We Are All Dead

by Jimmy Bird

  I called out Tracie’s name, but she ignored me. I slowly walked up to her and continued to call out her name. It was only when I was within a few feet that she stopped stabbing the body and stood up. She turned and pointed the knife at me. She looked like something from a horror movie covered in blood splatter.

  To be honest, it was hard to tell if she was pointing the knife at me in a threatening manner or if she even recognized me at all. She had a blank distant look in her eyes. The rest of the Council began speaking to her, to talk her down from whatever she was about to do. It looked to me like it was going to be a failed attempt.

  It was as if she was in a trance as she kept the knife out in front of her and walked towards Lonnie’s body. She stopped in front of his body and looked down. I could see tears rolling down her cheeks. She whispered something that no one could hear and lifted her left arm out in front of her. She closed her eyes and turned her wrist up.

  She pressed the knife blade into her skin. She was going to commit suicide! Everyone screamed for her to stop, but it looked like our pleas were falling on deaf ears. She pressed so hard that blood started to seep out next to the blade and down her wrist. She looked determined to take her own life.

  In the end, it took one voice to stop her and that one voice belong to her granddaughter. Her little voice carried over everyone else’s. It was loud enough that Tracie stopped pressing the knife into her skin and opened her eyes. It was as if a dark veil had been lifted from her eyes as she looked down.

  Walking toward her, holding Becca’s hand was her nine-year-old granddaughter. Even before they got near Tracie, she let go of Becca’s hand and rushed to grab her grandmother’s hand.

  She looked disapprovingly at her grandmother and stated, “Grandma! Come on. We need to clean you up.”

  It was like watching a role reversal of how things were supposed to be. Without waiting for a reply, she turned and pulled Tracie with her. Tracie’s hand went limp, causing her to drop the knife.

  Both sides stood there dumbfounded at what we had just witnessed. I mean, talk about calming the savage beast. If Tracie’s granddaughter hadn’t arrived when she did, I was pretty sure that she would have committed suicide.

  Luckily, Kevin and his crew had kept their mouths shut until Tracie had left.

  Smiling, Bruce said, “Look! They’re self-imploding.”

  Ruff responded by telling Bruce, “It’s your fault that this happened.”

  Changing his smile to a frown and managing to look hurt, Bruce demanded, “How is it our fault?”

  Without saying a word, Ruff pointed towards Lonnie and the dead soldier that started the whole shooting.

  Kevin spoke up, “Enough! I’m tired of playing these games. I want my cousin and the Warehouse or else.

  Ken spoke up, “Or else what?”

  Kevin made a small hand gesture with his left hand. A shot rang out and less than a second later, Ken dropped to his knees. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as blood trickled out of a new hole that was now in the center of his forehead.

  I dropped to my stomach and yelled, “Sniper!”

  Mass hysteria took over as a few more shots whizzed by overhead. I realized that Kevin must have planted at least one sniper to take us out while he was buying time. It must have been his plan all along.

  Angrily, I turned to army crawl towards the nearest cover when I noticed that Artie was lying face down next to me. His eyes had that glazed over blank look as blood poured out from a grotesque head wound near his right temple.

  The bullets increased as the rest of Kevin and Bruce’s group joined in the shooting. I swear, I could hear laughter coming from outside the fence.

  I looked over and noticed that our prisoner was running free towards the gate, he was holding a knife. Questions rolled around in my head. How did he get free? Where the hell did, he get a knife? Was it the one Tracie had dropped?

  I realized that I didn’t have time to worry about the details now as they continued to lay down cover fire for him. A thought dawned on me. Ken and Artie had been holding onto the prisoner, that must have been why they were shot. If Kevin’s cousin succeeded in opening the gate, then we were all going to be dead.

  I was pinned down and yelled at anyone who could hear me, “Someone, stop him! Don’t let him open the gate.”

  The realization of what could happen must have sunk in. They knew, just like I did, that the only thing protecting us was the gate. I knew that Kevin couldn’t afford to damage the gate, or his group wouldn’t have a safe place to stay either. The only way for Kevin and his group to get in was for the gate to be opened from the inside.

  I took a chance and peeked around the corner of my cover and was rewarded by bullets hitting the appliance a few inches from my head. It was a surreal feeling to know that you could die at any moment. I took a chance and aimed my gun around the corner of my cover, but couldn’t manage to get a good angle.

  Danny had worked his way around the corner of his cover and pulled the trigger. He caught Kevin’s cousin in the upper part of his left shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it killed him, but it was enough to turn him around one hundred and eighty degrees. He screamed out in pain as he fell on his butt.

  Danny thought he had killed the guy and without thinking, he jumped out from behind his cover to celebrate. He received a bullet in his upper left shoulder area for his stupidity. He screamed out in pain as the momentum from the bullet caused him to spin around and fall backwards. I wasn’t sure, but it looked like he hit his head on the washer he had been hiding behind.

  I screamed, “Danny? Danny, are you alright?”

  When I didn’t get an immediate response, I moved towards the end of my cover. My plan was to sprint towards him as fast as I could.

  I was bidding my time to run but hesitated as bullets kept flying overhead. I remember asking myself if this was the end. Is this how we die?

  I got in a sprint stance, ready to run towards Danny when I heard Kevin’s voice.

  Keven, “Cousin! Hurry up and open the gate!”

  Crap! It meant that Danny didn’t kill Kevin’s cousin after all.

  We couldn’t risk the guy opening the gate. I turned back around to go after the guy and to my surprise, Ruff and Bobby was hunched next to me.

  Ruff stated, “Cleo and Brian went to evacuate our women and children through our emergency escape. They’re going to meet us out at your father-n-law’s land. I told them to stay there until we can come get them.”

  Before I could even ask a question, Ruff told me, “Hey, don’t worry about Danny. I’ll get him.”

  He turned to leave but stopped and looked back from Bobby to me.

  He illustrated, “You need to make sure that the gate doesn’t open.”

  I looked over at Bobby and sarcastically asked, “Well? Are you ready to lay down some cover fire for Ruff?”

  Without waiting for a response, I leaned out from around the corner of the fridge and began firing. I managed to hit Kevin’s cousin squarely in the lower part of his back. He screamed out in pain as he went down face first into the fence.

  I felt elevated that I had stopped the guy from opening the gate, but unfortunately that feeling didn’t last long. Before I could duck back behind the safety of my cover, pain surged through my right shoulder. I twisted around as I fell backwards against the fridge behind me.

  Instinctively, I reach my hand up to my shoulder and felt something warm. I pulled back my hand and looked at it. My hand was covered in blood! Fear took over when I couldn’t lift my right arm, that same fear caused me to refuse to even look at my shoulder. The sight of blood on my hand was enough to scare me. Not to mention, the pain surging through my shoulder.

  To be honest, I wanted to panic. I wanted to scream as loud as I could. I wanted to freak out, but I knew that I couldn’t. I made sure that I didn’t. I didn’t want to give Kevin the pleasure of knowing that I had just gotten hit.

  I turned towards Bobby to see how he was doi
ng, and it looked like he was doing just as good as I was. He looked a little worse. He was sitting there holding his left collarbone area with his right hand. Blood was seeping out between his fingers. He was sitting there wide eyed. It looked like he was trying to control his emotions like I was or maybe he was just in shock.

  I jokingly asked, “Bobby? How are you doing?”

  His only response was a failed attempt at a smile. His skin had already taken on a pale looking color. I knew that if I didn’t get him some help soon, he would be a dead man.

  I yelled out to Ruff, “Ruff? Did you make it to Danny yet?”

  I got no response. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I heard a scream but couldn’t tell where it came from. Everything suddenly became groggy. I wanted to lay down and take a nap, but I was in too much pain to do even that.

  I sat there next to Bobby, exhausted. It didn’t seem like my body wanted to move. It felt as if I just completed a triathlon while being out of shape. I couldn’t help but think that well at least my kids will survive. Yes, at least all our kids will survive.

  I was brought out of my tired state with the sound of gun fire behind us, on the opposite side of the Warehouse. It sounded like it came from the direction of our escape route, where our escape buses were located. Did that mean that Kevin’s people were shooting at unarmed children? My children!

  I ignored the bullets flying overhead as I jumped to my feet. I refused to give up and reached down to help Bobby up. He was starting to wheeze bad and I gave him my good left shoulder to lean on. We began walking towards the door when we saw Ruff dragging an unconscious Danny behind him.

  Ruff’s right pants leg looked blood soak, it looked like he had been shot in the leg multiple times. I called out his name just as multiple explosions came from the direction of the escape buses. It sounded like bombs were going off. The explosions shook the ground, causing me and Bobby to fall to the ground. It looked like Ruff’s arm gave out, causing him to fall directly on his face.

  I bolted right up into a sitting position and asked to no one in particular, “What was that?”

  A bad feeling came over me as I glanced in the direction of the smoke. I yelled over all the background noise toward Kevin and Bruce. I tried to hold my emotions in check but failed.

  I accusingly asked them, “Did you just kill innocent women and children?”

  The shooting immediately stopped as Kevin and Bruce stood there stunned.

  Bruce was the one to find his voice, “Jimmy? Are you joking?”

  I replied, “Hell no, I’m not joking! Who do you think our emergency escape plan was for? Its purpose was to save the women and children.”

  My words fell on deaf ears because Kevin was already talking on a walkie talkie looking phone. Even with the recent stoppage of gun fire, I still couldn’t make out what he was saying. All I could tell was that he was upset about something. He looked red in the face as he glanced in our direction.

  He put the device away and told us, “It wasn’t my intention to kill the children. We only wanted the Warehouse. It appears that my men saw two male drivers and opened fire. I’m sorry, but I promise you that those responsible will face punishment.”

  Kevin confirmed my suspicions and worst fears. My kids, in fact all of our innocent children were just killed. My pain quickly turned to rage as I slowly climbed back to my feet and turned to face Kevin.

  My right arm was completely useless which meant that I would have to learn to shoot with my left hand and quick. I figured that moment was just as good as any. Besides, I had nothing left to live for.

  I took the gun in my left and aimed it towards Kevin and Bruce. They weren’t even looking at me, they looked like they were arguing. I figured that the odds were in my favor. Without even trying, I should be able to hit at least one of them. Ever the impatient one, I pulled the trigger.

  Nothing happened. I pulled the trigger again, nothing happened. I silently cursed my luck. I didn’t know if the clip was empty, if the gun was jammed, or if it just misfired. With only one arm, there was really no way to tell.

  With the gun useless, I threw it down and turned to help my friends. I figured that while Kevin and Bruce were preoccupied with each other, we could run to safety. Kevin’s voice carried over the distance between us, loud and clear. I thought that he was yelling at me, causing me to stop dead in my tracks. I turned around to face him and realized that I was wrong.

  Kevin was hollering at someone else. Walking into view were five people, it looked like three men and two women. The group of five looked proud of themselves. Kevin on the other hand, didn’t look to happy with them.

  You could see both, Kevin and Bruce get animated with the group. If it hadn’t been a serious situation, it could have been considered comical. Kevin continued to yell at the group as he pointed our way. Finally, Kevin looked in our direction and spoke up. He wanted us to hear what he had to say.

  To the surprise of the group standing next to him, he told us, “These are the people responsible for killing your children.”

  The group stood there genuinely shocked, they silently stared at Kevin until one of the women spoke up. She looked towards us and claimed, “We only did what they told us to do. Our job was to stop anyone from escaping.”

  One of the guys from the group spoke up, “We only killed a couple of men trying to flee from the shooting in buses. We didn’t kill any kids!”

  Their claims fell on death ears as Kevin once again, “I promise to punish those responsible for killing your children.”

  Bruce jumped in, “Their job was to STOP anyone from escaping, not to kill them!”

  Wide eyed, the group turned back around to face Kevin and Bruce. They were determined not to be the fall guys for the killings.

  Another guy from the group claimed, “Kevin told us to shoot anyone that tried to escape, no matter who it was!”

  The other woman from the group was quiet, she looked shocked by Kevin’s claimed that they had just killed children. She was confused about the claims against them and began talking. The more she talked, the more hysterical she became. She eventually got so worked up that she lifted her gun and pointed it at Kevin or Bruce, I really couldn’t tell.

  You could hear her scream, “You made me kill innocent children?”

  Kevin turned his full attention to the lady holding the gun and took a step towards her. He said something to her I couldn’t hear. It caused the others to drop their guns on the ground, raise their hands, and back away.

  The lady refused to drop or even lower her gun. I’ll give her credit, she stood her ground even as Kevin reached out for the gun. He had the barrel in his hand, trying to take it from her, but she refused to let it go.

  Seeing our chance to escape to the safety of the Warehouse, we began to put distance between them and us. We didn’t get very far before a single shot echoed around the area. Curious, we stopped and looked back.

  Kevin had dropped to his knees as he slowly let go of the gun barrel. Smoke was rising up from his chest.

  The girl screamed and dropped the gun, “I’m sorry. It was an accident!”

  You could tell that she was telling the truth, but that didn’t matter. She put her hands in the air, the international sign for ‘I give up’ as Kevin fell to his side. Bruce rushed towards the girl and pulled his gun out in one fluent motion.

  The girl instantly dropped to her knees and begged for forgiveness. Bruce aimed the gun at her forehead and said something that we couldn’t quite hear. A defiant male’s voice called out something from one of the houses outside the fence. We couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. The group behind the girl also chimed in, but I guess it didn’t matter because it looked like her fate had already been decided. Bruce pulled the trigger, splattering her blood and brain matter all over the group behind her.

  The scene outside the fence instantly became chaotic as bullets started flying once again. Only this time, they were shooting at each other. It seemed that Bru
ce had started some kind an internal feud. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the girl or the death of Kevin, but it was getting ugly fast.

  I grabbed Bobby and got him to his feet. I directed him towards the door and gave him a gentle push. Next, I helped Ruff to his feet and motioned him towards the door, but he refused to budge.

  He told me, I’m not going anywhere until Danny’s safely inside.”

  I told him, “Go! I’ll get Danny.”

  Ruff could barely stand much less walk, he was stubborn. He still refused to move until Danny was safe. Luckily, Danny woke up around that time. He was a little disoriented and in pain, but he seemed otherwise okay. I turned around to go help him up when I noticed that Logan was already helping him up. His shoulder was semi-bandaged up.

  He must have noticed that we were kind of staring at him, “Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything once we get inside.”

  Just then we heard a loud death scream. I looked over in time to see Bruce fall backwards. Blood was spraying out of his body upper body.

  I thought to myself, great now there was nothing to stop those idiots from charging the gate or was there? Do you believe in miracles? I know that I’ve asked that before, but there was no other way to describe what I was seeing. Believe it or not, the zombies were coming to our rescue. Well, I guess that wasn’t entirely true. They were most likely attracted to the gunfire. But still, their presence saved us.

  With Danny leaning on Logan’s shoulder and Ruff on mine, we slowly made our way to the door. We were almost to the door when we heard more screaming and it wasn’t the type of screaming that came from blood-lust caused by battle. No, this was more like the kind that you hear when someone screams at the top of their lungs in fear.

  Gunfire started going off again. I slowly turned to see what those idiots on the other side of the fence were shooting at. To my relief, it was a large horde of zombies. I never thought that I would be so glad to see them. While the redneck army was preoccupied with the zombies, we continued to make out way inside the Warehouse.

  Chapter 15 Day 181, The Fall of the Warehouse