We Are Still Here

by Jimmy Bird

  She began to protest, “But....But I’ve never killed anything in my life. I couldn’t even kill my family or my friend.”

  I smiled sadly at her, “I know. But, in order to survive in this world, you’re going to have to learn.”

  JoJo added, “Makalyn, it’s not as hard as you think. Just remember, they’re not people anymore. They’re not alive. They’re practically mindless animals.”

  Makalyn looked over at JoJo, “How do you know that they’re not people anymore? How do you know that they’re not alive? Even animals are alive.”

  Tears began to form in JoJo’s eyes, “Because....Because I watched my brother kill my mom! He bit her neck and took a huge chunk out of it. No one alive would have done that to his own mom. He was like an animal.”

  Makalyn didn’t know how to respond, “JoJo, I’m so sorry.”

  JoJo turned her head, “Forget it. Look, just watch my dad’s back. Okay?”

  Makalyn stated, “I’ll try.”

  JoJo turned her threatening face towards Makalyn, “You’ll do more then try. You got that?”

  Wide-eyed, Makalyn looked over at me, “Okay.”

  JoJo wasn’t satisfied with Makalyn’s answer, “Don’t okay me Makalyn. You WILL watch my dad’s back! You hear me?”

  Makalyn appeared intimidated by my daughter, “Look, I already said okay JoJo and yes, I heard you.”

  I looked over at Makalyn, “Don’t worry Makalyn. If I can teach my daughter how to defend herself, then I can teach you. JoJo’s right, they’re no longer alive. Whatever they are, one thing’s for sure, they’re no longer people. They don’t have compassion. They don’t have any fear. Hell, they don’t even show pain. All they want to do is eat and guess who’s on the menu? My point is, you’re a survivor. Just like us. We can teach you how to defend yourself, but first we need supplies, and this is as good a place as any to start looking.”

  Makalyn’s tone changed, “You’re right. I can do this. I.... I just need a weapon.”

  I tried to encourage her, “That’s the spirit. JoJo, giver her your spear.”

  JoJo was shocked by my request, “But, I might need it out here.”

  “That’s true. You might. But you have your knife and Makalyn’s never killed before. I would feel a little safer with her having a spear instead of a knife.”

  She reluctantly agreed, “Okay. But I better get it back. Someone made it specially for me.”

  Makalyn was shocked, “They did? Can they make me one?”

  JoJo was quick to reply, “No, he can’t. He’s dead!”

  I could feel the growing tension between JoJo and Makalyn. I felt obligated to jump in, “My friend Ruff made it for her when we lived at the Warehouse. He was a machinist. Your great-grandparents and uncle knew him. He died while we tried to escape.”

  Confused, Makalyn asked, “Escape what?”

  I shook my head, “That’s a tale for another time. Right now, we need to go look for supplies.”

  I looked from my daughter to Seth, “JoJo, it looks like Seth’s starting to slip back into unconsciousness. The pain must be excruciating. Hold on Seth. We’ll be back shortly with some Tylenol or something for the pain.”

  I looked at Makalyn, “Well, Makalyn? You ready?”

  She uncomfortably sighed, “As ready as I’ll ever be. JoJo, I’ll make sure I bring your special spear back to you.”

  I paused, “One more thing before we go. JoJo, you must protect Seth. No matter what.”

  JoJo nodded her head in agreement, “Okay dad, I will. Just make sure that you come back.”

  I smiled sadly at my daughter, “Okay Sweetheart. I did promise your mother that I would always take care of you. I can’t do that if I’m dead.”

  Before I could continue, Makalyn spoke up, “Jimmy look. Something’s written on the store window.”

  Fearing the worst, I cautiously got out of the car. I slowly walked up to the window and looked at it. The writing was kind of difficult to make out. There was no telling how long it had been there or what they used to write it.

  But it read as followed: “Sadly, I’m the last resident of this small but wonderful town. It has been hard to survive here all on my own and yet, I’m not alone. I have God with me and because of that, I will keep up the Lord’s work. For in mankind’s darkest hour, I will be God’s lightning rod of hope. So, please take whatever you need and leave whatever you don’t. For in the Bible it says: Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:6”

  I stood there speechless. Who would have thought that there was still kindness in the world? People who were willing to help others.

  JoJo spoke up, “Dad? What does it say?”

  I turned towards the car, “It says, take whatever you need and leave whatever you don’t.”

  She frowned, “That it?”

  “Pretty much. It has a Bible verse that says the same thing. I guess whoever wrote it was religious.”

  I turned back around and whispered, “I wonder what happened to this person. Did their religious beliefs protect them?”

  JoJo spoke up, “Dad, did you say something?”

  I glanced back at my daughter, “No.”

  I looked over at Makalyn, “Okay, Makalyn. You ready?”

  She took a deep breath, “Not really, but I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

  “Nope. Time to man up or should I say woman up.”

  I smiled at Makalyn, but she wasn’t smiling back. I guess she didn’t find my joke as funny as I did.

  JoJo spoke to Makalyn, “I’m sorry. My dad thinks he’s funny or something.”

  I looked back at JoJo, “Okay. Okay. I get it, I’m not as funny as I used to be. I’m just out of practice.”

  I could hear Seth moan from the pain. JoJo looked towards the back seat and back at me with a worried look in her eyes, “Hurry dad.”

  I turned around, “Okay, you got it.”

  I looked over at Makalyn, “Okay. When I motion to you, grab the door handle and slowly open the door for me. Once I move in to secure the inside of the door, you come in behind me. We’re going to work as a team. We’re going to move throughout the store. Section by section. Aisle by aisle. We stay in sight of each other. If you see something of interest, whistle and I’ll stop and come to you or vice versa. Remember, it’ll be just us two in there, so we’ll need to work together to get through this. You got it?”

  She frowned, “Why aren’t we using guns?”

  I shook my head, “No guns. They’re too noisy. We need to be quiet and stealthy.”

  “Okay. So, what are we exactly looking for?”

  “You know, anything that will be of use to us. Food, weapons, clothes, medicine, etc. Okay. You ready?”

  She nodded her head up and down to indicate that she was. I nodded my head towards Makalyn, indicating for her to open the door. It took her a few seconds to get what I was trying to tell her, but she got it.

  She reached out and grabbed the door handle. She looked back at me to let me know that she was ready. I winked and nodded. She slowly pulled it back and the faint stench of death engulfed my senses. Holding my breath, I eased on through the doorway with my machete out in front of me.

  Once inside, I quickly glanced around. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a trap before I brought Makalyn inside. There was nothing. Well, not completely nothing. I mean there were no zombies or people, only neatly sorted supplies.

  It looked like whoever had set this up, did a Hell of a job. Shirts were neatly folded and set in separate piles marked with sizes. Food was sorted into perishable and non-perishable items. I didn’t see any guns but knifes were sorted from small to large, most of them looked like they were still in the store-bought plastic. They even had the medicine sorted for pain, allergy, and cold. Hell, they even had camping gear neatly separated.

  The oddest thing was that the items looked like they had a layer of dust on them. It appeared that no one h
ad been here for quite awhile. At least, no one alive anyway.

  I turned around and touched the door. I was about to push it open for Makalyn when I saw old blood stains on the handle. I guess that would explain why no one was here, no one alive anyway. I briefly wondered if the person offered medical supplies to someone who was infected, and that person turned into a zombie and attacked the person helping them. Could that mean that both or more were still here?

  I quietly pushed open the door and took a deep breath. Makalyn was standing there with her knife out in front of her, ready to attack whoever came through the door. Fortunately for me, she was holding the handle wrong. She would had done more damage to herself then anything else. When she saw me, a sigh of relief crossed her face and she lowered the knife.

  I whispered, “Follow me in. I’m not sure if anyone’s here, but it’s better to be safe then sorry. Do just like I told you. We stay quiet and in eyesight of each other as we slowly make our way around the store. We go section by section, aisle by aisle. It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for a long time, but we need to be sure it’s safe first.”

  She took a deep breath and whispered, “Okay. Where do you want me? What’s that smell?”

  I wrinkled my nose, “Hard to tell, but I think something died in here.”

  Wide-eyed, she asked, “Are you sure that we really need to go in there?”

  I nodded to the left, “Yes. We need supplies. Now, you take the left side. I got the right.”

  We slowly made our way around the front part of the store. Makalyn walked a few paces behind me and to my left. We carefully walked on the front part of our shoes, so it would make less noise.

  The store was bigger than I expected and therefore, took longer to search it. Except for the front part of the store, most of the store had been emptied of merchandise. For some reason, the shelving was still there. Maybe, they had a plan to use them or maybe they didn’t.

  As continued to walk, something became visible overhead in the distance. From where I was, it looked like a decent size brown tent suspended from the ceiling by thick metal cable wires and something else. We slowly made our way towards it, which just happened to be where the Sporting Goods section was located. The closer we got; the more details that became available.

  I could see movement at the tent opening, just at the edge of a ladder. I immediately thought it was a zombie. I signaled for Makalyn to stop, but she walked up to me anyway.

  She whispered, “What is that?”

  I jumped. I was focused on the movement that I wasn’t expecting her to be right next to me.

  Forgetting about being quiet, I responded, “What the? What are you doing?”

  She responded, “Shhh.”

  Too late, whatever was moving around must have heard me because it started making a loud gurgling noise above us. The suspended tent began to violently rock back and forth. I cautiously looked around, dreading that it was indeed a trap. Lucky for us, nothing appeared.

  Whispering, she asked “Well? What do you think? Think it’s a trap?”

  “I’m not sure. I think that if it was a trap, then it would have sprung already.”

  “Yeah. I don’t think that it’s a trap either.”

  I nodded towards the tent, “We still need to be sure. Follow me.”

  I began to silently move towards the figure when Makalyn grabbed my left arm, “Jimmy. Look!”

  I immediately stopped and turned. I was expecting someone or something to be attacking us. To my surprise and relief, I saw someone’s motionless leg sticking out of the end of an aisle not far from the overhead tent.

  I motioned for Makalyn to follow me towards the leg. If we played it right, we could sneak up on whoever was there.

  I nodded for Makalyn to go to the back edge of the aisle, while I made my way towards the legs. If anyone was going to attack us, I would rather that they attacked me and not Makalyn. I didn’t want her inexperience to get in the way.

  I moved to the end of the aisle and waited until Makalyn was at the far end of the aisle. She stopped and glanced over at me. I took a deep breath and raised my hand. I waited a second before I motioned for her to go. I quickly rolled around the edge of the aisle, my knife out, ready to attack whatever danger was there.

  To my surprise, the leg belonged to a dead young girl or at least I think it was a girl. The body was smaller than a typical young male’s body and she was wearing feminine clothes. The hair was filthy in its cropped top style. She had been shot in the head, in the left temple area, just above her eye. Her dark eyes were open and staring up at the ceiling. Dark, dried blood covered the floor under her upper body area and head. Her mouth was wide open as if she had tried screaming when she got shot. I’m not sure how long the body had been there, but the skin on her face had started to deteriorate.

  “Well, now we know who that smell belonged too. Think it’s safe?”

  I looked up at her, “Not yet. We don’t know who did this or why.”

  I looked the body over when I spotted a finger missing on her right hand, “Look. It looks like something bit a finger off from her right hand.”

  She stared at the damaged hand, “Do you think that it was from a zombie?”

  “Possibly.”

  “What else could have bit her finger off?”

  “I don’t know. It’s possible that she was bit and came in the store looking for help. The person here probably tried to help her, and she turned. The person then climbed up to the tent and shot her to survive.”

  She looked impressed, “You got all that from looking at the body?”

  “No, but it was a good guess, wasn’t it? I’m not sure what happened. It just sort of popped into my head when I saw the zombie up there and the body down here.”

  I pointed towards the tent, “I just assumed the zombie squirming up there was the person running the store.”

  She looked up, “Really?”

  I motioned for her to follow, “Yeah. But if that zombie shot this poor girl, then there must be guns up there. We need to find out. Come on.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. We’re here for supplies and weapons.”

  We walked up to the base of a ladder that hung down from the front of the tent. It looked like a male zombie had been strapped up in a chain on top of chair, next to what appeared to be a makeshift Deer Tree Stand. Everything must have been ten feet above my head.

  A sign was tapped around his legs that read: For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. Romans 14:8

  I looked at Makalyn, “I think that this is the same person who wrote the sign on the front window.”

  She looked up at the creature’slegs, “How do you know that?”

  “It’s just a guess, but I think the Bible versus are connected.”

  She looked from the sign, to me, and back up at the sign, “I think that you’re right. Think there’s guns up there?”

  I pointed, “Yeah. I think that’s part of a barrel hanging over the edge.”

  She sighed outloud, “So? Who’s going up there?”

  I glanced upwards, “I will.”

  She didn’t argue, “Be careful.”

  Sarcastically, I replied, “That’s the plan.”

  Either she didn’t catch on to my sarcasm or she ignored it, but Makalyn asked, “How are you going to get up there? The zombie is chained up and in the way.”

  She made a good point. The zombie was directly in the way. Either on purpose or an accident, it was still in the way. I couldn’t get up there without getting bit. I looked around. How was I going to get up there without getting bit?

  I looked at the Deer Stand and the cable wire that was supporting its weight. I figured that I could use the cable to crawl to the tent. When I got there, Makalyn could distract the zombie long enough for me to slip behind and kill him.

  I looked over at Makalyn, “Makalyn, I’m going to
climb up and crawl along the wire. I need you to distract the zombie, so I can kill it.”

  With a confused look in her eyes, “Okay. But, how are you going to get up there?”

  I glanced over to my left and noticed a ladder leaning against a wall. From where I was standing, it looked like one of those old wooden style extension type of ladders.

  I pointed, “With that ladder.”

  She frowned, “With that? It looks like it’s being held together by tape and super glue!”

  “Those old things were built to last. Granted, it’s not much to look at, but I only need it to get up there. I can use the other ladder to get down.”

  I walked over to the ladder. It did look like it was going to fall apart, but I didn’t want to admit it to Makalyn.

  I bent over and picked it up. I turned around and Makalyn was staring at me. She had one of those ‘Are you serious?’ looks on her face. Without saying a word, she began following me. I leaned the ladder up against the I-Beam that the wire rope was attached to. The wooden plank creaked as I placed my right foot on the first step. I lifted my left foot and placed it on the next plank. It also creaked but supported my weight.

  I smiled and pointed at the ladder, “See? It’s fine.”

  She didn’t reply. Instead, she turned around and walked to the base of the tent. I on the other hand, began to climb the ladder.

  I made it to the top of the ladder and carefully reached out for the wire. I couldn’t touch it. The wire were mere inches out of my reach.

  Impatiently, Makalyn asked, “What’s taking you so long?”

  I had been so focused on trying to reach the wire, that I almost slipped when Makalyn spoke out.

  Trying to hold my tongue, “Be patient. I can’t reach the wire. I think that I’m going to have to jump for it.”

  Surprised, she asked, “What? Are you nuts? You could fall and hurt yourself.”

  Sarcastically, I replied, “Awe. You worried about me?”

  She had a serious look on her face. Again, she either didn’t catch my sarcasm or just ignored it, “Yes. If something happens to you, what are we going to do?”