Kelly drives down my street and stops at the edge of my driveway.
Jon gets out of Kelly’s car with his shield, a gun, and Silencer.
Shaun, Matt, Phil, and I watch as Jon kisses Kelly goodbye.
Kelly drives towards Shaun’s house and turns around in the cul-de-sac.
We all wave bye to Kelly as she drives by my house and towards the back of the neighborhood.
“Mom drop ya off at the front door today? Is it the first day of school for little Jon?” jokes Matt.
Jon says, “Shut up Matt. Kelly just wanted to say goodbye to me before I left.”
Jon grabs his crotch and shouts, “I’ll show ya little Jon right here.”
We all laugh at Jon’s joke.
“Alright guys. We are all ready to go. Just waiting on Bobby G now.”
“Oh shit, Bobby G is coming. Nice. Let’s roll out the red carpet. We have a celebrity coming with us,” jokes Matt.
I look at Matt and say, “You got jokes today Matt. It’s good to see you being the pain in the ass I know and love.”
Matt and Shaun place some of their gear in Phil’s SUV.
“Make sure you got everything. When Bobby G is ready, we are leaving.”
Matt checks his bag and sees that he forgot something.
“I’ll be right back,” says Matt.
Shaun shouts, “Get your shit together bro!”
Bobby G walks out of his house and towards Phil’s SUV.
I start clapping for Bobby G, and the guys start clapping as well.
Bobby G smiles and asks, “What’s the applause for?”
I joke, “Because we don’t have to fear, Bobby G is here.”
Bobby G replies, “Always remember that. Never fear Bobby G is here.”
“Sounds good Bob. Put your stuff in the SUV and let’s get going.”
Matt runs back to my SUV, and he is ready.
Jon, Matt, and I get into my SUV.
Phil, Shaun, and Bobby G get into Phil’s SUV.
I reverse out of my driveway and see Nicole, Lauren, Kylie, and Lisa standing in Matt’s driveway.
I wave goodbye to the ladies and start my drive towards Davis Island.
Phil reverses out of Bobby G’s driveway, exits Citrus Oaks, and follows behind me.
As I’m driving down the road, I see two large gas trucks at a gas station.
I slow down and look at the trucks.
Jon looks at the name on the side of the gas truck and says, “S. Willis drillers.”
“I wonder what they are doing at the gas station?” asks Matt.
I stop outside of the gas station and see several large gentlemen working around the gas station pumps.
I grab my walkie-talkie and ask, “You seeing this Phil?”
Phil replies through the walkie-talkie, “Yeah. I think they are getting the gas from the tanks in the ground.”
I look at the workers at the gas station and see a very large black man carrying a huge wrench over his right shoulder.
The gas trucks are very loud.
Jon rolls his window down and shouts, “Hey! What are you guys doing?”
The large black man looks at Jon and smiles.
The large black man walks over to Jon and says with a thick Southern accent, “We are drillin into the ground and gettin all the gasoline that is stuck down in the tanks.”
The large black man is intimidating to look at with his oversized muscles in a small white tank top, but he sounds like a gentle soft spoken nice man with his Southern accent.
A bald white guy in a polo shirt yells at the man that Jon is talking with.
“Duncan! We need your help!” shouts the bald white guy.
“Nice talkin wit cha, but I gotta get back to work. Have a good day. Stay safe,” says Duncan, before he gets back to work.
Jon looks at me and says, “That guy looked familiar.”
“I’m just glad he didn’t hit my car with his huge wrench. Did you see how big that thing was?”
I continue driving down the road and make it to the entrance of Davis Island.
There are a couple of zombies near the entrance but not nearly as many as we encountered the last time we were here.
I park my SUV, and Phil parks his SUV next to mine.
Jon, Matt, and I look at downtown Tampa, at the bay, and around the streets.
The streets around downtown Tampa have taken on a lot of water. The hurricane must have flooded most of the area around downtown Tampa.
Jon walks to the back of my SUV trunk, opens the trunk, and gets Silencer.
Jon decapitates the zombies that were aimlessly walking around the entrance of Davis Island.
I get out of my SUV and feel the warm humid air.
It’s a hot summer day in Tampa, Florida.
The guys, Bobby G, and I gear up and look at the concrete barricades.
There are four barricades that we need to move out of the way, so we can get the electric vehicles off the island.
“What if I push the concrete barricades with my SUV plow?” asks Phil.
“I think we have to try that first.”
Jon says, “Slowly push into the barricades, Phil. Don’t try to ram into them at high speed.”
Phil gets in his SUV and drives to the barricades.
Phil slowly positions his SUV plow against two concrete barricades.
“You are good!” I shout to Phil as his plow just touches the front two barricades.
Phil slowly drives into the barricades, and the concrete barricades start to slide.
Phil sees the barricades slide a little and decides to push down on his gas pedal.
The concrete barricades are sliding a little more, but they aren’t pushed out of the way fully.
Phil pushes down harder on his gas pedal and his SUV rear tires start to screech.
White smoke starts to fill the air from Phil’s rear SUV tires.
We all move away from the smoke.
The whole area is filled with smoke now.
I start coughing from the smoke and run down the street.
Some noise is heard from the smoke, but we can’t see anything.
A vehicle door opens and then shuts.
The tire smoke clears, and Phil walks through the smoke.
“Ta-da!” shouts Phil.
Phil pushed the concrete barricades out of the way enough, so that his SUV could get into the street on Davis Island.
“Good job Phil.”
I get into my SUV, as Jon, Shaun, and Bobby G get into Phil’s SUV.
We drive onto Davis Island and park in front of a million-dollar mansion that has an electric truck parked in the driveway.
Bobby G gets out of Phil’s SUV and says, “Now this is living. This place is awesome.”
I look at Bobby G and shout, “You thinking about getting a place here? I’m sure the homes are dirt cheap right now!”
Three men come running towards us in the middle of the street.
We all look at the men and point our guns at them.
“At ease guys! It’s us!” shouts Eric.
Eric, Brad, and another man from Channelside come over to us.
“What’s up Brad?”
“We heard the commotion and saw the smoke from the docks. We thought it had to be you guys,” says Brad.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I see the streets are still flooded from the storm. How are your docks, the port, and walls holding up?”
Brad says, “We fixed the problem areas and we are still clearing out the water at the port and docks.”
Phil, Jon, and Matt go into the house where the electric truck is parked.
Shaun and Bobby G check out another nearby house.
Eric hands me a small bag.
I look at the bag and ask, “What’s this?”
Eric says, “A present.”
I open the bag and see a bunch of keys. There are some vehicle keys and some house keys in the bag.
“People don’t plan on coming back here. I rou
nded up a bunch of house and vehicle keys from the people in my building. I got three electric car keys,” says Eric.
I reach into the bag and pull out several vehicle keys.
I see the emblem of the electric car manufacturer on the keys and smile.
Brad introduces me to the guy that came with him and Eric.
“Ryan, this is Carmine. Carmine and his sister Trish are people we can trust,” says Brad.
“Nice to meet you Carmine.”
Brad, Carmine, and Eric help us go through the homes and get the vehicles ready for transport home.
“This electric car is dead, and we can’t charge it here,” says Jon.
“Okay, it stays here then. Not sure how we will be able to charge this car without electricity in the house.”
Phil pushes down on the gas pedal of the electric truck and shouts, “That’s so weird! It makes no noise!”
Shaun and Bobby G load up my SUV with stuff they found in a couple of homes.
Brad and Eric load up their boat with some supplies they took from the homes on Davis Island.
“Where you from Carmine?”
Carmine replies, “New York. The Bronx. My sister and I came down here with my parents a couple years ago.”
“That’s cool. New York is a little too crazy for me.”
“I miss New York and the food. I miss my parents also, they died months ago,” says Carmine with his New York accent.
“I’m sorry to hear that Carmine.”
“Thank you, Ryan. My parents were pretty old. I guess it was their time to go,” says Carmine.
Eric and Brad come over to me and place a large cooler in the back of the electric truck.
“What’s in the cooler?”
Eric opens the lid of the cooler, and I see a bunch of fish fillets on ice.
Phil comes over to me, looks in the cooler, and says, “Nice. I miss having a high protein diet.”
Shaun comes over and asks, “Is that white fish?”
Brad says, “It’s a mix of different fish. Trish and I caught a lot of these ourselves.”
“Thank you, Brad. The fish will really help a lot. We are getting sick of the ready to eat military meals and same old food we have been eating for months.”
Shaun looks at Matt and says, “I like the military meals.”
Matt says, “You would.”
Brad looks at us and says, “Now that we helped you guys here and gave you some fish, we have a favor to ask.”
Phil says, “I know where this is going.”
“We still need your help with Jacob and his group. They have increased their kidnappings and efforts around our home,” says Brad.
“Those pricks even started to come around the water now. Luckily, we can block off the port and docks still,” says Carmine.
“What do you want from us?”
“We need you to talk with Jacob. Try to stop him from attacking us and trying to get inside Channelside,” says Brad.
“Why don’t you fight back? You have the towers and a lot of people,” says Phil.
Brad replies, “We have people, but they don’t want to fight. They are too lazy to fight and want someone else to do it for them.”
“You want us to sacrifice ourselves?” asks Shaun.
Brad doesn’t know what to say.
Eric says, “We want to keep Channelside alive and keep our connection with you going. We can’t do that if Channelside is conquered.”
I listen to Eric, Brad, Shaun, and Phil’s points.
I look at Brad and say, “I will not sacrifice myself or my people for you or anyone. Our safety and well-being are my priority.”
Brad says, “I understand.”
I look at the electric vehicles, supplies, and fish that Brad, Eric, and Carmine helped us get.
“I will talk with Jacob. I want to see what his deal is with Channelside and what he is planning.”
“Thank you, Ryan,” says Brad.
“I promise nothing though. Jacob could still attack you. Your Captain should be the one to talk with Jacob and set up an agreement or arrangement.”
Brad says, “You are right Ryan. I’m trying to get The Captain to meet with Jacob and end their attacks and kidnappings.”
“And?”
“The Captain has been going through withdrawals lately. I just got him his drugs. After a couple days of the drugs getting back into his system, he should be functional again,” says Brad.
I exchange handshakes with Brad, Eric, and Carmine.
The Brotherhood and I thank Eric, Carmine and Brad for everything they did for us.
Jon, Shaun, Bobby G, and Matt get into their electric vehicles.
Phil gets into his SUV.
I look at Brad and say, “We will be in touch. Davis Island is clear of zombies right now, but the concrete barricades aren’t blocking the entrance road now. Remember that if you and your people come here.”
Brad says, “Thank you, Ryan. I will be in touch. We can check out the huge mansions on Bayshore Boulevard next time.”
“And the cruise ship?”
“And the cruise ship, Ryan,” says Brad with a smile on his face.
I get into my SUV and honk my horn.
BEEP!
Jon leads our convoy out of Davis Island and back home to Citrus Oaks.
CHAPTER 17
NEW ORDERS
KNOCK! KNOCK!
“Come in,” says Rich as he sits at his desk in his office.
The receptionist walks into Rich’s office.
“Hey Rebecca, please sit down,” says Rich.
Rebecca sits down in a chair that is positioned in front of Rich’s desk.
“Sir, may I ask you something?” asks Rebecca.
“Sure, anything Rebecca,” says Rich.
Rich stands up and closes his office door.
Rebecca seems nervous as she sits in the chair in front of Rich’s desk.
“Sir, I’m just nervous about Tampa. I live here. My family lives here. What is the plan for Tampa Bay?” asks Rebecca.
“You know I can’t tell you specifics Rebecca, but I will keep you safe and Tampa safe for as long as I can. I live here also. I don’t want anything bad to happen here,” says Rich.
Rebecca starts to cry.
Rich comforts Rebecca.
“What’s wrong? We are safe here,” says Rich.
Rebecca looks up at Rich with tears in her eyes and says, “But for how long? How long until the government decides to blow this place up? I have heard stories about other cities being blow up by our military. Something about a reset or something.”
“Project Reset is not here yet. Yes, other cities have been cleared out, but they were lost in the eyes of the government. We can’t have this zombie thing spreading any more than it is. Tampa Bay is not on the radar for a reset yet. There are usually other orders and projects that come before that,” says Rich.
Rebecca looks to be a little relieved after Rich’s comments.
“My husband and I got a puppy before the world changed. Life has just been so crazy around here for so long. I’m sorry to come to you, but I didn’t know who else to come to,” says Rebecca.
Rich says, “I’m here for you Rebecca. You have been a great employee for so many years now. I see you as part of my family. I have you, my son TJ, and my daughter Alice.”
TJ is driving down an open highway.
The highway is clear up ahead.
TJ’s jeep passes a sign that reads:
I-75 North
Odin barks as TJ passes an abandoned car on the side of the road.
“What is it boy?” asks TJ.
Odin looks out the open rear passenger side window of TJ’s four door jeep.
“I’m just glad your house is safe after the storm. Every time I see a house that is damaged or an abandoned vehicle, I feel grateful for what we have,” says Janet as she looks at TJ.
TJ and Janet have been driving for several hours now. They left two days later t
han they wanted to, due to the storm hitting Tampa Bay.
“My cats should be good for four days. Five at the most,” says Janet.
TJ says, “We are almost to Gainesville now. I think we check out Gainesville first then continue up to Tallahassee if necessary. I don’t plan on being away from home longer than four days.”
Janet looks at TJ and asks, “You sure your sister would come towards Tampa? She wouldn’t go more West into the pan handle or another state?”
TJ takes a deep breath and says, “I don’t know where she would go exactly, but I think she would try to come home to see our parents and me.”
“What if she was dating someone, and they lived in Alabama or something?” asks Janet.
TJ thinks about Janet’s questions, and he doesn’t know the answer.
TJ and his younger sister Alice haven’t always had the closest relationship, but they love each other. TJ missed some years with Alice when he was in the Marines.
“I wish I knew. I wish I talked to her more than just around the holidays, when she was home from school. I just don’t know,” says TJ.
Janet senses TJ becoming upset.
Janet tries to keep things positive and says, “We will find her. Don’t worry about that. She is your sister, so she is smart and knows how to survive.”
TJ smiles and says, “Alice is pretty smart. She is smarter than me. She’s going to school to be a doctor, I think. At least that was the plan the last time I talked to her about it.”
TJ drives down the open highway and sees a sign.
The sign reads:
Gainesville 10 MILES
TJ sees the sign and says, “I think we check Gainesville first. I’m going to get off at the next exit and we can search around.”
“What kind of car does Alice have?” asks Janet.
“She has a black SUV,” says TJ.
“Everyone loves their SUVs,” jokes Janet.
I drive my SUV into my driveway.
Phil parks his SUV in Bobby G’s driveway.
Jon and Shaun park their electric vehicles in front of Shaun’s house.
Bobby G and Matt park their electric vehicles in the street next to Bobby G’s house.
“Those electric cars can really move. I thought they were going to be slow as shit, but my car wasn’t slow at all,” says Bobby G.
Jon and Shaun unload the supplies they got from Davis Island and place the charger for the electric vehicles in Shaun’s garage.
Fight 4 Us (Book 6): Keeper Page 17
