The Horror Squad (Book 3) (4 page)

We stepped off the cart while
keeping a good eye on the door. I
grabbed his arm and pulled him out of
the cart. “No, we’ll go in. No need to
freeze to death standing around out
here.”

I put him out front, but with a firm
grip, just in case shots rang out once
the door came open.

He opened the door slowly and
walked in, taking no chance of getting
shot.

“That was fast.” Tiffany called out.

Robin took a few more steps before
responding. “Yeah, I met a few more
people.”

She walked out of a small room
and looked out and waved to us.
“Well, hello. Give me a second to
wash my hands and I’ll come out and
meet everyone.”

I tightened my grip on Robin.
“Take your time.”

The sound of running water broke
the silence and turned off after a
matter of seconds and she came
walking out with a hand towel drying
her hands.

She walked over to Bo first and
held out her hand. “I’m Tiffany
Earnest, it’s nice to meet you.”

Bo shook her hand. “Nice meeting
you, I’m Bo.”

 

I released my grip on Robin and
shook her hand introducing myself.

She had short spiked up dark brown
hair and wearing glasses. Her outfit
screamed Tomboy.

“What brings you here?” She
politely asked.

 

“Food.” I quickly answered.

 

She smiled. “I’ve got a few things
in the back if you’re hungry.”

 

“Thank you, but we were thinking
more long term.” I responded.

“Ah, you’re after the animals.” She
quickly cleared the air. “I tell you
what, you take us with you and we’ll
help.”

I stepped back with brief confusion.
“You’ve been taking care of these
animals since the apocalypse went
down and you’re ready to just let us
kill them off?”

She threw her hands up on her hips.
“We’ve been here because we didn’t
think any part of the world existed
anymore. I’m a nurse, not a
veterinarian…Besides, we’ve been
eating what we needed as well.”

Robin took a step towards her. “I
don’t know if I can agree to let them
kill all of the animals. Are we
supposed to just sit back and watch
everything go extinct?”

I threw the sling of my rifle over
my shoulder and let it drop down my
back. “We can take you with us, that’s
not a problem. Our base has a lot
more people than just us and you
would make a damn good asset to our
team with your training.” I turned to
Robin. “You can go or stay, makes no
difference to me, but if you haven’t
noticed…the world is already extinct.
However, we’re doing what we came
here for, so just know that feeding my
people is way more important than
sparing your life.”

He stepped back a few steps with
his head held down low, then looked
up. “So when do we start?”

I cracked a smile. “Right now. We
need some gators or something that
has some balls to it to get the animals
we kill to the restaurant to be skinned
and quartered up.”

“We’ve got about a dozen out
back.” Tiffany stated as she started
walking towards the back.

We all started following.
I turned to Robin. “Grab your
tranquilizer guns, we may need
them.”

He shook his head in

 

acknowledgement and walked away.

We continued following Tiffany to
the back. She opened the overhead
garage door and there sat about a
dozen gators lined up in four rows.

“Keys are in them and they’re
already topped off in fuel.” Tiffany
stated.

I’m sure my eyes were in a wide
stance. “Well, let’s not waste any time
and we’ll take one each, but travel in
pairs so we have a hunter and
someone to help load. Once you have
your gator loaded, get your kill over
to the restaurant so the girls can start
skinning, quartering up and packed in
ice.”

Tiffany smiled and looked over.
“You have women with you?”

 

I started laughing. “Yeah, they’re
already spoken for.”

 

She kind of rolled her eyes and
jumped on one of the gators.

 

Robin came out in a slow jog with
five tranquilizer guns.

“
The teams will be myself, Gizmo
and Daltin. Bo, you take Steven and
Robin. Tiffany, we’ll take you over to
the women so you can get acquainted
and you can help them out. Each team
gets two tranquilizer guns.” I stated.

“I can hunt.” Tiffany quickly
added.

“Okay, then take Steven to the
women and let him help with what he
can and take Tiffany with you.” I told
Bo.

“Works for me.” Bo responded.
“Of course you’re going to put me
with the women.” Steven stated.
“Just shut up and go, you one
armed bastard.” I quickly shot back.
He climbed in one of the gators. “I
don’t need to be escorted.”

“No, but the women need to me
et
Robin and Tiffany so they’re not
startled if they take them a delivery
and get shot.” I stated.

“Where are y’all headed?” Bo
asked.

“We’re going to the alligator pond
first and get them out of the way.” I
turned toward Robin. “Do you know
how many are in the pond?”

“There’s eight total, but only five
of them have any decent size to
them.” He responded.

“Sounds good.” I called out before
shifting my gator in reverse and
pulling out.

Daltin rode with me, Gizmo
followed close behind.

We pulled out of the gate and
turned to the left onto the bridge that
went over the alligator pond. I
stopped about midway across and
jumped out.

“Are we really going to hunt
alligators?” Daltin excitedly asked.
“Hell’s yes we are.” I answered.

I could see three decent size
alligators sitting on the muddy bank,
two that were about four to five foot
long. I pulled my bow out and loaded
my first arrow. I drew back and took
aim at one that was about twelve foot
long. I let my arrow fly. It made
contact at an angle from the side of its
neck and into its head. It thrashed
around viciously and threw itself into
a death roll on the bank, breaking the
arrow off. Finally it stopped moving,
but turned upside down.

One of the alligators shot into the
water from all the commotion. The
others remained on the bank.

“Ah! You fucker, that’s the one I
was about to shoot.” Gizmo stated as
he took aim at the next one that was
about the same size.

You could see him trying to control
his breathing before releasing the
arrow.

The arrow came launching from his
bow and struck the alligator almost in
the exact spot that I had just shot the
other, but this one didn’t do all the
dramatics, it just died.

“So what’s your plan? Are we just
going to jump in and grab those two
or are we going to take out the other
six before we climb in there?” Gizmo
asked.

I looked over at him like he was
stupid. “You can jump in there if you
want, but I’m going to wait until we
get them all before my ass is getting
in any pen with a fucking
alligator…Besides, it’s not like their
meat is going to ruin anytime soon,
it’s like thirty-five to forty degrees out
here.” I quickly responded.

“That’s true, I just wanted to make
sure we were on the same page.” He
replied.

I loaded my next arrow and drew it
back and took aim to a little five
footer that was slowly making its way
back into the water and shot. It hit
right through its head and pinned it to
the ground.

After about an hour, we had finally
taken out all eight alligators. I
strapped a rope to the side of the
fence and drove off tearing it down. I
then grabbed a long chain and
wrapped it around the alligator’s
necks one at a time and pulled them
out onto the walking trail with the
gators. Gizmo helped me load the
smaller alligators into the backs of our
gators and we secured the chains on
the others and started dragging them
over to the restaurant.

“What do you want us to do with
that?” Kris asked as we pulled up.

“Hell, Steven is an old redneck, he
should know. However, if he doesn’t,
just get all the meat you can off them.
Cut their tails off right behind their
ass and save all of that.” I answered.

“You want their tails?” Tina

 

chimed in.

 

“Well fuck yeah, that’s where most
of the meat is.” Gizmo responded.

“Okay, we’ll do what we can.” Kris
stated while trying to help get the
alligators unloaded.

We pulled the smaller ones inside.
It took three of us to pull the bigger
ones, but we just pulled them close to
the door.

“Has Bo’s team brought anything
yet?” I asked.

Kris grabbed at her back after
heaving the beasts. “Nope, you’re the
first one.”

“Fucking right doggy, that’s
because we’re god damn caboys!”
Gizmo stated.

I started laughing
. “You’re fucking
stupid. Load up and lets go see if we
can’t get some fish and snakes from
the aquarium.”

“I ain’t fucking with no snake!” He
quickly stated.

“I didn’t say we were going to go
play with them. I’m not fucking with
a snake until I know it’s good and
dead either.” I responded.

He agreed and we set off to the
aquarium.

 

CHAPTER FOUR
PULLING UP in front of the

aquarium, Daltin and I jumped out,
followed by Gizmo pulling up and
joining us. We all walked in through
the double doors, our eyes took a
minute to focus in the creepy darkness
of the inside and we slowly started
walking the circle of exhibits trying to
figure out how we could get them all
out without having to actually go in
since the viewing side was nothing
but glass.

“I’ll get the fish and you get the
snakes.” Gizmo called out.

“Fuck that! I don’t even know how
many snakes are in each exhibit and
several of them are poisonous.” I
responded.

Gizmo walked over to one of the
snake exhibits. “I’m just being honest
with you when I say I’m not going in
any of them. I really think we should
just try our luck somewhere else,
because even on the fish side, it’s
mainly alligator gar and they’re not
good eating.”

I agreed that this was not going to
be the best of ideas. “So what do you
want to hunt?”

We exited the dark dwellings of the
snakes that neither of us were willing
to mess with back into normal
daylight.

“Let’s st
ick to what we know for
now and go hunt the white tail deer
and bison.” He suggested.

I started walking away from the
exhibits. “I was wanting to give our
backs a rest, but let’s do it.”

We could see Bo’s team out
hunting antelope and caribou as we
passed through. They had quite a few
loaded in the back of their gators. I
pulled passed them and stopped for a
moment and watched. I could see
Robin and Tiffany doing fairly well at
helping out. I pulled back off and
stopped again once we got to the deer
and bison cages.

Daltin hopped out as soon as we
stopped, I sat there for a few moments
trying to give my back a small break
before toting deer or even
worse….buffalo.

“Come on, we’ve only got a few
hours of day light left.” Gizmo called
out from behind me.

I tossed my legs over the side.
“Yeah, I’m coming.”

I could see a plethora of catfish in
the moat below that separated the
exhibit from the fence. “Maybe we
can find a net and snatch some of
these catfish to bring back.”

Gizmo walked over and looked
over the side. “Yeah, there’s
definitely some big ass fish in there.”

“Hey, Daltin, take my gator and
ride back around the bend to Bo and
ask Tiffany if they have some nets.” I
suggested.

Daltin smiled real big being asked
to help. “Okay dad!”

 

Without question, he jumped in my
gator and pulled off.

I walked to the end of the exhibit
and climbed past the moat on the side
of the fence before dropping down.
The deer and buffalo started walking
towards us.

“This is barely even hunting. All
these animals see us and come to us,
thinking we’re bringing them food.” I
stated.

Gizmo hopped down from the side
of the fence. “Are you really bitching
about it? At least we can get this done
and get back home, not sit out in the
woods for hours at a time and bring
home maybe one deer per week.”

I pulled an arrow and snapped it
into my draw string. “Not bitching
about it, I’m just saying…this is like
killing our dogs that we raised up to
trust us.”

I pulled back on the bow and let my
arrow fly plunging it into one of the
bison. It dropped its front legs down
to its knees, then fell over.

Gizmo had already taken out one
buffalo and one deer by the time I had
my next arrow ready. I shot another
bison that was flipping its tail and
making his way over to me.

“Dad!” Daltin called from the other
side of the fence.

I looked over to see him standing
there with Tiffany and the rest of Bo’s
group. “Did you want to come see
how real hunters do it?” I started
laughing.