Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  “But we have everything barricaded,” Emma said. “You won’t be able to get it open in time.”

  “Except the outside garage door,” I shouted back as I went down the steps.

  I slung the rifle over my shoulder, grabbed a lantern and went down into the house, then into the garage through the door in the living room.

  I put the lantern down on the roof of the car, pulled the rope that disengaged the door from the electric garage door opener and pulled the door up.

  I held my breath as I opened the garage door hoping I would have a few seconds before the dead would see me and rush the garage.

  I let out a sigh of relief when I discovered that dead near the garage door were focused on the girl and not the garage.

  It didn’t take me long to see the girl.

  Our eyes met briefly, and I could see the terror in her eyes, she was scared to death.

  When she saw me, she made a desperate dash towards the open garage door.

  I took the Winchester off my shoulder intending to clear the way to the garage for the little girl.

  Twenty feet in front of door on the driveway, before I had a chance to make the first shot, her attempt to escape the dead ended as two bloody gray corpses collided with the little girl, knocking her to the ground.

  Before she had even hit the ground, the two gruesome creatures fell on her and began to savagely rip the flesh from her tiny bones, blood spray soon covered the three bodies.

  The girl was dead before she was even able to cry out.

  I just stood horrified and stared at the nightmarish scene in front of me as the two dead monsters tore the girl to pieces before my eyes.

  I was quickly brought out of my trance as I became aware of the motion that was coming from all around me.

  The rest of the mob that had been coming after the little girl, and the ones standing near the garage watching the girl run their way, now had their sights set on me.

  I quickly pulled the garage door and brought it crashing back down to the floor, two seconds later, the dead began to batter the garage door with their heads and bodies.

  I turned the handle to lock the garage door and leaned my back against the door and tried to catch my breath and shake off the feeling of horror that had griped my insides.

  I picked up the lantern and my rife and slowly walked back into the living room, feeling a mixture of horror and disappointed that I hadn’t been able to help that poor girl.

  The helpless little girl that reminded me of Katie ten years ago when she was only six years old.

  The helpless look of despair and agony on her face that will haunt me for as long as I continue to live.

  My body was still shaking from what I had just witnessed.

  As I walked, I realized that my family and I had been lucky, as the vision of how easily the dead stopped and broke into those cars, ran through my mind.

  When making our decision to stay at the house, I had never even considered that the dead could stop a car and break in to get at the passengers so easily.

  I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.

  It made me nervous to wonder if there were other important things that I should have considered. What else had I overlooked.

  As I closed the inside garage door in the living room, Emma shouted down from the attic, “Did you get her?”

  “No,” I replied. “She didn’t make it.”

  “Oh,” Emma said, the sound of excitement having left her voice.

  “I did the best I could to help her,” Logan called down, but when she ran around the front corner of the house, I couldn’t see her any longer.”

  “You did fine,” I replied and left it at that, I didn’t want to tell them how close she had made it to the garage door, we all felt bad enough as it was. “There were just too many of the dead for her to get through,” I added.

  I climbed back up to the attic and saw everyone staring out the vent door.

  They turned as I crawled across the attic floor.

  “There were four people in the Kia,” Katie said. “The dead broke through the windows and dragged them out of the car and killed them too.”

  “There were kids in that car too,” Emma added sounding saddened by what she had seen.

  “That could have been us,” Katie said and looked at me with big watery eyes.

  “It could have been,” I replied softly. “But it wasn’t.”

  “Dad, they are all coming our way now,” Logan said nervously.

  I could hear the increasing volume of bodies crashing against the doors and windows of our house.

  The dead were now determined to get into our house.

  I was afraid that would happen, but I didn’t have time to figure out any other way to help that girl except to use my rifle.

  “This is scaring me, Brian,” Emma said nervously. “Do you think they can get into the house as easily as they got into those cars?”

  “I hope not,” I replied. “But there is obviously a lot I haven’t considered, like how they stopped those cars and who knows what else they can do. I have to assume that given enough time the dead will find a way inside.”

  The sounds from the house below grew louder.

  “Maybe instead of waiting to see if they can find a way in, we can do something to make it more difficult for them,” I said thinking out loud. “They already know we are here, so we don’t have to worry about giving away our position.”

  “What are you going to do?” Emma asked.

  “I’m thinking about getting them before they can get us,” I replied. “I have that big crate of ammo, no use saving it for the future any longer. I think we should use some of it now and see if we can keep them away from the house.”

  Emma looked at me curiously.

  “Logan, grab a few boxes of shells for your rifle and I want you to go to the back vent,” I said. “I’ll take a few boxes of ammo and I’ll use the front vent. Between the two of us, maybe we can reduce their numbers enough that possibly it will keep them from getting into the house.”

  “OK,” Logan smiled. I could tell he was excited to be doing something. I had only taken him hunting a few times and he had been disappointed that he wasn’t able to shoot at anything, mainly because he couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds and him moving around kept scaring away the animals.

  “Just take your time and don’t waste the ammo,” I added. “Just put the crosshairs of the scope on their head, take a deep breath and pull the trigger as you slowly exhale.”

  Logan nodded, then went and gathered up his ammo and went to the back vent.

  “Are you sure about letting Logan use that rifle?” Emma asked.

  “Having two people shoot at the dead is better than me doing it alone,” I replied. “Besides, as long as he doesn’t shoot one of us, he can’t hurt anything, they are already dead. It will make him feel like he is being useful.”

  “OK,” Emma said. “Do you think this will work?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s better than not doing anything,” I replied. “The more we do the more we can learn about the dead and more about what they can do.

  I don’t want to be blindsided again because we don’t know enough the next time we have to make a big decision. Maybe this plan will work, but hopefully if nothing else we’ll learn something important that will come in handy later.”

  I walked over to the vent and made myself comfortable on the floor in front of the opening.

  As I rested the barrel of the rifle on the bottom of the opening, I heard someone sit down beside me.

  “Dad, can I help you?” Katie asked.

  “Sure,” I replied. “You can be my spotter and let me know if you see any special targets that we need to take out.”

  “OK,” Katie said. “Do you think I could shoot the gun too?”

  “I thought you didn’t like guns?” I asked.

  “I don’t,” Katie replied. “But I don’t like the dead more than I don’t like guns,
besides, I was thinking it might be a good idea if I learned to shoot.”

  “I think that is a good idea too,” I said. “But let me see what I can do first, then I’ll teach you how to use the rifle.”

  Kattie nodded silently and watched while I looked through the scope for my first target.

  Logan took the first shot and the loud rumbling sounds of gun fire began to echo through the attic.

  Emma held her ears as I began firing the Winchester.

  I watched as the bodies dropped to the ground after each shot, but there were so many staggering bodies out there, all heading for my house. I wasn’t sure if the few we would be able to take out would make much of a difference, but I felt it wouldn’t hurt to try.

  Chapter 17

  I sat at the vent and fired into the massive mob of the dead that was coming towards the house.

  I tried to concentrate on the larger stronger looking bodies, hoping to reduce the amount of force the dead could put against the barricades over the windows.

  Logan and I had been shooting at the dead for about twenty minutes, I had put a small but noticeable dent in the number of staggering bodies outside the house and I hoped that Logan had been able to do the same.

  I was lining up my next shot when I heard Emma calling my name.

  I turned and looked back to see Emma looking down the trap door and into the living room closet.

  She turned to look at me with terror in her eyes, “They’re in the house.”

  I ran over next to Emma and looked down the trap door.

  When I looked down the opening, I saw two dark dead faces snarling up at me, only three feet away below me.

  Their outstretched arms rising towards the opening, their bloody bony fingers grasping at the air, opening and closing as the white lifeless eyes locked onto me.

  I quickly grabbed the rope ladder and pulled the steps up into the attic and slammed the trap door closed.

  “Shit, I didn’t think they would get in so soon,” I growled. “How the hell could they get in so fast, they’re dead, I don’t understand it.”

  Logan had seen me and Emma at the trap door and had come over to us.

  “Should I keep shooting?” he asked.

  “Finish the box,” I replied. “then we will take a look and see what we were able to accomplish.”

  Logan eagerly turned and went back to the rear vent.

  “Did we make a mistake shooting at the dead?” Emma asked as she realized what was happening, the sounds of the gun shots acting like a homing beacon for the dead.

  “No,” I replied. “We made our mistake when we tried to help that little girl get away from the dead, but I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if we hadn’t tried to help her.”

  “I’m glad we tried,” Emma said. “Besides, there isn’t much difference between being stuck down in the house or being stuck up here in the attic, we’re still trapped either way.”

  I reached out and squeezed her arm.

  “We’ll be fine,” I whispered. “We thought this could happen, that’s why we brought all this stuff up to the attic. I haven’t seen anything that indicates they can climb so we should be safe up here until the dead goes away or dies again. But just to be safe, keep an eye on that trap door for a few minutes until I’m done. OK?”

  Emma nodded nervously.

  I walked back over to the vent where Katie was staring outside.

  She looked up at me as I slid in next to her, “Will you show me how to shoot the gun now?”

  “Sure,” I replied. “Does it look like I accomplished anything out there?”

  “Not really,” Katie answered. “But the others seem to be falling over the bodies that you shot, they don’t appear to be able to step over obstacles in their way.”

  “At least that should slow them down some,” I replied. “It should help a little.”

  “Here,” I said as I rested the barrel of the rifle on the bottom on the vent opening. “First I want you to push the butt of the rifle against the muscles where your chest and shoulder meets and hold it snug against your body.”

  “What if I don’t have any muscles there?” Katie asked.

  I moved the rifle and pushed it against her shoulder, “Hold it right there and make sure it is tight against you.”

  “OK, I got it,” Katie said.

  “Now look through the scope and move the gun around until you can see one of their heads through the scope,” I instructed.

  “My God, they look so gross close up like this” Katie said. “It looks like their skin is rotting.”

  “They have been dead now for almost a week,” I replied. “I’m hoping that they start falling apart before too much longer.”

  “Do you think they are going to rot apart?” Katie asked. “How long do you think that will take?”

  “I hope so, but I don’t know,” I replied. “The dead aren’t supposed to walk around, so who knows if they are going to decompose like dead bodies are supposed to do.”

  “What if they don’t?” she asked.

  “Then we will just have to figure out some other way to get rid of them,” I replied. “So if you have any ideas, I’m all ears.”

  “OK, I have one of their heads in my sights,” Katie said a moment later.

  “See the two lines that cross in the scope?” I asked. “I want you to center where the two lines meet in the middle of their head, that’s where the bullet will hit.”

  “OK, I have it centered on this guy’s ear,” Katie replied.

  “When you pull the trigger, the gun is going to have a kick,” I said. “If you keep the butt of the gun tight against your shoulder, it won’t kick as much. Move your head back from the scope a little so you won’t end up with a black eye. The first time I shot a rifle, the scope hit me right between the eyes, I had two black eyes for a month.”

  I put my hand on top of the scope, “But I’ll hold the barrel down with my hand on the first couple of shots until you get used to the kick.”

  “Thanks,” Katie said. “I’d look gross with a black eye. My eye makeup is down in my room, if I got a black eye, I would have to wear a hat until it went away.”

  “Well we wouldn’t you running around with a black eye, it could scare the dead away,” I joked.

  I couldn’t see Katie’s eyes, but I’m sure she was rolling her eyes like she always did.

  “Now take a deep breath,” I instructed. “Put your finger on the trigger. Slowly start to leave out the air and pull the trigger.

  POW!

  The Winchester went off sending a loud echo through the attic as the rifle jerked against my hand.

  “Did I get him?” Katie asked.

  “You sure did,” I replied. “In fact, I think you got two with one shot.”

  I had no idea whether or not Katie hit anything, I was too focused on trying to watch her and hang on to the rifle to keep it from hitting her in the face, to see where her bullet hit, but I was trying to encourage her.

  “OK, let’s do it again,” I said.

  Katie got a determined look on her face as she put her eye up to the scope again.

  She moved the gun around trying to find another target in the scope, suddenly she held the rifle still as she stared through the scope.

  I looked at the angle of the rifle and suggested, “I think you need to lower the barrel some, you must be looking up in the sky at that angle. Hopefully the dead can’t fly, you won’t see anything there but clouds.”

  “Dad, I see a helicopter,” Katie said excitedly. “It looks like it is flying above the center of town.”

  “Let me see that,” I said.

  Katie slid over and I got behind the rifle, looked through the scope and began searching the sky.

  After a few seconds the helicopter moved into the view of my scope.

  I watched the helicopter as it seemed to hover in the air.

  It was a green helicopter with a white star on the side, I assumed it was a military helicopter
. As I watched the helicopter hovering in place, I tried to determine why it was there and what it was doing.

  It was then I noticed that someone was rising up to the open door of the helicopter, I realized that someone was being pulled up to the helicopter on a rope.

  “What’s going on, Dad?” Katie asked.

  “I think the helicopter is pulling someone up on a rope,” I replied as I kept watching.

  “Are they pulling up stranded people?” Katie asked. “Because if they are, I know where they can find four more stranded people.”

  “I don’t know if they are pulling up survivors or if they are pulling up one of the soldiers that went down to do something,” I replied. “It’s too far away to get a good look at what they’re doing, I can only guess.”

  I continued to watch trying to see what they were doing, but as soon as the person on the end of the rope reached the helicopter, the helicopter began to slowly move away and then it drifted out of sight.

  When the helicopter faded from my sight, I lowered the rifle and turned to see Emma kneeling next to Katie and I.

  “Did I hear you two talking about seeing a helicopter?” Emma asked.

  “It think it was a green Army helicopter,” I answered. “They were pulling someone or something up from the ground below where it was hovering. After they were pulled up to the helicopter, the chopper turned and left the area.”

  “Could it be the Army or the National Guard out looking for survivors?” she asked.

  “It could be, but I didn’t see enough to know whether or not they were rescuing people or where retrieving troops that they had dropped off for some kind of mission,” I replied.

  “They could also be up to something,” Katie added. “After all, it was the National Guard giving injections that caused the sick people outside our house to start eating each other.”