by Brian Grenda
I take the knife and say, “You steal from me, so I steal from you.”
Phil checks the man who he tackled for weapons and finds a gun tucked into the back of his pants. Phil takes the gun and kicks the guy in the thigh as he lies face down on the ground.
Phil shouts, “You steal from us and you get hurt. Get your crap together. If I see you again, I will kill you.”
We leave the two men lying on the ground. Phil and I start walking back to our shopping carts. We push our shopping carts towards the zombies, but the street is still blocked by the pile of dead zombies that we killed. Phil and I need to move more zombies out of the way to clear our path to the parking lot.
Phil and I move the remaining zombies out of the way. The smell coming from the zombies is terrible. The smell is a mix of trash, body odor, and fecal matter. I come close to vomiting several times as Phil and I move the bodies out of the way.
We finally clear a path for our shopping carts. We push the shopping carts around the back entrance of the shopping center and make our way into the supermarket parking lot.
The parking lot is a lot crazier now than when we first arrived. More and more people have arrived at the supermarket. Phil and I must dodge several people running from danger, empty shopping carts, and speeding cars as we make our way to the SUV.
We make it back to the SUV and find it clear of danger. Phil and I get to the SUV and start unloading our shopping carts. We got tons of good stuff for the house, Nicole, and the babies. The items take up the entire back seat as well as the floor in front of the back seats.
Phil and I finish unloading the carts and enter the SUV. Phil starts the SUV and backs out of the parking space. As he backs out of the parking space, he runs over two zombies that were walking in the parking lot.
Phil puts the SUV in drive and hits the gas pedal. Our SUV is loaded with tons of food and supplies. We should be set for a while.
Phil and I make our way back to my house. On our way home, I can’t help but to think about what Phil and I just went through at the hardware store, the Big Club, and the supermarket.
People need food and water to survive. Without food and water, people will never make it in this new world. Consistent food production and supply is going to be a tough thing to have as time goes by.
Society is breaking down and people will do anything for food, safety, and survival.
We need to become self-sufficient in all areas and limit the number of food and supply runs that we need to take. We fortunately were not harmed this time, but how many more times can we keep this up?
CHAPTER 8
WE ARE SET
Phil and I arrive at my house. It’s always nice and reassuring to see that my house is unharmed and without danger. It gives me a sense of safety and security, and that is a must for this new world.
Phil parks the SUV and unlocks the trunk. I open the trunk and am relieved and happy to see a jam-packed SUV that is filled with a variety of useful things.
Phil opens the back doors to the SUV and starts to pile up our items in the driveway. Phil grabs a couple of items and walks towards the front door. Lauren opens the front door for him and then walks out to help us unload the SUV.
“How did you guys do?” asks Lauren.
“Great. We got tons of things and everything on the list.”
I grab a bunch of the vegetable plants and items from the trunk and take them into my backyard. Phil and Lauren continue to unload the items from the backseat of the SUV.
I open the white privacy fence door and enter my backyard. It’s clear of any zombies and danger. The plan for my backyard is to turn it into a makeshift farm and garden.
I place the items I was carrying down on the ground and walk back to the SUV. Lauren and Phil are doing a great job at bringing the supplies in the house. The SUV is just about empty.
I grab the last of the items in the trunk and put them in the backyard next to the other items. I look down at what we got so far, and think that it’s a good start, but that we will need more.
My backyard will need a lot of work to turn it into a decent garden, but the soil should be able to produce food from the plants and seeds that we have now.
Phil and Lauren finish unloading the SUV.
Lauren looks at Phil and asks, “Did everything go okay on this trip?”
Phil closes the trunk and says, “Yeah. It went ok, but we saw a potential problem at one of the stores.”
Lauren replies, “What do you mean? Which one?”
“The Big Club. It was taken over by a group, and I think we will need to eventually get in that store,” says Phil.
“Oh. Yeah. That Big Club is nice and I’m sure people value that place now. I’m glad you guys are safe though,” says Lauren.
Phil can’t seem to let the situation go regarding the Big Club. He wants to fight for the store and not let some group dictate what happens to the food and supplies.
Phil and Lauren walk into the house and start to organize the items that we got from the supply run. I walk through the front door and go into the kitchen. I walk over the sink and wash my hands and face.
Lauren grabs a lot of the baby supplies and takes them into Nicole’s room. Phil organizes the food products, and I start to load up the refrigerator and pantry with various food items.
We got tons of items during this trip and should be set for a while now. Eventually the food and our supplies will run out, so we need to devise a plan to make these items last.
“I hope this food lasts us a while,” says Phil.
“It should, we just have to ration it out and conserve.”
Phil replies, “We definitely will, but I think we eventually will have to get in that Big Club store.”
I put a bag of chips in the pantry, look at Phil and say, “Yeah. We must get in there. We will need a team of people though and all we have is you and me right now.”
Lauren walks into the kitchen. She helps Phil and I put the items away in the kitchen.
I start laughing as I’m standing in the kitchen.
Lauren and Phil look at me with a curious look.
“What’s so funny?” asks Lauren.
“We saw Jon Reese and his dad at the hardware store, and he looked like a Viking.”
Lauren replies, “Who looked like a Viking? Jon or his dad?”
Phil says, “Jon did. He had a big shield and a huge sword.”
“I don’t know how Jon can even pick that giant sword up.”
Phil shouts, “Victory!”
We all start laughing at the TV show quote.
Phil picks up the electrical wiring and clips that Jon told us to get for hooking up solar panels. Solar panels could be a game changer. They would provide us with constant power and my house is perfect for them.
Lauren asks, “How is Jon doing?”
“He looked good. His dad looked good as well. He said he was down here with Kelly visiting his parents when all this chaos broke out, and that they are staying with his parents in their condo.”
Phil asks, “Where do they live?”
Lauren asks, “Don’t they live on the bay? Like right on the bay?”
“Yeah. They live in a sweet condo right on Tampa Bay.”
Phil says, “I think we have to check it out and see what is going on with them.”
“Eventually we will. Let’s get setup here with the house and backyard first.”
We all finish putting away the food and other items in the kitchen. Lauren washes her hands in the kitchen sink and then goes to check on Nicole.
Lauren goes into Nicole’s room and finds Nicole taking a nap. The babies are in the crib. Mason is asleep, but Mia is wide awake. Lauren picks up Mia from the crib and holds her against her body.
Nicole wakes up from her nap and says, “Hey Lauren. Is everything okay?”
Lauren replies, “Everything is great. The guys got everything on the list and we are set for a while now.”
Nicole replies, “Great.
”
Lauren says, “The guys even got vegetables to plant in our backyard.”
Nicole sits up and says, “Really. That’s great. I can help with that. I have somewhat of a green thumb.”
Lauren replies, “Great. But you need to rest for now. You just had two babies.”
“I just want to contribute. Pull my weight around here,” says Nicole.
Lauren says, “Don’t worry about that. We will all work together and survive.”
I walk outside to the backyard and decide to start work on our backyard garden. I finish up the raking and making the soil level, and am ready to plants seeds now.
Phil comes out and helps me. He picks up the vegetable plants and puts them in the sun.
He takes a couple of plants and brings them inside the back screened lanai next to the house. I look at our supply and decide to only plant a couple of seed packets.
I rip up the soil and make a couple rows to plant a couple seed packets of lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes. I want to have a trial run to see how the seeds workout. I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing and don’t want to risk losing all the seeds.
Phil comes over to me and says, “Man, that looks terrible.”
“Does it really?”
“No. I’m just joking, but they will need water,” says Phil as he grabs a nearby hose and lightly sprays water onto the rows of seeds.”
Phil and I don’t know how to grow crops and we weren’t raised on a farm by any means. Hopefully the crops will grow, but we might need some help from someone who knows what they are doing.
As I was watch Phil water the crops, I get curious about my neighbor’s backyards and homes. My backyard is connected to four other backyards.
As I’m standing in my backyard, I don’t hear any sounds of zombies, danger, or people. I walk over to my back fence that connects to my neighbor’s backyard and try to peek into my neighbor’s backyard.
My back fence is wooden and I can use the bottom rungs of wood to step on. I stand on the fence and look over into my neighbor’s backyard. I see an empty backyard with a couple of medium sized trees.
I take a closer look at the trees and am happy at what I see. The two trees are orange trees. They aren’t fully loaded with oranges, but they do have some oranges on them.
I get curious about my other neighbor’s backyards and run over to the other side of the fence that connects to another neighbor’s backyard. I use the fence to prop myself up again, but I can’t get a good enough view.
My shed is right behind me. I decide to use the fence to help me get on top of my shed’s roof. Phil finishes watering the crops and turns off the hose.
I get on top of the shed and stand up. As I’m standing on top of the shed, I can clearly see into my neighbor’s backyard and down the street. My next store neighbor Martha that was killed by Ray, has a big backyard and a flower garden. The neighbor behind that house has some tomatoes growing in the backyard as well as two huge water containers.
I make a mental note that we need to check out that house.
Phil sees me on top of the shed and asks, “You going to jump bro?”
“No. I’m just checking out the neighbor’s backyards and houses to see if I see anything we can use.”
I look at my next store neighbor’s house and see that he has solar panels on his roof. I feel weird looking at my neighbors as objects or things of interest now.
Before the world fell apart, this neighborhood was a nice and quiet group of homes. Minimal problems and annoyances by neighbors.
I hop down from the shed and walk over to Phil.
“We need to check out two homes to see if people are living in the homes or not.”
Phil replies, “What did you see?”
I saw solar panels that we can hopefully use, water containers that are hopefully full, and some tomato plants.
“Really that’s great. Let’s check them out now,” says Phil.
“Let’s gear up first and then we can check out the neighbors’ homes.”
Phil and I go back into the house. Phil goes into his bedroom, and I go into mine. I put on my bulletproof vest again and grab my katana and a handgun.
Phil walks out of his room with his shotgun, a knife and his handgun. I notice that he doesn’t have his body armor on.
“No body armor today?”
Phil replies, “No. It’s too hot and we are only checking out a couple homes, right?”
I find it weird that Phil isn’t wearing his body armor, but I trust Phil’s decision. I’m just used to seeing him all geared up in his all black police body armor.
Lauren hears Phil and I talking in the kitchen and comes over to us.
“What are you guys doing now?” asks Lauren.
“We are going to check out two of the neighbor’s houses. Buck’s house which is right next door to us and the house behind Martha’s.”
“Be careful out there,” says Lauren.
I kiss Lauren and say, “We will.”
Phil and I exit the house and decide to walk to the farther house first and then come back to our next-door neighbor.
As we walk down the driveway and down the street, Phil and I are inspecting the neighborhood. We pass Martha’s house and see her house is in pretty good shape and her front door is shut. Martha lived alone before the zombie apocalypse and the house should be empty as Lauren saw Ray kill Martha when she bit him.
Phil and I turn the corner of street and arrive at the front door of my neighbor’s house. I didn’t know the neighbor who lived here before the zombie apocalypse, but I believe the house was owned by an elderly man who lived alone.
Phil knocks on the front door, but we don’t hear any movement and no one answers the door. Phil tries to open the front door, but the door is locked.
I walk around the house, check out the garage, and side of the house. The garage door is shut and locked.
As I walk past the side of the house, I see that all the windows are closed, but that the blinds are open.
I take a quick peek inside a window and see an empty bedroom. I walk down to another window and see that one of the bedroom windows is slightly open.
As I approach the window, I smell something terrible. It smells like death and rotting flesh.
The smell makes me dry heave as I try to look inside the house. Phil comes running around the side of the house and sees me bent over with my hands on my knees.
“You okay bro?” asks Phil.
I spit on the grass and reply, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure the owner of the house is dead and inside on his bed.”
Phil runs over to the window and looks in. The smell makes him look away quickly.
“Yeah. He’s definitely dead. I can see him lying on the bed. His head is bloody, like he shot himself,” says Phil.
I walk to the backyard wooden fence door and unlock the latch. I push the door open and check to see that nothing is in the backyard. Phil follows behind and we enter the backyard.
Phil sees the tomatoes in the backyard and runs over to them. He looks for something to carry the tomatoes in and finds a basket sitting against the fence.
I walk over to the water containers and see that they are filled with water. The containers collect water from the gutters and have screens on them to block any leaves or anything from getting into the containers.
The rain water containers will be very useful, especially when rainy season comes to Florida. The containers give me the idea to make some for my backyard as we can never have enough water.
Phil walks over to me carrying a basket of tomatoes. The tomatoes look to be in good shape and healthy. I haven’t always been the biggest fan of tomatoes, but I guess I will have to be now.
“Let’s get these tomatoes back to the house and check out my next-door neighbor Buck’s house.”
“Yeah, let’s take these tomatoes back home,” says Phil.
I walk to the backyard gate and hold it open for Phil. Phil walks through the gate while holdin
g the basket of tomatoes. I follow behind him and close the gate.
Phil and I walk past the neighbor’s house and around the corner. We pass Martha’s house and arrive back at my house. I open the front door and hold the door open for Phil. Phil walks inside, and places the basket of tomatoes on the kitchen countertop.
Phil walks back out the front door and I close it behind him. I lock the door, and we start to walk over to my next-door neighbors’ house.
No cars are in the driveway of my neighbor Buck’s house. My neighbor Buck is a good guy. I have known him ever since I bought my house. As we approach the front door, I see eyes looking at us through the front window.
“Buck! Is that you?”
“Who is it?” yells Buck.
“It’s me Ryan. Your neighbor Ryan.”
Buck opens the front door. He’s holding a handgun by his side in his right hand. Buck is shirtless, and wearing some dirty khaki shorts.
Phil and I walk towards Buck who is standing in his front doorway. Buck invites us inside his home. I introduce Buck to Phil as we enter his home.
Buck’s house is a very nice bachelor pad. As I enter the house, I see signs of him being alone in the house. He has lived alone for as long as I have been his neighbor.
“You alone here Buck?”
“Yeah. I haven’t been able to get a hold of my lady friend for a couple days now,” says Buck as we walk to the back of the house into the living room.
Buck, Phil, and I walk into the living room. Buck sits down in his recliner chair, while Phil and I stand. It’s clear that Buck hasn’t left the house much, as trash is all over the floor, beer bottles and plates are piled up on several different tables, and the house smells as if the doors haven’t been opened in several days.
“How are you and Lauren holding up next store?” asks Buck.
“Hanging in there. It’s kind of crazy in our house now. You might hear some babies next store.”
“Babies?” asks Buck.
“Yeah, our friend Nicole and her two babies are living with us.”
“Good luck with that. Babies are tough to handle in normal circumstances, but I can’t imagine dealing with them now. Talk about dragging you down and being dead weight.”