Fight 4 Us (Book 2)_Reunited

by Brian Grenda

  FIGHT 4 US

  REUNITED

  CHAPTER 1 – NEW PLAN

  CHAPTER 2 - PARENTAL CONTROL

  CHAPTER 3 – GET GOING

  CHAPTER 4 – FLORIDA HERE WE COME

  CHAPTER 5 – BABIES ON BOARD

  CHAPTER 6 – HARDWARE STORE

  CHAPTER 7 - THE BIG CLUB

  CHAPTER 8 – WE ARE SET

  CHAPTER 9 - NOT AS PLANNED

  CHAPTER 10 - CAR TROUBLE

  CHAPTER 11 - SOLAR ENERGY OF TAMPA

  CHAPTER 12 - CONDO ASSOCIATION

  CHAPTER 13 - NEIGHBORHOOD SECURITY

  CHAPTER 14 - LIVE OR DIE

  CHAPTER 15 - OFF THE GRID

  CHAPTER 16 - LET’S GET TO WORK

  CHAPTER 17 - SAFETY ISSUE

  CHAPTER 1

  NEW PLAN

  It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon in North Carolina. Shaun and Lisa arrive back at their home. Lisa pulls into the driveway and parks her car next to Shaun’s jeep. Shaun is still in shock and grieving for his dead parents. Shaun’s parents were his last two remaining family members. Shaun has always taken a long time to get over things when we were growing up. So, I can only imagine how long it will take him to get over the death of his parents.

  As Shaun steps out of Lisa’s car, Matt drives up to Shaun’s house and parks in the street. Matt parks in his usual spot at the end of Shaun’s driveway. Lisa enters the house, followed by a crying and upset Kylie. Shaun walks over to Matt as Matt stands next to his driver side door.

  “How did it go at Kylie’s parents’ house?” asks Shaun.

  Matt replies, “Not good. They are gone, and I fear for what I will find when I go check on my parents next.”

  Matt has always had a good relationship with his parents and would love to take them down to Orlando to see Nicole.

  “When are you going to check on your parents?” asks Shaun.

  Matt looks at his wristwatch and says, “I want to go now, but Kylie is upset, and I don’t want to leave her like this. I feel bad, but I really want to check on my parents. The longer I wait, the more anxiety I feel.”

  Shaun looks at Matt and says, “Let’s go inside and ask the girls what we should do next and to make sure everyone is on the same page. We can’t have the girls mad at us.”

  With a half-smile, Matt says, “That’s for sure. Kylie will kick my butt if I do something without telling her.”

  Shaun and Matt enter the house through the front door and find Kylie and Lisa in the living room. Kylie is crying to Lisa about what her and Matt went through at her parents’ house.

  Matt sees that Lisa is consoling Kylie and goes into the kitchen. Matt hands Shaun a beer and they each try to calm down from the terrible experiences that they have just gone through.

  “How did it go with your parents Shaun?” asks Matt.

  “Terrible! They are both dead,” replies Shaun.

  Shaun starts to cry and says, “I had to kill my mother, because I didn’t have the guts to take my father out. I froze and ran away from doing it.”

  “Damn, I’m so sorry man.”

  Matt gives Shaun a big hug.

  Shaun feels better talking about the situation with his parents and feels that he learned from it. He has no other family members to lose, but learned a valuable lesson from losing his parents.

  “My dad dying was unavoidable, but my mom didn’t need to die. Never again will I let that happen,” says Shaun.

  Lisa comes into the kitchen and grabs a full bottle of wine and two wine glasses.

  Matt walks into the living room behind Lisa and sees that Kylie and Lisa plan to drown their sorrows with alcohol.

  Matt sees this an opportunity to go check on his parents.

  Matt sits next to Kylie and says, “Kylie. I need to go check on my parents. I want you to stay here and cope with what just happened. I can’t afford losing you.”

  Kylie replies, “What? You are going without me?”

  “You are very upset, and I don’t want anything to happen to you. You aren’t in the best mindset to go out and search for people again,” replies Matt.

  Shaun says, “Matt and I will go check on Matt’s parent’s house and Ryan’s dad’s house. They aren’t far from each other, and we need you two to guard the house.”

  Lisa replies, “You need to be safe out there. It’s better if you two go alone, and we hold down the house.”

  Lisa walks Shaun into the kitchen to speak to him, while Matt and Kylie have some words to each other.

  “I know you and Matt want to check on Ryan’s dad and Matt’s parents, but I don’t like you going out again. Kylie is a mess right now, so she can’t go back out to search for anyone,” says Lisa.

  Shaun replies, “I have to check on Ryan’s dad and need to help Matt check on his parents.”

  Shaun looks out the kitchen window and into the backyard. He can see Frank’s shelter.

  “If anything goes wrong around the house. You and Kylie go over to Frank’s shelter. He is setup pretty good there and I trust him, “says Shaun.

  Lisa replies, “I will. I have to calm Kylie down first though.”

  Shaun goes into the living room and gets Matt.

  “Let’s get our supplies and guns together before we head out again,” says Shaun.

  Matt and Shaun go to their cars and bring their gear, supplies, and weapons back into the living room.

  Matt puts down his shotgun, handgun, hockey pads, and aluminum baseball bat on the living room floor. Shaun grabs his shotgun, handgun, and machete from Lisa’s car and brings the items inside.

  The group looks at the items and doesn’t like what they see.

  “This is all we got to protect ourselves?” asks Kylie.

  “Yeah. Besides the knives that we have in the kitchen,” says Shaun.

  Kylie starts to pace around the living room. She doesn’t feel very secure knowing that they have such a small arsenal.

  “What about your neighbor? Doesn’t he have like a shelter that is loaded?” asks Kylie.

  Shaun looks at Matt with a concerned look and says, “Yeah, but that is his, and we can’t just take it from him. He is my friend and it wouldn’t be right to take his belongings.”

  “But we need it more than he does!” shouts Kylie.

  Matt shouts, “Kylie, stop thinking like that. I know what happened to your parents was terrible, but that won’t happen to us. We have to protect ourselves, but can’t turn into people who rob and hurt others.”

  Shaun says, “We will be safe if we stick to a good plan. I agree with you Kylie. We definitely need more weapons, supplies, and food, but we will not steal it from good people like Frank.”

  Kylie sits down on the sofa and says, “You are right. I’m sorry for even thinking like that. I’m just upset about losing my parents.”

  Shaun looks at a picture on the wall and gets an idea.

  “We have to stop at Phil’s house first. He has a gun safe that has several guns in it. I know his combination to the safe, as I have my rifle in the safe as well, says Shaun.

  “Great idea!” says Matt.

  Shaun and Matt grab the weapons from the living room floor and get ready to head out to Phil’s house. As Matt picks up the shotgun from the floor, he looks at Kylie.

  Kylie looks sad sitting on the sofa with a glass of wine in her hand.

  Matt picks up the handgun and hands it to Kylie.

  He hands the handgun to Kylie and says, “We need to protect ourselves, and we can do that.”

  Kylie holds the handgun in her right hand and feels a sense of safety while holding the gun.

  Shaun picks up the handgun and tucks it into the back of his pants. He grabs the shotgun and puts i
t around his right shoulder.

  Lisa picks up the machete and says, “I’m keeping this in the house.”

  Shaun asks, “You sure you don’t want the handgun?”

  Lisa looks at Shaun and says, “The machete will be fine. Just bring me back a gun from Phil’s gun safe.”

  Shaun kisses Lisa on top of the head and says, “You got it. I know it he has at least two handguns in his safe.”

  Shaun and Matt finish getting ready and say goodbye to their wives.

  “I want you to keep this door locked. If anything happens or you get scared, you go straight over to Frank’s house, but only if it’s safe, and you get to the house safely,” says Shaun.

  Lisa replies, “We will. Kylie and I will stay in here and get help from Frank, if we need it.”

  Shaun finishes saying goodbye to Lisa and Kylie and exits the front door.

  “You driving bro?” asks Shaun as Matt and Shaun walk towards Matt’s car.

  Matt replies, “I guess so.”

  Shaun walks to his garage and opens it. He looks around for anything useful to bring on the trip. The garage is a mess but Shaun finds two empty gas containers and a hammer.

  Matt pops the trunk to his car and Shaun puts the hammer and gas containers in it. Lisa and Kylie look out the front window of the house as Shaun and Matt get into Matt’s car. Matt starts up the car, and he gives a goodbye honk as he drives down the street.

  Phil’s house is about 15 minutes from Shaun’s house. Phil and Shaun would hangout when they could, which would usually be at least once a month. Phil and Shaun have known each other since middle school and grew up playing baseball and all sorts of sports together. They have always had a good relationship and get along well with no drama.

  As Matt and Shaun are driving to Phil’s house, Matt can’t help but feel his parents aren’t going to be alive.

  Matt turns to Shaun and says, “The world is so messed up. I don’t know what I’ll do if my parents aren’t alive, or one is alive and the other is a zombie.”

  Shaun says, “You can’t worry about it now. We will know in a couple hours what is going on with them. Hopefully they are both okay at your family home, and we will find them alive and well.”

  Matt swerves to avoid a pile of abandoned cars. Matt has always been a speedy driver that can at times be reckless.

  Shaun continues to say, “No matter how we find your parents, I will help you with them. I just feel that they are alive though.”

  Matt feels better knowing that he has Shaun to help him with his parents and in this new world.

  Matt says, “Thanks man. I appreciate that.”

  Shaun and Matt pull into Phil’s neighborhood. The sign reads:

  Marino Estates

  Phil’s neighborhood is a well-sized neighborhood. It looks to be in somewhat decent shape, but is not zombie free by any means. As the guys drive down the neighborhood, the sounds of zombie groans and screams from people fill the air.

  Matt speeds through the community and makes a left onto Phil’s street. As Matt makes the turn, he runs right into a zombie that was walking down the middle of the road.

  Zombie guts fill the front windshield, from the zombie that was cut in half due to the impact of the car. Matt stops the car and turns on the windshield wipers.

  The windshield wipers only smear the blood and guts on the windshield. The windshield is a mix of windshield washer fluid and zombie blood. As the wipers go back and forth, the windshield gets more smeared with blood and guts.

  Matt pulls up to Phil’s house and parks the car in the street. Matt opens the driver side door and pukes onto the street. Shaun can’t help but to laugh at the sight of Matt puking.

  Shaun shouts, “Again with the puking bro?”

  Matt shouts back, “Shut up. You know I have a weak stomach.”

  Shaun replies, “Not me. I have an iron gut.”

  Matt pukes again on the street and says, “I’ll punch right in your iron gut.”

  Matt and Shaun exit Matt’s vehicle and examine the street and houses around Phil’s house. Matt grabs a hose that is sitting on the side of Phil’s two-car garage.

  While Matt is attending to his car, Shaun unlocks Phil’s front door with a spare key that Phil gave Shaun many years ago.

  Matt is cleaning off the zombie guts from his car windshield, a zombie tries to bite him on his left shoulder. Matt escapes from the zombie’s grip and starts to shoot the zombie in the face with the hose.

  Shaun sees what Matt is doing to the zombie and shouts, “I don’t think you can drown zombies bro.”

  Matt shouts, “Help me!”

  Shaun takes out his handgun and runs down to the street. He raises the handgun to shoulder level and pulls the trigger.

  Boom!

  The zombie falls to the street, zombie blood and brains are all over the street and Matt’s car hood now.

  Matt hoses down the zombie blood and brains. The dead zombie makes Matt puke again. Shaun grabs the hose from Matt, cleans up the puke and zombie blood.

  Shaun puts the hose back on the side of the garage and turns off the water. As he is doing this, Matt goes inside Phil’s house for a drink of water.

  Shaun takes one last look around the neighborhood and enters the house. As Shaun enters the house, he can’t help to think how empty it is.

  Shaun hasn’t been to Phil’s house since Phil and Amber divorced. The house is a lot different than the last time Shaun was there. The dining room is completely empty, the walls are bare, and the only thing in the house is a small sofa and flat screen television on the wall.

  It’s almost sad to see how empty the house is, and to know that Phil was going home to that emptiness every night.

  Matt is in the kitchen and drinking some water. Shaun searches around the house for anything that will be useful for them. Matt goes upstairs and finds that someone has been in the house.

  Matt goes into one of the spare bedrooms and finds it a mess.

  As he enters the room, he shouts, “Shaun, come up here. You have to see this.”

  Shaun runs up the stairs and finds Matt looking at Phil’s belongings scattered all over the floor. Drawers are ripped out of the closet and a dresser is pushed over and onto the floor.

  Shaun sees the mess and thinks that it either had to be Phil’s ex-wife or robbers. He immediately worries about the gun safe and exits the bedroom.

  The door to Phil’s bedroom is partially closed. Shaun pushes the door open and sees the gun safe in the corner of the bedroom. The safe is closed and in decent shape, but shows signs that someone was trying to get into it.

  Shaun examines the gun safe and sees that someone definitely tried to break into it and almost succeeded. The front is all scratched up and bashed in.

  Matt runs into the room and sees Shaun by the safe.

  “Is it okay?” asks Matt.

  “Yeah. It’s still locked, but someone sure tried to get it open,” says Shaun.

  As Shaun is about to open the gun safe, he hears someone open the front door to Phil’s house and then voices carry up the stairs.

  “The safe is upstairs in the master bedroom. You and Randy go work on getting it open,” shouts a woman.

  Shaun hears the men coming up the stairs. Matt turns towards the bedroom doorway and then looks at Shaun.

  Shaun and Matt aren’t sure what to do. They can’t decide between fighting or hiding, but hear then come up the stairs and down the hallway.

  Phil’s bedroom door is pushed open by the men.

  “You go work on the safe, and focus on joints on the front door. See if you can break them with the crowbar,” shouts a man.

  “I will, but how does Amber not know what the combination is,” shouts the other man.

  “I don’t know, but let’s get to work.”

  The men start to work on breaking into the gun safe. The have a battery powered grinder, crow bars, and hammers. They try to break the joints on the front door of the safe, but Phil’s safe isn
’t going down without a fight.

  Shaun and Matt listen to the men trying to break into the safe as they hide in the connecting master bathroom.

  Shaun whispers to Matt, “We need to take these guys out and get our guns.”

  Matt nods in agreement as he holds his shotgun up.

  A woman enters the room and shouts at the men as they aren’t working quickly enough for her liking.

  “What’s taking you guys so long? Hurry up!” shouts the woman.

  “We are trying the best that we can. We have the first joint almost broken,” replies one of the men.

  Shaun hears the woman’s voice and looks at Matt.

  “That sounds like Amber,” says Shaun.

  The men continue to work on the last joint of the safe. One men stands up and stretches his back. Shaun sees the man from the bathroom and starts to get nervous.

  Shaun looks at Matt and says, “We might have to kill these two guys and Amber.”

  Matt nervously replies, “Yeah. It’s either them or us.”

  “I’m going to take a piss,” shouts one of the men as the other man works on getting into the safe.

  The man who was working on the safe puts down his crow bar and hammer and picks up his grinder. He switches on the grinder and the loud motor turns on.

  The other man walks towards the bathroom and is met by Shaun. Shaun holds up his shotgun and points it at the man.

  Shaun shouts, “Put your hands up!”

  The man freezes in fear. The man shouts for help from his friend. His friend can’t hear the cry for help as the grinder wheel and motor are loud.

  Matt walks over to the man working on the safe and taps him on the shoulder. The man shrugs off the tap and won’t stop working on the safe.

  That pisses Matt off. Matt puts the shotgun into the back of the man. The man drops the grinder and puts his hands up. The room is silent and full of tension now.

  “You going to kill us guys?” asks one of the men.

  “Maybe!” shouts Shaun.

  Amber walks into the room and says, “Why did the work stop?”

  She sees Matt and Shaun and says, “What the hell is this? What are you two doing here?”

  Shaun says, “We are here for our guns and that’s it.”