Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  All in all, things went pretty smoothly if not quickly. JoJo helped her Aunt Tina take care of Uncle Bobby, who was making a quick recovery even if he was never going to fully recover. Without the proper medical care, his collarbone didn't heal straight causing his left shoulder to be lower then his right. It was a good thing that he was right handed because he could barely lift his left arm. Still, he was lucky to be alive.

  With Bobby up and walking, I took the opportunity to start training the kids to defend themselves. We converted the War Room to a training room. We left the table where it was in the corner so we could use it to our advantage during training.

  Ruff and Danny, who were also up and about helped with the training. They suggested that we use some of the left over bedding to represent zombies. It was a good way for the kids to get a feel for what it would be like to stab one of them. It was a good idea considering we had the extra bedding.

  My daughter wasn't the strongest, but she did try. In fact, I think that she tried harder then the two older boys. What impressed me the most about my daughter was the fact that she did not cry when she got hurt, not once. I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was impressive and worrisome at the same time. Did it mean that she was already starting to adapt to the new world? Did she understand the dangers?

  Like I said before, she wasn't the strongest. She learned how to wield the spear like a true master. It literally became an extension of her arm. I couldn't help, but beam with pride as I thought that my daughter would, no, could survive on her own. Well, with certain limitations.

  Now you might think that the pipe would be to heavy to be wielded, but that wasn't true. It seemed that when the boys grind on the pipes, it took a little weight off. Plus Ruff did something that only a machinist could do, he cut the weight of the spear in half. Better yet, he made the three quarter inch pipe weigh next to nothing. He managed to hollowed the center out of the gas pipe without effecting the integrity of the metal.

  Next, he created a hidden blade for each spear that fit snugly inside the shaft of the pipe. The blades themselves were twelves inches long and attached to the hilt located on the base of the spear. It would be similar to a hidden blade on a walking cane or stick. It was a brilliant idea that Seth had, it seemed that he had a secret obsession with stuff like that.

  Next Ruff was able to make a removable spear head. I know what your thinking. That it was impossible. How could he create a removable hidden hilt to reveal a blade and a removable spear head? Did you forget that Ruff was once a machinist? With an idea provided by Austin, Ruff was able to created a hidden gun with a single shot.

  As a surprise for the adults, Ruff took the hidden blade idea from the spears and created something spectacular. He made us all swords, complete with metal handles. It was a nontraditional way to make a sword, but he was able to work with what he had available. He used our old machines to cut down raw metal, make metal hilts and make metal sheaths to hold the swords. Even I didn't know how good of a machinist he was.

  I wished that we would have thought of this stuff when we still had a full community. Ah, the lives we could have saved. What if we would have thought about this when we were preparing for the coming apocalypse? Maybe all of our families would still be alive.

  No! Stop thinking like that! There was no way of knowing that Kevin and Bruce had their own secret agendas. We had no way of knowing what they were going to do. None us knew that they were still alive and had secretly created an army to take the Warehouse. Much less, how far some of them were willing to go!

  Regardless, we couldn't change the past. We could only look to the future. We needed to prepare ourselves for what's out there because we couldn't stay at the Warehouse much longer. Our food and supplies have just about run out.

  Part of the problem was that we just didn't have the manpower to send people out to search for more supplies and protect the Warehouse at the same time. We had already scavenged every home within a radius of two miles, if not a little more. It meant we would have to go further out to find supplies. Another thing was that we didn't know what shape the outside of the Warehouse even looked like. Who's to say that even if we did manage to leave and look for supplies, we could easily get back in? Especially, with the possibility of all the zombies and survivors still out there.

  No, we would stay in here and prepare ourselves. We would build weapons and train as much as possible until our food ran out. By that time, we should be healed and back at full strength. Well, as close to full strength as we possibly could be.

  We trained with every possible weapon that we had available. Knives, spears, swords, guns, etc. It didn't matter what weapon it was because the young ones were just as focused as the adults.

  Last, we took the opportunity to work on our departure plan. We worked out where we would go to look for supplies on our way to our new location. We knew what vehicles we would take with us (two SUV's). Like I said, we tried to prepare for every unexpected encounter.

  We decided that we were going to use Seth's and Austin's device to attract the zombies away from the Warehouse long enough for us to pack the SUV's with supplies. We parked them next to the shipping door, facing the gate for a quick escape. We had all of our extra gear stacked inside with us, next to the door. We weren't comfortable leaving all the gear in the vehicles, just in case someone got in the gate and stole them.

  We stayed busy in those last few days. Too busy to notice that someone was missing. It was only after everyone was working to finalize our plans for our departure that my sister realized that Mia was missing.

  After talking about it, we all figured that she just wanted to be alone. You know, some alone time to gather her thoughts. We all knew that with her taking care of everyone, she didn't really have a chance to mourn the loss of her husband.

  The seconds turned to minutes. The minutes turned to hours. The hours turned to days. After a few days, we still hadn't seen or heard from her. We got worried and went looking for her. The Warehouse as you know is a big place and to search more ground, we decided to split up.

  I know what you're thinking and while it's true that splitting up is never a good idea, we didn't really have much of a choice. We were running out of time for our "evacuation" and we had no idea where she was.

  Trying to be as careful and safe as possible, we split into three groups. My sister, Bobby, and Seth went to search the sleeping quarters, more importantly Mia's and Logan's sleeping quarters. Ruff, JoJo, and I went toward the maintenance area. While Danny and Austin went to search the appliance assembly areas.

  I'm not sure what everyone else found, but what we found wasn't good. Standing there trapped in the center of the appliance maze was Mia and she had the predatory look of a zombie!

  The closer we got to her, the more we knew that we were way too late to save her. My daughter noticed Mia's odd behavior and asked me what had happened to her. I had to be honest, I just didn't know. Ruff cut me off as he pointed out a bite mark on her left arm.

  Well, that explained how she became a zombie, but not the events that led up to it happening. Fear gripped me and Ruff as our eyes widened. We quickly glanced around the area, expecting to be jumped by a bunch of zombies that had somehow gotten inside. Luckily, we saw nothing.

  We looked at each other. We knew what the other person was thinking. The question remained. How did she get bit? Unfortunately, we knew that we wouldn't find any answers while she was still alive or should I say undead, however you wanted to look at it. Regardless, it was just too dangerous to investigate until something was done. I looked over at Ruff one more time. He knew what I was thinking and shook his head to confirm that he would do it. I knelt down and hugged my daughter, forcing her to look away from what Ruff was about to do.

  To be honest, I wanted my daughter to know how it felt to take a zombie out. I was thinking about having her do it. Do you know why I changed my mind? It was different when you had to kill a zombie that you had never seen, but thi
s was Mia we were talking about. It was someone that she knew and I just couldn't let her do that. I know that she's going to have to learn to deal with the horrors of this new world eventually, but for now I wanted her to retain her innocence. Even if it was just for a little while longer.

  Ruff easily leaned across the barrier of the appliance maze and put the tip of his spear through the left side of Mia's temple. She stopped moving. Ruff quickly pulled the spear out of her temple, causing her to fall face first onto a washing machine before her body collapsed onto the floor. All I kept thinking was how young and inexperienced at life Mia was, just like my daughter. I held JoJo tightly.

  I'm not sure how long I held my daughter, but I was awoken out of my transient state by Ruff. He stated that we need to find out how Mia had gotten bit. I reluctantly agreed and let go of my daughter and stood up.

  Since Ruff had only one hand and an injured leg, I immediately climbed over the barrier away from Mia just in case she wasn't truly dead. Once I was on the other side, I slowly walked towards Mia's motionless body. The first thing I noticed was that she missing her right pink shoe. JoJo cried out that she was scared and asked if she could come stand next to me. I told her to stay near Ruff because I needed to make sure that Mia was really dead.

  I pointed the tip of my sword out in front of my body as I used the tip of my shoe to nudge the body. I thought that I saw her body move, I immediately jumped backwards a few steps and got into a defensive position. Seeing me jump caused Ruff to ask me what was happening.

  I told him that I thought that I saw the body move. Even now, I swear that I saw her body move. But thinking back on things, I guess it could have just been my imagination playing tricks on me. Fear can make you see and do irrational things.

  After a long minute of waiting, I slowly abandoned my defensive position and stood back up. I walked up to her body and nudged it again. Again, nothing happened. I was pretty sure that it was safe and bent down next to the body.

  In an effort to roll her over onto her back, I reached out and grabbed her shoulders. I started to pull her towards me when I noticed something out of my peripheral vision near the exit door. It looked small, black, and flat.

  With my attention diverted from Mia's body, I slowly got up and made my way towards the object. Ruff kept asking questions, but to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to him. My focus was on the object that was starting to look like some kind of smart-phone.

  When I stood in front of the object, I bent down and picked it up. Yep, it was a smart-phone and it had a crack screen. It was weird because we hadn't been able to use any type of phone in well over five months. We had pretty much thrown them all away. So, what was it doing down here?

  Since we had thrown all of them away or so I thought, we didn't even have plugins to charge them. But something was telling me to try and turn it on. Without a second thought, I pushed the power button.

  The phone immediately came on and according to the battery meter, it was over seventy-five percent charged. Wait, that couldn't be right. It shouldn't even of had a charge on it. To top it all off, the home screen had a pretty recent picture of Logan on it. It looked like it was taken right before we were attacked.

  The phone itself was code locked so I couldn't get into it. I looked over at Mia's body and asked myself what could have happened to her. I glance back at the phone as if it would give me some kind of answer when I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze in place, waiting for something to come towards me.

  When nothing came, I slowly turned toward the location where I had seen the movement. I saw nothing. Confused, I began to turn back toward Ruff and JoJo when I saw something move again. It was very faint, but it was definately there. It looked like it was part of a shadow coming from under the exit door.

  Without thinking, I put the phone in my back pocket and walked over toward the door. When I reached the door, I push the release lever to open the door and to my surprise it wasn't locked. Confused on what was going on, I slowly pushed open the door. It didn't open very far before hitting something.

  I pushed harder on the door, but it wouldn't go any further. I leaned my head toward the opening to see if I could get a glance of the object that was in the way. I was immediately rewarded by something reaching it's arm around the door. I didn't see it at first, but felt something touch my shoe causing me to look down. What I saw made me quickly jump backwards out of its reach.

  A chewed up hand was trying to blindly grab the front of my shoe. I kicked it, hoping that the zombie would pull it back so I could close the door. No such luck. I tried to close the door, but couldn't get enough leverage to cause whoever it was to pull their hand back. Ultimately, I decided to kick the hand again. I must have kicked it a dozen times or so, but it still didn't phase it.

  Another idea popped into my head. What if I forced the zombie away from the door by using the door as a battering ram? I knew that I could do it. It would be like a football move, by using my shoulder to nudge the door open. I knew that all I had to do was push hard enough to open it.

  I stepped to the side of the grasping hand in order to stand directly in front of the door. I leaned my spear against the wall so I would have both hands free and leaned my left shoulder against the door. I planted my feet firmly on the ground and pushed.

  I gave it a quick nudge to see what kind of resistance was on the other side. It wouldn't budge more then a few inches which was about the thickness of the thing's arm. I pushed harder, maybe moving the door a few more inches. Determined to open the door, I lowered my center of gravity. With as much force as I could muster, I strained as I pushed outward as hard as I could.

  The door slowly began to open, it became easier the wider it swung. Whenever it was opened about sixty degrees, I stopped pushing. I figured that it was open enough for me to see what was behind the door.

  I leaned towards the edge of the door and stuck my head partially out. I looked down and immediately knew why the door had been so hard to open. It was a nasty sight as the lifeless arm was still on the ground while the body was still behind the door. It seemed that I had pushed so hard on the door that the thing's chewed up, lifeless arm had detached from its body. It looked like the zombie's hand had somehow gotten wedged on the door frame.

  After a quick glance over the scene, I determined that part of a ripped shoulder sling made out of a shirt was to blame. Well, at least partially to blame. It looked like the sling had also gotten stuck on the door-frame as I was pushing open the door.

  Wait! Did I just say a sling made out of a shirt? Does that mean that the zombie behind the door was Logan? Wide eyed, I peeped around the door and looked down. To be honest, it was hard to tell if it was Logan or not? The thing wiggling around on the ground was laying on its stomach. It was all chewed up, especially its legs. It even had hard patches of skin missing from the back of its head. The head wasn't even the worst part, its lower legs looked like they were barely attached at the knees.

  For some unknown reason that I couldn't explain, I just stood there and stared at the thing. I couldn't help but think that the thing did look familiar. It was really hard to tell, especially with all the wiggling it was doing. It wasn't making much progress since it only had one arm and its legs weren't working.

  One thing that it did manage to do was to turn over onto its back, it was wiggling like a helpless turtle. While watching him, I was now one hundred percent sure that it was Logan.

  His face was still intact and if that didn't prove it then maybe this would, the thing was wearing Logan's shirt. The same shirt that Logan had been wearing when he disappeared that day.

  Still laying on his back, he reached out toward me with his remaining arm. I want to say that I saw regretfulness in his eyes, but that would have been a lie. He looked just as dangerous as any of the other zombies that I had seen. He had that customary predator look as he snarled at me.

  I, on the other hand felt pity for him. Especially, after he had di
ed saving me. I was about to turn around to go back inside when I noticed something that looked like a pink shoe under him. The more Logan wiggled around, the more I noticed that the pink shoe had some kind of blood stains on it. I thought about bending down to get it, but with Logan wiggling around like he was, I changed my mind.

  I figured that it wasn't worth the risk and backed up. I reached out and grabbed the edge of the door so I could close it behind me. I turned to head back in when I felt something slimy touch the top of my hand.

  I literally jumped out of my skin and as quickly as I could, I turned back to look at my hand. To my horror, it looked like a bloody hand was on top of mine. I knew what that meant.

  I began pulling the door toward me, but whatever was on the other side was also pulling. I tried to angle my head so that I could see what was there, but the zombie was already coming around the end of the door. I was so focused on the door that I barely heard my daughter scream in fear.

  I needed my weapon! My mind raced to figure out where I had left it. Then it dawned on me that I had left leaning on the wall, just out of arms reach. Forgetting about the door, I pulled my hand back as quickly as I could. I'll admit that the thing had a strong grip, but don't underestimate someones strength when their fear kicks in. I released the door so I could grab my spear.

  Once I had my spear in hand I turned back toward the door. I knew that if I could close the door, we would be safe inside. I took a step towards the door and was about to drive my spear into the zombie when I stopped dead in my tracks. Have you ever seen a bodybuilder as a zombie?

  He stood over six and a half feet tall and had a muscular build (hence the bodybuilder theory). He was wearing one of those tight shirts that was supposed to complement that person's muscles. The shirt was stained different colors of red and had holes all over it. The holes exposed flesh and tissue. The right side of the guy's face looked like it had been ripped off, exposing an eye socket and his upper jaw bone. The left arm looked like it had been chewed on by wild animals, but I knew what had done it. Yeah, it was not a pretty sight.