Agreement

by Brian Grenda

  William steps into the storage shed, and a motion light turns on followed by several lights that illuminate the entire storage shed.

  Bruce walks in behind William and then Enrique.

  Enrique says, “Damn, you got a shit load of guns, explosives, ammo, and knives.”

  Bo walks into the storage shed and says, “That’s right. I have a couple guns for the zombie apocalypse. Grand pappy was a gun nut, and a doomsday prepper. He always knew something like a zombie apocalypse could happen, and he was right. God rest his soul.”

  Walter picks up a shotgun from a long rack of shotguns.

  “Good choice Walter. That’s a Remington. I love that gun,” says Bo.

  Enrique grabs a M16 rifle.

  Li and William pick up handguns, while Bruce isn’t sure about the guns.

  Bo sees that Bruce is lost when it comes to guns and walks over to him.

  “See anything you like Bruce?” asks Bo.

  Bruce replies, “I don’t know about guns, I like blades.”

  Bo grabs a thigh strap and a handgun and says, “Try this Bruce. I want you to have a gun for this trip. Blades might not cut it, for where we are going.”

  Bruce accepts the handgun and thigh strap from Bo.

  Bo says, “Alright everyone, let’s gear up and head out. I have to get my stuff from my house, and I’ll meet you by your truck.”

  Everyone exits the weapons storage shed.

  Bo locks the shed with a heavy-duty lock and goes back inside his house.

  William gathers his group together and says, “We are going to the zoo. We are looking for Bo’s brother Barrett. Downtown has been a trouble area for our patrols. There are likely tons of zombies and trouble waiting for us. Keep your eyes peeled, and be ready for anything.”

  Bo gets ready in his bedroom. He puts on a clean shirt, a pair of jeans, his black cowboy boots, and looks in a mirror that is attached to a wall.

  He reaches for a necklace that is sitting on a table next to the mirror.

  Bo looks down at the charm that is on the necklace and says, “Give me strength Lord. The strength of a tiger.”

  The charm on Bo’s necklace is of a round coin shaped donut red tiger eye amulet.

  Bo looks at another necklace he has on his dresser and says, “I wish you took your necklace Barrett. Your tiger eye might have helped you. I’m coming for ya brother. Hold on.”

  Bo puts on his black cowboy hat and turns towards his bed.

  Bo puts his gun holster around his waist and checks his two Browning handguns. He puts the handguns in their holsters and grabs some extra magazines of ammo for his handguns.

  Li walks over to a wooden fence that is holding several horses.

  Bruce comes over to Li and watches the horses with her.

  “How are you doing Bruce?” asks Li.

  Bruce replies, “I’m okay. I’m glad you came with us today Li.”

  “I couldn’t let you boys have all the fun now Bruce,” says Li.

  Bo locks the front door of his home and walks down the front porch steps.

  “Everyone ready?” asks Bo.

  William asks, “Yes, where are we going?”

  Bo replies, “We will take the highway into downtown Tampa and get as close as we can to the zoo. My brother’s name is Barrett. He has a blue truck, just like mine. His fiancé is a tall blonde named Darby. She works at the zoo. I’ll lead us downtown.”

  Bo opens the driver side door to his truck and checks the three guns attached above the back window on a gun rack. The three guns are a custom AR-15 rifle, M16 rifle, and a Remington shotgun.

  Bo starts up his truck engine.

  Bo’s truck is loud. It has a loud V8 engine and custom exhaust.

  Bo drives down the dirt road and towards the exit of his ranch.

  Bruce drives his truck onto the dirt road and follows behind Bo as they drive towards the exit.

  Enrique and Walter see the overgrown bushes and tree limps as Bruce drives towards the exit.

  Walter and Enrique duck down, and they avoid the tree limbs as Bruce exits the ranch.

  Bo and Bruce drive down the road and make their way to the highway.

  The highway has some clear lanes, but also has tons of debris, abandoned vehicles, dead bodies, and zombies.

  Bo comes up to an overturned tractor trailer and needs to make a sharp turn into the shoulder to avoid the road blockage.

  Bruce follows behind Bo, and they speed down the highway.

  Bo makes it to the highway exit that will lead them to the zoo. Bo takes the exit and gets off the highway. Bruce follows behind Bo, and they both exit the highway safely.

  As Bo gets off the highway, he notices a large wall of debris blocking the road.

  Bruce and William see the debris and aren’t sure how they can get around it.

  Bo tries to find a way around the debris, but it looks to be completely blocking any way into the zoo.

  A large herd of zombies is in the street where Bo is driving.

  Bo sees the herd and stops his truck suddenly.

  The sudden stopping of Bo doesn’t give Bruce enough time to stop safely.

  Bruce barely misses Bo’s truck, but he speeds by safely and drives directly into the zombie herd.

  Zombie’s get ripped in half, blood flies all over the truck windshield, and Bruce slams on the breaks.

  Enrique and Walter shout, “Back up Bruce! There are too many zombies back here!”

  Bruce puts his truck in reverse and tries to speed away from the zombie herd.

  Zombies reach for Walter and Enrique as the truck backs up out of danger.

  Bo drives forward and stops his truck.

  Bo grabs the M16 from his gun rack and exits his truck.

  Zombies are walking towards Bo, and Bo smiles.

  “It’s go time fellas,” says Bo.

  BRAKKA! BRAKKA!

  BRAKKA!

  Bo squeezes the trigger to his M16 and starts mowing down zombies.

  The zombies don’t stand a chance against Bo and his M16.

  Bo is quickly out of ammo to his M16, but killed numerous zombies with his gunfire.

  As Bo is walking towards his truck to get his AR-15 rifle, a group of zombies come from behind a car and lunge at him.

  Bo reaches for his handguns, but before he can take them out of their holsters, Bruce, Li, and Enrique kill the approaching zombies.

  “Thanks fellas,” says Bo.

  “We still got these zombies coming at us!” shouts Walter.

  The remaining twenty zombies make their way towards Walter and William.

  Walter fires a couple shotgun rounds into the zombies and takes down a group of approaching zombies.

  BOOM!

  BOOM!

  Bo, Bruce, Li, and Enrique run over to Walter and William.

  Bo points his AR-15 at the zombies and rips apart a large group of the approaching zombies with gunfire.

  Three zombies remain.

  “Save your ammunition Bo!” shouts William.

  Bo stops firing at the zombies.

  William, Li, and Bruce walk towards the three remaining zombies and kill them with three sword slashes to the skulls of the zombies.

  SVAASH!

  SVAASH!

  SVAASH!

  Bruce and Li walk through the pile of dead zombies, and stab the remaining zombies in the head to assure that they are dead.

  “All clear!” shouts Bruce.

  Bo looks around the area and sees that they killed all the zombies in the surrounding area, and that the street is clear.

  “Who built this wall?” asks Enrique.

  William replies, “I don’t know Enrique. Whoever built it though, probably doesn’t want anyone or anything getting in or out.”

  Suddenly, a loud lion roar draws the attention of Bo, William, Bruce, and the rest of the group.

  ROAR!

  The roar of the lion came from inside the wall of debris, and is far away from the group.

>   Bo looks towards the direction of the roar and sees a truck in the distance.

  Bo starts running towards the blue truck.

  “Bo! Wait for us!” shouts William.

  Bo makes it to the truck and sees that it looks like Barrett’s truck. Bo looks at the front grill of the truck and sees that the truck has steer antlers like Bo has on his truck.

  William sees the blue truck and asks, “Is this your brother’s truck Bo?”

  Bo looks inside the truck and then turns towards William.

  “Yes, this is my brother’s truck. He’s not here, and his guns are gone. He has to be alive,” says Bo.

  Bo looks at the huge wall of debris and isn’t sure where his brother is.

  William looks at Bo and asks, “What do we do now?”

  “We have to find a way around this huge wall, and get into the zoo. My brother must be in the zoo. I just don’t know how he got in through this huge wall,” says Bo as he stares at the huge wall outside of the zoo.

  CHAPTER 8

  DID HE DELIVER?

  “What are we going to do if Jacob doesn’t deliver the badges or goes against the agreement?” asks Shaun.

  “We kill him. If he goes against his word and our agreement, then we kill Jacob the next time we see him.”

  “Well, it’s been several days since you made the agreement with Jacob. How much time do you want to give him?” asks Matt.

  Shaun, Matt, Phil, and I are talking in Bobby G’s driveway. We are standing in the shade by the huge oak tree that is in Bobby G’s front yard.

  I look up at the oak tree and see a bullet stuck in the tree.

  I climb up the tree and the guys wonder what I am doing.

  “What are you doing, Ryan?” asks Shaun.

  I take out my knife and cut out the bullet from the tree. The bullet is most likely from when the guys and Bobby G saved my life when I was trapped in the tree surrounded by zombies.

  I jump down from the tree and show them the bullet I just took out of the tree.

  “Who shot this bullet? They were way off!”

  “Probably one of the girls. Either Kylie or Lisa,” says Shaun.

  “The girls might have been aiming for you Ryan,” jokes Phil.

  “Probably.”

  We all laugh at the joke and remember that day when I almost died by the zombies that invaded the neighborhood.

  “I almost died that day. I almost died several times at the hands of people and zombies. I’m done with almost dying.”

  I look at the guys and see that they remember that day when they saved my life.

  “I’m done with almost dying. Either, I’m going to die or live. No more in between. The agreement with Jacob will kill me or make me survive.”

  “How can you trust Jacob though?” asks Phil.

  “How can we not? Jacob is a threat, and a big threat. I’d rather work with him than against him. People need to work together to survive. We need to take these zombies out and claim this world for the living.”

  Shaun says, “I see your point, but I don’t trust Jacob, and I never will.”

  “Good. Don’t trust him, but don’t let him know that. We have to look out for ourselves and our families. It’s us first and foremost.”

  “Then why keep Jacob alive?” asks Phil.

  “TJ really sees value in these orange badges that Jacob supposedly has.”

  I take out my orange badge and inspect the badge carefully.

  Matt grabs the badge from my hands and jokes, “Well, now I survive. Screw you guys.”

  Shaun punches Matt in the stomach and grabs the orange badge from Matt’s right hand.

  Shaun hands the badge to me and says, “We all survive, or we all die. It’s not everyone for themselves, Matt. “

  “You know what I have been wondering?” asks Phil.

  “Why you aren’t taller?” jokes Matt.

  “No! Seriously though, I have been wondering where are all the zombies at around here. We haven’t had a huge outbreak or herd of them for a while. Did we really clear out most of the zombies around the area already?” asks Phil.

  “Why did you just ask that Phil? Why put that question out into the universe! You know we are going to have a zombie problem in the future now,” says Shaun.

  I think about what Phil just said and start to think about the lack of a zombie problem around here. Did we clear out most of the zombies in the area, or are they trapped and waiting to find their way to us?

  Bobby G comes out of his house and walks over to us.

  “What’s up guys?” shouts Bobby G, as he starts walking over to us.

  “Hey Bobby G!” replies Shaun, Matt, and Phil.

  “How are you feeling dad?”

  Bobby G replies, “I’m doing pretty good. Those anti-inflammatories and pain meds are really helping. Do you have any more of them?”

  “Unfortunately, I do not. We have used up a lot of the medications and prescriptions. We have certain drugs that most of the people are allergic to, but we will need to do another medication run soon.”

  “What do we need? We can go right now for meds and prescriptions,” says Shaun.

  “I have a list of stuff Nicole needs for the babies, and that we could use around the neighborhood,” says Matt.

  “Great, go get the list and bring it here. I don’t want to miss Jacob if he comes today, so I can’t go on the run.”

  “You really holding out for that guy Jacob. Don’t worry, Matt, Shaun, and I can go on the run. I remember seeing two drugstores down the street from here. We can start there and hopefully find some items on the list,” says Phil.

  Shaun heads into his house, gets his gear, and weapons ready for the medication run.

  Phil looks at Bobby G and asks, “Can we use your SUV Bob? I’m very low on gas.”

  Bobby G says, “Sure, no problem. Let me get the keys from inside for ya.”

  Matt comes walking over to Phil and me with his list.

  “Let me see that thing,” says Phil as he grabs the list out of Matt’s hand.

  Phil examines the list and starts to laugh.

  “Pregnancy tests? What do you need one of those for?” asks Phil.

  Matt and I look at Phil with a disappointed facial expression.

  Phil looks at us and says, “Oh, right. I’ll be sure to pick up a couple.”

  Matt says, “I will find them myself. We have a lot of the essentials. Like water and non-perishable food, but we need a lot of womanly products and things like that.”

  Phil hands me the list, and I see that we need a lot more things added to the list.

  “I want to add more things to the list, but I don’t have a pen. Let’s go inside Bobby G’s house, and I’ll add to the list.”

  Matt, Phil, and I enter Bobby G’s house.

  “Where are those keys?” shouts Bobby G.

  I grab a pen that is sitting on the kitchen countertop and start adding items to the list.

  “Where was the last place you had them Bob?” asks Matt.

  “I really don’t know. They could be in my car for all I know,” says Bobby G.

  Phil exits Bobby G’s house through the front door.

  “Here, I added some more supplies that we need. Certain medications that we don’t have at the Big Club and specific prescriptions that we may need. We also need gas, car batteries, fuel additives, oil, and really everything from an automotive store.”

  “Where is the closest automotive store?” asks Matt.

  “Right down the street from the two drugstores, actually.”

  Phil walks into Bobby G’s house with Shaun.

  “I found your keys Bob. They were in your SUV,” says Phil.

  “Oh, good. I had no clue where they were. You guys should take the gas containers in my shed also. We have to stock up on gasoline while we can,” says Bobby G.

  “What we need are a couple of electric cars and trucks. Those would cut down our need for gasoline big time,” says Phil.

/>   I walk outside to Bobby G’s shed with Shaun, and we gather up the gas cans from Bobby G’s shed.

  While we are getting the gas cans from the shed, Shaun thinks it’s a good time to talk to me.

  “How you doing Ryan?” asks Shaun.

  I grab the last two gas cans from inside the shed.

  “I’m okay Shaun. I just wish we were safe and secure here, and no one knew about this place.”

  Shaun replies, “Me too, but people will always know about this place and want what we have.”

  Shaun and I grab the gas cans and exit Bobby G’s backyard.

  We walk to Bobby G’s SUV.

  “How’s your head though Ryan? Your mind okay with what happened with Joseph and Jacob?” asks Shaun.

  I put the gas cans down and open Bobby G’s SUV trunk.

  “I’m okay. I’m hanging in there. I never killed a living person before. Zombies are a different thing, but killing Joseph will probably stay with me forever. I’m not sure the blood will ever come off my hands.”

  “You can’t let it hold you down though, Ry. We all have blood on our hands. You like how I positioned Joseph’s head under the sheet?” asks Shaun.

  I put the gas cans in the back of Bobby G’s SUV and close the trunk door.

  “Yeah, but it almost messed me up when I was talking with Jacob.”

  Phil and Matt meet Shaun and I next to Bobby G’s SUV.

  Shaun asks, “What vehicles are we taking?”

  Matt says, “We can take my car and Bobby G’s SUV.”

  Phil says, “Good idea. I have to go gear up for the run and get some extra bags for the supplies we hopefully find.”

  Matt goes to his house, and Phil goes into my house.

  “You’ll probably have to siphon some gas from the abandoned cars, as the gas station pumps won’t work now.”

  Shaun says, “I have a hose we can use for the siphoning of gas. I had to do it back home in North Carolina.”

  I walk with Shaun over to his driveway.

  “You miss back home? North Carolina was a good place to you guys.”

  Shaun replies, “Yeah. I miss it. I miss my house and my family. Don’t miss my job or my boss. I just wonder how the house is holding up and what will happen to it. Especially, how my neighbor is holding up in his bomb shelter.”

  “Maybe one day, you’ll go back home. Your house will be standing, just how you left it.”