We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  From the start, we couldn’t tell who was interviewing who. The guy had taken a mental inventory of what he had seen since he walked through the gate.

  He constantly asked, “How many people are living here? How many men, women, and children? What type of defenses do you have in place to defend yourselves and where are they located? What about our escape routes do you have set up? What kind of weapons do you have and how much? How much ammo do you have stockpiled? Where are they located?”

  Without thinking about it, we began answering his questions, until he started asking even more detailed questions about the Warehouse. It was the kind of stuff that he shouldn’t have even known about. We became suspicious on what he was asking and tried turning things around by focusing our questions back towards him and his group. He quickly recognized the simple tactic we were trying to use and tried to cut it off by pressing his luck (so to speak). His last and final question shocked all of us.

  He wanted to know, “Are all of you willing to die for ‘your’ Warehouse.”

  The leader began to laugh uncontrollably, causing us to laugh uneasily with him. We didn’t know if he was joking or serious. Our laughter quickly died down when we realized that something was up when the leader continued laughing hysterically.

  It started off as a soft laugh that quickly escalated into something more sinister. He spontaneously jumped to his feet, causing each of us to grip whatever weapons we had with us. With an evil look in his eyes, he held up his hands in the air in a mock surrender.

  In a not so playful tone, he told us, “Don’t shoot or you will die.”

  His laughter died down just as quickly as it began as he motioned towards the window. In unison, the Council slowly stood up and approached the window. Just as we began to look out the window, a bullet hit the glass. It was a good thing that the company had installed bulletproof glass the years before or someone would have been killed.

  Wide eyed, we turned towards the leader who was still standing in the same spot, now with his hands folded over his chest.

  With a serious look on his face, he commented, “Nothing to worry about. I knew for the Warehouse had bulletproof glass. It’s one of the reasons my group want it.”

  He pointed towards the windows, “Look out there and tell me what you see.”

  Cautiously, half of us looked out of the window while the rest kept an eye on our ‘guest’. I wish I could say that it was all a bluff, but it wasn’t. Coming out from around the corner of some of the houses was a small army of heavily armed rednecks. They were decked head to toe in off color camo and helmets. Their numbers looked to be in the thirties, maybe more. Located in the very center of the group was Kevin and Bruce.

  Elation sprung forth from my heart because this changed everything. It meant that we were no longer in danger, Kevin and Bruce had returned with an army. It meant that we were now protected against the constant zombie infestation. At the mention of Kevin and Bruce’s names, the remaining Council members rushed to look out the window. Yes, their return changed everything. I was the first one to turn around to welcome our honored guest, but he was gone.

  My mind raced as I randomly spoke out, “The soldier’s gone. Where did he go?”

  Everyone turned back in unison, Ruff asked, “What did I mean by he was gone?”

  Ken asked, “Why would he take off like that?”

  Our surprise turned to fear as we glance back towards the window. We were all thinking the same thing. If we were correct, it meant that Kevin and Bruce weren’t there to ‘rejoin’ us. They were there to invade us.

  We quickly split into three teams to search for the soldier. The only possible explanation for his disappearance was that he was trying to find our armory. One group consisted of Brian, Ruff, and Ken (still limping) went to guard the armory. A second group of Cleo, Bobby, and Artie (his arm didn’t heal properly because we didn’t have the proper medical resources) searched the Warehouse for the soldier. Danny, another survivor (I regret that I didn’t know his name either), and I made our way towards the gate to make sure that no one was trying to get in. We were almost too late.

  Somehow, the four remaining soldiers left at the gate had gotten Lonnie, the survivor, and Logan to lower their guard. To put it plain and simple, the soldiers had outwitted them, there was no other way to put it. I mean, how else would you explain someone who willingly hands over their weapons over to a stranger so they could ‘look’ at them? But in Lonnie, the survivor, and Logan’s defense, they didn’t know it was a setup when they had handed over their guns.

  Because of their intense training as Marines, Lonnie and Logan quickly picked up on the subtle signs that something was wrong with the soldiers. They had managed to talk the soldiers into giving their guns back without alarming them. The other guy wasn’t as lucky.

  When the youngest soldier acted like he was giving the gun back to the other guy, he reached around and put the gun to his head. The soldier now had a hostage. The remaining three soldiers picked up their own guns and aimed them at Lonnie and Logan.

  It changed everything. Lonnie and Logan lifted their guns towards the soldiers, telling them to let their friend go. Danny, another survivor, and I came around the corner just as the young soldier began to stumble backwards with his hostage. When the soldier tried to regain his balance, he accidentally shot his hostage in the head. You could tell by the young soldier’s expression that it was an accident, that he didn’t mean to do it. It didn’t matter if he meant to do it or not though because events were already set in motion.

  After that, I’m not sure who fired the first shot, but both sides began shooting. We continued to run towards the shooting as we screamed at the top of our lungs to stop firing, but it was already too late. Our two experienced military guys took out the less experienced reservists (I began to have doubts whether they were indeed military reservists) with ease.

  The only injuries that we appeared to have suffered was that Lonnie was shot in the upper part of his left leg while running for cover behind a fridge laying on its side. Logan got shot in the right arm near his shoulder before ducking behind a dryer.

  We arrived to added gunfire coming in from beyond the gate. I could hear the bullets whizzing past my head as I dove behind another turned over fridge for cover. I looked around for Danny and the other guy that had been running with us. Danny had successfully found cover behind a washer while the other guy, unfortunately, did not. I could see the surprised look on the guy’s face as he went down from being shot multiple times in the chest. I will be honest with you, it was an image that would haunt me forever. The outside firing had stopped just as quickly as it had begun.

  I took the opportunity to yell out, “Hey! Is everyone alright?”

  Danny sat up with his gun aimed toward the gate, “I’m fine.”

  Logan said, “I got shot in the arm, but I think that it’s just a flesh wound.”

  Lonnie however didn’t respond.

  I stayed down as low as I could and crawled my way towards the spot where I saw him duck for cover. I managed to get within twenty feet when I noticed that he was lying on his back in a puddle of dark fluid. The closer I got, the more I realized that the puddle was in fact blood. His blood!

  I made sure that I continued to stay low as I crawled up next to him. I could see him gasp for air as blood steadily spurted out of his mouth. I could see his chest struggling to move. The center of his chest was covered in blood. I realized that I was wrong when I thought that he had been hit in the leg. He looked up at me and tried to focus his attention as he fought hard for breath. He whispered something, something that I couldn’t quite make out.

  I leaned down, “Lonnie? I didn’t hear you. Can you repeat yourself?”

  He took an obviously painful breath as he looked up at me, “Tell Tracie that I love ___.”

  With that last breath, his chest stopped moving. He never finished what he was trying to say as his eyes took on a distant glazed look. Trembling, I reached up a
nd closed his eyelids.

  I sat there dumbfounded. How could someone who had survived out on his own for so long die like this? I was beginning to wonder if any of us would survive the attack.

  No! Stop thinking like that. I refused to think like that. I refused to let fear take over my mind just as I refused to shed any tears. I refused to let my emotions get the best of me.

  Frustrated, I stood up. I started to turn toward the fence but stopped short when I heard Kevin’s voice. His voice carried as if everything else had gone silent.

  He stated, “I don’t want to hurt any of you. I just want the Warehouse.”

  I finished turning around and asked through clinched teeth, “What?”

  Keven repeated himself, “I don’t want to hurt any of you. I just want the Warehouse.”

  It was Danny’s turn to ask out of shock, “What?”

  I watched as Keven leaned on the gate and Bruce (like always) standing next to him.

  I asked, “What do you mean?”

  It was Bruce who answered me with a smile, “You know exactly what we mean.”

  As if on cue, Kevin smiled and spread his arms wide, “It’s useless to resist. You’re surrounded. If any of you try to resist, you will all die. Save yourselves and just give us the Warehouse. If you cooperate, I promise that NO HARM will come to you. You will ALL be able to leave safely.”

  I frowned at his notion that we would willingly abandon our sanctuary.

  I asked, “Kevin? Why do you want the Warehouse so bad? It looks like you’ve survived just fine on your own.”

  Kevin ignored me, “Look at it, the Warehouse has become the safest place around.”

  I decided to try a different tactic, “Look Keven, the Warehouse has enough room for everyone. We could all live here, together.”

  Kevin looked around him and gave a quick nod. Before we knew it, at least another hundred-armed people wearing grungy style clothes came out from around the houses. I’m talking armed men, women, and even older children (they looked between ten and fifteen). They each were carrying military style weapons. To make matters worse, I was sure that even more people were still hiding somewhere out there.

  Kevin turned his attention back towards us. By that time Ruff, Ken, Artie, Brian, Bobby, and Cleo came walking around the corner escorting the ‘leader’. Bobby looked like he had the start of a black eye while Cleo looked like he had a busted lip. The soldier had his wrist strapped by industrial size zip ties behind his back. From the look of Bobby and Cleo, I assumed that the soldier had put up a little resistance.

  Upon seeing his compadres dead near the gate, the soldier immediately lost it. He started screaming and fought feverishly to pull his wrists free of the zip ties. He was putting up one hell of a fight and it was fortunate for us that his wrists were still strapped. Unfortunately for him, his resistance was causing the ties to tear into his skin.

  When pulling his hands free failed, he began trying to kick everyone around him. When kicking failed, he began trying to talk everyone around him into fighting him one on one. He even tried telling everyone that he could whoop them even with his hands tied behind his back. He was creating one hell of a scene.

  Kevin spoke up in a commanding and authoritative manner. His voice seemed to carry itself around the Warehouse demanding his attention. It wasn’t until Kevin told the soldier to calm down, that he stopped resisting.

  With the soldier finally calmed down, the group finished escorting him to where I was standing and stopped. Ken was on one side of the soldier with Bobby on the other.

  Kevin asked, “Why is my guy restrained?”

  Ruff answered, “Your ‘guy’ got caught trying to break into our armory.”

  Kevin smiled in a sinister way that I had never seen before, “I knew that my younger cousin was bad, but it looks like it took six of y’all to retrain him.”

  Kevin’s cousin ignored us and spoke directly to Kevin. With tears in his eyes, he said, “Cousin! Do you see what they did to my younger brothers?”

  Kevin knew this and told his cousin, “Cousin. It’ll be okay. We had killed a few of their people too.”

  His cousin lowered his head in defeat, “I want my revenge!”

  Kevin replied, “I know what you want, but now is not the time or place.”

  He turned his attention toward us and demanded, “Release my cousin. Now!”

  Ken asked, “Why should we?”

  Kevin stated, “Let’s just say that if you let him go, things are going to get very messy for y’all.”

  He smiled as he pointed at the people behind him. He was trying to indicate that he had more people and weapons then we did.

  I looked at my fellow Council members to see if I could read their faces. They weren’t hard to read. We all knew that Kevin’s cousin was our bargaining chip. We also knew that we couldn’t afford to just hand him over. He was our last chance for a peaceful negotiation.

  I looked back towards the gate, ready to address Kevin when I noticed that he and Bruce were already standing there. It was as if they were already expecting us to hand over his cousin and the Warehouse.

  When we didn’t move right away, Kevin demanded, “Hey? What’s the hold up? I want my cousin, now!

  Cleo spoke up, “Before we hand him over, can you tell us why you want the Warehouse?”

  It was a good stalling tactic.

  Kevin looked at us dumbfounded, like we had just asked one of those stupid ‘you should already know the answer to’ type of questions. He didn’t respond, it was as if the question offended him.

  Instead, Bruce spoke up, “You already have everything we need.”

  Artie asked, “What do you mean by that?”

  Bruce smiled wide, “We’ve been watching y’all for a while and know that y’all been stockpiling supplies. We know all about our escape plans and routes. We even know the number of people you have.”

  It meant that they had been observing us for some time and we had failed to see them. How long had they been watching us? It was hard to tell. All I did know was Kevin and Bruce were back and it didn’t seem like they wanted to be a part of our group anymore.

  Frustrated with their cryptic messages, I finally asked, “What happened to y’all?”

  Kevin’s facial features softened, “We suffered some losses, just like you. But, that’s not what I’m here to talk about and since you’re too stupid to understand our intentions, I guess I’ll just have to spell it out for you. It’s always been mine and Bruce’s intentions to take the Warehouse. We had hoped to find it empty, but somehow, I knew that y’all would survive. You see, we had ‘stomached your little weekend survival training sessions’ because we figured that someday it would come in handy.”

  He looked thoughtful for a second, “We were right about that at least. Oh, and the weekends we weren’t together, we would take the opportunity to go out with our own families and prep for whatever apocalypse came our way. Overtime, we had secretly purchased land out in the country and secured it the best we could. Our only problem was that we didn’t prepare for the long term. Staying out in the country meant that there weren’t nearby houses to plunder like here and with our large families, we began to run out of food within months. Hell, the closest store was over ten miles away and had been picked clean by the time we got to it. Having to travel far just to search for supplies meant that we had to use our stockpile of gas. Seeing no other choice, we came up with the idea about returning to the Warehouse sooner then we had anticipated. You see. We had no other choice.”

  He sighed, “We were going to leave you idiots alone and let nature take it’s course by letting the zombies have you. Alas, to our surprise, you hadn’t just survived, you were thriving. Much to our displeasure, y’all had made this little plan of yours work. You fortified the building and yard. You had made this your home and we knew that for us to take this place from y’all, we were going to need an advantage. As luck would have it, we found the military Reservist Base, the one l
ocated on the outskirts of the City of Norman, abandoned. Can you believe it? We found ample number of weapons and ammunition just lying around.”

  Kevin stopped talking. I’m not sure why, but he had just given us a quick rundown on them.

  He stepped out into full view, “Look! We just want the Warehouse. I promise that y’all can leave without any incidents. Nobody will get hurt as long as you willingly give up the Warehouse.”

  I looked back at the Council members, trying to figure out our next move. A crowd had gathered. It seemed that word of what was happening had already spread throughout the Warehouse.

  Among those that had gathered was Tracy, Lonnie’s girlfriend. Tracy asked, “Where’s Lonnie?”

  I looked at her with sadness in my eyes, “Lonnie’s over here.”

  She rushed toward me and when she noticed Lonnie, she began screaming frantically. Besides her granddaughter, Lonnie was all she had left in the world. Everyone on both sides of the fence were silent.

  Upon seeing her beloved lying dead on the ground, she looked up at me with hatred in her eyes, “What happened?”

  I stood there silently and watched her. I didn’t know what to say. Her intense gaze pierced right through me, causing me to feel like I was a little kid standing in front of my father whenever I got in trouble. How was I going to tell her that it was a mistake, a misunderstanding? I silently searched for the proper words. Her stare was that tense.

  When I finally found my voice, I told her, “Well, one of the dead soldiers by the gate, accidentally shot one of our guys, causing Lonnie and Logan to react.”

  I pointed towards the bodies of the dead soldiers. She stood up as her gaze shifted from me to the soldiers. She slowly walked over to the bodies and knelt.

  The scene seemed unreal as she pulled a knife from her side holster and started stabbing the closest body. With each swing of her knife she cried out in pain. Blood was spurting everywhere. It looked like she had just reached her breaking point. Everybody watched in stunned silence.