Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  Thinking of his daughter's fiance caused James to looked up and realized for the first time that he was gone. James quickly looked around hoping that he hadn't somehow snuck up on him, but he hadn't. Instead he must have heard the baby cry because he was back at the front door pounding on it. James realized that his grandchild had just inadvertently saved his life.

  James knew that he had to do something to save his grandchild, but was weaponless. While looking around for something that he could use as a weapon, he noticed a yield sign that was halfway sticking out of the ground.

  With his thoughts on his daughter and grandchild, James quickly stood up. He then turned and raced toward the sign. Once he was able to grab it by two hands he began pushing it back and forth to see how sturdy it was in the ground. When it moved relatively easy he realized that it was actually loose in the ground. He started to wiggle it as fast as he could while trying to pull it up.

  While working tirelessly on their only chance for survival, he noticed movement out the corners of he eyes. As he continued to work the sign back and forth, he took the opportunity to look around him. The first thing he noticed was that more zombies were making their way around the corners of the buildings. Once he counted more then a dozen zombies coming toward him, James knew that his time was running out and doubled his effort on the sign.

  James had successfully pulled the sign out of the ground just as the first zombie got within ten feet of him. He held the sign out between him and the zombie hoping that it would make the zombie think twice before attacking. It did little to deter the zombie and we eventually found out why (in the early days we didn't know that zombies were mindless brutes whose only need is to feed on fresh flesh). Back to James' story.

  He couldn’t hold back his fears any longer as he swung the pole as hard as he could at the closest zombie's forehead. He watched as the sign sunk deep into the zombie’s head. He closed his eyes for a moment of silence in prayer for the man that he had just killed. Even though James was an ex-military man and was trained to kill, I think that he had lost a piece of his humanity that day (it's hard to tell because it's not something he wanted to talked about).

  He heard the baby cry again, which caused him to quickly open his eyes. To his surprise another zombie was almost on top of him. He immediately regained his composure as he pulled the sign out of the first zombie's head. Hearing his grandchild's scream and seeing all the zombies coming towards him caused a bloodlust of hatred to come over him (like I said before it's not something that he wanted to talk about). His military training kicked in as he swung as hard as he could towards the next zombie. The sign connected with the side of the zombies' head at the same time he reached out for James. Without pausing to pray for the zombies soul he immediately went to the next closest zombie (if my memory served me correct, he said it went like that until he was done with the zombies).

  When he finished taking out the zombies, he stood over their bodies with the sign in his hands. He was breathing heavy, his adrenaline was pumping as he silently uurged more zombies to come challenge him. It wasn't until he heard his grandchild's cry that his bloodlust began to subside.

  James blinked and began to look around. He realized that he was standing in the center of downed zombie bodies. He took another deep breath to make sure that he was in control again (he mentioned that while in the Army he had heard stories where people would actually blackout during war time). Once he was sure that he was once again in control of himself, he lowered the sign. James blinked as he looked around at all the devastation that was lying around him one more time. James shamefully told us that he had never experienced anything like that before (he had prided himself for always being in control).

  James looked around to see if there were anymore zombies coming toward him. He noted that the only zombie left was his ex-future son-n-law and his attention was still focused on the front door.

  James took a steep forward when he noticed someone walking right next to him. It must have been another zombie that he didn't see the first time. James stopped and turned to head in that direction. That was when he realized that he had made a mistake. What he had seen was a reflection in a car window, his reflection. He hardly recognized himself. He was covered head to toe in what looked like zombie blood and guts.

  He took a deep breath to calm himself. He looked down at his shirt, searching for a clean spot so he could wipe his face. James didn't want to freak out his daughter, besides he wanted to make sure that he wouldn't get infected. He knew that all it took was for the infection to get into his blood stream and it was over for him. It didn't matter how the infection got there whether it was from an open cut, your eyes, or even your mouth.

  When he was satisfied that he had found a clean enough spot, he took off his shirt and rolled it into a ball. He then carefully dabbed the blood off so that he wouldn’t accidentally get it in his mouth or eyes. When he was done cleaning his face he realized that his hands were shaking.

  James clinched his hands into fists as he forced himself to calm down once again. He even did the count to ten thing until he was satisfied that he was calm. He wanted to make sure that everything was fine before he allowed himself to even walk towards his daughter’s apartment.

  His first steps felt like he had weights in his shoes. He even stated that if it wasn’t for his daughter and grandchild, he wasn’t sure if he would have even been able to move at all. His mind drifted towards his grandchild and what he would be like. Before he knew it, his steps became easier and easier. In fact, he found himself running full sprint towards his daughter’s apartment. The sign in his right hand.

  He was fully aware that hadn't pushed himself that hard in a long time as he continued to run towards the apartment. His knees began to hurt from old injuries, but he continued to run on. It seemed that the closer he got to his goal the harder it was to get there. He ended up going from a dead sprint to running with a severe limp.

  There was a silver lining though, he remain undetected. He decided to take full advantage of that fact by surprising the ex-fiance zombie as it banged on the apartment door. When he got within a few feet he grunted in pain as he turned his body in an attempt to swing the sign as hard as he could.

  The zombie must have heard James' grunt from pain because it stopped banging on the door and started to turn. James didn't give the zombie a chance to complete its turn as the sign sliced its head in half. More accurately between its left jaw bone to the right temple. The top of the head followed the momentum of the sign and hit the apartment door as blood sprayed from the head. The body crumpled to the ground right in front of the door.

  James stepped over the collapsed body and reached for the doorknob. Without even thinking about it he tried to turn the knob. It wouldn't turn. He smiled. It was locked which meant that his daughter was definitely in there. He reached out his hand to knock on the door when he realized that he didn't hear any crying. He instantly became frantic and began pounding on the door as he called out his daughter’s name.

  After what seemed like an eternity, she slowly opened the door. Being a smart girl she made sure that she kept the safety latch secure just in case for her and her new baby’s safety. James noticed how pale she looked and immediately asked her if she was alright. Without waiting for her to reply he stated that he had heard something that sounded like a baby crying.

  Without responding, she shut the door. His heart and jaw dropped at the thought of his daughter shutting him out. He reached out to start knocking on the door again when he heard something that sounded like the safety latch being moved.

  His daughter slowly opened the door once again. Once it was fully opened James quickly took in every detail that he could. The first thing he noticed was that there was blood stains all over the living room carpet. He then looked at his daughter with worry and noticed that she too was covered in blood. Worried that his daughter might have been attacked by the monsters outside he remained outside the doorway, frozen in place. The body layi
ng on the ground was instantly forgotten. Without moving a muscle, his eyes quickly glanced over his daughter. He was looking for any sign that she might have been hurt.

  When he didn't see any visual signs of her being hurt, he stepped into the apartment and quickly shut the door behind him. James walked towards his daughter for a closer inspection. He noticed she was visibly shaking and appeared weak in the knees. She didn't say a word or even seemed to notice him. Fearing that she could collapse at any moment, he put his arm around her and guided her to the couch.

  Once she was sitting down, he rushed to the kitchen looking for something that would help clean the blood off of her. He found a used kitchen towel and a half roll of paper towels. Trying to stay sanitary, he grabbed the paper towels and rushed back to the living room.

  What he saw when he walked back into the living room melted his heart. His daughter was standing in the middle of the room holding something bundled up in a bloody sheet. He looked questioningly at her as he realized that her baby bump was pretty much gone. With a renewed hope, James slowly walked over to his daughter and the bundle she was protectively holding.

  His daughter smiled faintly as she confirmed his suspicions. She was indeed holding her baby and weakly explained that she went into labor right before everything fell to pieces outside. Her smiled faded and was replaced by a look of horror. She confirmed his theory by stating that her fiance had tried to rush her to the hospital whenever things went crazy. They were quickly surrounded and attacked by the monsters outside.

  She explained that before they could even reach the car, they were surrounded by sick and deranged looking people. Her fiance got between her and the monsters. Without looking, he told her to run back to the safety of their apartment. She was instructed to lock the door until he could come get her. She admitted to her father, that she thought that she had heard him screaming outside, but her water broke and was unable to look to see if he needed help. When she finally had the baby, she was too weak to even move.

  His daughter's faced turned even paler as she spoke in a low voice that was just above a whisper. She stated that he never came back to get her. Her eyes began to tear up as she tried to control her ever changing emotions. She told her dad that her worst fear was that he had abandoned her and their baby. James' eyes dropped toward the floor immediately.

  He didn't know how he was going to tell her. He worked up the courage to tell her what had happened to her fiance. He figured that the easiest way was to just tell her the truth and console her until she calmed down. He began by talking in a soft soothing parent voice, but quickly realized that he had forgotten what he was going to say. It was as if he had once again zoned out. He blinked and looked over at his daughter, it looked like she had also zoned out.

  James immediately stepped in front of her, trying to get her attention. It worked. Her eyes instantly dried up and her face became serious once again. She mentioned that it wasn't too long after hearing the screaming outside stop before the banging on the door began. She admitted that at first she thought that it might have been her fiance, but when she yelled out his name, she didn't get a response. The only response she got was more banging. She sort of fazed out again as she absentmindedly stated that for a while there was no other noise, except for the banging.

  She quickly snapped out of her daze as she stated that the stress must have caused her to go into early labor. James made a mental note that her hormones were all over the place. She once again went from being excited to fighting back her tears. She sadly asked her father what he thought might have happened to her fiance. James couldn't look his daughter in the eyes as he confessed what he had done.

  He started off by telling his daughter that her fiance was killed by the zombies outside but couldn't finish. He tried to think of what to say to her and before he realized it, he had been holding his breath. It was only when he took a deep breath that he blurted out what had actually happened. He looked sadly into his daughter's eyes as he told her that it was her fiance's re-animated corpse that had been banging on the front door. He paused and took a deep breath before telling her that he was the one that had ultimately killed him.

  Her skin tone became even paler as she darted out of the room with her baby in her arms. James thought that she might try to do something stupid and followed her down the hall towards the bedroom. What he saw there renewed his hope for the immediate future. His daughter was cleaning and dressing her beautiful daughter. It was the first time James was able to really see his granddaughter and what he saw amazed him.

  James knew that time was short and that they needed to leave. He told his daughter to quickly wash up and change, he would take care of his granddaughter. It wasn't until she had left the room that he picked up his granddaughter and inspected her. She had a head full of thick dark hair. He watched closely as she slept peacefully in his arms. He secretly vowed that no harm would ever come to her.

  By the time his daughter returned, he had already packed some clothes for them. She quickly grabbed whatever baby items that she could easily carry, such as diapers and wipes. James didn't know how long they had to survive, but knew that they were going to need the essentials in order to do it.

  Fifteen minutes later they slowly and silently made their way back towards his truck. They had almost made it whenever another familiar looking zombie made his way towards them. James made sure that his daughter and granddaughter were safely inside the truck before he turned to face the new threat. The closer the zombie got the more it changed from familiarity to shock and from shock to horror. The zombie slowly making his way towards him was his son.

  James stood there in disbelief as the thing that once was his son moved closer. He wanted to reach out to his son in hope that by some miracle his son was still his son. He looked his son over as he continued to get closer. James noticed that his son's hands were all scraped up and bloody, it looked as if he had tried to fight something off. The next thing that James noticed was that his son's shirt was stained red with a fist size hole where his heart was located. His normally combed pulled back black hair was all matted up, while most of his face was covered in blood.

  Watching his son limp towards him, James silently questioned him. What happened to you? How did you get here? What are you doing here? James and his son shared an apartment that was close to ten miles away and his son didn't own a car. James started working a theory out in his head. The summary was that he assumed that his son tried to walk to his sister’s apartment to make sure that she was alright. On the way he was most likely attacked by zombies.

  James was instantly proud of his son to have made it the ten miles from his apartment to his sister's apartment. To even have gotten this far meant that his son had put up one hell of a fight. He smiled sadly at his son.

  His son got within twenty feet whenever James closed his eyes and said a silent Tribal prayer for his son. When James opened his eyes his son was within a few feet and already lunging at him. James reacted with pure military reflexes. He ended up using some kind of leg whip to knock his son down to the ground. James stood over his son's head, his leg raised up. He was ready to give the final death strike but couldn't. He lowered his leg, couldn't kill his own son.

  His son reached out for the foot he had just lowered. James stepped just out of his reach. Fighting his emotions, he turned and walked back towards his truck. He opened the door and started climb in. He fought back his tears as he looked over at his daughter and granddaughter.

  James looked down one last time at his son, who was working hard to get back up. Ironically, his granddaughter started to cry at the same time. The crying caused his son to switch his attention from getting up to looking up toward the vehicle. The predatory look in his son's eyes confirmed that he was truly lost. James teared up at the sight of his son, but knew that he needed to protect his granddaughter.

  James glanced over at his new beautiful granddaughter as she continued to cry and couldn't help but smiled. It was a bittersweet mo
ment for him as he slowly turned his attention back towards his son. He felt bad for his son and wanted to do something to help, but knew that there was nothing he could do for him. Well, almost nothing. James quickly threw that idea out the window. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to kill his own son. Even if he was no longer among the living.

  6 ARTHUR

  Artie like always was running a few minutes behind everyone else leaving work. By the time he got in his car, he was already ten minutes behind the rest of the Council. Like everyone else Artie wanted to rush home, get his family, and return to the safety of the Warehouse, but life is never that easy.

  As he left the Warehouse parking lot, Artie decided that the quickest way to get home to his family was to take the highway. He was wrong (remember he was ten minutes behind everyone else). In fact he didn’t even get close to the service road where the on ramp to the highway was located. It was already backed-up at least a block from the intersection.

  After some quick thinking he then decided to take the back roads home. It was probably a good thing that he had done that because most of the major roads were already clogged up. Traffic was at a stand still everywhere. It was as if a major catastrophe had just struck (now that I think back on it I guess it was).

  There were literally hundreds of car wrecks within a ten mile radius of the Warehouse. The streets were so packed from the wrecks, that people were running around acting like idiots. It took him well over an hour to get home. To make matters even worse was that by the time he did arrive home, he automatically knew that he was too late to save his family.