The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War (21 page)

Ricky would’ve liked to not say what he did. “And if we don’t live through today?”

Greg yelled from the door, “Then you are dead, dipshit, and it won’t matter.”

The group made their way out the door leaving Kya and Joey alone. When they were alone and Kya looked at the empty spot where Patrick had been the tears started to flow again. Lou watched from the door and had his own internal battle waging a war he was unsure he could win.

Chapter 20

Aslin pulled out with Ricky riding shotgun and Shaun sitting in back ready to take the gunner spot that was usually Greg’s. Ricky was clenching his gun like it was a body part he might lose if he let go. Aslin said, “Kid, take a breath will you. The last time someone was that nervous in one of these things they shot their gun off and took out the driver and one of whom was the only other adult left.”

Shaun said, “You’re okay, Aslin. I don’t get nervous with the dead. I just kill the damn things.”

“Any tips to keep me from feeling like I’m going to shit myself?”

“Yeah, if you screw up then they’re going to reach through the door and rip your head off. So keep your head on straight. Your fates unplanned so do your best to stay alive. Does that help?” Shaun said.

Ricky looked back at him unsure how to answer. He said, “You know you are kind of morbid for a teenager. What are you, fourteen?”

“Fifteen, almost sixteen, but who’s keeping track? If I end up being an old man I’m going to be more than a little surprised.”

“What, you don’t think that you are going to last through this?”

Shaun shrugged, “Not sure if there is enough ammo, Ricky. I’m not a downer, I’m just a realist. Nothing has been easy so far. The only thing, and I do mean the only thing, we have had going for us is this base and we didn’t get that easily either.”

“Were the dead here when you came?”

Aslin and Shaun both laughed. Aslin said, “They were here, they were on the way here, they were at the old place that we lived, and every other place not mentioned, kid. We weren’t on this base probably a half hour, day three, and we lost the first person. We were trying to get supplies for a farm house that we were living in but that went straight to hell in a handbag, and I don’t say that lightly.”

Shaun said, “The day before, we’d picked up Joey, Kya, and his brother and sister when we were on the way to the farmhouse the first time. It didn’t take long for the dead to find it.”

“Right, because a big ass yellow school bus drove right past the dead and drove straight to us. I believe that was the first time the girls got to meet Shelman and Phillip. I don’t think you were here when they were though. You came in the last few months, didn’t you?” Aslin asked.

Ricky shook his head, “Nope, never met them. I’ve mostly just been trying to use these things so I didn’t get kicked out of this place, and to contribute.”

Aslin said, “Christ, you know what I wish that people would stop talking about that. There’s been two dipshits that we kicked out of here. From what Clary told me it seems that we would have saved ourselves a hell of a lot of trouble if we would have just put a few bullets in the back of each of their heads. If they’re still alive on that base I’ll have no mercy for the two of them I can promise you. Hell, maybe I’ll spray them with the blood hose and let the dead take care of them.”

Ricky looked at Shaun and then back. “God, are you guys sure you aren’t like, you know, related or something? Is that a sense of humor?”

Aslin said, “It is probably about as close to normal as I get kid. Sorry to shoot your puppy, but you stick with us and you’ll learn how to survive. It is nice knowing you have a safe base to rely on but when it hits the fan you need to know what to do and how to survive. We aren’t going to live on this thing forever. If there’s one group who wants what we have there’s probably another one. I'm not saying we move immediately but the more I think about it, there’s probably a damn big portion of empty real estate out there that is primed for the taking. We go somewhere else and with the exception of supplies, and the living, we keep our happy asses put.”

“Suit yourself, Aslin. I remember you being adamant about taking these things out not more than a few hours ago and making sure as many people, not counting the assholes we are going after, stay alive. Now, did you change your mind?”

“Well, considering a few hours ago we had an extra sixty people give or take, yes I do feel a little different. I feel guilty asking those kids to walk around the base looking like they know what they’re doing but when things get tough you do what you do. Now, once we’re back and if we could find somewhere safe to sleep then it seems the safest of ideas to handle this type of thing. If bad people want to come to a base that got cleared out then God bless them, and sorry there’s nothing left.”

Shaun said, “I'm not staying on a farm. Once we get our retribution taking these guys out and get everyone healed up I'm going back to try my blood bag idea. You know the longer that we wait the worse it is for us. I don’t want anything else bad to happen so I’d much rather go about being in charge of my own fate. I’ll be a farmer when they’re dead.”

Aslin said, “You sure about that?”

“You guys won’t be stopping me, I think. I know you secretly are interested in me succeeding there’s enough dead to paint the streets and that is my main focus, Aslin. I'm not saying I'm ready to move out of the house but there needs to be more being done. This is the best thing I can think of. You are perfectly capable of getting a farm found and up and running. I’m confident that Greg would be perfectly happy heading out with me. Ricky, you think you’d be interested?”

He looked at the machine gun in his hand and was not ignorant to their speed or strength. Ricky smiled uneasily not believing in a million years he’d ever utter something like this, but said, “Yeah, you know I’d rather get them with my eyes open than wait for them to come for me while we sleep or aren’t ready for it. If they’re going to get me then it is going to be on my terms as much as possible. If you really think that you have a chance, I don’t think I could sit idle by and not do something about it.”

Shaun clapped him on the shoulder sitting back feeling good about the future. Aslin said, “Oh shit, the Orphans Brigade is born. It might be America’s youngest army ever.”

“Hey, Aslin, at least you are giving us some great training to use. I couldn’t hit anything nearly at the distances that I could before you started showing Patrick and…sorry, never mind, you get the point though.”

“Don’t forget, Fox, they’re dead, not forgotten. The past hurts but remembering it will keep it from happening again, like I mean ever again. The sooner we forget the quicker the bad repeats itself. I have a feeling you aren’t ever going to let these things go. You just make sure you don’t go and let things tear you up inside because that takes longer than physical wounds to heal.”

Shaun was watching out the window and said it without even thinking about it. He said, “Shit, you do realize or remember the reason you were sent here in the first place was because of my dad and the hell that he unleashed on society right? If he’d have just left well enough alone then there wouldn’t have been any issues. Ellie would be a normal girl living life as an orphan and probably living with a grandparent or someone I don’t know. Millions or hell, probably billions would be alive and happy right now. You let me know what that does for your head because I can’t see it ever putting it back straight again. I'm not kidding that this shit is something to try and get over, and maybe when we take all of them out it will be easier. But when I have to look them in the face every single day it doesn’t do much for me.”

Aslin began to say something but Ricky cut in first. He said, “You wanted to go to the blood bank, right, or are you just going to keep going, Aslin? We could always catch the next one if you want. I’m sure they have more of them around here.”

Aslin slammed on the brakes sending the giant hummer into a fishtail. Aslin was happy that there was no ice like when they had been out originally trying to find Greg and the others not long ago. He slammed the steering wheel and yelled, “Shit!” as the truck screeched to a sliding stop.

Shaun looked around, he wasn’t stupid and was aware when the loud noises went off was when the dead came from nowhere. He already had his hand on the latch that would free the door so he could get behind the machine gun mounted to the roof of the vehicle. He wasn’t going to waste any chances or try to be stingy with bullets. He knew how much ammo they had and that they could put some serious damage on whatever got in their line of sight.

Aslin threw it in reverse looking in the mirrors and punching the gas into the parking lot. They drove through the start of the driveway stopping when they got past the point of no return. Aslin said, “You know the reason that the blood banks are a shit idea, Shaun? I’ll tell you, because the dead can smell the blood from a long way away. Can you take a wild fucking guess why this parking lot is currently full of the dead standing there ready to eat, Shaun?”

“We didn’t think about that, Aslin, and for the record I don’t think that you did either. Now couple that thought with the fact we were looking for an easy answer to a short term problem and there you go.”

Aslin stopped before pulling in any further. He was in complete agreement that the idea that sounded genius at the time definitely was missing something. Aslin looked at the horde filling the driveway. He looked back to Shaun expectantly. Shaun said, “Let me guess, you are waiting for them to just get bored and move on or do you think that you could do something to assist.”

Ricky said, “Holy shit, I’ve…I've never seen that many dead before. Why are we sitting still, why aren’t you driving away?”

Shaun smiled pushing the door open quickly. He said, “There’s a reason that we bring weapons, Ricky. Shaun didn’t realize that the dead had been going through starvation. The food that they craved so greatly was trapped on the inside of the building. The explosion of the rounds at first was decimating and filled Shaun with hope. This lasted for only the first drum worth of ammunition. The dead were ripped apart leaving them lying everywhere on the driveway. When Shaun went to reload the gun Aslin threw it back in reverse again and sent Shaun almost out of the truck. He held onto the gun to keep steady. The dead that he had not been able to take out or injure enough to stay down bum rushed straight for them.

Shaun forced the drum in pulling the charge handle back and as it clicked he had his trigger pulled fully back. He watched in terror as the dead spread out and went to the sides of the truck. Shaun was so focused on the Turned in front of them that the ones running to the outside were coming faster than he was able to handle. He screamed down through the hole for Aslin to floor it. He could hear nothing over the insanity of noise that the machine gun was able to give off. When Shaun saw them leaping towards the Humvee Aslin whipped the rear end into the dead that looked more like Superman position flying towards the side of the truck. He stopped it dead cold and pulled Shaun down tripping him and pulling his leg out. He screamed, “Pull the fucking door shut, now!”

Shaun did as he was told and hit the lock on it quickly as the top began to rise from its place. Ricky was freaking out looking left and right. He said, “What the hell are we going to do now? They’re everywhere. Aslin, can you still drive this thing?”

“Yeah, I could if there weren’t twenty dead deep surrounding it.”

Shaun said, “What are we going to do, Aslin?”

“Pray that they don’t rip these doors off.”

The dead surrounding the Humvee were smashing their skulls into the windows and anywhere else that they could. They could barely see out of the windows with the blood that was smearing them. The roof was echoing from the pounding of their fists on the steel. A set of four explosions went off outside and shook the Humvee. Shaun said, “What the fuck is that!”

Aslin’s face went white when the implications of what happened hit him. “That, Shaun, that was our tires. They just figured out how to pop the fuckers. I hate those bastards.”

Ricky was losing his shit and screamed, “What do we do? Can this thing ride on flat tires?”

“Well, we won’t be going very fast, the noise that we are going to have going is definitely going to freak them out and bring even more of the dead towards us.”

Shaun was looking at Aslin trying to figure out if now would be a time that he should radio Ellie and let her know that they weren't going to be coming back. He looked down at his gun feeling stupid for getting stuck in the first place. Shaun yelled, “I’m not going to die today, guys, none of us are!”

He rolled the window down just far enough to stick the end of his barrel out and laid down a string of fire. When they saw what he was doing they did the same thing clearing enough away from the sides to be able to see the building again that they so desperately needed the safety of. Shaun said, “You think grenades would be a good idea, Aslin?”

“I don’t give two shits what we do, kid, as long as we get some of these assholes away from the Humvee so we can get inside of that building. We can figure out our next move once we get in. You boys okay with that?”

Shaun dropped a magazine and sent another full on spray of bullets around at the approaching horde. He said, “You throw three and then we make a break for the door, does that sound good to you?”

Aslin said, “We throw three and then we drive this thing to the door. It could make it a hell of a lot further if we needed to.”

He pulled the first of two grenades pulling the pin and then repeated the process. When Shaun was ready he saw he had two as well. Shaun said, “Is there such a thing as overkill when it comes to taking out the dead?”

Aslin couldn’t figure how it was going to hurt and they chucked the four grenades in front of them at different distances one after another and went straight back to firing off the rounds. They stopped after a four count ducking beneath the dash and seats. Aslin pulled Ricky down and said, “You got some protective glass but when a bone turns into shrapnel I wouldn’t go out of your way to trust it.”