The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War (27 page)

Chapter 28

One Month Later, anniversary of day 1

Shaun woke up early as he usually did. Ellie lay beside him still asleep. The rest of the group was still resting in the hospital beds. They had not moved out of the infirmary yet. When they had gone to clean up the barracks they decided to get what they needed and to leave it as it was. There would be no way to heal the pain that came from that day and those memories.

Shaun gripped his rifle and gear and walked out to the main hallway to exit the building. Aslin, who had made his room the hallway by the door, looked like he was out for the count still. When Shaun tried walking past him slowly he said, “Fox, make coffee, make really strong coffee.”

“How’d you know it was me, Aslin?”

“Because it is always you, Fox. I think you are the only one out there who sleeps less than I do, and I didn’t think that was possible. Do a sweep around the fence if you can, after the coffee. I think today is the day we start righting the wrong.”

Shaun thought about the day as he had been keeping track since it started. He said, “It is fitting that we start today, I guess.”

Aslin removed the ball cap that had been covering his face. “Damn it! I just wanted coffee and then you have to start me thinking. What are you talking about, Fox?”

“This is the one year anniversary of everything, of when it all started. A year and a day and is when we met. I still remember everything like yesterday and it is a memory that I wish I could forget.”

“Did you want to go visit your dad today, Shaun?”

The thought had never occurred to him that it would even be a possibility. He thought of how many people he’d known who would not have had the privilege of a burial. He said, “When we don’t have the work to do then I’d like to go see him. I can already see him yelling at me from the grave telling me there is more important shit to do than to come up and cry over a mound of dirt. He was never one to be a slacker, and to tell you the truth he’s probably the hardest working guy I’ve ever met. You guys probably rank up there pretty high too.”

Aslin said, “You know what, you go do your rounds. I’ll get the coffee going myself. We can see if McQuaig wants to tag along with us. I’d say with three shooters we’re going to have a pretty high dead count if the baiting is good.”

Shaun felt a bit excited about finally getting to go out and make a dent in the dead. He had taken out more in one day than they probably had since the entire thing started as a group. The thought that there would be three of them was intoxicating. He was already running scenarios through his head of having an entire city safe from the dead. One that they could come in and out of as they pleased.

He was thankful for the miles between cities in Des Moines and the farmland that was more precious now than ever. He knew if it had been just one housing development after another that it would be almost impossible to clear.

Shaun made his way around the base checking the fence line with his scope. None of them got closer than two hundred yards to it now after knowing how easily they could hide on the outside. They had spent an entire week with a bulldozer going across and knocking as many trees down as they could, going back about twenty feet from the fence line. The cover of the trees would only be there until they got that close.  Shaun thought it was almost the same concept they would have used at Andy’s if they’d stayed there.

He saw McQuaig on duty walking a half-mile ahead and ran to catch up. “Hey, McQuaig, you want to go out today?”

“I don’t know. I think Greg might have a problem with you dating his girl,” McQuaig said. “Besides isn’t Ellie going to be upset if you start seeing me?”

Shaun’s face immediately blushed red. He said, “No, that isn’t what…
”

She laughed and punched him in the shoulder. She said, “Wow, you really are gullible, I figured Greg was just being…well, just being Greg.”

Shaun said, “I can’t help myself sometimes. I try not to but there isn’t much I can do about it. I think that I just trust all of you so much that it is hard to not just assume, that you are telling the truth. I’ll have to make a mental note that you are staying around Greg way too much for your own good. That is a shame too because you seem like good people.”

“Oh, Shaun, awesome! Alright, Fox. What did you want to talk about or were you just out pouting that you weren’t on watch all effing night long?”

“I wanted to throw out an idea to you, and see if you were interested in tagging along?”

“You are talking like we’re actually going to leave. What’s up?”

“Well, when I went past Aslin this morning, he said, that today seemed like a damn good day to start moving forward again and to start taking back from the dead. He wants to take charge and start doing the blood bag trick. From what I’ve seen of it so far it is a no fail plan. We’ve kicked some serious ass using blood to bait those things. The only thing we have to do is make sure that there are no alpha dead around. I haven’t a clue how many of those things there are anymore. Every time I see one Shaun is going to kill them.”

She smiled and said, “Yeah, Shaun, I am so up for getting off base for a few hours and if the reason is to take care of some of the dead then I couldn’t be happier. What time did we want to leave?”

Shaun shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ll head over to the kitchen hall and see what Aslin is thinking. I’m down for doing this all day long if the time allows it. I don’t think that we’re going to run out of them anytime soon. Not that Shaun is going to complain if we do.”

McQuaig looked down at her belt and said, “Let me run to the armory, I want to load up on high power rounds. I’ve got plenty for the machine gun, regardless though if we take Aslin’s normal Humvee we will have all the machine gun that you can use as well as bullets to fill them with.”

Shaun said, “I’ll radio you in a bit with final details.

Shaun already had all of the necessary gear on him and never walked around with anything less than an obscene amount in his pack. He headed straight for the mess hall and found Aslin sitting up against the counter waiting impatiently for the coffee maker to produce the bile that Shaun could only assume was what kept him going in the morning. Shaun said, “Hey, Aslin…
”

“Let’s start the day off right, Fox, let me get my first cup of coffee poured then we talk.”

Shaun waited impatiently and after what seemed like an hour Aslin finally put a steaming hot cup of coffee in front of him and took in its sweet aroma. Aslin motioned for him to talk and Shaun felt like he’d been holding his breath. He said, “I don’t know what time you wanted to leave but I already spoke to McQuaig; she was out on duty doing patrol. I told her what we were planning and she didn’t have any hesitations. Are you sure you wouldn’t want to take a few more people? It might be safer if we do. I still watch that fence line for someone looking to bring retribution against us.”

Aslin waved him off. He said, “I think we are safe. If anyone wanted to do anything they’d have done it by now. You want to wait till this afternoon to go out?”

“Hell no, I don’t! I want to spend every single minute we can bagging those things. If we get started early we could work out in a couple of different spots. Just about the time they start acting like they know what we are doing, we move. I think it would be the best way to go about it. I mean, unless you have any better ideas?”

Aslin said, “You make sure the trucks are topped off with gas and ammunition for machine guns as well as long rifles and we’re good to go. You might want to grab some shit from the kitchen and make sure that we aren’t going to starve out there as well.”

Shaun said, “What do you think that you are going to be doing until then?”

“Oh me, Shaun, I am going to be sipping on this delicious Folger’s coffee until you are ready to go. If you want to ask why then let me refresh your memory…what happens when I don’t get my coffee?”

Shaun sat there seeming to debate about it for a minute and finally gave him a thumbs up before turning around and walking back out. Shaun took the Humvee that Aslin had driven to get his brew going and headed for the armory and the gas reserves. He filled it with enough ammunition that he could survive the rest of the dead war if need be. He looked over seeing Ellie pulling up her pant leg exposing legs still very much white from the winter with her thumb out. He pulled alongside and said, “Geez, I don’t know if I ought to pick you up. You kind of look like trouble.”

Ellie climbed in giving him a kiss and said, “You ought to know by now that I most definitely am trouble. You weren’t there when I woke up this morning, what did you have to do?”

“I wanted to get out and stretch my legs. You were still out for the count and I didn’t have the heart to wake you. Besides, we have all night to hang out. I checked the schedule this morning and neither of us have guard duty tonight. We could do whatever we want.”

Ellie ran a hand up his thigh just to the point she knew he would be close to swerving the truck and said, “Well, whatever will we do, Mr. Fox?”

Shaun smiled nervously feeling the flush in his face for a second time. He said, “Yeah, pretty sure that I should have let you stay on the side of the road. You, my dear, are nothing but trouble.”

“Isn’t that what all the boys want, Shaun, a troublemaker kind of girl?”

Shaun said, “I know I’m not complaining, and you are all that I want, screw what other boys want, it is you and me.”

Ellie said, “You got me for as long as we can stay ticking, Shaun.”

He rubbed his hand through her hair. “You aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon, Ellie.”

Shaun drove back by the armory seeing Greg and Clary doing maneuvers with the tanks. Ellie laughed, “You know, Shaun, it is actually sad that he is better at driving a tank than a car. If the world ever gets back to normal he might be the only one still driving one of those.”

“Just think how much more effective we’re going to be having two people driving around in a tank. I’m going to drop you off here, Ellie. I will see you a little bit later, okay?”

She pulled him in giving him a long wet kiss. She said, “Now, you don’t let anything happen to you, Mr. Fox. Shaun, I am seriously not kidding. I want you to be as safe as you can out there. With all those dead things out there, and Aslin and McQuaig, make sure they cover your back.”

Shaun felt the chills running up his back and smiled. “You give me another kiss like that and we can skip the damn trip, good Lord you do bad things to me, Ellie.”

“Just gives you a good reason to come back, Shaun. I’ll see you later, be good out there, and get rid of as many of those things as you can. Maybe we’ll be able to live off the base one day.”

“That would be great…to just live.”

Ellie hopped out of the truck and ran back into the base. Joey was sitting outside watching the birds flying around. Shaun honked his horn once and Joey gave him a thumbs up as he drove away. Shaun pulled up to McQuaig at the armory and the two headed over to get Aslin.

McQuaig said, “So, how many do you think we’re going to get? Isn’t this exciting?”

“It is the future,” Shaun said. “If things rock today and we can keep this up then we will have something to look forward to. A new hope.”

McQuaig was like the others and was unsure if such a day would ever happen. Aslin was sitting outside waiting while drinking a steaming cup of coffee. When they pulled up he grabbed a bag of food and a thermos of what the two assumed was more coffee. McQuaig asked, “Do you think he knows that living off of coffee isn’t good for him?”

“I don’t think Aslin is worried about living a long life; I kind of think that he already feels like he has done better than most. With the rest of his time on earth he just wants to try and kill as many of those damn things as he can.”

Aslin climbed into the truck setting his high powered rifle and machine gun down on the back seat. He slammed the door shut and tapped on the roof. Shaun pulled out carefully doing his best to keep the truck steady.  “You are getting pretty good at driving this thing, Fox. Before you know it you are going to actually be old enough to drive one of these things legally,” Aslin chuckled.

“I only need to make it another six months and I will be old enough. I got a feeling the lady at the license station isn’t holding down the fort any longer. You just sit back. We don’t want the elderly driving any more than we need them to.”

Aslin said, “You know comments like that will not get you seconds at dinner, Fox.”

Fox and McQuaig both laughed. “Did you hear that, McQuaig, my luck is getting better with every day that passes.”

They drove back to Johnston thinking if they worked their way through the smaller towns first that it would give them more leverage and room to spread out when they were moving into Des Moines. Shaun parked under a traffic light that was just barely flickering. One thing hit him as he watched McQuaig with the video camera.  “How the hell are we going to get people to watch this?”

She lowered the camera not catching onto what he was implying. “What do you mean? We stick it on the web and then there will be a billion people ready to watch anything that has to do with how to kill these bastards.”

Shaun actually very much liked the idea of billions of people still alive. “What I mean, McQuaig, was there are flickering lights. One of the things we need to have to be able to watch the video is energy. We might be going through all this work for nothing.”