The Horror Squad (Book 3) (5 page)

Bo grabbed the side of the fence
and climbed over to us before
dropping. “No, we figured we would
come help y’all out before it gets
dark.”

“That’s probably a good idea
because there’s no way we could get
all of them in a load on our own….
Where’s your catch?” I responded.

Bo started laughing. “We already
dropped them with your wife and
grabbed a net for Daltin.”

“If you want to have one person
help Daltin net fish, the rest of us can
finish off the buffalo and deer, then
get them loaded up.” I suggested.

Bo turned around. “Hey Tiffany,
can you three start bringing the gators
around here while we hunt and then
after you get all of them around here,
Robin, I want you to help Daltin put
out the net for the fish.”

Tiffany agreed and they all started
moving the gators.

 

“How the fuck do you get them out
of here?” I questioned.

 

“I’m not sure, she just said there’s a
way.” Bo answered.

I grabbed another arrow. “Well,
okay then.” I started walking toward
another bison before letting another
arrow fly.

We got about two more kills under
our belt when we could see the rest of
the group heading our way from the
far side of the exhibit.

“DAD!” Daltin hollered.

I looked over towards his voice.
Robin was helping him hold up a net
full of fish. I gave him a thumbs up
and turned back to my kills. “Load
them up son and get them back to
mom, good job boy.”

Night had come crashing over us
by the time we got all of the kills up
and over to the restaurant. Everyone
joined in on skinning and quartering
everything up.

“Do you know what the count is?”
I asked my wife.

She was in the middle of filleting
one of the catfish. “Yep, we’ve got
eight alligators, ten bison, seventeen
deer, fifteen antelopes, twenty caribou
and one-hundred and fifty four
catfish.”

I looked over at Daltin. “God
damn, you’re beating all of our
asses.”

He smiled real big.

Kris tossed the remains of her fish
into a trash barrel. “We’re going to
have a problem though.”

I grabbed another catfish. “What’s
the problem?”

“We’re not going to be able to fit
all of this in the ice chests that we
brought.” She replied.

I started thinking. “What
if we
clean the shit out of the back of the
deuce and just load all the rest that
hasn’t been skinned in the back of it
and pack it all with ice and the ones
that have into the ice chests? It’s cold
as shit outside, so it should be good to
get it home.”

“Where is everyone going to ride to
get back home?” Gizmo asked.
I continued filleting out my catfish.
“That would be the only problem.”

Tiffany cleared her throat. “We
have a deuce here and an eighteen
foot enclosed trailer.”

“Are you fucking serious?” I s
tated
before the thought even had enough
time to fully circulate through my
brain.

She kind of giggled. “Well, yes.
We have to have things to move the
animals around and if you haven’t
noticed. We have some big ass
animals around here.”

“Problem solved.” I answered.

Tiffany laughed a little harder. “We
also have another working ice
machine back where you found us.”

I looked up in almost a disgust.
“That information is useful and would
have been awesome if offered
earlier.”

“You never asked and I figured you
already had a plan.” She replied.

I gripped my hands on the side of
the table. “Do you have any more
trailers?”

“We have a smaller enclosed
trailer. It’s a ten footer, I believe.”
She answered.

I started filleting again.
“Okay…Here’s the plan. We’ll use
one of the deuces for the ones that
have not been skinned yet, the big
trailer for meat, the other deuce to
haul us home and the small trailer for
the ice chests of meat and the two ice
machines.”

Robin quickly grabbed his thumb.
“Damnit!” He called out after filleting
a small portion of the end of his
thumb.

Gizmo started laughing. “Yeah,
that should work.” He looked back at
Robin and started laughing again.
“Are we popping your cherry on
filleting things out?”

Robin was sucking the blood from
the top of his finger. “I used to fish a
lot when I was younger and help my
dad fillet out our catch, but it’s been
years since I’ve had to do it.”

“Is this all the catfish we have
left?” I asked.

 

“Yep, the rest is already packed on
ice.” Kris responded thankfully.

I finished filleting the catfish that I
had in my hands and laid the fillet
knife down on the table. “Finish
filleting what you have in your hands
and we’ll go grab our deuce and move
it over here and then figure out
sleeping arrangements. It’s cold
enough that we don’t have to get all
of this done tonight anyway, we can
wait until we get home.”

“It’s not going to take everyone to
get the deuce.” Tina suggested.

I wiped my hands onto my jeans.
“You’re right. I want Bo, Gizmo and
Robin to come with me.”

“Why so many?” Kris curiously
asked.

“Because we’re going outside of
the zoo and if we run into rotters, I
want to have enough people to push
them back.” I answered.

We walked out and Gizmo jumped
onto the gator.

 

“We’re walking, buddy.” I stated.
He jumped back off without
argument and started walking with us.

When we started getting closer to
the parking lot, I could see headlights.
I posted up in one of the flower
gardens they had along the side of the
path and pulled my rifle off. I dialed
in my scope and started peering
through it. I could see a man looking
around being careful making his way
over to the deuce and when I scanned
over I could see some bastard in our
white ford that had been stolen from
us when we had gone to Dallas a few
weeks ago.

I scanned upward and could see
about five rotters stumbling slowly
towards the man walking to our
deuce. I took aim and pulled the
trigger shooting the man through his
calf and out of his shin. I could hear
the white ford truck engine rev up and
took aim once again and shot through
the windshield hitting the man in the
head.

“MOVE!” I called out to my team.
We started running at a dead sprint
to the parking lot.

“Gizmo, you and Bo take the
deuce. Robin, get in the passenger
side of the white truck.” I called out
as our feet hit the pavement.

The first man I shot was screaming
in pain, but we left him where he lied
as rotter bait to keep them back from
us.

I opened the door to the truck and
pulled the man out of the driver’s seat
to the ground and hopped inside.
Robin buckled his seatbelt as if he
was worried about a ticket. I shuffled
the gear down to drive and stomped
on the gas. “Where?”

Robin was trembling and in shock.
I reached over and pulled him
towards me by his shirt. “Where is the
gate?”

He pointed to the main road, so I
hopped the curb and drove onto the
main road. He then pointed at a side
road, I slid us around the corner. I
could now see the gate a little way
down to the left. I slid the truck in
front of the gate and jumped out and
pushed the long chain link gate open
and jumped back into the truck and
pulled through with Gizmo right on
my ass now. They stopped and I could
see Bo jump out and close the gate
behind them.

CHAPTER FIVE
I PULLED up to the shop that we

had found Tiffany and Robin at and
parked. I jumped out and walked over
to the gators and started up three of
them. Robin was still frozen inside of
the truck. I let him be for the time
being and waited on Gizmo to pull up
in the deuce. I could see the
headlights topping the small hill;
shortly after they were pulling up next
to my truck.

Bo jumped out and Gizmo called
down. “Are we leaving it here?”

I walked over to the passenger door
that was still open. “Yeah, we’re
going to grab a few more gators and
take them up to the restaurant so the
rest of us can get around.”

He killed the deuce and got out as
well. I tossed the door back to its
latch.

“Where’s Robin?” Bo asked.
I pointed over to the truck. “He’s in
shock still.”

 

“What a pussy!” Gizmo stated.

“It doesn’t seem like he’s been
through much, give the guy a break.”
I retaliated.

Bo pointed over to the running
gators. “I guess these are the three
we’re taking with us?”

I started laughing. “Obviously.”

Bo caught a partial grin. “Well, I’m
going to head back and check on
everyone and find wherever I’m going
to be sleeping…I’m beat.”

I shook his hand. “Sounds good,
bro. We’ll be right behind you, it’s
too cold to be sitting out here. He’ll
either snap out of it and join us or
sleep in that truck.”

Gizmo had already walked over
and pulled the door open. “Hey, bitch.
We’re leaving…you coming or
staying out here?”

Robin never made eye contact, but
slowly edged his way out of the seat
and towards one of the gators. Gizmo
closed the door behind him which
made Robin jump a bit. Gizmo
couldn’t help but to laugh at him.
Even though he could remember
himself being scared of some things,
it had long been lost in his mind.

We jumped in the gators and only
stopped to close the gate that led up to
the shop before making our way to the
restaurant.

As we pulled up, Tiffany walked
out. “Is he okay?”

I looked over at Robin to see that
he was still stiff. “Yeah, I think he
just got a little scare in him.”

She walked over and placed her
fingers across his wrist. “Yeah, Bo
told us what happened.” She raised up
her other arm and stared down at her
watch. “His heart rate is still a little
high, but nothing too concerning.”

I walked over and helped get him
to his feet. “Yeah, I didn’t figure he
was going to die.” I stated
sarcastically.

Kris was already coming out of the
door as we got to it to check on us, so
she held it open while we got him
inside.

“I already have us setup in the
back.” She informed me as we walked
passed.

I sat Robin down and walked back
outside and lit a cigarette. “I figured
you would.”

After about two drags off my
cigarette, almost the whole team had
joined us outside for a cigarette. We
looked like a locomotive running the
tracks, especially with being able to
see our breaths on top of the smoke.

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
Gizmo asked.

I thought about ignoring the
question so I could enjoy my
cigarette, but decided against it.
“We’re going to go along with the
same plan as we had today.”

“What if others come looking for
the two you killed tonight?”

“What are they really going to
find? The one I killed will be
devoured as an easy meal and the
other I can guarantee didn’t get away,
so there’s no one to give any kind of
intel of what’s going on.” I answered.
“Even both vehicles are out of sight,
so they wouldn’t even know what
they would be looking for.”

Gizmo just kind of shook his head
in acknowledgement.

Tiffany walked outside with the
rest of us. “He’s already sleeping. I’m
sure he’ll be fine by morning.”

“Hey, how have y’all been

 

handling those snakes?” I asked.
She sparked up a cigarette. “We
have snake poles that we use…Why?”

I looked at her like she was dumb.
“You just walk in there with a pole? I
wouldn’t walk in there with a fucking
machine gun.”

She started laughing. “Snakes don’t
bother me.”

“How about you and Robin take the
snakes tomorrow and we’ll take Bo
with us?” I suggested.

She laughed more. “That’s fine.”

Kris stepped out of our little line.
“Hold the fuck on…I’m not skinning
a snake. I don’t even want to touch
one of those damn things.”

“We can skin them, it’s really not a
problem.” Tiffany responded.

I flicked my cigarette out into the
chilled winds and onto the ground.
“That works for me, because I love
eating snake, but I’m not fond of them
alive at all.” I kissed my wife on the
cheek. “Well guys, I’m heading my
ass to bed with the hopes of my back
feeling better in the morning.” I
opened the door and walked over to
the back and saw where Kris had laid
our stuff out and laid down.

“Hey dad…Am I going to be able
to go hunting with you again
tomorrow?” Daltin asked.

I rolled over and looked at him.
“Not in the morning, but once Tiffany
and Robin meet back up with us, you
can.”

“Can I help clean the fish while I
wait?” He questioned with the biggest
eyes peering into mine.

I laughed. “That’s more of a mom
question, but I don’t see why not.
Now get some sleep.”