“See, the backyard is totally exposed. It’s just inviting anything to come in right now,” says Shaun.
The backyards of two homes are exposed. The wooden fences are down and open to the trees behind them. People and zombies can easily walk in through the opening.
“What can be done to close it off, even for just a temporary basis?”
Matt says, “We don’t have much right now, but we can patch up the broken fence and possibly cut down some of the trees in the back to make a blockade.”
“Sounds good Matt. Go get Carlos and get started on this immediately.”
Matt leaves Shaun and I and goes to find Carlos and get started.
I walk into the backyard and get a closer look at the fence opening and trees.
The wooden fence is rickety, old, and dilapidated. It all needs to be replaced, but we don’t have any spare fence lying around.
As I’m looking at the fence I see an even bigger hole in the fence next to the backyard Shaun and I are standing in.
So much fence needs to be replaced. I don’t know what to do about it.
“Damn. Look at this Shaun. We need so much fence back here. Where are we going to get that much fence?”
Shaun says, “What about the hardware store? We didn’t take any fence the last time we were there. It should be fully stocked.”
“That’s right. We need to go back to the hardware store. Let’s get Phil’s truck and get going.”
Shaun and I run back to Bobby G’s house and get the truck.
I reverse out of the driveway and drive over to Shaun’s house.
Shaun gets out and goes inside his house to get geared up for the trip.
Matt and Carlos come over to me in a truck and see what I’m doing.
Carlos asks, “What’s Up Ryan?”
“Shaun and I are making a quick trip to the hardware store to get some replacement fence to close up the fence damage at the North end of the neighborhood.”
Shaun comes running back to the truck and gets in.
“Carlos, I need you and Matt to start cutting down the trees behind the fence to make a blockade to prevent anything from getting in for now. Shaun and I will be back with the fencing in a little bit.”
Carlos and Matt drive to the North end of the neighborhood to begin their work as Shaun and I drive towards the South entrance of the neighborhood.
Phil, TJ, and Odin make their way to the local supermarket that Phil and I went to about a month ago.
Phil drives to the parking lot and it’s very quiet. A couple of abandoned cars are parked in the parking lot, four zombies are aimlessly walking towards the store, and the parking lot is full of trash, debris, and shopping carts.
Phil looks at TJ and says, “I’m going to drive around back, and we’ll try the supply room in the back of the supermarket.”
Phil drives around to the back alley behind the shopping center and sees the pile of decaying zombie bodies that remain from when Phil and I killed them before.
Phil drives through them with the SUV and the front-end plow pushes them out of the way.
Phil pulls up to the rear entrance of the supermarket and parks at a loading dock.
TJ gets out and opens the rear passenger door. Odin jumps out of the SUV and starts sniffing around the street.
Phil gets out and jumps up on to the loading dock.
The coast is clear of any danger at the rear loading dock.
Phil grabs one of the loading bay doors with both hands and pulls it open.
Phil looks into the back-storage room and shouts, “Anyone alive in here?”
No one answers and Phil enters.
Odin runs in behind Phil and TJ follows. The back-stock room hasn’t been touched since we left it.
Phil finds a shopping cart and starts loading it up with non-perishable food items. TJ grabs another cart and starts going through the food items stacked up in the backroom.
Odin runs towards the entrance to the supermarket but stops at the U-frame that is partially blocking the entrance to the supermarket.
Odin starts barking and wants to get into the supermarket.
TJ sees that Odin smells something and wants to get into the supermarket.
TJ says, “No Odin. Stay.”
Odin looks back at TJ and sits. Odin listens to TJ, but he can’t help himself about wanting to get into the supermarket.
A loud bang is heard in one of the aisles of the supermarket.
Odin stands up, wiggles past the U-frame and gets into the supermarket.
TJ shouts, “Odin! No!”
Phil finishes loading up his cart and runs over to TJ.
“What is it TJ?” asks Phil.
TJ replies, “Odin. He ran into the supermarket. We have to go get him.”
TJ leaves his cart, pushes the U-frame out of the way, and runs into the supermarket.
The supermarket is filled with zombies.
TJ shouts, “Odin, come here boy!”
Odin barks, but is at the far end of the supermarket.
Zombies start to make their way towards TJ. TJ takes out his handgun, but doesn’t fire.
Phil comes out the backroom and sees TJ run down an aisle.
Phil pushes over a bunch of zombies with his arms. Phil isn’t worried about getting bit as he has his body armor on.
Phil shouts, “TJ. You okay?”
TJ shouts, “I’m okay. Do you see Odin?”
Phil runs down a back long aisle of the store and shouts, “Odin. Here boy.”
Odin barks and Phil hears Odin running down an aisle.
Phil runs and shouts, “TJ. Odin is down aisle eleven.”
TJ and Phil get to aisle eleven and see a group of zombies eating something on the floor.
TJ shouts, “No!”
Phil and TJ run over to the pile of zombies. They can’t see what they are eating, so they start pulling off the zombies and throwing them off to the side.
TJ shoots a zombie in the head and Phil pulls off the last zombie.
Phil shoots a zombie that was about to attack TJ, while TJ looks at what the zombies were eating.
TJ smiles and shouts, “Odin! Where you at boy?”
The zombies where eating a body of an elderly white female.
A bark is heard behind TJ.
TJ turns around and sees Odin sitting with a zombie arm in his mouth and wagging his tail.
TJ says, “Drop it. Come here boy.”
Odin runs over to TJ, and TJ pets Odin on the head.
Phil says, “We need to go. Let’s get back to the backroom and home.”
TJ, Phil, and Odin dodge and kill zombies on their way through the supermarket and to the backroom.
They make it back safely, block the entrance with the U-frame and try to catch their breath.
Phil and TJ take their full shopping carts through the loading bay and to the SUV. They load up the SUV with as much food as they can, get in, and race back home to the neighborhood.
Shaun and I pull up to the hardware store intersection and see a group of men gathered at the hardware store parking lot.
There are seven men and two trucks. They are loading up their trucks and look to be planning something.
Shaun and I drive past the hardware store and park at the store across the street from the hardware store.
I park the truck where we can see the men, but are partially hidden from their line of sight.
Shaun looks at me and says, “They have to be part of The Conquerors. They might be getting ready to attack the neighborhood.”
I survey and examine the hardware store and don’t see anyone going in or out of the store, or on top of the roof. I see a large stack of wooden fence planks and support beams outside by the East entrance of the store.
I point to the East entrance and say, “Look there are the fencing materials we need. Once these guys leave, we will quickly get the materials and get back home.”
After impatiently waiting for five minutes, the guys
leave the parking lot, and I drive the truck over to the hardware store.
The parking lot is empty and showing no signs of anyone being at the hardware store.
I pull up to the wooden fence supplies and park. Shaun and I get out of the truck. Shaun goes over to fence materials, while I open the pickup truck rear hatch door.
Shaun grabs a bunch of wooden fence posts and loads them into the back of the truck. I help Shaun pickup and load several fence support posts. The store has tons of fencing materials for what we need to complete the repair job.
As Shaun and I are loading up the last group of fence posts. Two guys come running out of the store and start shouting at us.
“What do you think you are doing? Stop stealing our stuff!” shout the men.
I have my back to the men and say, “Give me one second and I’ll tell you.”
One of the men comes over to me and points his gun into my right shoulder blade.
The other man shouts for Shaun to get down from the truck bed.
The man shouts, “You can’t take these supplies. These supplies belong to us.”
“Is that right?” I reply.
Shaun jumps down from the truck bed and the man points his gun at Shaun’s face.
I still have my back to the man and that angers the man.
The man says, “Turn around.”
“Okay.”
I quickly turn around. Push the gun way with my right hand and punch the man in the face with a left hook.
The other man turns away from Shaun as I punch the other man in the face.
Shaun grabs the man, kicks him in the stomach, and pulls the gun from his hands as the man falls to the ground.
The men try to get up from the ground, but Shaun and I grab the guns and point them at the men.
One of the men shouts, “You don’t know who you are messing with.”
“Yeah. Yeah. We been through this before. The Conquerors, right?”
The man is shocked that I knew that and says, “Yeah. You’ve heard of us before.”
I fire my gun to the right of his head.
Boom!
The men scream in fear.
“Yeah. We know all about you. What is going on here? Are you guys going to attack a neighborhood?”
One of the men says, “We ain’t telling you crap.”
“I’m not playing with you guys. I will kill you both. I don’t care about your lives.”
“Yeah, right. You don’t have it in you. I can see it in your face,” shouts the man I punched.
I put the gun between his eyes and ask, “What do you think happened to your friends that use to run this store?”
The man asks, “That was you guys?”
“Well then you are all dead then. Joseph won’t stand for you killing his men,” says the man.
The other man says, “They are probably on their way to kill your friends and family right now.”
“You are right. We need to get back.”
I lower the gun from the man’s face and point it at his right thigh.
“You are right about me not wanting to kill people, but I have no problem doing this.”
Boom! Boom!
I shoot the man in both thighs.
The man screams in pain. He grabs both thighs and his hands become covered in blood.
The man starts to plead for his life, but I know that we can’t keep these guys alive.
I look at the man and ask, “Is anyone else in the store?”
The man says, “No. The rest left to go attack a neighborhood or something.”
I look at Shaun and say, “Let’s get going. We need to get back.”
Shaun asks, “What should we do about this guy?”
“He can’t live.”
Shaun nods in agreement and shoots the man in the head.
Zombies start walking towards the hardware store entrance. They must have been attracted to the gunfire.
Shaun and I get into the truck, and I start to drive away from the store.
I look into the rear-view mirror and see the two men become engulfed by several zombies.
I make a right hand turn out of the hardware store parking lot and hear the man scream as zombies devour every inch of his body.
As I’m speeding home from the hardware store, Shaun says, “We need to hurry up and get back home. Who knows what these moron Conquerors are planning.”
I’m worried about the safety of the neighborhood and quickly get to the South entrance.
Tony opens the gate and I drive through the gate.
I stop in the street, where Chris is standing on the sidewalk and ask, “What is going on? Any signs of The Conquerors?”
Chris says, “No sign of them. It’s been quiet. No zombies or anything around here.”
“Thank you, Chris. Keep an eye out though.”
I drive back towards the North end of the neighborhood and find Matt and Carlos hard at work. I reverse into the driveway of the house that we need to work on.
Shaun and I exit the truck and start unloading the fencing materials.
Crash!
Carlos cuts down a big palm tree and it lands next to several other palm trees that he cut down already.
Shaun and I carry the fencing materials to the backyard and make a pile for Carlos and his workers to use.
Matt walks over to me and says, “Man, that is a lot of fencing. That should be a more then enough to repair the holes in the fence back here.”
As I’m walking back to the truck with Shaun, I hear a loud siren.
It sounds like it’s coming from the East section of the neighborhood. I look over at where the sound is coming from. I don’t see anything, but I can hear the siren coming from behind the homes.
The siren stops.
I look at Shaun and say, “Well, that was weird.”
Shaun replies, “I hope it wasn’t….”
Boom!
A huge explosion goes off in the Eastern section of the neighborhood.
Boom!
Another huge explosion goes off in the Southern section of the neighborhood, near Shaun’s house.
Smoke fills the air, people in the neighborhood are coming out of their homes, the neighborhood starts to become chaotic and people aren’t sure what to do.
Matt and Carlos come running over to Shaun and me.
Matt says, “It has to be them, right?”
“Yeah. Let’s go check it out. We can come back to this later. We need to check out what’s up with those explosions.”
CHAPTER 12
NEIGHBORHOOD CHAOS
“Take me to my house! That explosion had to be right near my house,” shouts Shaun as I’m driving down the neighborhood.
I turn left and see a bunch of zombies come stumbling out of the backyard of the house next to Shaun’s.
I stop the truck in front of my house and say, “You take the truck I need to get into my house and get my gear.”
I hop out of the truck and run into my house. Shaun jumps into the driver seat and drives over to his house.
As Shaun is pulling into his driveway, he runs over three zombies.
I enter my house run into my bedroom and gear up for the chaos that is going on in the neighborhood.
Lauren comes running into the bedroom and asks, “Is this the new group doing this? What are we going to do?”
“Yeah, it’s the new group. You are going to stay in here and protect yourself. You have a handgun, if you need it.”
I kiss Lauren and say, “I have to get out there and protect the neighborhood. Lock the door behind me.”
I exit my house through the front door and Lauren locks the door behind me. I grab my katana and run over to my dad’s house.
I slice into several zombies as I make my way over to my dad’s front door.
I open the front door and run inside. I lock the door behind me. As I walk into the house, I hear a bunch of commotion in the back bedroom.
I shout, “Dad. You okay in here?�
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I hear a man scream in the back bedroom, and I immediately run towards it.
I open the back-bedroom door and find a man on top of my father. The man is choking my father.
The man reaches for the gun that is tucked into the back of his pants with one hand while choking my father with the other.
I run over to the man, and jab my katana into the man’s skull.
The man drops the gun and releases his grip around Bobby G’s neck.
I push the man off Bobby G and help my dad off from the floor.
“Thank you, son,” says Bobby G.
“What happened?”
This guy came through the front door, the explosions went off, and then I found myself fighting this guy,” says Bobby G.
“You okay?”
Bobby G replies, “Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Good. Well I need ya out there. Put on your bulletproof vest and gear up. I’ll meet you outside.”
I hear people scream, guns firing, zombies moaning and groaning, and people fighting. The neighborhood is under attack and very chaotic.
Zombies are at the front door of Bobby G’s house now. I hear them banging on the front door and see more of them coming towards the house as I look out the window.
I shout, “I’m going out through the backyard. Don’t use the front door. Be careful out there.”
Bobby G shouts, “You too.”
I exit the house through the sliding glass door, and go out onto the street through the white privacy gate fence door.
The streets are filling up with zombies. I try to examine what is going on and see how to stop the chaos.
Everything is happening so fast; my adrenaline is pumping and I’m not thinking clearly.
I kill a zombie with my katana, and run towards Shaun’s house.
As I make it to Shaun’s house, I see that the back fence of the house next to Shaun’s is blown apart. There is a gaping hole in the fence now.
The fence is wide open and not blocking anything from getting in. A large group of zombies is making their way through the hole and into the neighborhood.
Shaun comes running out of his house with a baseball bat, a shotgun, and a handgun.
I make my way over to Shaun.
Shaun kills two zombies with the baseball bat.
I point to his neighbor’s house and say, “We need to block the zombies from getting in.”
Fight 4 Us: (Book 3): Refuge Page 12
