The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers (17 page)

              “Well then why don’t you send a few of them through the roof where that pounding is coming from and lose that little bastard.”

              Eric walked slow listening for the constant pounding. The kids were all pointing to where they were hearing it as well. Eric put the gun a foot from the roofs top and fired until the gun clicked empty followed by one last thud. They listened for a moment and Phillip swerved the bus and from the top they saw the Turned roll off the roof landing on its face on the hard concrete below. The kids in the bus made the men’s hearts jump when they screamed a cheer for getting rid of the immediate threat. Eric did not cheer with them as he looked directly behind the bus seeing the hoard following them no matter how fast they went they had the scent and would not soon lose it. He walked to the rear of the bus getting one of his first good looks at the Turned and not having to worry about them immediately trying to kill him or worse. He stared at them and yelled back to Phillip, “Hey man there is something weird about some of them.”

              Phillip screamed back over his shoulder, “What you mean like they rip people open and eat their guts? Or that they can bite someone and make them turn into one of them as well.”
              “No, well yes that is weird, but no that isn’t what I was talking about. What I meant is the fact that they look like they were burned. Their clothes are all blackened and burnt right, but it’s like their skin is just fine. Shit you wouldn’t even know that they were burnt if it wasn’t for their missing hair and clothes.”

              “So you think that they got burned and then healed? Oh that is just great!”

              “No it isn’t great-”

              “Christ, thank you Eric. I’m aware that it is bad. The nice thing is that at least the bullet to the head works. Can you imagine if they could heal from something like that?”

Eric said, “Well from a entire Catholic upbringing I would say yes I have a idea. It would be hell, it would be hell on earth with people running wildly through the streets and hell’s demons running after them.”

No one said anything for a minute and Phillip asked, “So are we still going to head out there? What if that guy is alive we might be bringing an entire hoard to them.”

Eric said, “I think we will be ok. You saw the shop that place was trashed there is no way he got out of there alive.”

“We didn’t see his van in the back though did we? It must have gone somewhere, maybe it went to his place, you know with him in it.”

Eric pointed to the teens who were just now starting to get up out of their safe cover on the floor. “You see all those kids, they need someone to watch out for them. What are we going to do for them if we don’t have anything to protect them with”

Phillip wanted to say something but knew that it could be certain death after seeing that news report and heading to the city without some sort of protection. Phillip looked at the address again and said, “So where do we need to go?”

Eric said, “Head east out where that old railroad bridge is. There’s a farmhouse and not much else out there, that’s where his house is.”

“What about those things following us? We aren’t going to be able to get out of the bus if those are right behind us. What are we going to do?”

Eric said, “Well speed up, they can only run so fast, and we don’t have any choice, there’s nowhere between Des Moines and Adel that is going to have as good of a chance. There aren’t any gun shops in Waukee and besides we don’t know if it is going to get even worse if we head there or not. We need to try and be as quick as possible at the house. I’m sorry but i’m thinking of this shit as it comes up.”

Phillip punched the gas pulling ahead of the following mob and prayed that they were going to have a chance. The idea of seeing the bus overtaken by them and the young lives ended too soon was difficult for him to get his head around. He made distance up and as they pulled across the bridge they could see people. Eric said, “Fuck it get up to the house and get those people picked up, we aren’t going to have the time to get out damn it. Let’s hope that they’ve already got some guns on them as well.”

“They didn’t have anytime to know that we were coming, it’s not like they are going to be sitting outside waiting for a ride to come. They probably think that they are safe out here.”

Phillip said, “Well they probably were safe until we came here.”

One of the kids yelled from the back, hey there are some people in that field on the tree line over there. They watched as the Turned ate Jenn and the other two ran for their lives up towards the home. The instant guilt setting in made Eric and Phillip’s stomachs roll violently. “Just drive a fast as you can to get those kids.”

Phillip held onto the wheel tight trying to keep from losing control. The gravel beneath made it hard to steer and the sides of each road were like quicksand that would suck the bus in and make it flip if he got to close to it. They sped up the driveway pulling the doors open and stopping in front of the house. They saw a skinny boy running into the house and the two girls bringing a boy with them.

Eric said, “Hey what’s wrong with that kid is he you know?”

Phillip said, “He looks like he has downs, so what, you do realize that just because the zombie apocalypse has started full force that it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any kids like him, or the wheelchair kids, or people who are just plain sick. Hell I bet you one or two gay guys even survived day one.”

“Yeah you just-”

“Just what assume we don’t need to take care of anyone besides ourselves? He could have been one of these kids here just another kid that got into the bus.”

“I know, it is just that shit is getting very complicated very quick. You remember we just wanted a bus, we wanted to get supplies and we wanted to get to that center in Des Moines. That of course is hoping that it is even still there, that it actually got set up.”

“Life is complicated even more so now. We aren’t able to pick and choose what we are going to do. We have to take care of these kids, and probably those three there and the one that ran in the house. That girl in the field was someone’s daughter. We brought these freaks here we need to get them and keep moving. We won’t be able to wait around.”

Eric said, “What if he has the guns here?”

Phillip said, “Then maybe we wait it out for anotehr day and try coming back. Who knows maybe these things will get bored and move on, maybe they’ll lose interest in the property.”

“We can’t just camp out man. What if the government decides to airlift everyone out of there? You want to be the asshole that shows up late and misses what might be the one and only ride out of town? Can you imagine a city overrun with these things, and us stuck in the middle of it.”

Philip said, “Hey we’ve done alright so far for not knowing anything about these things. I don’t know what you are so scared of when it comes to Des Moines. I mean I saw the video and all just like you did.”

“Dude I think the problem that you aren’t seeing here is population.”

“You’re right I don’t see what you are talking about. We don’t have time anyways.”

“If they aren’t there, we are going to have all the time in the world to try and figure out how to survive an apocalypse here. What i’m worried about is that we haven’t ran into to many people who haven’t become one of those things. Now multiply that by the entire damn population of Des Moines and think about what we are possibly dealing with man.”

Eric mouthed what Philip was already thinking.
A lot of zombies. “
Fine alright so we go to get there and pray that there is someone to take us. That seem good by you?”

“Well if it’s shitty option over shitty option then yeah I guess that seems like the way to go right?” Philip said.

Eric hit the doors to the bus and screamed out them to Ellie and the others. “Hey come on, we don’t have much time come on we need to keep moving. We have to keep moving.”

Ellie yelled to Joey who was pulling her towards the bus already as the Turned were closing in quickly. “Come on Joey get on that bus we got a ride.”

Joey did not say anything they just kept their path running into the bus wild eyed. Joey sat in a seat like he did everyday and yelled, “Take me to Jordan. Take me to Jordan.”

Eric and Patrick just stared at them. Ellie screamed as she saw the Turned flooding into the house after Patrick. “Get moving! You need to go to the back of the house and pick up Patrick. We can’t leave Patrick!”

Eric said, “Who the hell is Patrick?”

Ellie and Kya screamed at the same time, “Drive around back!”

Phillip didn’t wait for the doors to close. He punched the gas sending Eric backwards and on his ass. Joey leaned over directly above him smiling. “You have to sit when the bus is moving.”

Eric looked at the boy trying to stay as calm as he could given the circumstances. “Thanks kid.”

Phillip pulled away just as the Turned were coming their way and as they pulled around back Ellie and Kya were glued to the window waiting to see Patrick come out. They were focused on the back door waiting anxiously to see him come out. Phillip yelled over his shoulder, “Hey sweetheart I don’t see anyone coming out, maybe he didn’t make it. There were a ton of those things going into that house. Those things are going to be coming around we don’t have that much of a lead on them, and what we do have is one i’d like to keep.”

Kya went to speak but Ellie was already talking faster than her mouth could keep up with her. “I’m sorry but i’m not a sweetheart and i’m sure as hell not your sweetheart. You say we don’t have time and you can’t wait around?”

Phillip started to mumble something but Ellie was nowhere near being done. “You do realize that you morons brought those things here. The Turned hadn’t crossed the bridge yet. Sure it was probably going to happen at some point. But I am pretty sure you two brought them here much quicker than they would have if they’d have just been left alone and not given some big ass yellow bus to follow somewhere. I mean jesus could you have gotten a more attracting louder vehicle? You do realize those things are all about the smell of blood and noise right?”

“We didn’t mean t bring those things here it was a accident.”

Ellie whipped her head around at Eric who wished he hadn’t tried to make things better. “Really, you didn’t mean to bring them here so the fact that they made a meal out of his sister and my friend over in that field and that a old man is up there probably getting eaten alive only for having the good sense of living this far out of town is just alright. Well hell thanks so much apology accepted ass.”

Kya gripped her shoulder, “We can give them a ass chewing that they both deserve very much later. But it isn’t helping anything right now. Where is Patrick though?”

“Hopefully alive and in that house. I don’t know what is taking him so long. He was supposed to get his medicine and get out. He just needs to keep that stuff on him at all times.” Ellie said.

Kya glared at Eric and said, “Well maybe he wasn’t thinking that for the second time in a row his home was going to be taken away from him.”

Ellie said a quick prayer to herself for Patrick and for them. When she opened her eyes she saw glass raining down from above. She craned her neck up and saw a large backpack falling to the ground. It bounced into the yard and when she looked back up she saw Patrick’s skinny frame jumping out of the window his feet kicking every which way in the air. He hit the small awning hard his legs buckling underneath him and rolled right off the top of it landing hard, the two rifles doing very little to pad his landing.

Ellie screamed out the bus, “Patrick keep moving, come on you can do it, go, go, go!”

Patrick pushed off the ground falling back down and tried again. He picked up the bag he’d used to break the window and made his way over to the bus. Just as he was climbing on the Turned were coming out still in pursuit of a meal. They listened as the bus was pulling away the gunfire never ceasing. They could still hear it as they drove away, the rifles echoes filling the small valley. Ellie whispered, “Do you think Andy made it?”

Patrick said, “I don’t know Ellie? He pushed something in front of the door to try and keep himself safe but who knows how long it is going to hold up. You’ve seen how strong those things are.”

Ellie stared out the back of the bus until she couldn’t see or hear the gunfire any longer letting the tears start to fall. The fact that she still had tears left after all of the loss they’d encountered in the last few days made her feel a little bit better. She was worried that if the loss of friends and loved ones continued that maybe she would become cold and be able to accept the death of others much too easily. Kya walked back and said, “Maybe he made it? Just think what would have happened if everyone would have been there. I mean how many people could we have lost if everyone was out doing chores. God that could have been horrible.”

Ellie who’d been to worried about keeping Joey safe per Jenn and Patrick’s directions finally had a clear thought. She could only think of one thing now and realized that there was no good answer. She said, “Shaun, shit, how are we going to let Shaun know about this? You realize what he is going to think when he comes back and the place has been overrun. What he’ll assume whe he sees Jenn in the field and Andy if - if he doesn’t make it through the day. He’s going to think we were taken. I don’t know if he can handle the thought of losing so many people.”