Fight 4 Us (Book 2): Reunited Page 3

  “Okay son. I will protect the house and your mother,” replies Michael.

  Matt exchanges hugs with his mom and dad in the kitchen. Shaun shakes Michael’s hand and gives Ann a hug good-bye.

  “We will be back Mr. and Mrs. S. Don’t worry,” says Shaun.

  Shaun looks out the front window and checks to see if the street is clear of zombies.

  Shaun says, “We need to go now Matt.”

  Matt and Shaun exit the house and run to Matt’s car. They make it to the car, open the car doors, and jump in.

  As Matt and Shaun sit in the car, they look down the street and see a huge herd of zombies being attracted to two homes down the street.

  Zombie groans and moans echo down the street. There must be nearly 15 zombies at these two different houses. The homes are only about three houses down from Matt’s parents’ house and could eventually be a problem for them.

  Matt starts up the car. Shaun and Matt want to check out what is attracting the zombies, but they decide to leave the neighborhood and go to check out my dad’s house first.

  “I’m glad that your parents are okay Matt,” says Shaun.

  “Me too!” says Matt.

  Matt exits his parent’s neighborhood and starts the drive to my dad’s house.

  My dad’s name is Robert, but he’s more commonly known as Bobby G to his friends and family. Bobby G lives in a nice well-manicured 55 and older community.

  Matt pulls into the neighborhood through the main entrance. The main entrance is partially clear, one side of the entrance is partially blocked by an overturned silver sedan.

  As they pass the overturned sedan, Shaun sees an elderly couple dead in the car.

  Matt drives through the neighborhood and he finds only an occasional zombie or two in the streets. Overall, the neighborhood is quiet though.

  Matt arrives outside of Bobby G’s house and parks the car in the street. Shaun looks out the window and sees a car parked in the driveway. Shaun and Matt exit the car and start to walk to the front door.

  Bobby G’s house is a nice well-kept white house with green shutters. Matt and Shaun walk up the front three steps and knock on the cranberry colored front door.

  Knock. Knock.

  No one answers.

  Shaun hears something coming from behind the house.

  Shaun turns towards Matt and says, “I’m going to go around back and check out the backyard. You stay here and see if he comes to the front door.”

  Shaun walks down the three steps and towards the backyard. He raises his shotgun as he walks around the side of the house.

  Matt stands by the front door and waits to see if anyone comes to the front door.

  Shaun walks around the side of the house and says, “Bobby G! You back here?”

  The sound of a shovel hitting the dirt is heard.

  Shaun comes around the back patio and sees a man placing dirt back into a hole.

  Shaun asks, “Bobby G?”

  The man drops the shovel and turns around.

  “Shaun, is that you?” asks Bobby G.

  “Yeah. It’s me Shaun. Matt is out front. Are you okay?” asks Shaun.

  With tears in his eyes, Bobby G replies, “Yeah. I’m okay, but I had to bury my wife here. She was bit.”

  Shaun replies, “I’m sorry to hear that. Sandy was a great woman.”

  “Thank you. She went to check the mail and was bitten on the arm by a zombie. She came running back in the house bleeding profusely, and then just passed out,” says Bobby G.

  Matt comes from around the house and meets up with Shaun and Bobby G.

  “Hey Bob! You okay?” asks Matt.

  “Hey Matt. I’m okay. I was just telling Shaun that I just buried Sandy here,” says Bobby G.

  Matt puts his hand on Bobby G’s left shoulder and says, “I’m sorry for your lose.”

  “I’m sorry as well. Let’s go inside. I’m done with the burial here,” says Bobby G.

  Matt, Shaun, and Bobby G walk up the back-patio steps and towards the sliding glass door. Matt and Shaun enter the house, followed by Bobby G.

  “You guys want anything to drink?” asks Bobby G.

  “Some water would be great,” says Matt.

  Bobby G washes his hands in the sink, dries them off and then hands Matt and Shaun a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

  Matt and Shaun sit at kitchen barstools while Bobby G stands by the kitchen sink.

  “What are you guys doing here?” asks Bobby G.

  “We came to check on you and to make sure you were okay,” says Shaun.

  “I appreciate that. Any word on Ryan?” asks Bobby G.

  “Not since we have come back home from our Tennessee trip. We saw him a couple days ago. Phil went with him home to Tampa,” says Shaun.

  Bobby G picks up his phone and sees that he doesn’t have any service.

  “That’s great that you saw him and he was doing okay, and that Phil is with him. Ryan is a very capable human being, but with those zombies around, it’s necessary to have friends and family to keep you alive,” says Bobby G.

  Matt says, “I hate to ask, especially since you just buried Sandy, but what is your plan moving forward?”

  Bobby G looks through the kitchen window at Sandy’s grave in the backyard and says, “I don’t know. I guess I’ll make my way down to Ryan’s place in Tampa. He’s all I have left now.”

  Shaun replies, “That would be great. It’s not smart to be alone now.”

  “Do you want to ride down with us to Florida or at least drive down together in a caravan?”, Matt asks.

  Bobby G replies, “I’m going to take my time and get my mind together first, but I appreciate the gesture.”

  Matt replies, “We plan to leave in a day or two for Florida. We are holding up at Shaun’s house for now and will most likely leave from there.”

  Bobby G exchanges handshakes with Matt and Shaun. He is grateful that the guys came to visit him and plans to go to Tampa to meet up with them, and most importantly me.

  Matt and Shaun leave Bobby G’s house through the front door. The house, the street, and Matt’s car are clear of zombies. Matt and Shaun climb into Matt’s car. Matt starts up the car, gives Bobby G a goodbye honk, and drives down the street.

  As Matt is driving out of Bobby G’s neighborhood, he looks over at Shaun with a look of concern.

  “What’s our next step now bro?” asks Matt.

  Shaun replies, “We get back to my house, pack up our belongings, grab your parents, and then head down to Florida.”

  Matt swerves past an abandoned car in the middle of the road. He feels a sense of apprehension about the group going down to Florida, but feels that it’s the right plan.

  “Sounds like a plan,” says Matt.

  “Sunshine state here we come.”

  CHAPTER 3

  GET GOING

  Matt and Shaun are driving down the road. They pass two zombies that are wandering around in the woods. The back roads that Matt is driving down are clear of any debris and blockages, but they have a ton of wooded areas that zombies could be gathered in.

  They are about ten minutes away from Shaun’s house, when they encounter a fallen tree that is completely blocking the road. Matt sees the tree approaching and slams on the breaks.

  Matt and Shaun get out of the car to see if there is a way that they can possibly get around the tree. However, this tree is huge and seems to be blocking the whole road, in every direction. Matt has no choice but to turn around and take another route back to Shaun’s house.

  “We can’t get around it Matt. We have to take the long way home now. Let’s turn around and go back to the intersection we passed a couple miles ago.

  Matt and Shaun get back into the car and they turn around. As Matt is making his back down the street they just drove down, he sees something in the middle of the road. The objects are in the distance and moving slowly towards them.

  As Matt gets closer to the object in the road
, he notices that its three zombies walking down the middle of the road towards them.

  Matt isn’t sure whether to drive around them or to avoid them. As the zombies are getting closer, Matt decides to drive right through one of them.

  He moves the car over to the right, so that his care is lined up with one of the zombies and hits the gas pedal.

  Shaun says, “Are you going for that fat one on the right?”

  “Yup!” says Matt.

  Matt speeds right into the fat zombie, and the zombie explodes. Blood and guts cover Matt’s hood and windshield.

  Matt and Shaun can barely see through the windshield now. Matt puts his windshield wipers on, but this only smears the blood more.

  Matt slams on the breaks and stops in the middle of the intersection. Zombie guts slide off the front of the car and hood onto the street.

  Matt rolls his window down, so that he can see where he stopped. He makes a left-hand turn at the intersection. Shaun rolls his window down to help provide another line of sight.

  Matt’s windshield is a bloody gross mess and needs to be thoroughly cleaned. A building appears down the street in the distance. Shaun sees an abandoned gas station coming up on the right side of the road.

  The gas station is empty and shows no signs that it is working, but they haven’t seen any other gas stations since they have been out on their trip.

  Shaun yells for Matt to pullover, so he can fill up his gas containers and Matt can possibly clean the windshield. Matt pulls into the gas station.

  It’s a creepy site. No cars, people, or anything is around the gas pumps or service station. A metal sign is making a squeaking sound as the wind blows.

  Matt parks his car at one of the gas pumps. He pops the trunk and Shaun gets outs. Shaun checks the gas pumps, but the gas pumps don’t seem to be working.

  Shaun looks around the gas station and sees a truck parked at the side of the gas station service station. He grabs one of the gas containers from the trunk of Matt’s car and then closes the trunk. Shaun walks over to the blue truck and sees that it’s locked.

  Matt walks over to the service station entrance and sees that the doors are locked. He checks to see if he can break into the service station, but it’s sealed shut with a metal garage door.

  Matt looks down at the brick entrance wall and sees a hose connected to a water line. Matt runs over to the faucet and turns it on.

  Water tries to come out but it’s struggling to put out water. A burst of air shoots out of the hose followed by water.

  Matt runs over to his car and drives it over to the hose. He parks the car and rolls up the windows. Matt gets out of the car and starts to clean off the zombie blood and guts from his windshield with the hose.

  As Matt is washing his windshield, Shaun is contemplating what to do about the truck. He isn’t sure whether to siphon the gas or just take the truck.

  The truck looks to be in decent shape, but how much gas does it have or will it even run?

  Shaun decides to try and siphon the gas. He walks over to truck’s gas tank. A body is lying face down towards the truck. The body has his right arm outstretched towards the truck with something in his hand.

  The body is ripped to shreds and disconnected between the upper and lower halves. Shaun bends down and tries to grab the item out of his right hand. As he does, the body starts to move.

  The movement of the body startles Shaun. Shaun jumps back away from the zombie while holding onto the empty gas container. The zombie is moving slowly but is trying to reach for Shaun. As the zombie reaches for Shaun, the item falls from his right hand.

  Shaun throws down the gas container, runs behind the zombie and grabs the zombie by its torso. He pulls the zombie by the torso away from the truck and into the grass.

  Shaun walks back towards the truck and sees the item lying in the gravel.

  It’s a set of keys to the truck. Shaun picks up the keys and opens the truck’s driver side door. Shaun grabs the empty gas container that he dropped and throws it in the back seat. Shaun closes the driver side door and tries to start the truck.

  The truck won’t start. Shaun tries to start the truck again but the engine won’t turn over. Shaun gets out of the truck and opens the hood.

  After about 10 minutes of washing the zombie mess off the windshield, Matt’s car is clean again. Matt makes sure that his windshield, front hood, and underneath the car are completely clean. Matt then turns off the water and walks over to Shaun.

  Matt asks, “What’s wrong? Truck won’t start?”

  “Yeah. It wants to start, but I’m not sure why it won’t,” says Shaun.

  Shaun examines what might be the problem with truck and sees that battery terminals are corroded. Matt sees the corrosion and isn’t sure how to get it off.

  Shaun looks around the gas station and sees what he can use to clear off the corrosion. The gas station is empty. No cars and no convenient store. The metal service station door is closed and is locked.

  Shaun tries to open the metal service station door, but it won’t open.

  Shaun screams, “Come on, can I catch a break.”

  He runs to the other side of the gas station and sees a soda vending machine lying on its side on the ground.

  Shaun picks up a rock and throws it at the front of the machine. Matt is startled from the load bang.

  Shaun destroys the front of the soda machine. The machine logo plastic cover shatters and pieces of the cover fly all over the place. Shaun reaches into the soda machine and smiles.

  “Thirsty bro?” jokes Matt.

  Shaun grabs two sodas from the machine and walks towards the truck. He tosses one to Matt and opens the other one.

  Shaun pours the soda directly onto the battery and battery terminals. The soda melts away the corrosion. Shaun goes into the truck and finds a dirty towel. He pours a little more soda onto the corrosion around the battery lines and wipes away the excess soda.

  Shaun wipes off the remaining soda around the battery and battery terminals. He makes sure there isn’t any excess liquid on the battery and then closes the hood.

  “No way that works,” says Matt.

  Shaun says, “Watch and learn.”

  Shaun turns the key and the truck engine starts right up. Shaun screams with excitement and beeps the truck horn.

  Matt can’t believe that it worked. He looks at Shaun and shakes his head in amazement.

  Matt shouts, “You got lucky!”

  Shaun replies, “Maybe, but it’s better to be lucky than good.”

  Several zombies become attracted by the honks from the truck and walk out from the trees behind the gas station towards Matt and Shaun.

  Matt runs back to his car.

  Shaun puts the truck in drive and drives away from the service station. He drives over to where Matt’s car is parked.

  “I’m going to drive the truck back to my house and siphon the gas,” says Shaun.

  Matt replies, “Okay, I’ll meet you back at your house.”

  Two of the zombies that came from behind the gas station bang on Shaun’s truck bed.

  Matt sees the zombies and puts his car in drive. He exits the gas station and drives down the street. Shaun sees the zombies banging on the back of his truck. He puts the truck in reverse and knocks the zombies down.

  He laughs as the zombies fall over.

  Shaun puts the truck in drive and then follows Matt down the street in the blue truck.

  Shaun can’t help but to feel weird about taking this truck, but he realizes that this is the new world now and it’s kill or be killed, take or be taken.

  Matt and Shaun finally make it back to Shaun’s house. Matt parks his car in the street in front of Shaun’s house and Shaun parks the truck right behind him.

  Shaun sees that truck has about half a tank of gas in it. He gets out of the truck and goes to his garage to find a hose to help siphon the gasoline out of the truck.

  Shaun finds a hose that will work to siphon the ga
s in the garage. He makes his way back to the truck to start siphoning the gas out of the truck. Matt gets out of his car and helps Shaun.

  Shaun puts the hose in the truck’s gas tank and starts to siphon the gasoline. Matt places the other end of the hose into an empty gas container.

  As Shaun is siphoning the gas out of the truck, Matt sees a couple of zombies coming down the street. The zombies are slowly walking towards Shaun’s house.

  Matt runs back to his car and gets his shotgun. Lisa and Kylie see Shaun and Matt outside of the house. Kylie and Lisa exit the house and walk towards Shaun.

  “What are you doing Shaun? Whose truck is this?” asks Lisa.

  Shaun replies, “I’m taking the gas from this truck for my jeep. I got the truck from an abandoned gas station.”

  Matt comes running past Lisa, Kylie, and Shaun. He points his shotgun at the zombies, but waits for them to get a little closer.

  Kylie sees Matt in the street and runs back inside the house. She runs back into the living room and grabs the handgun that is sitting on the living room table.

  Kylie runs back into the street and stands next to Matt. Kylie raises her handgun to shoulder level, checks to make sure the safety is off and then pulls the trigger.

  Boom!

  Matt follows with a shotgun blast of his own.

  Bam!

  Zombie blood flies all over the street. The two approaching zombies fall onto their backs. The noise attracts several more zombies that come out from behind some trees.

  Shaun finishes getting the gas from the truck and takes the gas containers into the garage.

  Lisa isn’t sure what to do, so she hides next to the truck. Shaun goes into Matt’s car and gets his shotgun out of the passenger seat. He checks to see how many rounds he has in the gun and walks over to Matt and Kylie.

  Kylie and Matt continue firing at the zombies that keep coming out of the woods towards Shaun’s house. More and more zombies keep coming out of the wooded area along Shaun’s street.

  Matt and Kylie take down about six zombies. Shaun runs next to Matt and points his shotgun at the last remaining zombies.