The Horror Squad (Book 3) (2 page)

“We gotta do something man, we
can’t just leave his ass like this!”
Gizmo stated.

He pushed him back again and
turned to TJ with a questioning look
on his face.

“Why are you looking at me?” TJ
asked.

Steven had finally made it to his
goal, he wrapped his misshapen arm
around TJ’s neck. TJ grabbed his arm
and pulled it away from his neck and
placed the palm of his hand on his
forehead. He pushed Steven back hard
and he fell to the floor.

“Really buddy!” TJ said calmly to
him.

“Did you see that shit? Your buddy
wants to have you for dinner.” Gizmo
laughed.

TJ shot Gizmo a go to hell look
then looked back at Steven. He bent
down and grabbed his broken ankle
and turned to drag him back into his
room. Before he was able to get there,
Steven’s ankle tore off and TJ fell
forward and took a knee as he
stumbled from the surprise of the
separation. TJ pulled his hand forward
and peered at the bloodied ankle he
held. TJ stood and threw the body part
into the room and turned back around
to Steven pulling his way to him.
Steven grabbed TJ’s foot trying his
hardest to bite down when Gizmo
kicked Steven in the face to knock
him back. TJ grabbed his other foot
and began to drag him the rest of the
way into his own room. He jerked his
body around and landed him in the
middle of his room. He dropped the
leg he held with his own back to the
doorway.

“Kris, go get my big knife. I am
going to take care of this prick.” TJ
demanded.

Steven woke up trying to throw his
right hand up, but it was not there,
only in spirit. He sat up, bringing up
his knees and started to rock back and
forth with Texas size tears streaming
his face.

CHAPTER ONE
“FUCK THIS, go load up in the
deuce!” I called out to everyone.
“I don’t like the sound of this.” Bo
stated.

 

“Just do it!” I angrily made myself
clear.

Kris helped Bo down from the
window and they all ran to the truck
grabbing things on their way through
to bring home. I suppressed a few
more rounds before dropping down
from the window and made my way
to the driver’s seat.

“Hold on!” I called out to

 

everyone.

Bo was sitting in the passenger seat
and had a look of great concern
written across his face.

I threw the deuce into gear and
slammed my foot down on the gas
pedal with it pointed straight for the
entrance doors Bo and I had been
looking through the night before. By
the time I hit second gear we were
barreling through the doors with glass
blowing from its once solid surface
like a grenade slinging shrapnel into
my enemies.

Several of the rotters dropped when
the shards of glass shot into their
foreheads and one plastered itself to
the front of the truck. It would have
gone unnoticed until it slapped its
grubby hand on the windshield. I
caught third gear and applied more
gas trying to shake it off, but it started
climbing up more. I was shocked to
see that it was Bryan Tann once he
revealed his face.

“Holy shit! That’s Bryan Tann.” I
stated.

 

Bo looked over at me with

 

confusion. “Who?”

“He narrated one of my
books…Actually he narrated the first
audio book that I ever released. He
is…was a really cool guy.” I broke
the mystery.

I grabbed my rifle and had Bo take
the wheel while I hung halfway out of
the window and shot him in the head.
I almost fell out of the window when
he fell under the truck.

“That was quite a bump.” Bo called
out as I made my way back into the
vehicle and took back over the wheel.

I couldn’t help to think of how
lucky I was. I could have fallen out
and ended up one of the rotters & be
hunted or even worse, I could have
been the cause of the death of my
family and friends. I’d say that I
couldn’t live with that, but there’s not
much living being a rotter.

I jerked the wheel over as we hit
the main road and slightly slid around
the corner. Bo looked at me like I was
crazy as his head almost took a dink
from the window, but all I could think
about was getting back to check on
Steven. I didn’t want him to be taken
out by some piece of shit that never
cared for him. He was like a brother
to me, much like Justin, Gizmo and
Bo except for the fact that we had
served together and lived a life of
having each other’s back.

Steven and I hadn’t always got
along and it would actually be safe to
say that he hated me in the beginning.
I was always one of those that had a
problem with authority and wasn’t
much for someone telling me what to
do, especially when it came down to
things that sounded so stupid, like
filling sand bags or hesco barriers on
your off time as if we hadn’t spent
enough time under the dome of the
sun’s intense light. We stayed
dehydrated about ninety percent of the
time and couldn’t piss a clear stream
to save our lives. We used to have
piss charts to test our hydration,
followed by forced hydration,
followed by mandatory physical
training.

You always have that one guy that
has the rest of the squad dropped
because of not doing what they’re
told…That guy was me. I was always
quick to tell our higher up to fuck off.
That’s more than less where our
friendship started.

He had gotten tired of dropping
because of my actions or words, plus I
was always calling him an old man.
He tried to jump me one day to show
that he had had enough of my bullshit.
It just didn’t work out as he had
planned and he ended up getting a
whole new appreciation and respect
for me after getting choked out. Most
would think that I’m an asshole, but
my whole motto was never surrender
and never back down, so I was always
ready for anything and was quick to
backup anything that flowed from my
mouth.

I pulled up to the front gate after
hours of thoughts and barely gave Bo
enough time to jump out and open the
gate before pulling through. I didn’t
even bother with pulling down to the
storage shed to download all of our
new goods; I pulled straight to the
front doors of the school and jumped
out while leaving the vehicle running
and made a bee line straight through
the hallway to Steven’s door. I threw
the door open and walked through. He
jumped from his bed from being
startled.

“What the fuck did you do?” I
questioned before he had time to greet
me.

He sat down on the edge of his bed.
“It looks worse than it is.”

“Really, because it looks like a
stupid ass decision made by someone
with no sense or no thought process.”
I made clear.

He looked down and then across to
his arm. “I’m not well brother.”
“You’re god damn right you’re not
well!” I stated.

 

Kris came running through the
door. “Calm down.”

“No one asked you. You need to go
help everyone out at the truck, I’m
talking to Steven.” I responded with
attitude.

She looked over at Steven while
letting out a sigh and walked out.

I walked over and put the back of
my hand to his head. “You’re fucking
burning up. When’s the last time you
ate?”

“Yesterday.” He answered.

 

“Well, get on your feet. We’re
going to the chow hall.” I ordered.
“I’m not hungry.” He responded.

“Either get your ass up and we’
re
going to go eat or we can go out
behind the shed and put your old ass
out of your misery. Choice is yours.” I
made clear.

He got up and followed me out of
the room. His skin was pale from poor
nutrition and from the loss of blood.

Everyone’s eyes were
in shock
when they met Steven as he tried to
sit down.

“Hell no, you’re going to walk
through the line like everyone else.” I
told him.

He walked through the line
hunched over from being too weak to
stand straight up.

“Squirrel dumplings, is what’s for
dinner.” Chelley stated as she dipped
some into our bowls.

I was nice enough to grab both of
our drinks since he only had the one
arm to hold things with. We caught
one of the first seats we came up to so
he didn’t have to walk so far. He
started sipping on the broth instead of
eating the dumplings.

“You know what I want?” He
asked between sips.

 

“Your arm back.” I stated being an
asshole.

He shot me a go to hell look. “I
want some of your barbeque. If this
ends up killing me, that’s my dying
wish.”

“Well brother, it’s not like we can
just go to the store and pick up some
brisket or ribs. Hunting has been
scarce lately.” I responded.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with
something…You always do.” He
reassured.

I looked at him and shook my head
before going back to my squirrel
dumplings.

Once we were both finished eating,
I took both of our bowls back to
Milissa and grabbed a pocket full of
crackers and joined Steven back at the
table before we walked back to the
school.

I walked to my room.

 

“I’ll see you later.” Steven

 

suggested.

I walked in and grabbed my cot and
walked back out into the empty
hallway, where Steven had already
disappeared into his room. I walked
down and through his door. He turned
quickly and looked at me with a
confused look plastered over his face.

“What the hell are you doing,
man?” He asked as I started setting
my cot up.

“I’m going to stay in here until
your health is back up or you
die…whichever comes first.” I stated
without missing a beat.

He placed his arm on his hip. “Are
you fucking serious?”

I plopped down on my cot with my
arms folded up behind my head.
“Yep.”

We laid there for a few hours
before he conked out and fell asleep. I
thumped him between the eyes as
nightfall began to hit.

“What the fuck man?” He called
out.

 

“Eat some crackers, stupid.” I
responded.

 

He sat up on the edge of his bed.
“You woke me up for crackers?”

“Nope, I woke you up for crackers
and water. Guess you thought I was
kidding about getting healthy or
dying.” I stated while holding out the
crackers.

There was a slight tap at the door.
“Come in!” I called out.

Bo walked through the door. “Hey
bro, your wife said I could probably
find you in here. I would have come
sooner, but I was helping unload and
stopped by the cafeteria and ate.”

“It’s all good man. Did Karen give
you a cot?” I responded.

“Yeah, it’s out here in the hallway.
She wasn’t sure where I could sleep.”
Bo answered while Steven remained
quiet snacking on his crackers.

“Hell, there’s plenty of room in
here. I mean, Steven doesn’t mind,
he’s planning on dying sometime in
the near future anyways.” I stated.

Bo’s eye’s widened. “I don’t want
to intrude.”

“No intrusion at all. Throw your
cot up right over there.” I stated while
pointing to the biggest portion of the
room.

Steven looked at me with crumbs
from the crackers still wrapped
around his lips.

“Looks like you need some water.”
I stated while forcing it to his mouth.
Bo walked back in with his cot.
“Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah, you can help babysit.” I
stated.

 

Steven choked a bit from too much
water at once.

 

I started patting his back. “Easy
buddy, burp it out.”

 

He pulled back. “God damnit! I’m
not a fucking baby!”

Bo’s eye’s widened again like he
wasn’t sure if this was the best of
ideas.

“Easy brother, I’m going to find
you a playpen for your play time and
some baby bumpers to keep you from
doing stupid things in the middle of
the night without adult supervision.” I
told him.

“You really are a true asshole.” He
told me.

 

Bo started laughing.

 

“How the fuck is any of this
funny?” Steven asked him.

“TJ has always been an asshole.
That’s not new news there.” Bo
responded while still laughing.

“Everyone’s a comedian.” He
stated.

 

I shoved more crackers at him.

“Just how many of these do yo
u
think I’m going to eat?” Steven now
pissed off.

I pulled the whole handful from my
pocket. “Oh, about this many.”
He gave me a go to hell look and
proceeded to eat the crackers.

Bo got all setup and laid down.
“We got anything planned for
tomorrow?”

I handed Steven the last of the
crackers. “Actually I have something
planned, but I’m only taking a handful
of us and I’m sure it’ll piss off some.”

Bo raised up. “Like what?”
“You’ll see.” I answered.

“Good, maybe I can get some sleep
with you gone.” Steven chimed in.

I stated laughing. “You’re going
too, so finish those crackers and I’d
suggest getting some rest.”