We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  We Are All Dead

  By Jimmy Bird

  Let me start off by saying that my friends and I have read or seen a lot of books, shows, and movies about zombies. Hell, at one time we had a couple of zombie movies come out each year for a few years straight at the movie theaters. We even had zombie TV shows competing for air time, not to mention the countless ever-growing number of zombie books and comics that were circulating around. The zombie madness seemed to be in full effect everywhere. The funny thing was that they all depicted zombies differently. Some zombies moved or stumbled slowly while others ran. Some tried to eat your brains or skin while others tried to beat you senseless. But they all had one thing in common, it looked like they were all trying to infect you by way of your bloodstream. Because of my time spent learning about zombies, I thought that I was an expert. I thought that I knew all there was to know about them, but I need to be honest with you. I was wrong, dead wrong. Before all this mess started I had discussed what-if scenarios with my friends and family on the possibility of safe havens. You know, one of those half-jokingly “What would you do if the zombie apocalypse ever did happen?” type of conversations. It was only after seriously thinking about it that I knew I had to find some place safe for my family just in case the zombie apocalypse ever did happen. We needed a place where we could go to hold up in order to escape the nightmare if it ever came. We thought that we had everything planned out. We thought that our safe and secure place would protect us. Unfortunately, things never happen the way you want them too, the way that you plan for them too. It was only after having to fight to survive that I finally learned the truth of how things really are now. Now that I think back on it, it's so simple that it's almost comical. If your reading this then you probably know it already, so I won't keep that knowledge to myself. If you don't know it then I'll let you in on the little secret. Here goes. No matter what you think that you might know, just remember these two things. DON’T TRUST ANYONE and that NO ONE IS SAFE during a Zombie Apocalypse because in the end it seems that We Are All Dead.

  Chapter 1 Prelude to Day 1, Making Plans

  If you have somehow survived outside in the open on your own and mysteriously found your way inside this Warehouse, I'm sorry to say that you’re a little late. Unfortunately, no one is here. Well, at least no one alive anyway. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it's the truth.

  While you sit here and soak up that information let me get back to what I was saying. I’m not sure how you got in and to be honest with you, I don’t really care. Maybe you came across this journal (maybe manuscript is a better description) while looking for supplies. Maybe the journal caught your eye and you became curious on who left it. Obviously if you’re reading this then it did its job and peaked your interest.

  Maybe you had questions that you were hoping the journal could answer. Maybe you needed to know why we had to abandon this sanctuary. Maybe you needed to know why the front gate was down and why there was so much damage to the building. Maybe you were just curious on why there were so many dead bodies all over the place and I’m not talking about the zombies. You might be curious on why I would say something like that, then again you might not. You probably figured out by now that the zombies aren’t the only dangerous threat out there in this new world.

  I guess that doesn’t matter because I’m going to tell you about what happened here anyway and if you’re still reading this then you were curious enough to find out. The simple answer was that this building was abandoned because we were attacked by another group of survivors which allowed the zombies to find a way inside. Before I go into too much detail on how these scenarios happened, I figured I would give a little history of the people that lived here and the people that tried to take it from us. If you caught on to my hint, the answer was ‘yes’ we knew a few members of the group that attacked us. Before I get into any specific details though, let me start from the beginning. Well, since the beginning of the “End of Times” anyway.

  It’s been hard to keep track of the number of days since the infected or should I say the “dead” started to come back to life and attacking the living, especially here in Oklahoma. If my calculations are correct, then it should put us around three hundred and ten days or roughly ten and a half months. Sorry, but we really haven’t kept track. I will say that the changing of the seasons and weather has helped determined that estimation. As you can imagine, keeping track of the days was the least of our concern. At least at the beginning.

  The best I can figure is that it’s got to be somewhere around the middle to the end of spring, maybe the end of May. I just don't think that it's gotten hot or humid enough to be considered summer yet. It’s still cool at night but warms up to be just hot enough during the day. I should also mention the crazy storms that had been rolling through here. I’m just hopeful that we don’t end up having any tornado’s because then we might really be screwed! Sorry, that was a bad joke. It’s my attempt to lighten my ever-growing depressing mood.

  Anyways, let me get back to my story by stating that spring is not considered that bad of a season. Anyone from Oklahoma would know that in a few more months the temperature is going to rise so high that it will become unbearable. It’s going to be humid and extremely uncomfortable around here. By the time that happens though, we knew that we wouldn’t have to worry about the temperature too much because the dead would be coming for us. In addition to the summer heat, we would already be in trouble from dehydration. Think about it, we could either sweat ourselves to death or collapse from a heat stroke. We were hopeful enough that it wouldn’t come to either one of those scenarios.

  When I say ‘we’ I mean the remaining survivors of our group. Before you even ask the question, the answer is ‘yes’. I’m sure our group is just like yours. Well, we were. Unfortunately, there are only a few of us left. It wasn’t always that way though, in fact, we had a very large group at one time. Before I get into that though, let me give you a little background information on us.

  You see we used to make up what we referred to as the ‘Council’. Before you even ask another obvious question, the answer once again is ‘yes’. We managed to have a little governmental democracy in our group. I also want you to know that we accepted new people if they were approved by the Council. Every Council member was given a chance to vote and we used the ‘Majority Rules’ thing on every decision. The Council Members consisted of friends that I worked with here at this building before it became our sanctuary. We were such a tight knit group that we did everything together. We even made plans for the ‘end of times’ like scenarios. Lucky for us, we were already thinking outside the box.

  Before we became the ‘Council’ we were just friends, normal folks who worked together at the same plant. The only big difference was that we worked in different departments. We would sit together during our lunch times or breaks and discuss our two favorite topics: Zombies and Conspiracy Theories.

  One day someone asked, what was each of our plans if a zombie outbreak ever did happen? We each took turns talking about what we would do to survive. Some of the answers given were wild and out there, but every underline answer was pretty much the same. We would do anything we could to make sure that our families were protected. Eventually, we agreed that we needed each other to survive and therefore our rudimentary Council was established.

  We had convinced ourselves that an apocalypse of some kind was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. Because of the Book of Revelations in the Bible most of us felt that the upcoming apocalypse was going to be about zombies, so we began preparing. Together, with our families, we trained and prepped the best we could. The days turned into weeks, the weeks became months, and the months became years.

  Everybody brought something
unique to the table. We had a few members who were ex-military. A couple of our members who grew up in the streets, literally ex-gang members. Others came from a background of true doomsday type preppers, whose families had built fallout shelters during the Cold War. Yep, as you could imagine those members were a little eccentric, but we were glad they were with us just the same.

  People at work would look at our group sitting around the tables and watch us with either interest or disgust in their eyes. Yes, believe it or not racism was still alive in the world and our little state was no exception. What I meant by that statement was that our little group was made up of what I kind of refer to as a ‘Heinz 57’ group because we had just about every background covered. Our group had African-Americans, Native-Americans, and Caucasians. We even had mixed marriages. Yep, we had just about every race covered.

  By now you should have figured out that the building you’re standing in didn’t always look like this. Before the damage to the exterior, it had been our home. Sorry if I forgot to mention that little fact. You see, this was the plant that we had all used to work at and it had been our plan all along to come here to the “Warehouse” for sanctuary.

  Before you ask, yes, we did call it the Warehouse when we originally worked here. It was sort of the “official” nickname for the plant. We used to build, store, and ship appliances like washers, dryers, oven ranges, refrigerators, microwaves, etc. You know good old-fashioned heavy objects.

  As you can see from the layout of the building, it’s just about completely fenced in (except for the damaged parts) with a few minor locations that we easily reinforced with some of those heavy objects I mentioned. I think that the biggest advantage the Warehouse had over any of the other places we considered was that it had its own back-up generator. The company had one installed a few years earlier just in case of power outages, they didn’t want us working in the dark. Yeah, we thought that it was very considerate of them (trying not to sound too sarcastic). In the end though, it didn’t matter the reason the company had installed the generator because if we had the fuel to run the generator, we had power.

  As a bonus, our company used to grill the employee’s hamburgers and hotdogs every few months. So, we had our very own industrial size propane grills on the property, which we could use to cook on. Lucky for us, the company always made sure that it kept extra bottles of cooking propane stored on the property.

  Speaking of propane, we used both propane and electrical lifts at work. The company also kept an average of fifty spare propane tanks on site for the lifts (each bottle would last a lift 8-10 hrs.). I knew that we could use the lifts to easily reinforce the building, the fences, and any other weak spots we found. Besides, we knew that if anything or anyone made it inside the fence then we could always make an obstacle course of appliances for them to go around before we would be in any real danger. It was sort of a fail-safe to buy time for everyone to escape to safety.

  Speaking of fences, the gates were programmed to only open with electrical key cards that were assigned to the employees that worked at the Warehouse. The building itself was another matter. Sure, most of the doors opened only to the key cards, but a few still used a master key. Fortunately for us, I had access to such a key.

  I had worked in the Shipping department and before they installed the electronic locks, I was responsible for unlocking the doors in my area early in the morning, so the other plant employees could get in. When they installed the electronic locks, they told me to hold onto the key just in case it was ever needed again. I don't think that this is what they had in mind, but I was glad I had it.

  As for inside the Warehouse, the first thing that came to mind was the sleeping arrangements. We figured that we could sleep in the office areas. All the offices had been remodeled a few years earlier, replacing the carpet and adding some nice furniture. Some of the offices even had nice couches or sofas. We also figured that if we needed to, we could find air mattresses or sleeping bags.

  Located exactly one mile away was a grocery store (don’t even bother looking because we already looted that place) that we could get food from. Within that mile was a neighborhood which we could also go through looking for supplies (again, don’t bother). Three miles from the Warehouse was a hospital where we could get medical supplies from and around the hospital are several stores (such as a supercenter and a do-it-yourself store) where we could also get other supplies. I figured we had a strong enough plan worked out so that we could survive.

  While at work, a few of the guys threw out some hypothetical what-if scenarios and ideas that they had either seen in movies or on television shows. Since none of us had even been in a zombie apocalypse we wanted to make sure that we were properly prepared for anything. Thinking back on it, it was probably the best idea that anyone ever had.

  Before we agreed on the Warehouse some of us thought that we would be safer in a prison. A prison environment did sound good. We would have reinforced walls or fences all around us. We would have beds to sleep on and a cafeteria to eat in. We would have a yard that would allow us to plant our own vegetables and fruits. Prisons also had their own working generators, if we had fuel to run them. Most of the prisons that I had heard about stored lots of dry food which would be helpful to survive. The prison idea did have its disadvantages though. The closest prison was well over an hour drive away. It would mean that we would all have to meet at a designated spot and then drive through zombie occupied territory to get there. Then once we arrived at the prison, it meant either fighting zombies or people for control of the prison while trying to protect our families. Still, the thought of such a safe place would be more then worth the hassle. We put the idea down as a strong plan B.

  Another idea would have been to hold up at a local mall. On the outside, the idea seemed rather safe and intriguing as it had its advantages and disadvantages. It had limited number of entry spots which meant that it would be easy to defend. It also had bullet/shatter proof type of glass. It would have lots of clothing stores, so you weren’t stuck using the same old smelling and stained clothes. There was plenty of stuff to keep you occupied for a while plus it had food supplies while they lasted. One of the major disadvantages was that once the mall became surrounded then there would be no way to really fight your way out, especially if you were starving. That would happen once the food was either gone or spoiled. We filed this idea under a Plan C if our first two ideas didn’t pan out.

  Another idea that was thrown into the mix was to go to a supercenter like a Walmart or Target. They had clothes, food, medicine, and ways to cook the food plus it had other items like toys for the kids. Just like the mall, they have bullet/shatter proof glass, but it became a mall scenario all over again. This plan was also considered an alternative Plan C.

  We even had a Plan D, my father-n-law’s place out in the country. Like all the others, it had its advantages and disadvantages. An advantage was that he had twenty acres of land that was located on the outskirts of the cities of Moore and Norman. A huge disadvantage was that he was literally ten to fifteen miles from the nearest town or city, which happened to be closer to Moore. Another advantage was that he really didn’t have neighbors. He had a few kinfolks within a couple of miles, but other than that the closest neighbor was well over two miles away. A strong positive was that it was very secluded. Another disadvantage though was that there was no place to stay. He had a nice size double wide trailer style house, but it wasn’t big enough to hold all our group or our families. It meant that most of us would have to sleep outside in tents. It wouldn't be a bad scenario, but it wouldn't work during the winter. So, this was put down as our Plan D, a sort of last resort plan.

  Ultimately, everyone agreed that if there was ever a zombie apocalypse then we would meet up here at work. We agreed that there wouldn’t be a leader, but that didn't mean that we wouldn’t have any leadership. It was decided that the Council Members would make all the decisions. Originally, there were eleven people who were considered the Coun
cil.

  They consisted of: 1) Ronald “Ruff” Ruff. Ruff is a 6’ 250+lbs African-American ex- NCAA football defensive lineman. He didn’t go pro because they informed him that he wasn’t big enough (you wouldn't think he was small standing next to him). He’s also an ex-machinist who is very good with his hands. He was always the first to volunteer for supply runs. He feels responsible whenever he’s not on a supply run and we end up losing someone. His original weapon of choice was a machete. 2) Danny Turner. Danny is a 5’8” 170lbs Caucasian gun enthusiast and even though he’s not as big as some of the rest of us, he more than make up for it with his extensive knowledge of guns. He was a strong supporter of the N.R.A. before the zombie apocalypse and come to think of it, he's even more so now. His gun of choice is a sniper rifle. 3) Arthur "Artie" Wathan. Artie is a 5’9” 190lbs Caucasian who is ex-military. He’s very knowledgeable about the world and our government. He was one of our medical responders at work. We knew that his skills would come in handy. 4) John Lutz. John is a 6’ 250+lbs Caucasian who is very knowledgeable in a variety of things, especially when it came to zombies. We had long discussions about zombies over the years and the thing about John was that no matter what, he claimed that he was always right about them. We didn’t know it, but some of his theories were going to be put to the test. John also happens to be my younger cousin. 5) Cleo Pleasant. Cleo is a 6’ 235+ lbs. African-American reliable survivor. What I mean by him being a “reliable survivor” is that he would do whatever was necessary to survive. After all, that is what a survivor is. Someone who would do anything to survive, including killing someone. Before I lose my train of thought, I also want to mention that Cleo was the jokester in our group. 6) Kenneth “Ken” Kane. Ken is 5’10” 230lbs African-American ex-gang member. Ken grew up in the streets of Kansas and had to learn to adapt in order to survive. If it wasn’t for his oldest daughter making the same stupid mistakes that he was doing at her age, then he might still be there. He noticed that she was beginning to follow in his footsteps and decided that he needed to change his old lifestyle for her. 7) James Davis. James is a 6’ 235+ lbs. Native-American who is ex-military. James is another one who was trained to adapt to his environment to survive. He’ll do whatever needs to be done to make sure that his family and friends are safe. 8) Brian Hall. Brian is a 5’10” 170lbs African-American knowledgeable survivor. Brian is another one that would do whatever he had to do to make sure that he and his family survived. Brian was born and raised in Texas. He was trained as a young boy to track and hunt. We knew that it would be a very handy to have that set of skills if we ever needed to hunt down food or an enemy. 9) Kevin Brady. Kevin is a 5’8” 170lbs Caucasian survivor. Coming from a family of Doomsday Preppers, Kevin was literally "born" to survive. Kevin made sure that we knew that he would do anything to survive and I mean anything. Little did we know that he would put that claim to the test! 10) Bruce Shoemaker. Bruce is a 6’3” 250+lbs Native-American survivalists. Bruce also came from a family of Doomsday Preppers. He spent years preparing his family to survive whatever doomsday might come. As it just so happens, Bruce and Kevin grew up together and are best friends. Hell, they were practically family. 11) As for me. I'm the last member of the Council. I’m a 6’ 230lbs Caucasian knowledgeable survivor. I went to college for architecture and therefore I’m very knowledgeable when it comes to buildings and their layouts. That was one of the reasons we decided to make the Warehouse our place of refuge. I also considered myself just as knowledgeable about zombies as my cousin, but I realized that some of the facts I was right about while others I was wrong. Even though I’m not the leader of our little group, my main concern was for all my family and friends to be safe.