The Horror Squad: An Apocalyptic Tale (9 page)

Tina and Kris some days would leave the children to stay in the courtyard as they knew they were not to go anywhere until they got back and would just take a walk around the grounds and make sure that things were running smoothly. When they were out on the missions with their husbands they never really got the chance to check on things and what everyone did since TJ had delegated work to all of the ones that had come on board.

They loved going into the plant watching everyone working as hard as they were to keep everything going. Lisa was always walking around making checks on her workers and checking off her self-made checklist of things that she had found that had to be done in order to keep the plant on track.

Tina and Kris would make their way to the cafeteria and check on Milissa and her crew. At this time she had Chelley and Bobbi to help her in the kitchen and a small yard crew that tended to the almost five acre garden that they had planted. They had already grown a plethora of squash and tomatoes, and had some bell peppers, zucchini and onions sprouting that added to the inventory of food for Karen.

Things ran smoothly around the land that Tina and Kris didn’t have to do much except to take care of the kids. They would jump in if Martin needed a break or walk the fence line to make sure that nothing had been missed, they would chip in at the plant if Lisa needed help or go make something in the cafeteria to relieve some of the stress from Milissa, Chelley and Bobbi at times. Otherwise, they would make sure that things were running as normal as they could for everyone with hopes that it didn’t seem like the apocalypse was upon them. They both knew what it was like on the outside of the walls that they lived in and wanted things as regular as possible on the inside.

THE START

CRACK-A-BOOM!
Sounded as I squeezed the trigger and lined up the next one. Crack-a-boom! Sounded again as I dropped the second one. The third one was lined up when I felt a slight shove.

“What the fuck are you doing, those are people?” Tina questioned in a very pissed off tone.

Gizmo grabbed her and covered her eyes as he closed his own and I lined my shot back up. Crack-a-boom! Sounded for the last time.

The last guy hit his knees before falling over with smoke from the gun powder still rising from his forehead.

“What the fuck, TJ!” Tina hollered after pushing Gizmo back.

“Did you see what those mother fuckers did to that dog?” Steven stated.

She looked down and saw what was left of the dog and the bits of fur still clinching to their mouths.

“I’ve got to go see my mom.” Gizmo exclaimed.

“We can’t just leave these people laying in our yard. We’ve got to call the police.” Tina stated.

“Then call, but I’m going to check on my parents.” Gizmo continued.

I held the rifle out to him trying to get him to take it.

“I need you to come with me.” He stated while pushing the rifle back towards me.

“Well, let’s go.” Justin stated.

“We can’t all go, I need y’all to stay here to talk to the police and make sure no more of those fuckers come after my family.” Gizmo responded.

“10-4 little buddy.” Justin answered.

Gizmo and I walked off of the back of the porch and out to my truck since his was blocked in.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“
EXCUSE ME
!” A woman’s voice called from a rooftop.

I quickly reached for my rifle and started scanning the rooftops. “Show yourself.”

“I just want to know if you’ve seen my friend, Silvia?” She stated further.

“Show yourself.” I repeated.

“I’m not coming out, you’ve all got guns.” She responded.

“Are you alone?” I questioned.

“No, my team has the whole area surrounded!” She called back down.

“She’s alone. Lower your weapons.” I stated to my crew. “We’re putting our weapons down. What’s your name?”

“Rachel.” She called back.

“Well Rachel, I’m TJ. If you’ll come down, we’ll help you find your friend.” I stated.

“How do I know you won’t kill me if I come down?” She questioned.

“I guess you don’t, but you either come down or we’re leaving and you can stay up there by yourself.” I called her out on her bullshit.

“Okay…I’m coming down.” She responded.

I could see the top of her head now as she made her way to the side of the building. I took a few steps back to get a better sight of her as she made her way to the side of the building’s roof. She stepped over the side and slid down a storm drain.

“She’s a hottie.” Justin stated in a low voice to keep her from hearing.

She stopped at the corner of the alleyway and stared at each of us.

“I know we’re at the end of the world, but we’re not against shaking hands or at least I don’t think that respect has left us yet.” I stated.

“Look, I just want to find my friend.” She replied.

“What does she look like?” I asked and to my shock, her details matched the very girl I had killed the night before.

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but your friend is dead.” I informed her.

“What? How can that be and how could you possibly know that?” She questioned.

“She stole from us last night. I didn’t see her at first, only a shadow. I thought she was a rotter. I threw my knife and she took a spill down the stairs. I didn’t realize she was a human until it was too late.” I explained.

She started to cry more and more with each word that dropped from my mouth. “You’re a murderer.”

“If I was a murderer, I wouldn’t take the time to explain what happened to your friend, I would have just killed you.” I suggested.

“You’re welcome to join us, unless you have somewhere else to go.” Justin chimed in.

“Do you have a place?” She questioned.

“Yes, we have a base of sorts. It’s safe or at least safer than being out here.” I stated.

“But how do I know I can trust any of you?” She questioned.

“As I stated before, you don’t.” I told her.

I turned to my squad. “Let’s move out.”

We started walking down the road once again.

“Wait! I’ll come.” She shouted, then quickly paused and looked around making sure she didn’t draw any unwanted attention before running to join us.

Justin was the first to introduce himself out of the rest of the group.

“It’s nice to meet you. Umm…do any of you happen to have any food?” She questioned.

Justin slowed his pace and pulled an MRE from his bag. He quickened his pace to rejoin her side and held it out in front of her to catch her complete attention. “I’ve got this.”

She smiled and brushed her red hair behind her ears with her fingers. “Thanks, I haven’t eaten in a few days.”

“Oh lord, get a room.” Gizmo stated.

“No time for all of that. We need to start heading back.” I suggested.

“Wait, we’re going back a day early?” Gizmo asked.

“We were able to restock our gas situation, got new weapons and now carrying extra baggage.” I answered.

“I’m not extra baggage.” She demanded.

“Look, I’m sure you have really neat things that you’re good at and I’m sure you’re just raining down rays of rainbows, but I’m not going to be the one to show back up to our base with some new chick after telling my wife to stay behind and then inform her that we just decided to let you stay the night with the group of us.” I explained further.

“Oh shit, yeah my wife would kick my ass too.” Gizmo stated.

“Yeah, so no matter how you look at yourself, it’s not going to happen…You said you wanted food, well we’ve got food and a place to rest your head. If not, then when we get back to our truck, I’ll hook you up with a few MRE’s and you can go on your way.” I added.

“A place to rest my head sounds good.” She decided.

“Then we go.” I stated.

We all kept walking hardly missing a stride. The streets were a little too empty for my taste. Not that I liked running into the rotters, but being in the city and seeing all these thousands of cars left behind and no bodies to show for it was a little uneasy and hard to swallow. The fact that we had only seen about fifty dead walking in almost two days, was just shocking. I pulled my wallet from my pocket and pulled out a picture of my wife and kids.

“You’ll see them in a few hours.” Steven suggested after peering over my shoulder.

I slid the picture back into my wallet and secured it back into my pocket. “I hope so.”

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“Something doesn’t feel right to me. It’s probably nothing, but even if it’s nothing, you still never know when your time is up.” I stated.

“I guess you’re right, you don’t know when your time will be up, but I doubt it’s today.” He suggested.

I started laughing. “No one ever thinks their time is up today until it is.”

“Never thought of it, but I guess you’re right again.” He agreed.

He started walking a little faster to get next to me. “Hey brother, did you ever regret your career choice?”

I looked at him for a few seconds before responding. “What’s your obsession with my career?”

“I just really want to know.” He cleared up.

“You know, I’ve always loved writing and getting to share it with the world was a plus. Only thing I regret is thinking I had more time.” I answered.

“What do you mean?” He questioned.

“I mean if I had more time or at least knew how much time we had left, I would have taken more time to meet all of my fans…Each and every one of them.” I tried to explain.

“But even though they were fans, they were strangers.” He added.

“Yes, strangers that paid my bills and believed in me when my own family didn’t. None of my family has ever even read one of my books. In a way, those strangers know me better than my own parents.” I explained further.

Walking on a few blocks, the streets were still eerily empty from rotters and I was half expecting a gigantic attack of them around any corner. The people that lived in this huge city had to be somewhere, they have had to go somewhere and I was sure that they just did not leave the city because they had turned.

We entered a few more of the small stores that lined the streets and collected some odds and ends that we thought could help with things like building or planting or even fixing things around home.