by Jimmy Bird
He looked over at me wide eyed and he asked me if I saw it. I frowned as I asked "Saw what?" He didn't answer as he looked in the rear view mirror again and shook his head. It looked for a moment as if he was beginning to doubt what he saw. I asked him again "What did you see?" He looked at me and said "I think I saw a baby crawling on the road!"
I looked at him and stated "That was impossible." He stated that he knew that, but added that's why he tried to verify it by asking me if I saw it. I turned my head to look through the rear window and saw nothing. To be honest, I wasn't entirely convinced he saw anything. I looked over at Danny and noticed his facial expressions. I wanted to be supportive and told him that we should go look just to make sure.
I opened my door and started lowering my right foot when I felt something grab my shoe. I literally jumped out of my skin as I quickly pulled my leg back up. Danny noticed my erratic behavior and asked what was wrong. I told him that something just grabbed my foot.
Danny slowly opened his door and without moving his lower body he leaned out to see if he could see anything. He didn't. He then decided to turn his body in such a way that he laid down on the seat and lowered his upper body so he could see under the SUV frame.
Luckily nothing was under his side of the vehicle, but under mine was something else. He saw a small boyish figure grabbing where my shoe had been. It looked like his legs were deformed or undersized. It was as if he had that muscular dystrophy disease (MDA). His back we're missing chunks of flesh, exposing the back of his ribs. Poor little guy didn't stand a chance when the whole zombie outbreak started.
We discussed whether or not to put it out of his misery. It was not an easy decision to make, but we decided that it was for the best. After all, if we were going to do it for Ruff then why couldn't we do it for this little guy. We figured that Ruff would want us to do it.
We quickly came up with a plan that involved me using my foot as bait. I was to leave my right foot dangling over the edge of the running board in order to keep the zombie distracted while Danny got out of the truck. He would slowly and deliberately walk over to the passenger side while keeping an eye out for more zombies. Once Danny was within a few feet of me, I would lift my foot away from the little zombie so it would focus solely on him. Danny then would step a few paces backwards allowing the zombie to crawl out from under the SUV. Once the zombie was clear of the SUV then Danny would stab it with his spear.
The plan went off without a hitch. It seemed that it was our only plan that ever happened like it was supposed to. We refused to let the kids watch him kill the thing and made them look away.
Once we arrived back at the Warehouse, we noticed that the outside looked deserted. Just like the last time we were at the Warehouse, there was no one around. At least, that's how it appeared on the surface.
We weren't going to take any chances as we slowly and cautiously made our way inside. Once inside, we found nothing. Considering what had happened when we were left the Warehouse, I believe we were lucky.
It was eerily quiet as we made our way through the plant, area by area. We still found nothing, we didn't even find zombie stragglers. Somehow, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong or that something was about to happen. Maybe it was because the Warehouse had a creepy and haunted feeling surrounding it.
It probably didn't help knowing that the last time we had been this far inside, it had been overrun by zombies. Now nothing. Yeah, you heard me right. Nothing. No sign of anything alive or should I say dead. It seemed impossible, considering that we had only been gone for a few short weeks. Was it even possible for a plant this big to be this deserted in that small amount of time? Man, you wouldn't think so.
The worst part was that we had no idea where Ruff was or how we were even going to go to find him. Before we left my father-n-law's place, we assumed that he would still be here. I was kind of hoping that he would have been here, waiting for us to come and get him.
While searching the Warehouse, we decided to grab the rest of our things that we had so quickly abandoned. We were lucky that it was still here. After we gathered everything that we could, we decided to rest before moving on to our next phase. We sat down in the empty cafeteria and talked.
We tried to brainstorm on where Ruff could be. It was only mid-day, but it felt so much later. Like I said, we assumed that he would have been here. Questions remained. Where did he go? Did he find his way back home? Did he remember his home? Did he even have memories? Did he have any recollection of who he used to be? Did he go off with the horde of zombies?
Speaking of zombies. Did zombies have an unspoken bond between them? Did zombies form some type of pack that had no dominant Alpha? Did they function as one collective mind just like some insects do? Do they retain some type of memories? Is that why some of them seem to return home?
It seemed that all I had was questions. There was still so much we didn't know about zombies, but there were few things that we did know. So, if you didn't know these few facts about them then I'll enlighten you.
Did you know that zombies have sensitive hearing? They have hearing that is equivalent or better then a dogs. They can hear over great distances and have a great sense of direction. They can follow the noise over many miles to its source. They also have an acute sense of smell. I'm not entirely sure if it's because the living smell different then the dead or if they can smell the blood in our veins like the mythical vampire was supposed to, but they know the difference and can track us. Don't forget about them seeing movement like the t-rex, any kind of movement and they focus on it as a collective group. There should be no shock that they are extremely hard to kill and have only one weakness. As long as you destroy the brain, you can kill them.
Everybody talked in hush tones, even the children. It was as if we were all afraid to make a sound. Danny got up from the table and looked around the room. Once he had completed a circle or should I say an oval, he told me that he needed some time to himself. I looked up at him, but didn't question his meaning. I knew what he meant right away.
Danny had always been a loner at heart, but knew that he needed others in order to survive. Since the apocalypse started, he really didn't have any alone time, any Danny time. Matter of fact, I don't even remember him mourning the passing of his wife or daughter. Yes, I knew exactly what he meant.
When he walked out of the room, I decided to take advantage of some "quiet" time myself. I had wanted to continue writing our story, some kind of written history of what had happened to us. I didn't even realize that I wanted to be a writer until I began writing this journal. I know that wrote a little on the way here, but now I wanted to finish it. Now that I have a little "free" time to write, I decided that I wasn't going to pass it up.
There’s no real way to sugar coat this and unfortunately for us, it’s the world we live in today. As you know, there are no more guarantees in life that any of us would live to see another day. Now to make things even worse, it isn't even the zombies that we have to worry about, it's the people. The survivors!
Don't get me wrong, the zombies are horrible to deal with and damn near impossible to kill. Plus I have to mention that if you get surrounded by a group of them, then you are pretty much dead. They are killing machines, pure and simple. They don't think, plan, worry about their own mortality, worry about family, feel pain, etc. They are the perfect killing machines.
How did they come that way? How did people turn into those things? Could a virus have caused people to turn into them? Kind of makes you wonder doesn’t it? What if it all started out as some secret government experiment? A government that tried to create a perfect soldier, some sort of super soldier and they somehow couldn't control them, causing the downfall of man. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
Sorry, I’m kind of a conspiracy theorist. You see, I’ve often wondered how the zombies came to be and thinking back on it, we really didn’t have the time to question these type of things. We were all too busy running for our lives and tryin
g to save our loved ones. We really didn’t care where they originated from. Now that I have some free time on my hands to think about this different kind of stuff, I kind of think about things like that.
Why can't we just live in peace? Our society as a whole has turned into a down rotten cesspool, where the strong prey upon the weak. The truth is pretty simple, if it looks like you have something that someone else wants then they forcibly take it and will kill you if you try to stop them. How can a person live like that? How could that person live with themselves?
As a group, I can honestly say that the Council was never like that, at least not that I'm aware of. I think that our only problem was that we were probably too trusting of others. I mean we took in strangers all the time. We weren't that strict. Were we?
The only requirement for acceptance into our little community was to meet with the Council members, individually. A kind of face to face, so we could make a collective decision as a group. We would ask certain questions and how that person responded determined if they were allowed to stay. Most of the time, people were invited to stay. So, did it sound like we were really that bad? Could that have been the reason for our downfall?
You recall, we lost all but seven members of our community in a battle. To make matters worse, the sound of the battle drew the zombies toward the Warehouse. I know what you're thinking, but it gets even better! The damage the Warehouse took from the battle allowed the zombies to get in forcing us to abandon the place for good.
I want to be honest with you that I never told anyone. I secretly wanted a zombie apocalypse, but not for the reason you think. Besides, I always thought that my group could survive together, all of us. Hell, I even thought that if anyone could survive the apocalypse then it would be us. I guess God had other plans.
God! What a joke. If there was truly a God, would he have allowed all of this to happen? Would he have allowed all the killing? Actually, now that I think about it, this might be God's plan after all. According to the Bible, God had intervened in people's lives multiple times in our early history. Heck, the story of Noah and the Ark alone talks about wiping out mankind, except for Noah and his family. A kind of world purge by flooding the earth.
But there could be a flip side to this argument. I mean, maybe this wasn't God's fault at all. Maybe, this was meant to be mankind's extinction brought on by our own hands. Our plague! Isn't this how those things supposed to work? Besides, who cares if the virus was man made or not? We're all screwed anyway! Throughout history something, whether it was man made or by natural circumstances, has had a global impact on the world.
Think about it, the dinosaurs had a meteor impact the earth causing a global wipe-out of the dominant species. The species that claimed the earth afterward was man and man is stupid enough to screw it up ourselves. We have either directly or inadvertently created diseases, viruses, plagues, bombs, global warming, etc. We kill anything without thinking about the consequences or the global impact it could have. Yeah, mankind can screw just about anything up!
The worst part is that we kill each other as if we were truly different. It didn't matter what ethnicity or race you are. It didn't even matter what your religion was. We are all human. The main issue was that our society didn't look at things that way and people killed each other because of those differences.
To be honest with you, that was one of the reasons I hoped for a zombie apocalypse. I wanted mankind to unite against a common enemy, to have a chance at a fresh start. I didn't think that people would have gone in the opposite direction and actually devolved to where we are today. Did you?
When we finally did leave the Warehouse after a few hours, we set a trap for whoever came looking next. We did it out of spite, pure and simple. We were betrayed by two of our own and lost just about everyone we loved. Spite? Actually, that's to nice of a word. We hated others and wanted everyone to die. We just didn't have the number to pull it off successfully.
Sorry, I'm filled with so many mixed emotions that I loose my train of thought sometimes. So, to get back to what I was saying before I began to ramble on. As I continued writing this "Journal" I realized something. I wasn't writing just a manuscript anymore. It was quickly evolving into something much, much more. It began turning into a first person type of story that involved my friends and family, a story of our lives.
Now, that we got that out of the way and you have read all that I have written, I want to share a few more things with you. First and foremost, we (meaning the remaining members of our group) are surviving. So, I guess if you're reading this then it means that you are a survivor, at least for the moment. The second thing is that I want to tell you is, I'm sorry. You'll understand shortly what I mean by that. Once you realize what's really going on here you might be a little upset with me, but I want you to believe me when I tell you that it wasn't personal.
Before you ask any questions, let me ask a question first. Do you remember when I stated "Don't Trust Anyone?" Well, I meant it and that includes me. This is by no means an excuse for what's going on, but we were so hurt and devastated by the betrayal of Kevin and Bruce that we set traps around the Warehouse. We did it just in case Robert decided to return looking for us in his quest for vengeance.
Before you start asking yourself what I'm babbling about, let me educate you on a few more things. A member of our group had found a dog whistle while scavenging through some of the local houses. They figured that they might need it one day. You can imagine that when they blew in it, they didn't get the response that they were hoping for. You see, no dogs showed up that day, but some zombies did. It was a very costly mistake on their part. I'm sorry for getting a little off track again, so let me get back to what I was saying.
Since the zombies have such sensitive ears we had re-reprogrammed the sensors on the front gate to let off a similar high pitch sound, complements of Seth and Austin. You see, the sirens they originally programmed were not as silent as they were supposed to be. They modeled the sirens after that dog whistle.
So, whenever you or whoever came through the gate, you just set off that high pitch “silent” alarm. In case you were wondering, that was the reason why the gate was left down. We wanted to make sure that when the sensors did get tripped, the zombies could hear the sound, but no human could. We made sure that the sensors were set at each entrance and exit so that whoever did make it into the Warehouse were surrounded and trapped by the zombies.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. We figured that since the Warehouse had already been overrun by zombies before then whoever triggered these sensors would end up dead. Either way it was a win, win for us.
Before you say anything, I know that it was a cruel thing to do. Like I said before, we were angry and our emotions were driving us to do irrational things. We had the mentality of "We do unto others before others did unto us."
You've probably already figured out what's happening here, but if not let me tell you some more. By the time you’re done reading this, you are either surrounded by zombies or fixing to be. So, you’re probably trapped and screwed right now. I want to make sure that you understood me when I said that it wasn't personal, but remember "Don't Trust Anyone!"
I leave you with this last message. "Good Luck!"
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jimmy D Bird Sr is the author of Dead, We Are. It is his first published novel and his second novel that he had ever wrote. Prior to writing Dead, We Are he spent four years writing a Star Wars novel. It was only when it was completed that he was informed that he could not get it published. He was a little downhearted but instead of giving up his dream of writing, he started working on this novel. Encouraged by his family and friends, he set out to start working on this original novel. Not only does Jimmy enjoy writing, but he also enjoys reading, riding his motorcycle, watching and playing sports (especially football and basketball), watching movies, listening to music, playing video games with his children, and hanging out with his family.
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Jimmy Bird, Dead, We Are