The Horror Squad: An Apocalyptic Tale (11 page)

“Honey, it is all we could do to keep each other safe, we lost a lot of people as well. Gizmo’s parents are gone, Josh is gone. All we could do was save ourselves and the few others.” Kris tried to comfort.

“Where is dad?” Shianne requested.

“He is out on a mission getting supplies, they should be back soon.” Tina stated.

“Who is they and why are y’all here and not with them?” Shianne wondered.

“They took a few of the other guys with them, and it was Steven, Gizmo, your dad and Justin.” Kris told her. “They left us here to take care of the kids since we left them here on the other missions with the others that are here.” Tina told her.

“Other kids? Who?” She jolted up.

“Sidnie, Daltin, Cloie and Hudson are all safe. Are you hungry?” Kris asked.

“I want to see my brother and sister, and yes I am starving. I ate an old gross banana yesterday that was stuffed in my bag.” Shianne made it to her feet.

Martin watched as the three made their way slowly around the small bend in the road back towards the cafeteria. Kris turned her head back to Martin before he was out of sight and smiled to thank him for helping save her daughter. Shianne limped down the road as she raised her head and saw the kids sitting in the grass. Sidnie cocked her head around the shade tree that her and Cloie sat under and stood to see who was walking with her mom.

“Shianne?” She questioned.

“Kind of.” Shianne laughed.

Sidnie and Daltin ran to their sister and practically tackled her to the ground until she started wincing from the pain. She tried to wrap a hand around them both, but had to hold on to something to stand.

“What is wrong?” Daltin asked.

“I am pretty sure that I have some issues from walking for so long and maybe may have sprained an ankle, but I’m fine.” She told them both.

Tina and Kris helped her through the doors to the cafeteria and to the nearest table.

“Milissa, can I get whatever you have to eat and anything to drink?” Kris hollered to the back.

Milissa looked around the corner from the kitchen and saw the dirt frail woman and ran out with an already made sandwich and chips and a glass of tea to the table without question.

“Milissa, this is my oldest daughter Shianne. She was in Colorado at the time it all started and drove to here and made it a lot of the way until she ran out of gas and she walked the rest of the way.” Kris explained to Milissa, as well as Chelley and Bobbi that were looking on.

“Oh my God! Let me get you something more." Milissa ran off without another word.

Chelley brought back a warm wet rag and Bobbi took the ponytail holder off of her wrist and handed to Shianne to get her blonde curly hair out of her face with. Shianne nodded with a thanks and pulled her hair back and began to wipe her face.

“Thanks.” Kris stated to the girls.

Shianne bit off a piece of the sandwich while she wiped herself off then took a swig of tea. Milissa hurried back with a plate full of leftovers from lunch of tater tot casserole and some rolls with butter and two bottles of water.

Tina and Kris sat down with a sigh of relief and took one of the bottles of water each and drank some. Milissa patted Kris on the back. Milissa knew what it was like to wonder if your child was alive or not. She had two adult children that lived in another state away from her and she could not get a hold of them before the group had located her and took her with them back to their location.

Once Shianne was done eating, Tina and Kris led Shianne to the field house to shower and clean up while they sent the other kids to go get her some clean clothes.

“How did y’all get here?” She asked from the shower.

“We had to leave the house, we were all at Tina’s and things went fucking nuts.” Kris told her over the dripping of the shower hitting the tiled floor and into the drain.

“The plant and school seemed like the perfect place and bunkers were I guess in the process of being set up when it all started, but we didn’t find too many people here, so we don’t know if the dead got the ones that were setting up or what. But we stabilized any places that appeared weak and took over running the plant and set up camp here. It was the perfect spot. We started going out with the guys on missions to get supplies and bring back. This last one, we picked up a couple of military guys and that gave them the manpower to go without us, so we could take care of the kids. So here we are.” Tina explained.

“So where does everyone sleep?” She asked as she got dressed.

“The classrooms in the schools are perfect. We all have our own place and most of us have fridges, and the cafeteria runs pretty much all night between Milissa, Bobbi, and Chelley. Lisa runs the plant so things don’t just shut down and we have nothing. We have Martin who guards the front a majority of the time, and crews that run a bunch of the other stuff like the crops and walk fence lines. TJ pretty much got everyone set up.” Kris told her. “Once you get rested, I am sure we can find something for you to help with until the guys make it back.”

Shianne nodded and looked as though she may fall out from exhaustion at any time.

THE VICIOUS CYCLE

“DRIVE!” GIZMO
demanded.

I slammed my foot down on the gas pedal and felt the shift of the truck like going over a speed bump while driving over the little girl’s body. The man that was raking his fingers down my window turned a three-hundred and sixty degree spin from me pulling off. The ass end of the truck shot right to left before gaining control from its hydroplane. I swerved around the vehicles in the middle of the road as I made my turn off. Looking in the rearview I could see the little girl rising from the street and her skin was hanging from her torso. I am glad we didn’t get out to help her right away.

Pulling into town we could see flashing lights from many cop cars, fire trucks and ambulances. None of them were moving though. I slowly crept passed one of the ambulances and it looked like a horror show took place inside of it. There was even blood trickling from the ceiling and the gurney that only held a bloody head of some poor bastard. Maybe I was seeing things with all the chaos going on, but it looked as if the head was opening and closing its mouth.

“What the fuck is going on?” Gizmo asked as if I’d have an answer to calm his curiosity.

I shrugged my shoulders and just shot my eyes from left to right trying to cope with everything I was seeing.

CHAPTER EIGHT

“
HEY TJ,
want to make us official?” Howard called out from behind us.

“What are you talking about?” I responded.

“The Horror Squad. You know, from the rooftop.” He established.

I turned to look at him to get a clearer picture at what was on his mind. “
Spirit Halloween”,
was the sign he was standing by.

I’ve always had obsession with collecting masks, so I was hooked to the idea right off the bat.

“Oh fuck yeah!” Gizmo called out.

“Boys will be boys.” Rachel stated with an eye roll.

We all turned our direction and walked into the double doors of the Spirit Halloween store closing and locking them after we entered.

Everyone started snatching costumes from the shelves. Gizmo grabbed a Leatherface costume, Justin grabbed a Jason Voorhees costume, Steven grabbed a Michael Myers costume, Howard grabbed a Pinhead costume, Donald grabbed a Hannibal Lector costume which suited him from his earlier outburst, Rachel thumbed through a few, but didn't get anything. It wasn’t necessary horror, but I grabbed a Heath Ledger version of the Joker costume and even shoved a Harley Quinn costume in my bag for my wife.

“You don’t find this as...gay?” Rachel questioned.

I slid the mask over my head and started looking around. I felt like a whole different person. I thought for a moment that we all may be going crazy, but it felt good…it felt real good. I turned toward Rachel and tilted my head to the side. “Why so serious?”

She almost fell backwards trying to take a quick step back noticing the creepy change that had just set in motion. “You guys are fucked up.”

“Let’s redecorate the place.” I stated in fun before everyone started kicking shelves over, hatcheting the boring masks and pretty much just destroying the place.

We walked out of the store like a true team of psychos that had lost all reality of ourselves, but for the first time, there was no fear left in our souls.

We were almost out of the city limits when we caught a sign that stated it fixed and repaired small engines.

“Hold on a second.” Gizmo stated as he ran inside.

All we heard was the distinct sound of a motor start up. A small amount of smoke fled the building before Gizmo. He walked out with a chainsaw that he had started waving over his head just like in the movies. Some rotters heard the saw and started walking out of the small wooded area that surrounded the building. I was the first to make a move by angling my head side to side getting a good kill sight and plowing my machete into one of their skulls and then using my foot at the same time to kick its chest to redirect my blade back out of it. The rest of the squad jumped in except Rachel, she kept her distance.

Gizmo ripped through a pair of legs of the Rotter he came across before laying the saw into its forehead and stomping his foot on its sternum and crushing its chest cavity.

Rachel stood there watching in complete fear. She wasn’t excited about the craziness of the group, but was more than sure she’d be safe from all zombies with this group. They were definitely setting an example to not be fucked with as they massacred each of the zombies.

The chainsaw came to a halt as the last rotter fell and we continued walking toward our destination.

“What the fuck!” I stated aloud.

“What?” Rachel questioned.

“The goddamn truck is gone.” I replied.

“Are you fucking kidding me? That was my favorite truck. I spent a lot of time working on that.” Justin stated.

“Well looks like we’re walking.” I informed everyone.

“Why can’t we just take another vehicle?” Donald questioned.

“We syphoned the gas from all the vehicles on our way here, genius.” Gizmo replied as he took a step in the right direction.

“Looks like we’re not making it home tonight after all.” Steven stated the obvious.

I looked at him while shaking my head before walking away thinking that such stupidity didn’t deserve a reply.

Cars lined the streets sitting empty on gas and useless to us. We had to figure out a place to go since dark would be up soon. I was not looking forward to the walk home, but getting back alive was the most important.