We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  Danny slowly pulled into his driveway and looked around. He noticed part of an unrecognizable mangled body on the other side of his daughter’s car. Fearing the worse and not taking any chances, he slowly reached under his seat. He pulled out the case that contained his 9mm handgun, it was the same gun he kept stashed under the seat for emergencies.

  He opened his door and slowly got out of his truck. With the gun in his hands, he got into a defensive position and slowly walked up to his daughter’s car. Once he got within a few feet of the driver’s side door, he noticed blood on the window. Fearing what he might find, he had to force himself to calm down enough just to approach the car. The good news was that the closer he got to the car, the more he noticed that the blood was on the outside of the window. Hope began to creep into him as he peered into the window.

  Not seeing his daughter in the car, gave him even more hope for her survival. Danny then noticed that the blood wasn’t only on the window, it was part of a blood trail that led to the back of the car. He then looked over the trunk lid of the car towards the body that was lying on the ground. After watching the motionless body for a few seconds, he decided that it was safe to approach.

  With his gun at the ready, he looked around one more time. When he was sure that it was safe, he slowly made his way towards the back of Becca’s car. As he made his way around the back of the car, he made a mental note of all the bloody handprints all over the trunk. Wondering if the bloody body was the cause for all the blood, he slowly walked towards it.

  He stopped just out of arms reach of the body just in case it wasn’t dead. He aimed his gun down at the mangled body. It was an unidentifiable mess. Danny reached his foot out and nudged it. Without waiting for the bloody body to react, he quickly jumped back a few steps and got into his shooting stance. His gun ready to fire.

  When he didn’t get any reaction, he quickly repeated his foot nudge, only this time he took one step backwards. Once again, he didn’t get a reaction. The body didn’t move, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. He just couldn’t place where that feeling was coming from. He immediately began looking around. Not seeing any signs of danger, he bent down to examine the body.

  The first thing that Danny noticed was the indent on the back of its head. He positioned himself in a way that would allow him to get a closer look without touching the body. The second thing he noticed was that it wasn’t someone he knew, which really bothered him. It meant that if this person was a stranger, then it was possible that there were others just like him around. The last thing that Danny noticed was what looked like fresh blood dripping from its opened mouth.

  That meant that it had attacked someone right before it went down. The problem was that Danny didn’t know who it had attacked or what took it down. With that much visible damage to the body and face, it was hard to tell.

  Fear once again ate at his insides at the thought of whose blood was in the thing’s mouth. He looked up at his front door and could imagine. He knew that it could be from his wife, daughter, or son. No! He had to stop thinking like that. He also knew that no matter what he might find, he still needed to know.

  He started to stand up when something grabbed his left shoe. He silently cursed himself for letting his guard down around the body. When he looked back down at the body, he realized that it wasn’t the one that grabbed his foot. He looked down at his shoe and saw a hand whose arm led behind him.

  Wide-eyed, he slowly turned to look behind him and automatically knew the reason for his uneasy feeling. He followed the hand all the way to its owner who was wedged halfway under his daughter’s car. It only took him a second, but he knew that the hand belonged to the neighbor from across the street. At least it’s face looked like his neighbor. It appeared that whatever had attacked him had left the face in tacked.

  The neighbor pulled ferociously at Danny’s shoe. As hard as the thing was working, Danny couldn’t decide if it was trying to get at his foot or trying to free itself. He wasn’t taking any chances and lined the gun sight up to the thing’s head. He silently apologized for whatever had happened to him and for what was about to happen. The neighbor had successfully started to work his damaged body out from under the car whenever Danny pulled the trigger.

  The single shot was so loud that it echoed around the neighborhood. Danny immediately cursed himself for drawing attention to himself. It meant that if there were others out there like his neighbor, then they knew he was there.

  Well, there was nothing he could do about it now. He knew that he had to hurry and turned towards his house. He took one step and stopped. He saw something new out of the corner of his eyes. Danny turned his head and noticed another body. It looked like a homeless guy lying on the ground in front of his daughter’s car.

  Curious about who it was, he slowly walked up to the motionless body. Danny made sure that his gun was pointed toward the head, ready to shoot. Just like with the other body, he used his shoe to nudge it. When he didn’t get a response, he slowly walked around it, making sure that he kept a nice distance between them.

  Danny continued to walk around the body until he noticed a part of the skull that had a nice long dent in it. The skull looked like it had been hit by something long and round. The dent shape reminded him of a baseball bat, just like the baseball bat that his son had in his closet. Could his son have done this? If so, then why had he been out here?

  Danny bent down to examine the wound better when he noticed something hanging out the creature’s mouth. It looked like a huge chunk of skin. His first thought was that maybe it was from his son but rationally dismissed that notion. If it had gotten his son, then how could Austin have swung the bat like he did and done the kind damage that was done to the zombie. No! Danny decided that his son was safe somewhere, hopefully inside the house.

  The thought of his son caused him once again looked up at the house and toward the open space where the front door used to be. He figured that if his son was responsible for the damage to the zombie, then he must have had a very good reason to come out here and attack the thing. It meant that it must have been someone that Austin knew and deeply cared for.

  Danny didn’t like where his reasoning was leading him. Who would? It still didn’t change the fact that he still needed to know about his family. So, the question remained, who was attacked causing Austin to attack it. The only way to find any answers was to go inside and look for them.

  With a deep breath, Danny stood up and turned toward the house. He looked around one more time to see if his stupidity might have attracted any unwanted attention. When he was satisfied that nothing was coming, he began taking slow steps towards his front door. The closer he got to the house, the more he heard a strange moaning noise coming from inside. Scratch that, it sounded like multiple moaning sounds and they sounded like they were getting closer.

  He stopped just outside the door frame and waited. He was so sure that whatever was inside was coming his way, but nothing came. He eased his head around the frame and listened. That was when he heard a faint cry for help. It automatically gave him hope because it meant that at least one of his family was still alive.

  When he was sure that there was no immediate danger, he slowly made his way inside with the gun pointed out in front of him. He made his way through the living room and then the kitchen with ease, no sign of danger. His luck ran out when he turned the corner that led towards his bedroom. Standing between him and his bedroom door were at least a dozen zombies. They were banging loudly on his bedroom door.

  Danny could barely hear the crying from inside the room over the banging, but it sounded like his son was crying out for help. With his son in danger, Danny didn’t give a second thought as he began to open fire.

  He quickly hit the first six in the back of the chest, in between the shoulder blades. They stumbled forward into the zombies in front of them, but they didn’t go down. When he noticed that they didn’t go down, he remembered an important fact fro
m the old zombie movies. They had to be shot in the head.

  His mistake cost him the element of surprise. The zombies had already started to turn around, which meant he had to act quickly. Danny took aim once again, only this time he aimed for their foreheads and fired.

  His son and daughter must have heard the shots because they frantically cried out for help. Son and daughter? Maybe that meant his wife was also alive?

  Danny rushed to the door and tried turning the knob, but it was locked. He tried to plead with them to unlock the door, but it was useless. They were just too frightened.

  Danny changed his tone from pleading with his children to that of a stern parent’s voice. He called out their names and commanded them to open the door.

  He heard the lock click as the door slowly opened. He quickly turned to look behind him to make sure that his gun shots didn’t attract more unwanted attention. As he turned back around, he could feel his children’s unsure eyes look him up and down. He knew that after what they had seen, they probably wanted to make sure that their dad was truly their dad. Danny looked at his children. He smiled as he dropped to his knees and opened his arms wide. Forgetting about being teenagers, they rushed forward, and bear hugged him.

  After a few seconds, Danny pulled back and looked around the bedroom. He asked them where their mom was. Becca and Austin glanced at each other before speaking at the same time. Confused, Danny asked them to speak one at a time. Becca glanced down toward the floor and took a deep breath. Her voice quivered as she said that their mom gave her life to save hers. Austin began to tear up. Danny noticed his son’s tears and asked him what was wrong. His son’s eyes also darted down as he sadly confessed to his dad that he wasn’t fast enough to save his mom.

  Danny’s eyes watered as he gathered his children in his arms. He told them that they didn’t do anything wrong. He told them that their mom loved them very much and that she did what she had to do to protect them.

  He pulled back and forced a smile as he looked at each of them in their eyes. He reminded them once again that their mother loved them very much. He dried his eyes as he told them that they weren’t safe yet and needed to hurry back to the Warehouse.

  Danny knew that he needed to get his guns. As they approached the safe, Becca told him that they tried to open it, but they didn’t know the combination. Danny gave her one of those fathers looks that said “duh, then I wouldn’t have had a reason to have a safe” but out loud he told her that it was just the safest thing to do.

  With saying a word, he quickly put in the combination to the safe door and opened it. He told his son to hurry to the garage and get a few of his gun bags. His son took a few steps toward the bedroom door and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Noticing that his son stopped moving, he impatiently asked “What’s the matter?” Austin’s only response was to take a step backwards. It was only when he turned fully around that he saw what Austin’s problem was and it was a big problem.

  Slowly walking towards them with her left arm outstretched was his wife. With only her left up, Danny noticed that her right arm was dangling helplessly by her side. He was curious about that as he stood up as he quickly as he could.

  He stood there stunned as he watched her slowly walked toward them. Something about her right arm got his attention. After carefully looking at it from a distance, he noticed the extent of the damage done to it. From where he stood it looked like the tendons and ligaments were severed. He wasn’t sure if it was caused by her arm, but it looked like she could barely stand, much less able to walk. He didn’t notice any other marks on her or at least not from the angle he had. He did however notice the predatory look in her eyes as she focused on her closest prey, their son.

  Austin kept stepping backwards until he was safely behind his dad and next to his sister. As for Danny, his fear at seeing his wife was quickly replaced by the feeling of failure. He knew that he had failed to protect his family and that his wife had paid the ultimate price. Danny’s eyes moistened once again as he fought back his tears. He told his son and daughter to cover their eyes as he raised his gun and squeezed the trigger.

  Chapter 5 James

  James was the member of our little Council who didn’t believe in zombies. He was the type of person who only believed in what he saw. You know the old saying, “Seeing is believing.” That was the best way to describe James’ early beliefs of zombies.

  He left work to go get his son (who just got out of his teens), pregnant daughter (in her early twenties and around nine months pregnant), and her fiancé (who was also in his early twenties). He was a huge family man and the thought of his children in danger, caused him to drive recklessly home. To be honest, he didn’t know what to think about what was happening. He was getting frustrated because he had the same issues as the rest of us when it came to our cell phones. He just kept getting busy signals.

  He raced to his daughter’s apartment complex first to make sure that she and her unborn baby were alright. What he found when he got there almost made him cry, almost. When he pulled into her apartment complex, he noticed that someone that resembled her fiancé was banging on their front door.

  James pulled his SUV into a parking spot and slowly got out. Being an old military guy, he slowly looked around, checking for any immediate signs of danger. Luckily, he found none.

  He did mention that even though he didn’t see any sign of danger, he did have a bad feeling about things to come (in the past he had mentioned that he had a relative that was a medicine man). I guess you could say that he had a foreboding feeling of the future that was about to come true. Little did we know that it was just a matter of time.

  No matter what he did, James just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen. No, that’s not exactly right, it was more like something was wrong. The feeling intensified when he looked over at the person who was banging on his daughter’s apartment door. He walked toward the individual and called out his future son-in-law’s name. As if on que, the person immediately stopped banging on the door and slowly turned toward James.

  James stopped dead in his tracks when he saw for the first time the extent of the zombie rumors. He was now one hundred percent sure that the thing headed towards him was indeed his daughter’s fiancé and half of his face was missing. It was at that exact moment when James realized how truly wrong, he had been about zombies. They were real and the one that was moving towards him was indeed proof of that.

  James quickly worked out an escape plan in his head. But the first thing he needed to do was get his daughter and unborn grandchild to safety. For his plan to work, he was glad that his daughter had decided to have an apartment on the bottom floor. He was almost finished with his plan when he began to backpedal away from the zombie walking towards him.

  It was a little challenging because he tried to keep his eyes on the zombie walking towards him while watching where he was going. James noted that the zombie was walking at a normal speed. His mind raced as worked out his next move whenever he heard something that sounded like a pained scream, followed immediately by a weak baby’s cry. He quickly determined that it was coming from the direction of his daughter’s apartment.

  James assumed that the stress of everything must have upset his daughter, forcing her into labor. She must have had the baby the old natural way, which meant that she must be all alone. His daughter’s screams must have been what drew her fiancé’s attention back to the apartment in the first place.

  James continued to backpedal as he looked around for anything to use as a weapon. He needed to protect his daughter and his newborn grandchild. He tried to do the smart thing by keeping an eye on the boyfriend while looking around, but it proved to be more difficult then he thought. He continued to backpedal until he tripped over something and fell backwards onto the hard concrete.

  He looked down at his feet to see what he tripped on and saw a body lying there. Fear took over as he quickly fought to regain his composure. He immediately
rolled on to his knees and into a defensive position. He wanted to be ready to defend himself from any possible danger. He was ready to spring to his feet if necessary. Luckily, nothing came at him.

  He looked around for his daughter’s fiancé and noticed for the first time the horror that was surrounding him. There were at least ten bodies all over the yard, including the body that he had tripped over. It was curious on why he hadn’t seen them before. James slowly stood up and walked over to the nearest body. He tried to keep a watchful eye out as he examined the body.

  He looked at all the damage around the facial area and noticed that none of the flesh was torn. He quickly looked at a few more bodies and concluded that his daughter’s fiancé must have tried to fight them off while she fled to the safety of their apartment. As a father, you never think that any man would ever be good enough for your daughter, but if it was true then her fiancé proved that theory wrong. James started to tear up when he fully realized his ex-future son-n-law’s sacrifice.

  Thinking of his daughter’s fiancé caused James to look up and realized for the first time that he was gone. James quickly looked around, hoping that he hadn’t somehow snuck up on him, but he hadn’t. Instead, he must have heard the baby cry because he was back at the front door pounding on it. James realized that his grandchild had just inadvertently saved his life.

  James knew that he had to do something to save his grandchild, but he was weaponless. While looking around for something that he could use as a weapon, he noticed a yield sign that was halfway sticking out of the ground.