by Brian Grenda
The blast must have come from the gas tanks and or explosives that were inside the police car. The explosion got the attention of the condo residents.
A large group of condo residents walk towards the gates of the condo and look down the road. A group of zombies start to make their way towards the gate of the condo. The people scream in terror, but feel that the gate will remain closed.
One man walks towards the gate and almost taunts the zombies. He starts to walk away when the gate opens and several zombies attack him. He screams in pain as three zombies attack him and knock him to the ground. The condo residents scream in terror and run back inside to the main lobby of the condo building.
“Jon, you have to see this. Your front gates aren’t holding anymore. Zombies are getting in the condo building now.”
Jon says, “Done. The conversion is done. All we need is to hook up the wire to our converter in the condo unit itself.”
Phil and Jon come back to my location on the roof top and look down at the horror that is happening in the condo parking lot.
Jon says, “We have to close that gate. Without it being closed. Anything and anyone can get in.”
Phil and I look at each other with an encouraging look. Phil grabs his shotgun and checks to makes sure he has enough rounds. I check my handgun clip and see that I have a full magazine of bullets.
I look at Jon and say, “We will help close the condo gate and secure the condo. Do you have any weapons?”
Jon laughs and says, “Do I have any weapons? I have an arsenal of weapons.”
CHAPTER 12
CONDO ASSOCIATION
A military helicopter flies from the bay, over Jon’s parents’ condo, and towards downtown Tampa. The helicopter looks to be a military chopper that came from the local Air Force base.
As the chopper passes over us on the roof of the condo building, Phil is excited to see a military presence.
“It’s about time. I was wondering when we would see a military presence around here,” shouts Phil.
“When the military shows up, that can’t be good though bro!”
Phil replies, “Definitely not, but it’s good to see that we still have some hope in ending this thing.”
The helicopter flies away from us and looks to be checking out downtown Tampa and several other locations.
Jon, Phil and I exit the roof and walk over to the elevators. Jon hits the down elevator button but nothing happens. The blast from the cars must have cut the power to the condo.
Jon tries the button again but the elevator clearly is not working now. Jon leads us to the stairs and we run down the stairs until we get to the 16th floor.
The floor has residents on it now and they are starting to panic. We pass several elderly residents not sure if they should leave or stay inside their condos.
We arrive at Jon’s parents’ door and enter the condo. Frank, Tracy, and Kelly are pacing in the living room and are scared.
“What happened out there?” shouts Tracy.
“The police got overrun right outside your building. Several cars exploded and must have cut the power to the building and front gate.
Frank asks, “To the front gate?”
Jon replies, “Yeah, zombies and anything else can get inside here now.”
Frank and Tracy have lost their sense of security now. With the gate holding before, they felt untouchable.
Jon walks Phil and I into his room. He opens up his gun safe and takes out a semi-automatic machine gun, two handguns, a pump handle shotgun, and ammo for the shotgun and handguns.
He grabs his medieval broad sword from its stand and medieval shield.
I can’t help but to laugh just looking at Jon holding the sword and shield, but he says that it does the trick against these zombies.
“You look great with that sword and shield bro.”
Jon replies, “You laugh now, but these medieval weapons might save your butt and be the way of the world one day.”
Phil picks up the shotgun and says, “Well as long as we have guns and bullets, swords are second fiddle to them.”
Kelly walks into the bedroom and sees that we are gearing up to fight the zombies and secure the condo.
Kelly nervously asks, “Jon. What is your plan? Are you going down stairs?”
Jon walks over to Kelly and says, “We are going to secure the condo and make sure that we are safe here.”
Kelly is very a nice woman, but not a fighter. Jon and Kelly have been married for several years now and have a great marriage. They encourage each other and bring out the best parts of one another.
Kelly says, “Good luck guys. Be safe out there.”
“Thank you, Kelly. We will.”
Kelly leaves the room. Phil, Jon, and I start to develop a plan to close the gate and secure the condo.
“We need to close the gate, but we can’t go straight down to the lobby. As the lobby has to be overrun by zombies now.”
Phil asks, “Anyway to get outside without going down to the lobby?”
Jon grabs his chin and says, “Let’s see. We have to take the stairs down now. We can take the stairs down to the lower levels, but might have to exit on the 2nd or 3rd floor.”
“We have to avoid the lobby and the zombies at all costs.”
Jon says, “We can get to the outdoor pool and then to the side of the building that will take us to the rear of the parking lot.”
Phil says, “You lead the way Jon.”
Jon picks up a handgun and puts it in the back of his pants. He hands the other handgun to me and Phil takes the shotgun.
Jon picks up the machine gun and checks the magazine of bullets. Jon only has one magazine of bullets for the machine gun.
As Jon holds that big machine gun, Phil asks, “Where did you get that thing?
“It was a gift from Kelly’s dad,” replies Jon.
Phil jokes, “Is her dad Rambo?”
Jon jokingly replies, “Yeah, Bill Rambo from New Jersey.”
Phil, Jon, and I do one last check of our guns and gear. We leave the room and walk towards the condo front door.
Jon says goodbye to his parents and wife. Phil and I wave goodbye to Frank, Tracy and Kelly.
“We will be back.”
Tracy replies, “I hope so.”
Phil and I exit the condo and wait for Jon in the hallway. The hallway is empty of people now.
Jon says goodbye to his parents and Kelly, and meets us in the hallway.
We walk to the stairwell and open the door. The stairwell is dimly light by the emergency lights. I take a step down onto the metal step and stop.
The stairwell sounds empty, but I just want to make sure. I feel confident that we are safe and start down the stairs.
We make our way down to the 4th floor stairs and Jon tells me to stop.
“We can get to the pool from the 4th floor stairs. There is game room that has a separate stairwell that leads us to the pool,” says Jon.
I open the door and find some kids running down the hallway. They turn down a hallway and vanish.
Jon says, “Follow those kids. They probably went to the game room.”
We run down the hallway and get to the game room doors. I enter the room. Three kids scream as we enter the game room. One of them throws an object at us that hits the wall.
“Watch it.”
The three kids are terrified
Jon walks towards the kids and says, “It’s okay. We are not here to hurt you.”
The kids are hesitant to say anything or move.
Jon asks, “Where are your parents?”
One of the kids responds, “We don’t know. We were in the lobby with our mom when the zombies came in.”
Phil says, “Stay here or go to your room. Do not go to the lobby or any lower than this level.”
The kids nervously nod in agreement.
Jon walks towards the rear stairwell that leads to the pool and says, “This way.”
Jon opens the stai
rwell door and we immediately hear screams from people by the pool. Some screams are from fear while others are from pain. The screams from the pool sound like people are being eaten alive as well as fighting off zombies.
We pause on the steps as soon as we hear the screams. I try to gather where they came from. The screams stop and Jon feels that it’s safe to continue down the stairs.
We make it to the pool door entrance and Jon opens the door. The pool is a chaotic mess.
People are trying to fight off zombies from attacking them, but the zombies seem to be winning.
Suddenly a loud crash is heard, followed by a screaming man. We look up and see a man falling from the sky towards the pool.
Splash!
The man splashes down hard into the pool. The pool water immediately becomes red. The man fell from one of the levels of the condo and crashed down into the pool.
Jon takes out his sword and chops up a nearby zombie. I take out my katana and am ready to defend myself. Phil has his shotgun by his shoulder and is ready to fire.
Zombies are coming at us from all angles. Jon knocks a zombie down with his shield. I stab a zombie in the head.
Boom!
Phil fires a shotgun blast and clears out a path to the side of the building.
We all run to the left side of the building and take cover. Jon looks down the path to the side of the building. He sees one zombie in the distance. Jon grabs his machine gun and shoots the zombie. He hits the zombie in the shoulder. The bullets knock the zombie back, but they don’t kill him.
Jon puts the machine gun away and leads us down the side of the condo building. We make it to the parking lot.
The zombie that Jon shot is still standing. Jon takes out his sword and chops the zombie’s head clean off.
The parking lot is full of zombies. We take cover behind a car and try to come up with a plan to block the gate and clear out the zombies.
Phil sees that he can make it to his truck and block the path of the zombies that are coming in from the street.
Phil says, “I see my truck. I want to block the front gate with my truck. Cover me.”
“We will provide cover.”
Jon and I run out to kill nearby zombies as Phil runs towards his truck. I take out a few zombies with my katana. Jon knocks a zombie down with his shield and then cuts a zombie in half with his sword.
I take out a zombie with handgun. Phil gets to truck and starts the engine. He drives the truck towards the front gate and kills several zombies in the process.
Phil positions the truck to block the front gate, so that it won’t allow anything from getting in or out.
Zombies are surrounding Phil’s truck now. Jon and I see that Phil can’t get out of his truck unless we clear the zombies away.
Jon and I run towards the zombies. We slash and chop zombie limbs and heads off as we make our way to the truck. Jon swings his sword down on top of a zombies’ head then hits another zombie with his shield.
I clear out the last of the zombies with a slash from my katana and a shot from my handgun.
Phil exits the truck through the passenger side door and walks over to us.
The front gate is secure for now, but now we can’t leave the condo complex either. I look at the truck as a temporary fix and know that we will have to come up with another plan.
Our plan must be one that can hold the gate closed but also will allow us to leave.
“What’s the plan to get this gate functional again?”
Jon responds, “I don’t think the power will come back, but we have to lock it closed with some chain or something.”
We all look around the parking lot for something useful, but don’t see anything that we can use.
Phil asks, “Do you know where the maintenance closet or shed is?”
Jon replies, “On the first floor, right off the main lobby.”
The lobby is packed with zombies now. We have to go back inside the condo and clear them out to make it to the maintenance closet.
Phil and I walk towards the lobby and find it packed with zombies. Zombies are all over the place. They are eating people on the floor of the lobby and have filled the entire space of the main lobby.
I step closer to the lobby and see the remains of the man that taunted the zombies before they could get through the gate. His body is ripped apart as zombies ate almost every part of him.
We can’t take them on inside the lobby as there are too many of them. The best idea is to draw them out from the lobby. I take out my handgun and start shooting.
Zombies are falling to the ground as I’m shooting into the lobby. The gunfire draws the attention of several zombies and they start coming after me. I start yelling and continue shooting at the zombies to draw their attention to my direction.
Zombies start pouring out of the lobby towards me. I run back to where Jon is standing. Phil follows and we start firing on the zombies.
Jon is mowing down tons of zombies with his machine gun. Phil is blasting zombies into pieces with his shotgun and I’m picking off zombies with my handgun.
I run out of bullets for my handgun and take out my katana. Phil takes down a zombie with a shotgun blast but then is out of bullets.
Jon drops his machine gun and hands Phil his handgun. Phil takes the handgun and shoots a zombie as the zombie nearly scratches him.
Jon takes out his sword and starts chopping of zombie heads. Phil runs towards a zombie and shoots him in the head. I see the last two zombies come out of the lobby and run towards them. I slash into the zombies killing them instantly.
We killed all the zombies in the parking lot and lobby. Phil, Jon, and I catch our breath and take a second to evaluate the parking lot.
We rest for a couple minutes, then we decide to enter the condo lobby.
We walk to the maintenance closet door and open it. The maintenance closet has a variety of cleaning products, supplies, and miscellaneous things. We search through the entire closet for anything useful.
The closet stinks like bleach, but it’s better than the dead body zombie smell that is now in the parking lot and lobby.
Phil moves a box out of the way finds a thick chain that will work to close the gate, but there is no lock for it. Jon sees Phil pick up the chain and smiles.
“I have a lock we can use to lock up the front gate with that chain,” says Jon.
“Great. You have it in your room?”
Jon replies, “Yeah.”
Phil laughs and says, “Good luck with going up and down 16 flights of stairs.”
Jon replies, “Crap. The elevators are out. This is going to suck.”
Jon hands Phil his shield as he doesn’t want to carry the shield up 16 flights of stairs. Phil hands him back the handgun.
Jon says, “I’ll be right back.”
Jon runs towards the stairwell. He opens the door and shoots a zombie in the head. The door closes and Jon vanishes.
I run to the stairwell to check on Jon.
“You okay Jon?”
Jon replies, “Yeah. It was only one zombie. I got him.”
Jon continues running up the stairs. I close the stairwell door and wait in the lobby. As I walk towards Phil, I see that he is having fun with the shield that Jon handed him.
Phil is swinging the shield around and acting out what he would do to a zombie with the shield. I think he thinks he is a superhero with that shield. It looks funny to see a guy using a shield, but I must say that it worked very well for Jon.
I can’t help but to laugh at the sight of Phil playing with the shield. Phil loves his guns, but I think he might like the medieval weapons the more that he uses them.
Twenty minutes go by and Jon finally returns to the lobby. He is breathing heavy as he brings us the lock.
“You okay Stairmaster?” jokes Phil.
“I’m out of shape. That’s what I am,” says Jon while trying to catch his breathe.
We exit the lobby and walk towards the front gate. Three
zombies are standing by the truck and are trying to get in the condo complex from the street.
Phil hops into his truck through the passenger side door and starts the engine. Phil slowly moves the truck forward which allows a zombie to get in, but only one at a time. Jon kills the zombie with his sword.
The next two zombies enter the parking lot. I stab one of them with my katana and Jon kills the other with his handgun.
The gate is clear of zombies now. I walk outside the gate and onto the street. The street is clear of zombies. The two police cars are still on fire and are attracting several zombies to the heat.
The street is clear and now being the best time to leave the condo building. Phil and Jon walk over to me.
“Phil get in the truck and drive out of here. Now is the best chance for us to leave and lock the gate behind us.”
Phil gets in his truck and drives through the gate. I walk to my vehicle and enter my SUV. I start the SUV and drive through the front gate. Phil and I park our vehicles by the front gate and walk back towards Jon.
Jon is waiting on the inside of the gate. We grab the gate and pull it shut. Phil wraps the chain around the gate and the post. Jon grabs the lock, secures the chain, and locks the front gate.
Jon has the only key to the lock, so as a result he is the gatekeeper to the condo.
Jon looks at Phil and I through the gate posts and says, “Thank you guys for this. I will come by your house when I get situated here and help you with your solar panels. You will see me again.”
“You are welcome. I hope I see you again Jon. Good luck with everything.”
Phil and I jump into our vehicles and we drive away from the condo front gate. We pass the burning police vehicles and several zombies that are on fire as they walk towards the police cars.
The zombies scream and moan as we pass them. It’s a scary sight to see and something I don’t wish to continually see.
CHAPTER 13
NEIGHBORHOOD SECURITY
Phil and I safely arrive back to my neighborhood after the chaos and craziness with Jon. As we arrive at my house, I am extremely grateful to find it safe and secure. Nothing like almost dying to value coming home to a safe and secure home.