Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  Ultimately, everyone agreed that if there was ever a zombie apocalypse then we would meet up here at work. We agreed that there wouldn’t be a leader, but it that didn't mean that we wouldn’t have any leadership. It was decided that the Council members would make all of the decisions. Originally there were eleven people who were considered the Council.

  They consisted of: 1) Ronald "Ruff" Ruff. Ruff is a 6’ 250+lbs African-American ex- NCAA football defensive lineman. He didn’t go pro because they informed him that he wasn’t big enough (you wouldn't think he was small standing next to him). He’s also an ex-machinist who is very good with his hands. That being said he was always the first to volunteer for supply runs. He feels responsible whenever he’s not on a supply run and we end up loosing someone. His original weapon of choice was a machete. 2) Danny Turner. Danny is a 5’8” 170lbs Caucasian gun enthusiast and even though he’s not as big as some of the rest of us, he more than make up for it with his extensive knowledge of guns. He was a strong supporter of the N.R.A. before the zombie apocalypse and come to think of it he's even more so now. His gun of choice is a sniper rifle. 3) Arthur "Artie" Wathan. Artie is a 5’9” 190lbs Caucasian who is ex-military. He’s very knowledgeable about the world and our government. He was one of our medical responders at work. We knew that his skills would come in handy. 4) John Lutz. John is a 6’ 250+lbs Caucasian who is very knowledgeable in a variety of things, especially when it came to zombies. We had long discussions about zombies over the years and the thing about John was that no matter what, he claimed that he was always right about them. We didn’t know it, but his theories were going to be put to the test. John also happens to be my younger cousin. 5) Cleo Pleasant. Cleo is a 6’ 235+ lbs African-American reliable survivor. What I mean by him being a "reliable survivor" is that he would do whatever was necessary in order to survive. After all, that is what a survivor is. Someone who would do anything to survive, including killing someone. Before I loose my train of thought I also want to mention that Cleo was the jokester in our group. 6) Kenneth "Ken" Kane. Ken is 5’10” 230lbs African-American ex-gang member. Ken grew up in the streets of Kansas and had to learn to adapt in order to survive. If it wasn’t for his oldest daughter making the same stupid mistakes that he was doing at her age then he might still be there. He noticed that she was beginning to follow in his footsteps and decided that he needed to change his old lifestyle for her. 7) James Davis. James is a 6’ 235+ lbs Native-American who is ex-military. James is another one who was trained to adapt to his environment in order to survive. He’ll do whatever needs to be done to make sure that his family and friends are safe. 8) Brian Hall. Brian is a 5’10” 170lbs African-American knowledgeable survivor. Brian is another one that would do whatever he had to do to make sure that he and his family survived. Brian was born and raised in Texas. That being said he was trained as a young man to track and hunt. We knew that it would be a very handy set of skills if we ever needed to hunt down food or an enemy. 9) Kevin Brady. Kevin is a 5’8” 170lbs Caucasian survivor. Coming from a family of Doomsday Preppers, Kevin was "born" to survive. Kevin made sure that we knew that he would do anything to survive. Little did we know that he would put that claim to the test! 10) Bruce Shoemaker. Bruce is a 6’3” 250+lbs Native-American survivalists. Bruce also came from a family of Doomsday Preppers. He spent years preparing his family to survive whatever doomsday might come. Bruce and Kevin grew up together and are best friends. Hell, they were practically family. 11) As for me. I'm the last member of the council. I’m a 6’ 230lbs Caucasian knowledgeable survivor. I went to college for architecture and therefore I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to buildings and their layouts. That was one of the reasons we decided to make the Warehouse our place of refuge. I also considered myself just as knowledgeable about zombies as my cousin, but I realized that some of the facts I was right about while others I was wrong. Even though I’m not the leader of our little group my main concern was for all of my family and friends to be safe.

  That was our Council members in a nutshell. Please be honest. After all that I just told you, would you consider messing with us? I don't think that many people would, especially in those early months that followed the outbreak. Actually, I take that statement back because a group of people did mess with us and they were led by two of our own.

  I’m not entirely sure what happened to Kevin and Bruce, but when we had all left that day from work to go collect our families, they were the only ones who didn't return. When they finally did return around six months later with another group of people they seemed different, they were cold. Okay, I'll be honest with you. They were acting like stone cold killers.

  Let me stop right there and before I go any further I promised you a tale, a tale that I’m going to deliver. Let me see. Where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about how close our Council members were.

  For over two years we spent the first weekend a month together as we trained ourselves and our families in the different type of skills that we thought that we would need for the "End of Times." An example was that we would all go to the gun range and would practice shooting different types of guns that would vary from 9mm hand guns to semi-automatic machine guns. Every six months we would take a break and go camping for a week out in no man’s land just to make sure that we could survive in the wilderness if we had to. We also learned how to use bow and arrows and the silent but deadly crossbows. We then learned how to track and hunt. Impressed yet? No? Well, you should be. Oh and by the way I’m not going to even mention some of our other skills we learned. Just in case we need to use those skills against someone like you. Sorry, but it's nothing personal.

  Going back to what I was just talking about we became closer as a tight knit group, closer as a family and people around work began to notice. You could even say that some people were starting to become envious or suspicious of us, but we didn’t care. We were making sure that we were going to survive the coming apocalypse, no matter what. Again before you ask, we were positively sure that it was coming. We just didn't know when or what the "End of Times" would bring. One thing that we knew for sure was that it was just a matter of time.

  Not only were our immediate families being prepared, but I had been secretly training my sister (Christina Bird), her three kids (Shane Jr., Seth, and Shaelynn Aaron), my mom (Nancy Bozarth), my sister’s fiance (Bobby Reed), and my adopted brother (Jesse Bozarth). Again, I want to illustrate that we prepared for two long years and spent the first weekend of every month together to make sure that we were prepared to survive. What we didn’t take into consideration were the actions of other people. The people we came across either wanted to join us or take what we had. It just goes to show that you can’t trust people. Wow, without even thinking about it I'm getting ahead of myself again. I promise that I'll explain it all in due time.

  2 DAY 1, “Z” DAY

  It started off as any other hot day in early summer. The sun was out and the heat was quickly rising. I was at work in the middle of a twelve hour shift when I received an urgent text from my wife.

  She stated that on the news they were reporting that some people on the East Coast were attacking and biting each other. I jokingly responded with “What? Like a zombie?” She responded simply "Yes."

  She told me that I needed to go look at the news in order to see for myself. I looked up from my cell phone towards James. He worked next to me, he was literally within arms from me. Our desks were separated by no more then an inch. Wide eyed, I informed James that my wife had just text me that zombies were attacking the East Coast. He looked over at me with a stunned look in his eyes as he told me that one of his sons just text him the same thing. Without saying a word, we shared one of those looks. You know the type, it was one that said we were both thinking the same thing. The look that said that maybe this was it, the beginning of the apocalypse that we had been preparing for.

  Before we knew it, word of what had been happening on the East Coast had already spread quickly throughout th
e Warehouse. On our next break we meet with the other Council members to discuss our next move. After a few minutes of discussion, it was decided that we would wait to see how the conflict played out. We knew that there was no use of getting over excited about it just yet, especially since we didn't know what was truly happening. Besides it was reported that the military had already been called in to deal with the mess.

  By the time I got home from work that evening, the news had reported that the military had everything under control. It seemed that the Council had made the correct call on its decision to wait and see. I'm going to admit something to you, something that I'm not very proud of. I kind of secretly wanted the Zombie Apocalypse to happen. No, it's not like that. I want it known that I didn't crave for all the deaths or for the fall of our society. I was just curious to see if all of our training was going to pay off.

  The more I thought about the situation on the East Coast the more I didn't like the idea of what was happening. I began to have an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach about the whole damn thing.

  I watched nervously as my family sat down at our dinner table to eat. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was happening on the East Coast wasn’t over just yet. I knew that if I showed my concern then it could affect the rest of my family. I put on my happy face as I sat down with my beautiful wife and four young children for dinner.

  My wife Nichole is a 5’1” brunette and my children in order from oldest to youngest. Jimmy Jr was 6, Josephene (JoJo for short) was 5, and my paternal twins Cole and Corbin were 3 (Cole was eight minutes older then Corbin). Just like every evening we would sit down to eat dinner and talk about the day’s events, whether it was school or work. After dinner we did our normal routine and sat down to watch a movie.

  The next morning when I got up I didn’t even think to check the news for any updates. I did my usual morning routine. I got up, got dressed, and went immediately to work.

  Once at work, the only topic anyone seemed to talk about was the conflict and how it had somehow re-kindled up in the middle of the night. All I kept thinking was what did I miss not watching the news that morning. Even though it was concerning, we continued to go about our normal business day until the upper management (plant manager, head supervisors, HR department, and the head of our safety department) called an emergency meeting in the cafeteria right before lunch. The lunch room was also our meeting room.

  The lunch room itself had been remodeled close to five years before the office area had. To accommodate the ever growing number of employees, the company wanted to make sure that it not only made the cafeteria bigger, but they upgraded everything as well. They wanted to put in a full functional working hot bar, but they couldn't because it would have taken way too much money just to bring it up to code in order to pass inspection. Not only that, but it would have taken space away from the cafeteria size and that was something they could not do. Hell, they had to take space from another area just to add more square footage. As for the remodel itself, they went with 2 double wide deep refrigerators and added an oven plus a dozen commercial grade microwaves. A soda pop fountain was installed, but it could only be turned on and off by a maintenance key. That's not even including the different types of vending machines that were brought in. I want to mention that it also had two wall mounted flat-screens with cable television so people could watch TV during their breaks.

  The management knew that everyone's minds were preoccupied with everything that was going on and it wasn't on work. To put everyone's mind at ease, they wanted us to know what the news had reported and that there was really nothing to worry about. The military was in the process of getting everything back under control. I had to give them credit it sounded like they were trying to pass on the information that they had heard from the news.

  While in the meeting, several cell phones began going off at once. They were giving the alert notification that's programmed in every cell phone, including mine. Before long everyone's phones began chiming the alarm. The alert stated that the little "conflict" had crossed the Mississippi River and was heading our way.

  A panic began to echo throughout the room. Management quickly tried to calm everyone down by reminding us that the military was in the process of getting things under control. They continued to push for everyone to remain calm. That was until one of the HR personnel came out of nowhere and quickly walked up to the plant manager. He stopped talking and bent down so she could whisper something into his ear.

  His eyes got wide as he stood up straight and motioned for the other management toward him. We watched in silenced as they huddled around the plant manager. After a few minutes they spread back out against the wall. After a few long seconds, the plant manager told us that there was a change of plans. He didn't want us to panic, but the corporate offices located in Houston decided that they were going to send us home as a precautionary measure due to the "conflict." They were closing the plant until further notice.

  We all sat there dumbfounded. What did that mean? Before anyone could ask any questions he spoke up saying that it was also decided that they were going to send us home early. He added that they would still pay us for the whole day, but they would let us know when we would be able to return.

  I in particular seemed to have zoned out at the mention of the word "conflict." Weren't we just told that it was supposed to have been under control? Who were they kidding? I wasn't sure what the management had just heard, but it couldn't have been good.

  Without warning both of the televisions came on. I guess someone had decided to turn on the TVs to see what exactly was going on. We all watched in stunned silence as it looked like they were both set on the same local news channel. The angle looked like it was from a news helicopter.

  It was a good thing that the TVs were turned on because the "conflict" seemed to have escalated into an all-out war, with only one side actually using weapons. From what we could tell it looked like the weapons weren't really having any effect anyway. Scratch that, it did look like they had some kind of effect, but not the kind it should of been.

  We could see open flesh wounds and blood mist squirting out in all directions. We could even make out what looked like some kind of knives sticking out of some of the weaponless bodies, but they just kept marching forward. It did look as if the weaponless people were grabbing and biting those people with weapons.

  The news anchors tried to reassure us that there was nothing to worry about because the military were working on getting things back under control. Just then we could see a few members of the military start shooting wildly into the crowd that was slowly moving towards them. The news pointed out that it looked like the military was starting to finally get the upper hand against these rioters. Rioters? Is that what they were blaming this on?

  We could see a few of the weaponless people in front of the crowd go down from being shot, but most just kept walking towards the shooting. There was no panic or emotion from the weaponless people. I turned toward the guy sitting next to me and commented that it looked like the weaponless army's numbers were getting bigger.

  The timing couldn't have been any better as the helicopter's camera zoomed out. The sheer number of the weaponless was mesmerizing and did appear to be growing in number. I tried to soak up all the details of the news report that I could.

  First, I notice that their was no organization or leadership for the weaponless. It appeared that they just continued to walk toward anything that opposed them and attacked them with their mouths, sometimes more then one person. The next thing I noticed was that most appeared to walk with limps, it was as if they were learning to walk for the first time. To make matters worse the ones doing the biting was acting like they were eating at a smorgasbord as they dropped to their knees and just tore into the person. I couldn't believe that the news was actually showing all that detail because it was really nasty. I couldn't look away.

  Wait! What was that? Did I just see that? Was that my i
magination or did I just see something? When I turned my attention to that particular area on the TV I didn't really see anything out of the ordinary. Have you ever experienced something like that? It's as if you think you see something out of the corner of your eye and immediately turn your attention in that direction to verify that you actually saw something. I had been so focused on all of the action that I thought I saw something different. I know what you're thinking. Isn't it all different?

  After a few seconds of watching the area on the television, but I didn't notice anything of great importance. Maybe it had been my imagination. My eyes began to wonder back to where the action was.

  No, wait! There it was again. This time I was sure I saw something. My eyes darted back to that location on the television. Apparently, the cameraman saw it too because the camera turned slightly away from all of the main action to focus on the area I had just been watching. You could hear the news anchors getting irritated at the guy controlling the helicopter's camera. They wanted him to turn back to the main action, but the camera never moved. That was when we all saw it.

  One of the motionless "dead" bodies started to move. From the camera angle it looked like one of the soldiers that had fallen while fighting the weaponless. The camera was at his back as the soldier slowly stood up on unsteady feet. As the helicopter slowly rotated, we could see that his right arm had a nice chunk of meat missing from the elbow to his wrist. As the helicopter slowly made its way to the front of the soldier, we could see what looked like his guts and intestines hanging out through his ripped shirt. The camera zoomed in a little closer to the soldier's upper body and things got really crazy. Half of the left side of his face was missing. You could easily see his bloody exposed teeth.