by Jimmy Bird
Seth shrugged, “A shield?”
I looked thoughtful, “Mmm. While it’s true that most armies used shields, hundreds if not thousands of years ago, it wasn’t considered a weapon. They were used for defense, as in a way to protect themselves. What else?”
Both looked deep in thought again. Seth asked for the answer, but I refused to give it. Instead, I gave another hint.
I asked, “Have either of you seen the movie ‘300’?”
I looked from one to the other, “What weapons did the Spartan’s use?”
Austin blurted out, “Swords!”
I told him, “You are correct, they did use swords, but it’s not the weapon I’m looking for.”
Seth’s eyes widened, “Spears!”
I smiled, “That’s correct. Would you like to make one?”
The boys looked confused.
Seth asked, “How are these pipes going to be spears?”
I smiled at their lack of imagination, “You see, we’re going to seal a pipe cap on one end and then use a grinder to file it down into a tip.”
Wide eyed, Austin asked, “Can you really do that?”
“I’m not going to do anything, you are. Your both going to learn to make your own spears.”
Pleased with the idea of having spears instead of just having plain old gas pipes, they enthusiastically accepted their new weapons. Especially, since they were the ones who were going to make them.
“But, before you get started on the spears, we need to make sure that the Warehouse is secure.”
I shut and locked the door to the armory. I lead the boys towards the maintenance truck that would take us to the maintenance ramp. Once we were at the ramp, I slowly walked around, looking at our defenses.
Seth asked, “What are you looking for Uncle Jimmy?”
I informed him, “I’m looking for weak spots. It doesn’t matter that the door is down and looks safe because if too much weight is applied then it would easily buckle, and we would be screwed. The zombies would be inside and then it would be to late.”
I pointed to the triple row of appliances in front of the door, “Look over there. Now, on the surface, this area might look safe and secure, there was no guarantee that it would keep the zombies out.”
We walked around while I explained what needed to be done, what they needed to look for.
“While everyone is healing up, it’s up to us to check on the doors and any safety measures that were put in place, every few hours. I’m not going to baby either of you anymore, that time is gone. It’s time to treat you like adults and therefore, you deserve to know the truth. It looks like we’re going to stuck inside the Warehouse for at least a month while everyone heals up. Until that happens though, us three is the Warehouse’s only line of defense.”
The boys came up with a game plan that would make it the most efficient way to check on our defenses. I know that I already said this, but I’m going to tell you again, those boys are smart. They figured a way to check all the doors at one time. I had forgotten that the Warehouse had security cameras throughout the plant. But, since we didn’t have power to use them, I had completely forgotten about them.
They were able to hook the security system up to the generator and hack into the video feed. We could observe the outside perimeter as well as the inside the Warehouse. They also found some additional cameras in the old IT storage room. We were able to use some of the maintenance’s wires and brackets to set them up around the doors that didn’t already have them. While looking for wire, they came across some old motion sensors. The same kind that were used on the front gate.
In the days that followed, we kept extremely busy safeguarding the Warehouse. Seth and Austin hooked up a monitor to view the security cameras in the clinic. They also rigged up high pitch siren that would go off at the fence gate. It was a way to attract the zombies away from the Warehouse when it was time to leave.
To top it all off, they came up with a tricky maze using the appliances. What I mean by tricky is that there was really no way through. Yeah, you heard me. There is no way through. Well, that is unless you know what you’re looking for. I will tell you this much. Do you remember the mazes in kid activity books? You know the ones where there is only way through it. Yep, it was like that.
If you haven’t realized it yet, I'll share this little tidbit of information with you. Seth and Austin have become inseparable, it’s almost like they’re brothers. They get along and work well together. As a matter of fact, I’m not even sure if I have ever seen them fight. It’s weird how life works out. In my opinion, I don’t think they would even have been friends in the previous world.
They did have their differences though. Seth was the skater type of teenager who always liked wearing clothes that look like they came right out of a dirty clothes pile, even though they were clean. Don’t get me wrong, he did wear clean pressed clothes occasionally, but that was a long time ago. Austin was a religious church goer who liked wearing ‘preppy’ style clothes. He always dressed in nice clothes that looked very expensive, too expensive for my taste. Those were just two examples of how they were different.
Let’s get back to the story. The next thing the boys did, was create their own spears. We used thread Loctite to lock the caps onto their pipes. After they filed the tips down to spikes, they did something that amazed me. They turned around and grinded out smoothed groves down the length of the spear. They claimed that it would help them grip their spears better. Didn’t I tell you they were smart?
They even made JoJo a little three-foot spear, modeled after theirs. Their reasoning was simple, she also needed to learn to protect herself. I couldn’t argue with that line of reasoning. Even though I would always protect her, there was no guarantee that I would always be around. It was one of those ‘it’s better to be safe than sorry’ type of things.
All in all, things went smoothly, if not quickly. Meanwhile, JoJo helped her Aunt Tina take care of Uncle Bobby, who was making a quick recovery even if he was never going to fully recover. Without the proper medical care, his collarbone couldn’t heal straight, causing his left shoulder to be lower than his right. It was a good thing that he was right handed because he could barely lift his left arm. Still, he was lucky to be alive.
With Bobby up and walking, I took the opportunity to start training the kids to defend themselves. We converted the War Room to a training room. We left the table where it was in the corner so we could use it to our advantage during training.
Ruff and Danny, who were also up and about, helped with the training. They suggested that we use some of the left-over bedding to represent zombies. It was a good way for the kids to get a feel for what it would be like to stab one of them. We did have the extra bedding after all.
My daughter wasn’t the strongest, but she did try. In fact, I think that she tried harder than the two older boys. What impressed me the most about my daughter was the fact that she did not cry when she got hurt, not once. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was impressive and worrisome at the same time. Did it mean that she was already starting to adapt to the new world? Did she understand the dangers?
Like I said before, she wasn’t the strongest. She learned how to wield the spear like a true master. It literally became an extension of her arm. I couldn’t help but beam with pride as I thought that my daughter would, no, could survive on her own. Well, with certain limitations.
Now you might think that the pipe would be too heavy to be wielded, but that wasn’t true. It seemed that when the boys grinded on the pipes, it took a little weight off. Plus, Ruff did something that only a machinist could do, he cut the weight of the spear in half. Better yet, he made the three-quarter inch pipe weigh next to nothing. He managed to hollow the center out of the gas pipe without effecting the integrity of the metal.
Next, he created a thin, hidden blade for each spear that fit snugly inside the shaft of the pipe. The blade was twelves inches long and attached to the hil
t located on the base of the spear. It would be like the hidden blade on a walking cane or stick. It was a brilliant idea that Seth had, it seemed that he had a secret obsession with stuff like that.
Ruff was able to make a removable spear head. I know what you’re thinking. That it was impossible. How could he create a removable hidden hilt to reveal a blade and a removable spear head? Did you forget that Ruff was once a machinist? With an idea provided by Austin, Ruff was able to create a hidden gun with a single shot.
As a surprise for the adults, Ruff took the hidden blade idea from the spears and created something spectacular. He made us all swords, complete with metal handles. It was a nontraditional way to make a sword, but he was able to work with what he had available. He used our old machines to cut down raw metal, make metal hilts and make metal sheaths to hold the swords. Even I didn’t know how good of a machinist he was.
I wished that we would have thought of this stuff when we still had a full community. Ah, the lives we could have saved. What if we would have thought about this when we were preparing for the coming apocalypse? Maybe, all our families would still be alive.
No! Stop thinking like that! There was no way of knowing that Kevin and Bruce had their own secret agendas. We had no way of knowing what they were going to do. None us knew that they were still alive and had secretly created an army to take the Warehouse. Much less, how far some of them were willing to go!
Regardless, we couldn’t change the past. We could only look to the future and we needed to prepare ourselves for what’s out there because we couldn’t stay at the Warehouse much longer. Our food and supplies have just about run out.
Part of the problem was that we just didn’t have the manpower to send people out to search for more supplies and protect the Warehouse at the same time. We had already scavenged every home within a radius of two miles, if not a little more. It meant we would have to go further out to find supplies. Another thing was that we didn’t know how stable the Warehouse was. What kind of shape is the Warehousein? Who’s to say that even if we did manage to leave and look for supplies, we could easily get back in? Especially, with the possibility of all the zombies and survivors still out there.
No, we would stay in here and prepare ourselves. We would build weapons and train as much as possible until our food ran out. By that time, we should be healed and back at full strength. Well, as close to full strength as we possibly could be.
We trained with every possible weapon that we had available. Knives, spears, swords, guns, etc. It didn’t matter what weapon it was because the young ones were just as focused as the adults.
Last, we took the opportunity to work on our departure plan. We came up with the idea of looking for supplies on our way to our new location. We knew what vehicles we would take with us (two SUV’s). Like I said, we tried to prepare for every unexpected encounter.
We decided that we were going to use Seth and Austin’s device to attract the zombies away from the Warehouse long enough for us to pack the SUV’s with supplies. We parked them next to the shipping door, facing the gate for a quick escape. We had all of our extra gear stacked inside with us, next to the door. We weren’t comfortable leaving all the gear in the vehicles, just in case someone got in the gate and stole them.
We stayed busy in those last few days. Too busy to notice that someone was missing. It was only after everyone was working on finalizing our plans for our departure that my sister realized that Mia was missing.
After talking about it, we all figured that she just wanted to be alone. You know, some alone time to gather her thoughts. We all knew that with her taking care of everyone, she didn’t really have a chance to mourn the loss of her husband.
The seconds turned to minutes. The minutes turned to hours. The hours turned to days. After a few days, we still hadn’t seen or heard from her. We got worried and went looking. The Warehouse as you know is a big place and to search more ground, we decided to split up.
I know what you’re thinking and while it’s true that splitting up is never a good idea, we didn’t really have much of a choice. We were running out of time for our ‘evacuation’ and we had no idea where she was.
Trying to be as careful and safe as possible, we split into three groups. My sister, Bobby, and Seth went to search the sleeping quarters, more importantly Mia and Logan’s sleeping quarters. Ruff, JoJo, and I went towards the maintenance area. While Danny and Austin went to search the appliance assembly areas.
I’m not sure what everyone else found, but what we found wasn’t good. Standing there trapped in the center of the appliance maze was Mia and she had the predatory look of a zombie! The closer we got to her, the more we knew that we were way too late to save her.
My daughter noticed Mia’s odd behavior and asked, “What happened to Mia?”
I had to be honest, “I don’t know sweetie.”
Ruff pointed, “Look at the bite mark on her left arm.”
Well, that explained how she became a zombie, but not the events that led up to it happening. Something didn’t feel right as fear gripped me. Ruff must have felt it too because he got into a defensive position. We quickly glanced around the area, expecting to be jumped by a bunch of zombies that had somehow gotten inside. Luckily, we saw nothing.
We looked at each other. We knew what the other person was thinking. The question remained. How did she get bit? Unfortunately, we knew that we wouldn’t find any answers while she was still alive, or should I say undead. It was just too dangerous to investigate until something was done. I looked over at Ruff one more time. He knew what I was thinking and shook his head to confirm that he would do it. I knelt and hugged my daughter, forcing her to look away from what Ruff was about to do.
To be honest, I wanted my daughter to know how it felt to take a zombie out. I was thinking about having her do it. Do you know why I changed my mind? It’s one thing to kill a zombie that you had never seen, but this was Mia we were talking about. It was someone that she knew, and I just couldn’t let her do that. I know that she’s going to have to learn to deal with the horrors of this new world eventually, but for now, I wanted her to retain her innocence. Even if it was just for a little while longer.
Ruff easily leaned across the barrier of the appliance maze and put the tip of his spear through the left side of Mia’s temple. She stopped moving. Ruff quickly pulled the spear out of her temple, causing her to fall face first onto a washing machine before her body collapsed onto the floor. All I kept thinking was how young and inexperienced at life Mia was, just like my daughter. I held JoJo tightly.
I’m not sure how long I held my daughter, but I was awoken out of my transient state by Ruff, “Jimmy? We need to find out how Mia had gotten bit.”
I reluctantly agreed and let go of my daughter and stood up. Since Ruff had only one hand and an injured leg, I immediately climbed over the barrier, away from Mia just in case she wasn’t truly dead. Once I was on the other side, I slowly walked towards Mia’s motionless body. The first thing I noticed was that she is missing her right pink shoe.
JoJo cried out, “Daddy! I’m scared.”
I told her, “It’s okay sweetie. Stand next to Ruff. He’ll protect you. I need to make sure that Mia’s really dead.”
I pointed the tip of my sword out in front of my body as I used the tip of my shoe to nudge the body. I thought that I saw her body move, I immediately jumped backwards a few steps and got into a defensive position.
Seeing me jump, caused Ruff to ask, “What’s happening?”
I responded, “I thought that I saw the body move.”
Even now, I swear that I saw her body move. But thinking back on things, I guess it could have just been my imagination playing tricks on me. Fear can make you see and do irrational things.
After a long minute of waiting, I slowly abandoned my defensive position and stood back up. I walked up to her body and nudged it again. Again, nothing happened. I was pretty sure that it was safe and bent down next to the bo
dy.
To roll her over onto her back, I reached out and grabbed her shoulders. I started to pull her towards me when I noticed something out of my peripheral vision near the exit door. It looked small, black, and flat.
With my attention diverted from Mia’s body, I slowly got up and made my way towards the object. Ruff kept asking questions but to be honest, I wasn’t paying much attention to him. My focus was on the object that was starting to look like some kind of smart-phone.
When I stood in front of the object, I bent down and picked it up. Yep, it was a smart-phone and it had a cracked screen. It was weird because we hadn’t been able to use any type of phone in well over five months. We had pretty much thrown them all away. So, what was it doing down here?
We didn’t even have the power cables to charge them. But something was telling me to try and turn it on. Without a second thought, I pushed the power button.
The phone immediately came on and according to the battery meter, it was over seventy-five percent charged. Wait, that couldn’t be right. It shouldn’t even of had a charge on it. To top it all off, the home screen had a recent picture of Logan on it. It looked like it was taken days before we were attacked.
The phone itself was code locked so I couldn’t get into it. I looked over at Mia's body and asked myself what could have happened to her. I glance back at the phone as if it would give me answer whenever I noticed a movement out of the corner of my eye. I froze in place, waiting for something to come towards me.
When nothing came, I slowly turned toward the location where I had seen the movement. I saw nothing. Confused, I began to turn back towards Ruff and JoJo when I saw something move again. It was very faint, but it was there. It looked like it was part of a shadow coming from under the exit door.
Without thinking, I put the phone in my back pocket and walked over to the door. When I reached the door, I push the release lever to open it. To my surprise it wasn’t locked. Confused on what was going on, I slowly pushed open the door. It didn’t open very far before hitting something.