by Jimmy Bird
The soldier just stood there as the camera zoomed out. His eyes had a glazed over look. It looked like he had zoned out by staring at something in the distance or was in some kind of trance as he stood there motionless. He looked like a wax statue, only he had fresh blood all over. The camera must have stayed focus on the motionless soldier for ten minutes or so. Then all of a sudden, it was like someone flicked their imaginary fingers in front of him causing him to slowly turn his head towards the action.
Just then more and more of the downed soldiers began to move their limbs. They slowly began to stand, but the camera continued to follow the first soldier as he staggered with a noticeable limp toward the action. His face look distorted, but it didn't look like it was from the pain. He kept opening and shutting his mouth, it was as if he was checking to see if it still worked. You could see a trail of blood behind him. I noticed that he wasn't carrying his weapon.
To our surprise, he limped past all the weaponless fighters with his arms outstretched. He reached for a couple of soldier's that were using their guns. One of the soldiers immediately turned and fired in the damaged soldier's direction. You could see the blood spatter from the bullets hitting the damaged soldier's body as he continued to limp forward. The only noticeable difference was that every time the soldier was hit he staggered slightly to the side, but that was about it. He continued to limp forward.
We watch in amazement as the damaged soldier took like fifty rounds in the chest and was still standing. Correction, still moving forward. You could see the fear on the soldier's face as he kept firing his gun with no effect.
When the damaged soldier was within arms reach he grabbed the soldier that had been firing at his left side. You could see the soldier automatically try to pull his arm back, but it looked like it was a lost cause. It was like the damaged soldier had some kind of vice grip on the soldiers' arm. To our surprise the damaged soldier's head leaned down toward the arm he had a hold of. It looked like his mouth was opening as he leaned forward.
Without warning, the soldier screamed out in pain as the damaged soldier pulled his head back. Blood sprayed out in all directions covering both soldiers. Even with his military uniform on you could make out the torn flesh on the soldier's arm.
I'm not sure what happened next, but it looked like the soldier had regained his focus and pulled his arm free. He fired his gun at the damaged soldier once again. He must have pumped another twenty bullets into him with the same results.
He stood there in shock as blood dripped from his damaged arm. The damaged soldier apparently wasn't done yet as he took another step toward him. The soldier raised his gun once more, this time visibly shaking. Before he could fire, a single shot rung through the televisions.
The damaged soldier's head jerked backwards seconds before his body collapsed to the ground. The camera zoomed in just as blood started running out a small hole located on the center part of his forehead. It looked like a single shot to the head.
The hurt soldier started looking around for his savior, but he didn't see a specific person. The fighting was still going on all around him. He looked toward the soldier that had been standing to his left to see if it had been him, but he quickly realized that it wasn't. He was lying on the ground with a couple of people, a man and woman from the unarmed army ripping apart his stomach. His eyes were focused on something above him, with a glazed look in them.
It was a very graphic scene and too much for the hurt soldier to witness or maybe it was because the soldier next to him was a friend of his. Regardless, the hurt soldier raised his gun and started shooting at the two people. Only this time it looked like he aimed for their heads.
Blood sprayed all over the ground as the bullets penetrated their heads. The woman was the closest and had her back to the hurt soldier so that the bullets went into the back of the head and out through the front. The guy was sitting in front of the woman. The bullets that exited her forehead went straight into his forehead and out the back of his head.
He continued to shoot them that way until he ran out of bullets. Her body fell forward while the guy's body fell backwards. I guess the impact from the barrage of bullets caused them to fall that way. When her body stopped moving you could see the extent of the damage the girl and guy had done to the soldier's stomach area.
The hurt soldier slowly limped toward his downed comrade. He stopped a few feet from the downed soldier. With his machine gun out of ammo he slowly pulled his side arm out of its holster and aimed it at the downed soldier's head. We watched in awe as he pulled the trigger and fired a singled shot into his buddy's forehead.
I'm not sure what happened next, but a girl (at least it looked like a young girl) with what looked like bloody blondish long hair had her mouth around the soldier's left calf muscle. You could see the pain expression on his face as he screamed out in pain. To try to get out of her grip he yanked his leg forward.
He must have used a great deal of force because he lost his balance and fell backwards. The girl wasted no time as she crawled towards him. Before I knew it she was on top of him. You could see the soldier struggling in his attempt to fight her off of him.
He eventually succeeded and pushed her off to the side. He tried to take advantage of the time he bought by rolling in the opposite direction. The only issue was that he rolled directly into another body. His eyes widened as he froze in place. It looked like one of the unarmed people that they had just put down.
After a few seconds of nothing happening he must have thought that he was safe and tried to get up. It looked like he was trying to use the body next to him as leverage as he struggled to stand. You could see the blood pouring out of the wound on his leg.
He pushed down on the motionless head of an unarmed dead girl, I'm assuming that it was a girl because she or he had long dark colored hair. He started to lift his right knee when his left hand slipped towards her mouth.
He screamed once again as he pulled his hand back. He fell backwards as he instinctively pulled his injured hand towards his chest. His eyes had the look of shock in them as he inspected his hand. To all of us watching we were surprised to see that he was missing a few fingers, well the tips of those fingers anyway.
He just sat there, oblivious to what was happening around him. Well, not quite oblivious. He looked up in time to see the girl that he thought was dead turn her head towards him. His fingertips were still sticking out of her mouth.
While still chewing on his fingers she started to slowly turn her body in order to lay on her stomach. It looked like the lower half of her body was pinned underneath a pile of bodies. I'm not sure how she managed to roll over, but once she was on her stomach she immediately started to crawl towards the soldier. We watched in both, horror and awe.
The shock of what we were seeing echoed through the cafeteria. How could she still be moving? How could she still be alive? I now knew why it was easy for the girl to turn over on to her stomach. Both of her legs were missing just below the knees. The soldier must have dropped his pistol because he had a hold of his machine gun. He lifted the gun with his shaking hands and pulled the trigger. Nothing!
With his bloody hand missing a few fingertips, he did his best to eject the empty magazine out of his gun and discard it. He reached in a pocket and pulled his hand out empty. I guess he was out ammo.
Quickly looking around he spotted his fellow soldier a few feet away and immediately began to crawl vigorously towards the body. He left a blood trail in his wake. His skin color had turned a ghostly pale from the loss of blood.
Once he made it to the body he didn't hesitate to search it for a magazine. Once he found it he quickly inserted it into the gun and rolled on to his back. He turned just in time to see both, the blonde and brunette reach his feet. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger.
He caught the brunette directly in the face. I'm not sure how many bullets he used, but it was effective. At that close of a range the bullets began to cave in her face. She immediately drop
ped to her stomach.
He then shifted his gun toward the blonde, who was walking towards him. He did not stop squeezing the trigger as he shifted the gun. The bullets sprayed in a right upward motion. The first bullet hit her right hand and continued until it hit her left shoulder. It did little to slow her down.
Once she was standing over him she tried to pounce like a predator jumping on its prey. She started to drop with her hands outstretched, fingers like talons. She didn't make it.
The soldier got his gun under control and shot her directly in the face. Her head snapped back as she dropped on top of him. You could see the bullet exit holes as they traveled through the back of her head.
Unfortunately, the helicopter happened to have been directly above where the soldier was shooting and seemed to have been hit. The camera went blank. The news anchors quickly replaced the camera footage and stated that they were having technical difficulties. They wanted us to know that they would return to the action as soon as they could. They wanted to reassure the American people that the military had everything under control.
The news couldn't fool us though. The Council knew exactly what was truly going on. We had looked past the news reports and noticed that people were attacking other people or what looked like people. I'm not talking about the protesters we had witnessed earlier in the news cast either. It looked as if people were attacking other living people with guns and knives. It seemed like all those people in the conflict had lost all common sense.
I was brought back to reality when the management wanted us to know that everything was going to be alright and that they were only sending us home as a precautionary measure. Shock was visible on everyone's face at what they had just heard. In fact, I don't even remember hearing anyone talking much after that. It was so quiet in the room that you could truly hear a pin drop.
Like everyone else in the room, none of the Council members said a word. That didn't mean that we weren't able to communicate with each other though. All it took was eye contact and a slight head knob. It was our silent acknowledgment so that the management and other co-workers wouldn't know that we were coming back to the Warehouse. I made sure that I grabbed the door key on my way out the door.
As you can imagine, it was hell getting out of the employee parking lot. Four hundred plus vehicles trying to leave at the same time, it was pure chaos. It must have taken twenty minutes just to get out of the parking lot. That doesn't even include the traffic that led all the way to the highway.
Once I was on the highway that led towards my house, I took the opportunity to call my wife. I heard her pick up the phone, but before she could speak, I told her to get the kids and our emergency kit ready. She didn't respond. It was as if she didn't hear me.
Fear crept into me as she quietly, but frantically informed me that someone was trying to break in our house. Forgetting about everything myself, I told her to call the police. She told me that she had tried, but all she got was a busy signal.
I silently cursed under my breath as I told her to keep calm and try to keep everyone as quiet as possible while she gathered things. I told her to be ready because I was only a few miles away. I had to give her credit because it wasn’t an easy feat for her to accomplish. Especially if you consider that she had four little ones there with her. But she somehow managed.
As soon as we were off the phone I called my sister. I told her to immediately go home to get her kids and emergency kit. I told her to stick with the plan and meet me at my work. She told me that she had already talked to our cousin Lori. My sister told her to get her family gathered and meet us at the Warehouse. Lori told her that she would try.
By the time I got off the phone with my sister and turned into my neighborhood I barely recognized it. It literally looked like a war zone as I watched neighbor chasing neighbor around. I want to point out that it wasn’t in a fun children game type of way.
It was a chaotic scene as people ran past my car screaming for help. I tried to drive up the street, but noticed that more than a few cars were in my way. Most of them were flipped over and smoking. However a few cars were just sitting there looking abandoned with their doors wide open. The windows looked like they had blood stains all over them. No one was around. It was like the scene from a horror movie.
I slowly and carefully made my way up the two blocks towards my house. Shamefully, I continued to ignore people who were pleading for my help. I felt horrible for turning a blind eye on them but to me, my family was more important.
When I got within a couple of houses away I noticed that a couple of people were banging on my front glass screen door. They looked rough, as if they had just come out of a severe gang fight. From what I could see their clothes looked torn and bloody. I wasn't sure, but it looked like they were missing patches of hair.
I slowly rolled past my driveway making sure that I stayed out of their line of sight before I stopped. I sat still in my car, afraid to breathe for a few minutes. I wanted to make sure that the coast was truly clear before I got out.
When I felt that it was safe enough I reached up to my visor to click the garage door opener and froze. I have a two car garage with the double style garage doors. We kept the door closest to the main door/ entrance locked at all times and therefore we didn't really use it. So here was my problem. What if the garage door we did use on the right side made a noticeable noise when it opened? All doors seem to make loud squeaking sounds when you’re trying to be quiet. What if the noise attracts those people at my front door? I guess in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter because I couldn't afford to spend any extra time worrying about the minor details.
I used my garage door remote to open the garage door. Even with the door opening I sat in my car and looked around to make sure that I hadn't drawn any unwanted attention. After a few long minutes I slowly opened my car door and eased myself out of the car. I tried as hard as I could to not make a sound. Once I was out of my car I looked around to make sure that there was still no immediate danger before I jogged toward the open garage door.
Once inside the garage I slowly made my way toward the utility/kitchen door. Just as soon as I reached the door I took the opportunity to look behind me out through the garage door opening to make sure that the coast was still clear. Once I was satisfied that there was no immediate danger I eased open the kitchen door as silently as I could and took a few steps inside the utility room. I slowly closed the door behind as I heard the frightening banging sounds echoing through the house. It seemed to be coming from the direction of my front door.
I silently moved throughout my house looking for my wife and kids. When I didn’t hear anything except for the constant banging I started to become frantic in my search. I quickly moved from room to room.
To my relief I found them all hiding in one of the hallway closets. I put my first finger to my mouth to mimic the shush sound. I quietly motioned for them to follow me back towards the kitchen. Let me tell you that it wasn’t easy to keep that many kids quiet at one time, but we somehow managed. I was just glad that we had been practicing on forming a line, just like the big kids had practiced at school.
When we got to the kitchen door I positioned myself at the head of the line. I urged them to remain quiet until we were safely in the car and leaving. I had my wife take her position at the rear of the line.
Once I was satisfied that we were ready to go I slowly opened the door. That was my first mistake because I was immediately rushed by two sick looking guys. I’m not sure if it was my adrenaline pumping or something else, but I took in my surrounding in less than the blink of the eye.
The first thing that I noticed was that they were the same two gang looking people from my front door. Now that I could see them from the front they looked worst then I could have even imagined. They were covered in blood with pieces of flesh hanging from their faces and arms. They looked similar to the gruesome zombies from all of the movies I had ever seen so I decided to just go ahead and refer t
o them as zombies.
The zombies were faster and stronger then I figured they would have been. Thinking quickly I managed to use the door as a weapon and pushed both of them backwards until they tripped over a couple of cases of bottled water we had stored close to the door.
With the zombies on their backs I yelled for my wife and kids to just run to her car. I led the way as we hurried past the flailing zombies and ran towards my wife’s tan colored Ford Expedition. To be honest they looked like a couple of turtles as they fought to turn over onto their stomachs.
Obviously, I was the first to arrive at my wife's car and used the keyless remote to unlock the doors. Without thinking about it I put the keys in my right front pocket as I reached out to open the rear passenger door with my left. I turned to usher the kids into the SUV whenever another male zombie with a face that looked like it was covered in open wounds came out of nowhere. He had managed to position himself between my daughter and the rest of us.
Just like the others he was faster then I imagined as he reached out and grabbed my daughter's hair when she tried to run around him. He had a solid grip on her hair and pulled her back towards him. I was in the middle of lifting my first twin into the back seat of the SUV when I heard her scream out for me in fear.
Fear crept over me as I quickly grabbed my other twin and sort of quickly tossed him into the car. I turned to grab my oldest son, Jimmy but he wasn't there. I looked up to see him running towards his sister.
I watched with both fear and pride because it seemed that without thinking of his own safety he had rushed forward to protect his younger sister. I turned back towards my wife and told her to get the twins in their seat-belts. Without waiting for her to reply I turned and rushed to protect my oldest two children.
