The Horror Squad 2 (11 page)

Kris sat up on her cot and explained that she
would be going back to get him and bring him
home. Daltin looked sad when she told him that
she had to leave again.

“You want to hang out with Bobbi again, I
bet she would be glad to have you?” Kris tried
to make it sound okay.

Daltin looked at his mom. “Yeah, I can do
that until you come back. Will you wake me up
if I am asleep when you get back?” He asked.

Kris smiled and nodded at her son at the
anticipation he showed for their return.

Kris sent Daltin next door to knock on Tina
and Gizmo’s door to see Hudson and to tell
them she would be there in a minute. She
dressed and headed next door.

“Hey, can y’all take him to see Bobbi later,
he had a lot of fun with her. I will stop by and
talk to her before I leave out.” Kris asked Tina,
who was still half asleep.

Tina nodded and Kris told the two boys to be
quiet while Tina and Gizmo slept some and
closed the door.

She made her way a few doors down and
lightly knocked on Steven’s door. She heard
some rustling and the door opened to an even
more sad looking man.

“I wanted to come by and let you know I was
leaving out and will be back with TJ as soon as
I can.” She assured him.

Steven nodded and began to shut the door.
“Steven, hang in there buddy. I will get back
soon.” She assured.

Steven nodded again and shut the door in her
face. Kris dropped her head wondering if he
was going to be okay.

She moved on and stopped at the chow hall
on the way.
“Hey Bobbi!” She hollered through the
empty cafeteria.
Bobbi came around a corner holding a
dishrag. “Hey, ready to leave out?” She asked.

Kris looked at her confused. “Lisa is waiting
on you and already been by to grab some food
for y’all.” Bobbi laughed.

“Got ya! I was wondering if it would be okay
if Tina dropped Daltin off with you later. He
had a lot of fun with you.” She asked.

“Of course, whenever she is ready.” Bobbi
responded excitedly.
“Thanks, we will see y’all as soon as we
can.” Kris told her heading out of the doors.

Kris made her way out to the Deuce and saw
Lisa loading up a batch of food, then hopping in
the driver’s seat. Kris walked around to the
other side and climbed up.

“Figured you had driven enough in the last
few days.” Lisa roared the engine to start.
“I have; I will sit and ride!” She shot back to
her.
She backed the Deuce up and drove to the
tower. Shianne was already on the ground.
“Have you slept at all?” Kris asked her
daughter.

“Yep, it was just after you went to bed and I
was back out here before you got up.” She
stated.

“Those youngsters can do that shit.” Lisa
belted out. “Damn kids!”
“Be careful mom, see you when y’all get
back.

She kissed her mom on the cheek and gave
her a hug through the window and ran to open
the gate. The Deuce rolled through and Shianne
closed it behind them quickly and climbed up to
watch them drive off.

Lisa drove with a bit of ease through the
snow before realizing that the Deuce had no
problem making it through the snow that had
fallen over night and stepped on the gas.

“Easy killer.” Kris joked.
“This thing seems to have no problem getting
through the snow. I think we can make it there
in no time.” Lisa went a little faster.

She dodged the few cars and maneuvered the
road like she was in her corvette again. They
made it to the mall in record time and pulled
into the bay doors that the guys had opened
when they heard the truck rumble up.

They closed the door and TJ ran to the
passenger side and helped his wife out of the
truck.

“Hey babe, how was the trip?” He asked her
before kissing her on the forehead.
“It was good, I didn’t have to drive.” She
responded quickly.

B
o had opened Lisa’s door and lifted her
down out of the truck and placed her on the
ground and handed her a beer out of his jacket
pocket.

“Any guy that carries a beer in his pocket is
my kind of guy.” Lisa laughed as she popped
the top and took a swig.

Bo and Lisa headed to a warmer climate
inside the mall, where Howard waited with the
rest of the few beers that they had left.

“Listen, something is wrong with Steven. We
really need to get back now.” Kris told TJ.
“Besides being an old ass.” TJ laughed
guiding Kris inside.

“I’m serious. He cut of his arm and he
doesn’t look good. He asked for you as soon as
I got back. He said he has been having
nightmares and looks so depressed. I almost
brought him with me to make sure that he was
okay but knew that he couldn’t do much with
one arm.” She explained.

“What the fuck do you mean he cut off his
arm?” He questioned seriously.

“I mean he took something and cut his whole
damn arm off! He actually cut it off, like there
is no arm there. He has been in his room since
we left and had only eaten an MRE. I made him
eat and had Karen go look at his arm. She
stayed behind to keep an eye on him.” Kris
gave him all of the information on his old
military buddy.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“I GUESSlet’s get all this shit loaded and
get out of here as soon as we can. I need to get
home.” TJ demanded.

The group began gathering the piles that they
had left from before and loading the massive
amounts into the back of the truck. Howard
stayed in the truck and arranged everything like
a puzzle to be able to fit. The rest set it just
inside the back and allowed him to take it
where it belonged. The four showed back up
out of breath and tired looking.

“I’m not driving.” Kris let it be known.
“Me either, I have a perfect spot in the back I
made to sleep off this bit of a hangover from
that damn Budweiser.” Howard stated climbing
up in the back.

“I guess Howard found his spot. Kris and
Lisa, y’all go ahead and ride up front and stay
warm and Bo and I will take up the back.” TJ
instructed.

“No! I want to ride with you!” Kris whined.
“I’ll drive.” Bo offered.

“I’ll ride up front with Bo if that is okay.”
Lisa stated.

TJ looked at his wife as she tilted her head
and gave him a look with please written across
her face.

“Fine, get the hell up there.” TJ stated.

Kris smiled and climbed up. Howard led her
through the plethora of piles and to the back
part of the bed where he had set out a mass
amount of blankets and pillows for makeshift
little living room.

“Planning on living here or what?” Kris
asked.

“No, but dammit I am going to be warm on
this trip back and sleep comfortably.” Howard
staked his claim on a pile of pillows piled on a
bean bag.

“I am going to bring up the door. Everyone
ready?” TJ asked.
“Let’s rock and roll buddy!” Bo hollered
back to him.

TJ started to pull that door up when a hand
reached under the door and grabbed TJ’s boot.
He pulled his foot back and peered at the hand
reaching for him. Another appeared under the
door and then another and then a few more; all
of them brought snow with them and their
hands opened and closed and growling echoed
under the door and through the bay area. TJ
slammed the door down on the wanting hands.

“WE’VE GOT A FUCKING HOARD!” TJ
shouted to the truck full.

Bo, Lisa, Howard and Kris bounded out of
the truck and stood next to TJ. They all peered
down at the hands that had made their way
under the door. Some were still attached to the
bodies outside and some had detached and
squirmed around the floor like a lizard’s tail
that had been chopped from its body.

“What the hell, where did they all come
from? They weren’t there when we pulled in!”
Kris stated.

“We need to find a window and see how
many there are, we can’t open this door. It
sounds like a few hundred banging on this
metal.” TJ said.

“Upstairs, the windows look into the parking
lot on the one wall in Sears.” Lisa directed.
The group made their way to Sears and up
the broken escalators.
“This way!” Lisa made her way to the back
wall.

The windows came into view, they covered
from floor to ceiling and showed the parking lot
and the front part of the mall. The five stood at
the windows in a trance of the hoard that had
taken over the parking lot of the mall. Rotters
banged on the doors and the walls and waded
through snow like snails. They had a hard time
moving through the cold weather. Some laid in
the parking lot and almost appeared to be
shivering, but still reaching for whatever they
might be able to grab and their jaws breaking as
they chomped up and down. Fingers broke off
and fell into the snow. There were wandering
rotters everywhere that were slowly making
their way across.

“What the hell
are we going to do? There is
no way we can get through them.” Lisa
exclaimed.

“We have to get out. We can’t just give up
and stay at the mall. We have people back
home expecting us.” Kris stated.

“Kris is right. The rotters move a lot slower
in the cold and snow. There has to be a way to
get rid of enough of them to be able to get the
Deuce out and head home.” TJ began to come
up with an idea.

TJ turned and headed back downstairs and to
the front doors of the mall entrance. Everyone
else followed. A large group flooded the doors,
they began banging harder when the five stood
in front of them. The rotters began to multiply
as the noise increase. TJ began to back away
from the door, moving out of sight of the
rotters.

“How about we go back to the bay doors
and
lift it up like you had it and take them out from
the ground up.” Bo suggested.

“I’m not sure that will work, there sounded
like an awful lot of them. We have to find a
way to get rid of a lot of them at one time and
draw the others somewhere besides the bay
door so that we can get out and at least get on
the road. They are moving slow, so once we get
them away from there, we can make it out and
at least a few blocks before they storm the bay
door.” TJ explained.

“The guns from the camping store, I l
oaded a
few of them and the ammo!” Howard
remembered.

TJ, Bo and Howard ran to the truck and
rummaged through the well stacked supplies.
“Got them!” Bo hollered.
“I found the ammo.” TJ jumped off of the
back of the truck.

They all began loading guns and getting
ready for a mass shooting of some rotters. None
of them were sure how they were going to rid
the lot of a large amount of rotters, but knew
that the noise would draw the others in. They
had to find somewhere that they were able to
shoot out of without breaking any windows or
doors so that they were not bombarded.

“The roof is too high, we can’t do anything
from there, we are going to have to find
something lower to the ground.” TJ stated.

“The bathrooms.” Kris said under her breath.
“The bathrooms always have windows that
open!” Kris belted out.

TJ pointed at her for being on the money and
headed to the nearest doorway with a sign hung
over it showing a little man and woman. The
group walked down the hallway and into the
women’s bathroom. Bo stood on the last sink
that was under the rectangle window that was
high on the top of the wall. It was high enough
that the six foot five Bo had a hard time
reaching the clasp that held it closed.

“I can get it open, but there is no way that I
can do anything but shoot upward!” Bo
struggled to reach higher.

“We have a ten foot ladder on the truck.”
Howard ran out the door with Lisa and Kris
following.

The banging still echoed off of the roll up
door, making the three cover their ears. Howard
grabbed the ladder and handed it down to Kris
and Lisa. The women took off with the ladder
and hit the door with the end. They set the
bottom down and TJ extended it to its full
length up against the wall.

Bo climbed the ladder and pushed open the
window. It propped itself open and TJ handed a
rifle up to Bo. Bo took aim and began to aim
and shoot. TJ scanned the top of the wall and
saw another window above a stall down the
wall from Bo. TJ crawled up onto the toilet and
hiked a leg up onto the stall wall, he handed his
gun to Kris and pulled himself up to sit on the
stall wall. He unlatched the window and
pushed. The window fell off the hinges and to
the ground. He pulled his head and upper torso
out of the window and put his hand down
reaching for his gun. He maneuvered it out of
the window and began to help Bo take out the
rotters that reached up for them.

The more they shot, the more arrived. Bo and
TJ kept shooting and reloading as more and
more rotters came for them. Soon they had lot
covered with the dead undead. The rotters
became attracted to the noise and headed
towards them; some began tripping over the
other rotters and falling into the snow. Some
dragged their feet and would get stuck not able
to go anywhere. It made it easy for the two
shooters to rid them of their heads.

“Howard, go check the bay door!” TJ
hollered down.

Howard ran to the truck and listened. The
noises of growling and banging had subsided
from the door and the bay area was quiet.
Howard made his way back from the bathroom.

“No noise at all!” He opened the bathroom
door and shouted.

TJ and Bo kept shooting, still trying to take
out as many of them as they could to be able to
make it home.