Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  We stood there dumbfounded at what we had just witnessed. I mean, talk about calming the savage beast. If Tracie's granddaughter hadn't arrived when she did, I was pretty sure that she would have committed suicide.

  We all stood there in awe at what we had just seen and luckily Kevin and his crew had kept their mouths shut until Tracie had left. Smiling, Bruce said that it looked like we were on the brink of self-imploding. Ruff responded by telling Bruce that it was all their fault. Changing his smile to a frown and managing to look hurt, Bruce demanded to know how it was their fault. Without saying a word, Ruff pointed toward Lonnie and the dead hostage that started the whole shooting.

  Kevin spoke up "Enough!" He looked through the gate and said that he was tired of playing these games. He wanted his cousin and the Warehouse or else.

  Ken spoke up by asking "Or else what?" Kevin made a small hand gesture with his left hand. A shot rang out and less then a second later Ken dropped to his knees. Blood trickled out of a new hole that was now in the center of his forehead.

  I yelled "Sniper!" and dropped to my stomach. Mass hysteria took over as a few more shots whizzed by overhead. I realized that Kevin must have planted at least one sniper to take us out while he was buying time. It must have been his plan all along.

  Angrily, I turned to army crawl toward the nearest cover when I noticed that Artie was laying face down next to me. His eyes had that glazed over blank look as blood poured out from a grotesque head wound near his right temple.

  The bullets increased as the rest of Kevin and Bruce's group joined in the shooting. I swear, I could hear laughter coming from outside the fence.

  I looked over and noticed that our prisoner running free toward the gate, he was holding a knife. How did he get free? Where the hell did he get a knife? Was it the one Tracie had?

  I didn't have time to worry about the details at the moment as they continued to lay down cover fire for him. A thought dawned on me. Ken and Artie had been holding onto the prisoner, that must have been why they were shot. If Kevin's cousin succeeded in opening the gate, then we were all dead.

  I was pinned down and yelled at anyone who could hear me to shoot the prisoner. I told them that we couldn't let him to open the gate. The realization of what could happen must have sunk in. They knew, just like I did that the only thing protecting us was the gate.

  I knew that Kevin couldn't afford to damage the gate or his group wouldn't have a safe place to stay either. The only way for Kevin and his group to get in was for the gate to be opened from the inside.

  I took a chance and peeked around the corner of my cover and was rewarded by bullets hitting the appliance a few inches from my head. It was a surreal feeling to know that you could die at any moment. I took a chance and aimed my gun around the corner of my cover, but couldn't manage to get a good angle.

  Danny had worked his way around the corner of his cover and pulled the trigger. He caught Kevin's cousin in the upper part of his left shoulder. I wasn't sure if it killed him, but it was enough to turn him around one hundred and eighty degrees. He screamed out in pain as he fell on his butt.

  Danny thought he had killed the guy and without thinking, he jumped out from behind his cover to celebrate. He received a bullet in his upper left shoulder area for his stupidity. He screamed out in pain as the momentum from the bullet caused him to spin around and fall backwards. I wasn't sure, but I think that he hit his head on the washer he was hiding behind.

  I screamed out Danny's name to see if he was alright. When I didn't get an immediate response, I moved toward the end of my cover. My plan was to run towards him.

  I was bidding my time to run, but hesitated as bullets kept flying overhead. I remember asking myself if this was the end. Is this how we die?

  I got in a sprint stance, ready to run towards Danny when I heard Kevin's voice. He was telling his cousin to hurry up and open the gate. Crap! It meant that Danny didn't kill Kevin's cousin.

  I couldn't risked the guy opening the gate. I turned back around to go after the guy and to my surprise, Ruff and Bobby was hunched next to me.

  Ruff stated that Cleo and Brian went to evacuate our women and children through our emergency escape. They agreed to meet us out at my father-n-law's land, located east of Moore. They were to stay there until we could come get them.

  Before I could even ask a question, Ruff told me not to worry about Danny. He would get him to safety and turned to leave. He stopped and looked back from Bobby to me. He illustrated what we already knew, that we needed to make sure that the gate didn't open.

  I looked over at Bobby and sarcastically asked if he was ready to lay down some cover fire for Ruff. Without waiting for a response, I leaned out from around the corner of the fridge and began firing. I hit Kevin's cousin squarely in the lower part of his back. He screamed as he went down face first into the fence.

  I felt elevated that I had stopped the guy from opening the gate, but unfortunately that feeling didn't last long. Before I could duck back behind the safety of my cover, pain rang through my right shoulder. I twisted around as I fell backwards against the fridge.

  Instinctively, I reach my hand up to my shoulder and felt something warm. I pulled back my hand and looked at it. My hand was covered in blood! Fear took over when I couldn't lift my right arm, that same fear caused me to refuse to even look at my shoulder. The sight of blood on my hand was enough to scare me.

  To be honest, I wanted to panic. I wanted to scream as loud as I could. I wanted to freak out, but I knew that I couldn't. I made sure that I didn't. I didn't want to give Kevin the pleasure of knowing that I had just gotten hit.

  I turned toward Bobby to see how he was doing and it looked like he was doing just as good as I was. Actually, he was a little worse. He was sitting there holding his left collarbone area with his right hand. Blood was seeping out between his fingers. He was sitting there wide eyed. It looked like he was trying to control his emotions like I was or maybe he was just in shock.

  I jokingly asked him how he was doing. His only response was a failed attempt at a smile. His skin had already taken on a pale looking color. I knew that if I didn't get him some help soon, he would be a dead man.

  I yelled out to Ruff to see if he made it to Danny yet, but I got no response. Well, that wasn't entirely true. I heard a scream, but couldn't tell where it came from. Everything suddenly became groggy. I wanted to lay down and take a nap, but I was in too much pain to do even that.

  I sat there next to Bobby, exhausted. It didn't seem like my body wanted to move. It felt as if I just completed a triathlon while being out of shape. I couldn't help but think that well at least my kids survived. Yes, at least all of our kids would survive.

  I was brought out of my tired state with the sound of gun fire behind us, on the opposite side of the Warehouse. It sounded like it came from the direction of our escape route, where our escape vehicles were located. Did that mean that Kevin's people were shooting at unarmed children? My children!

  I ignored the bullets flying overhead as I jumped to my feet. I refused to give up and reached down to help Bobby up. He was starting to wheeze pretty bad and I gave him my good left shoulder to lean on. We began walking towards the door when we saw Ruff dragging an unconscious Danny behind him.

  Ruff's right pants leg looked blood soak, it looked like he had been shot in the leg multiple times. I called out his name just as multiple explosions came from the direction of the escape buses. The explosion shook the ground, causing me and Bobby to fall to the ground. It looked like Ruff's arm gave out, causing him to fall directly on his face.

  I bolted right up into a sitting position and asked to no one in particular "What was that?" A bad feeling came over me as I looked into the direction of the smoke. I yelled over all the background noise toward Kevin and Bruce. I tried to hold my emotions in check but failed. I accusingly asked them if they knew that they had just killed children.

  The shooting immediately stopped as Kevin and Bruce stood
there stunned. Bruce was the one to find his voice first as he asked if I was joking. I replied "Hell no, I'm not joking!" I asked them "What did they think our emergency escape plan was for?" Its purpose was to save the women and children. My plea fell on deaf ears because Kevin was already talking on some kind of walkie talkie looking phone.

  Even with the recent stoppage of gun fire, I still couldn't make out what he was saying. All I could tell was that he was upset about something. He looked red in the face as he glanced in our direction. He put the device away and told us that it wasn't his intention to kill the children. He claimed that his men saw two male drivers and opened fire. He informed us that those responsible would face punishment.

  Kevin confirmed my suspicions and worst fears. My kids, in fact all of our innocent children were just killed. My pain quickly turned to rage as I slowly climbed back to my feet and turned to face Kevin.

  My right arm was completely useless which meant that I would have to learn to shoot with my left hand and quick. I figured that moment was just as good as any.

  I took the gun in my left and aimed it towards Kevin and Bruce. They weren't even looking at me, they looked like they were arguing. I figured that the odds were in my favor that I would hit at least one of them. Without a moments thought, I pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened. I pulled the trigger again, nothing happened. I silently cursed my luck. I didn't know if the clip was empty, if the gun was jammed, or if it just misfired. With only one arm, there was really no way to tell.

  With the gun useless, I threw it down and turned to help my friends. I figured that while Kevin and Bruce were preoccupied with each other, we could run to safety. Kevin's voice carried over the distance between us, loud and clear. I thought that he was yelling at me, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. I turned around to face him and realized that I was wrong.

  Kevin was hollering at someone else. Walking into view were about five people, it looked like three men and two women. The group of five looked proud of themselves. Kevin on the other hand, didn't look to happy with them.

  You could see both Kevin and Bruce get animated with the group. It was almost comical to see, if it hadn't been a life or death situation. Kevin continued to yell at the group as he pointed our way.

  Finally, Kevin looked in our direction and spoke up. He wanted us to hear what he had to say. To the surprise of the group standing next to him, he told us that they were the ones responsible for killing our children.

  The group stood there genuinely shocked, they silently stared at Kevin until one of the woman spoke up. She looked toward us and claimed that they had only done what they were told to do. She claimed that their job was to stop anyone from escaping. One of the guys from the group spoke up, saying that they only killed a couple of men trying to flee from the shooting in buses. He illustrated that they didn't kill any kids.

  Their claims fell on death ears as Kevin once again promised to punish those responsible for killing our children. Bruce jumped in by saying that their job was to STOP anyone from escaping, not to kill them!

  Wide eyed the group turned back around to face Kevin and Bruce. They were determined not to be the fall guys for the killings. Another guy from the group claimed that Kevin was the one that told them to shoot anyone that tried to escape, no matter who it was.

  The other woman from the group was quiet, she looked shocked by Kevin's claimed that they had just killed children. She was confused about the claims against them and began talking. The more she talked, the more hysterical she became.

  She eventually got so worked up that she lifted her gun and pointed it at Kevin or Bruce, I really couldn't tell. You could hear her scream that they made her kill innocent children. Kevin turned his full attention to the lady holding the gun and took a step toward her. He said something I couldn't hear. It caused the others to drop their guns on the ground, raise their hands, and back away.

  The lady refused to drop or even lower her gun. I'll give her credit, she stood her ground even as Kevin reached out for the gun. He had the barrel in his hand trying to take it from her, but she refused to let it go.

  Seeing our chance to escape to the safety of the Warehouse, we began to put distance between them and us. We didn't get very far before a single shot echoed around the the area. Curious, we stopped and looked back.

  Kevin had dropped to his knees as he slowly let go of the gun barrel, smoke was rising from his chest. The girl screamed that it was an accident and dropped the gun. You could tell that she was telling the truth, but that didn't matter. She put her hands in the air, the international sign for "I give up" as Kevin fell to his side. Bruce rushed towards the girl and pulled his gun out in one fluent motion.

  The girl instantly dropped to her knees and begged for forgiveness. Bruce aimed the gun at her forehead and said something that we couldn't quite hear. A defiant male's voice called out something from one of the houses outside the fence. We couldn't quite make out what he was saying. The group behind the girl also chimed in, but I guess it didn't matter because her fate had already been decided. Bruce pulled the trigger, splattering her blood and brain matter all over the group behind her.

  The scene outside the fence became chaotic as bullets started flying once again. Only this time, they were shooting at each other. It seemed that Bruce had started some kind an internal feud. I wasn't sure if it was because of the girl or the death of Kevin, but it was getting ugly fast.

  I grabbed Bobby and got him to his feet. I directed him towards the door and gave him a gentle push. Next, I helped Ruff to his feet and motioned him towards the door, but he refused to budge. He told me that he wasn't moving until we got Danny safely inside. I told him that I would get Danny, but he had to go.

  Ruff could barely stand much less walk, he was stubborn. He still refused to move until Danny was safe. Luckily, Danny woke up around that time. He was a little disoriented and in pain, but he seemed otherwise okay.

  I turned around to go help him up when I noticed that Logan was already helping him up. His shoulder was semi-bandaged up. He must have noticed that we were kind of staring at him because he told us that he would explain once we were inside. Just then we heard a loud death scream. I looked over in time to see Bruce fall backwards. Blood was spraying out of his body upper body.

  I thought to myself, great now there was nothing to stop those idiots from charging the gate. Was there? Do you believe in miracles? I know that I've asked that before, but there was no other way to describe what I was seeing. Believe it or not, the zombies were coming to our rescue. Well, I guess that wasn't entirely true. They were most likely attracted to all of the gunfire.

  With Danny leaning on Logan's shoulder and Ruff on mine, we slowly made our way to the door. We were almost to the door when we heard more screaming and it wasn't the type of screaming that came from blood-lust caused by battle. No, this was more like the kind that you hear when someone screams at the top of their lungs in fear.

  Gunfire started going off again. I slowly turned to see what those idiots on the other side of the fence were shooting at. To my relief, it was a horde of zombies. I never thought that I would be so glad to see them. While the redneck army was preoccupied with the zombies, we continued to make out way inside the Warehouse.

  15 DAY 181, THE FALL OF THE WAREHOUSE

  I wish I could say that things were better once we got inside but they weren't. They weren't even close. It seemed that the shooting outside had become sporadic.

  Once inside, I had expected to see all kinds of movement. I expected to see people rush to help or people standing inside the door, armed and ready to act. To see people ready to defend their home, if necessary. Instead, we found no one.

  When I say no one, I meant NO ONE! It's hard to explain that feeling of abandonment that we all had. To make matters even worse, we began to argue about our situation. Think about of all the things we had survived and prepared for just to fall apart as a group. I for one, felt ashamed.

&n
bsp; It might not have been so bad if it wasn't for all the injuries and deaths. Logan took a few minutes to explain to us what had happened to him and where everyone else was. Before he began though, he warned us that we wouldn't like what he had to say. We insisted that he tell us because not knowing would most likely eat us up inside. He sighed as he reluctantly agreed to tell us. After taking a deep breath, he began.

  It seemed that after the explosions, Logan took the opportunity to sneak away and investigate. He ran into his wife Mia, she bandaged his shoulder and informed him of what had happened.

  It seemed that shortly after the shooting began, Cleo and Brian had snuck back inside the Warehouse to gather all the women and children. Their plan was to take them to the escape vehicles and sneak them out to safety while we kept the army preoccupied. My mom and niece Shaelynn had grabbed my three year old twins. My daughter was not with them. Apparently, my five year old daughter JoJo had freaked out when the shooting started and ran off to find me.

  No one knew where she had ran off too. My nephew Seth and Danny's son Austin volunteered to go find her. They were supposed to grab her and run back to the bus before it left. My mom and Shaelynn figured that as long as they got my twins on the bus and got them to safety, then everything would turn out alright for them.

  In all the chaos, Ruff's wife had grabbed their grandson and ran towards the safety of the bus. Becca had helped evacuate the children, including Tracie and her granddaughter. Chavonne also helped by getting the rest of the children onto the bus.

  Mia however had refused to leave. She didn't want to risk being separated from her husband again. My sister also refused to leave until her son Seth and fiance Bobby were safe. It seemed that they had made the right choice staying behind.

  Logan stated that something must have spooked Cleo and Brian because they took off without waiting for the rest of us. Regardless of their reason, once they were outside the fence the attackers shot at them with automatic weapons. Logan's quick investigation led him to believe that the buses were really close to escaping until Kevin's army used grenades. After that, they didn't stand a chance.