Dead, We Are

by Jimmy Bird

  After seeing the zombie, there was no wonder why I couldn't pull the door shut. Before the zombie was able to take two steps, I stabbed him with the spear as hard as I could in the center of his chest. I tried to pull it back for a second attempt, but it wouldn't budge. I guess I had stabbed him hard enough that I got the tip stuck.

  I held on to the spear shaft with two hands as the zombie tried to take another step. Man, he was strong. I had to widen my stance in order to keep from going backwards. My mind raced with a few ideas on what I should do next.

  Since I couldn't pull the spear directly out of him, I figured that I could let it go and allow the zombie into the Warehouse. It would give me a chance to shut the door, kill the zombie, and figure out some way to remove the spear without the fear of danger. To be honest, the idea sounded good. What were the percentage that it would go off without any problems? It seemed like the odds were always stacked against us and I wasn't willing to have this monster inside with my daughter around.

  Another idea popped into my head. I could use the spear to push him back out of the doorway and shut the door. I would loose the spear, but the percentage of it working was a hell of a lot better then the first idea.

  All those ideas ran through my head in a matter of seconds. I decided to do the second idea and pushed as hard as I could. It worked! Well, mostly.

  The zombie was trying to take a step forward which allowed me to catch it off balance. I lowered my center of gravity and pushed the spear as hard as I could. The zombie stumbled backwards and fell.

  I was pushing so hard and had such a tight grip on the spear that when he fell backwards, I almost went with him. I stumbled forward, causing me to let go of the spear. Luckily, I caught myself on the commercial style door knob before I fell.

  I quickly stood up and composed myself. I reached out toward the door when I noticed the pink shoe on the ground? The zombie must have tripped on Logan's upper torso, causing Logan in turn to roll off the shoe.

  Seeing my opportunity to grab the shoe, I reach down to pick it up. I then noticed movement out of the corner of my left eye. I turned my head to see what it was.

  I immediately saw a dozen more zombies or so coming toward me and they were close. So close that I would estimate that they were easily within ten feet. It meant that I needed to hurry.

  I quickly reached out, grabbed the shoe, and quickly stood back up. I immediately reached out to grab the door and stopped. Coming around the door was another zombie and it was literally two feet from me. I had failed to see the thing until it was almost too late.

  I was glad that I had stopped myself from grabbing the door otherwise I would have definitely gotten bit. I pulled my arm back just as the zombie reached out for it. The zombie was missing her scalp, literally. She only had hair right above the back of her neck. It was almost like a bald man's mullet, only she was missing skin that exposed her skull. Seeing the top of her exposed skull was truly nasty. A few of her fingers on her right hand that reached out to me was down to bones. It looked like something had chewed on her hand like it was some kind of chew toy.

  She took a step inside the door. I figured that I could do the same thing with her that I had done to the bodybuilder zombie. While keeping an eye on her, I reached out for my spear that I left leaning on the wall. I felt nothing.

  I risked a quick glance toward the wall looking for my spear. It wasn't there. Where was it? I glanced back at the zombie who now was on her second step into the Warehouse. Behind her the bodybuilding zombie was starting to get up with my spear still sticking out of his chest. That's right, now I remembered what had happened to it.

  A new idea formed in my head. What if I could somehow shut the door? I mean, I know it would be a long shot, but what if I managed to get around her to shut the door. Especially, since I no longer had my weapon. If I did managed to get the door shut then I could use Ruff's spear to kill her. It would stop the zombies from coming in.

  I thought about doing a football spin move to get around her. Before I knew it I started to juke to the left and spin back to the right whenever I almost turned right into another zombie. I quickly jumped back out of its reach.

  Crap! I was too late to stop the zombies from coming in. Without hesitating, I turned and sprinted back toward the barrier. As I ran I could hear the footsteps behind me. Were those things on my heels? Were they that fast?

  Without even slowing down, I hurdled the barriers in full stride. I was amazed because I hadn't been able to jump that high in years. I guess fear allows you to push your body to its limits.

  I landed on one foot and rolled. Basically, the old tuck and roll rule. I'm not going to say that I landed with grace or anything like that. I was far from perfect and thought that I heard something pop when I came back up, but knew that I didn't have time to worry about it. We had other problems.

  I rolled to my feet and immediately turned around into a defensive position. I noticed that the zombies hadn't quite made it to the barrier of appliances yet. The footsteps that I heard must have been my imagination messing with me.

  I stood up just as Ruff, who was carrying JoJo, stepped up next to me. By that time the zombies had reached the barrier. It looked like dozens of them. I noticed that the barrier seemed to have been holding up just fine against their combined weight.

  The bodybuilding zombie was leaning over one of the appliances with my spear still sticking out of his chest. Despite the protest from Ruff, I slowly walked up to the zombie. With the barrier holding up, I was determined to get my weapon back.

  I reached out and grabbed the spear tightly with both hands and pulled. Nothing! I must have really gotten the spear tip stuck in his chest.

  Ruff was hollering that we needed to go, but I was really determined to get my spear back. I guess you can say that I was being a little hardheaded. With the spear handle still in my grasp, I widened my stance and pulled harder. I could feel it starting to move.

  I couldn't help it, but I was feeling a little victorious. It meant that I was going to get my weapon back and the zombies were stuck. With that knowledge, I was determined more then ever not to fail. I pulled hard. It seemed to have loosened up a little more. I figure that one more good pull would do it. I widened my stance a little further and pulled with all the strength I could muster.

  My weapon came out of his chested causing me to stumble backwards a few steps. Once I regained my balance, I looked triumphantly toward Ruff and my daughter. Unfortunately, they didn't return the feeling. They had a look of fear on their faces. In fact, they were jumping up and down pointing towards something behind me.

  I turned just in time to see the barrier give way. A few of the appliances started to fall over, beginning with the one that the bodybuilder had been leaning on. Crap! Did I cause that? If I did then it meant that I had caused the fall of the Warehouse!

  I turned and ran towards Ruff and my daughter. They in turn were already heading towards the maintenance truck. Ruff placed JoJo in the back and jumped in the driver's seat. Luckily, Ruff waited until I was seated before he took off.

  As we took off, I looked back at the zombies. I noticed that they were beginning to trip over the fallen appliances and each other. It was the only good thing to happen.

  We stopped and set off the outside sirens. They we're supposed to be a silent, high pitched alarm that only zombies or dogs could hear. They were anything but silent. Well, it was too late now. Hopefully, it would buy us enough time to get the others and evacuate to safety.

  After our little detour, we rushed directly to the clinic where we found my sister, Bobby, and Seth waiting. They had just returned from searching all of the sleeping quarters when they heard the sirens.

  My sister must have noticed that I was visibly shaken. She was full of questions. Alarms? Who had set off alarms? Why were they going off? Did we had found Mia? I replied "Yes and no!"

  Confused, she asked me what I meant by that. I told her that we had found Mia, but she was a zombie. My
sister's only reply was "What?" Followed quickly by "How did that happen?" I told her that we wasn't entirely sure, but had a good idea. I told her that I would explain later because we needed to leave.

  My sister began to shake which quickly escalated to hyperventilating. I tried to calm her down by helping her into a chair. I mentioned that we had found some evidence on what happened. She looked at me and said that I just told them that we didn't know what happened to her. I corrected her by saying that we weren't entirely sure.

  I held out Mia's pink shoe towards my sister. She recognized it instantly. She had bought those for Mia a few months before the apocalypse started. She asked me why I had it. I told her that we found it outside the maintenance door under Logan's upper torso.

  My sister frowned as she questioned "Logan's torso? So, Logan's dead?" I smiled sadly as I told her that he wasn't exactly dead. Confused, she asked me if he was alive. My smile faded as I told her that he was a zombie. I added that when I said torso I meant that his legs were all chewed up forcing him to crawl around.

  I looked from my sister, to Bobby, and then Seth. I shared my theory. I think that Mia had gone to the maintenance area to be alone so she could mourn Logan in private. At one point, she must have thought about suicide. If you think about it, there are only a few ways to commit suicide around here and one of those is death by zombie.

  I thought that she decided to venture outside to do just that when she came across Logan's body. She most likely recognized her husband and tried to help him. I think that when she got close enough he ended up grabbing her foot. She most likely tried to use her arm to fight him off which allowed him to bite her. She most likely managed to pull herself free from his grasp and ran to the safety of the Warehouse. She then closed the door to keep the zombies out. She must have died and turned into a zombie just inside the door, somewhere between the barrier and door.

  When I was done talking, I looked sympathetic toward my sister who was seriously hyperventilating. My sister got up from her chair and tried to walk out of the room, but only made it halfway. She collapsed in the middle of the room. I wanted to go comfort her, but Bobby was already there. He didn't say a word as he knelt down in front of her. He then reached out with his one good arm to help her up. She melted into his embrace.

  With tears in his eyes, Seth walked over and hugged them. I couldn't help, but think that Seth was on the verge of a breakdown. It wouldn't have surprise me at all. Especially, since the mind can only take so much and a young teenager's mind was fragile enough without having to worry about surviving.

  Danny and Austin rushed into the clinic at that exact moment. They noticed that my sister was in the middle of the room with Bobby and Seth surrounding her. Being the unsympathetic type of guy that he was, Danny tried to lighten the mood by asking about the sirens going off and immediately followed it up by asking what they missed.

  I informed him that we had found Mia and she was a zombie. Zombie! Zombies! Crap, I had forgotten all about the zombies. They were now in the Warehouse. We needed to go. Danny looked at me confused. He asked what I meant that they were now in the Warehouse. Ruff told him that because of some unforeseen and unfortunate events, they were now in the Warehouse.

  Danny turned toward Ruff and commented that at least the barriers would hold them for awhile allowing us time to escape. Ruff didn't respond as he glanced toward me and I towards him. Everyone of course noticed the exchange as they asked "What?"

  I told them that the barrier was down, but we set off the outside sirens to get their attentions. They weren't silent like we had hoped. Hopefully, it would be enough to distract them so we could escape.

  When my sister had finally calmed down enough she apologized to us. She stated that she just couldn't take the deaths anymore. We all understood what she meant, but if we didn't act fast enough then we would be the ones dead. Bobby helped my sister as Danny asked if we were all packed and ready to go.

  Yes and no, were the responses he received. Frustrated, he told everyone to get there stuff while he stood watch. I grabbed my daughter's hand and led her toward our sleeping quarters. We got to the room and it looked ransacked.

  My emotions started to boil over as they went from being calm to that of anger. I yelled out loud and asked no one in particular, who would steal in a time like this. Frustrated, I glanced around the room until I met my daughter's scared eyes. My heart stopped, the last thing I wanted to do was upset her.

  I quickly calmed myself down before I approached her. I knelt down in front of my daughter and asked her what was wrong. She looked at me with that scared look for a few long seconds before saying anything. She frowned as she told me that it's looked like this since the fight outside, since the day her brothers died.

  Confused, I looked around again. Really? I guess that I had been so focused on everything else that I hadn't paid attention. I looked around one more time before asking my daughter if she was sure. She shook her head up and down. Her answer was good enough for me.

  I told my daughter to grab only the things that she really needed. She asked me what was that. I told her to grab as much clothes as she could, blankets, and a pillow.

  She lifted her doll and asked if she could take it. I knew how important the doll was to her. It was the last thing her mom gave to her before the whole mess started. My heart dropped as I told her that of course she could take her doll.

  I grabbed a couple of bags to carry our clothes in and quickly realized that my twins' clothes were mixed up with mine. I caught myself before I yelled out their names to come get their clothes. Realizing what I had almost done, I looked around one more time as memories of my family flooded my mind.

  Maybe my life was flashing before my eyes or maybe I was just having a nervous breakdown. I'm not sure but everywhere I looked, I saw my twins Cole and Corbin, my oldest son Jimmy Jr, my wife Nichole, and other family members. Even some that were missing and presumed dead. Even some who had died after it began like Jesse, Shaelynn, and my mom. One thing was for sure my heart was filled with joy as I watched them doing different things.

  I could see my boys playing and fighting with each other (that image brought a smile to my face). Even at a young age they had a few intense fights and I would get frustrated with them for fighting. I would have given anything to see them interact with each other like that again. I looked over and could see my beautiful wife standing there getting just as frustrated with their fighting as I was (my smile widened at the thought).

  I saw my mom sitting down on the ground cross-legged, drinking a cup of coffee. My niece Shaelynn was sitting next to her playing on her cell phone. Her older brother Shane was looking in a mirror trying to strike some kind of pose to impress his girlfriend. I could see my younger adopted brother sitting on the other side of my mom playing video games. I could see my dad kicked back drinking a beer and watching a football game with my grandfather. I could see my grandmother in her kitchen just cooking away. I could see my cousin John sitting next to his wife and two children. I could see numerous other family members doing various activities. I smiled to myself. I got up off the floor and walked over to my wife. I reached out and gave her a hug and kiss.

  My daughter snapped me back to reality when she asked me what I was doing. I blinked my eyes a few times as I began looking around. I had been in a hugging position with my lips shaped like I had been kissing someone. With a blank stare, I looked around.

  Everyone was gone, leaving just me and JoJo alone in our room. I looked at my daughter sadly as I told her that I was just picturing our family, the way they used to be.

  What just happened? I mean. What the Hell just happened? I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. It felt so real. It was as if this world was the nightmare and my mind was trying to wake me up.

  I could feel my mind working overtime as it tried to make logical sense of what I had seen, but it was hard considering how rational my mind is. I knew they weren't really there, but that didn't st
op me from seeing them.

  My daughter reached out, gave me a hug, and started crying. It was soft at first, but then she just broke down uncontrollably. She started sobbing as she told me that she really missed them. I told her that there wasn't anything wrong with that because I missed them too.

  She pulled away from me and asked with tears in her eyes "What if I forget what they looked like?" I told her not to worry as I placed one hand on her heart and one on mine. I smiled as I informed her that they would always be with us in our hearts.

  I asked her if she believed me. She responded by leaning forward and giving me a hug. I told her that the pain we feel for them will never go away, but that was okay because we would see them again.

  I gently pushed my daughter off of me and looked into her eyes. I told her that we would not give up trying to survive. Right? She looked at me and said "Yes, daddy. We will survive." I smiled. My daughter was a strong willed little girl and if she could go on living then so could I.

  I reached out and hugged her one last time. I closed my eyes and made a promise to my wife, I would do whatever it took to make sure our little girl survives. Even if it meant sacrificing my own life to do it. Still holding onto my daughter, I opened my eyes.

  Standing behind my daughter was my family smiling, all of them. My wife was standing behind our daughter and whispered to me. She told me that she loved us and for me to keep our daughter safe. I nodded my head and looked down towards my boys. They smiled up at me as they told me that they loved us.

  Tears began forming as I whispered "I love you too!" I tried repeatedly to blink the tears away, but I was unsuccessful. I settled for just shutting my eyes for a couple of seconds. When I opened my eyes again, they were gone. I whispered one last time "I love you!"