We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  Well, that was until Ruff’s wife asked, “Is he still infected?”

  I answered honestly, “I....I don’t know. I don’t think that we’ll know until he wakes up.”

  She looked her husband over more closely and said without any doubt, “He’s okay. I can feel it.”

  “I believe you, but I’m still going to have people stationed outside the door around the clock just to be sure.”

  She rolled her eyes but agreed to it.

  I then turned to John’s widow and asked, “How are you doing?”

  As you can imagine that was a stupid question, a mistake on my part. Of course, she wasn’t okay and wasn’t normally afraid to say so. This was one of those few instances where she held her tongue in check. Instead, she had sat there listening to my story with her eyes focused on the ground.

  She looked up at me with moistened, blood red eyes. I couldn’t tell if was angry or just upset. She moved her quivering lips to speak but nothing came out. She took a deep breath before trying to continue. Those of us in the room sat there patiently as she gathered herself.

  When she was able, she asked, “Did John suffer?”

  Confused, I asked, “Before or after he turned?”

  She sarcastically responded, “Does it really matter?”

  I told her, “It does. Because after John stepped on the bone splinter, he was in severe pain. After he turned, his death was quick and painless.”

  She looked at me, “That’s not what I meant. Did he suffer?”

  Still confused, “Can you please elaborate on what you mean?”

  Annoyed, her faced took on a reddish color and her voice took on that, don’t ask me silly questions tone. She took a deep breath in order to calm herself. She looked directly into my eyes, “Did my husband suffer during his change?”

  I met her gaze, “I’m not sure. Neither, Ken or I were in the room when he changed. Only Ruff knows the answer to that question. You can ask him once he wakes up.”

  Her only response was to stand up to leave. Before she left, she looked towards Ruff’s wife, “I truly hope that your husband survives.”

  She took a deep breath, “I want you to know that I don’t blame Ruff for John’s death.”

  With those final words, she turned around and glanced at me before storming out of the clinic. Of course, word of our endeavor spread throughout our community. More and more people arrived to check on Ruff. Everyone wanted a glimpse of the man who got bit by a zombie and didn’t change. Even though Ruff was still unconscious, he had become somewhat of a celebrity or at least a legend to our community.

  Ruff surviving wasn’t even the best part of the story. Nope, not even close to the best part. Can you guess what the best part was? Maybe you already guessed correctly or maybe you didn’t. It doesn’t matter because I’m going to tell you anyway. Brian and his son were reunited.

  Every day when Brian left to find his son, he was constantly widening his search perimeter. Even though it had been a week, he hadn’t given up hope on finding his son. He knew that the odds for his son’s survival were stacked against him, but that didn’t matter to Brian. He knew that there was a chance that his son was still alive, and it meant that he was willing to risk his life to find him. He had to know one way or another, even if that meant finding out that his son had become a zombie. That thought alone keep him going when all he wanted to do was give up on life.

  Each morning he left with hopes of finding his son and every evening he returned heartbroken. It was late that evening when Brian returned from yet another failed search. You could tell on his face that getting up every day to look for his son and failing, was beginning to wear him down.

  More people than usual were waiting for him at the gate to tell him the good news when he arrived, but he refused to listen. He continued to turn a deaf ear to everyone. Downhearted, he slowly got out of his truck and walked towards the main door.

  He was almost to the door when he heard a young familiar voice yell, “Dad!”

  It was normal to hear that word around our little community, but this time it was different. His heart started beating fast as he slowly looked around. He noticed for the first time that the crowd had stopped talking and formed a victory ‘V’ formation. At the center of the formation was a familiar little figure that resembled his son.

  Before he knew it, he was running full sprint towards that figure. Time seemed to have come to a standstill, causing him to believe that he would never reach the little figure. The feeling was short lived.

  He dropped to his knees just feet from the figure with his arms spread wide in a welcoming position. Without hesitation, the little figured leaped into his dad’s arms. Brian collapsed on the hard-concrete floor under the weight of his son, but he didn’t care. No, he didn’t care one bit because his only reason for living had found his way home.

  I honestly couldn’t tell you how longed they had hugged each other on the ground, but I can tell you there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen. Brian’s son at just five years old had done the unthinkable. No, he had done the impossible. He had found a way to not only survive, but he found his way back to his dad.

  Chapter 13 Day 90, A Much-Needed Miracle

  Do you believe in miracles? To be honest with you, I didn’t. At least, not until after the whole apocalypse thing took place. I’m not going to sit here and say that I believe that it was God’s plan to bring the dead back to life. Let me revise that statement because it’s entirely possible that it was God’s plan after all. The Bible is full of crazy stories like the one we’re now living in.

  But before I get too far off track, I want to share with you a few miracles or at least a few events that I view as miracle worthy. Let me start off by getting you up to speed on a few things that had happened to us since the last time I had checked in.

  Ruff had survived the infection and made a full recovery, well mostly a full recovery. He woke up to the realization that we were still in a zombie type of world, our living nightmare.

  He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the two most important people in his life smiling at him. I was told that he woke up with a smile. His first thoughts were, maybe it had all been a dream. He looked around and noticed that he was in the Warehouse clinic. He risked a glance downward and realized that he was still in the nightmare because his left hand was missing.

  His eyes widened as he transitioned from excitement to hyperventilating. His wife leaned forward trying to calm him down. She grabbed his face between both of her hands, to force him to focus only on her. She talked to him in a calm voice as she explained what had happened to him. She went on to tell him that Ken and I saved his life.

  It was enough to calm him down, his eyes darted around the room until they found me and Ken. We had stood in the corner silently watching. We didn’t know how he would have taken the news. His eyes went from shock to thankfulness as he motioned for us to come over. Smiling, we walked over to his bed.

  Speaking of Ken, he didn’t have a broken ankle after all. He had just severely sprained it or so it seemed. Since he was able to walk on it, my mom figured that he most likely pulled or tore cartridge around his ankle. But without the use of x-rays and a proper doctor, it was hard to tell.

  Now, I don’t want you to think that his ankle had healed properly because it hadn’t. However, it did heal well enough that he was able to walk around with a slight limp. He did mention that when he put pressure on it at a slight angle, there was a slight discomfort. You could see the discomfort in his body language when he walked, but he always had a smile on his face. He was good at hiding his pain.

  As I already stated, we constantly learned from our mistakes. We had to adjust and devise new ways of doing things when it came to supply runs. We would now go out with six people, two groups of three. The first team would go in and secure the area while the second team was backup. The second group would be there just in case of an emergency. We always used walkie talkies to communicate between the two
teams. Since the walkie talkies we had were short range radios, we gave a detailed list on a map where we would be just in case, we were ever separated. We also set a time frame for our searches. It would allow us time to get there and back. If either group was late, we knew there was trouble and had an idea of where to search. It was a lot safer that way.

  Our little community kept growing from all the extra survivors we found. Thinking about it, I would call that a miracle. I mean think about it, we added more survivors every day. How else would you describe it but a miracle?

  The Council’s word was law, and everybody contributed. There was no fighting, killing, greed, stealing other people’s property, or basic trouble making. It was truly a blessed timed for us. We even began to believe in ourselves so much that we felt like we were untouchable from the horrors of the outside world. I know that it was an arrogant way of thinking, but we had to have something to believe in.

  Do you remember Mia? She had the type of miracle that most people could only dream of. Yes, I would say that she was a lucky girl at eighteen. I know what you’re going to say. How can she have a miracle with all the bad stuff going on? Let’s just say that for her, it was a miracle to remember.

  The day started out as any other day did, we got ready for a supply run. With our growing number of survivors living at the Warehouse, we had to go out for supplies every couple of days. Whether it was food or just simple bedding. I want it known that no one was above serving our community and that included its Council members.

  On one day, we were planning on going out on our furthest run to date. Team A consisted of Ruff (being an old machinist he created a metal hand to replace the one he had and it could quickly transform into a long sharpened spike like weapon), Bobby, and I. Team B consisted of Danny, Cleo, and Brian (it was the first time he was willing to leave his son’s side since he showed up at the Warehouse). We had another team heading out in the opposite direction that included Lonnie, Ken, Artie, and three other survivors (whom, I didn’t know very well).

  We had our plans lined out, which included a time that we were expected to be back. If either group was late by two hours, a search party of four would go looking for them. We tried to cover all our bases. We usually left around ten in the morning and stayed gone for a max of six hours. We figured that it would give us enough time to drive there, do what we needed to do, and return. Never longer than eight hours.

  When we were about a mile from the Warehouse, we came across a small group of eight men. They were heavily armed and acted like they were military. Most of them looked to be in their mid-twenties or younger. They had been walking in the middle of the street until they saw us approach.

  The two in the middle of the street dropped to one knee and raised their weapons. The remaining six split and ran for the cover of the tree line. Three on each side of the street.

  We immediately stopped our vehicles about twenty feet from them and got out with our hands in the air as a gesture of peace. It wasn’t the first time we had come upon armed people and knew that if we played it cool, everything would work out with no incidents. With my hands still in the air, I slowly walked towards the two men in the street.

  I stopped five feet away and turned towards my guys, “Put your weapons down.”

  I turned back towards the soldiers, “We come in peace.”

  I talked to them, without trying to give too much information away while trying to sneak information out of them. After all, I didn’t know them or what their intentions were.

  The youngest soldier on the left stood up, “We’re looking for a place called the Warehouse. Do you know where it was?”

  The soldier on the right slowly stood up.

  I suspiciously looked at both of them, “Yeah, I know of the Warehouse.”

  The older looking soldier on the right must have seen my expression because he said, “Look. It’s not what you think.”

  Still looking at them suspiciously, I told the older one, “Oh yeah? Tell me what I was thinking.”

  The older soldier was good at either reading me or reading the situation. He stepped forward and spoke in a hushed tone, “It’s obvious that you are from the Warehouse.”

  Without waiting for a reply, “Don’t worry, we’re not going to kill you.”

  He stepped back a couple of steps and nodded his head towards my group. I turned around and noticed that they still had their weapons out just waiting for my signal to attack.

  He continued to step backwards until he was next to the younger soldier and spoke out loud for everyone to hear, “Men! These people are not our enemy. Lower your weapons and come out.”

  One by one they stepped out from behind the trees. I turned and motioned for my group to lower their weapons.

  I extended my hand as I asked the younger soldier, “How do you know about the Warehouse?”

  He stated, “I’m looking for Mia. Mia Bryant.”

  I narrowed my eyes, “How do you know about Mia?”

  The young soldier smiled, “I’m her husband, Logan.”

  My jaw dropped, she hadn’t talked to him since the whole mess started and that was around three months ago. All she knew was that he had been off doing a secret training exercise when they were called away for some emergency. He had told her to stay put and safe because no matter what happened, he would come for her.

  All she had told me was that he was a man of his word and that he was a Marine. It was no wonder these soldiers had survived that long. They weren’t ordinary soldiers, they were considered the best of the best. It was just like that old saying ‘Marines don’t quit.’

  Finding out who they were put my mind at ease. I turned around and motioned for the group to come over. Logan and the older soldier motioned for his group to do the same.

  I introduced myself as Mia’s Godmother’s brother. Surprisingly, Logan knew who I was. He had found out from Mia. Regardless, the tension we had felt moments before was gone.

  Logan was anxious to get to his wife, but first he had to see his fellow Marines off. You see, they had all been on that training exercise when the world fell apart and it seemed that they were the only members left from their squadrons. They were all anxious to get home safely to their families and were traveling together to make sure that they accomplished just that. No one has been able to contact their families since it had started, and Oklahoma City was their first stop.

  We invited them to join with us at the Warehouse, but they politely turned us down. They were just too anxious to get home and most of them had a long travel ahead of them. We salvaged a minivan from one of the surrounding homes for the troops. We said our goodbyes and wished them luck on their individual journey’s.

  Once they had left, I invited Logan to help us find supplies. I explained that we took in survivors all the time, it meant that we needed more supplies and food.

  Logan understood. He really didn’t mind helping. When the world collapsed on itself, he was forced to mature quicker than most young men his age. He had come to understand the importance of having other people around. It was that whole ‘greater in numbers’ thing.

  We continued our run as Logan told us his story. He wanted us to know that they had indeed been on a secret training exercise, but for some reason, he refused to tell us what that was. It was one of those sworn to secrecy things and to be honest, I really didn’t care.

  We sat there as he told us that while they were in the middle of training in Frankfort, Kentucky, an emergency call came in for his unit to aid in the evacuation of a local hospital. Different units were assigned to different hospitals. Logan stated that they were uninformed and unequipped to battle the monsters they came across.

  When his unit finally arrived at the hospital, all hell was literally breaking loose. People were chasing people, only they weren’t exactly people. Logan and his squad could tell right away that something was wrong with them. Their mannerisms and eyes were off, not to mention most were covered in blood and sores.

 
; The chaos didn’t stop them from trying to fulfill their duties though. Most of the troops rushed forward to help the injured, they in turn were attacked. The troops that remained uninjured fired their weapons at the injured who were now attacking their comrades. It had become a madhouse.

  The injured didn’t go down on the first or even the tenth shot. When they finally did go down, they got right back up. The troops that were attacked by the injured went down and it seemed that within minutes, they got back up. They in turn started to attack those that weren’t hurt and using weapons. Mass confusion took over as they realized that they were in a ‘lose-lose’ type of situation. Before long, it was down to Logan and two other squadmates.

  They called a retreat and started to slowly back their way out of the hospital. They fired on anyone who seemed hostile. He stated that it seemed like everyone had become hostile. Logan and his squadmates were under the assumption that if they could get outside the hospital, then they could call for reinforcements.

  The only problem was that they couldn’t make it outside. In fact, they quickly found out that they couldn’t even make it through the lobby to the entrance doors. There were just too many of those things around.

  Realizing that they were stuck, they quickly began looking around for another way out. They were surrounded and shot anything that rushed towards them. They began backing themselves into a corner, with no way out. All hope seemed lost whenever Logan noticed an escape route that led to an emergency stairwell.