The Horror Squad 2 (9 page)

“This is good stuff right here.” Karen stated
holding up a bottle as she put it under her arm
and grabbed a few bottles to stack onto Kris
and Lisa’s armfuls.

We came to the set of stairs that Howard, Bo
and Donald had found to make their way down
to the tools. They had gathered numerous things
off of the shelves and were passing them down
to each other to set outside the Sears doorway
into the mall corridor to pick up on our way
through. The girls placed their things outside
the doorway and stood in the line to help pass
things out to the mall corridor. I walked to the
other side of the aisle and found the generators.

“Bo help me out.” I hollered from the other
side.

Bo walked around and picked up one side of
the generator as I picked up the other and
walked it to where the stack was. We went and
grabbed two more of them and walked them out
as well.

“Alright, I am not sure what we already have
is going to be able to be taken back. So let’s get
the cars and pick up what we can on the way
and make our way back down here to the bay
doors and get the hell out of here.” I directed.

Tina and Gizmo raced down the stairs from
behind us that we had come down just a bit
earlier.

“Fucking rotters!” Gizmo breathlessly stated
without his shirt on.

We all pulled out the weapons we had on us
and waited for them. One fell from the top and
landed at the bottom and peered up at us. The
closest was Howard and he quickly gouged the
fallen rotter in the eye and backed away. A loud
ruckus came from the top of the stairs, four
more hit the bottom with sounds of their heads
bouncing off of the steps. Two of them reached
their feet fairly quickly and two were unable to
stand because of broken bones. Lisa quickly
made her way to one of the standing rotters and
swiped her knife through its head while Bo
stabbed at the second. The two on the ground
began to crawl towards us leaving a trail of
blood behind them. Their growling echoed and
made me cringe at the sound. I grabbed one by
the nastiness of its hair and stabbed it hard
through its rotting skull and Denson made a
quick stabbing motion at the other.

Karen and Kris had made their way to each
side of the stairs waiting for more to come
tumbling, when two more rolled down. Both of
them took their stabs and hit their targets right
on and stood waiting for others. We all stared
up the stairs waiting so that we were not
surprised with anymore.

“Where the fuck are your clothes?” Howard
asked Gizmo.

“I barely had time to get my pants on. We
thought it was you guys until one fell on top of
the damn bed!” Gizmo exclaimed. “I had to get
rid of that asshole just for Tina to get her
clothes.”

“Sometimes it just isn’t the greatest idea to
bang your wife in the middle of the
apocalypse.” Donald laughed.

Tina glared at him and all of us with a bit of
a red face.
“We are going to get the trucks. Let’s go!” I
told them all.

Everyone gathered their bearings from the
recent kills and moved out into the corridor of
the mall and down towards the Game
Exchange. I tried to arrange some things in both
of the trucks to make sure that there was room
for all of the things that we had pulled from the
stores, but we were nowhere close. We moved
all of the gas cans to the back of the truck the
girls had been driving and made room for the
generators Bo and I had pulled earlier.

“Y’all take what we have back and I’ll stay
here and hold down the fort with everything
else.” I stated.
“Well, I’ll stay with you.” Bo exclaimed.

“Then so will I.” Howard stated as well
followed by the majority of the others.

“Look, we can’t all stay. Bo and Howard can
stay with me, the rest of you can take the
vehicles and drop off what we collected and
bring back the Deuce.” I broke up the conflict.

With a few sad eye’s they got in the vehicles
and pulled off. Bo, Howard and myself got the
bay doors for them and closed up behind them.

CHAPTER TWELVE
I WALKED out the employee door that

was next to the bay doors and rested my arms
on the guard rail as I watched my wife and the
others pull off. I barely heard the door latch
before opening again. I looked to the side to see
that Bo and Howard had joined me.

“Why do you look so worried, brother?” Bo
questioned.

I looked back out to see the last vehicle take
the corner. “I don’t know, it’s not like me to let
my wife go out on her own while we’re out
here…Plus, they’re just now leaving and I
already have a bad feeling that I can’t shake.” I
turned and looked back at them. “Maybe it’s
just nerves after so many close calls today.”

Howard dropped a hand over my shoulder.
“It’ll all pan out.”
“On a bright note, Lisa left us some beer.”
Bo added.

I turned and faced the guys. “Let’s grab some
jackets and a beanies and take our venture to
the rooftop. Maybe we’ll get lucky and have
our first cold beer in over a year.”

“Fuck yeah!” Bo followed with.

We flung the door back open and made our
way back inside. Bo guided us through the
maze of the mall and into Dillards where we
grabbed a couple of thick jackets. Howard
grabbed a beanie, Bo grabbed a red bandana
and I grabbed a black bandana. I folded it up
pulling one corner to the adjacent corner to
make a triangle and then folded the tip of the
triangle over to make more of a rectangle with
pointed ends and wrapped it around my head,
pulled it tight and tucked the ends. It took Bo a
little longer because he had to pull his around
his dreadlocks before being able to tie it.

It didn’t take long for us to make it back to
the Game Exchange and grab the beer that was
left for us. “Budweiser! Could have at least left
us Corona or Bud Light!” I exclaimed.

“Beer is beer.” Bo stated as he grabbed one
of the thirty packs.
I held up the box. “Not really, Budweiser is a
fucking migraine to wake up to.”
“I second that, but it is what it is.” Howard
stated.

We took the beer and made our way up a
maintenance hatch to the rooftop. The wind hit
us like pins and needles as we neared the edge.

“Goddamn, it’s way colder up here.” Howard
stated.

I held up my thirty pack. “Well, hell
yeah…we’re above most of the trees in the
area, so now we’re the only thing to slow the
wind down.”

“Our winters usually aren’t that bad.”
Howard stated.

“That’s true, but we do have our occasional
shit storms.” I replied as I caught a glimpse of a
few snow flurries falling from the sky like
ashes escaping a fire and trying to seat their
selves firmly back to the ground.

*Psssssht* sounded with each beer we
opened as we gazed into the parking lot. There
were a few rotters making their rounds, but
nothing of great significance. We each had
pulled our hoods up from our coats to block
some of the wind from our faces. The wind had
us close to tearing up from its strong presents
and chilled temperature.

“Well boys, we have a whole night on the
town. What do you want to get into?” I
questioned as we pushed through our first thirty
pack.

“I think a good night’s rest is our best bet.”
Howard suggested.

I tossed my empty beer can off the side of
the ledge of the building, it clanked a few times
that let off an echo. “Yeah, that’s probably a
good idea. No telling how long of a day we’ll
have tomorrow.”

We gathered our other thirty pack and made
our way back to the Game Exchange. The tips
of our fingers had turned a bit of blue from the
cold. I could tell that we were in for a cold
winter.

I grabbed a few things from one of the
MRE’s and snacked down fairly quick before
resting my head and tried going to sleep. After
lying down for about an hour, I got up and
slipped my shoes back on.

“Can’t sleep?” Bo asked from one of the
corners.
I was a bit startled since I thought they had
already gone to sleep. “No.”

Bo sto
od up. “Where are you going?”
“Just for a little walk.” I answered.

He started walking towards me. “I’ll join
you.”

We walked out of the store and towards the
glass door exit. I rested my arms on the metal
frame of the door that stretched across the front
and stared out. The snow was pile driving the
pavement and stacking up. I could see many
rotters had made their way to the mall, but
wasn’t crowding the door, just wandering the
lot.

“How many do you think is out there?” Bo
asked.
I wiped the glass and got a better view. “I
don’t know…maybe twenty, maybe more.”

You could almost hear the snowflakes make
their crisp landing with the quietness that
surrounded us.

“There’s not much left inside of me
The memories have taken over
I took my biggest swing
I strike out leaving misery
Feeling the shattered glass surrounding me

Catching your reflection from our babies
eyes

As I held on so tight
You say goodbye
Walked away taking all the air I breathe
I sit and scream
Fallen to my broken dreams
Consumed in these nightmares
That you left for me
There’s not much left to say
Your mind hard up
You wouldn’t listen anyway
The shattered glass has buried me
There’s not much left inside of me
The memories are far from over
But I learned not to swing
So I can’t strike out for misery
The shattered glass has entered me

As I see my reflection in our babies eyes as
you’re leaving me

Goodbye
Goodbye
You’ll always have your daddy’s eyes
Goodbye
Dry those eyes
You’re leaving with mommy tonight
As those eyes leave me behind
My world died tonight

Living life in daddy’s eyes” I broke the
silence.

Bo looked over at me. “I’m sorry bro, I know
losing your kids was the hardest thing that has
happened to you.”

I looked down for a moment and then back
outside. “Yeah…I guess that’s what you get
when you fight for your country and their
freedom.”

“That’s not how it should be, brother. You
have PTSD, but you’re not a danger to society.”
He stated.

I looked back over. “It had nothing to do
with my PTSD, it had to do with our shitty
system and the fact that I couldn’t afford a
lawyer to have the judge sign off on days that I
got them. I figured the Attorney General
paperwork and the paperwork from our divorce
would have serviced, but I was wrong, so she
was able to keep them from me as long as she
wanted and keep me paying child support while
she laid her ass around the house and just
collected.”

“I’m sorry bro, I thought it was from your
PTSD.” He responded.

“It’s all good…I don’t talk about it much. It
never changed anything and doesn’t matter
now.” I looked back out the glass door and
watched some more snow fall. “I’m headed to
bed.”

“I’m right behind you.” Bo stated while
staring out the glass as well.

STEVEN SMITH
STEVEN’S EYESdrifted open. He

couldn’t decide on if the view was reality or
one of the horrid nightmares he had been
having. He moved his eyes from side to side
and decided it must be a dream. He closed his
eyes and told himself to wake up. He quickly
popped his eyes open again and scanned his
view above. It was the same view as before.

Treetops covered the night sky. He could see
a few stars when the branches blew against
each other. The moon shined bright but he
could barely see the any part of it with the tree
coverage. He moved his eyes to the left and his
peripherals could see a big log that laid within
his arm’s reach; he moved his eyes to the right
and he was able to catch a bit of movement in
the bushes. It was then that he realized he
couldn’t move his head but that it was propped
up just enough to view his surroundings. He
thought that it was strange that he could move
his eyes but not his head and decided that
something must be preventing his head from
moving. He had to be able to see with
everything going on.

He could feel that it was cold, the wind blew
into his eyes and made them open and shut
quickly. He tried to raise his arm to free himself
from whatever secured his head and knew that
he was tensing the muscles to do what needed
to be done to move, but his arms were not
cooperating with his brain. He tried other parts
of his body but none of them would move. He
laid still and listened and every few seconds
would try to move more than just his eyes.

He moved his eyes to look down at his body
and was able to see every part of his body with
the position his head was in, as he willed it to
move and everything stayed as it was. He was
unable to even see muscle movement even
though he knew that he was trying.

He heard movement again to his right and
quickly darted his eyes in that direction. He
could see part of a bush that the leaves were
swinging. The wind was not blowing hard
enough to move them, so he knew that it must
be something coming out. He tried to open his
mouth to speak to ask who was there, and no
sound came out. His tongue would not
cooperate either.

“What is going on?” He thought to himself.

He needed to yell, he needed help.
Something was going to get him out here. He
shut his eyes again and tried to make himself
wake up. He slowly opened his eyes to a squint
and the same view came back to him.

He watched the bush to his right spread open
and a rotter walk out of it. It did not appear that
it had caught the whiff of him through the air
yet, but a slight wind had began blowing away
from the broken legged man that limped his
way through the bush. Steven could tell that if
he continued the same path he was already
headed that he would trip over his legs and end
up on him and he would be a goner.

Steven had no choice but to lie there and
hope that the rotter would change his direction
and move on without noticing his paralyzed
presence. Steven closed his eyes and listened to
the rustling leaves of the dead man dragging his
feet. The sound came closer and then stopped.
Steven opened his eyes as soon as he heard
growling coming from a few feet away.

He peered over at the man lying on the
ground being eaten by a black floppy haired
creature. As the creature removed himself from
attacking the rotter and saving Steven’s life, he
walked over slowly and licked Steven on the
face.

“Digger.” Steven thought. The family pet
had just saved his life. It was their dog. He was
a large black lab. Digger had been hurt and
after licking Steven’s face to let him know that
he was there, he laid down next to Steven and
began licking the blood from his paws.

The only thing that Steven was able to do
was lie there. He tried several times to move his
extremities and failed miserably; they would
not even budge. Digger would stop licking his
paws every few seconds and nudge Steven’s
hand with his nose. Steven was unable to feel it,
but could see him doing so. A bird flew down
and sat on Steven’s legs as if he were a tree,
Steven tried to move to shoo him away, but not
a muscle flinched.

Steven tried to open his mouth and was
finally able to get a small groan out to catch the
attention of Digger to make him stop licking his
paws and come to Steven’s face. He licked him
twice and Steven closed his eyes tight knowing
that he had been licking rotter blood and the
bite that he had gotten from the rotter.

He did not want Digger to lick it, he was not
sure if animals were exempt from the whole
turning zombie or not, but he did not want to
take the chance in his state at this moment.

Steven watched the moon go down on the
other side of the trees and Digger stayed by his
side and appeared to have been sleeping. A bit
of light came from the sun that was beginning
to come up and he noticed Digger start to move
around a little. Steven tried again to make noise
and call man’s best friend to him, but all that
came out again was a low toned groan. Steven
tried to move his hands and feet and felt Digger
step on his hand as he approached him.
Steven’s eyes widened when he became aware
that he could feel it.

It was like he had been paralyzed and his
whole body was asleep and the feeling may be
slowly coming back.

“I need to get up!” He yelled in his own
head.

Digger came face to face with Steven, the
dog’s eyes had sunk back in his head and the
drool swung from his mouth and landed on
Steven’s face. Steven groaned again loudly now
knowing apparently a dog could be a zombie.
Digger’s paw was still bloody as he placed it on
Steven’s chest and his bottom jaw moved from
side to side as he grinded his teeth at him. His
fur had detached itself from his body in places
and he growled at him with a warning that he
was fucked. His teeth bared to Steven as he got
closer to his face. Digger moved down Steven’s
body and his nose moved in the strangest
manner almost looking as though it was going
in and out of his face as he sniffed every inch of
him looking for the right place to bite. Steven
tried again to move his body and was able to
barely move his foot. Digger flinched when he
moved it and opened his mouth and took a bite
of his boot. He didn’t like that and moved to his
shin. He opened his mouth wider than he
normally would with the disengaged jaw and
bit into his shin. Steven was unable to feel any
of it. He watched Digger pull a muscle from the
side of his calf and drag it away from his leg
and to the ground. Digger stared Steven directly
in the face as he chewed on it and consumed it
and then licked up the bits that had fallen from
his mouth. The dog smelled his way up and
took another bite, this time into his thigh. He
pulled back hard and violently shook his head
from side to side like dogs do; the skin tore
apart up his thigh as Digger pulled the muscle
out in full tact. Steven could do nothing but
watch his lifelong friend chew on him. Steven
knew he needed to get up and began moving his
other foot and then his hand again. He tried
again to talk to call out to Digger to stop, but
knew that it was useless. Digger was now a
rotter.

Steven could feel himself rise to stand, but
still had the same view of Digger and the
wooded area. Steven was so confused at this
point as he continued watching the dog tear into
other parts of him. He opened his mouth one
more time and was finally able to scream. He
felt his body pulsate and then a jolt of his body
took away the view of this rotter dog and the
woods above him.

His eyes flew open and he could feel the pain
in his thigh; Steven was standing across the
classroom in the corner. He had woke up and
had somehow made it off of his cot and across
the room. He moved his fingers and hand and
lifted his arm up to hug himself around the
midsection. He lifted one foot and put it back
down on the floor and then went to move the
other. He could feel the tingly needles run their
way up his ankle to his shin and through his
thigh. His legs were asleep. The rest of his body
was not quite awake either, and his arm
throbbed, but it seemed to be as he, in reality
made it away from his rotter dog.

“What is fucking going on?” Steven said to
himself. “These crazy ass dreams are making
me nuts and now I’m sleep walking, I have to
get this under control!” He said to himself.