The Horror Squad: Mini Series

by TJ Weeks

  They stepped out of the jet and down the stairs. This airport did not have the tunnels that they were used to back home, but Karen was happy to be out in the sun.

  “Yaaay, sunshine!” She belted out. “We need more of this back home in Washington.”

  Dan shook his head and smiled at his wife as she threw her hands in the air and turned circles trying to capture the sunlight and take it with her.

  Once inside the airport, Karen grasped her composure and suddenly took on her professional face and walk, looking like the sexy secretary/accountant of a famous lawyer.

  A limo waited for them outside, their bags already loaded up and the door stood open waiting for them to enter. Karen slid in and Dan sat and slid over next to his wife. Karen pointed out all of the places that she needed to go while they were there as Dan read the local paper they had waiting for him in the limo.

  Soon they arrived at the hotel that was closest to the courthouse Dan would be working at for the next few days. It was a large beautiful older building. Karen looked out of the window and up to the top of the building.

  “This is like the one we stayed in when we were in Athens last year.” Karen stated. “It is archaic.”

  “I hope it is less expensive.” Dan stepped out of the Limo and pulled Karen behind him.

  They climbed the steps to the revolving door and walked across the area rug that covered most of the lobby floor.

  “Mr. Dziegiel checking in.” He stated to the plump woman working the counter.

  “Your room is ready sir.” She handed him a room keycard and directed him to the elevators.

  The small acne faced boy followed close behind with their bags and pushed the button for their floor. Dan and Karen followed the young man to their door at the end of the hall, Dan slid the key in and opened the door to a huge foyer of fresh flowers and baskets of fruits.

  “I love Texas!” Karen belted out walking to the baskets of fruit and tearing in.

  Dan laughed and tipped the high school kid as he unloaded the bags.

  “You are so weird Karen.” Dan told her.

  “I mean who doesn’t love damn fruits from Texas! The other places don’t do this shit.” She said.

  The bell boy looked at her and smirked a smile at her being so blunt.

  She tore into the plastic clear wrap covering the fruit and pulled out a banana. She peeled it and seductively put it in her mouth as she turned to her husband.

  “You’re right, who doesn’t like fruit.” Dan joked.

  The two put their belongings away and decided to take a look around the town. They made their way down the elevator and to a popular Italian restaurant a few blocks down. The host sat them in a dark romantic corner and brought them a bottle of their house wine.

  The two sat and drank and spent well needed time together before ordering their food. After their meal they walked back to the hotel and got comfortable in the huge bed and watched TV.

  The next morning with their requested morning wakeup call from the front desk, the curtains opened automatically and beamed sun in at them.

  “Oh hell no!” Dan covered his head with the blanket.

  “I fucking love this shit!” Karen squealed.

  She jumped out of bed and ran to the window to overlook the town. “Dan get the hell out of bed and go take a shower, maybe that will make you happy to have some sunshine in your life you big grump!” Karen exclaimed happily.

  “Coffee.” He mumbled still under the blanket.

  Karen started the small coffee pot and watched him crawl out of bed and stumble to the bathroom. She dressed and did her normal routine of make-up while watching the buzz of the morning rush from the high up window and excited to get out in it, even if it was just over to the courthouse.

  Dan, finally awake enough and ready to go. Karen glanced in the mirror and ran her fingers through her hair.

  “One of these days you may want to try a dress on for a professional lawyer situation.” Dan stated.

  “Why, I like my jeans. I’m not the damn lawyer.” She shot back.

  Her heels clicked across the expensive tiled floor to the door.

  Dan grabbed his coffee and briefcase and headed out behind her. He watched Karen practically run down the hall anxious to get outside. He followed slowly and arrived to her holding the elevator door with wide eyes that told him he was not moving fast enough for her.

  “Sorry!” He said turning to face the front of the elevator.

  “You better wake your ass up, I don’t have to stand in front of this judge, you do!” She stated.

  “Yeah yeah.” He muttered.

  They walked out of the revolving door, down the sidewalk and across the street. Karen led the way up the courthouse steps, inside to the metal detectors, set her small bag down and walked through. Dan set his briefcase and coffee down and followed suit.

  “Mr. Dziegiel, long time no see.” One of the guards reached out his hand.

  Dan shook his hand, “How ya doing bud?” He rhetorically asked.

  “Okay, some weird things happening here this morning, we have already had to kick one guy out. He was going a little nutty and wasn’t even on trial.” The guard explained.

  “Great.” Dan rolled his eyes.

  Karen and Dan made their way to the courtroom the case was assigned to and Dan sat at the table, Karen behind him in the audience section.

  She handed him papers with the information on it that he needed for the case and then sat back taking in the creative architecture of the courtroom.

  “All rise. Court is now in session.” The Bailiff stated.

  The whole room stood and waited for the judge to sit down. The judge picked up a stack of papers and called the case.

  “My client seems to be missing your honor.” Dan stated. “I would think that he should be here any minute.”

  The judge peered up at him from the papers in annoyance that he was being made to wait. Just then the doors opened and in walked his client. His clothes quite tattered and definitely not court worthy.

  “Sir, is that the way you come dressed for court?” The judge belted out.

  The man dropped his head and sat next to Dan. Karen looked up as he leaned back in his chair and noticed a huge stain on the back of his button down shirt. She furrowed her brow and looked back down at her paperwork. She ran through scenarios in her mind of what may have happened to the man as the judge called a short recess to allow the man to clean up.

  Dan turned and looked at his wife with raised eyebrows.

  “Maybe he ran into a pack of zombies and had to fight them off before he got here.” Karen whispered and sat back smiling.

  “No more zombie books for you.” Dan said out of the side of his mouth back at her.

  Karen laughed out loud as the client walked back through the door not looking any better than he did when he left out.

  The court proceeded even though the judge was not happy that he had not cleaned up before coming back to court.

  They went through the normal routine of case status, offense, etc. and rescheduled for the next day.

  “What is wrong with you man? You can’t show up to court like this. You have to look professional.” He told the man on the way out.

  The man didn’t say anything, he just stood and looked at Dan. The man seemed to be in a trance of everything going on. When he would not answer any of Dan’s questions, he told him he would meet him later for dinner and walked away with frustration.

  Karen followed her husband and tried to keep her small high heeled feet going as fast as Dan’s were.

  Once to the hotel, Dan began ranting about how stupid people are and how this was a wasted trip. Karen laid her hand on his shoulder as he plopped down onto a chair.

  “Okay, why don’t we go see what the deal is with him? Call him and let him know we will meet him at the small diner in the lobby.” Karen suggested.

  Dan handed her his phone and she dialed the number he had for him. She left a voicem
ail, hoped he would receive it and managed to get Dan a drink before they decided to head down.

  They reached the lobby at five forty five and found a tall round table that seated four. They each ordered a drink and waited for the man to show up. At six thirty, he walked through the door, he had not changed clothes and now appeared to be sick looking. His hair looked as though he had walked through a tornado and his skin was a pale grey. He sat down and sweat beaded his forehead.

  “I’m sorry, I am not feeling well.” He told Dan.

  “Apparently, but we have to get this done or you can just go to jail.” Dan told him.

  “Maybe the best idea.” He said.

  Dan shook his head and pursed his lips at the man while rubbing his chin as he tried to decide on if he should continue the case.

  The man stood and quickly grabbed the table. His face was turning even paler and he bent over a bit as if he were going to throw up. He rose back up with a fast motion and turned to look at Dan with angry eyes. He lunged at him and grabbed Dan’s neck with his hands and leaned into his face with his own. His mouth wide open, Karen grabbed the hair on the back of his head with both hands and threw him to the ground. The man laid there for a moment and rolled his body over. He squirmed on the ground looking like a worm that was not able to go anywhere. He seemed to have problems controlling his legs and finally just turned back over on his back. His eyes shot up to Dan and his hand reached out to him again.

  His face was turning a color instead of the grey it had been taking on earlier. Dan and Karen watched the man as a waiter came to his aid and pulled Dan’s client up to stand.

  The waiter leaned in and wiped the man’s shirt off and tried to straighten his clothes, when he went to stand straight again the client leaned over and bit the muscle on the top of the waiter’s shoulder and ripped it out with ease only using his teeth. The waiter screamed in horror, which created a domino effect of the diner.

  People jumped from their seats and began running and screaming. Some ran out of the hotel, some ran back to their rooms and some just seemed to run in circles not sure where to go.

  Dan stood for a moment not believing his eyes and watched the muscle hang from the man’s mouth. He chomped a few times and let the muscle drop to the floor.

  Karen reached out to Dan and tried to pull him backwards away from the situation. But Dan’s feet would not budge.

  “Dan!” She screamed at her husband.

  Dan turned to look at her as the man took a step and lurched forward. His face hit Dan’s chest and he bit down. Dan backed away quickly and pushed him back to the ground before placing his hand on his chest and pulling it back full of blood. A horrified look came across his face and he fell backwards. Karen grabbed her husband under his arms and began to slide him across the floor and out of the diner. She was finally able to get him to the lobby and laid him on his back. She removed his hand that he had grasped his chest with once again to look at his injury. The man crawled towards them while Karen tried to save her husband and took a bite of Dan’s leg. Karen lifted her foot and placed the heel of her shoe into the side of the man’s head and pulled it out as Dan’s scream pierced her eardrums.

  She turned to see her husband in agonizing pain. She looked around for a cart to try and put him on and get him out of harm’s way. There was no one around to even help her, they had all left without thought of anyone but themselves.

  Karen stood and tried to pick her husband up, but could not shoulder the stout man. She rubbed his face and kissed his forehead as she pressed him against her. “What am I going to do?” She asked herself.

  She ran to the counter and grabbed the stack of white towels. She reached for the pocket knife that she usually kept in her pocket and realized she had left it upstairs. She took a towel placing it under his hand on his chest and wrapped another one around his leg. She looked around trying to figure out how to save her husband and noticed that the revolving door was spinning, but did not see anyone come in.

  “Hello, can someone help me please?” She hollered through the hotel hoping someone had come back.

  She was made aware quickly that someone had come in. A large woman that sat in the corner earlier waiting for a rich man to notice her was standing almost on top of her.

  “Ma’am please help me pick up my husband and get him to our room.” She requested.

  The woman stood over Karen without saying a word and reached down for her, pulling her up by her hair and had almost guided her forehead into her mouth when Karen figured out what was going on.

  “No fucking way!” She shouted at the obese woman.

  She uppercut the woman in the chin and her grip loosened. Karen wiggled herself away from the woman and between her chubby legs and stood behind her. The only weapon she could reach was a letter opener that laid on the front counter of the lobby. She plunged the letter opener into the woman’s skull from behind and watched her fall forward. Karen jammed the letter opener all the way through with her foot and ran it into her husband. She knelt beside him.

  “I’m sorry, I love you.” She said.

  She turned and ran to the elevator they had come down in. She pushed the button and the doors opened. She stepped inside and pushed the button to their floor as the doors closed. The elevator jolted a few times and then the doors opened up. She made her way to their room and removed the key from her back pocket and opened the door. A noise sounded that made her flinch and turn. A man stood a few feet down the hall staring at her and then began a swaggering walk towards her. She jolted her head to the side and crinkled her forehead with a bit of confusion at his legs that looked to be broken at the knee caps and his strange limp before she scanned up to see a bloodied bearded man coming at her.

  “Oh fuck no!” She hollered as she slammed the door just as he got to it.

  She had to push hard to secure the door and lock it while he pushed back. She could hear him outside as he growled and lunged at the door trying to open it. Karen began gathering her things and realized there was no way she would be able to take everything. She quickly began condensing to one bag.

  She took her make-up and shoes and only a few of the outfits she had bought and stuffed them carelessly into the biggest duffle bag Dan had brought for his things.

  She contemplated on just staying in the room, but knew that if this is what she thought it was, she would never live being up on the top floor and not able to get out. She had to get somewhere safe; somewhere with exits and supplies, and most important…weapons.

  She looked out the window, with the duffle bag hanging off of her shoulder and watched as others were being attacked. She looked at the lay of the land and the buildings that surrounded the hotel and could see a huge building far off in the distance with smoke bellowing out of the top. But it was far.

  “That is where I need to go, I need to get to that place. It still has people there running that thing.” She said to herself.

  She wondered if and how she could make it there, while wishing for the limo to pick her up and take her. She assumed that those days were over and that wasn’t going to happen.

  “This is it, suck it up and be the strong woman that you are!” She said to herself.

  Karen had been raised with a slew of boys, had been through the military, on hikes for days through mountains, rain forests and deserts and knew what it took to survive. She was ready. Surely she could deal with this, she assured herself.

  Karen slowly opened the door to the sudden quietness of the hallway and peered into the hallway. The silence was eerie, but she took the chance anyway. She tiptoed out and toward the ‘stairs’ sign, pushed open the door to the coldness of the stairwell and heard nothing. She slowly let the door close behind her and hoped she had not just made a huge mistake by taking the stairs. She decided that taking off her heels would be her best bet of not attracting any of the monsters. She removed her shoes and held one of them in the air by the toe, ready to strike at anything that came at her.

  Sh
e made her way down what had to be thousands of stairs. She opened the ground floor door and made her way through a small tunnel that had an arrow marked ‘Parking Garage’. Karen nodded and moved as fast as she could with the heavy bag attached to her. She came to a glass door, she could see cars parked all around the enclosed parking garage. She scanned the area and came across a line of limos and without thinking, opened the door and bee lined it for them.

  Running in her bare feet, she could hear scuffling to her right and instantly realized she had never even looked for trouble. She made it to the first limo in the row and to the driver’s door. When she turned to the sound behind her, there stood a man in a chauffer’s uniform, grumbling and growling. His dead cloudy eyes staring at her. She was a snack to this oversized man. She raised her shoe and hit him in the side of the jaw with the heel. It stuck into his skin that had turned an ugly shade and looked as though it had partially been ripped from his face and hung swinging. She grabbed it again and pulled hard and came back down, this time in the side of his skull. She was sure she was not going to be able to get her shoe out this time but tried anyway as he fell to the ground. She cringed as she placed her bare foot on the side of his face and pulled. The shoe came out and Karen fell against the limo. She steadied herself, shook the bloodied goo off of her shoe and slipped it back on her foot.

  She tried the door of the limo and it was open, she bent over and looked inside to see it was empty. She removed her bag, threw it inside, sat down and closed the door. She knew the limos always kept a hidden key inside, so she ran her hand under the dashboard as she had seen chauffeurs do before and came across a small box that was mounted. She leaned down to try and figure out how to open it. She pushed a small black button and the top popped open at her from the side. A gold key sat inside, she placed the key in the ignition and turned. The limo started up. Karen squealed with excitement, locked all of the doors with the push of a button and let out a sigh of relief. She moved the seat up and guided the steering wheel down to where she could see over it. She put it in reverse, quickly popped it into drive and hauled ass around the small turn that led her out of there.