Lauren kisses me goodbye, and I walk back over to the electric truck that is parked in Bobby G’s driveway.
Shaun is talking with Bobby G, as Bobby G is working on his old SUV.
“What are you doing with that thing?”
Bobby G replies, “I’m working on it. I want to get her running again.”
“Come on Shaun, let’s get going. See ya dad. Don’t work too hard on trying to get your old SUV working again.”
“See you later,” replies Bobby G.
Shaun and I get into the electric truck, and I drive out of Citrus Oaks.
Shaun looks at me and asks, “Can I ask you a question?”
I smile and reply, “Why are you asking me if you can ask me a question? That’s not like you. You usually can’t shut up.”
Shaun laughs and answers, “You seem a little different. Since your leg injury from DK, you have been all sentimental and telling us how much we mean to you.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, just wondering why? That universal truth book showing you an enlightened path or something?” asks Shaun.
“I haven’t even started reading that book yet. I just got it yesterday.”
I turn on a main road and say, “I don’t know bro. I have just been thinking about the world, what we have done so far, and just everything that has happened.”
Shaun looks out his window and sees two zombies aimlessly walking towards an abandoned building.
“I have been thinking about the crazy things we have done. I have done. I guess with the break from all the craziness, I realized the terrible things I have done.”
“Like what?” asks Shaun.
“Like slicing a fucking guy’s head off! That’s not normal bro! I never thought I would kill another person in my life!”
“Me either, but I also never thought the streets would be full of dead people. The world isn’t what it was. We all have had to make tough decisions. That’s how we stay alive. It’s kill or be killed now,” says Shaun.
“You are right. I don’t feel totally remorseful for killing the people who have gone against us. I’ll choose to protect us every time.”
“Me too, but I know where you are coming from. Killing isn’t acceptable for people. At least normal people. Psychopaths and murders might think it’s normal but not normal people like us. A doctor and an IT guy,” replies Shaun.
I turn onto the street that Jaws Junior and Darlene’s luxury car dealership is on.
BANG!
A very loud gunshot is heard a couple streets away.
“What the fuck?” shouts Shaun.
I stop the electric truck.
“See, that was the gunshot we heard before.”
Shaun and I look down the street and don’t see anything.
“That’s a freaking cannon! It’s probably a large round from a sniper rifle. I wonder who is shooting that type of weapon and why?” asks Shaun.
We wait a couple more minutes and we don’t see anyone or hear any more gunshots.
“That gunshot could have come from a mile out,” says Shaun as Shaun and I look around the area from inside the electric truck.
I start to drive down the street, and Shaun sees a shopping center in the distance.
“The shot might have come from that shopping center. We’ll have to make a note to avoid that shopping center or tread quietly around there,” says Shaun.
“Mark it on the map.”
Shaun draws a question mark on the street map where the shopping center is located.
I arrive at Jaws Junior and Darlene’s luxury car dealership.
I drive into the luxury car dealership lot and explore the car lot a little more.
Shaun looks at the vehicles through his passenger side window as I drive around the lot.
I pull around to the back of the luxury car dealership lot and park.
I see two zombies banging on the wire fence that is along the side of the main building of the luxury car dealership.
I grab my katana and Shaun grabs his rifle.
I walk over to the zombies.
The zombies are moaning and groaning at me as I walk over to the wire fence.
I kill the male zombie and then the female zombie as they grab and slap the wire fence.
SHICK!
SHICK!
I stab the zombies in the head with my katana and the zombies fall onto the pavement.
“I’ll never be okay with the sounds the zombies make. It’s annoying as hell.”
The sound of two handgun hammers being clicked back are heard as Shaun and I stand near the wire fence.
CLICK! CLICK!
“Put your hands up!” shouts Darlene at Shaun and me.
I slowly turn towards Darlene with my hands above my head and say, “It’s me Ryan. I met you before Darlene.”
“Shit! You can’t be sneaking around here! We almost shot your ass!” shouts Jaws Junior.
“You must be Jaws Junior,” says Shaun.
“Yup, and this is Darlene,” replies Jaws Junior.
“And that’s Indy.”
Indy steps forward and growls at Shaun.
“Down boy! They are okay!” shouts Darlene.
Indy stops growling but stares at Shaun and me.
Darlene and Jaws Junior holster their handguns.
“Nice place you got here,” says Shaun to Darlene and Jaws Junior.
“We think so,” responds Jaws Junior.
I walk to the back of our electric truck and lower the back tailgate.
“Help me with this Shaun!”
Shaun sees two RV’s parked behind the main building of the luxury car dealership.
I grab a box from the back of the electric truck and put it on the ground.
Shaun grabs the other box from the back of the electric truck and asks, “What are the RV’s for? Company?”
“Don’t mind him, he’s just curious what you got going on here.”
I put the box I got from the electric truck, in front of Darlene.
Shaun puts his box down in front of Jaws Junior.
“What you got going on here?” asks Jaws Junior as he looks down at the boxes.
“It’s no big deal. Just some stuff I think you can use.”
Darlene opens the box, that is in front of her, and starts looking through the items in the box.
“Thank you, but we are doing fine here,” says Jaws Junior.
“Oh, my goodness, you have shampoo and conditioner. Hand sanitizer,” says Darlene as she goes through the items in the box.
Darlene finishes going through the other box and is happy with what she finds in there also.
Darlene thanks me for the supplies and looks at Shaun.
“I’m sorry, what is your name?” asks Darlene to Shaun.
“It’s Shaun,” replies Shaun.
“Shaun, thank you too,” responds Darlene.
“Come inside, it’s hot out here,” says Darlene.
Darlene picks up the box that is in front of her and walks inside the main building of the luxury car dealership.
Indy follows Darlene.
Jaws Junior looks at Shaun and me.
“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that. We don’t need your charity,” says Jaws Junior with an angry tone.
“It’s not charity. It’s payment for the SUV.”
Shaun sees the repair shop on the luxury car dealership lot.
“You got power going to the repair shop?” asks Shaun to Jaws Junior.
“No, I got a couple gas generators going for the power in here,” answers Jaws Junior.
“Come inside guys. It’s too hot outside,” says Darlene to Jaws Junior, Shaun, and me.
Jaws Junior picks up the other box that Darlene left outside, and we walk with him inside the luxury car dealership building.
The luxury car dealership building is somewhat lit from the sunlight that is coming from the glass windows and doors at the front and rear of the building.<
br />
“Sorry it’s so hot in here, but we don’t run the generators all the time. They are too loud, and we are trying to conserve gas,” says Jaws Junior.
“I understand. Have you looked into solar power?”
“Yeah, we haven’t had any luck with finding panels that were in good shape,” answers Jaws Junior.
“Well, I’m sure you have enough gas here for a while,” says Shaun.
“That we do have, but siphoning the gas from the vehicles sucks,” says Jaws Junior.
“I heard that. I had to do that a couple times back home,” says Shaun.
Jaws Junior puts the box, he was carrying, down next to a table.
“Where are you from?” asks Darlene to Shaun.
“North Carolina. We came down here after shit hit the fan.
Jaws Junior sits down on a leather sofa.
Shaun and I stand and look around the building.
Darlene sits next to Jaws Junior on the leather sofa.
“Where do you sleep?” asks Shaun.
“We have a mattress in one of the big offices that we turned into a bedroom. Sometimes we sleep in one of the RV’s,” answers Jaws Junior.
“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know really. Probably a couple months now since we lost our house,” answers Jaws Junior.
“How did you lose your house?” asks Shaun.
“Some group of assholes came in and just started taking over. They killed a lot of our neighbors and tried to kill us,” replies Jaws Junior.
Darlene gets sad at the thought of that day.
I look at Shaun and say, “The Conquerors took their neighborhood.”
Shaun responds, “That’s about right.”
“You know them?” asks Jaws Junior.
“Yeah, we know them. We have had some altercations with them.”
Shaun says, “Ryan cut Joseph’s head off.”
I elbow Shaun in his side.
“What? You did, you need to let people know that. People need to know that Joseph is gone now,” says Shaun.
Jaws Junior stands up from the leather sofa and asks, “You killed that big motherfucker?”
I look at Jaws Junior and answer, “Yes. He is gone, but his brother Jacob is the problem now.”
Darlene looks at Jaws Junior and asks, “Do you think our neighborhood is safe now?”
“I don’t know honey, but I think we should see if they are still occupying our home. I’d love to get on our motorcycles again,” answers Jaws Junior.
Shaun looks at Darlene and says, “I see you are wearing a military jacket. Did you serve in the military?”
Darlene looks at her jacket sleeve and answers, “No, my father did. This was his jacket.”
I see a couple of bullet holes in the walls of the building we are in.
“What’s up with the bullet holes?”
Jaws Junior looks at the bullet holes and answers, “A couple of those were here before we got here, and a couple have happened since we have been here.”
“Conquerors?” asks Shaun.
Jaws Junior points to the bullet holes at the side of the building and replies, “I don’t know about those, but the ones at the front came from a couple of different shooters.”
“Are you safe here?”
Darlene looks at Jaws Junior.
“We are. I have fenced in most of the lot. No dead ones can get in this building,” answers Jaws Junior.
“What about people?” asks Shaun.
Jaws Junior looks at Darlene and answers, “We have had our fair share of trespassers, but we pick our battles. Most of the time we let people go.”
“Most of the time?”
“Yeah, a group of teenagers stole several sports cars off the lot and we let it go,” answers Darlene.
BANG!
A very loud gunshot is heard in the distance from the luxury car dealership.
“What the hell is that?”
“That’s bad news. Don’t go down 70th Ave or anywhere near the Eagle Square Shopping Center,” replies Jaws Junior.
“The shopping center down the street from here?”
Darlene replies, “Yeah. There is a group there that is trouble. They shoot to kill and don’t care if you are alive or not.”
“Have you run into them before?”
“I have seen them from our roof. I have a scope and some binoculars I use to check out the area from time to time,” answers Jaws Junior.
Jaws Junior lifts up his right shirt sleeve and says, “They are snipers. They got me in my shoulder from about a mile away in that shopping center.”
I see a large thick scar from a bullet wound on his right deltoid.
“Is the bullet still in your shoulder?”
“Yeah, we couldn’t get it out and the shoulder healed with it in there. I can’t lift my right arm any higher than shoulder height,” answers Jaws Junior.
“We have to get that out of you. I’m a doctor, a surgeon. I can do it for you.”
“I’m okay. Maybe another time,” says Jaws Junior.
Darlene looks at Jaws Junior and says, “You should have Ryan remove the bullet. That can’t be good for you to have a bullet in your arm.”
“No rush, but I can help you. I can do it at our community’s medical house. We have the supplies to do it without a problem.”
“Thank you, but I’m okay,” replies Jaws Junior.
I tell Darlene and Jaws Junior where Citrus Oaks is located and to come by if he changes his mind.
Shaun and I say goodbye to Darlene and Jaws Junior.
Indy growls at me and Shaun as we walk to the rear exit of the luxury car dealership main building.
Shaun and I exit the main building of the luxury car dealership and get into our electric truck.
I start up the electric truck and say, “His shoulder looked terrible. He needs that bullet out of his arm ASAP.”
“What are you going to do? He seemed pretty adamant about not getting help from you,” says Shaun.
“Yeah, I picked up on that. Some people are too stubborn I guess. Hopefully Darlene can talk some sense into him.”
I start to drive away from the luxury car dealership.
Shaun looks at the car dealership repair building.
“I wonder what type of equipment they have in that repair building. I bet we can use some of the equipment in there,” says Shaun as I exit the luxury car dealership lot.
“Could he die from the bullet being in his arm?” asks Shaun.
“Yeah, the bullet could hit an artery and he could bleed to death. He will need help eventually.”
I make my way down the street and stop at the street that the Eagle Square Shopping Center is on.
I look down the street, but a building is blocking my full view into the Eagle Square Shopping Center.
“I’m curious also, but I think we send the drones out to see what is up with that shopping center,” says Shaun as he sees me looking down the street towards the shopping center.
A small group of zombies stagger towards our electric truck and start to block a lane in the street.
I see the zombies and easily avoid them.
“Do you ever think about who these zombies were? Like who is that guy right there?” asks Shaun as I drive past a male zombie with long hair and no shirt on.
“That’s no shirt Steve. He was a drummer of a local cover band,” I joke with Shaun.
Shaun laughs and asks, “What about that fat lady right there?”
I pass a very large overweight white female zombie who has a dirty ragged tank top on.
“That’s clearly tank top Tina.”
Shaun starts cracking up, and I start laughing also.
“Man, that was funny. Tank top Tina. That’s pretty good,” says Shaun with laughter tears in his eyes.
I drive down the street and move away from the small group of zombies.
“Only you and I would start cracking up over zombies. That’s how you know we ar
e good friends.”
Shaun smiles and says, “Damn straight. We are family bro. You and all the guys are my family. You guys and Lisa are all I have left now.”
“Don’t forget Chewie.”
Shaun smiles and replies, “Yup. I love that dog.”
“We have been through a lot man. Even before the zombies took over.”
Shaun and I think about the good times we had in middle school, high school, college, and when we became working professionals.
During our drive home, Shaun and I talk about some great times we had in the past. We have a nice moment together remembering some fun times.
“This goes to show you that circumstances don’t matter. You can always have fun with the right people. No matter what. Even in a freaking zombie apocalypse.”
I approach the Citrus Oaks South entrance.
Brody and Enrique open the South entrance.
I wave hello to Brody and Enrique and then drive to Shaun’s house.
I park the electric truck in the street in front of Shaun’s house.
Shaun and I exit the electric truck.
I start to walk towards my house and Shaun stops me.
“Ry wait up!” shouts Shaun.
I stop walking and turn towards Shaun.
Shaun looks at me and says, “I know you have been feeling a lot of things lately, but you are doing a great job. This place would be nothing without you.”
“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“I know the guys and I give you a hard time, but I hope you know that we are here for you. No matter what happens, we got your back,” says Shaun.
Shaun’s words make me feel appreciated and supported.
“Me too. We are a team here. You are my brothers. This place would be nothing without all of you guys as well. I can’t do it alone. I’m lucky to have such great friends and family here.”
“We are pretty great,” jokes Shaun.
Shaun continues, “Whenever you want to go check out some Conqueror places or whatever, you let me know. I’m always down to go.”
“I will. I plan to go somewhere tomorrow. I’ll stop by your place later with the game plan for tomorrow and the next couple of days.
I say goodbye to Shaun.
Shaun walks into his house and says hello to Chewie and Lisa.
I enter my house and say hello to Milo, Callie, and Lauren.
CHAPTER 11
I WAS THINKING
Fight 4 Us: Legacy Page 11