The Orphans Brigade

The Orphans Brigade

By M. Evans

© 2014 M. Evans, All Rights
Reserved

It had been approximately five years since
Dr. Frank Fox a man that had thought he was saving the world had
been responsible for the loss of four billion people’s lives. More
blood had been shed because of one man’s obsession to cure the
woman he loved than all the wars of mankind put together. The
numbers were not able to be measured any longer. The loss was to
great, but estimates were approximately four billion lives
lost.

****

Day +1497: July
4
^th
,
2021. World Population 1,985,110,986. Four years since X-74
unleashed on American soil

The teens were lined up in prone position
across the edge of the roof, stationed on top of the abandoned
government building in Virginia. Everyone had a job to do: the
trusted were in charge of picking off the Turned, while newbies
were handling clips and refilling them as quickly as they could.
The bullets were flying out of the rifles and dancing on the
ground.

In another time on another day, these teens
would have been nodding off in a class somewhere, worried about if
a girl liked them or if they would be asked to the prom.

Pulling triggers as fast as they could, in
their sights was a group of day-ones they could tell weren't
freshly turned. They had worn clothes and sunken cheek bones--even
the signs of frostbite which, being close to nightfall, were hard
to see. They still had the hunger for flesh as bad as the day they
had turned.

The ground was covered with bodies. The
heads looked like bombs had gone off in them, and the marksmen were
aiming only for the skull. The Turned were trying to get through
the wreckage. They weren't trying to take the building--they only
wanted to eat every living person then move on to find more.

The leader of the group, showed no emotion
or excitement, he merely selected another target. His shot exploded
the creature's head, going in the back and blowing apart the chin.
The girl beside him tapped him on the shoulder and shouted above
the noise. "Shaun, you've been at it for hours. You need to take a
break. There are plenty of people here willing and able!"

Shaun never took his eyes off his prey,
sighting them through his scope. "There's plenty of room for them
to slide in, Ellie. Go tell someone else to take a break!"

Ellie looked down at the row of teens. She
watched through the blasts as the Turned were falling at an
unbelievable rate which gave her the lightest shred of hope. "You
need a break or you won't be any good when we really need you!"

A group of Turned were clumsily climbing up
the side of the wall. Shaun, who had seen thousands upon thousands
of these things, had never seen them do this. He reached and
grabbed Ellie's arm, pulling her to the edge. He pointed and
argued. "Look they're learning! They're climbing and they've never
done anything like that before. Hell, the only reason they get
through doors is eventually they figure out to rip them off! We're
going to need to clear the Turned on the ground so we can make it
to a different spot."

Shaun waited for one to jump to a new ledge,
grabbing hard. He drew his backup gun, a twelve-gauge shotgun, and
blew its face off. Only its skull and the skin peeled back from the
sides remained. Its bloody tongue hung out as its body spun,
scraping and bouncing off the brick on the way down.

Ellie watched, realizing she couldn't change
his mind. "Can't you trust me to keep the wall safe?"

Shaun laughed. "Remember--you have to earn
trust."

Ellie kicked him in the leg. "You don't
trust me!? Are you effing kidding me!? And you can't kill them all
yourself, Shaun. It's impossible! You need help...! We need
help!"

Shaun fired one more shot, rolled to his
back, and looked up at Ellie. The sun was setting over her
shoulder, and his eyes couldn't feel more tired. "Of course I do",
he chuckled. "You've been with me longer than X-74's been exposed,
but can you point out anyone who's been here a year ... hell, even
six months!?"

He pushed up off the ground. "You...!
You...!", he shouted, pointing at a couple of the newbies. He slung
his rifle over his shoulder and carried his shotgun. "You two sit
on my spot! If it moves, you kill it! Nothing gets close--do you
understand me!?"

They nodded assent and quickly took his
place. Ellie walked behind the two fresh faces patting them on the
shoulder giving them a thumbs up. She smiled trying to think of
something to say, knowing that Shaun was looked at as a god to
these men, capable of going into any war on the Turned and coming
out not one himself. She crouched down by the two men and whispered
make sure you stay vigilant there are no second chances when it
comes to the wall. They both nodded not yet sure exactly what she
meant. One of the two men looked curiously as she was walking away
and yelled, “Ma’am, I mean Ellie what do you mean?”

She turned over her shoulder as she headed
down to continue the shouting match with Shaun. “I mean once they
come over the wall you can’t pull the trigger fast enough, they are
everywhere, they are a disease and if they leave enough of you then
they will make you into one of them as well.

Neither boy blinked they just nodded slowly
and affirmatively checking the action on their gun and aiming it
over the wall waiting for something to come into their sights. The
speaker for the two leaned in next to the quiet one shouting. “Why
did we volunteer for this?”

“The Orphans Brigade was the only place we
could go. All they ask is one trip into the city fighting along
their side to prove you are worthy of their protection. After that
they’ll keep you safe and fed. Their creed is awesome they just
want our help to return humans to the dominant race. Before those
things run out of food to eat.”

*****

Shaun heard them talking and shook his head,
he didn't care what people thought he just wanted a moment’s worth
of peace and quiet. Even when it was quiet he was tortured with the
echoes of growling, screaming people in pain and gun blasts.

He took one last glimpse at the wall as he
opened the steel door that led to the safety of the concrete
inside. What he saw made his adrenaline which he thought was
depleted come back with a surge like no other drug could give a
person. A skinless bloody blackened hand appeared out of nowhere
coming over the wall with nothing but bad intentions in mind.

Shaun watched in horror as one of the two
boys he’d just been talked into letting defend in his place would
have his life span drastically reduced. The hand pierced in through
the front and ripped out the back gripping the young man’s spine,
before yanking it back out. The boy collapsed and his friend
screamed while shouldering his rifle. He pulled the trigger at the
same time that it grabbed onto his coat and took a chunk of flesh
from his neck with his dark rotting teeth. The boy and the Turned
went over the side of the wall disappearing into the dark of the
night.

Shaun ran back towards the wall knowing all
too well what was going to happen. Once one made it through the
barrier more would follow and then his brigade would be in search
of new recruits. New soldiers and volunteers were growing scarcer
by the day, especially with the lack of humans around. He looked
desperately wild eyed around the roof for Ellie. Another and then
another of the Turned jumped up on the roof looking for a meal.
They were thin and hungry not getting satisfied nearly often
enough. The thought of blood in their mouth was the only thing that
fueled them they could eat for days and never truly quench their
need.

Shaun spotted Ellie still holding her spot
against the wall unwavering. She did not see the Turned midair
soaring for her from behind. Even in their rotting current state of
starvation they could still kill with precision. Shaun shouldered
his shotgun aiming fast and pulling and pumping the rounds as
quickly and fast as he could. The first smashed into its chest
stopping it’s momentum through the air. The slug knocked it off
balance midair and the second third and fourth were aimed directly
for its torso Shaun was relentless in the fact that he did not want
it to rise. His brutal assault on it left nothing but the neck bone
sticking out from in between its shoulders. The slugs went through
the heart that was still pumping even though it had already
exploded the day it Turned. It landed on its back convulsing on the
ground scrambling to get up. Ellie pulled her forty-five caliber
pistol placing a laser sighted shot through its head, dropping it
back to the ground where it lay to rest forever.

Shaun screamed to her motioning with his arm
to come to him. He was holding the door open with his foot while
trying to take as many of the Turned coming over the wall out with
his rifle, his still smoking shotgun laid empty next to him on the
ground. He would not go until everyone that could be saved had
been. He wanted to make sure that as many of the young soldiers and
new recruits made it to safety as possible. The evacuation plan was
well known, if a group made it to the top of the wall than all was
lost and it was time to get the fuck out of dodge. He screamed to
them as they ran through the doors motioning to speed it up to get
moving. “Head to the basement, get to the basement wait for no one,
we know what to do and how to do it, go, go, go, go!!”

Ellie ran to him thinking only of the fact
that he had been on that portion of the wall just a minute ago and
the only thing that had saved him was forcing him to go down below
to rest. One thing that did not escape her were the two young men
who were now dead because of her choices. “Shaun I don’t know what
would have happened if--”

Shaun put a finger to her lips and shook his
head no pulling her in through the door with him and slamming it
behind hard. They sprinted down the stairwell going past the
blinking lights that would turn the building into Christmas in July
in no time. As fast as they could the younger soldiers sprinted
down the steps for everything that they were worth. Shaun and Ellie
knew damn well that the door wasn’t going to hold for long it might
as well have been a shower curtain with the strength that they
possessed.

Shaun watched as he went down the first
flight of stairs looking back to see the door’s steel buckle until
it disappeared from the frame the full moon shone through the
door’s frame. Shaun ran peering over the edge of the railing to see
how far ahead the rest of his squad was. He was screaming at the
top of his lungs for everyone to keep running. As he peered a
growling came within an inch of his face and he jumped back seeing
a Turned come flying past him. He looked up to see a mess of them
scrambling through the door fighting to be first. Some didn’t have
the patience for the stairs and began jumping from the top trying
to make up the distance. Pain was a feeling long forgotten to them.
They reached for the youths as they fell near them. They landed on
railings breaking their spines and legs, the lucky ones smashed
their skulls open putting an end to their never ending
existence.

Shaun and Ellie were the last to make it
down to the end of the steps everyone else had already disappeared
through the hole to the sewer tunnels. They jumped over the Turned
who had beaten them down by jumping from the top. The ones who had
not smashed their skulls reached for them with any limb that they
had not broken in their plummet. The two veteran teens jumped over
them and through the small opening pulling the door shut behind
them and securing it shut. They stared at each other and at the
door listening they could hear echoes from the soldiers who had
already made it to the space running for everything that they were
worth. Shaun pulled out the remote transmitter and Ellie nodded
they hit the button to set off the timer for C-4 that they had
planted among the ground level.

*****

The sewers were at times a place of safety.
The downside was that they were tight and narrow, but the upside
was that the Turned did not dwell in them as their only memories of
where to get meals were in buildings, homes, and on the streets
above. Shaun and Ellie counted to thirty knowing it was coming and
wanted to be anywhere but here when it happened. The C-4 exploded
taking out the support walls and imploding the building on top of
the Turned. A stream of thick dust flowed through and filled the
tunnel making breathing and visibility almost impossible. The
bullets that had been fired for hours and the explosion of the
building left the two leaders ears ringing and near useless.