The Horror Squad (Book 3) (8 page)

“What about when no one is sick or
hurt?” She questioned further.

“I’m sure we’ll figure out
something. I’d worry about getting
you a good night’s rest before
worrying about what work you can
do. There will be plenty before you
know it.” I responded while finishing
up my shower and drying off.

She agreed with me and I made my
exit since I was feeling a little weird
with being in the shower and naked
around a female that wasn’t my wife.

CHAPTER EIGHT

I SHOT out of bed as soon as I
opened my eyes to see the sun was
coming up and started getting dressed.

I ran out and started heading to the
cafeteria to grab the items to start up
the barbeque pits. We had fifteen pits
total counting the smaller ones. Five
of them were big smokers that would
hold at least four full sized briskets if
needed. I put the log starters in each
of them and then walked out to the
storage and grabbed an axe and
chainsaw, then to my truck. I pulled
the truck up to the gate.

“Where are you going?” Donald
questioned.

 

“It’s where are we going.” I

 

corrected.

He looked confused but opened the
gate, let me pull out, closed the gate
and jumped in.

I turned along the side of our car
pileup that we had going on the
outside of our fence and stopped. We
both got out and looked around. I
could see that I wouldn’t have to lay
any trees over, there was a lot of
wood already seasoned and lying on
the ground. With a few quick pulls, I
started up the chainsaw and went to
town cutting everything into one foot
sections. Donald caught on to what
was happening and started burying the
axe into the logs and splitting them
into quarters before throwing them in
the back of the truck.

Karen, Kris and Lisa walked out of
the gate with another chainsaw and
two axes to join us. I didn’t say
anything to them and was happy for
the help.

It took us about an hour to get the
truck fully loaded. It was piled up
over my back window, so when
backing back up, it wasn’t clear on
where I was going without my rear
view mirrors.

After a little help from Lisa on
guiding me back, I was straight again
and waited for Karen to open the gate
to pull in.

I pulled straight up to the barbeque
pits and let the tailgate down. I
handed Donald the axe and chainsaw
so he could put it back and I started
loading the pits down with wood. I
ran back into the cafeteria to grab all
the temperature gauges and started
putting them on. All the pits already
had factory gauges on them, but was
shitty to use. Once I got all the pits
between three-hundred and three
twenty-five, I went inside to get the
meat.

Milissa and Bobbi were already
laying it all out onto the tables.

“Hey Bobbi, why don’t you help
me carry this out and talk to me for a
minute.” I suggested.

She agreed and followed me with
an arm full of meat.

I pushed the door open with my
butt and held it open so she could
walk out. “Do you like working in the
cafeteria?”

“It’s alright.” She responded.
“How would you like to take over
our inventory?” I asked.

 

She stopped. “What about Karen?”

I stopped with her. “I’m about to
have Karen full time with my team or
at least I plan on talking to her about
it.”

We continued walking to see
Gizmo, Bo, Howard and Robin
standing out by the pits.

“Can we help?” Robin asked.

I was surprised to see Robin in
such high spirits. “Yeah, if y’all could
go grab some tables and start setting
them up. Bring the rest of the meat
out and start manning these pits.” I
suggested.

“Shit, you know I love to smoke on
pits.” Gizmo stated.

They walked off to grab
everything. Karen, Kris and Lisa
walked up from the storage building.

“Hey Karen, what would you think
about joining our team on more of a
permeant basis?” I questioned.

She placed her hands up on her
hips. “I’d love it, but who’s going to
keep up with everything?” She
responded.

I pointed over to Bobbi. “Bobbi
will, if she decides to take the
position.”

Bobbi stopped placing the meat
onto the pit. “I’d be happy to as long
as I’m not stepping on any toes.”

“HEY FUCKER! What about me?”
Lisa inquired.

 

I started laughing. “Yes, you too.”

We got the rest of the bigger meats
on that had to cook longer and waited
for the tables to be setup along with
the rest of the meats to be brought out.

“Hey Lisa, why don’t you go break
out all that beer that we got and get
those ice machines going so we can
have some ice cold beer.” I suggested.

She started laughing. “Is it not cold
enough for you outside?”

“It actually feels pretty damn good
next to these pits, but there’s nothing
like an ice cold beer.” I responded
squatting down to load some more
wood into a smoker box.

She nodded to a
gree. “I’m going to
need some help, we have at least a
truck load.”

I sent the rest of the women with
her to help her grab them all. It was
ironic though, because as soon as they
walked off, snow flurries began to
fall.

I leaned back and let my head hang
back. It was cold, but I could feel the
warmth from my thoughts of summer
sitting on the porch and smoking a
brisket while drinking a beer and
waiting for my friends to show up
with their sides. Getting to watch the
kids play in our pool.

Gizmo broke my thought process.
“Does it matter which grill we man?”

I opened my eyes and lifted my
head back up. “No.” I stood up and
started helping get the rest of the meat
on the different grills. “Hey bro, I was
just thinking about when we used to
barbeque and the kids used to play in
my pool.”

“So.” He stated.

“So, I was thinking. Maybe we can
find one of those big ass twelve by
twenty-four foot pools with the metal
frame and set it up in the gym. We
could let the stands down and build a
deck around it all the way to the
stands. We could leave it open for
about ten feet from the door and just
build some stairs up to the deck and
stands.” I suggested.

He paused for a moment. “I’m sure
the kids would enjoy it.” He started
placing more meat on the grills. “I
was thinking about digging a pond,
we could stock it with fish and be able
to relax a little more.”

I jerked my hand back after raking
it across the grate and burning my
finger. “Yeah, that would be great as
well.”

“Well, I like the sound of all the
above.” Bo stated with a smile from
over hearing us.

“Well hell yeah, I was concerned
you would say no when we asked
your permission.” I stated
sarcastically. “Okay, all the meat is
on. Let’s go grab the spatulas and
tongs, figure out which pit to man and
may the best man win.”

I stole one of the thirty packs of
beer while Lisa and the rest were
icing them down. I grabbed my
spatula and tongs and hauled ass out.

We sat in front of which pit we
wanted and started passing out beers.

After about half of a thirty pack,
the women joined us. Lisa reached
into the box and pulled out a beer.
“Hey dick, everyone told me I miss
counted when I told them we were
missing one. Your wife said you
probably snatched it and looky where
I find it.”

We all started laughing.

 

“I’m busted…You got me.” I
stated.

We all sat there and started
bullshitting while drinking one after
another and tossing another log into
the pits about every hour or so. It was
amazing to laugh, drink beer, and
cook like we did before the world
became shit. This is what life should
be about.

CHAPTER NINE

I STARTED pulling the foil back
on all my meats that were still
wrapped up so it could start getting
the smoke flavor. Snow had a thin
blanket around our base except
around the pits from the heat of the
flames roaring.

Kris walked up with our forth thirty
pack of the evening. More people
started joining in our conversations
from the tables and from out of the
cafeteria.

We started getting to know Tiffany
and Robin more and more, the more
they drank.

“You know; you guys are badass in
my book.” I stated to them.

Tiffany finished her beer. “I’m
pretty badass in my own book as
well.”

I laughed and got so caught up in
conversation, I almost let the fire go
out. I quickly threw another log on
and had to blow on the coals to get it
back going. Once it was going good
again, I went ahead and added another
log for that just in case purpose.

“Everyone start lining up with your
plates!” I called out when I saw the
alligator steaks were done. I sliced
them down into your typical rib eye
size from the store and started laying
them out onto plates. Most took them
inside the school to eat and to get out
of the cold, the others sat at the tables
and devoured.

“Y’all don’t get too full on that
nonsense, the best is coming out of
this pit.” Gizmo called out before
walking over and grabbing a slice for
himself. “Damn, those are good!”

“It’s called skills, I’m sure you’ve
heard of it.” I responded with a laugh.

I grabbed a few extra plates and
threw some bigger slabs on them for
Kris, Lisa, Karen and Tina which was
sitting in her room.

“Oh my god! This melts in your
mouth.” Lisa stated after taking her
first bite.

I started laughing and closed my pit
up so the pork butt could finish
cooking and grabbed another beer.

“You’re not going to eat?” Karen
asked.

“TJ doesn’t eat when he’s drinking
unless he’s getting ready to call it a
night.” Kris answered.

I held up my beer as if I was
cheersing the air and took a drink.
“I would die if I drank as much as
you can and not eat.” Karen added.

“It’s an art.” I laughed. “I’m pretty
sure it has something to do with being
half Irish and half Cherokee.”

Jason ran up. “TJ, there’s some
rotters at the back wall!”

 

I reluctantly stood up. “How

 

many?”

“I’m not sure, but enough to take
down a fence, I’m sure.” He
answered.

“Kris, y’all watch the meat. Gizmo,

Bo, Howard and Robin, grab all that
you can, give them ammo and meet us
in the back.” I called out. I grabbed
Jason’s sleeve of his shirt and led him
with me to the storage where we
grabbed ammo and some AR15’s.

I hollered at Donald and he slid
down the rope of the tower with his
rifle on his back.

“Follow me!” I called
out as I
cracked the gate open and started
running down the side.

I could see many in the woods that
hadn’t made it out into the open yet.

I dropped down and started taking
aim. The casings started flying out of
the side as I pulled the trigger. We
started mowing them down, but there
was more than I had thought and was
starting to get surrounded. We hopped
up on the cars that lined our fence and
continued to fire. Every magazine I
ran through, I tossed over the fence
until all that came was clicks.

I turned to hop the fence and could
see that we had gained a small crowd.
“Throw me some magazines!” I
called out to them.

I started hearing gun shots in the
back, so I knew that the rest of the
guys stayed inside the fence and just
shot out the back.

A few people ran up with
magazines and more weapons. They
started handing the magazines
through the fence and they spread out
shooting through the fence. I loaded a
magazine and continued firing.

A loud thundering sound let out
and I could see Gizmo in the backhoe
running around the side and started
running them over and smashing them
with the bucket. He pinned a few
against the trees, cutting them in half.
Guts and intestines started filling the
bucket from falling out of their torsos
as he rammed them. I jumped down
and ran as fast as I could to the
backhoe, jumped into the bucket and
climbed up its arms and onto the top. I
locked my ankles around the sides as I
shifted side to side so I wouldn’t fall
down and started taking single shots
taking them out one at a time trying to
conserve ammo.