by Weeks, TJ
The Horror Squad
TJ Weeks
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The Horror Squad. Copyright © 2016 by TJ Weeks. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. For information, email [email protected]
Weeks, TJ
The Horror Squad/TJ Weeks. - 1st ed.
Title ID: 6149662
ISBN-13: 978-1530619092
First Edition: February 2016
Acknowledgments
I’d like to take the time to thank Karen Dziegiel for all of her hard work going through each of my books. My wife for all her editing and support. Chelley Jordan and Bobbi Payton for so awesomely helping with running my pages. I’d like to thank all of my military buddies for staying by my side with their support.
Most of all, I’d like to thank all of my fans for pushing my work out there. If it wasn’t for you none of my books would have been put on the best sellers list on Amazon and I wouldn’t be up for as many awards as I get put in for.
www.facebook.com/tjweeksofficial
www.twitter.com/tjweeks6
www.tjweeks.com
CHAPTER ONE
“COME ON OLD MAN, pick up your shit and let’s keep moving.” I stated.
Steven looked up at me while still trying to catch his breath from running from a hoard of zombies.
“Let me catch my breath, dickhead.” He responded.
“Alright guys, let’s setup a perimeter. Drop your gear in the center and let’s get a good three-sixty of the area. Steven, you start filling camelbacks in that creek over there.” I called out to the group while pointing the creek out to Steven.
Steven grabbed the camelbacks and started to fill them as the water beaded off the rocks. I stood in the middle of the wooded perimeter slowly looking around to ensure nothing was missed. From a distance I could see a poor bastard still holding a Colt forty-five gripped in his hand after taking his own life. I softly stepped over to the man while still brushing my husky blue eyes across the mixture of trees for surprises. After grabbing the pistol, I started pillaging through his pockets.
“Anyone wear size eights?” I questioned as I got to the man’s shoes.
“Right here!” Gizmo called out.
I pulled the shoes off the man, collected nine shells from his pockets and then stood up with the pistol before walking back over to the center of the group. I didn’t waste any time to put the pistol and shells in my backpack, then tossed the shoes over to Gizmo’s rucksack.
Steven returned with the camelbacks filled and his breath back.
“Okay, listen up. Gizmo, pack those shoes away or change them if you need them. Kris, I want you and Tina to stay in the middle of the group. Justin, I want you to cover the rear. Gizmo and Steven, I want you behind me and Steven….try to keep up.” I stated.
“Roger that.” Steven replied.
“Ten-four, little buddy.” Gizmo and Justin replied at the same time.
I hooked my camelback to my backpack and then took my place back in the front of our small pack.
“Let’s move out!” I called out after making sure everyone was in line.
The wooded area was hard to see through, but with my military background, I was able to spot movement that others seem to miss. I headed up the front and felt comfortable with having Steven with me helping with the spotting of these fucks.
“Doesn’t this remind you of when we were in Iraq?” Steven questioned.
“Hell no, we didn’t have people trying to eat us there. We also weren’t having to defend ourselves against the very people we fought to protect…This is a fucking nightmare compared to that.” I replied.
“I just meant with having to run missions.” He justified.
“I guess so, but we were younger then and it didn’t take as much of a toll on us.” I replied.
“This is true!” Steven stated.
After a few miles of walking and all of us coming upon a few of them to kill, we finally came to a resting point that seemed clear. We all removed the weight and stretched while watching for others to approach. I took a few steps to each side of the group peering through each branch and listening for the moaning or groaning of them. I stepped to the left of the group and over a fallen tree where one laid that had already been stabbed in the head and torn open at the base of its skull, which led me to believe that there were others that were actually alive out here. I stepped around a plethora of vines and could see a white house through some thick brush ahead. I signaled Gizmo to go left and Steven to go right as the rest of us pulled up the middle. Everyone put their packs back on and made the moves that I had instructed. There were heavy thick vines growing up the siding and the roof was only spotted with reddish broken shingles. I could see fresh footprints in the dust on the porch. Looked like a size six Nike shoe. Justin stacked the old broken door with me before I kicked it in the rest of the way. I rushed inside as I cleared the right side with my M-4 assault rifle, Justin cleared to the left. Straight in front of us was a young Chinese woman in about her early twenties. She had very recently turned as you could tell with her skin not taking any discoloration yet. The zombie may have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for the bit of blood trickling out of her mouth. Her head shot toward us with bloodshot eyes and mouth wide open. I reached to my back and grabbed my buck knife. I wrapped my fingers around her throat to keep a bit of distance and plunged the knife hard but slow into her temple. It was part of our rules to not engage unless necessary and to never waste bullets when it could be handled with hand combat. I usually took either Steven or Justin in with me because Gizmo was all about a big fuck that. He was a great fighter, but scared of too many things.
I pulled the knife from her temple and eased her to the ground to keep it as quiet as possible just in case there were other surprises that awaited us. With a zombie being in the first room we walked into, it was doubtful there would be any living here, but still wanted to clear the house and search for food and supplies. With an uplift of my head, I signaled Justin to take the room on the left and I cleared the right.
There was no food, but the young woman had left a note on the kitchen counter.
“To whomever it concerns,
My name is Eve Sanders. I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. I never thought it would come down to this, I never thought that I would die at such a young age. I just turned 21 today, most people got to go out with their friends and enjoy their first legal drink, but here I am saying goodbye.
If you’re finding this note, I’m sorry for what you had to go through to get it. I locked myself in this shitty abandoned house to separate myself from the living…If they exist anymore. I was part of a group, but they were more evil than the dead ones. I never wanted to be part of the problem.
Goodbye,
Eve Sanders
P.S. If this is Eric Baily reading this…Fuck you! I’d rather die right here than be your slave.”
I folded the letter up and tucked it in my bag.
“CLEAR!” I called out to the rest of the group.
Steven walked in first and the others followed right on his tail.
“Let’s make camp here for the night.” I suggested.
“Fuck that, we can still make it back before night fall.” Gizmo stated.
“Yes we could, but what are we returning with? We need to just call it a night here so we can make a better search in the morning.” I responded.
“It’s your call.” He backtracked.
“Dump your gear, barricade the doors and let’s eat.” I announced.
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The group worked together to get it all done. Steven took it an extra step by running some trip lines with bells attached to them around the house before the doors were barricaded. Everyone left their canned goods in their bags and pulled out different things that had been collected over time like beef jerky, apples and pears. We all shared the best we could as the sun cover depleted. We used our bags for pillows and laid under the windows so we would be over looked from peeping eyes.
Gizmo pulled his wife Tina in close to cuddle with her when she let out a moan of pain.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“I’m over a year passed due to get this IUD out of me.” She stated.
“IUD” He questioned.
“My birth control.” She stated while giving him a stupid look.
“Hell, I didn’t know what it was called. Don’t be a dick.” He made clear.
“I’m not being a dick, I just don’t want to die of toxic shock after surviving this long in the apocalypse.” She said.
“Want me to reach in and pull it out?” He joked.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Your idea of getting anything out of me is a direct opposite.” She stated.
“We’ll get it figured out.” He added as he repositioned his head to a softer spot on the bag.
STEVEN SMITH
AFTER WORKING seven days a week since he had gotten back home from Iraq nine years ago, Steven had grown tired. He was forty-two years old, and time was taking a toll on his back. He had finally found some vacation time and had started packing.
“How long will you be gone?” His wife asked.
“It’s only a week, honey.” He replied as he still focused on packing up his clothes.
“Do you have enough cash?” She questioned.
“I have a couple of hundred in my wallet and my check hits the bank in two days.” He turned and told her to settle her nerves and worries.
She let out a small amount of relief in a short sigh, then smiled a semi crooked smile. He smiled back at her and kissed her forehead then zipped up his luggage bag and walked it out to his truck.
CHAPTER TWO
I AWOKE with the light barely seeping into the room. Daybreak had finally hit without any problems throughout the night. I looked over to see my wife, Kris, staring back at me. We had been married for four years before this nightmare had started. Even with the chaos all around us, I could always look into her eyes and calm my storm. I smiled at her and tucked her hair over her ear. Before getting up, I placed a kiss on her lips and told her I loved her.
“It’s daybreak, it’s time to push on.” I announced.
“Stretch out your grumpies.” Kris called out.
I got a head start with pulling down the barricade from the front door. I cracked it a bit to let in some fresh air and to spy out to ensure that we weren’t going to be walking into an ambush of zombies.
“What’s it look like?” Steven asked with the sleepy still in his eyes.
“Looks clear.” I replied.
“Grab my Gamo and let’s do a little hunting while everyone gets awake.” I continued.
Steven grabbed my Gamo pellet gun that was hooked onto my bag and met me back at the front door.
“Start getting ready, Steven and I will be back shortly.” I announced.
We walked outside and stepped over the tripwires. We walked a ways into the woods without making much noise to scare the wildlife or attract anything else that may take what we needed. I cocked the barrel down and placed a pellet in the chamber as I looked up, I could see some squirrels running across the treetops. One by one, I put them in my crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. Steven was collecting them as they fell. After only a short hour of walking through the woods we had fourteen squirrels and three rabbits. We brought them back to the house and let Kris and Tina skin them out. They skinned them and placed them in some Ziplocs they had found in a kitchen cabinet and used the water from their camelbacks to fill the bags to not spoil the meat.
Kris was the fastest at it; she’d run the knife right under their tails, slit down the back legs, grab them by their heads and pull until the skin met the next set of legs, then make another slit cutting the heads off.
Tina would try to cut down the spine and pull from the sides. It led to having to use the knife to separate the meat from the skin, which had it to where Kris could skin almost three to Tina’s one.
It was now about nine o’clock; they loaded up the meat into the backpacks and got all of their gear back on while Steven collected his trip wires and bells.
“Okay, I want the same lineup that we came here in.” I announced.
We all got in line and walked out the door of the house. *CRUNCH* the leaves sounded around us. I could see one of those bastards with a crooked leg, one eye eaten out and in a BDU Army uniform coming from around a tree on a hill.
I put my pointer finger over my lips to let the group know to stay quiet and then slowly started walking towards it with my knife pulled out ready to bludgeon the knife through its skull. All I could think, as I made my approach, was to not look at the name tag. I didn’t want to know if I knew them or if I had served with them. I was there and ready to make my maneuver when I was taken by surprise. There was a whole Army herd of these things coming at me from over the hill and I don’t mean a huge group, I mean literally rotters in uniform.
This badass lunged at me, knocking me off my feet and knocking the knife from my hand. I rammed my pointer and middle fingers into his ate out eye and started jamming them into his brain.
“You mother fucker!” I called out.
Steven ran over, grabbing my knife and stabbed it in the back of the head and pulled me out from under it by my other hand. I stood up and stomped its head and wiped my hand on my pant leg.
We were all about to make a run for it, but I could see something worth fighting for, Humvees. I quickly went back to my M-4 and started emptying rounds into their heads. My group that was already set to run, turned around and got in line with me and started firing as well. We were outnumbered thirty to six, but we had the knowledge that the only problem we could run into was if we let the rotters get too close. They all fell one by one. We stayed in line as we pushed through to the Humvees giving each that had a twitch left in them an extra round to the brain. We opened each door killing any Rotter that had been left inside.
I opened the leading vehicles door with my knife already going forward.
“WAIT!” A soldier called out.
I stopped myself from taking out another tragic victim of this plague as I heard the voice.
“What’s your name soldier?” I questioned.
“Corporal Denson.” He answered.
“What’s your actual name, if you haven’t noticed, you aren’t serving anymore?” I demanded further.
“Donald…Donald Denson, sir.” He reestablished.
“Anyone else alive from your unit?” I questioned more.
“Yes, in the third vehicle. My Staff Sargent Manuel is still alive. We were talking through coms until the power went out.” He answered.
I helped Donald out of the vehicle and walked over to the third vehicle. I knocked with the butt of my rifle. Instead of opening the door, he just dropped the window of the Humvee like it was some social fucking meet and greet on the side of the road.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Get out.” I told him.
“Where’s your military barring?” He questioned.
“It went out when the world went out. Now get out of the God DAMN vehicle.” I stated further.
He opened the door and stepped out with his hands held up in the air.
“This isn’t a hostage situation, put your hands down… Look, we don’t know you and you don’t know us, so all I can tell you is we’re taking all the supplies that we can carry. If you and him want to come with us, that’s fine, but as soon as you give me a reason not to trust you…” I started saying.
“I get it, we’ll be dead.” Howard
stated.
“How did you know I was military?” I questioned more.
“No civilian would get their men...and women in line like that. You used a basic military maneuver to assault through.” He stated.
“Well, we’re not military anymore. I’m TJ.” I responded.
“I’m Howard Manuel.” He introduced himself.
“Well, Howard. Let’s get what we can and we’ll take you two back to where we call home.” I suggested.
“How about I save us all the trouble and we just take the deuce and a half?”
“We had already loaded all our weapons, gas, MRE’s and water on it. We had planned to get the fuck out of Dodge until the zombies realized that we were still alive inside the Humvees.” Howard suggested.
“If it’ll start, that sounds like the best plan.” I answered.
“Denson, go fire up that deuce and let’s get out of here.” He commanded.
Without hesitation he ran over and fired it right up. I looked at the five Humvees that were in front of the deuce.
“Kris, grab that Humvee and Tina you grab the Humvee in front of that one. I want Steven with Kris and Gizmo with Tina. Let’s move out.” I did some commanding of my own.
Justin jumped in the back of the deuce and pulled the flaps open so he could have a clear view of anything that was behind us. Howard and myself climbed up in the deuce and pulled off.
We didn’t get far when we could see a black man running on the side of the heavily wooded road with a uniform on as well.
“Let’s stop and check on him.” I stated.
“That’s Sargent Simmons. You don’t want him. He’s the one that put us in that position…As soon as the zombies started coming in, he got scared and started shooting our men in the legs to give him time to run.” He stated in anger.
Donald pushed on the gas harder. The man started waving his hands in the air. Donald turned the steering wheel quickly and ran the man over before maneuvering back onto the road. The man was of decent size, but barely even made a bump. I had thought about saying something, but thought that I would want revenge to if some son of a bitch did that to me.
