The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War (22 page)

Ricky didn’t fight him and ducked down. The blasts went off one after another and after the fourth the screams from the outside were almost as deafening as the blasts themselves. Shaun whispered, “Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?”

Aslin said, “Fox, you're kind of dark sometimes, you know that?”

“Is there a reason we aren’t driving, Aslin?” Shaun said.

He sat up in his seat with his rifles resting next to him making sure that he had a hand on the two of them through slings ready to run when they got where they were going. He punched the gas and sent Shaun back in his seat. Aslin drove the truck straight over the remains of the dead and the truck was bucking wildly swerving side to side. The gut and skin beneath it were making it difficult for the truck to drive on, there were no tires to assist with the traction they desperately needed. Aslin never slowed down as he approached the building and he swung the driver’s door open as he approached the wall and sent it into reverse ripping the door from the hinges. Ricky screamed, “What are you doing, Aslin?”

“Keeping you two kids alive. You are going to have to trust me.”

“Do I have a choice?” Ricky asked.

“Not really at this point. You are committed, Ricky.”

The door sprayed sparks as it ripped from its hinges and screeched along the wall as he backed up. Shaun got the idea and was already sliding over the front seat. He yelled, “Get over, Ricky, I’ll go in last.”

Aslin stopped in front of the metal door and sent ten rounds into the handle and the metal around it. He kicked a size twelve boot into it until the door opened. Shaun said, “Now how do we keep those things from following us in, Aslin?”

“I didn’t think all that far ahead, get your ass moving, Fox. We figure it out once we get in there. It isn’t going to take them long to make their way in behind us and figure out we aren’t in here.”

The three of them kept low getting out of the Humvee and sprinted through the halls looking around for something that they could do to keep safe from the dead. They hadn’t made it ten feet in before the first of the dead sent an echoing scream down the hallway. When they looked back, one of the dead a man that had to have been over six and a half foot was standing there shirtless screaming at the top of its lungs. Shaun looked back seeing the only light they had was that of the sun coming through the door. It outlined the dead making it look even more evil, something Shaun didn’t think was possible. It turned screamed to the others and bodies flooded through the door as quickly as they could fit through. Shaun watched, seeing the alpha was standing still screaming what seemed to be orders to kill at the rest of the Turned, who were very quickly making their way through the dark halls.

Shaun was doing the math in his head and was seriously debating that they did not have nearly enough rounds on them to survive this. He pulled his pistol never slowing down and slinging his rifle. He sprinted ahead of the other two hitting the flashlight on his pistol and lighting the way. Aslin said, “Any ideas, Fox?”

“Yeah we find somewhere to make a stand and we build up a wall of the dead. Other than that I got nothing, Aslin. This sucks!”

Aslin didn’t have anything that he could say because he wholeheartedly agreed. He yelled, “You hang in there Ricky, we’ve been in worse than this.”

When they made the corner there was an outline of steel going through and Fox and Aslin were reading each other’s mind. They gripped the gate pulling it out and slamming it until they heard the click and reassurance of their temporary safety. The dead slammed into it piling until they looked like the ones in the middle would be suffocating. The dead went for as far as the eye could see until they looked like they melted together.

They took a knee while catching their breath and Aslin said, “Okay, so now we got this going for us which is nice.”

“What the hell do we want to do now?” Shaun asked.

Aslin looked back and did the sign of the cross just thanking him that they made it this far. He said, “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think we were going to get this far. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I wish this place was home and we had everything they have there.”

Shaun said, “Really, that’s the best you got, huh?”

“We’re outnumbered hundreds to one, Fox. I say we find the blood and then we see if they have a car or truck we can use given they have a garage in the first place.”

Ricky was up on his feet pacing back and forth. He hadn’t been through anything like this and didn’t understand what they were doing and why they were just sitting there. “Why aren’t we doing something, there has to be something that we can do. We came for the blood because they like it, right? Well, what about out of sight out of mind?”

Aslin said, “We’re listening, what are you trying to say?”

Ricky said, “Yeah, really simple, we go and grab the blood and we toss that shit off the roof. They go crazy trying to get to it, we drive our little blood donor car away when they aren’t thinking about us. Then when we get far enough away and we don’t stop. You got a better idea then I'm totally up for it, but at the time this seems like the best thing we have going for us.”

Shaun said, “Sounds good to me, Ricky. Let’s go find the blood and then we go from there.”

The gates behind them were rattling and Aslin did not trust them nearly as much with all of the weight that was being forced into them. He said, “You boys keep going and find the blood. I'm going to keep an eye on those gates. I'm hoping if we can stay out of their sight that the out of sight part can start working. You never know how long it is going to take them to settle down once they’re worked up.”

“Depends, but I wouldn’t want to hang out here any longer. The smell of us might be enough to keep them pissed off and hungry,” Shaun said

“Then let’s kick it into double time, boys.”

Shaun and Ricky walked quickly through the halls. Shaun was reading the rooms and when they found a wall sign with labels he ripped it from the wall and the two of them raced to the second floor near the elevator. Ricky said, “I don’t like walking around this place in the dark, it seems stupid.”

Shaun said, “Well, I’d say from the flickering of the stop lights and everything that the power is almost done. I honestly can’t believe there’s still anything left, and I don’t know what happens to blood that isn’t refrigerated. I hope that it didn’t spoil, but really I don’t see the dead being picky. I mean they’re pretty stupid most of the time.”

“Yeah, so stupid that they’re the ones in charge of everywhere,” Ricky said.

Shaun had never really thought before about the dead being in charge. He just always thought that they were the ones that outnumbered and that the living just needed the time and right possibilities to take control again. The death that they had been responsible for would seem minimal when the living took back their lives again. They would decimate them and take back, ruling the world. Shaun said, “It’s temporary, Ricky. We’re going to be back again, you watch. I promise you.”

“You are pretty optimistic, Shaun, for a kid that’s seen some of the worst from what I’ve heard.”

“Just don’t believe everything you hear. I don’t think anyone out there has had it harder than anyone else. I think the ones that have had it the worst have been those who didn’t survive, and unfortunately a lot of them are going to have to deal with death twice.”

Shaun saw the room they’d labeled donor on it and stopped. He pointed and the two went in looking around with rifles up. Ricky was walking in front and Shaun pulled him behind him. He said, “You keep your safety off, and your finger off that trigger until you got something that you need to take out, you understand me?”

Ricky said, “Is there a reason you are going to run lead on this?”

“Yeah, because I’ve been training with the Navy Seals daily, for almost a year. You can say that in a year from now and I’ll happily listen to you and let you be bait. I don’t think there’s anything here to be scared of but I’d rather be safe than sorry and a group of dead coming for you doesn’t make me feel any better about anything.”

They walked in seeing more blood than they ever had in their life including what had been spilled. Shaun said, “There’s so much of it. We could fill one of the truck’s sprayer tanks or whatever it is that Clary gets rigged up as many times as we want to. Now we just need to figure out how to get it somewhere.”

“I say we get Aslin and see if there’s a ride anywhere. There’s no point in trying to get ourselves a ton of blood that we can’t do anything with.”

Shaun nodded and when they ran down Aslin was holding up a hand for them to slow down and be quiet. Shaun whispered, “We found the effing motherlode of blood, Aslin. I can’t believe how much we found. Good God, it’s going to be a blood bath…literally.”

Aslin said, “Then it seems like we should try and find a vehicle, huh?”

They went through towards the back seeing a door that said, Garage/Underground Parking. Shaun said, “You think there’s anything down there, Aslin?”

He shrugged opening the door and turning on the light to his rifle. As they made their way down the steps, the darkness surrounded everything that their flashlights did not touch. Ricky said, “You know the longer this thing goes on the less I like the darkness. There doesn’t ever seem to be anything good that comes from it.”

Aslin said, “You know one good thing that happens once in a while, Ricky?”

“What?”

“When people can shut the fuck up when they’re in a dangerous situation and we know that there’s something nasty coming for us.”

Ricky didn’t need any further direction or to be told directly to shut up. They walked slowly down the steps and when Shaun saw the dead he winced, looking back to Aslin who was already raising his rifle and walking forward. He wanted to race up the steps and get a higher vantage point but Aslin was done with running today if it could be avoided.

Shaun followed closely behind him and Ricky took the rear position. Aslin let off a deafening string of shots and decimated the first five in their path. Shaun ran his light around seeing dead rising from their resting place behind trucks and fired off sending head shots leaving nothing but death wherever his bullets struck. Ricky was looking around wildly but did not look high. The dead that they had walked directly under dropped to the ground wrapping his arms around him and latched its mouth on to his neck.

Ricky screamed no as the first and last bite of flesh that it was going to take from him was torn from his skin. The dead screamed a bloody gurgle in triumph as it chewed. Tears filled Ricky’s eyes and his legs quivered as the blood loss and the results of what was going to happen hit home. Shaun aimed down at the dead and a piece of his heart broke as he watched Ricky’s lips trembling and saying words he would not forget soon nor would it be the last time the future hero would hear them. “Help me, Shaun.”

Shaun took a deep breath squeezing off one round that split the dead’s skull like a zipper front to back. Ricky dropped to his knee crawling forward a foot and out of where the dead had fallen. He said, “Thank you, Shaun.”

Ricky began to convulse, the Turn now happening much faster than usual. Shaun said, “I'm sorry,” and pulled the trigger once sending a round through the top of his head. The idea of letting him go through the Turn made no sense to him and knew if it was ever his turn to be in that role that he would gladly be put out of his misery. The idea of becoming one of the Turned wasn’t something that he could handle dealing with. The only thing worse was watching it happen to the ones that they cared for and he refused to let anyone go through that if and when it was possible to stop it.

Aslin put a hand on his shoulder. “We need to get out of here, Shaun, before we can’t.”

“When is it going to be enough? We’re losing people quicker than we can get new ones back. I don’t want those people. I want our friends. I want the ones that have been around us from the start. I just keep thinking if we don’t get our numbers back, we aren’t going to make it, Aslin.”

“Welcome to the mind of a warrior, kid.” He took his Seal pin from his shirt and clipped it onto Shaun. He said, “You earned this. I’m sure if Greg was here he’s earned one by now as well.”

“I can’t take this.”

“Yeah, and that is why I didn’t give you anything, kid. You earned it tenfold. There’s no question about it. I would have never been able to survive what you have had to put up with when I was your age. Your dad and the outbreak on day one… You guys even had your own fall out bunker that you could’ve stayed in but instead of that you risked your lives for Patrick, and then when Greg heard the call asking for people to help you all went back again regardless of what we were acting like towards you. Like I said, you weren’t given anything, you earned it.”

Shaun looked at the small pin that looked more like a medal pinned to his chest. He said, “Let’s make sure this parking garage is cleaned out and then we go from there.”

The two walked slowly taking their time making sure that there were no spots the dead were able to hide. When they were confident that the place was cleared out Aslin found the motor pool keys and after a quick minute they figured out that there was only one thing that they could drive that would be able to transport all of the blood that they needed.

Shaun laughed a little as they walked around the large white bus that had smiley faces of blood drawn all around it. He said, “Do you know how to drive one of these?”