.”

  They let go of the doors. Carrie turns to the crowd shooting a shotgun. We run to the candy aisle where we slept. Sarah pulls Dave up on the shelf and he pulls Nya up. Carrie gets to the candy aisle. Dave grabs her hand; he pulls her up, her stomach is on the edge of the shelf. A zombie grabs her foot. Dave pulls her up more. She kicks at the zombie’s hand. It won’t let go. I aim at it with my rifle. It bites her ankle making her scream in pain. I shoot it. Dave pulls her all the way on the shelf.

  Carrie pulls her pant leg up to reveal a bloody bite. She grabs a pocket knife from her pocket. She goes to stab herself in the head. Dave grabs her hand before she thrusts it into her head.

  “We have a cure for bites. Sierra will drive you to our house where we have it,” he says.

  “If the virus doesn’t get into my system before then?” she asks.

  He nods. “Yeah.”

  She stands. “The roof is our best bet. Thank God they can’t climb.”

 
She points to the ladder at the end of the last aisle. It leads directly to the roof. We are going to have to jump one shelf to the last. Nya jumps landing on the next shelf with her knees. The spaces between the shelves are narrow enough to jump across.

  Nya puts her gun on the shelf. She holds her hands out. “Jump I’ll catch you.”

  I jump first. I miss the shelf and she grabs my hands. She pulls me up. The guys jump with little effort. Carrie and Sarah jump while holding hands. The shelf shakes making me nervous. The rest jump leaving Sierra.

  The zombies have noticed what we are doing. They walk to the shelf where Sierra is and try to grab her. She throws the bag of guns over first. Jimmy catches it. She jumps and lands on all fours. The shelf slants forward. Jimmy slams his foot on the other side to keep her from falling. She stands up.

  We get to the ladder. Carrie climbs first. When we get to the roof she tells us that there is another ladder leading down the building. We climb down that one.

  Carrie leads us to her car which is a red SUV. We pile in the car. She speeds away from the parking lot.

  “We need a place to go,” Dave says.

  She drives to a house without telling us where we are going. She pulls up to it. She tells us that it was her house, her and Earl took the store for its food when this began. There is a white pickup truck in the driveway.

  The house is new. It has a brick wall built around it with a fence. She opens the gate. She drives in and parks.

  Carrie turns her head toward the back seat. “Who is driving me there?” she asks.

  “I will,” Dave says.

  Sierra leans in the front from the middle seat. “The cure is labeled Cure on the table in the dining room, BTW.”

  Carrie gives us the key to the house. She takes a key from her pocket. She tells us that the truck was Earl’s. She gets in the car with Dave.

  The group goes inside the house, before I do I wave to Dave. He waves back. Carrie’s expression is a combination of scared with sorrow. She doesn’t think she is going to live.

  We all probably think that.

  I’m thinking what will happen tomorrow? Will I find my friends? Is my aunt going to come back?