We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  “Hurry. We need to get Seth back to the car. I think that his ankle might be broken, and I don’t think that I’ll be able to get him to the car without your help.”

  JoJo looked from the body of her aunt to look directly into my eyes, “Okay dad, let’s go.”

  We started to jog towards Seth, “JoJo, I know that your upset, but when we have the time, I promise you that we’ll come back and bury them.”

  JoJo didn’t even look at me, “Don’t worry about it dad. I think that you’re right, Aunt Tina would want us to survive and if we came back here, we could die.”

  I looked at my daughter and wondered, when did she get so mature? We made it to Seth about the time the zombie horde had made it midway through the car pileup. I guess that the cars on the south side of the highway weren’t so jam packed together as I had thought. Lucky for us, the closer the zombies got, the more of a wreckage they had to deal with.

  Since his right foot was messed up, I figured that I would take his right side to relieve pressure while my daughter took the left. Like everything else, it didn’t go as planned. I bent down on his right side and grabbed his arm. I placed it around my shoulder.

  “JoJo, I need you to grab his left side. Just like I’m doing.”

  While lifting him up, he inadvertently placed his right foot down on the ground and screamed out in pain.

  I tried to calmly tell him, “Seth, I know you’re hurting, but you need to try and control your screams. You could rile up the zombies.”

  My advice came too late. The creaking sound of metal behind us caused me to glance back over my shoulder. The zombies in the front of the mob were beginning to crawl over the hoods of the closest cars. Man, we needed to hurry up and get back to our car.

  For every step we took, it felt like the dead were taking two steps. It could have been my imagination playing tricks on me, but it was hard not to think about the zombies. As we were fleeing to the safety of the car, I heard an additional metallic dragging sound. Once again, I looked over my shoulder. I immediately regretted it. It seemed that the weight of the horde was beginning to push the cars out of the way.

  It wasn’t a good sign, not a good sign at all. Now there nothing to slow the horde down. If we didn’t make it back to the vehicle and leave soon then we would all die here. Honestly, I didn’t think that we could survive unless we left Seth to the zombies. Damn it Jimmy. Quit thinking like that!

  As luck would have it, we make it back to the SUV with plenty of time to spare. I helped Seth into the backseat while JoJo jumped into the front passenger seat. I shut the rear door and proceeded to jump into the driver’s seat.

  “Buckle up!”

  I reached for the ignition switch, but I grabbed air. What? Where were the keys?

  I turned towards my daughter and asked, “Where are the keys?”

  My daughter frowned as she thought hard, “I think Aunt Tina had them.”

  I turned my head back towards the horde coming towards us. I figured that they must be close to thirty yards away. I then glanced over at my sister’s body. She must also be close to thirty yards away. I did a quick calculation in my head. I might just be able to run there and back by the time the horde got to the car. Man, it’ll be close.

  I looked over my shoulder towards my nephew and noticed that he was out again. Maybe, that was for the best. If I failed, then maybe he would die peacefully. I shook my head to clear it. What was I thinking? I’m not going to fail. I refuse to fail.

  I turned towards my daughter, “Stay here. I’ll be right back. I mean it. Stay Here!”

  Wide-eyed, my daughter watched as I opened the car door and began to crawl out. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but didn’t. I had already jumped out of the car.

  I looked from my daughter to the ever-growing horde. I knew that I didn’t have much time before they got to us. I turned around and immediately began sprinting towards my sister’s body. I’m not going to lie, the thought of running away did cross my mind. It’s not something that I’m proud of. Hell, the thoughts I had the past few minutes weren’t anything to be proud of.

  I was running so fast that it felt like I had made it to my sister’s body in World Record time. I wasted no time by dropping to my knees next to her body. I did everything I could to keep my attention on the task at hand and not on everything happening around me or should I say behind me.

  I began rummaging through the front pockets of her pants. Nothing! No keys, no nothing. Where are the keys? Maybe, she put them in her back pocket.

  I reached across her body to grab her side, so I could have enough leverage to flip her body over. I cupped my hands, ready to pull her towards me whenever the car horn went off, causing me to jump. My nerves were already on pins and needles. It frightened me, I wasn’t expecting the horn to go off.

  Wait! Why did the horn go off? My Fear was immediately replaced by anger. I stopped what I was doing and glanced over my right shoulder towards the SUV.

  Oh My God! I almost fell over my sister’s body. Less than ten feet from me were zombies, a whole mess of zombies. I had run out of time.

  The car horn began going off again. What was my daughter doing? By honking the horn, she was going to bring them towards her.

  Towards her? I realized at that moment that was exactly what she was trying to do.

  I noticed that most of the zombies, especially those in the back, had turned towards the direction of the noise. A handful was still heading towards me. My daughter had done it. She had bought me a few minutes. Now, it was my turn to save her.

  I figured I could buy myself a few precious seconds if I rolled frontwards over my sister’s body. I could use the momentum from the roll to get to my feet. I quickly estimated that it would be faster than just trying to directly stand up. Besides, it would give me a few more feet away from the closest zombies.

  Without any more thinking, I dove over my sister’s body and rolled. While rolling, I inadvertently hit something with my back that felt sharp. My only thought was, please don’t let it be a knife covered in zombie blood. Wouldn’t that be something? To end up dying from a blood infection, caused by a knife.

  I continued to roll until I made it to my feet. With my machete secured in my right hand, I turned around to face the oncoming horde. To my surprise, more than half the zombies were headed towards the car. My daughter’s distraction worked both, better than I could have hoped and worse than I could have ever imagined. Now she was going to be trapped and there was nothing I could do about it, or was there?

  I glanced towards my daughter, the guilt of my failure to protect her was beginning to rise in the pit of my stomach again. Without the keys, we were all as good as dead. My only hope was to draw the zombies’ attention, so my daughter could escape. Seth was in no shape to go anywhere.

  Well, I figured that if I was going to die anyway then I’ll gladly sacrifice my life to save my daughter’s. I wasn’t sure what I could do for Seth except, for maybe fight them off if I could.

  I took a step towards the car whenever something on the ground in the tall grass directly in front of me, caught my attention. I stopped my motion and glanced downward. In the rolled over weeds, something small that was reflecting what little sunlight we had, up towards me.

  Confused by what it could be, I took a step towards the object. Since the grass was bent over, I figured that the object was most likely the thing I had rolled over.

  Fear took over as I imagined it to be knife with blood all over it. Zombie blood! My eyes continued to track the item as I took another step. With the grass covering the item, I was almost upon it before I recognized what it was.

  It was the car keys! Relief washed over me like a tidal wave as I bent over to pick the keys up. We could escape! We can live another day!

  I looked up and noticed that the horde was almost to the front bumper of the car. The small group that was headed towards me was almost upon me. I knew I could easily outrun the small group, but the bi
g group was another story. I would have to fight them off long enough to jump into the front seat, start the car, and escape before the surround us. We still had a chance, but it all would depend on timing.

  I slightly bent over to get into a runner’s stance and grabbed the keys with my left hand. It was as if I was at a starting line about to run a race. I knew that I had to get to the car fast and couldn’t afford to waste time fighting the little zombie group.

  It seemed like it had been ages, but back in high school, I had been a Track and Cross-Country star. Like many athletes, I had followed in my father’s footsteps. He had also been a high school Track and Cross-Country star. I guess you could say that it was in my genes. I had been a natural born runner when I was younger. My only regret is that my children would never have that opportunity.

  I stayed still, waiting for the starting gun to go off. My heart began pounding and my nerves began to rise. It felt real, as if I was truly about to race. I heard a gun go off, causing me to launch up from my spot. I wasn’t sure if it the gun shot was in my head or not, but I didn’t really care at that exact moment.

  I sprinted past the group, not breaking stride as the closest of the zombies reached out towards me. My only reaction was for me to dip my left shoulder. It was enough to move me safely by but not enough to change my speed.

  I used my long stride to make it to the car in what felt like record time. In fact, I had made it to the car just in time. My daughter had her car door open and was leaning over the hinges, shooting zombies. It must have been her shooting her gun that I had heard go off.

  I approached the driver’s side door just as the closest zombie made it. It was a huge zombie. He looked like he could have been a professional football player or something. Not only did it look like he easily outweighed me by a hundred pounds, but he was at least six inches taller than me and I’m six feet tall. I lowered my left shoulder and launched at him. It was sort of like an old school football hit, you know the kind where you lead with your shoulder to hit an opponent.

  I hit the tall zombie just below his right shoulder blade, causing him to slam face first into the front part of the doorframe. His momentum was enough that he rocked the SUV upon impact. I quickly shifted the keys from my left hand to my right hand. Without hesitation, I grabbed the zombie’s right shoulder with my left hand and pulled him backwards with all my strength. It just so happened that the zombie was trying to stand back up at that exact moment. His momentum, combined with me pulling him backwards, caused him to fall backwards into the oncoming zombie horde behind us.

  He hit the front of the group with enough force that they tumbled backwards as if they were dominoes. It looked like a bowling bowl had hit bowling pins. They toppled over in different directions. Hopefully, it would slow them down for a few minutes.

  I took advantage of the precious time by grabbing the door handle and pulling it towards me. The door easily opened. With the keys in my right hand, I quickly jumped into the driver’s seat.

  I put the key into the ignition and turned the key. It fired right up.

  I look over at my daughter, “Get in and put your seatbelt on. NOW!”

  As soon as she shut the door, I shifted it into reverse. I noticed that the big zombie had gotten to his feet quicker than I had hoped but not quick enough.

  I pushed down hard on the gas pedal and turned my head to look over my right shoulder. It jerked us toward the front of the car as we quickly accelerated backwards. I noticed that Seth’s facial expression still showed his discomfort but was still out.

  “Seth! Hold on. We’re going to have to find a way around this mess before we can search for some pain medicine.”

  His only response was a grunt. I wasn’t sure if he had heard me, but we didn’t have time to worry about that. His ankle continued to turn a nasty greenish color and it looked like it was spreading.

  When I felt that we were a comfortable distance away from the zombies, I turned the wheel slightly so that we weren’t driving straight. I pushed down on the brakes to stop our momentum. I quickly shifted it into drive and pushed down on the gas. I turned the wheel as sharply as I could and got back on the highway.

  Before long, we were headed back to Midwest City, in the same direction we had just come from. To say that I was frustrated was an understatement. It was extremely frustrating. You know what I mean? Having to go back the way we came meant doubling back. But I wasn’t about to give up. No, I wasn’t. Because, I knew that our best bet for survival was to get to the lake, to the old campsites my family used to camp at when I was a kid.

  I remembered that it was kind of hidden, surrounded by trees. The campsites were located next to the lake. Some of the campsites were literally ten steps from the water. The only way to see a few of the campsites were from a bridge but that wasn’t important. Because, I wasn’t planning on camping. I had other plans for us.

  We just needed to get to the lake. I needed to get to the lake! I needed to see this thing through. Not only for me, but for my daughter and nephew because we had lost so much recently.

  During our little side detour, I had an idea on how to get us headed back towards Lake Eufaula. But it meant getting off the highway and the only way to do that was to go back to Midwest City first.

  We would get off on the first road available and if I wasn’t mistaken, it was Douglas Boulevard. Next, we would go north until we got to Reno Avenue. Then, we would go back east, in the direction on the lake. I had never been that far down Reno but was hopeful that it would at least take us to the small city of Shawnee and past the massive car pileup and zombies.

  Chapter 8: A Hope for A Future

  Reno Boulevard didn’t run all the way to Shawnee like I had hoped, but it did get us past the massive pileup of cars and the zombie horde. We followed Reno until it came to a four-way ‘intersection’ in the road. I believe the sign said that it was Interstate 270 or something like that. The sign was really weathered and hard to read. Anyways, the directions I had to choose from was north, south, and straight. I figured that I would keep going straight until something happened. I mean it couldn’t hurt, right?

  Unfortunately, the road didn’t continue for more than a mile or so. In fact, it became a dead-end right after a single street turned south. I didn’t see a road sign and thought that it wouldn’t be a good idea to even risk going down that street. Sarcastically, I thought ‘Sure, let’s go down the one dark road without a street sign.’ It surely had to be a trap or worse and the last thing we needed, was to be trapped.

  So, we turned around and doubled back to the first street that we came to after the Interstate street. I didn’t like the way it looked and figured that our best bet to get back to the highway was to take the Interstate road southbound.

  Once we made it back to the Interstate, I tried to think logically. Each direction had its positives and negatives. If we went north, we could take tenth street or one of the other streets north of us. Hopefully, one of those streets would go all the way to Shawnee. I just wasn’t sure if any of them did go through or not. If the road we chose didn’t then it would mean a lot of backtracking and wasted fuel. North would also take us away from I-40 and that was something I didn’t want.

  If I went south then it would take me to I-40, but I wasn’t sure if there was an on ramp. I didn’t even know if there was a service road that ran parallel to the highway. I wasn’t familiar enough that the street to make that kind of decision. On the other hand, if there was no on ramp or service road, did I risk the fuel and our lives to try it?

  I looked over at my daughter and noticed that she had been quietly watching me, “JoJo? What is it?”

  JoJo frowned, “Dad, you were mumbling to yourself.”

  It was my turn to frown, “Was I? Sorry about that. I’m just trying to figure out which way we needed to go.”

  Her eyes brightened up, “You mean, which road would take us to the lake? You know, Lake whatever it’s called.”

  I smiled, “It’s
called Lake Eufaula. Well, you see this road only runs north and south and Lake Eufaula is towards the east.”

  She looked thoughtful, “Well? What would be the fastest way for us to get there?”

  “I’m hoping that if we go south on this road, it would take us directly to the highway.”

  She frowned again, “Then let’s go south.”

  I shook my head, “Not so fast. There’s just one small problem with that.”

  Her left eyebrow lifted as she asked, “What kind of problem?”

  I looked at her precious face, “Well. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get on the highway from this road. Besides, I don’t know the road conditions that way.”

  She responded with a slight teenage type of attitude, “Road conditions? Dad! We won’t know anything unless we go that way.”

  She pointed to the south with her right hand.

  I had to remind myself that she was growing up before I responded, “I know that we won’t know anything unless we go that way, but we also won’t be able to help Seth if we run out of gas or find ourselves in a worse condition.”

  I looked over my right shoulder towards my sleeping nephew. His face still had a pained expression on it. I turned back around to drive and thought that I saw movement, about half a block in front of us. Worried that Robert had somehow escaped and tracked us down, I became very still and focused my eyes where I thought I noticed the movement.

  My daughter must have also noticed the movement, “Dad? Did you see that?”

  I just shook my head up and down as I quietly responded, worried that if I spoke too loud someone would hear me, “I think so. But I’m not sure what it was.”

  JoJo whispered, “I think it was a zombie.”

  I turned my head slightly to my right to look at my daughter, “It could very well be, but don’t jump to conclusions.”

  Her eyes got wide, “What conclusions? They’re right there.”

  She lifted her right hand up and pointed towards the road. My eyes followed her hand towards the street. She was right. It was Zombies! But there was also something or someone else. It looked like the zombies were chasing it, whatever IT was, and it was heading our way.