The Horror Squad: An Apocalyptic Tale (3 page)

“Tina, I’m going to need you to stay behind this time.” I told her as they walked up.

“You can’t be fucking serious!” She commented.

“No, I think he’s right.” Gizmo added.

“Kris is staying behind too. I know that she wants to be out there with me, just as you want to be out there with your husband, but I’m going to need you to stay with the kids. Yesterday was a close call for myself and I don’t want it to be you next time.” I stated.

She took a deep sigh and walked off back to the school.

“So, do you really think these two looney tunes are going to be able to help us?” Gizmo questioned.

“They are soldiers, they are trained to fight or to die trying. I think they can offer us a lot.” I spoke.

We walked up to the gate and met up with our new companions.

“Okay, we will take one of the trucks into the city limit. We’ll have to go on foot from there because of all the vehicles that were left behind inside the city. We don’t want to get blocked up anywhere. We’ll then proceed to all the stores, bakeries and anything else we can find. I want Steven behind me, Gizmo and Justin to take up the back and you two in the middle until we know what you can do.” I ordered.

“Do we have a rendezvous?” Donald asked.

“The rendezvous is the truck and as always, there is no extraction team or plan. Now let’s meet up with Karen and grab two MRE’s each to put in our bags, as well as one box to put in the truck.” I added.

“Are you sure MRE’s is the best we can come up with, I mean they’re probably one of the nastiest fucking things you can put in your mouth?” Justin asked.

“There are some that aren’t too bad, but they do come with one thing that will excite you.” I stated while laughing.

“Oh yeah and what’s that?” His curiosity picked up.

“Shit that you can mix with your water. They have Gatorades and shit, plus some come with ranger bars. I’m not saying they’re the best, but how long has it been since you’ve had any chocolate?” I added.

“Okay, so MRE’s it is.” Gizmo stated.

I turned and laughed at him.

“What?” He questioned.

“You’re too easy. I had you at chocolate.” I answered.

“Yeah, you did.” He stated and started laughing at himself.

Karen had already had her team pull a truck around with the one box of MRE’s in the back and she already had a dozen MRE’s sat out for us to load in our personal bags.

“Wow, you stay on top of things.” Howard suggested.

“She definitely knows her shit. We would probably be dead in the water if it wasn’t for her.” I added.

Gizmo was trying to look at the flavors that were laid out.

“Grab two and move on, this ain’t your personal diner.” Karen told him.

“Ain’t that the damn truth.” He added as he snatched two and jumped in the truck.

I started grabbing rifles and sitting them in the back of the truck. I also grabbed four ammo clips for each rifle and an extra six boxes of shells.

“Alright, let’s load up and get the fuck out of here.” I stated as I took my place in the driver’s seat.

“Hey, TJ! You may want to stop by the gate and fill the truck up the rest of the way.” Karen knocked on my window to let me know.

“Will do and we’ll see you in a few days.” I stated.

I pulled off and stopped at the gate to fill up with the line of gas cans we had collected. A bit poured out of the top to let me know it was full. I loaded the empty cans up, Martin opened the gate and we were on our way.

Steven and Howard rode armed in the back to keep a watchful eye to our rear, Gizmo road upfront with me and Justin and Donald rode in the back seat. It was a risk to keep the weapons in the back of the truck, but going out was a risk on its own.

I drove through two herds of the dead before it cleared enough to be able to stop and do what needed to be done.

We stopped by each abandoned vehicle we saw and each of us got out as Justin, Steven and I grabbed the gas cans and syphoned the gas into our empty tanks. The others would stand watch and make sure that we weren’t bombarded from all sides.
Most of the vehicles were already empty, but we pushed on until we refilled each of them.

We pulled up to the city limit sign that read, “
Dallas
” and came to a halt. I turned the truck around and pointed it back home and pulled it off to the side of the road. After everyone got out, we loaded the tanks inside the truck along with the box of MRE’s and locked everything up. I figured it was not likely that someone would risk breaking out the window to steal the truck because that would give it an easy access for zombies to reach in and would compromise their escape.

We scoured the area of about a one-hundred yard circumference to see what we might be able to find that may be useful to take home and go ahead and load up in the truck to get a head start and to keep us from having to carry a heavier load around. Then we lined up and started heading into the city as we bobbed and weaved between vehicles trying to keep our whereabouts at a low. Surprisingly there were very few rotters ravishing the area that we could spot. We were able to quickly and quietly dispense of them with a quick thrust of a blade. The formation that we kept was perfect since we were all able to see each other and keep an eye on all sides to keep each other safe.

We started heading into the city. First thing we came to was a bar with the old neon sign that read, “Sand Bar”. The tubing of the light was still intact, but hadn’t been lit up in quite a while. The front had double doors with two windows in each. The bottom window of the left door was shattered, but the rest looked in good condition. I bent down, planting my right knee on the ground to steady my aim and allow for an easier pivot as I scanned the room through the shattered window. I found it strange that there were so few rotters roaming the city area and wondered where all of the city goers had gone.

“Coast is clear.” I quietly pointed out to my team.

I kept my aim up as Steven bent down and stepped into the bar, followed by Howard to clear around corners that I couldn’t see. Once they cleared the room in full, the rest of us moved in with Gizmo coming up the back, he took up watch right inside the bar to pull security on the outside.

“Jackpot!” Justin called out.

“What is it?” I questioned.

“Everything is still stocked.” He replied.

“Fuck yeah! Let’s grab what we can, but save room for food and other supplies as well.” I stated.

“Bingo-Bango, Wheew!” Gizmo and Justin stated at the same time.

“Y’all are fucking stupid.” I stated while shaking my head.

Under the bar was a box of rags, I pulled the rags from its box and to save room in my bag, I pushed them into the front zip up pouch under my camelback.

I could hear a scraping sound coming from outside. I quickly shot my eyes to Gizmo to see him giving hand signals to let us know something was approaching. The sound was faint, yet it seemed it should be obvious.

I edged quietly out of the door to see a Rotter herd coming our way and noticed that the sound heard was a police officer Rotter that was pulling himself toward us with his baton dragging the ground.

The moans picked up as soon as its bloodshot lifeless eyes made contact with me. I stepped back in quickly.

“Let’s move!” I called out loud since our location was already made.

We rushed to the back of the bar and ran out the rear emergency exit. I heard Steven call out, and as I looked back there was a bum rotter with her back stuck to the red brick wall that had grabbed his leg. As he pulled for his freedom, parts of her meat started pulling out from the wall like hot bubblegum being ripped from a shoe. Justin pierced his knife into her temple and pulled her hand free from Steven’s leg and we started making our way down the narrow alley. The rotters were already at the end of our escape. We all headed to anywhere that we might have been able to save ourselves at this point. I started shimmying up a gas line that ran up the side of the building. I made my way onto the rooftop and instantly threw my pack to the side and started helping my team by pulling them over the edge as they made it to the top. The herd was moving in quick and I still had Steven and Justin on the ground. I pulled away for a moment and started sniping as many headshots as I could lay out. I saw Steven flop over the side as I continued to shoot, feeling every hot expensed casing flying from the right side of my weapon. It all seemed like it happened so fast that I don’t remember any recoil cramming back into my shoulder blade that I had it so well seated into.

“We’re good.” I could hear so faint that it went unnoticed.

“We’re good!” Gizmo repeated in a holler that hovered my ear.

I stopped pulling the trigger, but still had my eyes locked onto the rotters that were now coming in like a tidal wave of sharks that left you wanting to stay clear of even the comfort of a splash zone.

Justin patted my shoulder to somewhat announce that things were alright. All I could think of is, I’ve seen this movie, this is JAWS and we’re stuck on the damn sinking boat while this mindless eating machine circles us and awaits for one of us to abandon ship. Only difference I could see is that JAWS invited his friends for dinner and we may as well have rang the dinner bell. I finally unshouldered my weapon and started looking around the area to take my mind off of the rotters below just shitting themselves trying to make room for the buffet we just presented them.

The rooftops weren’t too far apart, so jumping from roof to roof wouldn’t be a big deal. What we would do once we ran out of rooftops was still up in the air, but I didn’t want to lead the flesh eating bastards to that point yet.

“Well guys, it looks like we’re camping out right here.” I announced.

“At least things can’t get any worse.” Gizmo stated as a single drop of rain plowed into my face.

I wiped it from my cheek and looked up to see we were about to get a flood.

“Good call.” I told him with a disgusted look upon my face.

“Why the fuck does someone always have to say that when things get bad?” Justin questioned.

“Okay, I stand corrected.” Gizmo added.

“Glad we could be part of your correction.” Steven stated.

I walked to the edge looking toward the row of buildings. They were all gathering puddles at the top and most didn’t look like they’ve been maintained in quite a while.

Steven walked over to join me. “So what’s the plan? Are we roof jumping now?”

“Don’t you have a grappling hook in your bag?” I asked.

“Yeah…So your plan is to swing out of here, because we can’t climb any higher.” He sarcastically asked.

“I don’t know just yet.” I answered.

“Can I ask you a question?” He asked.

“Sure…” I replied.

“Out of all the years you spent writing horror books, did you ever think you would see the day that the world came to this?” He asked.

I paused for a moment and ran that question through my head many times.

“That’s it! Go grab your grappling hook.” I answered.

“Whoa! What is it...Wait, what is it?” He asked further.

I walked off and came to the center of the roof.

“Dump your bags of anything useful such as machetes, axes, long knives, anymore grappling hooks, rope or anything else that would help out.” I announced to everyone.

Gizmo looked over with a strange look plastered all over his face.

“What is he up to? Justin asked him.

“I think the man has just come up with a plan.” Gizmo answered as he caught his feet and started pulling equipment from his bag.

“Look, I know that everyone thinks we’re fucked and this is it for us, but I’m not ready to die and I’m certain that none of you are ready to call it quits either. I’ve written horror books my whole life and if there’s one thing that I know for certain…the killer is usually the last person standing. Just like a book, you can expect a twist and we’re that twist. You want to get off this roof? Then let’s show these motherfuckers the horror that we grew up with!” I stated.

I grabbed Steven’s grappling hook and walked back over to the edge of the roof. I slung it down right in the center of the herd and jerked up. I hooked one and started heaving it up the wall. I had it almost on the roof when Howard ran over and buried a machete into its head.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He angrily questioned.

“Exactly what you just did. Why should we worry about being butchered when we’re the butcher?” I answered as I shook the rotter off my hook like a catch and release while fishing.

Justin smiled and grabbed a rope and turning it into a lasso. He started throwing it down like he was roping cattle around the neck. Gizmo joined him with his hatchet. Steven and Donald teamed up as well.

Some didn’t have to be pulled all the way up to the top, some of their heads would pop off from the pressure of their bodies dangling and would drop while their heads would roll as they hit the ground.

“We’re the horror squad!” Howard yelled down to the rotters as the corpses fell by three’s.

I smiled at the thought. “You’re right, we’re the horror squad.”