I yell, "The best place to enter is the back door. We need to draw them away or take them out."
Phil replies, "Let’s block the back path, so that no more zombies can come around. The one side is blocked by the gate so that is covered, so we just need to block ourselves in, take the zombies out, and get inside the gift shop."
Phil and I start finding anything we can use to block the rear walkway behind the gift shop. As we are looking for things around the park, Phil and I are taking out zombies quietly as to avoid attracting more zombies. Phil finds an electric scooter, turns the key and moves about one foot before the scooter dies.
"What the hell man!" shouts Phil.
I see two food carts, I get Phil’s attention and show him that we can use the two food carts to block the rear walkway. Phil and I run over to the carts and start pushing them towards the gift shop. We are moving swiftly through the zombies now, but need to occasional stop to take out a zombie or two. We make it to the back of the gift shop and position the carts to block any more zombies from coming to the rear entrance. Phil takes out his shotgun, and I am ready with my katana.
Phil says, "Let's do it."
Phil walks forward firing his shotgun and taking out several zombies at a time. I stand a good distance away from Phil as to avoid hitting him as I hack and slash with my katana. Zombie bodies and brains are flying all over the place. Phil tries to fire his shotgun, but he is out of ammo. A zombie turns to bit Phil as he reaches for his handguns. As the zombie reaches for Phil, I stab the zombie in the head. I pull the katana out of the zombie’s head and stab another zombie in the side of the head to my left. Phil raises his handguns and clears out the last 3 zombies that are next to the door.
Phil and I stand catching our breath and checking to see if we got all the zombies. The back door is clear of zombies now. We bang on the back door to have the trapped survivors let us in.
No answer.
We bang again and say, “We cleared all the zombies out. Open the door.”
Just as Phil is about to bang again. The door opens to reveal a woman.
"Get in here!" she says.
Phil and I enter the gift shop through the back door. As we enter, the back door closes behind us. It's dimly light but we can see. We hear the zombies banging on the glass of the gift shop. The woman walks us up to the group of trapped survivors. We see five people. Two men, one old man, one child, and the woman that let us in. I check the group for Derrick, but do not see him. The survivors are scared and not sure what to do. The zombies keep banging on the glass, it sounds likes it is about to crack. The child screams in terror.
As the child screams, a man comes from the back and says, "What happened? Is everything ok?"
I look at the man and say, "Derrick? You are alive!"
The man runs over to me and says, "Ryan?"
He hugs me and says, “Man I'm glad to see you. What are you doing here?”
Just as I’m about to reply, the woman that opened the door for us walks over to Derrick and gives him a side hug.
Derrick looks at the woman and says, “Oh Ryan. This is Denise.”
Denise reaches forward to shake my hand. Phil and I make eye contact and have a mutual disgust for Derrick now.
I shake Denise’s hand and say, “Nice to meet you.”
Phil is about to punch Derrick in the face, but I pull Phil aside and say, “Calm down man. Hurting Derrick isn't going to be helpful right now. I want to kick his ass also, but we have to get out of here."
Phil tries to restraint himself and replies to me, “But he is here with his freaking mistress, I can't just let it go."
I say, "We have to man."
Derrick comes over to us and asks, “What's the plan?”
I respond, “We are getting out of here, through the back door.”
I stand up and address the group, "We are getting out of here. We cleared the back door and back walkway. We blocked off the entrance to the back, to avoid any more of those zombies from coming around."
One of the men says, "We don't have any weapons."
Derrick asks, “Where can we get weapons, this is a theme park not a hardware store?”
I take out a map of the theme park and put it on the floor. I locate where we are and where there could be a place to find a weapon or two. I see the closest restaurant on the map is about 50 feet away.
I point at the map and say, "Here! The Destiny 9 Cafe. The kitchen should have knives or something."
The group looks nervous, but they nod in agreement to go to the cafe. The zombies keep banging on the glass windows at the front of the store. There isn't much time until the glass breaks.
"We have to move now as that glass isn't going to last much longer."
The group gathers their belongings and anything they want to take with them. Phil reloads his handguns and shotgun.
Derrick asks Phil, "Can I have a gun?"
Phil looks at me with disgust.
I interject and say, “That might be a good idea Phil.”
Phil says, “Sure, do you know how to use it?”
"Point and shoot, right?" says Derrick.
"A little more to it, but yeah," replies Phil.
I come between Phil and Derrick to defuse the tension and make sure Derrick is safe with a gun.
I show him how to use the safety and tell him, “Keep your finger off the trigger unless you are going to fire. Conserve your ammo. This isn't a video game. We don't have unlimited ammo.”
Just as I finish talking with Derrick, the gift shop front window glass breaks and zombies come pouring into the store. The child and Denise scream. The old man tries to get away, but is bitten and swarmed by zombies.
I yell, "Everyone to the back door!"
Phil leads everyone to the back door. I walk towards the zombies and take out a couple with my katana before running to the back door and closing it behind me.
"We stick to the plan, and we run over to the Destiny 9 Cafe. Meet in the kitchen and find any knives or weapons that may be useful," I say to the group as we talk outside the rear entrance of the gift shop.
I look at the group and say, “Phil and I will take out as many of them as we can. Derrick, you take the group to the cafe.”
Derrick replies, "Ok will do. Everyone stick with me."
Phil and I walk over to the food carts that blocked the walkway. The zombies are going into the gift shop now. The path to the café is clear. We see our chance to move. We push the carts of the way.
I shout, "Let’s move."
We all move along the side wall of the gift shop. The child screams at the sight of a zombie. The scream attracts a few zombies to our location. Phil and I distract the zombies away from the group, so that the group can get by and move to the cafe.
Derrick leads them past us. As Phil and I are fighting zombies, I see Derrick, Denise, and a man move towards the café, but the child freezes in fear. His father tries to make him move, but the boy is paralyzed by his fear and can't move. About 5 zombies attack the boy and his father. They don't make it.
Phil shouts, "No!" as he runs towards the boy and father.
I shoot a zombie in the head as he tries to bite Phil in the back of the head.
I run to Phil and say, "C'mon let's get into the cafe." Phil pulls himself together and pushes a zombie with his shoulder as we both run into the cafe.
Phil and I get into the cafe and find a variety of things. Dead bodies sitting at booths, zombies eating people on the floor, trash and debris everywhere, and a variety of smells that range from rotten food, to decaying flesh.
We walk into the center of the cafe and hear sounds coming from the back kitchen. A zombie tries to grab me on my right leg. I kick his hand off me, and stab him in the head with my katana. Phil and I get to the kitchen. We go through the swinging kitchen door and find our remaining group.
As we enter the kitchen, the group points their knives at us as they aren't sure if we are zombies or people. We find Derrick, D
enise, and the other man from the gift shop alive, but scared.
I ask, "Everyone ok?"
They all nod, but don't say anything. I clear off one of the silver stainless steel prep tables and place the theme park map on it.
I say, "We need to get out of here and get back to our vehicle in the employee parking lot. We are right here and need to get to here."
I place an X on the finish line and draw a line of possible ventures to get there. I can remember what paths were blocked from when Phil and I first made our path back to the Space Wars attraction. Everyone looks at the map and agrees with the mapped-out plan to get back to the cars.
I tell the group, "Phil is going to lead as he is far more protected with his body armor on. Everyone stay close though. Derrick use your gun sparingly, but do use it when needed. We only have so much ammo, but use the bullets when you need to. I want all us to make it out of here alive. Be careful, but not overly careful. We can make it out of here and will if we stick to the plan."
I point to the map and say, "If we get split up, remember we meet at the gift shop on main street to go down the employee staircase in the backroom."
We all get ready to leave the café and start our journey through the park. We check our weapons and make sure we have our guns loaded and ready.
I ask, "Is everyone ready?"
Everyone replies, "Yes."
Phil leads us out of the kitchen and into the cafe. I stay back and am the last one to leave the kitchen. As they leave the kitchen, I hear Denise scream but they keep moving to the exit. I pass through the kitchen door to find more zombies are up and walking around in the cafe. I try to go through the middle of the café, but it's too crowded with zombies now. I have to make a right behind the counter. I see the group leave the cafe through the exit. I hop over the counter, and narrowly escape a zombie trying to bite my right shoulder. A zombie comes up to the left of me. I swing my katana and take her out by chopping her head off. I push up the door and exit the cafe.
The Florida sun is beating down now. I'm profusely sweating. I try to catch my breath and take a break for a second. I need to catch up to the group but am feeling fatigued right now. A group of six zombies try to attack me. I make a mad dash to an open spot and see the group making good distance down the stretch. I hear a gun shot from where they are. The group seems to be okay and continues moving forward. I decide to run to catch up to the group. I'm moving through the zombies and trying to avoid any conflict with them.
As I am running, I lose sight of the group, but hear a scream. It sounds like a man screaming from pain. I see a group of zombies ahead of me. I take out my handgun and shoot a couple of them. I clear a path to get around the group. As I get around the group of zombies, I see the man that was with the group, but no sign of Phil or Derrick. The man has been bitten and gets swarmed by 4 zombies as he lays on the ground. I run past him as it's too late to save him. I can't see Phil, Derrick, or Denise. I hear 2 more gunshots in the distance right by the gift shop, but don't see anyone.
I run to where I heard the gunshots. I find a pile of dead zombies but sign of Phil.
Someone says, "Ryan over here."
I run over to where the voice is coming from. It's Phil. I see Phil, Derrick, and Denise. They are alive and unharmed.
I ask them, "What happened to the other guy?"
Derrick responds," He was trailing us, and he got bit, I tried to save him but there were too many of them."
I survey the area and see that the staircase that leads down to the employee level is open and clear of zombies.
I say, "We have to go back to the staircase in the backroom and down the stairs. It should be clear as that's where we came from."
Phil leads the way followed by Derrick, Denise, and myself. As we are walking to the staircase a zombie comes of out nowhere and nearly bites Denise's right shoulder. I push Denise out of the way. The zombie falls on top of me. I'm fighting it off but can't get to my gun or sword. As I push the zombie away from me, a bullet flies from Phil's handgun into the zombie’s right temple. The zombie becomes lifeless and I throw it to the side of me.
Phil asks, "You ok Ryan?"
I stand up from the ground and say, "Yeah, thanks to some nice shooting I'm ok."
We make it down the staircase and into the employee hallway. We see a couple of zombies in the distance down the hallway. We avoid the zombies and go right down another hallway that leads us to Derrick's office. We run down the hallway and past Derrick's office. We make a left down another hallway and out to the parking garage.
Phil and I get into our police SUV. Derrick and Denise get into Derrick's car. We back out of the parking space and head to the security keycard machine. Derrick follows us as the security bar raises and we both drive out from the parking garage onto the road that will lead us away from the theme park.
"Are we really bringing them both back with us?" asks Phil.
I reply, "I guess so, maybe Denise lives close to them or is just a friend."
Phil looks at me with a look of disbelieve and says, "You saw the gift and how they were at the park. No way that he isn't cheating on Nicole."
I agree with Phil but don't want to jump to any conclusions or cause more problems for Nicole.
I say, "We have to keep it clam. Our ties belong to Nicole. We have to keep an eye out for problems but can't rock the boat either."
Phil responds, “Nicole doesn't deserve that. No one does. My wife cheated on me and I know how bad it sucks. I have zero tolerance for that.”
I respond, "I'm sorry man. I agree but we have to play this close to the vest. If this situation doesn’t come out good for Nicole, she is staying with us and not that asshole."
Phil nods in agreement but is clearly looking for any reason to kill Derrick.
We make a right-hand turn that will take us down to Nicole's neighborhood. As we turn onto the road, we find a bunch of zombies walking all over the place and the front gate is open now. I swerve the best that I can through the zombies but run a lot of them over as they are blocking the way. We make it to the open front gate and see the glass of the clubhouse is now broken and there are tons of zombies walking throughout the neighborhood.
I look at the broken clubhouse window glass and say, “Now I know why it was so quiet in the neighborhood. A lot of the zombies were trapped in the clubhouse until now.”
I drive to Nicole's house as Derrick follows me. We pull up to Nicole's house to find several zombies at the front door and around the house. Derrick parks his car in the driveway. Phil and I grab weapons and we run to the front door. To avoid damaging the house, we try to distract the zombies away from the front door.
The neighborhood is drastically different then how we left it. People are screaming, zombies are eating people in the neighborhood, and the streets are full of zombies. Phil and I kill the zombies at the front of the Nicole’s house. Derrick and Denise run to the front door. Derrick knocks on the door. We hear someone frantically trying to undo the locks but is struggling. More zombies are coming towards the house now. Phil and I take them down as they step towards the front lawn. Phil has his shotgun and I have my handgun. The door opens, it's Lauren. Derrick and Denise run into the house followed by Phil and myself. Lauren closes the door and locks it.
As we all enter the house, Derrick runs to Nicole and gives her a big hug. I find Lauren and give her a big hug. Phil watches Derrick and Nicole hug and walks away into his bedroom. Nicole sees Denise and gives her a big hug also. I see the embrace of Nicole and Denise and wonder if Nicole doesn't know about Derrick and Denise or are Derrick and Denise just friends.
Nicole sees me, walks over to me and says, "Thank you for saving Derrick and Denise. Denise is a good friend of ours and lives down the street from us."
I respond, "You are welcome, we would have liked to have saved more but the rest didn't make it."
Nicole turns towards Derrick and says with tears in her eyes, “What about your brothers?”
; Derrick replies, “I don’t know. They didn't make it with us.”
I hear what Derrick says and look at Denise when he says it. Denise looks away and seems to be hiding something.
Denise says, “I need to check on my house, can someone take me home?”
I respond, "I will take you back home, just show me the way."
Denise looks at me and says, "Okay. I just live a little way down the road."
Denise makes eye contact with Derrick, but Derrick looks away. I see the awkward interaction between Denise and Derrick. The body language of Derrick and Denise are showing me that they are hiding something.
I walk to Lauren and say, "I will be right back after I take Denise home."
"Be careful," says Lauren.
Denise and I exit the front the door of Nicole’s house. I check to see if the house is clear of zombies and the path to the SUV is clear. The SUV is clear of zombies, so Denise and I make our way to the SUV. Denise gets in the passenger side of the SUV and I enter the driver side.
I start the SUV and ask Denise, “So where do you live?”
Denise says, “I live straight down this same street at 1465 Erial Road. It’s about 10 houses down from here.”
As I drive Denise to her house, I feel the need to understand her a little bit more.
I ask Denise, "So how do you know Nicole and Derrick?"
"I work for Orlando Studios just like Derrick and Nicole. I have known them for a while now," says Denise.
I feel that her answer was vague and didn't provide me with much information. We pull up to her house. The house is clear of zombies but I want to make sure she is okay in the house and possibly find out any information about her and Derrick.
I say, "I'll walk you in. I want to make sure you are safe."
Denise replies, "Well, thank you. I live alone so no one should be inside."
We both exit the SUV and walk to the front door of Denise’s house. Denise picks up a potted plant and reveals the front door house key. She picks up the key and opens the front door. The house is well kept and unharmed by zombies or robbers. Denise and I enter her house and I close the front door behind me. As I enter the house, I check out the house for any clues or information about Denise. Denise lives in a nice house but something is off about it. She doesn’t have any pictures on the walls, or on the tables. It also seems to be a big house for just one person.
Fight 4 Us (Book 1): The Beginning Page 12