Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  In fact, if we were going to survive, I needed to know how many of the dead were outside and what they were doing.

  I slid over to the vent and quietly turned the latch.

  I didn’t want to pull the door wide open in case the dead were still standing out there staring up at the vent. I didn’t want to start another frenzied attack on the house, the pounding against our wooden barricades had finally returned to the occasional thud that we had become accustomed to before yesterday’s all-out attack.

  I hoped that after closing the vent last night that they would forget about us. Out of sight out of mind, that is if they had any mind left. But of course, their actions indicated that they had something in their head that was still telling them where we were and what they wanted to do to us.

  I opened the vent about an inch and put my eye to the crack and looked outside.

  The good news was that I could see the grass and pavement now, but the bad news was there were still too many of the dead staggering around for me to feel comfortable. But there was also something about what I was seeing that seemed wrong, I just couldn’t put my finger on it before my thoughts drifted again.

  I then started to think how the scene outside my house reminded me of one October when I was in college.

  The local drive-in theatre, one of the few drive-ins that was still in business, announced that they were closing.

  They were going to have one final Halloween blast and announced that for their final weekend they would be showing a George Romero Night of the Living Dead marathon. So a bunch of us guys got together because none of us had ever seen the movies before and decided to go see them on the big screen to find out what we had missed. Everyone kept telling us they were classics and couldn’t believe we had never seen them. So anyhow, we got together, bought a few six packs of Budweiser and went to the drive-in.

  With our imaginations enhanced by the Budweiser, we were glued to the screen and had all the car doors locked within the first ten minutes after the movie had started.

  Who would have ever believed that a car full of college guys would have the crap scared out of them by a crazy horror movie.

  Little did I realize at the time that one day I would relive that moment, only that the next time it would be the dead coming after me for real.

  Somehow, I was hoping when I looked outside this morning that the yard would be empty, but instead it looked like the next movie in the Dead series was being filmed in my yard.

  I knew this, or worse, would be what I would see when I looked outside, but I was trying to be optimistic.

  I almost jumped out of my shoes when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

  I turned to see Emma kneeling beside me.

  “What’s it look like out there this morning?” Emma asked.

  “A little better than last night,” I replied, “but I wouldn’t think about going outside for a walk anytime soon.”

  Emma smiled, it felt good to see her smile again, I don’t think I had seen her smile for the last four days.

  Emma appeared to be thinking about something.

  “Is that guy you shot last night still out there?” Emma asked.

  “I don’t think I saw him,” I replied. “I assumed that he just staggered away somewhere.”

  “I was just wondering if he finally died and you saw him lying in the grass or on the road,” Emma said.

  “No, he…. isn’t…… there………………….” I replied slowly as something strange hit me, something I saw when I looked outside, no it was something I didn’t see outside.

  “Brian? Are you OK?” Emma asked.

  “I have to check on something,” I said as I turned back to the vent and slowly opened it until I could see outside again. I studied the staggering bodies, bodies that looked even darker and more decayed than yesterday, but what I wanted to see even more than the condition of the bodies was the open spaces on the road and yards that I couldn’t see yesterday.

  I closed the vent door and turned back to Emma.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I just figured out why the scene outside felt wrong when I was looking out earlier,” I replied.

  Again, Emma asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “Come here,” I said as I turned back to the vent and opened the door slightly. “What do you see out there?”

  “A lot of dead people staggering around that should be in a cemetery somewhere,” Emma replied.

  “Look at the yards and the street,” I said, “and tell me what you see.”

  “I see grass and concrete,” Emma replied looking confused, not understanding what I was asking.

  “We couldn’t see the yards or the road yesterday because there were too many bodies walking around, but what did you see the day before when there weren’t as many of the dead out there walking around?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Emma replied. “I guess what we’ve been seeing for the last few days.”

  “Think, what were the red dots doing?” I asked.

  “They were eating people,” Emma replied then her eyes seemed to light up.

  Emma crawled back over to the vent and looked outside.

  “All the partially eaten bodies that were lying around are gone,” she said. “Where did they go? Did the red dots finish eating them or carry them away?”

  “I don’t believe that’s what happened,” I replied. “Look at the bodies walking around. What do they look like to you?”

  Emma studied the bodies for a second.

  “They look like someone has been eating them,” Emma replied, stopped and stared at me. “You don’t think those are the ones that the red dots killed?”

  “That’s what it looks like to me,” I replied.

  “But that’s impossible,” Emma said.

  “Like that is the first impossible thing we’ve seen recently,” I replied. “This is weird, Emma. In fact, this is worse than weird, this is bad.”

  “Pardon my question, but why does a few more of the dead walking around make you say this is weird? I know it’s not good, there are enough of them out there to worry about without this happening, but why do you look so upset?” Emma asked.

  “Because if I’m right, this means that everyone that gets attacked and killed will come back to life again, the number of those things out there are going to keep increasing, the mobs will keep getting larger and larger,” I replied. “We were also concerned about the dead being contagious and that we could become sick, but this is a whole different nightmare. I never thought of the possibility that we could become one of them if they attacked and bit us, but could it happen just by being exposed to them. God, I feel like we’re in that old Movie Night of the Living Dead, but only this time it isn’t a movie anymore.”

  “God, that would be horrible,” Emma said.

  “It makes me worry that we could become one of them even if they didn’t attack us directly. What if we get their blood on us, would that be enough to turn us into one of them?”

  “I guess that is a possibility,” Emma replied.

  “Their blood was running into our house through the cracks in the barricades,” I said. “Look at the blood in our yard and all over the road. If we had a chance to make a run for it, we would have to run through all that blood.”

  “But how do we know for sure that would happen?” Emma asked.

  “We won’t know until it happens,” I replied. “I think we have to consider it a real possibility and watch what we touch.”

  “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse,” Emma sighed.

  “I have an idea how we might find out,” I said as I thought about the possibility. “I could try contacting Squirrel.”

  “That crazy guy on the CB?” Emma asked. “I thought you said those guys couldn’t be trusted.”

  “I did and I still believe that, mostly,” I replied. “But he did have a lot of things right. It couldn’t hurt to ask him if he has seen anything like that happen. There isn’
t anyone else we can talk to and he seems to be in the same situation was we are, so he might know if it’s possible.”

  “Do you think you can fix the CB?” Emma asked.

  “It shouldn’t be too complicated,” I replied. “I think if I just tape the wires back together it might work.”

  “If nothing else it would give us a chance to go down stairs, it would be nice to go to a real bathroom,” Emma said, then she asked me, “Couldn’t you have thought of something better than a bucket. I have to agree with Katie, that was gross.”

  “It was better than a box,” I grinned.

  “Well, maybe we could each have our own bucket today,” Emma suggested.

  “I didn’t think of that,” I said.

  “Well, if you had to sit on that filthy bucket every time you had to go you would have thought about it. Let’s go down and you fix the CB and I’ll look for some more buckets.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I smiled.

  “Should we wake the kids?” Emma asked. “I think they finally fell asleep, maybe we should let them sleep.”

  “Good idea, let them sleep while they can, it’s been a rough few days and who knows what’s going to happen next,” I replied. “I’m glad someone is able to get some sleep.”

  I picked up the Winchester and pushed seven shells into the gun, cranked the lever action and chambered a round.

  “I’ll go down first to make sure the barricades held,” I said.

  “Be careful,” Emma said as she followed me to the trap door.

  I opened the door and let the stairs slowly descend to the floor of the closet.

  I held a lantern in one hand, my rifle in the other hand then awkwardly went down the steps.

  I put my ear up against the closet door and listened for a minute. It didn’t sound too bad, it was the usual banging against the barricades over the windows, at least the sound told me that the barricades were still in place.

  I slowly pushed the door open until I could see the living room.

  A chill ran through my stomach, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, as I glanced around the room.

  It felt strange to look at my living room, a place that I had always associated with warmth and comfort that now looked foreign as the lantern cast eerie dark shadows over the walls. I was half expecting to see a dead body staggering around my furniture, but fortunately, the room was empty.

  I finished pushing the door fully open and stepped out slowly as I held the lantern over my head to give myself some more light to help me see a little better.

  The amount of blood that had seeped through the cracks on the barricade shocked me. Large streaks of blood ran over the boards, down the wall and formed a sizable puddle on the floor below.

  I also noticed that the smell inside the house had become stronger too.

  I held my rifle in front of me as I walked out into the center of the room and looked into the kitchen, down the hallway and towards the bedrooms.

  The shadows dancing around the room made me nervous, but from what I could see, I was pretty sure I was alone.

  So far, so good.

  I did my best impression of a Marine clearing a house in Iraq as I moved from room to room.

  Other than the amount of blood that had pooled on the floor below each window barricade, everything appeared as we had left it yesterday.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back over to the closet and looked up at the open trap door.

  “Is it OK to come down now?” Emma asked.

  I signaled for her to come down, “Hand me your lantern,” and I watched as she descended the shaky steps.

  “It smells down here,” was the first thing Emma said when she stepped into the living room.

  “We have a lot more blood coming in through the barricades,” I replied. “But at least they held.”

  “I see a couple of the boards have started to bend inwards,” Emma said as she held up her light.

  “Where?” I asked. “I didn’t notice.”

  “Near the bottom of the window,” Emma replied.

  “I guess I missed that when I was looking at all that blood,” I replied.

  “Do you think they will hold?” Emma asked.

  “I hope so, but if we have another mass attack like we had yesterday, I don’t know,” I replied as I studied the damage to the barricade. With two lanterns now in the room I was able to see a little better. I then noticed that the screws I had put into the window frame had pulled out about an inch. The window frame also had begun to split, allowing the screws to pull loose. I just hoped that I didn’t miss too much else when I went through the house earlier.

  “I’ll go look for some buckets while you get to work on the CB,” Emma said then added, “Right after I use the bathroom.”

  Emma headed for the bathroom and I went to the garage.

  I set the lantern on my work bench and began to rummage through the tool box to find some black electrical tape.

  After finding the tape, I began to strip off the plastic coating from the mic wires.

  I was almost finished when Emma entered the garage.

  “I found two buckets in the laundry room,” she said. “Where are the buckets you use to wash the car?”

  “Over near the back of the car,” I replied.

  “Good,” Emma said as she walked over, picked up the buckets and looked them over. “I’m claiming this blue bucket, at least it’s clean. How are you doing with the CB?”

  “I’m just connecting the last wire,” I replied. “I’ll be ready to give it a try in a minute.”

  As I finished putting the tape on the wires, Emma came over and sat down at the work bench.

  I took the jumper cables out of the trunk and connected the CB to the car’s battery.

  I hit the power button and waited for the dial to light up.

  I made sure it was on the same channel where we overhead Squirrel and Grizzly, then I picked up the mic.

  “Squirrel, this is Badger, Come in Squirrel,” I said.

  I waited a minute and repeated the call, “Squirrel, this is Badger, Come in Squirrel.”

  Emma watched closely.

  “This is Squirrel,” a weak shaky voice replied.

  “He doesn’t sound too good,” Emma said. “It sounds like he is sick or something.”

  “Maybe we just woke him up,” I suggested.

  “How long ago did we last talk?” Squirrel asked. “I don’t remember talking to anyone with the handle of Badger anytime recently.”

  “We haven’t talked before,” I replied. “I haven’t used a CB for about twenty years. I just unpacked my old CB to try to find out what’s going on and maybe to get some help.”

  “How did you know my handle?” Squirrel asked. We could hear him coughing before he released the button on his mic to listen for my reply.

  “I actually unpacked my CB yesterday. I overheard you and Grizzly talking, but when I tried to join the conversation, I discovered that the mice had chewed the wires to the mic. I just got the CB working again this morning,” I replied. “Are you OK this morning, you sound different than you did yesterday?”

  “Let’s just say, if you have a question, I suggest you ask it while I can still answer,” Squirrel replied.

  Emma looked at me with a concerned look.

  “Is there something wrong?” I asked.

  “Everything is wrong that can go wrong,” Squirrel coughed.

  “I know the world has seemed to have gone to hell over the last week, but it could be worse,” I replied hoping to cheer him up. “You’re still alive, look on the bright side.”

  “But I won’t be for long,” Squirrel said. “I think I’ve been infected. I feel like I’m burning up, my body aches all over and I’m starting to have a hard time seeing.”

  “That’s horrible,” I replied. “How do you think you got infected?”

  “I ran out of ammo. After the last few days of constantly battling the damn invasion of the dead I
used up all my ammo. Early this morning one of the dead tried to get in through my kitchen window, I clubbed him over the head with a chair,” Squirrel replied weakly. “It knocked him back outside, but his blood splattered into my eyes. It felt like acid it burned so damn bad. I ran some water in my eyes to rinse the blood out, but I guess I didn’t get it in time. I was trying to work up the courage to do what I needed to do next when I heard you on the radio.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “But maybe it will pass if you get some rest?”

  “No, this isn’t going to pass,” Squirrel replied.

  “How can you be so sure,” I asked.

  “Because the dead have stopped trying to get into my house,” Squirrel replied.

  Emma and I looked at each other but it seemed that neither of us understood Squirrel’s answer.

  “I don’t understand?” I said. “That sounds like good news to me.”

  “Have you ever seen the dead trying to eat each other?” Squirrel asked.

  “I’ve seen them eat the sick, but I guess I can’t say I have ever seen them trying to eat each other,” I replied.

  “That’s because they don’t eat each other for some reason, they just eat the living,” Squirrel said. “So if I have this right, I’m infected and will be joining the ranks of the dead shortly, so they are no longer interested in trying to eat me. Understand?”

  “I’m sorry to hear that Squirrel, I didn’t realize things like that could happen,” I replied.

  “As far as it being horrible, it’s bad, but horrible is seeing your family attacked and ripped to pieces. Horrible is seeing your family join the dead and attack your house trying to get at you. Myself, at this point I really don’t care anymore, I stopped caring when my family died,” Squirrel sighed.

  I just looked at Emma, I didn’t really know what to say to Squirrel. All I could do was try to put myself in his shoes and that thought made my body begin to tremble.