Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  She took a deep breath before trying to continue. Those of us in the room sat there patiently as she gathered herself. When she was able, she asked if her husband had suffered. Confused, I asked her before he turned or after. She asked me in a sarcastic tone if it really mattered. I told her that it did.

  I re-illustrated that after John stepped on the bone splinter, he was in severe pain. After he turned, his death was painless. She looked at me and said that wasn't what she had meant. She asked me again if he had suffered. I asked her to please elaborate on what she meant by that question.

  Annoyed, her faced took on a reddish color and her voice took on that, don't ask me silly questions tone. She took a deep breath in order to calm herself. She looked directly into my eyes and asked if her husband had suffered during his change.

  I met her gaze as I told her that I wasn't sure. I once again explained that neither Ken nor I were in the room during the time he changed. I illustrated that only Ruff knew the answer to that question. She could ask him once he wakes up.

  Her only response was to stand up to leave. Before she left, she looked towards Ruff's wife and told her that she hoped her husband survived. She took a deep breath and told her that she didn't blame Ruff for her husband's death. With those final words, she turned around and stormed out of the clinic.

  Of course word of our endeavor spread throughout our community. More and more people arrived to check on Ruff. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the man who got bit and hadn't changed. Even though Ruff was still unconscious, he had become somewhat of a celebrity or at least a legend to our community.

  Him surviving wasn't even the best part of the story. Nope, not even close to the best part. Can you guess what the best part was? Maybe you already guessed correctly or maybe you didn't. It doesn't matter because I'm going to tell you anyway. Brian and his son were reunited.

  Everyday when Brian left to find his son, he was constantly widening his search perimeter. Even though it had been a week, he hadn't given up hope on finding his son. He knew that the odds for his son's survival were stacked against him, but that didn't matter to Brian. He knew that there was a chance that his son was still alive and it meant that he was willing to risk his life to find him. He had to know one way or another, even if that meant finding out that his son had become a zombie. That thought alone keep him going when all he wanted to do was give up on life.

  Each morning he left with hopes of finding his son and every evening he returned heartbroken. It was late that evening when Brian returned from yet another failed search. You could tell on his face that getting up everyday to look for his son and failing, was beginning to wear him down.

  More people then usual were waiting for him at the gate to tell him the good news when he arrived, but he refused to listen. He continued to turn a deaf ear to everyone. Downhearted, he slowly got out of his truck and walked toward the main door.

  He was almost to the door when he heard something that sounded like "Dad!" It was normal to hear that word around our little community, but this time it sounded familiar. His heart started beating fast as he slowly looked around. He noticed for the first time that the crowd had stopped talking and formed a victory "V" formation. At the center of the formation was a familiar little figure.

  Before he knew it, he was running full sprint towards that figure. Time seemed to have come to a stand still, causing him to believe that he would never reach the little figure. The feeling was short lived.

  He dropped to his knees just feet from the figure with his arms spread wide in a welcoming position. Without hesitation, the little figured leaped into his dad's arms. Brian collapsed on the hard concrete floor under the weight of his son, but he didn't care. No, he didn't care one bit because his last reason for living had found his way home.

  I honestly couldn't tell you how longed they had hugged each other on the ground, but I can tell you there wasn't a dry eye to be seen. Brian's son at just five years old had done the unthinkable. No, he had done the impossible. He had found a way to not only survive, but he found his way back to his dad.

  13 DAY 90, MIRACLES

  Do you believe in miracles? To be honest with you, I didn't. At least, not until after the whole apocalypse thing took place. I'm not going to sit here and say that I believe that it was God's plan to bring the dead back to life. Actually, let me revise that statement because it's entirely possible that it was God's plan after all. The Bible is full of crazy stories like the one we're living in.

  But before I get too far off track, I want to share with you a few miracles or at least a few events that I view as miracle worthy. Let me start off by getting you up to speed on a few things that had happened to us since the last time I had checked in.

  Ruff had actually survived the infection and made a full recovery, well mostly a full recovery. He woke up to the realization that we were still in a zombie type of world, our living nightmare.

  He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the two most important people in his life smiling at him. Actually, I was told that he woke up with a smile. His first thoughts, maybe it had all been a dream. He looked around and noticed that he was in the Warehouse clinic. He risked a glance downward and realized that he was still in the nightmare because his left hand was missing.

  His eyes widened as he transitioned from excitement to hyperventilating. His wife leaned forward trying to calm him down. She grabbed his face between both of her hands, to force him to focus only on her. She talked to him in a calm voice as she explained what had happened to him. She went on to tell him that Ken and I saved his life.

  It was enough to calm him down, his eyes darted around the room until they found me and Ken. We had stood in the corner silently watching. We didn't know how he would have taken the news. His eyes went from shock to thankfulness as he motioned for us to come over. Smiling, we walked over to his bed.

  Speaking of Ken, he didn't have a broken ankle after all. He had just severely sprained it or so we hoped. Since he was able to walk on it, my mom figured that he most likely pulled or tore cartridge around his ankle. But without the use of x-rays and a proper doctor, it was really hard to tell.

  Now I don't want you to think that his ankle had healed properly because it didn't. It did heal well enough that he was able to walk around with a slight limp. He did mention that when he put pressure on it at a slight angle, there was a slight discomfort. You could see the discomfort in his body language when he walked, but he always had a smile on his face. He was really good at hiding his pain.

  As I already stated, we constantly learned from our mistakes. We had to adjust and devise new ways of doing things when it came to supply runs. We would now go out with six people, two groups of three. The first team would go in and secure the area while the second team was backup. The second group would be there just in case of an emergency. We always used walkie talkies to communicate between the two teams. Since the walkie talkies we had were short range radios, we gave a detailed list on a map where we would be just in case we were ever separated. We also set a time frame for our searches. It would allow us time to get there and back. If either group was late, we knew there was trouble and had an idea of where to search. It was a lot safer that way.

  Our little community kept growing from all of the extra survivors we found. Thinking about it, I would call that a miracle in itself. I mean think about it, we added more survivors everyday. Who else could say that?

  The Council's word was law and everybody contributed. There was no fighting, killing, greed, stealing other people's things, or basic trouble making. It was truly a blessed timed for us. We even began to believe in ourselves so much that we felt like we were untouchable from the horrors of the outside world. I know it was an arrogant way of thinking, but we had to have something to believe in.

  Do you remember Mia? She had the type of miracle that most people could only dream of. Yes, I would say that she was a lucky girl at eighteen. I know what your going to say. How can she have a mirac
le with all the bad stuff going on? Let's just say that for her, it was a miracle to remember.

  The day started out as any other day did, we got ready for a supply run. With our growing number of survivors living at the Warehouse, we had to go out for supplies every couple of days. Whether it was food or just simple bedding. I want it known that no one was above serving our community and that included it's Council members.

  On one particular day, we were planning on going out on our furthest run to date. Team A consisted of Ruff (being an old machinist he created a metal hand to replace the one he had and it could quickly transform into a long sharpened spike like weapon), Bobby, and I. Team B consisted of Danny, Cleo, and Brian (it was the first time he was willing to leave his son's side since he showed up at the Warehouse). We had another team heading out in the opposite direction that included Lonnie, Ken, Artie, and three other survivors (whom I didn't know very well).

  We had our plans lined out, which included a time that we were expected to be back. If either group was late by two hours, a search party of four would go looking for them. We tried to cover all of our bases. We usually left around ten in the morning and stayed gone for a max of six hours. We figured that it would give us enough time to drive there, do what we needed to do, and return. Never longer then eight hours.

  When we were about a mile from the Warehouse, we came across a small group of eight men. They were heavily, armed military men. Most of them looked to be in their mid twenties or younger. They had been walking in the middle of the street until they saw us approach.

  The two in the middle of the street dropped to one knee and raised their weapons. The remaining six split and ran for the cover of the tree line. Three on each side of the street.

  We immediately stopped the vehicles about twenty feet from them and got out with our hands in the air as a gesture of peace. It wasn't the first time we had come upon armed people and knew that if we played it cool, everything would work out with no incidents. With my hands still in the air, I slowly walked toward the two men in the street. I stopped five feet away and began talking as I slowly lowered my arms. I talked to them without trying to give too much information away while trying to worm information from them. After all, I didn't know them or what their intentions were.

  The youngest soldier on the left stood up and told me that they were looking for a place called the Warehouse. He asked me if I knew where it was. The soldier on the right slowly stood up. I suspiciously looked at both of them before I confirmed that I did know of the Warehouse.

  The older looking soldier on the right must have seen my expression because he told me that wasn't what I was thinking. Still looking at them suspiciously, I asked the older soldier to tell me what I was thinking.

  The older soldier was really good at either reading me or reading the situation. He stepped forward and spoke in a hushed tone as he stated that it was obvious that I was from the Warehouse. Without waiting for a reply or moving his head, he continued by stating that they weren't going to kill us.

  He stepped back a couple of steps and nodded his head toward my group. He raised his voice as he stated that it would do no good because he could tell how much I meant to my group. I turned around and noticed that they already had their weapons out just waiting for my signal to attack.

  He continued to step backwards until he was next to the younger soldier and spoke out loud for everyone to hear. He stated that they were not our enemy and commanded his soldiers to lower their weapons. One by one they stepped out from behind the trees. I turned and motioned for my group to lower their weapons.

  I asked the younger soldier how he even knew about the Warehouse. He stated that he was looking for his wife Mia. I narrowed my eyes as I asked how he knew about her and what his name was. The young soldier smiled and said that he was her husband, Logan.

  My jaw dropped, she hadn't talked to him since the whole mess started and that was around three months ago. All she knew was that he had been off doing a secret training exercise when they were called away for some emergency thing. He told her to stay put and safe because no matter what happened, he would come for her.

  All she had told me was that he was a man of his word and that he was a Marine. It was no wonder these soldiers had survived that long. They weren't ordinary soldiers, they were considered the best of the best. It was just like that old saying "Marines don't quit."

  Finding out who they were put my mind at ease. I turned around and motioned for the group to come over. Logan and the older soldier motioned for his group to do the same.

  I introduced myself as Mia's Godmother's brother. Surprisingly, Logan knew who I was. He had found out from either Mia, who I had only met a few times or from my sister. Regardless, the tension we had felt moments before was gone.

  Logan was anxious to get to his wife, but first he had to see his fellow Marines off. You see, they had all been on that training exercise when the world fell apart and it seemed that they were only members left from their squadrons. They were all anxious to get home safely to their families and were traveling together to make sure that they accomplished just that. No one has been able to contact their families since it had started. Oklahoma City was their first stop.

  We invited them to stay with us at the Warehouse, but they politely turned us down. They were just to anxious to get home and most of them had a long travel ahead of them. We salvaged a minivan from one of the surrounding homes for the troops. We said our goodbyes and wished them luck on their individual journey's.

  Once they had left, I invited Logan to help us find supplies. I explained that we took in survivors all the time, it meant that we needed more supplies and food.

  Logan understood, actually he really didn't mind. When the world collapsed on itself, he was forced to mature quicker then most young men his age. He had come to understand the importance of having other people around. It was that whole "greater in numbers" thing.

  We continued on our run as Logan told us his story. He wanted us to know that they had indeed been on a secret training exercise, but for some reason, he refused to tell us what that was. It was one of those sworn to secrecy things and to be honest, we really didn't care.

  We sat there as he told us that while they were in the middle of training in Frankfort, Kentucky, an emergency call came in for his unit to aid in the evacuation of a local hospital. Different units were assigned to different hospitals. Logan stated that they were uninformed and unequipped to battle the monsters they came across.

  When his unit finally arrived at the hospital, all hell was literally breaking loose. People were chasing people, only they weren't exactly people. Logan and his squad could tell right away that something was wrong with them. Their mannerisms and eyes were off, not to mention most were covered in blood and sores.

  The chaos didn't stop them from trying to fulfill their duties though. Most of the troops rushed forward to help the injured, they in turn were attacked. The troops that remained uninjured fired their weapons at the injured who were now attacking their comrades. It had become a madhouse.

  The injured didn't go down on the first or even the tenth shot. When they finally did go down, they got right back up. The troops that were attacked by the injured went down and it seemed that within minutes, they got back up. They in turn started to attack those that weren't hurt. Mass confusion took over as they realized that they were in a "lose-lose" type of situation. Before long, it was down to Logan and two other squadmates.

  They called a retreat and started to slowly back their way out of the hospital. They fired on anyone who seemed hostile. He stated that it seemed like everyone had become hostile. Logan and his squad mates were under the assumption that if they could get outside the hospital, then they could call for reinforcements.

  The only problem was that they couldn't make it outside. In fact, they quickly found out that they wouldn't even make it through the lobby to the entrance doors. There were just too many of those things around.

  R
ealizing that they were stuck, they quickly began looking around for another way out. They were surrounded and shot anything that rushed toward them. They began backing themselves into a corner with no way out. All hope seemed lost whenever Logan noticed an escape route that led to an emergency stairwell.

  They opened the door and rushed forward. They made sure that the door was securely shut behind them before they started to climb. They could hear the creatures banging on the door, each bang echoed up the stairwell. As they began to climb the stairs, they silently hoped that none of those things were in there with them.

  They had successfully made it to the fifth floor before the lights began to flicker on and off. By the time they made it to the seventh floor, the lights went out which caused the emergency lights to come on. They were extremely lucky that no zombies were in the stairwell with them as they successfully made it to the roof.

  Once they were on the roof, Logan pulled out his radio to call for reinforcements or an evacuation. He received no response. Confused, his two friends pulled out their own radios. Just like Logan, they received no response. Nothing! They didn't even hear static.

  They became frantic as they continued to try to reach their commanding officers or at least someone in charge. Out of nowhere, the door to the rooftop began to rattle. They could hear loud moans on the other side of the door. They began looking around for an exterior escape ladder when they noticed that some of the surrounding buildings were beginning to smoke.

  Logan described the scene as if he was watching an old war movie. Windows were getting busted out from explosions, paper began flying all over the place. They could see people on some of the other rooftops running around acting frantic. It was only with the use of their rifle scopes that they realized that they weren't people. It appeared that those buildings had been overrun.