Fight 4 Us (Book 11): Access

by Grenda, Brian

  I exit Fran’s bedroom and walk into my kitchen.

  Lauren suddenly opens the front door and shouts, “Ryan! We need you!”

  I see Lauren at our front door and see that she is in distress and I ask, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, but Jerri-Lynn is not. She’s in the Medical house,” answers Lauren.

  Lauren and I run down our sidewalk and make our way towards Buck’s house. “What’s wrong with Jerri-Lynn?” I ask Lauren as Lauren and I run by the Armory house and down the sidewalk towards the Medical house.

  “I don’t know, but she’s wounded and bleeding,” answers Lauren.

  I enter the Medical house and see Sam, Chelsea, and Andre as I enter. Kiersten is standing next to Jerri-Lynn and talking with her as Jerri-Lynn is on the medical table. “Stay with me mom. You have to make it,” says Kiersten to Jerri-Lynn with tears in her eyes.

  "What happened? Is she bit?” I shout.

  No one in the room answers my questions. I walk over to Jerri-Lynn and Kiersten and see that Jerri-Lynn is bleeding from her left arm. Blood is gushing out and I know that I have to stop the bleeding.

  “I need a tourniquet!” I shout.

  “Where is it?” asks Sam.

  “It’s in the tall white cabinet,” I answer Sam and Sam walks over to the cabinet to find the tourniquet.

  I put on some rubber gloves and tell Kiersten to step aside. Kiersten says, “You have to save her.”

  I grab a large clean towel and apply pressure to Jerri-Lynn’s left arm.

  “Where in the cabinet is the tourniquet?” asks Sam.

  Lauren looks in the white cabinet and they look for the tourniquet.

  “I don’t see it honey,” says Lauren.

  “It has to be there! That’s the only place it’s been!” I shout.

  “Someone keep pressure on her wound!” I shout. Andre limps over to the medical table and puts pressure on Jerri-Lynn’s left arm. I notice Andre limping and ask him, “What happened to your leg?”

  I walk over to the tall white cabinet and Andre answers, “I twisted my ankle running in some tall grass when we were coming back here with Jerri, I’m fine.”

  Lauren and Sam show me that the tall white cabinet is empty. “What the fuck! These shelves should have bandages, straps, and a tourniquet!” I shout.

  Jerri-Lynn starts to turn real pale and Kiersten notices that Jerri-Lynn’s right hand is ice cold now.

  “Stay with me mom!” shouts Kiersten with tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry Kier, you have to stay strong and listen to Sam,” says Jerri-Lynn with a low tone of voice as she struggles to talk and breathe.

  “I think we are losing her!” shouts Andre.

  I grab another large clean towel and place it on the blood soaked towel that Andre was using to apply pressure on Jerri-Lynn’s left arm.

  “I need a belt!” I shout.

  Lauren sees that I’m wearing a black belt around my pants and shouts, “I’ll take your belt!”

  Lauren removes my black belt and hands it to me. I wrap my belt above Jerri-Lynn’s wound on her left arm and tighten my belt strap.

  As I tighten the belt strap, the blood that was gushing from Jerri-Lynn’s wound slows down, but doesn’t stop.

  I look at the slowed but not stopped blood flow and I think about what else I can do.

  “Check that other cabinet for some styptic powder,” I say to Sam.

  Sam opens the cabinet and finds that it’s empty and says, “There is nothing in the cabinet.”

  “Are you serious?” I shout.

  Lauren checks the cabinet that Sam just opened and answers, “Yeah, it’s empty.”

  I can’t believe that the medical supplies that I need to save Jerri-Lynn are gone. “I can’t stop the bleeding without those medical supplies, and they were in here the last time we took inventory,” I say.

  Chelsea asks, “What do you need Ryan?”

  I look at Chelsea while applying pressure to the towels on Jerri-Lynn’s left arm and answer, “A tourniquet, clean gauze, and some styptic powder.”

  “I’ll be right back, we might have those things at my house,” replies Chelsea and then Chelsea exits from the Medical house and drives her car towards the Citrus Oaks exit.

  I make eye contact with Sam and Kiersten and ask, “What the hell happened?”

  Sam thinks about what happened with Jerri-Lynn and she answers, “We went to check out some houses and the group of zombies that are stuck behind the large fallen tree.”

  Sam, Kiersten, Jerri-Lynn, Chelsea, and Andre are walking down the sidewalk after I talked with them as we headed to World of Trade to meet with DK.

  BANG! BANG!

  Two gunshots go off in the distance and two zombies who are trapped behind the large fallen tree fall backwards and knock down three other zombies behind them.

  A rifle scope is moved away from the gunman’s right eye as they lie prone on top of an elevated platform on top of the roof of an abandoned house.

  “Save your bullets Chase!” shouts Chelsea from the front yard of the house that Chase is at.

  “We got enough! I could do some serious damage to that zombie horde!” shouts Chase as he looks through his binoculars at the zombie horde that is still being blocked by the fallen tree.

  “What should we do?” asks Sam to Jerri-Lynn.

  “Let’s go through these homes first, see what we can find, and then we’ll worry about the zombie horde,” answers Jerri-Lynn.

  Andre, Kiersten, and Sam walk towards an abandoned house and Jerri-Lynn shouts, “Eyes open Kier and listen to Sam!”

  “I will, I got it mom!” shouts Kiersten.

  Sam, Kiersten, and Andre approach the front door of the abandoned house and Sam sees that Kiersten is annoyed.

  Andre is about to try to open the front door of the abandoned house and Sam says, “Hold up a second Dre.”

  Andre stops at the front door and looks at Sam. Sam looks at Kiersten and says, “Keep your mind clear Kier. We need you focused right now. I don’t want to have to save your ass again like last time we were out together.”

  Kiersten looks at Sam with deep focus and replies, “That wasn’t my fault. Dre said the room was clear.”

  “It was clear,” says Andre.

  “That’s not the point. The point is that I see you are mad at your mom and if you aren’t focused on things right now, we could lose you. Okay?” says Sam to Kiersten.

  “How we looking Chase?” asks Jerri-Lynn to Chase as Chase is still on the rooftop of the abandoned house.

  “Pretty good overall, but the tree is starting to break down. I think those zombies will be able to get over the tree,” answers Chase.

  “You gonna stay up there?” asks Chelsea to Chase.

  Sam sees Chase, Chelsea, and Jerri-Lynn talking as Andre opens the front door to the abandoned house that Sam, Kiersten and Andre are checking out.

  Andre shines his flashlight and bangs on the front door. “It’s clear,” says Andre.

  “You sure this time?” asks Kiersten.

  Sam enters the abandoned house with Kiersten and Andre.

  “Well keep an eye out up there then,” says Chelsea to Chase.

  Jerri-Lynn walks down the street and she looks at the large fallen tree, the zombie horde behind the tree, and the two cars that are faced towards the fallen tree and preventing the zombies from getting around the fallen tree.

  BANG!

  Chase takes down a zombie that was about to get over the fallen tree.

  Chelsea sees Jerri-Lynn looking at the zombies behind the fallen tree.

  “Easy with the shooting for a second!” shouts Jerri-Lynn to Chase.

  “But that one was about to get over the tree!” shouts Chase.

  “Let’s see what happens! Don’t shoot anymore!” shouts Jerri-Lynn.

  Chelsea walks over to Jerri-Lynn and they both watch the zombie horde pushing into the large fallen tree, but more and more of the zom
bies are getting closer and closer to being able to slide over the now flattened out tree bark and depressions in the large tree trunk.

  “Two of them are about to get over the tree!” shouts Chase as he looks through his binoculars at the large fallen tree and zombie horde.

  Jerri-Lynn removes two of her knives from their sheaths and shouts, “Watch our back up there, but let us chop them down a little!” shouts Jerri-Lynn to Chase.

  Jerri-Lynn looks at Chelsea and says, “Help me take some of them out quietly. I think the shots from your brother are attracting more of them.”

  Chelsea removes a medium sized hunting knife from its sheath and says, “I’ll gladly help.”

  SHICK! SVAASH!

  Jerri-Lynn and Chelsea slice and cut into several zombies that are behind the large fallen tree.

  “Watch your footing, the street is slick from all the zombie blood,” says Jerri-Lynn.

  SHICK!

  Chelsea takes out a zombie with her hunting knife and the zombie collapses forward and zombie blood spills onto the street.

  “We can’t let these zombies get over this tree, they could do some major damage to our houses and Citrus Oaks,” says Jerri-Lynn.

  SHICK!

  Jerri-Lynn stabs a female zombie in her head with the knife in her right hand, but the knife gets stuck in the female zombie’s skull.

  Two zombies make a big push towards the fallen tree and come towards Jerri-Lynn as Jerri-Lynn tries to remove her knife that is still stuck in the female zombie’s head.

  BANG!

  Chase takes down one of the zombies, with a shot from his rifle, that were coming towards Jerri-Lynn, but the other zombie falls onto Jerri-Lynn and she is pushed backwards onto one of the cars that are facing the fallen tree.

  AHHHHHH!

  Jerri-Lynn screams in pain as her left arm is sliced open by the rusty metal front bumper on the car she just fell onto.

  SHICK!

  Chelsea kills the zombie that attacked Jerri-Lynn and then Chelsea helps Jerri-Lynn safely make it away from the zombies that remain behind the fallen tree.

  “And then we came right here,” says Sam to me.

  “You hanging in there Jerri-Lynn?” I ask Jerri-Lynn as Andre has pressure on her left arm wound.

  “Where the hell is Chelsea with those supplies!” shouts Kiersten.

  “I think we are losing her,” says Andre.

  I get closer to Jerri-Lynn and try to find a pulse on her right wrist, and I don’t feel anything. I try to find a pulse on her carotid artery on the right side of her throat and I don’t feel a pulse.

  “She’s gone. We couldn’t stop the bleeding,” I say as I look at Jerri-Lynn’s pale white face and blueish tinted lips.

  Kiersten starts to cry and Sam hugs Kiersten.

  Chelsea enters the Medical house with a box of medical supplies.

  I look in the box and see a tourniquet, bags of gauze, towels, and some styptic powder.

  I pick up the styptic powder and see that it looks like the powder that we had here. I look closer at the bottle and see something written on the bottom of the white bottle.

  As I flip the bottle of styptic powder over I read the words that were written in black marker. Citrus Oaks in black marker are written on the bottom of the white bottle.

  I look at Chelsea and ask, “Where did you get this?”

  Chelsea answers, “My house.”

  I show Chelsea the writing on the bottom of the bottle and ask, “Did you steal this from us?”

  Lauren, Sam, Kiersten, and Andre all look at Kiersten for her answer.

  “No, I would never steal from you,” answers Chelsea.

  Lauren looks in the box of supplies that Chelsea brought in with her and says, “These look to be our medical supplies.”

  Kiersten shouts, “Why do you have the medical supplies that could have saved my mom?”

  Andre, Kiersten, and Sam stare at Chelsea and impatiently wait for her answer.

  Chelsea gets scared and runs out of the Medical house.

  Sam runs after Chelsea and catches up to Chelsea as Chelsea enters the car she drove over to Citrus Oaks.

  Chelsea locks the doors of the car just before Sam tries to open the front passenger side door of Chelsea’s car.

  SMACK!

  Sam smacks the fully rolled up passenger side door window with her right hand and shouts, “What the hell Chelsea!”

  “I’m sorry Sam,” says Chelsea with tears in her eyes as she looks at Sam from the driver seat of her car.

  Chelsea starts up her car and speeds away from Sam and our Medical house. Sam, confused and upset, stands in the street in front of our Medical house and watches Chelsea drive away.

  CHAPTER 7

  DON’T LOOK AT ME

  I wash my hands and face in my master bathroom sink. I grab a hand towel and look at myself in my master bathroom mirror and try to make sense of what just happened an hour ago with Jerri-Lynn and the meeting I had with DK earlier today.

  I picture Jerri-Lynn dying in our Medical house, my meeting with DK, Level 2 at World of Trade, and seeing the outside of the football stadium.

  “You doing okay honey?” asks Lauren as she enters our master bathroom.

  “I don’t know. It’s been a crazy day,” I answer Lauren.

  “It sure has. It’s been a crazy year,” replies Lauren.

  “Come in Ryan,” says someone over the radio that is on my nightstand in our master bedroom.

  I exit from our master bathroom, pick up my radio, and answer, “This is Ryan.”

  “It’s Phil. We buried Jerri-Lynn in our cemetery and Kiersten, Sam and Andre just left,” replies Phil over the radio.

  “Thank you Phil. Thank you for taking care of all that. How’s Kiersten holding up?” I ask into my radio.

  Lauren exits our master bedroom.

  “She’s pissed. I’m not sure if she’s going after Chelsea or what but we might have to intervene,” answers Phil over the radio.

  “Get the guys together and let’s head over to Chelsea’s house,” I say to Phil into my radio.

  “Okay. Give me a couple minutes, and I’ll meet you at Shaun’s,” replies Phil over the radio.

  “I’ll get Matt and Shaun and you get Jon,” I say to Phil into my radio.

  “Will do. Over and out,” replies Phil over the radio.

  I put on my body armor chest piece and put my handgun in my right thigh holster.

  “Where are you going now?” asks Lauren as she sees me putting my gear on.

  “Over to Chelsea’s house,” I answer Lauren.

  “I’m coming with you,” says Lauren.

  “Okay, get your stuff and let’s go then. Meet us at Shaun’s house. I’m going to get Matt,” I reply to Lauren.

  I exit my house with my gear and head across the street to Matt’s house.

  KNOCK! KNOCK!

  Matt answers his front door and I say, “Get your gear and let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?” asks Matt.

  “Across the street to Chelsea’s house,” I answer Matt.

  “Why what happened?” asks Matt.

  “I’ll explain later. Just meet me at Shaun’s house,” I answer Matt.

  “But what happened?” asks Matt.

  I get frustrated as I’m on edge right now and shout, “Either fucking come or don’t, but I need you with me now!”

  Matt realizes that it’s serious and says, “I’ll be right over to Shaun’s.”

  “Good, hurry up,” I reply.

  Matt closes his front door and I walk over to Shaun’s house.

  KNOCK! KNOCK!

  I knock on Shaun’s front door and Lisa answers the front door. “What’s up Ryan?” asks Lisa with some attitude.

  “I need Shaun for something. We are going across the street, and I need him with us,” I answer Lisa.

  “I’ll see if he can help you,” replies Lisa with some attitude and then Lisa shuts the front door in my face.

&n
bsp; “Really didn’t need that right now,” I say to myself.

  I walk away from Shaun’s front door and I see Phil and Jon come walking around the corner and they approach Matt’s house.

  Lauren exits from our house and walks over to Shaun’s as I’m standing in Shaun’s driveway now.

  Shaun exits his house and asks me, “What’s up Ry?”

  “We are going across the streetto Chelsea’s house,” I answer Shaun.

  “What happened?” asks Shaun.

  “Go gear up and I’ll explain when you get back out,” I answer Shaun.

  Shaun goes back in his house and puts his gear back on.

  Phil, Jon, and Lauren walk over to me and Jon says, “I’m sorry about Jerri-Lynn. What happened?”

  “I couldn’t stop the bleeding as we didn’t have the medical supplies in the Medical house,” I answer Jon.

  “What happened to them?” asks Jon.

  “That’s what we are going to find out,” answers Phil.

  Matt exits from his house with his gear and meets up with Lauren, Phil, Jon, and me.

  “I’m not the last one for once,” says Matt with a smile on his face.

  Shaun exits from his house with Lisa.

  “I’m coming with you,” says Lisa to Shaun.

  Shaun looks at Lisa and before Shaun can reply to Lisa, I shout, “More people the better for this!”

  “See, even Ryan thinks I should come,” says Lisa.

  “But what are we doing?” asks Shaun as Lisa and Shaun walk over to me.

  “We are going to talk with Chelsea about why she had our medical supplies,” I answer Shaun.

  “Why did she have them?” asks Lisa.

  “Let’s go find out,” answers Phil.

  Phil walks away from Shaun’s driveway and I follow behind him.

  Lauren walks over to Shaun and Lisa and says, “Stay with me Lisa.”

  Shaun walks with Jon and Matt and asks, “What happened after we got back from World of Trade?”

  “Jerri-Lynn died, and Ryan didn’t have the medical supplies in the Medical house to save her,” answers Jon.

  “Shit, I can see why Ryan is pissed right now,” says Shaun.

  Phil and I talk with Brody at the closed main gate of Citrus Oaks.