The Horror Squad: An Apocalyptic Tale

by Weeks, TJ

  We drove on through the streets of abandoned cars and through a few small herds, but nothing substantial that could not just be avoided. We all kept our eyes peeled for the anything that we might be able to stop for to take home, but nothing was really good enough to stop for to take the chance of drawing the attention of being eaten.

  GIZMO AND TINA JACOBS

  GIZMO AND TINA walked into the Brookshire’s grocery store with their two kids, Hudson and Cloie, picking up food for a barbeque they were hosting later that day. They loaded the basket with four racks of ribs, Adkins season, mustard, brown sugar and Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning. They snatched two aluminum pans from the shelf, grabbed a couple of things for sides and went to the check out.

  “$174.84 is your total.” The clerk said.

  “God Damn, you’re proud of your shit.” Gizmo almost shouted as he pulled out his debit card and slid it across the card reader.

  Tina started collecting the bags and dispensing them out to the kids while giving Gizmo a shitty look for speaking out to the cashier.

  Gizmo took the receipt from the cashier and walked out to the Redbox to grab some movies for the kids so they would stay out of the adult’s ass. He started checking out all the selections with Hudson pointing out different movies that interested him. He finally paid out with “Goosebumps” and “Victor Frankenstein” as his selections.

  Tina was already at the truck, tying the plastic bags and laying them in the back of the truck so they didn’t scatter during their drive. Gizmo put Hudson in his car seat and then helped Tina.

  “I’ve got to stop at my mom’s shop real quick and grab some keys from Bud so I can get his chainsaw before we go home.” He told Tina.

  CHAPTER THREE

  PULLING UP to our tightly secured fence, you could see bushels of white smoke pouring into the sky from our cooling towers.

  “Y’all stay at a nuclear power plant?” Howard questioned.

  “Yes sir, makes it easy for survivors to find us, plus if these aren’t maintained we wouldn’t be here anyways.” I answered.

  “I guess that’s true, just out of all the years of talk about the zombie apocalypse, I’ve never thought about having to take care of a power plant.” He added.

  I jumped out of the truck’s cab and Justin jumped from the back and we opened the chain-link gates. The three vehicles pulled through and Martin Holsinger ran up to greet us.

  “I hate it when y’all do the over nights.” He stated in his greet.

  “It was either that or come back empty handed.” I responded.

  “Yeah, but we don’t ever know if we need to send a search team or if it would be too late.” He commented.

  “I understand, but unless there is a plan set, then don’t waste the time or effort not to mention others’ lives for us. If we don’t return, then carry on as if we died.” I stated.

  By that time the rest of my crew had made it over to us.

  “Martin, this is Howard and Donald. We picked them up along with their vehicles.” I introduced.

  “Nice to meet you.” He stated as he shook their hands.

  Lisa Williams started walking up from a distant building.

  “You guys made it!” She hollered out.

  “Yeah, we made it. Do me a favor and take our new friends to get washed up, give them some clothes to change into and show them around.” I told her.

  She nodded.

  “Follow me.” She told them before they walked off.

  “By the way, did you find any fucking beer?” Lisa turned to ask.

  “I wish. I’m sure we could all use one.” I responded.

  “I could use a fucking thirty pack!” Gizmo exclaimed.

  I laughed and got in the deuce to move it to our storage facility. Pulling up to the tin building, I called out to Karen Dziegiel who ran it. She walked out with her clip board and a dangling pen that was tied to the metal clip and taped to the pen.

  “Got something new for me?” She asked.

  “Yes ma’am. Got a truck load to be inventoried in.” I answered.

  “Wow, hopefully we have enough room.” She responded.

  “Well, I figured we can load what we can in the storage and put the rest in the bunkhouse.” I suggested.

  “I don’t want it to mess up my books.” She added.

  “Whatever works for you then.” I stated within my laugh.

  “I’ll have my crew unload it and see what I can make work.” She said.

  “Sounds good.” I replied before walking away to go get some chow.

  I could see Kris pulling up one of the Humvees, so I stopped so she could join me.

  She walked up next to me and inner locked fingers with me as our hands came together and we started walking. The chow hall was an old cafeteria from an old high school that was nearby. The fenced in zone was a little over one-thousand acers. A wall of vehicles surrounded the outside and the inside of the fence. There was another layer of vehicles on the outside in a “V” pattern with the point of the vehicles facing to the inside to limit any hoards to have the room to build up any power to bring down the fence. The road leading up to our gate was lined with Daisy-chain IED’s, that we had found in an old military base, for one mile on both sides of the road for those humans that may try to challenge their location. Needless to say, we were ready for just about anything.

  We sat down at one of the tables and Milissa Stockholm started walking up.

  “What will it be today my darlings?” She asked.

  “What’s todays special?” I jokingly asked as Kris nudged me.

  “Today is my special beef stew.” She responded with a smile.

  “I guess we’ll have two bowls of that.” I responded.

  “Coming right up.” She said.

  She walked back to the kitchen area. Milissa brought the two steaming bowls of beef stew along with a few saltine crackers as a side. She plopped a spoon next to each bowl.

  “Bon appetit.” She stated.

  “Always service with a smile.” I said while smiling back.

  The two new men we picked up were now in civies, aka civilian clothes and cleaned up walking our way.

  “May we sit down?” Howard questioned.

  “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” I suggested.

  They stood there in almost an attention stance as if they were still waiting for orders.

  “Yes, sit down.” I added.

  The two pulled their chairs back, sat down and shimmied the legs forward.

  “Hey Milissa, we’re going to need two more bowls!” I called into the kitchen.

  She peeped around the corner and gave a thumbs up.

  “So why did y’all settle here of all places?” Howard caught curiosity.

  “Did you see the giant smoke stacks?” I questioned.

  “Yes.” He answered.

  “Those are cooling towers. This is a nuclear plant. Do you have any idea what will happen if they’re not taken care of?” I stated further.

  “I would assume nothing good.” He answered.

  “Nothing good is right. They would take out the world as we know it, in time. We can only hope that people were smart enough to make base at the rest of them.” I added.

  “So we’re looking at destruction after all?” He questioned.

  “We’re all going to die, nothing has changed that. If the others aren’t taken care of, then no we will not die from their blasts, but we will start running out of places to search for food.” I stated.

  Milissa plopped two more bowls down and walked back to the kitchen.

  “We would like permission to join your team.” He queried.

  “Look, I’m sure you’re great at what you do, but I have my team and the more people we take out with us, the bigger the risk of losing someone.” I stated.

  “I understand that, but you can’t just ask us to sit around and do nothing.” He stated.

  “I tell you what…I’m going to be putting together a plan
for going into the city tomorrow. I’ll replace Kris and Tina with you two. However, if you screw up, just know that it’ll be you before the rest of my team.” I boldly stated.

  “Understood.” He answered before digging into his bowl.

  Kris looked at me in shock.

  “Look, we have our kids here as well as Tina has hers. We can’t keep risking both of our lives in hopes that someone else will take care of them in terms that we both died.” I told her.

  She wasn’t happy about the situation because she hated being apart and the not knowing, but she understood and nodded her head.

  I turned back my attention to the two soldiers, “Be at the front gate at six.”

  JUSTIN HUDSON

  JUSTIN FIRED up his dark grey Z-71 truck which echoed from the glass packs he had installed on the muffler. He tilted his shades down from the top of his head and placed them over his eyes. Pulling the truck into drive, he pulled out of this driveway and started driving the few blocks to the Dollar Store.

  Justin had grown up in this town and knew a little bit of everyone. It was a small town and one of those everyone knows everyone kind of places.

  He parked right by the door and got out. Walking in, he could only see about three other people inside other than the cashier. He walked the aisles and grabbed a couple bags of chips, two twelve packs of sodas, some hotdog buns and some smoked sausage before walking his items to the register.

  “Will that be all for you today?” The cashier asked.

  “No, I need a can of Copenhagen long cut.” He added.

  She grabbed her keys from next to the register and walked over to the glass case and pulled out one can of the snuff and carried it back to the counter.

  She rang each item up and gave him his total. He pulled his card from his wallet and swiped it.

  “Have a good day.” She stated as he collected his bags.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE ALARM went off at five in the morning as I lifted my eyes to look around. It was still very dark with no hint of light shining through the window for at least another hour. I left Kris sleeping and sat up on the side of the bed to wipe my face and gather my bearings.

  Our room in the school had been the History class before. It still had some of the lessons written on the chalk board. Not to give any ease to the apocalypse, but it appeared that everyone had at least got out of the big test.

  I grabbed a small black bag that I kept my morning items in and started down the hall to the bathrooms.

  I showered and brushed my teeth. Looking into the mirror, it looked as if my reflection was a mountain man staring back. My beard was about six inches long now and just as thick as a bale of hay. I pinched it in my hand and glided my hand through it a few times and decided I didn’t have time to bother with it; I grabbed my bag and walked back to the room.

  Kris was already awake and trying to be quiet to not wake the kids.

  “You leaving without saying goodbye?” She asked.

  “No, was just letting you sleep while I got ready.” I replied.

  I walked over and gave her a kiss before getting myself dressed. Before I left, I kissed Sidnie and Daltin on the head and then kissed my wife again.

  “I’ll be gone for a few days this time, but I should come back with some goods.” I told her as I threw my backpack over my shoulders.

  She gave a worrisome smile and nodded.

  I closed the door softly behind me to not wake the children and started heading toward the front gate. I could see Donald and Howard already waiting with Martin at the gate. I could see Gizmo, Steven, Justin and Tina walking out of the school not too far behind me. I brought my walk to almost baby steps to wait for the rest of my team to join me.

  “Tina, I’m going to need you to stay behind this time.” I told her as they walked up.

  “You can’t be fucking serious!” She commented.

  “No, I think he’s right.” Gizmo added.

  “Kris is staying behind too. I know that she wants to be out there with me, just as you want to be out there with your husband, but I’m going to need you to stay with the kids. Yesterday was a close call for myself and I don’t want it to be you next time.” I stated.

  She took a deep sigh and walked off back to the school.

  “So, do you really think these two looney tunes are going to be able to help us?” Gizmo questioned.

  “They are soldiers, they are trained to fight or to die trying. I think they can offer us a lot.” I spoke.

  We walked up to the gate and met up with our new companions.

  “Okay, we will take one of the trucks into the city limit. We’ll have to go on foot from there because of all the vehicles that were left behind inside the city. We don’t want to get blocked up anywhere. We’ll then proceed to all the stores, bakeries and anything else we can find. I want Steven behind me, Gizmo and Justin to take up the back and you two in the middle until we know what you can do.” I ordered.

  “Do we have a rendezvous?” Donald asked.

  “The rendezvous is the truck and as always, there is no extraction team or plan. Now let’s meet up with Karen and grab two MRE’s each to put in our bags, as well as one box to put in the truck.” I added.

  “Are you sure MRE’s is the best we can come up with, I mean they’re probably one of the nastiest fucking things you can put in your mouth?” Justin asked.

  “There are some that aren’t too bad, but they do come with one thing that will excite you.” I stated while laughing.

  “Oh yeah and what’s that?” His curiosity picked up.

  “Shit that you can mix with your water. They have Gatorades and shit, plus some come with ranger bars. I’m not saying they’re the best, but how long has it been since you’ve had any chocolate?” I added.

  “Okay, so MRE’s it is.” Gizmo stated.

  I turned and laughed at him.

  “What?” He questioned.

  “You’re too easy. I had you at chocolate.” I answered.

  “Yeah, you did.” He stated and started laughing at himself.

  Karen had already had her team pull a truck around with the one box of MRE’s in the back and she already had a dozen MRE’s sat out for us to load in our personal bags.

  “Wow, you stay on top of things.” Howard suggested.

  “She definitely knows her shit. We would probably be dead in the water if it wasn’t for her.” I added.

  Gizmo was trying to look at the flavors that were laid out.

  “Grab two and move on, this ain’t your personal diner.” Karen told him.

  “Ain’t that the damn truth.” He added as he snatched two and jumped in the truck.

  I started grabbing rifles and sitting them in the back of the truck. I also grabbed four ammo clips for each rifle and an extra six boxes of shells.

  “Alright, let’s load up and get the fuck out of here.” I stated as I took my place in the driver’s seat.

  “Hey, TJ! You may want to stop by the gate and fill the truck up the rest of the way.” Karen knocked on my window to let me know.

  “Will do and we’ll see you in a few days.” I stated.

  I pulled off and stopped at the gate to fill up with the line of gas cans we had collected. A bit poured out of the top to let me know it was full. I loaded the empty cans up, Martin opened the gate and we were on our way.

  Steven and Howard rode armed in the back to keep a watchful eye to our rear, Gizmo road upfront with me and Justin and Donald rode in the back seat. It was a risk to keep the weapons in the back of the truck, but going out was a risk on its own.

  I drove through two herds of the dead before it cleared enough to be able to stop and do what needed to be done.

  We stopped by each abandoned vehicle we saw and each of us got out as Justin, Steven and I grabbed the gas cans and syphoned the gas into our empty tanks. The others would stand watch and make sure that we weren’t bombarded from all sides. Most of the vehicles were already empty, but we pushed on unt
il we refilled each of them.

  We pulled up to the city limit sign that read, “Dallas” and came to a halt. I turned the truck around and pointed it back home and pulled it off to the side of the road. After everyone got out, we loaded the tanks inside the truck along with the box of MRE’s and locked everything up. I figured it was not likely that someone would risk breaking out the window to steal the truck because that would give it an easy access for zombies to reach in and would compromise their escape.

  We scoured the area of about a one-hundred yard circumference to see what we might be able to find that may be useful to take home and go ahead and load up in the truck to get a head start and to keep us from having to carry a heavier load around. Then we lined up and started heading into the city as we bobbed and weaved between vehicles trying to keep our whereabouts at a low. Surprisingly there were very few rotters ravishing the area that we could spot. We were able to quickly and quietly dispense of them with a quick thrust of a blade. The formation that we kept was perfect since we were all able to see each other and keep an eye on all sides to keep each other safe.

  We started heading into the city. First thing we came to was a bar with the old neon sign that read, “Sand Bar”. The tubing of the light was still intact, but hadn’t been lit up in quite a while. The front had double doors with two windows in each. The bottom window of the left door was shattered, but the rest looked in good condition. I bent down, planting my right knee on the ground to steady my aim and allow for an easier pivot as I scanned the room through the shattered window. I found it strange that there were so few rotters roaming the city area and wondered where all of the city goers had gone.

  “Coast is clear.” I quietly pointed out to my team.

  I kept my aim up as Steven bent down and stepped into the bar, followed by Howard to clear around corners that I couldn’t see. Once they cleared the room in full, the rest of us moved in with Gizmo coming up the back, he took up watch right inside the bar to pull security on the outside.