The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War (12 page)

He nodded nervously. “Yeah, I can handle that high power. I could go to the roof. All we need to do is get me up there and I can take it from there. I’ve been hunting with these things for years out of state with my dad…when I had one.”

Lou squeezed his shoulder, “Fine, you get up there, and I know we haven’t had to shoot regular people, only the dead, but if you are up there you shoot any fucker you see that you don’t know. We will ask questions later about why they were here. All I want to do is get my family and move them somewhere safe. Can you do that for me, Scott? I know it’s asking a lot.”

Scott didn’t take so much as a minute to debate the question and was already nodding his head. “I’m good, Ellie, give me the extra bullets will you?”

She handed over a pouch of fifty that she had stripped off Patrick. He opened it looking and seeing that the rifle was already loaded with five shots as well. “If we need all of these we are probably screwed.”

Lou didn’t even know he was doing it when he screamed picking the boy up and tossing him up the stairs. He said, “Get your skinny little ass up those fucking steps and do it now. There is my entire life not more than a few hundred yards away. I'm not going to let anything happen to them!”

Scott didn’t say anything he simply sprinted up the rest of the steps and to the stairs that led him to the roof. When he made it to the top he kicked the door open running to the edge feeling an exhilaration that he had never felt before.

Chapter 12

Clary was moving around the armory like a seasoned professional. He had every part where he wanted it and every tool exactly where it belonged. He ran a tight ship and the only thing that was in there that shouldn’t have been was the heavy cloud of cigar smoke resting above his head. He had been able to quit the smoking, but chewing on a cigar was something that he had refused to give up. He had stopped the occasional inhale after hearing time and time again, from the kids how it was a good thing that the old guy smoked because when they needed to make a run for it he would be the one hacking up a lung behind them.

He had spent the better part of the year getting back into peak physical condition right alongside the kids. He had lost twenty pounds and turned whatever small amount of flab he had into a rock. The last thing he was going to have happen was become a meal for the dead because he was too lazy to just say no when it came time to working out.

Clary kept a steady eye on the radio waiting for any emergency transmitting from Aslin or the others. He had heard nothing, not even a courtesy message letting him know that they were alive and at the base. Clary was bumping his head to AC Dc’s Back in Black screaming over his radio. His hearing had suffered so much damage over the years from demolition that it made little difference to him how loud it was. He knew that he was going to be suffering when he made it to his later years, given those years happened.

Clary was running a modified tube through a machine adding the grooves so that it would twist onto a barrel. He took his time making sure that he was precise. He knew exactly how dangerous it was to mess with barrels and the last thing he was going to do was give someone a gun that he himself would not first shoot, and prove it was safe. His weapon modification and gunsmith skills had gotten immensely better but he still had a lot that he could learn from it. He had given up on finding someone to teach him. The way he looked at it was that if there was an able bodied gunsmith still alive he was probably holed up somewhere with every scrap and tool that he could find to build a personal armory for himself and keep on the down low.

He figured when things started getting to the point that the supplies were gone that people like them with an actual skill could basically demand the world of anyone for their services.

Clary picked up his cigar trying to tap it looking down and seeing the large quarter sized red embers were no longer glowing red in the poorly lit shop. He patted his chest pockets and pants looking for his Zippo but found nothing. Clary started cursing walking through the small shop until he found what it was that he wanted. He looked down gripping the zippo and lighting it without looking up again. He had to focus on the small screen before his world came crashing down in front of him. He picked up the monitor staring at it intensely for a moment seeing Joey running up the hill carrying something in his arms. When he realized what it was his stomach dropped.

Clary ran to the bench grabbing his AR and an entire backpack full of magazines. He had refused to ever have to say that he was out of bullets or things to blow shit up with. He kept a decent supplied pack on or near him at all times. People told him he was paranoid and he would always mention not to worry that when they were long out of ammunition that he would graciously bestow some upon them.

He gripped the MK-19 that he kept for special occasions and sprinted out the door. As he ran he could feel the weight already growing heavy on his arm. When he made it to the fence line he could see a line of men cutting through the fence and barbed wire. He used his binoculars to see someone down on the ground. When he looked around he could tell that there had been a flood worth of blood that had escaped onto the ground.

Clary looked around the grounds glad at least that these kids as well as the few adults knew when the sirens went off that it was a top priority to get to a hiding spot. They weren’t being trained to be heroes and until they had graduated their training classes didn’t have the right to carry weapons on base. After the issue with Hammond and Shelman the day they had to leave he had invoked that rule.

He watched the fence line for a moment wondering what it was. He wanted the sirens off immediately if there truly was no threat or they would be dealing with the dead very soon once they heard the blaring noises as they echoed into the city. He saw a group of men standing at the fence line holding wire cutters. He could hear trucks in the distance and looked to the entrance trying to decide which way to go first.

Clary hit his radio, “Aslin, Aslin are you there? Shaun, Greg, anyone? If you can hear this there are intruders trying to get onto the base. You need to hurry and get your ass over here and you need to do it now! Why aren’t you answering your radios?””

He slung his machine gun around his shoulder and hefted up the heavy backup weapon. He took steady aim and launched a succession of five grenades into the tree line behind where the men were standing. The last thing he wanted to do was to take care of the fence for them. If it had not been for seeing Joey, Patrick, and Bella he would have had a different approach to the matter. He might have even tried to have a conversation with them. Clary could only imagine they were here for one reason and that was the armory and supplies, or worse they wanted retribution or possibly both.

The grenades hit a moment later and the earth shattering blasts erupted one after another. The screams of the men in the distance echoed their way up to him. Gunfire erupted from the gates and he could see the two boys at the gates holding up a hand for the three trucks approaching to stop. When they did a man came up out of the back of the truck holding an AR of his own, the semi-auto type though. He fired a succession of bullets at the two boys knocking them off their feet. The shock of seeing kids that he’d been training dying one after another was breaking Clary’s heart and sending him quickly into a rage.

He set down the grenade launcher shouldering his machine gun, and sent three, thirty round magazines at them as quickly as he could. The bullets riddled the trucks full of holes hitting the drivers in the head and painting the man next to him with their brains.

When the men in the back of the trucks went to run in Clary sent another five grenades in their direction taking out all but a few of them who ran for cover within in the fence of the base.

The sound of ATVs coming was distinct and when he looked at the fence line men were making their way through it driving with no regards for safety and straight up the hill. He watched, realizing that they seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go and wondered how in the hell that was possible. His heart hurt as they drove past the teens boarding hall and sprayed it with bullets. There were four of the four-wheelers and they were unforgiving with their shots firing dead on where people would be. He realized today was the day these kids would need to fight back if they chose to see another day. The men were firing the rifles with no regards or hope of anyone being saved. He knew each time they dropped out a magazine that it had been another thirty rounds sprayed into the building.

He ran back hitting the emergency code into the armory securing it tight until the proper code and identification had been entered. Unlike the day that he and Greg had come to the base, no one but himself and God was able to access it in a hurry. He tapped a magazine on the rifle and then slammed it in pulling the charging handle back and aiming down on the men driving by the housing units. He shot the ATV’s tires blowing them out. The men who had been focused on shooting the bunks had not seen Clary coming. The vehicles crashed into one another smashing their legs and the other two crashed into the wall sending them flying in comical angles off of it. Clary melted back into the shadows of the building looking to see that there were still six men on the base that were strangers from just the ATV’s.

Clary looked out in the distance at the newly cut gates and saw only one man standing there. He was kneeling down next to Bella with his head hanging down. When Clary focused on Bella for a moment he could almost see a line coming off of her head that looked like it had been split open. He started thinking of Joey carrying Patrick and the baseball bat that he had modified for the boy.

The man wiped at his face scooping up the girl. He spoke into his radio and a truck pulled up next to the fence’s edge. He carried her out through the gate and climbed in to the back of the truck without putting her down. It drove out of sight and he could only assume that they were going back to whatever place the men had come from. He was confident that it was the small housing community they had followed the men back to a few months ago.

Clary shook his head clear, focusing back on the task at hand. He knew that whoever of these men that lived to see another day had limited time available to them. Killing them was going to be his sole focus until he killed every last one of them. The men that had gotten up from the ground after crashing looked around, trying to see where the bullets had come from. When they saw Clary they took aim. He ran around the corner taking cover from the bullets. One of the men took off straight for him running around the edge of the building. His inexperience and cockiness at the man being outnumbered thought that somehow put them in a good position could not have been more wrong.

Clary waited for the man to come around the corner, and when he did, he fired one shot point blank from his pistol. He wished there was more time to make the bastards pay but at the moment he was fighting an inner battle trying to stay calm from the worry of the kids in the bunk house. He knew Lou could only do so much if they had been shot and also wondered then if Lou, Ellie, and the others were even still alive in the hospital.

Clary peered around one more time this time though was not to his benefit. The men did not have a shot on him but fired relentlessly regardless of if they were going to hit their target. The last thing any of them wanted to have happen was to have the man come back with the machine gun that fired hundreds of shots a minute whereas their shots were only as quickly as they were capable of squeezing their triggers. When Clary saw that they were already aiming he pulled back but it was too little too late.

The men fired clipping the corner of the building. Rock dust from the concrete building and bits of rock blinded Clary instantly. Clary pulled a grenade from his chest and ripped out the pin. He tossed it where he thought they had been but was twenty feet off. He had a good idea where they were but being blinded did not help. He could feel something running down the side of his face and when he touched it, there was a warm yet sticky feeling and he realized that his left eye which thank god to him was not his dominant eye was bleeding heavily.

He felt around on the ground for his rifle not wanting to be without it. When Clary found it and went to lift the gun it would not move. He wanted to run but knew running blind through a gunfight was far from intelligent. Clary patted at the gun wildly trying to see what was on top of it. When he felt a work boot atop of it he looked up but still was blind and only saw red shadows in front of him. “Well, if you’re going to shoot me then do it, you fucking piece of shit.”

One of the men’s radios squawked and Cade came over it. “
I want anyone that looks big enough to have been the one that took out my baby shot in the fucking head!
”

The two men looked at each other and one brought his rifle up high and down and into Clary’s skull knocking him cold. Clary hit the ground hard and the men backed out of the way not worried about his wounds. One of the two men, Gary, yelled to the other, “You want me to do him?”

The other, Craig, shrugged. “If Cade wants him dead, then he’s dead. I’d hate to have thought what he’d do to the son of a bitch that was dumb enough to take her out.”

Gary said, “I’ll do it, what’s one more body?” Gary raised his rifle taking aim at the top of Clary’s head and taking a step back to make sure that his brains this close and personal, wouldn’t splatter his clothing.