by Jimmy Bird
As for me, my wound wasn't as severe as some of the others or so I'm told. The bullet went through me without causing too much problems. Luckily, it missed all the major arteries. Besides the loss of blood, I kind of widened the hole a little more then what it initially was when Logan and I went to get the maintenance truck. They had to cauterize the wound in order to keep me from getting an infection. Unfortunately, my shoulder hadn't fully healed by the time I needed to use it. I just didn't have time for it to heal because someone had to see to our defenses until we were at full strength again.
Mia! What else could I say about that strong young lady. She stood in there and operated on all of us injured guys without batting an eye. She never faulted nor stopped to rest while we needed her.
When she was done working, she refused to go rest. Instead, she walked up and stood over me with her arms crossed. I looked up into her wanting eyes. I knew what she wanted. I had made a promise to tell her about her husband when she was done. As a man of my word, I slowly began to stand. I will tell you this much, my shoulder still hurt like hell causing me to wince as I stood up.
I'm easily a foot taller then her and had to look down. What I found was an impatient tense expression. I asked her if she was sure that she wanted to know what had happened to her husband. Without hesitation, she confirmed that she did.
I told her everything that had happened. I started off by telling her how Logan had come out to help us get back inside the Warehouse. I continued by telling her how me and him went to go find a truck in order to carry everyone to the clinic. I finished my story by telling her that his last words were for her as he saved my life. I made sure to point out that he had saved all of our lives when he had sacrificed his own.
I managed to control the strong emotions that were surging through me, but Mia on the other hand could not. She had become unsteady on her feet as she fought to keep from breaking down. It looked like it was a loosing battle for her. She carefully sat down in a chair in the corner and placed her face into her hands.
I could hear her crying softly as her whole body began to visibly shake. My heart broke for her. She was so young and inexperienced in life. What made things worse for her was that the one person she loved had been ripped away from her. To top it all off, she didn't even get a chance to fight for that love. She was stripped of that choice.
The father in me wanted to tell her to dry those tears, that there were plenty of fish still in the sea, but I realized that would have been a mistake. We didn't know how many people were left out in the world and after our recent experience with people, we didn't know what kind of people they would even be.
My sister walked over and placed her arm over Mia's shoulders. Mia slowly lowered her hands from her moistened eyes and leaned over as she put the side of her head on my sister's shoulders. Tears began rolling down both of their cheeks.
I couldn't stand the awkwardness of the situation any longer and looked around for something to do. When nothing popped out at me, an idea sprung to life. I could go look at our defenses again. I told myself that I needed to make sure that we were safe until we were a hundred percent healthy. I asked my sister if she could watch JoJo while I took Seth and Austin with me to go check on our defenses.
I could see the worry on her face at the possibility of loosing her last remaining child. I tried to reassure her that everything would be fine, but wasn't sure if I was successful.
I told her that while everyone else was hurt, I didn't know if I could stop whatever might be sneaking in by myself. She knew that I spoke the truth as she reluctantly agreed. To stop her from worrying, I told her that I would show the boys how to protect themselves. More importantly, I would show her son how to properly protect himself.
I slowly made my way down the hallway that led to the War Room. For the life of me, I couldn't come up with a weapon that I could teach them that didn't require the use of my hurt shoulder. I was almost to the stairs when an idea popped into my head. I remembered that the War Room was decorated in gas pipes and accessories. I could teach them to use the pipes.
I decided to go get two of the five foot, three quarter inch pipes and put caps on the ends. After sealing both ends, I would then grind one cap into a spike. I would make them spears or should I say, they could help me make their own spears. With the use of only one arm I definitely needed their help.
I started walking down the stairs to the War Room and knew right away that something was wrong. It was quiet, eerily quiet.
Worried, I slowed my decent the rest of the way down. I tried to be as quiet as I could be. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I froze in place and listened.
I could hear a low noise coming from around the corner that led into the big meeting room. It was faint, but it was definitely there. Nervous about what I would find, I quietly pulled my knife out of its holster from my belt and peeked around the corner. I saw nothing.
Well, that's not entirely true. I did see something, it just wasn't what I expected. You see, Seth and Austin took the assignment I gave them to heart. They had realigned the massive business table (I'm not sure how they were able to move it because it took over 6 people just to move it into the room) so that it was diagonal to the corners. It was flipped over on it's side, giving them a safe triangle shape with the table being their barricade. They had placed the chairs on top of the table, I think that it was so they could hide better or maybe use it as a better defense. Either way, it was a brilliant idea.
I could still hear the noise, but now that my head was around the corner, it sounded a little like snoring. Without making a sound, I slowly made my way into the room towards the table.
When I approached the table, I stood in awe at what those young men had accomplished. To be honest, I'm not sure that I could have done it with two good arms.
I looked over the chairs stacked on top of the flipped table towards the sound. Laying between the two boys was my daughter sleeping. She was wrapped up in my blanket (one of the boys must have gotten it for her to help her relax enough to sleep). Seth and Austin were also asleep, but they were in a sitting flanking position just in case of an emergency.
I wasn't able to crawl over the table to wake them up, so I decided to call out their names in order to get their attention. It was my daughter who woke up. Poor little thing, I think I scared her to death. She bolted into a seated position, her eyes were wide open while her skin had a pale look to them. She looked scared. I couldn't help, but think that she was probably having a bad dream.
She began looking around for the source of the noise that had woken her up. She looked from right to left until she saw my face. Her expression immediately changed from being frightened to that of happiness as she screamed out "Daddy!"
Her screamed caught Seth and Austin off guard. I watched as they sleepily tried to move into defensive positions. I couldn't help but smile. It was truly a hysterical sight as they looked like two giant worms falling over from their sitting positions against the walls. To top it all off, they immediately tried to stand up as fast as they could.
JoJo was already on her feet coming towards me before Seth and Austin even knew what was happening. By the time they noticed that she was no longer between them, she had already started climbing the chairs in front of the table. Still dazed and confused, the boys tried to grab her.
By the time they made it to her, she was already in my arms hugging me tightly. After a few seconds, she loosened her grip and asked me what was going on in her childish way. Before I could even respond, she quietly asked me where Cole and Corbin were. The question hit me hard. What was I going to tell her? How was I going to tell her that it was just us now?
I couldn't find my voice as I held her tightly. I closed my eyes and started crying. She must have known something was wrong because she began crying too.
After what seemed like an eternity, I slowly opened my blinking eyes. I used my good hand to wipe my moistened eyes. I gently pushed her back from me and looked at he
r. I used the back of my hand to wipe her tears away. I struggled with my words as I tried to tell her that it was just us now.
JoJo's eyes were red from crying and she was sobbing horribly. Somehow she managed to ask if her little brothers were attacked the same way as her Bubba (little Jimmy) was. I stood there speechless as I looked at my daughter. I keep forgetting just how smart she actually was. I took a deep breath and told her that they were not.
I told her that some bad people had killed them. It was the same bad people that had shot me in my shoulder and shot Uncle Bobby. She looked at me wide eyed and asked if Uncle Bobby was hurt. I smiled sadly as I told her that he did get shot, but he was going to be okay. I told her that he needed to get as much rest as possible so he could get better. I knew that this was just what she needed to take her mind off her brothers.
I told her that in a few minutes, I would take her to see him. He actually needed her help. She asked me what she could do to help her Uncle Bobby feel better. I told her that she could help her Aunt Tina take care of him. Her face brightened up at the thought of helping her Uncle Bobby get better.
I put her down on the ground and looked toward Seth and Austin. They had stood there quietly and motionless as they watched us. It looked like they were trying to figure out if it was all just a dream or a nightmare.
I jumped a little as my daughter grabbed my left hand. Let me tell you, she has one heck of a grip. It was as if she was afraid to let it go.
I thanked the boys for watching over and protecting my daughter. I don't think that they were prepared for my response. It was as if I caught them completely off guard. I looked once again at their defensive structure and smiled. I thought to myself that if anyone could survive in this new world, they could. I motioned for them to follow us as I led them all upstairs and out of the War Room.
As we walked down the hallway that led to the clinic, I noticed all the empty rooms. Just hours before, we were a thriving community and now look at us. Now there were just nine of us left. Would we survive?
I think that the answer to that question was that "only time would tell." One thing was for sure, we wouldn't survive if we stayed at the Warehouse much longer. We did have enough supplies to last a few months, but that was it. We were now too few in number and too injured to go on supply runs, but that was a problem for another time. First things first, our number one priority was too make sure that the Warehouse was secure.
There was nothing but silence as we continued walking down the hallway. Maybe we were thinking the same thing, it was just too quiet. There was no movement, no children running around playing. It was a horrible empty feeling. To be honest, it was almost as bad as loosing my family. My wife and three boys were now gone, lost to me forever.
I looked down at my daughter and noticed that she even looked deep in thought. She was now the youngest child around and was being forced to grow up in a hard, cruel world. I would make sure that she had that opportunity to grow up. I was determined to protect her, my last remaining child. My silent promise to her and her mom.
I dropped JoJo off at the clinic and took the boys around the perimeter of the Warehouse. On the way, we stopped by the armory and picked up some useful weapons. Seth and Austin each wanted a gun, but I wouldn't allow it. I explained that the zombies were attracted to noise and the gunfire would attract an even larger number of zombies outside. If that was to happen, we would be stuck in here forever or the Warehouse would be overrun. Seeing the logic in what I told them, they reluctantly agreed that guns were a last resort type of weapon.
They were curious on what weapons they would get to use. With a straight face I reached out and handed them two - five foot, three quarter inch gas pipes and two - fourteen inch machetes. Confused, they asked what they are supposed to do with the pipes. I smiled as I told them that a machete was basically a miniature sword. They were like okay, we get that, but what about the pipes.
I smiled even bigger as I asked them what was the main weapons used throughout history in every major battle. They replied in unison "Guns." I kept smiling as I told them that guns were the immediate history over the past few hundred years. I'm talking a weapon a lot older then that.
Seth and Austin glanced toward each other and shrugged. Austin looked deep in thought and finally blurted out "Swords?" I replied that his observation was very good. I looked from one boy to the other as I asked what else. Seth spoke out and asked "Shield?" I told him that while it was true that most armies used shields, hundreds if not thousands of years ago, it was not considered a weapon. They were used for defense, as in a way to protect themselves.
Both looked deep in thought again. Seth asked for the answer, but I refused to give it. Instead, I gave another hint. I asked if they had both seen the movie 300. I looked from one to the other as I asked what weapons did the Spartan's use. Austin said "Swords!" I told him that was correct but asked what else. Seth's eyes widened as he said "Spears!" I smiled and told him that was correct.
The boys looked confused as they asked me how the pipes were going to be spears. I smiled again at their lack of imagination. I told them that we had pipe caps that we would seal on one end and then use a grinder to file it down into a tip. Wide eyed, they asked in unison if I could really do that. I told them that I wasn't going to do anything, they were. They were going to have to learn to make their own spears.
Pleased with the idea of having spears instead of just having plain old gas pipes, they enthusiastically accepted their new weapons. Especially, since they were the ones who were going to make them. I told them that before we could get started on the spears, we had to make sure that the Warehouse was secure. I locked the door to the armory and turned to head towards the truck that would take us to the maintenance ramp.
I slowly walked around looking at our defenses. Seth asked me what I was looking for. I informed them that I was looking for any weak spots. I told them that it didn't matter that the door was down and closed because if too much weight was applied then it would give way. I pointed to the triple row of appliances in front of the door. I told them that while on the surface it might look safe and secure there was no guarantee that it would work.
We walked around while I explained what needed to be done, what they needed to look for. I informed them that we needed to check on the doors and any safety measures that were put in place, every few hours. I told them that we were stuck inside the Warehouse for at least a month while everyone healed up. Until that happened, we were the only line of defense.
The boys came up with a game plan that would make it the most efficient way to check on our defenses. I know that I already said this, but I'm gonna tell you again that those boys are smart. They figured a way to check all the doors at one time. I had forgotten that the Warehouse had security cameras throughout the plant, since we didn't have power to use them.
They were able to hook the security system up to the generator and hack into the video feed. We could observe the outside perimeter as well as the inside the Warehouse. They also found some additional cameras in the old IT storage room. We were able to use some of the maintenance's wires and brackets to set them up around the doors. While looking for wire, they came across some old motion sensors. The same kind that were used on the front gate.
In those early days, we kept extremely busy safeguarding the Warehouse. Seth and Austin hooked up a monitor to view the security cameras in the clinic. They also rigged up some kind of high pitch siren that would go off at the fence gate. It was a way to attract the zombies away from the Warehouse when it was time to leave.
To top it all off, they came up with a tricky maze using the appliances. What I mean by tricky is that there was no way through. Yeah, you heard me. There is no way through. Well, that's unless you know what your looking for. I will tell you this much. Do you remember the mazes in kid activity books? You know the ones where there is only way through it. Yep, it was similar to that.
If you haven't realized it yet, I'll share this lit
tle tidbit of information with you. Seth and Austin are inseparable, it's almost like they were brothers. They got along and worked well together. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure if I have ever seen them fight. It's weird how life works out. In my opinion, I don't think they would even have been friends if the world hadn't fell apart.
They did have their differences though. Seth was the skater type of teenager who liked wearing clothes that look like they came right out of a dirty clothes pile, even though they were clean. Don't get me wrong he did wear clean pressed clothes occasionally, but that was a long time ago. Austin was a religious church goer who liked wearing "preppy" style clothes. He always dressed in nice clothes that looked very expensive, too expensive for my taste. Those were just two examples of how they were different.
The next thing the boys did was create their own spears. We used thread loctite to lock the caps on their pipes. After they filed the tips down to spikes, they did something that amazed me. They turned around and grind out smoothed groves down the length of the spear. They claimed that it would help them grip their spears better. Didn't I tell you they were smart?
They even made JoJo a little three foot spear, modeled after theirs. Their reasoning was simple, she also needed to learn to protect herself. I couldn't argue with that line of reasoning. Even though I would always protect her, there was no guarantee that I would always be around. It was one of those "it's better to be safe then sorry" type of things.