But that was not what we heard.
What we heard was the wet thunk of the bomb slapping against the back of the creature’s throat. It reflexively clamped its jaws shut. The giant yellow eye somehow grew bigger and it retracted its tentacles as it stood up and knocked the giant beetle backward into the infinity behind it.
It hacked and rose, stood—if you could call it standing—in the threshold of the impossible doorway.
In my head: Two…
I thought: And the crowd goes wild—
One…
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
KA—!
But the BOOM never came.
A wave of heat singed my back, sent me flying forward. I landed in front of Lola.
An explosion of green gloop escaped from the doorway, drenched us all. I was hurt, but the adrenaline kept me going. Besides, I had to look like I knew what I was doing.
When I turned around, I saw the impossible doorway was not there anymore. There was just a hole in the wall and the dark woods beyond.
The blast closed it and because of that, our lives were saved.
I stood up. My neck hair was crisped. It smelled pretty bad. I almost slipped on the thick goop, righted myself, and smiled.
“We did it!” I shouted, wanting to jump but too exhausted.
“No,” Storm said. “You did it! Yee-haw!”
But we weren’t out of the woods yet. Outside, there were other monsters, the trees, the vampires, the frog-thing.
I unlocked everyone’s cuffs after wiping the key on my shirt. The monster goop would probably never come out, but I didn’t care.
Lola hugged me. “Oh, my God!” she said. “You saved my life.” Then she kissed me.
A rush of blood coursed through my veins, triggering excitement all over my body.
It was nice.
Maddie wandered over to the weapons, gave Zack his hatchet and took my sword. Where her gun went, we never knew nor cared to find out. We just wanted out of here.
I led the way out of the Slaughterhouse.
Stopped.
The graveyard was empty.
The trees were gone. The vamps were gone. So were the other monsters.
We walked on, me still in the lead, carefully, cautiously.
Maddie and Zack held hands.
Near the gate, we came upon the remains of a vampire. A tentacle had grown out of its neck, where its head should’ve been. The monster’s clothes smoked.
I guessed the bomb echoed across the dimensions.
Somehow.
I don’t know for sure, though. Didn’t want to know, really. Some things were better left unexplained. Some things, our minds couldn’t comprehend.
Zack hacked at the chain and the lock on the fence. He wanted out so badly that he broke it clean-off in the third swing.
At the car, I stopped, held my hand up. On the asphalt, sticking out from behind the back tire, was a bat’s wing.
With the sword, I sprang forth and yelled freeze.
But the vampire was already dead. Two stakes stuck out of its sternum. It had smoldering tentacles, like worms, coming from its glassy eyes.
Slayer made a noise and jumped out from behind the other tire, screaming.
“Whoa, buddy!” I said.
The little guy’s harsh features broke then. He started crying. I hugged him and picked him up.
“You poor baby!” Maddie was saying, stroking his wispy hair. “All alone out here.”
“He looks like he handled hisself pretty darn well,” Storm said. “Them goblins are tough ol’ bastards.”
It was hard to think of a goblin as tough after hugging one, but I guess Storm was right. Slayer did handle himself.
Just like we did.
I slipped away from this gleeful homecoming and leaned up against the hood of the Ford.
Not long after, I heard footsteps. It was Zack and Maddie.
“We’re gonna get him, you know,” Maddie said. She put a hand on my shoulder, not caring about the goop.
“Yeah. He’s toast,” Zack said.
I smiled and said, “Thanks, guys.”
They were right. We would get Doctor Blood—I would get him. Even if it was the last thing I did.
“We better call this in,” I said. “Going by the book and all.”
They nodded.
“Fiend Team!” Zack suddenly shouted.
We looked at him, confused.
“Our name… You know, Fiend Team!” He grinned. “That’s the one.”
“Eh,” Maddie said.
“Getting really close,” I said.
We called it in. The SUV’s lights worked again and so did our cell phones. We waited.
About fifteen long minutes later, the SOD agents showed up, led by none other than Lorne and Dalton.
They didn’t give us any shit, not after we had given them the rundown of what had happened and proved we were far more capable than what they gave us credit for.
Lorne looked surprised, and Dalton erased her bitch-face with a smile.
“Pretty good stuff,” Lorne said to me as a score of forensic guys bent down around the remains of the dead vampire with the tentacle head just beyond the gate.
A cold wind was blowing, but I didn’t shiver. Not anymore.
“We’re shutting down NOD,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.” He didn’t seem very sorry. “But that doesn’t mean it’s the end for you three,” Lorne continued. He opened his jacket up and dug his hand into the inside pocket. From it he brought forth three badges. On them, etched into the silver, it said: National BEAST Order of the Supreme. Below that: SOD Branch.
“Here. There’s room on our team for you. All of you,” he said, and he gave it to me. Of course, he was smoking a cigarette and blew the smoke into our faces, but common courtesy, though he lacked it, said it would be best if I took the badges.
So I did.
“You just carry around badges in your pocket?” Zack asked.
Lorne shrugged and looked at me. “Think it over,” he said.
I said I would.
So did the others.
We left Helltown not long after that.
27
The Motherfuckin’ Fright Squad!
It was the next morning. Early. I didn’t even try to sleep because I knew I wouldn’t.
I stood on the edge of Lover’s Pass, where all this madness started only a couple days ago. Up there, I looked out at Northington, Ohio. The town was just waking up. People were drinking their coffee, reading their newspapers, where a tiny article would be hidden amongst the local section covering up what had happened in Perdition Cemetery in Helltown, just as the other incidents had been covered up. No cars were out on the roads. I saw, in the distance, a figure in their purple bathrobe walking a dog in their front yard. The dew on the grass sparkled with early morning sunshine.
There was a bitter chill in the air.
I had since changed my clothes, but there was goop and dried blood in my hair. I didn't need a shower, I needed a power wash.
Looking out at the town, the place I had protected from vamps and werewolves and all kinds of things that went bump in the night, I held the badge Agent Lorne had given me. Rolled it around in my palms. Danced it around my fingers.
They were closing NOD, said it was too dangerous. SOD would hire more help and devote more time to the Northeast Ohio region. Lyles and Bubba had already jumped ship.
It sucked.
But I had a job waiting for me if I wanted it.
I looked down at the badge, traced the words with my finger. SOD Branch.
Gravel crunched behind me. I turned and saw headlights.
It was Zack’s rental car, the SUV. Maddie was with him. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before she got out.
That was nice to see. I was glad for them. No longer did they have to play coy about how they felt about one another.
“We’ve been looking all over for you,” Maddie said as she climbed ou
t of the SUV and Zack cut the engine off.
“Yeah, dude, we were worried,” Zack said. “We went to the hospital. Thought you’d be with Octavius.”
“How is he?” I asked.
“Better. Surprisingly,” Zack answered. “Chip is with him keeping him company, hidden in a drawer. It’s only a matter of time before one of the nurses finds him and calls the police or has a panic attack or something.”
I grinned.
“Well, the doctor said he should probably find a different profession. No more ‘wrassling around with bulls,’” Maddie said.
I chuckled. “That’s good to hear.” I looked down at the badge again.
Maddie pulled hers out of her pocket. “Yeah. Kinda crazy to think about,” she said. “Us, working at SOD.”
Zack was holding his, too. “I like it. It’s cool. I bet it can help me pick up chicks!”
Maddie was about to punch him. “You already have a chick.”
Zack’s face reddened, but he looked happy, the happiest I’d ever seen him, I think.
“Aww,” I said.
“We aren’t really gonna join, are we?” Maddie asked after this exchange, looking at me.
“It’s up to you,” I said. “Me? Well, I don’t think so.”
“What are you gonna do then?” Zack asked.
“Find Doctor Blood,” I answered. “After that or in between? I don’t know.”
“We’ll help you,” Maddie said.
“No. He’s my problem. Don’t go getting hurt because of me,” I said. “Enjoy the SOD job.”
Zack shook his head. “You didn’t think we would really jump ship like that, did you? I mean, us working with Lorne and Dalton? God, I’d rather get sneezed on by a werewolf.” He smiled.
“Hilarious,” I said.
“What if we freelanced?” Maddie said.
“BEAST would never let us,” I said. “They’d close us down before we even flipped on an ‘Open’ sign.”
“Not if we were careful,” Maddie said. “Besides, screw them.” She walked over to me, looked at the badge in her hand, then chucked it over the ridge. It floated in the air for a long moment, then dropped into the trees below. Birds flew as it hit the dying leaves.
“Maddie,” I said. “You can’t be serious.” But she was.
Friends, I tell ya, they’re magical.
Zack’s eyes got big. His face lit up. “I got it!” he said. “I know what we can call ourselves.”
He threw his badge, too. His sailed far. We didn’t even hear it hit the leaves.
“Fright Squad,” he said. “Motherfuckin’ Fright Squad!”
“That’s actually…pretty great,” Maddie answered.
They were looking at me, waiting for my response.
A few moments passed. The wind blew, but this time it didn’t feel as cold as before. I thought it might be a beautiful fall day, the last one for a while perhaps.
“Abe?” Maddie asked. “What do you think?”
I turned, let my head hang.
“Abe?” Zack said.
With all the strength I had left in my body, I threw the badge off of Lover’s Pass.
It disappeared.
“What do I think?” I said. “I think we’re the Fright Squad!”
Zack jumped up and then ran over and hugged me. Maddie joined in on this.
What we planned on doing was a risky move, but anything was possible with my friends. And being a part of the Fright Squad, I knew, was worth the risk.
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Keep reading for a preview of FRIGHT SQUAD 2: The Monster Games!
Afterword
This story was supposed to be ridiculous, I swear. I really don’t know where I came up with the idea, just that I wanted to write a horror comedy that could still be scary and serious at times.
Throughout the writing process, a lot of things changed about the Fright Squad. They were originally called Fright Force (it was on the cover and everything), but I elected to go with Fright Squad because I thought Fright Force was too much of a mouthful.
And those other team names Zack, Maddie, and Abe bounce off each other throughout the book? Those were actually titles my fiancée and I were toying with while I was writing this story. She, bless her heart, wrote out a two-page list with so many awesome names! It was actually quite hard to only pick one, which is why I put some of the other names in the novel.
Barry J. Hutchison is a big reason why I decided to start this series. If not for his sage wisdom and overall awesomeness, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. Not to mention his Space Team universe has given me countless hours of entertainment, reminding me that when the real world sucks, I can always just escape for a few hours via a really good book—a sentiment that slips my mind more and more as I get older.
So I wanted to take a stab at comedy myself, with the hopes of allowing whoever reads about Abe, Maddie, and Zack an escape from the sometimes-depressing world we live in. If just for a little while.
I hope I succeeded.
F. M.
April 5, 2018
Preview: Fright Squad 2
Copyright © 2018 by Flint Maxwell
1
A Midnight Call
Here’s my advice:
If you ever get invited to the Monster Games, decline. Doesn’t have to be respectfully. Just stay away from any and all packed arenas crawling with supernatural creatures and drunk spectators. There’s more to this, of course. I’ll get there.
So, with that out of the way, allow me to pick up from where I left off.
As you may remember, I no longer work at BEAST. A couple of SOD agents offered me a job working for them in southern Ohio, the same SOD agents who had lobbied for the closure of our branch and who were quite the assholes, if I’m being totally honest.
So Zack, Maddie, and myself opened Fright Squad, a freelance monster hunting business that really puts the free in freelance, meaning we hardly ever take payment for nearly getting our heads ripped off by various creatures of the night—and day.
Got a ghost in your bathtub? A ghoul in your garden? A vamp in your tramp?
Call us.
We are very reasonable. I really mean that.
The only one who ever seems to call us is Lieutenant Walker of the Akron Police Department. Usually he’s drunk and mad that the rookie cop he took under his wing had his head ripped off by a vampire on steroids at City Hospital a few months ago. I listen, nod (though he can’t see me nodding), and tell him I’m sorry.
I really am sorry, of course. If I had a time machine that would’ve never happened. But I don’t and what else can I really do, you know?
The other times he calls, though—those are the important ones. These aren’t to cry and remind me I’m a bleeping bleep-head. These calls usually entail some supernatural entity up to no good in the city or one of Akron’s neighboring suburbs.
That is where this particular chapter of my young life begins. With a call.
**This is from an early draft and will probably change slightly upon publication.**
Fright Squad 2 will likely be out sometime in May 2018!
About the Author
Flint Maxwell lives in Ohio, where the skies are always gray and the sports teams are consistently disappointing. He loves Star Wars, basketball, Stephen King novels, and almost anything horror. You can probably find him hanging out with one (or all) of his five household pets when he’s not writing, reading, or watching Netflix.
Get in touch with Flint on Facebook
Also by Flint Maxwell
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Dead Coast (Book 4)
Dead End (Book 5)
Dead Lost (Book 6)
The Midwest Magic Chronicles
The Midwest Witch (Book #1)
The Midwest Wanderer (Book #2)
The Midwest Whisperer (Book #3)
The Midwest War (Book #4)
Something Dark: Horror Stories
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Fright Squad (Book 1): Fright Squad Page 19