Fight 4 Us (Book 6): Keeper

by Grenda, Brian

  “I think we have to push one of the cars out of the road.”

  Shaun and I exit my SUV and look around the area.

  I grab my katana from the backseat and Shaun takes his rifle.

  I step towards one of the cars and hear several zombies moaning and groaning.

  Shaun looks around and doesn’t see any zombies.

  I hear the zombies making noises but don’t see any.

  I walk towards the side of the road and I see a large open canal.

  “Damn. Shaun, come look at this.”

  Shaun walks over to my location at the canal and says, “Shit. There must be 30 zombies down there.”

  Along the side of the street is a canal that is used for water storage and designed to help move water away from the street and homes.

  The canal is filled with dirty gross water and tons of zombies. The zombies are stuck in the dirty water and can’t get out.

  “Freeze! Don’t you two assholes move!” shouts a man.

  Two men come around the two parked cars in the middle of the road and walk towards Shaun and me.

  Shaun and I look at the two men.

  “We mean no harm gentlemen.”

  “Shut up! Put your hands up!” shouts one of the men.

  The two men are dirty and look to have not showered in weeks.

  “Give me your weapons!” shouts the man as he has his pistol pointed at Shaun.

  The other man is holding a small knife.

  I put my hands above my head.

  Shaun is just staring at the man that has the pistol pointed at him.

  “Lower your gun sir. We mean no harm. We will give you whatever you want.”

  “I said shut up! Fred go take his weapons!” shouts the man with the gun in his hand.

  Fred looks at the man and asks, “You sure Lester?”

  Lester looks at Fred and shouts, “Damn it Fred!”

  Shaun sees that the two men aren’t looking at us anymore and Shaun decides to lunge towards Lester.

  Lester tries to move out of the way, but he is pushed down by Shaun.

  Lester drops his pistol on the ground.

  The pistol lands on the street in front of me.

  Fred sees the pistol on the ground and tries to reach for it.

  I kick the pistol into the canal.

  Fred shouts, “Damn it! That thing wasn’t even loaded!”

  I point my handgun at Fred, and Fred freezes in place.

  “I’m sorry mister. Truly I am,” says Fred.

  Shaun grabs Lester’s hands and puts them behind Lester’s back as Shaun has Lester face down on the street.

  Lester moans in pain as Shaun forcefully pulls Lester’s arms behind his back.

  “Are those your cars in the road? Is that a setup to stop people?”

  Fred says, “They are our cars. We put them in the road to cause a roadblock.”

  “Give me the keys!”

  Fred says, “Lester has the keys.”

  Shaun searches Lester and finds a set of car keys.

  “What are we going to do with these two Ry?” asks Shaun.

  “I don’t know. We can’t just let them go.”

  Shaun helps Lester up from the ground.

  “Does he have any weapons on him Shaun?”

  Shaun says, “Lester is clean.”

  Fred still has his small knife in his left hand.

  “Put the knife away Fred!”

  Lester shouts, “Don’t listen to him Fred! He’s going to kill you! You have to do something!”

  Fred isn’t sure what to do.

  Fred looks at me and then back at Lester.

  Lester shouts, “Kill him Fred, before he kills you!”

  Fred nods his head at Lester and then turns at me.

  “Don’t do it Fred! Don’t come at me!”

  Fred screams and runs towards me with his small knife raised at me.

  Fred runs at me but trips on something in the road and starts to fall towards me.

  I move out of the way as Fred is falling towards me.

  Fred’s momentum carries him right into the zombie filled canal.

  SPLASH!

  Fred falls face first into the dirty zombie water.

  The zombies tear into Fred.

  Fred screams as a zombie bites into his face.

  AHHH!

  Lester shouts, “You killed my brother!”

  Lester escapes from Shaun’s grip and runs towards me.

  Lester trips over the same object that Fred did, and he falls into the zombie filled canal.

  SPLASH!

  Zombies bite into Lester’s arms, and he screams in pain.

  AHHHHH!

  Shaun walks over to me and we both look at the zombies as they devour Fred and Lester.

  “What a couple of morons!” shouts Shaun.

  Shaun starts one of the cars with the keys he got from Lester and moves the car out of the road.

  I look around and see that the storm did some damage to several houses. Some of the homes have holes in their roofs and large tree branches in their windows.

  Shaun walks back to my SUV and says, “All clear.”

  I show Shaun the damage from the storm and he is shocked.

  “We were really lucky. I’m glad TJ told us about the storm.”

  Shaun and I get back into my SUV and I drive towards the Tampa solid waste dump.

  I arrive at the solid waste dump main entrance and I see several garbage trucks inside the fence of the dump.

  The main gate has some thick chain and a lock on it.

  Shaun looks at the lock and says, “I have my bolt cutters in my bag.”

  Shaun reaches into the backseat and gets his bolt cutters from his bag.”

  Shaun exits my SUV and cuts the chain from the gate.

  As I watch Shaun cut off the chain and lock, I hear sounds coming from the far end of the dump.

  Shaun pushes open the gate and gets back in my SUV.

  “You hear that?”

  Shaun says, “I heard sounds of machines and people in the distance but nothing close to the garbage trucks here.”

  I drive into the parking lot of the city dump and see several garbage trucks.

  “Any one of these should do nicely.”

  “Where are we going to get keys for the trucks though?” asks Shaun.

  I look around the dump complex from inside my SUV and see that there is a main office building.

  I point to the main office building and say, “That’s probably our best bet to find some keys.”

  Shaun and I exit my SUV and gear up.

  I hear voices and noises of machines at the far end of the dump.

  Shaun shouts, “Are people living in the dump? That’s disgusting!”

  “I don’t want to find out. Let’s get these truck keys and get out of here.”

  Shaun kicks open the door to the office building and we enter the office building.

  The office building is empty.

  Shaun and I search the entire office building and find a closed office door.

  I knock on the door and hear something move inside the office.

  KNOCK!

  I knock on the door again and hear something slap the door.

  A zombie groan is heard as I put my ear next to the closed door.

  “I think it’s only one zombie in there.”

  Shaun says, “Okay. I’ll open the door. You have your gun ready.”

  Shaun asks, “Ready?”

  I point my gun at the door and nod my head.

  Shaun opens the door.

  The door knocks the zombie down.

  I walk towards the zombie and see that he is trapped on the ground.

  I put my gun away and grab my katana.

  SHICK!

  I stab the zombie in his head and remove my katana from his skull.

  I shake the blood off my katana and put it back in my red scabbard.

  Shaun walks into the office.

  I look at a p
icture on the wall and see several awards next to the picture.

  “John Barr. Manager of the year.”

  Shaun finds several garbage truck keys and leaves the room.

  I see bottles of water, pills, drugs, and tons of fast food wrappers all over the floor.

  I look down at the zombie I just killed and say, “I’m sorry Mr. Barr. You are in a better place now.”

  I walk out of the office building and see Shaun enter a garbage truck.

  I hear music playing and cheering coming from the back of the trash dump.

  The office building is far away from the noise and music.

  Shaun starts up a garbage truck and cheers.

  “We got it! We got this!” shouts Shaun.

  I run over to Shaun and ask, “Awesome, how much gas you got in there?”

  Shaun checks the gauge on the dashboard and says, “Three quarters of a tank. We are good. I’ll meet you back home.”

  Shaun closes the driver side door and drives out of the parking lot.

  I run back to my SUV and exit the parking lot.

  As I drive home from the solid waste dump, I take in the sights of the streets, trees, lawns, homes, and buildings.

  I see that we need to clear out the streets again as there are a lot more zombies out now.

  I catch up to Shaun who is speeding down the road in the garbage truck.

  We are coming up on the street where we met Lester and Fred.

  Shaun sees the car still partially blocking part of the street and decides to move it out of the way with the garbage truck.

  I see Shaun speed up as he approaches the car in the road.

  Shaun drives right into the car and the car flies out of the road and into a wooden fence of someone’s backyard.

  Shaun keeps driving and the road is clear now.

  I shake my head side to side and smile.

  “That guy is crazy,” I say to myself.

  Shaun and I make it back to the South entrance of Citrus Oaks and we drive to our homes.

  I pull my SUV into my driveway and Shaun parks the garbage truck in front of his house.

  Phil, Matt, Bobby G, and Jon walk over to Shaun and the garbage truck.

  Shaun shouts, “Let’s clean up!”

  I grab my gloves and I start throwing my trash into the garbage truck.

  We load the garbage truck up and Shaun controls the garbage truck to compact all the trash that we put in it.

  “Let’s just put the smelly gross stuff in the truck for right now and we can burn the wood and other debris later!”

  The loud motor of the garbage truck is heard as Shaun crushes some trash that we put in the back of the garbage truck.

  Several hours go by and we clear out all of the smelly gross trash that needed to leave our neighborhood.

  Jon says, “We made several piles of stuff to burn and other trash that we don’t want to burn. I don’t want to burn the plastic, that may have harmful chemicals in it.”

  “Good thinking Jon.”

  Shaun asks, “I think the truck is full now. Where should we dump this thing?”

  Phil jokes, “How about Jacob’s front yard?”

  I laugh at Phil’s joke, but I don’t know where to dump the trash.

  Shaun says, “I’ll find a place to empty this truck.”

  Phil says, “I’ll come with you.”

  Shaun and Phil get into the garbage truck and exit the neighborhood.

  The neighborhood looks and smells much better after we loaded up the garbage truck with the debris and trash that was piling up.

  I guess services like trash pickup are valued when you don’t have them anymore. I’m just glad we were able to find a garbage truck and clean up our neighborhood again.

  Lauren, Jerri-Lynn, and Kiersten walk over to me. “How’s everything going you three?”

  Jerri-Lynn says, “Great. Everything is great. I’m just lucky we found Shaun before the storm came. We went to our house to see how it made out after the storm blew by and the whole roof is gone.”

  “Really? I’m glad you weren’t in it then.”

  “Me too. That house was only temporary anyway. It was nothing great for me, my sister, and my daughter,” says Jerri-Lynn.

  Kiersten says, “Thank you for letting us stay here. I don’t know what we would do without this place.”

  “You are welcome Kiersten. You and your mom are nice people. I’m glad we can help.”

  Lauren says, “Kiersten and Jerri-Lynn did well with the bow and arrow training today. They even showed me how to use a knife properly.”

  “That’s great. We have to learn all the skills that we can.”

  Jerri-Lynn looks at me and asks, “Do you still have your owl patch?”

  “I sure do. I have it in my SUV.”

  Kiersten looks at Jerri-Lynn and smiles.

  “I know it sounds silly, but the owl patches mean a lot to me. The owl represents so many different things and I like to think of the owl as a protector and a symbol of wisdom and knowledge,” says Jerri-Lynn.

  Lauren asks, “Do you have any more owl patches?”

  Jerri-Lynn says, “I do not, but I’m trying to make some more for everyone.”

  “Where is Sam?”

  Kiersten says, “She went out with Andre. They went out looking for a new home for us and some more food for us.”

  I look at Lauren and say, “Take Jerri-Lynn and Kiersten to the food house. Let them get whatever they want.”

  Kiersten smiles.

  Jerri-Lynn says, “Thank you, Ryan. You are too kind.”

  Lauren takes Kiersten and Jerri-Lynn to one of our food storage homes in the neighborhood.

  Jon comes over to me and asks, “When are you going to World of Trade again?”

  “Pretty soon. Probably tomorrow or the next day. I know Shaun is trying to get back to that place.”

  “Great. I want to come this time. I wanted to go last time, but the whole thing with Eric happened,” says Jon.

  “I hope Eric is doing okay. I know that Channelside area can flood easily. I hope they are doing okay after the storm.”

  “I hope so too. Let me know when you are going to World of Trade. I want to get some things for Kelly and myself,” says Jon.

  “I will. Plan on going tomorrow or the next day. I will come get you personally when we are leaving for World of Trade.”

  CHAPTER 14

  TRADE MASTER

  “You ready to go Jon?”

  Jon says, “Yeah. Give me a second. I’m looking for my list.”

  Kelly laughs and says, “Jon and his lists. He probably has a list of his lists.”

  “How you doing Kelly?”

  Kelly replies, “I’m doing well. Just a little bored. No one tells you how boring the end of the world is. I wish I had better books.”

  “I’ll see what I can do about the book situation. I’m thinking about starting a library.”

  “Good idea. I’ll manage the library and keep an inventory of everything we have,” says Kelly.

  “That would really help us out. It’s important to know what we have around here and what we need to search for.”

  “I’ll start today in the food supply houses and the medical house. I’ll keep track of everything we have,” says Kelly.

  Jon exits from his bedroom and says, “I got my list. I’m ready to go.”

  Jon kisses Kelly goodbye.

  I say goodbye to Kelly and exit Jon’s house with Jon.

  “What’s on your list bro?”

  Jon and I walk down the street and towards my house.

  “We need some supplies. I would like to get a couple things specific for Kelly. Kelly has been pretty down lately, and I want to get her some things to help cheer her up,” says Jon.

  Jon and I make it to my house and my SUV.

  Lauren is standing with Matt and Shaun next to my SUV.

  “You ready guys?”

  “Yeah. Just waiting on you two,” says Matt.


  I kiss Lauren and say goodbye.

  Jon, Matt, and Shaun enter my SUV.

  I walk to my driver side door and see Phil standing with Nicole outside of Matt’s house.

  I wave goodbye to Nicole and Phil.

  Phil is holding Mason and Nicole is holding Mia.

  Mia and Mason are getting big and are doing well.

  I start up my SUV and look back at Shaun and Matt in the backseat of my SUV.

  “We got our stuff to trade?”

  “Yeah. I loaded up all our stuff. Even the stuff Jon gave me yesterday. You got the cards to get us in?” asks Shaun.

  “Yeah. I got them in my glove box.”

  I reverse out of my driveway and exit Citrus Oaks through the South entrance.

  “I hope that gun modification vendor is there. I brought two handguns and an assault rifle for them to modify,” says Shaun to Matt.

  Jon asks, “What’s World of Trade like? What should I expect?”

  Matt says, “You should expect a lot of people shouting, fighting, arguing, and craziness. Picture a crazy crowded Middle Eastern market.”

  Jon says, “Okay, I just hope they have some good stuff there.”

  “They should. Last time they had a whole bunch of different stuff. I don’t even think we saw half of the vendors last time.”

  “I wonder if we can get into level two today?” asks Matt.

  I arrive outside the South entrance of World of Trade.

  The South entrance at World of Trade is far less crowded this time as I drive by. Only a couple of people are trying to enter through the South entrance.

  I make a left hand turn onto the East entrance street at World of Trade and I’m met by an armed guard.

  “ID badge, Level two card, or other form of identification please,” says the armed guard.

  I hand the guard the Preferred Member East entrance cards that Jacob gave me last time we were at World of Trade.

  The guard scans the barcodes on the cards and gives them back to me.

  “Thank you. Have a good day,” says the guard.

  The East entrance gate opens, and I drive through the entrance.

  I drive into the East entrance parking lot.

  The parking lot is almost empty. There are only a handful of vehicles parked in spots.

  Shaun looks at all the empty parking spots and says, “This can’t be good. All these empty parking spots. I hope there are a lot of vendors still.”

  Three armed guards come over to my SUV as I park in a parking spot.