We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  I could barely make out what the guy said, but it sounded like, “Don’t worry about them because after we’re done with the horde, we’re going after them.”

  It sounded like the girl replied, “It’s okay because they’re not going to get very far anyways.”

  Without another word, she quickly turned back around and aimed her gun towards the zombie horde. I turned my attention back towards the road, secretly worrying about what I thought that I heard was true. I turned onto 44th street and began heading east. Once we were out of sight, the sound of gunfire began ringing out.

  Chapter 4: Danny and Austin

  When we were close to a few miles away from the fighting, the sound of gunfire began to fade away. Briefly, I wondered if the group survived or if they had died from the zombies.

  I was lost in my own thoughts when my sister yelled out, “Brother! Stop the car!”

  I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I moved my right foot from the gas pedal to the brake pedal and pushed down hard. We screeched to a halt and in one fluent motion, I shifted it from drive to park. My right hand automatically went to my waist to search for me gun.

  I turned my head from left to right as I searched for the danger. When I didn’t see any immediate threat, I frowned as I looked in the rearview mirror towards my sister.

  Our eyes met, and I noticed the moisture that was beginning to formulate in them. Before long that moisture turned to tears. My heart dropped as I followed her gaze towards Danny and Austin. I knew what it meant. It meant that they were no longer with us.

  I closed my eyes and fought back my own tears. We had been through a lot together, but that time was gone. We thought that we had made it, that we had survived. We had been the last two Council Members to survive, but now I was the last one. I am the last Council Member!

  Emotions from the past year flooded through me, causing both rage and sadness. Without thinking about it, I began slamming my fist down on the steering wheel and screaming my defiance. I grabbed the top of the wheel and began shaking it violently.

  I turned my head back and forth in denial. No, they couldn’t be dead. We were survivors, we were the ones that lived! When I turned my head towards the right, I noticed that JoJo was looking at me. She had a frightened look on her face.

  In that one instant, the rage drained out of me. My daughter had never seen that side of me and at that moment, I promised myself that she would never see it again.

  Shamefully, I lifted my eyes to look in the rearview mirror and noticed that my sister, Bobby, and Seth were silently watching me. I guess they had never seen me react like that either. I lowered my eyes in shame. I had always taken pride in being able to control my emotions, but that time was now gone.

  I opened my eyes and looked around to take my mind off my shame, but nothing I saw helped. I turned towards my daughter in order to apologize but realized that my mouth had suddenly become very dry. I licked my lips to moisten them up, but it didn’t help. I turned more towards my right side to face everyone.

  I managed to ask, “Do we have any water?”

  I was rewarded with a half bottle which I gratefully accepted it. After taking a couple of sips, I offered the rest to my daughter. JoJo accepted it but made sure that she kept a watchful eye on me. When I was ready, I made sure that I apologized for my outburst.

  I told them, “I’m sorry. I’m not entirely sure what happened. I guess losing Danny and Austin kind of set me off. It’s just that.... Well, as you all know, I’ve known Danny for a long time, plus if you add the fact that we were longtime friends who had survived so long together.... I think that his sudden and unexpected death just kind of got to me. I mean, this wasn’t the results I expected when I pictured us leaving the Warehouse.... What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry. It’ll never happen again.”

  My sister spoke up, “It’s okay. Really. I just think that you scared everyone for a second. You just caught us a little off guard because we had never seen you act like that before. I’ve never seen you act like that before. Are you sure that you’re okay?”

  I took a deep breath, “Yeah. I’m okay.”

  Seth tried to lighten the mood by joking, “Man, Uncle Jimmy. I thought you was going to freak out and kill everyone just now.”

  Sadly, I told him, “Seth. I know you’re joking, but I would never do something like that.”

  Without realizing it, my mood changed, and I smiled, “I wouldn’t do that unless YOU deserved it.”

  My smile faded as I asked, “What do you want to do about Danny and Austin?”

  Seth became serious as he suggested, “We finish taking them to Lake Eufaula and bury them.”

  “I think that is a great idea, but there are some issues that we would have to address before we could do that.”

  Confused, he asked, “What kind of issues?”

  I pointed out, “We have no idea how long it would actually take us to get to the Porum Landing campsites at Lake Eufaula. Before the apocalypse, it was a good two-hour drive from here. It could take us anywhere from two hours to two days, we really don’t know. Plus, it’s starting to get hot and since our windows had been shot out, it would do no good to run whatever AC we have. The bodies would start to get stiff and start stinking, most likely sooner rather than later.”

  My daughter, who had been quiet up until now, suggested, “Maybe we can look for a nice park to bury them in when we get to Midwest City. We can bury them next to each other.”

  It was a good idea and to be honest, it was better than good. It was the best idea I had heard.

  “Everyone okay with JoJo’s idea?”

  When no one spoke up, I looked at Seth and asked, “Seth? Are you okay with that idea?”

  I hadn’t even realized that Seth had turned his head away.

  I repeated myself, “Seth? Are you okay with JoJo’s idea?”

  He slowly turned his head towards us, allowing us to see the tears that were running down his cheeks. When I noticed the tears, I felt horrible. I had forgotten how close he and Austin had become. They had bonded when the apocalypse had started. You could even say that they had become as close as brothers. He really wanted to bury Austin at the lake, but I think that he realized that it wasn’t going to happen.

  My heart dropped at the thought of losing more family. Tears began to form in my own eyes when I realized that our family was becoming smaller and smaller each day.

  I used the back of my hand to wipe away my tears as I asked, “Does anyone have an idea where in Midwest City they would like to bury them?”

  Since Seth and JoJo weren’t familiar with the Midwest City area, I suggested, “We can bury them at the Hidden Creek Golf Course located in the heart of Midwest City, in a little neighborhood. It was a small 9-hole golf course where a few of us Council Members would get together and play a few rounds. Danny loved playing there.”

  My sister immediately shot that idea down, “We can’t risk going into the heart of Midwest City. We need to stay on the outskirts of the city. If we venture too far in, we could find ourselves trapped with no way out.”

  She was right. We couldn’t risk our own safety, even if it was for Danny. Besides, I don’t think Danny would have wanted us to either. He would want us to do whatever we could to survive.

  After a few minutes of discussion, it was finally decided that we would look for a nice spot that had lots of surrounding trees. With a new goal, I turned back around.

  I pushed down on the brake and was about to shift it into drive when I heard a manly scream, “Help me!”

  I turned my head in the direction that the scream had come from. Coming towards us, with a horde of zombies right behind him was a middle-aged guy that I had seen with the army we had just left. Surprised, I noticed that there weren’t anymore of his people running with him.

  My family wanted to know if we were going to help him. I turned my head slightly to look at them. I guess that I had one of those ‘Are you serious?’ looks because they
just stared silently at me. The guy’s screams for help were slowly getting louder.

  I ignored him as I asked them, “What?”

  No one responded.

  Impatiently, I asked again, “What?”

  My sister finally spoke up, “If we don’t help that guy, he’ll die and then we would be no better than the ones that attacked us at the Warehouse.”

  I sharply responded, “That was different. We knew the people that attacked us. Besides, he looks just like he was part of the little group that killed Danny and Austin.”

  My sister wouldn’t back off by stating, “You don’t know that.”

  “Are you willing to take that chance? Especially with Seth and JoJo’s lives?”

  My response must have hit close to home because she reluctantly lowered her head to avoid eye contact.

  Seth spoke up, “Well, what’s the plan then?”

  I stared at my sister as I answered him, “We’re still discussing it.”

  Bobby, who had been quiet the whole time finally spoke up, “Jimmy, back off! She’s just trying to help. Regardless, whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it quick. The zombies are less than a block away.”

  My daughter asked, “Daddy, are we going to help him?”

  I turned my head to look at her, “I don’t think so.”

  She frowned as she asked, “Why not?”

  “Because…. Because he could be dangerous.”

  My daughter smiled mischievously, “Daddy, so are we.”

  Seth spoke up, “We can help him and if he tries anything, we could just kill him!”

  I looked back at him, “Are you serious?”

  He nonchalantly replied, “Sure. Why not?”

  My daughter chimed in, “Yeah dad, why not?”

  I looked from him to my daughter and back to him as I stated, “Neither one of you should be thinking like that.”

  Seth shrugged as he replied, “Too late. You said it yourself, it’s the type of world that we live in today.”

  I didn’t reply. I mean, how could I? He was right after all. It was the world we lived in today, but that didn’t mean that I had to like it. It just meant that I could only prepare them for this world. They even used reverse psychology on me. I told you that they were smart.

  Absentmindedly, I shook my head up and down. There was no way to dispute his claim. All I could do was to guide them towards the right path. I opened my door and was about to tell him to hurry when I noticed that he was already at the rear of the SUV.

  I told my sister, “Open the door and scoot over.”

  Without hesitation, she did. I noticed that she kept her gun within hands reach.

  The closer the guy got, the more I noticed how terrified he looked. His upper shirt looked recently torn; it was as if something had tried to grab him as he ran. I also noticed that he had a slight limp.

  When he got to the SUV, he ran towards the passenger side.

  I told my sister and Bobby, “Move Danny and Austin’s bodies over to make room.”

  The guy opened the door and paused. I noticed that he had caught a glimpse at the bodies and immediately hesitated. He looked kind of unsure on what he should do. I guess his reaction was understandable. First impressions say a lot about a situation and to open the door to your salvation, only to see two dead bodies would cause anyone to pause.

  My sister soothingly told him, “It’s okay, but if you want to come with us then you needed to hurry up and get in.”

  I didn’t even wait for him to shut the door as I shifted it into drive. I quickly moved my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal and pushed down hard. The wheels chirped on the dirty road as we launched forward, leaving the zombies behind us.

  The guy took a deep breath, “Thanks for helping me. My name’s James by the way. Do you have any water?”

  I took a deep breath and was ready to freak out when my sister handed him a half bottle of water.

  She calmly asked James, “What happened?”

  James went quiet as he turned his head to look out the window. You could see his reflection in one good window in the SUV. It looked like his eyes moistened as if he was remembering the events that had happened to him less than an hour before. I tried to mainly focus on the road ahead as I occasionally glanced backwards toward James.

  His country accent was deep, “I want to apologize. I want you to know that whatever happened a little earlier wasn’t anything personal. Our group was ordered by our leader Robert, to keep an eye out for a certain small group of survivors. Apparently, it was the same group that had killed our kin a few months earlier. We were told that the group had apparently set up a devious trap where they viciously murdered everyone and decapitated them. Robert’s brother-n-law, Bruce was among them. Word went around our camp that Robert knew the members of the small group and therefore personally went off to search for them. Before he left though, Robert had me take a smaller group just in case the killers returned to the Warehouse. We were told that the other group was extremely dangerous and not to be taken lightly. Robert told me that the other group’s leader was a guy named Jimmy (at the mention of my name, I looked in the rearview mirror and locked eyes with my sister) and he was supposed to be a ruthless killer. Robert told us that Jimmy’s group had rapped and killed innocent women and children while forcing their husbands and fathers to watch before eventually killing them. Robert had told us that he had personally seen it happen. Our orders were to capture the group if possible, so they could stand trial for what they had done. After Robert left with the main group, my smaller group quickly set up two camps around 29th street. We thought that it would be easier to trap Jimmy’s group. We had blocked off the service road in order to funnel the group towards the south. We thought that our trap had worked when ‘you’ had showed up. Well, that was until I saw the little girl up in the front passenger seat looking at me (he nodded his head towards JoJo). I was told that the group didn’t keep children around, much less a little girl.”

  James turned his head in order to look directly at my daughter before looking towards my sister, Bobby, and Seth. His head stopped moving when he got to Danny and Austin. He noticed that they were covered in blood, were pale white, and not moving.

  He softly asked, “Were they the reason we heard gunfire?”

  My sister tearfully responded with a simple, “Yes. We were searching for supplies to help them in a nearby hotel when the zombies showed up. The only direction we could go was south.”

  James asked, “Can you elaborate?”

  My sister choked out the word, “No.”

  James nodded his head in understanding as he managed a sad smile. It looked like he was trying to fight back tears of his own by repeatedly blinking his eyes. He took another sip of water and turned back towards the window where he took a deep breath.

  After a few long seconds, James began speaking again, “Like I said before, when y’all drove up, we thought that we had finally captured Jimmy’s group. Our smaller secondary group consisted of my sister and her family. They were the ones that mistakenly attacked you. I don’t know what happened, but I can only assume that she thought that you were the dangerous group we had been waiting for. Whatever the reason, I’m sure that it was my sister’s fault. My sister had always been the hotheaded one in my family. After the apocalypse started, she had lost her husband and her children which caused her to completely loose it. A few months back, my sister had met a guy who had a couple of kids. Meeting him gave my sister hope again. That idea of hope manifested into love and made her a little overprotective. She would do anything to protect that love. It was probably the reason she attacked you. She must have seen you as a threat.”

  Without turning around, James apologized again, “I want you to know that I’m sorry for everything that had happened to y’all and I mean everything. I’m sorry for what my sister did to your two-family members.”

  He stopped talking again. It looked like he was trying to focus his thoughts as he tried t
o control his emotions, but I wasn’t sure.

  After a second or two, James turned to face us and began talking again, “When I saw y’all driving towards us with the large number of zombies behind us, I knew that my group would not survive the encounter. The worst part was that I didn’t even really care. Somehow, I knew that something bad had happened to you and that it was our fault. We needed to make up for our mistake by trying to protect you. Unfortunately, all of those that had died were my immediate family. I lost everyone that I had ever loved so YOU could escape!”

  He understandably lost it and began crying. Seeing him like that caused me to start choking up. I took a deep breath and began talking.

  I decided to share our own story with him, but decided to leave out a few crucial details, “I’m glad that you decided to share your story with us. Please, allow me to do the same. We were originally with a much larger group, but another large group showed up and decided they wanted the place we were living at for themselves. We offered to share the place, but they didn’t want share. They wanted it all for themselves and before we knew it, we were at war. We were the only survivors!”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. I know what it felt like to lose people. Especially, loved ones.”

  I looked in the mirror towards my sister and noticed that James had been silently watching us.

  “Can I ask what’s going on?”

  Without saying anything, my sister nodded her head to indicate ‘yes’. She knew what I was thinking, and she was right. I thought about it and for some unknown reason, I wanted to tell this unknown stranger everything about us.

  I took a deep breath and began, “Congratulations. You found us. We are the remaining members of the group that Robert has been looking for. My name is Jimmy.”

  His body noticeably tensed up at my admission. My sister and Bobby must have also seen it because they turned their full attention towards him. I guess they were trying to be prepared for anything, but nothing happened.