The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers

by Evans, Mike

  “Joey, you like all that stuff. Just eat it, we aren’t going to be having things like we used to for a while. I know you like your routine, but there isn’t much we are going to be able to do about it. Can’t you just bend your schedule you like all that food. Christ after sleeping in that damn office you’ve got to be hungry, I know that i’m starving.”

  “Well nobody’s keeping you from eating Jenn, if you don’t care about what you eat go ahead.”

  Jen said, “So you’re saying you who leaves no plate full is going to waste the food?”

  Joey gripped the plate shaking his head. “Well it doesn’t mean I won’t eat it.”

  Andy said, “You don’t want your food hand it over, I still got a whole group of teens that are still going to want to eat whenever they get their lazy asses up.”

  Joey gripped the plate a little tighter and hunched over it.

  Clary came into the room further, “What’s wrong with your food buddy? you don’t like good home cooking?”

  The boy looked up bending his head pointing at himself. “Sorry did you just call me buddy? I’m pretty sure you are a stranger.”

  Jen leaned in whispering and tugging on his football jersey. “Joey do not be rude, he saved our buts yesterday.”

  Joey shrugged her off pointing at his jersey. “Don’t pull on it, it’s mine and i’ll kick your butt if you stretch it out.”

  The boy on the other side gripped his shoulder putting a arm around him, “Hey Joey it’s cool, lets just save the food for later ok. You want to go check out this place for a while and we can get a workout in?”

  Clary cleared his throat, “Well my names Clary and we were just looking for some background on everyone. We got a kid named Patrick from yesterday that we met and he’s on insulin, he about went into a damn coma, so we were just hoping that if any of you…..you know required drugs daily that we should get a running list so that we can try and get you what you need before it’s all gone from the looters It’s only a matter of time before they get brave enough to take on the town.”

  He watched the kids making sure not to look at Joey until last when he was just staring at him blankly Joey finally couldn’t stand the stares any longer and asked, “What do you keep lookin at me for, are you a creep or something?”

  His brother said, “Sorry sometimes.”

  Joey pushed his brother away and said, “Shut up Jordan, don’t make apologies for me, i’m not stupid, mom and the teachers say he you shouldn’t stare. He keeps saring why don’t you yell at him, it’s not always my fault damn it.”

  Clary held up his hands in defeat. “He’s right, I just don’t know any kids that have what you do. I just wanted to make sure that he’d be alright without medicine but if we needed to try and stop at a pharmacy when we leave later that we’d be happy to try our best to get him whatever it is that he might need.”

  Joey rose to his feet looking panicked. He gripped his brother Jordan’s shoulders looking very worried and shaking him. He said, “Jordan, Jen what are we going to do if I don’t get my medicine? I’m not gonna make it, didn’t you grab it out of the truck when we were running for our lives?”

  Clary said, “Hey it’s ok, we can get it, don’t worry just tell me what it is alright.”

  Joey looked at the man worry spread deep across his face. Clary looked down at his brother and sister who were looking at the floor shaking their heads. Clary said, “What, what is it, how long does he have?”

  Jen looked up pure embarrassment on her face trying not to laugh at the same time. “Oh I don’t know i’d say a good sixty years maybe more if he ever tries to eat healthy.”

  Clary took a step back and said, “Wait, what do you mean?”

  Joey collapsed back on to the couch smiling from ear to ear his boyish face looking mischievous as ever. “Well it’s called down syndrome, not down disease, because i’m not sick, I don’t have to take drugs. I’m healthy. I’m not different I learn like everyone else does but I learn at my own pace.They say that I am a highly functioning DS case.”

  Jordan looked at Clary nodding and added, “Doctors call it Mosaic Downs Syndrome he is high functioning which I think can be questioned sometimes because of how big a pain in the ass he can be. Other than being a hugger, and a little short for his size he is just like us sir. He prefers to be treated that way to.”

  Joey stood up and flexed his biceps showing there definitely was something there. “Yeah I might be short, but look at the gun show baby.”

  Clary smiled shaking his head and Aslin came behind him patting him on the shoulder. “So do you feel like a complete tool?”

  He nodded his head and eyeing Joey’s shirt and Jen’s volleyball tournament shirt that had the weekend priors dates listed across the chest he asked, “So what’s your guy’s story, how did you end up in such a small town?”

  She said, “I don’t know it was kind of all a blur how fast everything happened. I think a nightmare kind of sums it up.”

  Joey jumped up out of his seat and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We had a long car ride home ahead of us because of Jen’s volleyball tournament we’re always going to those.”

  Jen cut in saying, “Uh excuse me, how many football tournaments and special olympics have I gone to for you over the years? You are seriously going to give me crap right now?”

  Joey winked at Clary, “Yeah but my tournaments rock! Anyways we had to stop because of a semi wrecking out on the interstate to go home. Well mom wasn’t feeling good so we stayed in the truck with her and dad got out and walked up to see what was going on. I think we drove for about twenty minutes and I saw dad go to sleep. Mom and them were asleep and I was reading The Rolling Stone. I shook his shoulder but it was no use and he crashed into the building.”

  “Wait you say your dad was falling asleep at the wheel?” clary asked.

  “Don’t interrupt, it’s rude to interrupt teachers say don’t interrupt, you don’t interrupt Clary. When dad wakes up he bites his arm and bloods coming from his eyes. I don’t know what happened, but he starts tearing into mom’s neck and none of us could do anything to stop him. Once she started screaming for us to run as she was clawing at him to stop we got out of there. I think he would have gotten us to if it hadn’t been for the seat belt being in a locked position and the airbag.”

  Aslin said, “What’d you do then? Did your dad make it out of there?”

  Jordan cleared his throat choking back the tears. “Yes he did get out but we were far enough away that he never found us. I don’t understand what happened to him, but we found a shop that was empty and Joey strong armed the door open and we went up stairs and hid in a small storage place. We’ve been waiting there for things to cool off but it just seemed to get worse the longer we had to wait there.”

  Jen buried her head in Joey’s shoulder and let the tears run. Clary looked at the next set of kids and said, “What about you guys are you from Adel?”

  They shook their heads no to and clary asked, “So what happened to you?”

  Shaun and the rest came down the steps moving slow from a full day before. He set his rifle down in the corner nodding hsi head to the new kids and to the adults. “I don’t think we need to ask why or how they got here Clary anymore please.”

  “What do you mean.”

  Shaun said, “Who here lost everyone that they had to trust yesterday? Anyone here not alone, not an orphan at this point?” When none of them raised their hands he continued, “Is there anything else useful that you are going to find out, except probably the saddest list of stories you’ve ever heard?”

  Clary thought about it shaking his head and motioned for them to follow him to the kitchen. “Hey there’s food over here, he must have fried up an entire pig this morning.”

  Andy hearing that said, “You got a problem with my cooking, i’m more than happy to put you in charge.”

  Aslin said, “Oh god please don’t do that Andy, we won’t survive a week if we let let C
lary here cook. Even if we had a doctor we still might not make it.”

  This brought a few laughs from the crowd of teens and clary said, “Hey don’t encourage him, no good comes from it, I promise, I really do. Come on guys we need to talk, lets get something to eat and head outside, it’s nice out.”

  Shaun nodded and the five nodded to the new group as they made their way into the kitchen loaded up on grub thanked Andy and headed to the wrap around deck. Clary let the kids settle on the stoop shoving much needed food into their mouths and said, “So we have a dilemma here and Aslin and I thought we’d run it by you since we aren't really in charge of you at all and we are gonna need to take the truck with us.”

  Greg was in the middle of a egg sandwich and said, “What do you mean you are going to take the truck, where the hell are you going. I thought we accomplished what we wanted to when we made it to Andy’s place? You guys aren’t leaving us already are ya?”

  Aslin nodded looking around the farm that had no food growing on it and said, “Look Greg by my count we got sixteen mouths to feed now all overnight, that’s a shit ton of food we are going to need to make a go of it out here. I think we can stay here as long as we need to as long as we get word from the CDC that there is still hope anyways.”

  Greg said, “So what you want to go rob a Wal-Mart or something?”

  Aslin nodded his head and said, “Do you think that there’s anything else around here that might be better? I mean we need everything including some ammunition to get the rest of you kids up to the point where we can keep this place locked up tight all day long. You think that there’s anywhere close enough to try and make the drive?”

  “They army national guard has got a place twenty minutes from here on a regular non zombie filled day. If you want we could take a drive over there.”

  Greg cut in saying, “The CDC made it sound like if there was a pair of boots without a job to do that it had been corrected and they did now.”

  Aslin said, “So you think it’s empty?”

  Both teens shrugged and Ellie said, “I’m sorry so you are worried that we might end up finding a whole bunch of soldiers and find somewhere to sleep that has a bunch of tanks protecting us? I don’t see where we come out lesser here. Why don’t we pack up everything and head out there.”

  Shaun said, “It’s to far to have all that crap in the back of the truck again riding again with this many people. We looked like a damn circus car yesterday with everyone packed into it. We are lucky no one fell out and cracked their head open.”

  “So what’d you want to do?”

  “How about we take a few of us mostly anyone that can shoot or drive and if it looks legit we get a truck and come back and if it doesn’t we get the shit and get out of dodge again.”

  Ellie said, “And since I don’t drive, and we know how great I can shoot, I guess tha tmeans we get to babysit the new kids and Andy?”

  Andy pushed out through the screen door laughing, “Well I think you got a short memory there Ellie. If you remember when ya’ll came up to my shop yesterday there wasn’t so much as one of this little creepy bastards walking in front of it. Why is that sweetheart well let me tell ya, it’s because when I shoot I hit what i’m aiming at. It’s a done deal, so if they leave and you are stuck here with little ol me, then i’d suggest maybe you show me just a little damn respect because i’ll be the son of a bitch those things out.”

  She opened her mouth to talk when Tina said, “Yeah you know he’s probably right considering he’s gonna be the only one left here as usually to be able to shoot those things. I assume Shaun and Greg and going, what about the new kids, you going to take any of them with ya?”

  Clary said, “Well we don’t know much about them other than a new learned fact that kids with downs syndrome don’t take medicine.”

  Tina rolled her eyes, “You seriously asked him that? God you are so embarrassing.”

  Clary said, “Well now I know alright. Yeah I wanted to ask the new kids if they got any special skill sets that could help us get there and back in a safe manner.”

  Shaun said, “We don’t really know them yet, you sure you want to take strangers with?”

  Aslin said, “Well Shaun if you remember yesterday you were a stranger to. We didn’t know any of you guys before yesterday.”

  “Right we were strangers, but we saved your men’s lives.”

  “Tell you what how about the four of us go for sure plus Tina and than we can figure it out from there?”

  Patrick said, “Wait so Ellie and I are the only two who get left here with Andy?”

  Clary nodded, “Yes you, Andy, Ellie, and eight new faces who are dying to find something to do. Besides after yesterday you might need to just bunk down for the day and get yourself fixed right. I don’t know much about diabetes but I know none of the others do either, so if you can stay as healthy as possible that would be great, because I don’t know how much of that stuff you got but we need it to last as long as we can.”

  Patrick nodded still feeling the rundown from the day before and looked at Ellie trying to make her feel better. “I’m sure there will be plenty of crappy missions that we’re going to go on overtime.”

  Aslin looked to Andy who was having a after breakfast smoke. “Hey Andy you think we can get a running list of all the supplies that you’ve got. Did you have a home stockpile?”

  “We ain’t gonna starve any time soon but I was planning one one versus eighteen so we probably got a month or two worth of food. That is if you guys like eating regularly. If we skip a meal here and there we’d be doing even better.” He pointed to Aslin and Clary smiling, “You boys don’t look like you’d hurt if you skipped a few days worth.”

  Clary patted his stomach nodding, “It’s called useable muscle and i’ll outlive you ten times over.”

  Andy looked at his filterless cigarette and cane holding them up giving Clary a thumbs up. “Ellie you and Patrick come find me when you are ready to go start counting shit for the day.”

  “We just need to eat and we are ready to go, it looks like Shaun and crew are going to be leaving real soon anyways.”

  Clary saw the gas pump on the side of a barn and asked, “Hey Andy, is that diesel or can we fill the truck up with it.”

  “Do you see any tractors Clary?”

  They all looked around and other than a empty barn with a couple fourwheelers that didn’t look like they’d been rode in decades they he shook his head no. “Well then it’d be pretty stupid to keep diesel on stock wouldn’t it Nancy.”

  Andy pushed up and limped back into the house yelling at the new kids to get seconds if they needed it. Joey who’d been complaining about eating earlier was the first to get up following him the old man into the kitchen. He caught Andy off guard wrapping his arms around him and giving him a quick hug. Andy patted the boy on the head looking uneasy. Jordan yelled to him, “You’d better get use to it Andy I’m pretty sure you made a new friend.”

  Joey ran in gathering a second plate and Andy gave Jordan and Jen a thumbs up. “I got no problems with a buddy, look at this kid his arms are about as big as me we can get all kinds of work done around here that my old body can’t handle anymore. You know anything about working hard Joey?”

  Joey nodded disappearing upstairs with his plate of food. Aslin came back in letting the kids finish their breakfast. The new group in the living room were sitting around unsure what they should be doing. Aslin said, “So who knows how to drive, how to shoot, or how to do anything useful?”

  Jordan raised a hand, “I know how to drive, i’ve got a car at home.”

  “You feel like going for a drive?”

  “Where are we gonna go? I would prefer not to have to head back to that town, kind of seems that everything running around there wants to eat us once they change.”

  Shaun came in tossing his plate in the garbage and said, “Turned, we’ve been calling them Turned. Seems that’s the best explanation we’ve got for them. Hi I’m Sh
aun Fox, the guy out there is Greg, the kid with glasses is Patrick and we’ve got Tina the blonde and Ellie. We have been making our way around town ourselves since it happened.”

  “Nice to meet you Shaun, I appreciate you guys stopping yesterday I think we would have starved or gotten eaten if you hadn’t done what you had.”

  “No worries, we need to keep those alive that way. If one of those things bites you or you get their blood in you then you become one of them and you Turn, hence the name.”

  “Can you cure them?”

  “We don’t know yet. The two guys that were sent here yesterday with their entire seal team. Out of all of them only they survived.”

  “Why were they sent here?”

  “To try and find the research for the drug that caused all this. We showed them where to go and from there we just kept losing soldiers. We had one of our group Kristy who got taken out yesterday to, another kid decided to try it on his own he was too angry to stay and be one of us.”

  “I can’t see what someone would be so angry about that they’d want to try and do this by themselves. We were up there for two days and were to scared to leave and here you guys come rolling down mainstreet armed to the teeth and taking those things out one after another.”

  “Yeah well his name was Mike or is Mike I don’t really know if he’s alive, but anyways we picked him up on day one that’s what we call it when this all came here and once I read my dad’s goodbye note telling me that this was a horrible mistake that him and his lab assistant had designed something based off of something that he worked up in the military and the assistant screwed him over and the world went to hell in a handbag in a few hours.”

  “Your dad made this? What the hell was he trying to solve?”

  Shaun pointed out at Ellie on the deck, “That’s Ellie our parents were dating and when he asked her to marry him, she told him that she had cancer and that she couldn’t marry him?”

  “Yeah people live when they have cancer though.”

  “Not with terminal cancer. My mother had it and Ellie’s mom Karen thought that it wasn’t fair of her to put him through it a second time over a second love.”