Phil runs into Matt’s house and I run towards mine.
Lauren comes running outside, and I meet her in my front yard.
Lauren asks, “What’s up with the honking and shouting?”
“It’s most likely the Conquerors. I need you to arm yourself, and lock yourself in the house. Stay quiet and do not come outside.”
Lauren and I walk inside my house. I put on my bulletproof vest, a black t shirt over it and grab my katana and handgun.
I kiss Lauren and say, “Keep quiet and keep the door locked. I don’t know how this is going to go, but I can’t risk them hurting you.”
I run back outside and towards the South entrance.
“Let us in asshole, or I will break the whole gate and entrance down,” shouts a man outside the gate.
I run up the West lookout platform and see a large group of men.
There are two trucks, two cars, and one hummer parked outside the South entrance.
The vehicles are filled with men that are carrying guns and a variety of other weapons.
I look down at the trucks and notice the white truck that Pete was driving before.
As I’m looking down at the truck, Pete gets out of the driver seat, walks over to the wall and looks up at me.
“Well, hello Ryan. Good to see you again. Now be a gem an open your gate, before we knock it down and ruin all the hard work you guys put into building it,” says Pete.
“Why should I do that?”
Pete replies, “Because, like I said before, we will knock it down and come in anyway. It’s your choice. We clearly have enough man power and horsepower to overtake this entrance and your neighborhood. Let’s avoid any more problems.”
I weigh the options and see that Pete has a large group with them. We are outnumbered, and I can’t afford to lose any of my people right now.
“Open the gate Tony.”
Tony looks at me and asks, “You sure Ryan?”
“Yeah. I want to avoid them damaging our gates. Open it.”
Tony opens the South entrance gate. Both cars drive through, then the two trucks, and then lastly a big bright red hummer follows.
Tony closes the gate as the vehicles drive down the street, make a U-turn in front of Shaun’s house and park.
The men exit their vehicles and stand by their cars. The look around the neighborhood and are clearly sizing up what items they want to take and what houses they want to get into.
I walk towards the vehicles and am met by Pete.
“That’s far enough,” shouts Pete.
Phil, Shaun, Matt, Bobby G, TJ, Odin, and Carlos are standing by Shaun’s house in Shaun’s driveway.
I am at the other end of the street near the South entrance.
Pete comes up to my face and says, “Well Ryan, you and your guys really screwed up royally the first time I met you. We helped you out by killing that guy you were hesitating to kill.”
Everyone is watching Pete and listening to his loud speech.
“You owed us, and then you go and kill two of my guys, Josh and Adam. Now they weren’t the best guys in the world, but they were my guys none the less,” shouts Pete.
“We had to defend ourselves. We can’t just let you push us around and take whatever you want.”
Pete says, “Is that so? Well, look where I am now Ryan. I’m in your neighborhood and doing what I want anyway.”
“I let you in. You ain’t running shit!”
Pete laughs. He looks away from me and looks at his men as they are standing next to their vehicles. Pete then quickly swings his right fist towards my face. He tried to sucker punch me.
I quickly block his punch with my forearm, kick him in his left knee and wrap my right forearm around his neck while backing up with him.
I’m slowly chocking Pete from behind with a rear naked chock maneuver.
Pete’s men raise their guns at me. I have Pete in front of me like a human shield, so I’m not worried about his men shooting at me.
Tony and Chris run for cover away from the South entrance gate. Phil, Shaun, Matt, Bobby G, TJ, Odin, and Carlos start to move into position and get Pete’s men in their sights.
“Tell your men to put their guns down, or I will break your freaking neck!”
I release Pete’s neck slightly. Pete tries to gather his breathe and says, “Put the guns down.”
Pete voice is hoarse and low, but his men hear the command. They don’t lower their guns though.
I resume the chock on Pete’s neck and make it tighter this time.
“I’ll kill him. Don’t make me kill him. Lower your weapons.”
I shout to the men, but they clearly don’t care to drop their weapons.
I start to think that Pete’s men will kill me either way if I kill Pete or not, so I back pedal towards a car for coverage.
A man comes out of the red hummer and slams the car door shut.
“Enough!” shouts the man.
Pete’s men look back at the man and are awaiting orders.
The man walks from the back of the parked vehicles and comes towards me.
He shouts, “Lower your weapons.”
The men instantly lower their weapons.
I feel Pete go unconscious from the chock hold I have him in. I release his lifeless body and he falls onto the street next to a parked car.
Pete’s not dead, but he is unconscious for now.
The man shouts, “Come here Ryan!”
I leave Pete’s body and walk towards the man. As I’m walking towards the man, I see that he is holding a battle axe in his right hand. The man is huge, and I feel like I have seen him before.
I get closer and see his face. He has this psychotic look on his face, but is also smiling.
I see the smile and instantly recognize him from the hardware store. He is the same man that Phil and I saw in the hardware store, right before we ran into Jon and his dad.
I walk over to the man and can’t help but to feel a little intimidated. He is taller than me, bigger than me, and does have a certain presence about him.
“Ryan. My name is Joseph. Do you know why we are here?” asks Joseph.
Before I can respond, he interrupts me.
“I’ll tell you why Ryan. It’s because you have something in this new world. Something we want. Food, supplies, women, manpower, water. We want it all. We want everything you have. I don’t care how much you have or how little you have. I want it all,” says Joseph.
Pete wakes up after being unconscious for about two minutes. He gets up from the street, gets to his feet, and runs right over to Joseph and me.
“I’m going to kill you,” shouts Pete.
I look at Pete and smirk.
“Anytime pal. It looks like you aren’t the big man in charge after all.”
Joseph looks at Pete and gives him a look of annoyance.
I look at Joseph and say, “Pete was acting like he was the big man in charge, like you were nothing, and he was running things.”
Joseph starts to laugh and shouts, “I run things. I run this new world. Not you or anyone. Me!”
Pete starts to backtrack and in a concerned voice says, “I said you were the one running things. I never said I was the leader. I know that you run things.”
Joseph turns towards Pete and says, “I’ll deal with you later. Get back by your truck.”
I watch Joseph as he starts spinning his battle axe in his hand and looking around the neighborhood.
“Nice place you got here Ryan. It’s a shame that you run it,” says Joseph.
“What do you want Joseph? You want what we have? You want to run everything?”
Joseph turns towards me, and I have his attention now.
“Okay, so let’s say you run everything. To get everything, you need to kill everyone, right? No one left to rule. It would be you all alone to rule over the zombies.”
“I will rule over everyone and everything!” shouts Joseph.
“I got that, but what I’m
saying is don’t you want to rule over people and not the dead. If you kill us, then you will just be ruling over more of the dead.”
Joseph walks over to me and asks, “What are your proposing?”
“Let’s keep us alive and we work out a trade agreement. I’m a doctor. We have other medical people here, farmers, construction workers, and former police. We have a lot of value.”
Joseph says, “I see what you are proposing, and it makes sense, but I won’t be taking orders from a peasant like you or anyone else.”
“Of course not. You will run things here and everywhere, and we will help that cause.”
Shaun has Joseph in his sights as he looks through the scope of his assault rifle.
Shaun whispers to himself, “I can end this right now. I got your big ugly ass in my sights.”
Joseph says, “Ryan come here. I have a compromise for you and your people.”
I walk over to Joseph. We start to walk towards the cars that they parked in the middle of the road.
Joseph says to me, “You know why we call ourselves Conquerors?”
Joseph pulls me in real close and whispers in my right ear, “Because we take and we conquer. We don’t bargain.”
As soon as Joseph is done whispering in my ear, he jams the handle end of his battle axe in my stomach.
I immediately fall to the ground.
Joseph stands above me, raises his battle axe above his head and shouts, “Obey or die! I guess you chose death!”
Joseph is about to swing down on my head with his battle axe.
Shaun sees that I’m in danger from Joseph and fires a shot at Joseph.
Shaun’s shot hits the battle axe. Joseph drops the battle axe, and it falls to the ground. It lands next to my face in the street, but safely enough away from me.
A gunfire battle ensues. Bullets are flying all over the place. Joseph’s men are being picked off by Phil, TJ, Bobby G, and Carlos.
Matt is hiding behind a bale of hay next to Shaun’s house.
I get up from the ground, pick up the battle axe and throw it at Joseph.
Joseph ducks and the battle axe cuts one of Joseph’s men in half and crashes into the windshield of one his vehicles.
Joseph charges towards me.
He throws a right hook and I duck out of the way. Joseph is big, but slow. I easily duck away from his punches and counter his punches with punches and kicks of my own.
I connect with several punches and kicks, but Joseph is built like an ox and can take some punishment.
My punches and kicks are hurting him, but not knocking him down. I land a solid front kick to his nose and I break it.
Blood comes pouring out of Joseph’s nose. This angers him, and he charges at me. He grabs me slams me to the ground.
Chris comes out of hiding and hits Joseph in the back with a piece of wood.
Joseph turns towards Chris and Chris runs away.
Tony helps me up from the ground, and we walk towards the West lookout platform.
Joseph takes out a gun and points it at me.
Joseph pulls the trigger to his gun.
Bang!
I hear the loud sound of the gun firing and feel Tony push me out of the way.
Tony is struck in the stomach by the bullet.
He grabs his stomach and his left hand becomes covered with blood. Tony falls backward and braces himself with his left hand on the cinderblock wall before collapsing to the ground.
Pete somehow manages to stay alive during the gun battle. He grabs the battle axe out of the windshield of the car it was thrown into and gets into the hummer.
I get up from the ground and charge towards Joseph.
“See this is what happens when you won’t compromise and work together. People die. Is that what you want?”
Joseph turns towards me and says, “Yes.”
Joseph points his gun at me and pulls the trigger.
I’m hit in my right chest.
Phil and Shaun see me get shot and shout, “Ryan!”
Shaun starts rapidly firing at Conquerors, followed by Phil and TJ. They kill the rest of the remaining men and run towards me.
Pete drives the hummer along the street and sidewalk towards Joseph. Joseph gets in and they drive through the South gate.
Phil and Shaun run over to me.
Shaun picks my body up from the ground and tries to carry me to the medical house we made.
Shaun takes a couple of steps forward and asks for Phil to help carry my body.
I give out a big groan as Shaun and Phil are carrying me.
They hear me groan, and drop me down into the street.
“What the hell guys?”
Shaun lifts my shirt and sees that the bullet was stopped by my bulletproof vest.
“You’re one lucky bastard,” shouts Shaun.
Phil and Shaun help me up from the street, and we walk back to my house.
Carlos and Matt try to secure the South entrance as Pete broke the gate hinges by driving through it.
Chris goes over to his Uncle Tony. Tony is still alive, but he is dying.
Chris says, “Tony. You are going to be okay.”
Tony replies, “No I’m not you idiot. I’ve been shot in the gut. I’m done. Just don’t let me turn into a zombie.”
Chris replies, “Okay. I won’t let you turn. I love you Uncle Tony.”
Tony passes out. Chris takes out his knife and stabs Tony in the back of the head.
Phil, Shaun, and I make it to the oak tree in front of Bobby G’s house, and I lean against the tree.
“I can’t have Lauren see me like this. I’m okay, but I don’t want her to worry any more than she has to.”
Phil asks, “What do we do next? We have to attack them, right?”
Shaun says, “Yeah, we do. We can’t stand for this.”
Odin comes over to me and licks my hand. He smells my bulletproof vest. Gives a sympathetic whimper and looks up at me.
I look at Odin, pet him on the head, and say, “I’m okay boy.”
TJ comes over and asks, “You okay Ry?”
“Yeah. The vest stopped it.”
Phil says, “Let’s go attack them, now.”
“Wait. We don’t have the weapons for it. We need more weapons. We need an arsenal for this attack. Where can we get an arsenal of weapons?”
TJ says, “MacDill. I can get us on to MacDill Air Force Base. My dad works there.”
Phil says, “Okay. Let’s get going.”
“Good idea. I want Phil, TJ, and Shaun to go. Take one of the SUV’s and your truck. Load up on anything and everything we might be able to use here at the entrances and for the attack on the Conquerors.”
“Bobby G, go help Matt and Carlos secure the South entrance.”
“Let’s clear these Conqueror vehicles and bodies out of here.”
Lauren comes out of the house and runs over to me as I’m leaning up against the oak tree.
Lauren worriedly asks, “Are you okay Ryan? Were you shot again?”
“Yeah. I’m okay, and yeah I was shot again.”
“You really need to stop getting shot sweetie, this bulletproof vest can’t keep stopping bullets,” says Lauren as she kisses me on the forehead.
“I know, but I’m sure glad it has so far.”
Phil, Shaun, and TJ drive the Conqueror vehicles out of the neighborhood and park them outside of the neighborhood walls.
As I’m standing with Lauren. Phil, Shaun, TJ, and Odin get into their vehicles. Phil is taking his SUV, Shaun is taking Phil’s truck, and TJ is with Odin in his jeep.
Phil leads the caravan and stops in the street right outside of Bobby G’s house.
He rolls down his window and asks, “Ryan. Do you want anything specific from this trip?”
Lauren shouts, “Another bulletproof vest or two.”
“You got it Lauren,” shouts Phil.
“Anything useful for protection. You know like weapons, explosives, maybe a tank.”
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Phil laughs and says, “You got it. I’ll see what I can do.”
The introduction of Joseph and his Conquerors to the neighborhood was something none of us will ever forget. Joseph isn’t a joke. He and his men are going to be a problem, unless we take them out.
The sooner we can take them out, the better off we will be. I tried to make a deal with him, but he didn’t want to. He wants everything that we have.
I’m going to give him everything that we have. Everything he can handle, and let’s see how well he does with it.
CHAPTER 15
MACDILL AFB
Phil, TJ, Odin, and Shaun exit the neighborhood through the South entrance and start their drive to the air force base.
MacDill is a very well-equipped military base that is a nice to perk to have here in Tampa Bay. Especially if you have military connections.
I have been there a couple times many years ago, as I had some college friends that were in the U.S Army and U.S. Air Force.
That was a different time, however, and I was there for a very different reason.
“We are getting close to the entrance to MacDill. I’m going to move up to the front now, and lead the way into the base Phil,” says TJ over the radios.
Phil responds, “No problem. The roads are clear up ahead for us.”
TJ moves from the back of the caravan to the front. As TJ drives past Shaun and Phil in their vehicles on the left-hand side, Odin is seen looking out the window and enjoying the breeze.
Shaun can’t help but to smile as he sees Odin with his head sticking out of TJ’s passenger side window.
As TJ pulls up to the front entrance of MacDill Air Force Base, he can’t help but to feel like there is something very wrong. There are no guards at the front entrance and that is definitely not normal for this base.
TJ parks at the front entrance guard building and gets out of his jeep. The entrance to the base is closed, but there are no guards checking ID cards to allow anyone on or off the base.
TJ enters the guard booth and hits the button to open the gate. The gate opens, TJ gets back in his jeep and the guys drive onto the base.
The base is a wide open twenty-five-acre military base that is primarily used for the Air Force as it has helicopters, jets, and other air craft.
Fight 4 Us: (Book 3): Refuge Page 15