Fight 4 Us (Book 1): The Beginning Read online

  "Thank you, Phil, I appreciate you and Ryan doing all of this. It's good to see you. I can't remember the last time I saw you," says Nicole.

  Nicole finishes up the directions and hands them to Phil, "There you go."

  "Thank you. It has been a while since the last time I saw you too. I see everything is going good with ya though. Big house, good job, a husband, and a baby on the way. You are doing well for yourself," says Phil.

  "Yeah, my life has been great, just wish the world didn't fall apart, and that I had more time with the ones I loved," says Nicole.

  "I definitely agree with that," says Phil.

  "Everything happens for a reason though Nicole. We just have to figure out what that reason is," says Phil.

  Phil looks at Nicole with a caring and loving expression. Nicole looks back at him and gives him a hug. They both feel a connection with each other and are glad to see each other.

  "Goodnight Phil, I'll see ya tomorrow," says Nicole as she walks to her bedroom and closes the door.

  Phil walks down the hallway and stops in front of his bedroom doorway. He pauses and looks at Nicole's closed bedroom door for a second.

  Nicole sits down on the edge of her bed. She looks down at the ground, picks her head up and smiles. She turns towards her closed bedroom door and whisperers to herself, “Everything does happen for a reason.”

  I awake to an empty bed and voices coming from the kitchen. I get out of bed, change my clothes and head to the kitchen. Lauren and Nicole are talking in the kitchen. Phil is already awake and loading up one of the SUVs.

  "So, you and Derrick have been married for 3 years now?" asks Lauren.

  "Yeah, we just had our 3-year wedding anniversary about a month ago," replies Nicole.

  I walk out to the SUV and see Phil filling up the gas tank with one of the 5-gallon red gas containers. The sun just came up a little bit ago, and it’s a pretty warm day already in Orlando. I look down the street and don't really hear much of anything still. In the distance, I hear light groaning noises that sound like zombies, but I don’t see where the sound is coming from. I think it’s nothing to really be concerned about right now.

  The neighbors next to and across the street from Nicole's house don't look to be home, or if they are, they seem to be staying inside. Phil and I gather our supplies and gear for our trip to search for Derrick. I grab my katana, and a couple of other things from the SUV. We clear out the backseat in case we need to fit more people with us.

  I ask, "Phil, can you grab those protein bars, food, and bottles of water?"

  Phil finishes putting the gas in the SUV and replies, "You got it, I'll be right in."

  I go inside the house, place my gear in the bedroom and head to the kitchen.

  I ask, "What's up with the neighborhood Nicole? It's so quiet. Almost too quiet"

  Nicole replies, “What do you mean? I haven't left this house for about a week or so, since my doctor put me on bed rest. The next-door neighbor Gretchen is a housewife, and she was checking on me from time to time. She was over just the other day. Her husband travels a lot for business, so we became friends, since she has been home alone a lot of the time too."

  I say to Nicole, "You have Lauren to watch over you now. I want you to keep all the doors locked, the sliding glass doors locked, and don't leave the house. We just brought all the supplies in from the SUV, so you don't have to leave for anything. Phil and I should be back sometime today with Derrick and his brothers."

  Phil comes through the front door and takes his gear to his bedroom. As he walks past the women in the kitchen. Lauren notices how Nicole looks at Phil. Lauren gets up from the kitchen table and calls my attention in the bedroom.

  Lauren and I enter the bedroom.

  Lauren closes the door and says, “I think Nicole and Phil were a thing or something. Back at our house Phil had a picture of himself and a woman. The girl had different hair, but I'm pretty sure it was Nicole. Did Phil and Nicole date?"

  I reply, "I don’t' know. Maybe? Phil did see quite a few girls back in the day."

  I start getting my gear together. I put on a pair of black pants, a black athletic fit t-shirt and a light weight red hoodie. I put on my leg holster and attach three bullet clips to my belt. It's freaking hot out today. I can't put too many layers on as I don't want to sweat to death, but also can't be so unprotected by my clothes in case we get overrun by zombies.

  I tell Lauren, "I will check into what Phil has to say about dating Nicole. I guess you find out what Nicole says about it. Just be a little smooth about it. Don't be like hey Nicole, did you and Phil get together?"

  Lauren gives me a playful shove to my left shoulder followed by a hug.

  "You better come back to me Ryan," says Lauren before she kisses me.

  I reply, "I'm definitely coming back, don't worry about that."

  I pick up the katana and bulletproof vest and say, "I got this bad boy and don't plan on dying today or anytime soon."

  "Well you just come back in one piece and be careful with that thing," says Lauren.

  I walk over to Phil's room and see that Phil is ready. He only put half of his riot gear on and plans to put the rest of it on when we get to the park. Phil checks and brings his shotgun, knife, handgun, and 3 clips.

  I ask, "You ready?"

  "Hell yeah, I'm ready," replies Phil.

  Phil and I enter the kitchen to speak to Lauren and Nicole one last time before we leave.

  I tell Nicole and Lauren, "I left a handgun with a clip, a machete, and baseball bat in the bedroom. I think everything should be ok, just keep quiet, don't draw attention to the house, keep the doors locked, and stay inside."

  Nicole replies, “We aren't going to be doing much here. I'm on bed rest and will take it easy. I have been trying to follow what my doctor told me. I’m 36 weeks pregnant now, and I'm not trying to mess anything up with this pregnancy.”

  I reply, "Hopefully we aren't gone for too long, but I promise you Nicole, that Phil and I will be doing everything that we can to find Derrick and his brothers and bring them home."

  Phil and I exit the house and head out to the SUV.

  As Phil and I exit the house, I notice the heat of the Florida sun beating down on us. It looks to be a very hot and sunny day. Phil opens the passenger side SUV door and enter the SUV. I walk around the SUV and hear Nicole’s front door open.

  Lauren comes running out the front door and meets me at the SUV driver side door.

  Lauren gives me a hug and says, “Be careful and safe.”

  I reply, "I will don't worry, Phil is the reckless one."

  Lauren gives me another hug and kiss goodbye. I get into the SUV and close the door. I drive down the street and make a U turn. As I drive past Nicole's house, I give a wave to Lauren and Nicole who are now standing inside Nicole’s house and watching us leave through the big bay window by the front door.

  We drive to the front gate entrance of Nicole’s neighborhood. Phil gets out of the SUV and opens the front gate. As he opens the front gate, he takes out his knife and stabs the security guard zombie that was trapped by the front gate entrance in the head. I drive through the gate and stop. Phil closes the gate behind me and gets in the SUV. I check the road ahead of me for any problems, it looks to be all clear, and we move on to the theme park.

  As we make a left out of the neighborhood, we hear a loud crash. Almost like a big piece of glass or window just broke. We aren’t sure where the noise came from, and decide to keep moving on to the theme park. Next stop Orlando Studios.

  CHAPTER 8

  SPACE WARS

  We start the 15-mile drive from Nicole's house to the theme park. Part of me wonders about what Lauren brought up about Phil and Nicole, and the other part of me doesn't care at all. However, when I want to know something, I am straight to the point and direct about it. So, I decide to ask Phil about it.

  I turn to Phil and ask, "Hey, did you have a thing for Nicole?"

  Phil responds, "What
?"

  I reply with, “Did you date Nicole back in the day, I remember you saying something about a chick back in the day before you got married, it was short lived and you were pretty vague.”

  Phil says, “I didn't want to say anything about this, but yes. Nicole and I dated a little bit, but nothing came from it. She moved away and we went on with our lives. I got divorced and she married Derrick. Nicole is an amazing person, but she is with Derrick now, and I accept that.”

  As we approach the Orlando Studio amusement park, we see a chaotic mess of abandoned cars, tour buses, and minivans. We can see the tourist parking lot in the distance, and it is full of zombies. Luckily, we are avoiding that lot and move on to the employee parking lot. The employee parking lot is far less chaotic and has only a couple of visible zombies.

  I see Phil is somewhat hesitant to tell me the whole story about him and Nicole, and I can kind of sense in his voice that he is holding something back. However, I chose to believe what he told me at face value.

  I tell Phil, "I understand about going out with a friend’s sister and being cautious about telling anyone, but I just wanted to make sure everything is okay with you, since Nicole is back in our lives now."

  Phil replies, “Nicole is great, but I respect marriage and relationships. I do care about Nicole, but don't plan on getting in the way of her and Derrick’s relationship.”

  We pull up to the employee garage scanner. I scan Nicole's keycard allowing us to head into the parking garage. We pull up to the second floor and head to Derrick's spot of 225. We drive around the corner and see a green four door Grand Spirit.

  "That has to be Derrick's car."

  We park the SUV a couple spaces down from space 225. Phil and I get out of the car and finish gearing up. Phil finishes putting on his riot gear. I pull on my bulletproof vest and place my katana around my right shoulder and left waist. I like the katana around my right shoulder so I can grab it with my right hand if necessary. We are all geared up and head to the staircase to go down to the first floor and into the employee office level.

  Phil and I get to the staircase. I have my handgun ready and Phil has his shotgun ready. We open the staircase door. It’s clear of people and zombies. We can hear zombie moans, groans, and noises in the distance though. Phil leads the way going down the stairs as he has the riot gear on and is better protected. We head down the stairs towards the employee park entrance. The scanner light is green, so the power is still working. We get to the scanner. I scan the keycard; the gate unlocks and we are in.

  I push the gate open and say, "Let’s check out Derrick's office first."

  We enter a long stretch of hallways and start looking for Derrick's office. The hallway is empty. We turn the corner and see two zombies in Orlando Studios sanitation attire. Phil points his shotgun at the zombies, but I grab the gun before he can fire.

  As I hold shotgun, I whisper to him, “Let’s use knives and quieter killing methods as to not attract any zombies. We are walking in blind here."

  Phil puts the shotgun around his shoulder and takes out a knife. I take out my katana and we take the zombies out quietly with stabbing motions to the head. We go down one more hallway and make a right. As we turn the corner we see another zombie. Phil kills the zombie, as I check for Derrick's office. The second door on the left reads Derrick Livingston.

  I turn towards Phil and say, "I found his office." I try the door handle and it's locked. Phil comes back to the office door after killing the zombie. He tries to open the door.

  I ask Phil, "Do you know how to pick the lock?"

  He replies, "Yeah I think I can get the door open."

  Phil takes out his shotgun and points it at the lock. I move away from the door.

  Boom!

  Phil blows the handle of the door off and the door opens.

  "I think that will work for us!" says Phil.

  I joke, "Great, so much for being quiet."

  Phil goes into the office first, and I follow. We search Derrick’s office for any clues.

  His office is clean and without much in it. No pictures or personal items on the desk. He just has a golfing plaque that says I'd rather be golfing. I go to his desk and sit in his chair. I look to my left and see a golf course wall calendar. The dates are scratched out to mark what day it is. Thursday the 23rd. On Tuesday, the calendar reads brothers in town. I start opening desk drawers to see if there are any keys and keycards, or anything useful we could use.

  Every drawer opens in the desk except the bottom right drawer. I find a key in one of the other drawers that looks like it might open the locked drawer. I try the key and the drawer pops open. I pull the drawer all the way out and find a wrapped present with a card attached to it hidden all the way in the back.

  The card reads:

  To: Denise

  Love: Derrick

  Happy 6th Month Anniversary

  I read the card and drop the present back into the drawer.

  Phil sees my shocked expression on my face and asks, “Everything ok bro?"

  Phil comes over to the desk, picks up the box, reads the cards and says, "What an asshole."

  I reply, "This doesn't change anything, we have to find Derrick and bring him back with us. Their marriage isn't our problem, bringing them together is what we said we would do."

  Phil replies, "I don't know man, I don't know if I can help this scumbag out now."

  I respond, "How can we go back without Derrick bro? That will look terrible. We have to at least try."

  Phil looks down and is clearly debating with himself on what he thinks is the right thing to do.

  Phil replies, "We have to try and save this asshole, but I'm not bending over backwards for him."

  Phil and I try and pull ourselves together after absorbing this new information about Derrick. We are still going into the park to try and find him though. In Derrick's office, I found a map of the theme park. The map shows the underground employee tunnel as it corresponds with the location of the attractions.

  I say, "Let's go up towards the middle of the park, if we can. We have to check out the Space Wars section, but that’s a new section, and we can't get directly in it from down here."

  Phil says, "You lead the way, and I'll follow."

  We leave Derrick's office and head towards the center entrance of the park. We get to the staircase that will take us to the center of the park. We open the door to find a zombie. Phil takes her out with his handgun with a shot to the head. We go up the stairs to the hidden entrance on main street. It's somewhat quiet, but not totally quiet.

  I say to Phil, "Who knows what we are going to see out there and what we will find. We have to get to the back part of the park. Phil, you lead and try to make a path. Go straight for as long as you can and let's get back to the Space Wars attraction."

  Phil whispers, “No problem, straight back. Follow me. I will take these zombies out.”

  Phil opens the door and finds a quiet backroom to one of the gift shops. I follow behind him with my katana in my right hand.

  The theme park gift shop is a mess, bodies are all around, zombies are eating people, and there is a small fire burning in the distance. Phil is running through zombies knocking them down, but avoiding wasting ammo by shooting them. I'm trying to use my katana as much as possible too, as to avoid making noise and wasting my handgun ammo.

  We get out of the gift shop and try to find a clear path to the back of the park, but the main street which normally takes you from the front to back of the park is full of debris, dead bodies, zombies, and various park objects that have fallen or have been knock over. Phil tries to go right, but he is blocked by zombies. He pushes a bunch of zombies out of the way as they try to reach for him.

  The zombies fall to the ground like dominos. Phil and I go left instead, and will now have to take the long route to the back of the park. We are running through the attractions and can't help but to look around. The park must have been packed when the virus started to ta
ke effect here.

  I shout, "Make a right here past the Crazy Bus Ride."

  We make a right and see a herd of zombies that is partially blocking the entrance to the Space Wars attraction. Phil and I hide behind a popcorn mobile vending cart.

  Phil says, “I have an idea. Let's use this cart to cause a fire or distraction or something. I want you to push the cart towards the zombies, and I'm going to shoot the propane warmer that is inside the popcorn cart which should cause it to explode.”

  I respond, "Sounds like a plan."

  Phil and I get out from behind the popcorn cart. I move the cart in the center of the walkway, disengage the breaks and wait for Phil to get ready. Phil raises his shotgun towards the herd of zombies. I start to push the popcorn cart towards the zombies, I run and start to pick up the speed. I give it one final good push to make sure it goes into the herd. As the cart moves towards the zombies, Phil aims at the bottom of the popcorn cart warmer and fires a shot. He misses and hits a zombie’s leg. He adjusts his aim, fires, and then.

  Boom!

  The popcorn cart explodes which ignites several zombies. The zombies are attracted to the fire and make a path for us to be able to get by now. Phil and I run past the zombies and head into the Space Wars attraction.

  The Space Wars attraction is full of zombies, but they seem to be attracted to one area in particular, the huge Space Wars gift shop. The setting is one of outer space and full of space ship replicas and different worlds of the Science Fiction genre. We hear noises, which are a mixture of zombie groans and people moving in a trapped gift shop. The zombies are blocking the entrance that has been secured from the inside. There must be around 100 zombies surrounding the gift shop.

  "What should we do now?" asks Phil.

  I respond, "We have to get inside the gift shop, as that is our best lead for where Derrick could be. Let’s try the back entrance to the gift shop."

  We walk around the back of the gift shop only to find that the back door and walkway has about 20 zombies around it.