Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  Once the tank was hooked up, I climbed into the drivers side and turned the key. Without hesitation it started right up. I felt both relief and horror at the same time. Was that even possible? Let me tell you, it was.

  Lucky for me, the truck fired right up. It was a sign of hope that I could still make it in time to save Bobby. Karma shows it's ugly head when you least expect it. For every positive, we have a negative that is sure to follow.

  I had forgotten how loud the truck actually was. The noise from the truck was drawing more zombies my way. I could hear the moaning on the other side of the big lift and it was getting louder. I looked up to see zombies moving around the lift as they made their way towards me.

  Without wasting anymore time, I put the truck in drive and pushed on the gas. I could feel the truck wanting to go. I could even feel the tires spinning, but nothing was happening. I looked down and noticed that Bruce was halfway under the little truck. Was that why I wasn't getting any traction?

  I looked up and noticed that the first zombie was just an arms reach from the hood (which was only a couple of feet in width). I shifted it to reverse and pushed down on the gas. It started moving, but quickly got stuck again. I tried rocking the truck, but it was no use. I needed another miracle and quick.

  An idea popped into my head. What if I used the zombies to push the truck over Bruce's body? Was that possible? Would it work? I wasn't sure, but I was running out of options.

  I put it in drive and rolled the truck forward until the rear tires got stuck on the body again. I shifted it to reverse and put my foot on the brake. I wanted to wait until more zombies began leaning on the hood. When I got close to a half dozen zombies on the hood, I took my foot off the brake and placed it on the gas.

  I used the zombies combined body weight and the momentum of the truck, I was able to hit Bruce's body with enough force that the front tires started to roll up the body. Before long the truck stopped rolling backwards as it got stuck once again.

  I looked up and noticed that the first wave of zombies that had pushed on the truck were flat on their faces. A second wave of zombies were stepping unsteadily on them. A thought popped into my head, maybe I could try the same trick with the second zombie wave.

  After thinking about it, I quickly shot that idea down. With the second wave approaching, I just didn't have enough room to maneuver. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about it. The second wave of zombies hit the truck with enough force that I rolled right off of Bruce's body.

  I continued in reverse until I could safely turn around and head back towards the Warehouse's bay door. While turning, I noticed that the second wave had tripped over Bruce's wiggling body. It was a good sign. It meant that I had a little extra time to barricade the door before they reached it.

  Once I was safely inside the doorway, I shut the overhead door. I knew that the overhead door wouldn't hold up against the combined weight of the zombies so I had to come up with a quick plan.

  Without thinking, I quickly jumped out of the truck and got on one of the propane fork lifts. I figured that the new plan would still be the old plan. I could use some of our extra appliance stock from warehouse racks to reinforce the door.

  I quickly raced off towards the racks. Surprisingly, I managed to use my damaged right arm to use the forklift controls (for those without any knowledge of forklifts, they have two to three levers that control lifting, tilting, and shifting from side to side). It was painful but necessary. By the time I got to my third appliance in the rack, my right arm was hurting so bad that I was practically crying.

  I placed the appliances the length of the door with a little overhang on both sides. I placed them three layers deep in order to reinforce the first layer. It was the quickest and best idea that I could come up with to prevent the zombies from knocking over the first row. Once the door was secure, I jumped back in the truck and took off.

  I wasn't sure how long I had been gone, but I can tell you that it was long enough that both Danny and Ruff decided to carry Bobby to the clinic. They had successfully traveled around thirty feet, but looked ready to collapse. To be honest with you, I was surprised that they even made it that far. They were in that bad of shape.

  When I came around the corner you could see the relief on their faces as they gently lowered Bobby to the ground. I could see how pale Bobby had become and worried that he might have died. I pulled up next to them and jumped out of the truck.

  I asked the guys if they were okay as I rushed to Bobby. I was so focused on Bobby that I had missed what Danny had said. I leaned down and to my surprise, Bobby was barely breathing. Worried that he was almost out of time, I grabbed him around the waist and started to lift. I had been so focused on helping Bobby that I had forgotten about my useless arm and almost dropped him. If it wasn't for Danny grabbing the other side of him, I would have.

  We were able to put Bobby into the back of the truck. I turned around and noticed that Ruff looked pale and weak. I rushed over to help him to the truck, he had been walking gingerly on his damaged leg. Once he was safely seated on the back of the truck next to Bobby, Danny and I got into the front seat and headed toward the clinic.

  Without missing a beat, Danny looked over at me and asked if I was going to answer his question. I looked over at him and asked "What question?" He gave me one of those "are you stupid" looks as he asked where Logan was. I looked away as I informed him that Logan didn't make it. Danny asked "What did I meant by that?" I glanced in his direction and told him that I'll explain everything later.

  We stopped in front of the clinic and started to unload Bobby when Mia came rushing out to help us. She glanced around, but didn't stop helping as she asked about her husband. I couldn't help but look away. She must have noticed me and gently called out my name. She asked me directly where her husband was. I slowly looked in her direction until our eyes met. I didn't have to say a word, my eyes told her everything.

  I'll give her credit. She stood strong and continued working. She coldly told me that when she was done fixing everyone up, then "we" were going sit down and talk. I nodded in agreement as I told her that we would. In fact, I told her that we all needed to sit down and talk, but not until everyone was bandaged up.

  Danny helped me lay Bobby onto the clinic table, it was going to be Mia's operation table. After laying Bobby down, we went back to help Ruff. On the way out of the clinic, I thought that it was a good thing that we had raided the hospital a few miles away. It looked like we needed those supplies.

  Mia started the surgery on the most severe of us and worked her way backwards, meaning that she started with Bobby. Since none of us were of any use to Mia while she operated, she asked me if I would go get my sister to assist her. She remained calm, considering the circumstances. I guess her tutelage under my mom had paid off.

  Mia told me that my sister was down in the "War Room." The War Room was an old underground meeting room, it reminded everyone of an old fallout shelter. It did have that kind of World War 2 bunker kind of feel to it, hence the nickname "War Room." This was the room that was rumored to connect the Warehouse to the building across the street by a hidden tunnel. Even after all that time, we still couldn't find it.

  I became lightheaded as I arrived at the stairway to the War Room. I guess the amount of blood loss was catching up to me. My shoulder was hurting like hell, which turned out to be a good thing at the time because the pain reminded me that I was still alive.

  Feeling like I was about to pass out, I yelled downstairs to let them know that it was me. My words came out mumbled as I slowly made my way down the stairs with help from the left wall. I had to lean on the wall in order to keep myself from falling.

  As I made my way down the stairs, my mind started to work its way through the past few hours. I guess my mind was trying to find a rational reason for how I was starting to act. I realized that I might have used too much energy after being shot or that my adrenaline had finally run out.

  I must have sounded like
a zombie or something. I was met at the bottom of the stairs with chairs and I don't mean that they were waiting for me to sit. Both Seth and Austin had the chairs up in a defensive position, sort of like how a lion tamer would hold the chair in front of a lion. They were ready to attack whatever was coming down the stairs.

  I must have looked ghostly pale or something because they didn't hesitate to lunge at me. They almost got me too, but my sister had stopped them. She must have sensed or realized that I wasn't one of the zombies.

  She began asking me about everything that was happening until her eyes focused on my wound. At that point she stopped talking and rushed forward to help me sit down. Seth quickly put his chair down so I could sit. JoJo rushed forward from some hiding place.

  I slowly turned my head when I heard "Daddy!" JoJo rushed towards me with her arms opened wide, but she stopped short when she saw me. Her eyes became wide when she saw my blood stained shirt.

  I smiled faintly as I told her that "daddy" had a bad ouchy. I glanced over at my sister, but addressed my daughter as I commented that some of the others had even worse ouchies. I looked over at my sister and told her that Mia needed her help for surgery.

  My sister looked confused and asked me what was going on. She demanded to know why Mia was having to do surgery. I told her that we would discuss it later, but for now she needed to go help Mia in the clinic.

  She caught my hidden meaning. Without responding my sister jumped up and ran up the stairs towards the clinic. With a little effort, I slowly got up from the chair. Once I was on my feet, I felt a little better, but that wasn't saying much. Besides, how I felt was irrelevant because we had stuff to do and people to save.

  I slowly made my way towards the stairs. I stopped before the first step and turned towards Seth, Austin, and my daughter. I told them that everything would be alright and that I would be back to get them soon. Until then, I needed both Seth and Austin to watch over my daughter.

  The both agreed to watch her, but demanded to know where their own sisters were. Before I could reply, Austin blurted out that they must be dead. Seth became offended by that statement and looked at Austin. He told Austin that he didn't know that for sure. They looked at each other for a few seconds before looking back toward me.

  They stared at me in silence. I didn't know what to do or say. Did I tell them? Was it my place to tell them? I didn't know the answer to that question, but they did deserve the truth.

  I turned around and slowly sat down on one of the bottom steps. I motioned for them to come and sit down with me. They sat down on their "lion" chairs in front of me. I motioned for JoJo to come sit next to me. She crawled up on my lap and hugged me.

  My eyes moistened as I hugged my daughter back. I held onto her as tight as I dared without crushing her little body. I feared that I was going to loose her. As a matter of fact, that was all I kept thinking about. What would I do if I had lost her too?

  I lost it. My eyes moistened uncontrollably and I wept. The worst part was that I could feel her crying too.

  When I finally released her from my hug, I looked into her moistened eyes. She tried to apologize for running away, but was too choked up to get her words out correctly. I smiled at her despite myself and pushed her hair out of her eyes. No, I thought. I would die before I saw any harm come to her.

  I looked over at the two boys and noticed that their eyes were wet. Did they know? Had they guessed? Were they overjoyed at seeing my interaction with my daughter? I guess it didn't matter because I was about to tell them everything. Well, everything that I knew anyway.

  With my daughter sitting on my lap and her head on my shoulder, I looked at the boys. I asked them to tell me what happened to them and after they were done, I promised that I would fill in the blanks with what I knew. They each took turns as they confirmed what I had already known.

  Brian and Cleo had rushed into the Warehouse. They had gathered all the women and children and took them to the safety of the buses. Shaelynn had taken my twins, Cole and Corbin with her. JoJo had taken off looking for me when the shooting started. My mom had sent Seth and Austin to go help with the kids when they noticed that JoJo was missing. Together, they had volunteered to go find her (they had been inseparable since the first days at the Warehouse).

  After frantically searching the Warehouse, they ended up finding her with her Aunt Christina. My sister came across her while trying to find out about me and Bobby. My sister decided to take JoJo to the safety of the War Room until I could come and get her. My sister made sure that she told Mia where she was going just in case.

  It was a good thing that my sister decided not to take her back to the buses. Seth and Austin had found her with her aunt. They had tried to talk my sister into allowing them to take JoJo back to the safety of the buses whenever they heard a couple of explosions. They weren't sure what to do or what was going on, they decided to go to the safety of the War Room.

  I sat there for a second as the information sank in, thinking about all the what-ifs that could have been. Maybe, all this devastation wouldn't of happened if we had just killed the reservist impostors when they first arrived. What if we had just killed Kevin and Bruce when we had the chance? Maybe, just maybe, my twins would still be alive.

  I realized that I had phased out in my thinking and turned my attention back to the boys. I told them that they had done a great job looking after my daughter, but I needed them to continue doing it until I got back. Their job was to stay and protect my daughter.

  I should have known that I couldn't outwit a couple of young smart teenagers. They had caught my hidden meaning and asked why they weren't supposed to go to the safety of the buses. They honestly thought that the buses had abandoned us all until they saw a sad look in my eyes and started to put the pieces together on their own.

  I took a deep breath and told them the truth. I told them something spooked Cleo and Brian causing them to try to drive away, but something happened. They didn't make it very far. The explosions they heard were the buses being blown up.

  They boys just stared wide eyed at me. What did I mean by the buses were blown up? Where were their families? I looked from one face to the other as I told them that there were no survivors. Denial set in as they each told me that it was impossible, they had just seen their sisters a little while ago. I told them that I knew that it was hard to accept, but it was the truth. Everyone on those buses were dead!

  I told them that I was sorry that they had to find out this way. I lowered JoJo from my lap and stood up. I slowly turned toward the stairs trying to psych myself up to climb back up. I admit I was tired and hurting, but we still had so much to do. To be honest, I wanted all of this to be a horrible nightmare that I just needed to wake up from.

  Unfortunately for us, it wasn't a nightmare. I looked back towards the boys and reminded them that they needed to protect my daughter. I wanted them to understand that they were our future and tried to illustrate to them that they needed to be strong.

  I stood there for a second just thinking. I felt bad for them because they were being forced to mature faster then they should have had too. I reminded them that we were now fewer in number and only by working together would we survive.

  16 DAY 241, PLAN D

  I want to start off by saying that this will be my last few pages in this journal. No! I'm not joking. As you can imagine, we had to abandon our sanctuary but not right away. We knew that if we had to leave right away then we would all die. So, we waited for the right time. We had to make sure that we were at full strength before we left. I guess that it was a good thing that we now had all those "extra" supplies. I know that it was wrong for me to say something like that, but it's the truth.

  Now that I got that little piece of information out of the way, I'll update you on everything that had happen since my last entry. As you can imagine, we have survived. Yes, us few have survived and it was only because we had to quickly adapt to our new situation. Truth be told, we learned to live from our p
revious mistakes again.

  As I've already stated, all of us who were injured had survived, including Bobby. It was hit and miss there for a few days, but he ended up pulling through. Believe it or not, the bullet actually fractured his collarbone. Luckily, Mia had learned enough from my mom and Ruff's wife to doctor him up. She had been able to cut him open and I guess "stitch" the bone back together. Hopefully, it heals correctly. She then was able to make him a makeshift type of cast. After twenty days or so, she began working with him trying to rehabilitate his left arm.

  He still doesn't have full strength in it and Mia wasn't sure if he ever would, but she did note his vast improvement. In those early days after his injury, he told my sister not to worry about him because he wasn't going to die. Sorry, I miss quoted him. He actually told her that he refused to die! He informed her that, not even death could separate them. Yeah, he is actually like that. He's one of them old school romantic guys and my sister was lucky enough to have him.

  Much like Bobby, Ruff's recovery had also been slow. I'm going to say that it took close to two weeks of healing before he could even put weight on his leg. It was discovered that he was actually shot three times in the leg. Lucky for him, only one of the bullets hit a major artery. I had to give Mia credit for what she was able to do for him. Especially, since she had limited medical knowledge and the limited tools she had available. She was able to get in there and close off the artery. She had been so cool under pressure. Mia stated that Ruff's main issue was that he had been trying to do to much after initially being shot. He ended up tearing the muscle and cartridge around the lodged bullets. Don't get me wrong, he is up and moving around, but he has a noticeable limp. Mia expressed that she wasn't sure if his leg was ever going to fully heal, but informed him that he had to keep rehabilitating it.

  Danny's wound was a through and through. Meaning, it went straight through his shoulder without doing too much damage. His wound however had to be cauterized before any infection took hold. It was observed that the exit hole was bigger then the entrance hole. I was told that the bullet that hit him was powerful enough to spin him around causing him to hit his head. His head had a four inch gash across it. It was said that while I was in the War Room, Mia had worked on cleaning his head wound and could see part of his skull. They said it looked kind of gross. Mia and my sister had to hold the skin together while they applied super glue to the wound. I was informed that it was the sort of thing that field medics used to close wounds quickly while out in combat. Mia was able to use band-aid strips to hold it together while it healed up. Danny had a severe headache for a few days, but was up and walking around soon after.