We Are The Survivors

by Vanessa Marie

  I don’t want to go back to the house anyway. It doesn’t matter.

  We came here for generators too. Mom only had one. That doesn’t make much difference.

  We are going to help people too. I was right not to mention home.

  I don’t want to think about it.

  I sit still here. Should I be scared? This is the first person that I’ve been alone with since people started eating each other. He’s a stranger. What the hell was I thinking?

  Why did no one protest me going with Dave either? Why didn’t I protest? Now I’m nervous. He could kill me. The one person who was worried at all was Rain.

  She keeps popping in my head. Her smile, her laugh, everything about her. She is the only girl I’ve been serious about. My first girlfriend. My first love. I think about her all the time. She is all I have now. I send her a mental message.

  Dave stops at a store on the edge of town. The red-letter sign on the store says Cactus Market. It’s a nice sized store.

  I get out of the car. He steps out and goes to the back to the trunk. He closes it and holds a pistol in his hand.

  He walks up beside me. I see two figures on the roof. The blinding sun shines behind the figures making them appear black.

  “Roof, two o’clock,” I say.

  He puts his hand up to block the sun. “Damn, I can barely see.”

  “Hello. What is it you two want?” a man asks from the roof.

  “Food,” Dave answers.

  “We’ll help you out with that. Go inside we’ll be there in a minute,” the man says.

  We go in the front door. The bell on the door chimes signaling our presence. A few moments pass by and the guy walks in the door. A girl in her twenties is behind him. The first thing I notice is that the guy has dyed blue hair. I look at his wardrobe. He is wearing a white dress shirt, a pink sequin vest over the shirt, white gloves, black dress pants, and black shoes. He belongs at a Casino, not here.

  The girl is wearing a black hoodie, black spandex pants and black sneakers. Her artificial blonde hair is in a messy ponytail, her natural brown roots are an inch long.

  The man steps closer. “I’m Earl the Magician. This is my assistant Carrie.” he says.

  “Nice to meet you,” Dave says smiling.

  “Take all you need, just leave some for us,” Earl says.

  I get a cart and gather a lot of canned food while Dave talks to Earl.

  I stop in the cake aisle. I grab a box of chocolate cake mix, icing and sprinkles. I figure the kids would like to decorate it. They deserve a little normalcy in their lives. I go in the water aisle. I grab six cases of water putting two on the bottom and two inside the cart. I struggle to get them in the cart a little. I grab two cases of soda putting them on top of the water cases. I hope these people like soda.

  I’ll get this cart full in the car then I’ll come back. I walk to Dave. Earl has a deck of cards in his hands with his eyes closed. Dave takes a card out and puts it in the deck. Carrie is smirking and rolling her eyes.

  “Hey, I got the stuff,” I say.

  Dave ignores me, “I’m done. What’s my card?”

  Earl opens his eyes and picks a card. “Is this it?” he asks.

  “Yeah. Nice one.” Dave is impressed.

  “Wait until you see me with the zombies.” Earl smiles.

  Dave turns to me acknowledging my full cart of food. “Good, let’s go unload that stuff.”

  Dave holds the door open for me to go through. He helps me unload the stuff.

  “Did he get the card right?” I ask.

  “Yeah, I wasn’t lying. He’s a nice guy. What do you think he meant by see me with the zombies?”

  I shrug.

  Dave leaves the trunk open. I go back in and head towards the canned food aisle. I fill the cart by myself. It takes three trips of getting canned food to fill the trunk top to bottom with cans, the fourth fills the backseat and car floor with supplies. I put the cart where we found it. I go up to Dave who is talking to Earl again.

  A pound on the door almost gives me a heart attack. I spin around fast. A zombie is banging on the door. Good thing it opens out.

  Earl takes a magician wand out of his back pocket. “I got this.”

  Dave laughs. “Work your magic, Earl.”

  “Don’t encourage him,” Carrie snaps.

  Earl puts his hand on the door.

  “Don’t do it. Let them handle it,” Carrie says with concern and worry in her voice.

  Is there a knife in that wand? How is he going to kill it?

  Earl opens the door. He backs up a lot. “Abracadabra,” he says while waving his magic wand.

  The zombie staggers closer to him. Dave shoulders the zombie making it fall on it’s right side. Carrie takes a pocket knife out of her back pocket. She stabs the zombie in the temple when it tries to get up. She leaves her knife in its head. Earl is saying he doesn’t know what happened to his wand but the only explanation is that his wand is broken.

  She comes up to us. “He’s not right in the head. He thinks he can make them vanish like a magic trick. I’ve protected him since zombies were walking. I’ve tried telling him he can’t do it but he thinks he can. I’ll take care of him as best I can while you guys get stuff,” she whispers.

  “Give us a moment,” Dave says.

  She nods and walks over to Earl.

  “We have to go,” I say.

  “Okay.”

  We walk to the door. “Next is generators,” I say.

  “Hey! Wait!” Earl says.

  I turn around reluctantly. “Yeah?”

  “I know where to get those. I see your car has is packed with food, I know where to get a truck too.”

  Dave gives me a look. I mouth the word what. He steps in front of me. “We need this stuff. Let him lead the way.”

  The guy clearly has issues. It’s going to put us in danger. If the guy believes he can make zombies disappear he could be suffering from hallucinations also. I wish zombies could vanish like that, it’s just not reality.

  We could tag along together until we get generators at least. “Okay, lead.”

  The ride to the hardware store was short. That didn’t stop the cans from rolling off the backseat on the floor though. Putting them in bags would have stopped them from falling off.

  I agreed to sit in the car with Carrie while Earl and Dave get generators. Gas we’re going to have to siphon from cars.

  I’m sitting in the middle seat. I get tired of waiting. I shift constantly. I shiver from the cold air. “It’s freezing.”

  “Yeah.” Carrie puts her hood over her head.

  “How did you become his assistant?” I ask out of curiosity.

  “I was looking for a job. I wanted to have a fun job. Earl advertised that he needed an assistant in the newspaper. I called him up and we met and he showed me how to help with tricks. It was fun. We performed at local casinos. He was a good magician. That was…let’s see I’m twenty-eight so it was ten years ago.

  “He’s fifty now. He was on the verge of losing his job before this started. His mind is not what it was. He can’t remember the past that much. I stuck by him for ten years because I wanted to take care of him. He’s like my family. I can’t abandon him. I’m sorry, I’m rambling.”

  “It’s fine,” I say.

  “Help!” Dave screams.

  Carrie runs past me. “Guard the car,” she says while jumping out.

  I watch her run inside. She’s gone in seconds.

  I can’t stay here. I have to make sure they’re okay. I’m shaking, not from the cold now but fear. I touch the button that releases the seatbelt. I inhale. I press the button and step out of the car. I have to be brave. I break into a run.

  I reach the doors. I bend over trying to catch my breath. I listen for sounds of distress.

  “Help!” someone shouts.

  Distress.

  I run outside where the gardening tools are. I see the three of them backing up towards the
door fighting zombies, except Earl he’s saying abracadabra while his assistant is killing the zombies for him.

  “Hey! Let’s go!” I shout.

  They run inside. The doors close behind them. A female zombie stumbles up from the register to Earl. He kicks her and she falls down. We stop by the registers waiting on him. There is an unraveled tarp on the floor. Earl picks it up. “Abracadabra.” He throws the tarp on the zombie. “I told you I could make it disappear.”

  “Let’s go! Half the town is probably dead,” Carrie says while running to the car.

  I’m running so fast my adrenaline is pumping. We get out the door and Earl stops running.

  “Wait, we need the truck, Dave has the keys. We’ll drive the truck; Carrie take the boy and drive behind us.” Earl says.

  “No, no way. Dave, I’m going with you,” I say because I don’t want to split up.

  We’re a group and the other two might be trying to trick us. Yes, Carrie could take off with the food. Earl could kill Dave. To me a person’s life is worth more than food. We can get more food at another store.

  Dave hesitates. He shakes his head. “Come with us.”

  Dave hands Carrie his keys. She runs to the car. The three of us run to around the back of the store. Dave gets into the driver’s seat of the cargo truck that is parked trunk first in front of the back door. Earl opens the door. I see twenty generators in there.

  “It will be a short ride to get gas. You have to sit in here. There isn’t any room up front,” Earl says.

  I climb in. Earl shuts the door behind me. I stand up the whole time. The car wasn’t this bad. I can’t see anything. It’s pitch black in here. I feel the truck turn and I’m thrown against the wall.

  Earl opens the door sooner than I thought he would. I jump out eager to see the sunlight. We stopped at a gas station. Dave and Earl are taking gas cans away from the pumps. He passes by me. Gas pumps shouldn’t be working. “Hey, how did you get those?” I ask.

  “They were by the pumps. They have blood splatter on them. I’m not a detective but I say people tried to get gas and zombies scared them off, bit them. I’m putting them in back. You have to ride with Carrie since there won’t be any room. Don’t worry the clothing store is the last stop.”

  I nod.

  I’m relieved to see Carrie pull up behind the truck. When she parks I get in the passenger’s side. Dave puts gas cans in the back. I stop counting after ten of them are put in.

  I guess someone else has a generator in town. Generators need a ton of gas. For a person to fill these many cans they would have to have a generator or they are trying to stock up so they can drive longer. I see Dave put a lot of cans in. Afterwards he closes the door and gets in. Carrie drives again when Earl gets in the truck. I get in the car with Carrie this time, obeying to Dave.

  This day is going slowly. I gaze at the town through my window. It’s a nice town except for zombies which isn’t the town’s fault.

  “You live here?” Carrie asks.

  “No, Las Vegas.”

  “Oh, It’s nice out here. You get acres of land and you can raise farm animals. This is a good town to live in. Houses are secluded, with what’s going on that’s a big benefit.”

  “You’re right. Do you know how people became zombies?” I ask.

  “No, I have theories. They’re stupid though.” She shakes her head.

  I make eye contact with her, “My family prepared for a fallout like this. They believed in conspiracy theories. Anything that will explain this, I want to hear it,” I say.

  “Okay, rabies mutation, Ebola, mutations of a pre-existing virus. Then, what I hope isn’t true, a chemical in junk food.”

  “Good theories. I don’t have any but I hope we find out,” I say.

  We park at a clothing store. Dave parks by the curb. I walk in the store. I go straight to the young men’s section. I grab seven T-shirts and several pairs of jeans. Dave picks some clothes out with the list of sizes Nya gave him in hand.

  I walk up to him. “I don’t think the girls would like your taste in clothes.”

  “Nya told me to get leather, sparkly, or fur clothes. You can get your girlfriend’s, right?”

  “Sure.”

  He smiles. “You have no clue.”

  “No, not really,” I say.

  I don’t know exactly what her style is. I don’t want to get her the wrong clothes.

  Forget it it’s the apocalypse. Clothes don’t have to be stylish now. Dave shows me the paper with her size and name next to it. I go in the junior’s section picking out shirts. I pick solid colored shirts with matching pants. I’ll keep it simple.

  I hear a car pull into the parking lot. I spin around towards the door. Oakland walks in to my surprise. What is he doing here?

  “Guys, Rain sent me to check on you. She heard that the town is crawling with the dead,” Oakland says.

  Dave shakes his head. “No shit, we’re alive though. You’re going to have to drive the cargo truck out there back to the community. We have generators and gas we need brought back.”

  His eyebrows raise. “How much gas?”

  “Thirty gallons maybe.”

  “I don’t think that will last long. Generators use a lot of gas per day. Even thirty gallons will go quick.” He notices Earl and Carrie.

  The door was left open by Oakland. Earl walks up to close it. At the same time a female zombie walks up to him. It lunges forward.

  “Abracadabra!” He shouts while waving his wand.

  The zombie lunges forward. Carrie runs to kill the zombie. I stand there doing nothing thinking Carrie will reach the zombie in time. The zombie bites Earl’s shoulder. Blood splatters up on the ceiling. Carrie stabs the zombie, with her knife, in the temple. Earl falls on his back. Blood is coming from his shoulders like water coming from a burst pipe.

  I run up front to help. Carrie is kneeling on the floor pressing her hands on the wound to stop the bleeding. I go to help as fast as possible. I kneel on Earl’s other side with the clothes in my hand. I tear a shirt apart and use a strip of fabric to tie under his armpit and knot at his shoulder. Good thing my mom taught me how take care of a wound. Carrie stares at the blood that is bleeding through the tourniquet. She’s crying. It probably dawned on her that he is dying. Earl has tears in his eyes and he is staring at the ceiling.

  “Kill me,” he says.

  “What? No, you can make it,” Carrie says as a tear falls down her cheek.

  “You have to kill me or I’ll turn, they said that bites can make you turn on the news.”

  Dave walks up and puts the barrel of the gun to his head. “I got it.”

  He spaces out for a moment. I know what he feels, it’s what we all feel. This is all real. Someone is dying in front of us. I don’t know if this is as bad or worse than the soldiers who committed suicide. I’ve never seen anyone bleed this much before. Carrie says goodbye then walks away unable to watch this happen. She goes outside. I stay here not knowing why. I thank him for what he did to help us. Dave aims his gun at his head.

  Earl closes his eyes bracing himself for the shot. I stay by his side. I watch Dave shoot him in the head.

  Blood splatters on my face, getting in my eyes, blinding me. I wipe at my face with my jacket sleeve. I manage to get the blood out of my eyes.

  I stand up leaving the men inside. I open the door, looking over my shoulder I see Dave let his gun drop to the ground. He holds his face in his hands. Carrie is sitting on the curb. I step in front of her. “I’m sorry,” I say.

  “It’s not your fault. He was sick. I tried protecting him and I failed.” Another tear slides down her cheek as she says the last word. She looks lost. They were close like she said.

  “It’s not your fault either. You can’t save everyone. Would you like to come back with us? We have a gated community in Las Vegas,” I say.

  “No. I’ll go back to the grocery store. You’re welcome to come back to the store if you need food.”

&nbs
p; “Thanks.” I say. I appreciate the help they gave us. Earl was a good man. His sense of reality was messed up. It’s not his fault either. He would have probably been eaten anyways. You don’t know how much time you have left in a world like this. How much time does anyone have? How much time do we have?

  It’s a question that you won’t know until you are bit or killed. Do the smart and strong win over the weak? In a world filled with dead who is left? Is there any good people left?

  I hope there is. My mom said that when civilization falls good people die and bad people come out. They take what they want. It makes sense, that’s what they would do.

  My mom prepared for everything. My house is filled with supplies. I should have told Dave about it. We would have valuable supplies. My house is an apocalyptic goldmine. Maybe Earl wouldn’t have died today if I told Dave about my house.

  I didn’t want to go back. Looking at the pictures on the walls. Remembering the good times. It would hurt too much. I know we have to go there. I can’t run from this. My mom told me not to run from difficult situations. I have to face this. We put the clothes in the car on top of the canned food. Dave is driving his car. Oakland is driving the truck behind us. We left Carrie at the store. I feel guilty that we just left her sitting on the curb even though she didn’t want to come along. She probably needed someone to be there for her. We left her.

  I’ve been trying to bring my house up. I can’t bring myself to say the words. Why is this so hard? I avoid eye contact gazing out the window. “We should have gone to my house. I didn’t want to go because it would remind me of my mom. I can’t think of going home and her not being there. My mom had a stockpile. We could use what she had.”

  “We didn’t have to come here then; we could have gone there. That guy…never mind I understand why you don’t want to go back. This wasn’t a wasted trip right?” Dave says.

  “No, there’s no gas or generators at my house.” I wipe at the tears trying to slide from my eyes.

  “Relax, I’ll go there and get the stuff. You stay with Rain. You’ve seen enough for today. We all have seen enough,” Dave says.

  That was easy than I thought. Maybe I should take Dave up on his offer and stay with Rain. Remembering how it was depresses me. It’s like if I go back I’ll replay what I did. I don’t want to blame myself anymore but I’m tied to that day, it won’t let me go. It’s not my fault just like Earl’s death wasn’t Carrie’s fault I know it. I just feel like I should blame myself for her death. I should take responsibility. I want someone else’s opinion. “Do you blame yourself for something that happened that you had no control over?”