The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers

by Evans, Mike

  “So she died of cancer?”

  Shaun shook his head no, “No my dad wasn’t going to lose love twice. He took a drug he’d made in the army and tried to modify it to work for cancer and when he thought that he had it perfected they started doing test trials on animals. The assistant took the research from him and changed the results so that they’d rush into clinical trials he didn’t really know that the drug was for Karen. Anyways he doctored the results and then told my dad it was ready. Her mom went into a coma and dad knew he didn’t have any time left to wait it was either try the drug on her or lose her forever.”

  “So he gave a drug to someone that had never had it before?”

  “My dad wanted her around forever he was pretty much willing to try anything at that point. He gave her the drug and that’s how it all started.”

  “Wow that’s a lot to take in, so what was it with Mike that made him leave again?”

  “I told him the truth, I told everyone the truth and Mike couldn’t handle it. He wouldn’t go with us after that to help find the research that the CDC announcement said they needed. We ran into the Seals and when they found out who my dad was that they made me take them back up to the woods where we had my grandpa’s cabin and all of our supplies located.”

  “You guys have a cabin with supplies? Why are we staying here then?”

  “Because Mike burned the damn thing down. He left a note saying he had and when we went back up there everything minus what we’d carried down was gone. We found Andy after we sent the research and the general or whoever it was that Clary and Aslin called and were expecting a call from had told them that they had completed their mission but they were worried about the infection and couldn’t pick them up.”

  “Ouch I bet they were pissed?”

  “They weren’t very happy about it no, I don’t think any of this has really caught up with us yet it’s like every time we try and get ahead some stupid hurdle gets in the way or something bad happens. About all we got to be thankful for at this point is Andy living out in the country and that those things haven’t started thinking about venturing out this far.”

  “Do they?”

  “Do they what?”

  “Think?”

  “I don’t know for sure Jordan it’s all new man. But i do know that they are hungry and that they can hunt. They act like wolves and you’ve seen how fast they are i’m sure. I’ve seen them rip doors away and one of those bastards threw me yesterday after taking my gun from me.”

  “One of them threw you? What were you doing?”

  “Patrick the kids with the glasses well he had went to the cabin and in the hurry of getting out of town didn’t bring his insulin with that he desperately needs to live.”

  “That’s a pretty stupid thing to forget isn’t it?”

  “Yeah well when you have one of those Turned running faster than you and their main goal is ripping your chest open so they can dine on what’s inside i’d think that you might have a chance of forgetting what you need to. We woke up on day two and he didn’t wake up. After a while we started to think that maybe he was Turning himself but Ellie being the voice of reason found his bracelet explaining what was wrong with him. After giving him the last of his meds we went to town and found his house and got his supply.”

  “Did you lose that when the place got burned down?”

  “No he took the entire supply with him, thank god because I don’t know if we would be able to find what he needs or the type that he needs. Andy only had so much stuff at his shop and were going to go to Camp Dodge do you know how to shoot a gun?”

  “No but i’m thinking it’s something that i’d like to learn how to do here real soon.”

  “You might be making the right choice. Are you going to come with and drive something back?”

  Jordan nodded, “Yeah i’m going to have to go with. My dad always said don’t be a freeloader if you want to belong, you need to have a reason to be there and to be kept there.”

  Sean said, “I’m confident if we want to stick around Andy’s we need to pitch in, there’s enough of us here we should be able to get this place set up to survive for as long as we need to. At least until we find out if there’s a cure for the infected.”

  “What happens if there isn’t a cure?”

  “That’s what the bullet stockpile is for. If they can’t be saved, than they need to be exterminated as soon as possible. I don’t know what’s happening in the rest of the states but it seems like they are everywhere and outnumbering those left unturned.”

  “Do Aslin and Clary think that we should wait before trying and start taking those things out?”

  “Nope I don’t know neither of them have really said much about it. Once we made it to the house yesterday I think you might have noticed we were just happy to be somewhere and all were ok with a little down time.”

  “That guy you said Greg was his name right? Well he looked worse than any of you, what the hell happened to him?”

  “He might have had it worse than anyone yesterday if you don’t count finding out that your dad was in charge of the fall of western civilization as we know it of course.”

  “How did he have it worse?”

  “He had a zombie soldier chase him and had a bomb blast go off that probably effed up his hearing for a while. To top it off a girl was with us named Kristy and they seemed like they were getting friendly towards one another or at least could be going down that path. When we were trying to find Andy we had to clear the Turned from in front of his shop.”

  “So how did you lose Kristy?”

  “She was one of the fastest and the two of us ran through a building triggering a bomb that Clary set in a building on main street. If you saw a fireball or black smoke rolling into the sky that was us. A piece of the door turned into shrapnel and got embedded in her chest. The Turned that hadn’t gotten blown up by the blast caught up to her in the alleyway and well there was no hope for her.”

  “So did she change or Turn into one of those then?”

  “No, I couldn’t let that happen. I think it should be a law or something no one deserves to be one of those things. If one of those things bit me i’d be grateful for anyone who would put me out of my misery.”

  “Do you think they still feel pain?”

  “No I don’t but they definitely cause it. I’m glad you are coming with I think the more the better who knows how much crap we are going to find there. I think it’s better that we have the ability to bring back everything we need, if need be.”

  “Is it going anywhere?”

  “No but the way we’ve been losing people it seem safer that the farther we stay away from those things the better. No good ever comes of them being around. I gotta run up and change and i’ll be ready.”

  Shaun sprinted the stairs grabbing his bag and Greg’s and as he was headed back out of the room with a fresh pair of clothes on Ellie was leaning in the hallway. “Hey Shaun you got a minute?”

  He nodded setting down the backpacks. She pointed at them, “You know you're coming back right?”

  Shaun smiled nodding his head, “You know I am. You aren’t getting rid of me but we need more of everything if we are going to make a stand here, you and I both know that. Andy even said it and he’s the one who knows how much stuff we got here.”

  “I don’t like you leaving, everytime we go do one of these stupid things something bad happens. It was you dad, than it was Kristy, hell we lost all of the seals and they are trained for this shit. I mean what are we supposed to do its unorganized chaos at this point.”

  “I don’t want to leave either Ellie.” Shaun brushed the hair from her eyes and gave her a soft kiss on her lips. “I’m coming back Ellie, i’m not going t let you go through with this on your own. We are going to be there together still when this is all said and done and i’ll do anything that it takes to make sure it stays that way.”

  Ellie pulled him in for a hug and a gagging noise came distinct and loud follo
wed by choking. Shaun lifted his head from her shoulder staring over at Greg both hands wrapped around his neck trying not to laugh. He said, “Don’t worry Ellie, I will come back for you. I won’t let you go through this alone. I promise you ellie.”

  Shaun cut him off trying not to laugh because it would only make Greg lay it on thicker. “Dude you are such a dick. Here’s your bag. I figured that you might want a few extra shots in case things unexpectedly go to shit.”

  Greg accepted the backpack nodding and said, “Don’t worry i’m pretty damn sure that it’ll go to shit, when hasn’t it. But at least now we have the good sense to keep our distance from those things if we need to.”

  Greg walked past the two pushing Shaun back into Ellie and went into the room where he grabbed his long range rifle as well. He held it up and said, “Bullets do better when you got something to put them in. I’m not kidding when I say that we are keeping our distance from those things. I’ll split their head open at a few hundred yards versus having to worry about not getting blown up by one of Clary’s bombs if at all possible.”

  “Yeah I don’t think your hearing can stand to many more of those things happening. Besides what happens when Clary runs out of stuff to blow up?”

  Ellie said, “I think we need to learn how to do all of that stuff, it’d be pretty awesome to be able to handle that kind of action coming our way. With Aslin that do you remember how he took out those Turned that were coming for us in the field one after another, we get some of those rifles like he has and we are going to be badass.”

  “No you’ll have a bad ass gun Ellie. But don’t worry maybe Shaun and I can put in a good word for you see if he’s interested in showing us how to do some of this stuff that he can. I’m sure there’s a trick to it we just need him equally motivated to show us.”

  Ellie said, “He seems to be pretty excited about the thought process of staying alive right? Well then I’m not sure what we are to worried about he teaches us how to survive and we keep him alive we watch each other’s back just like we do with everyone else in the group.”

  Greg smiled saying, “Don’t worry we will talk to him. I’ll leave the two of you to talk for a minute. I’m not sure how much of that sappy crap I can hear from you guys. I need to g stand by Clary or something and get my testosterone back if I can I’m feeling pretty weak after this.”

  Shaun waived sarcastically. “Thanks alot Greg I hate you. If you were to die today id’ like to make sure that you know that. I think that it is important for you to know that.”

  Greg waved a finger over his shoulder in the air. “Don’t worry Shauny boy I love you the most honey. You know what you mean to me.”

  Ellie laughed biting her bottom lip trying to refrain. “You guys know that you are both so weird right?”

  “Shaun patted her shoulder as he walked by heading down the stairs, “We were weird far before the apocalypse came you know that i think.”

  *****

  When the two boys got outside everyone was standing out there already Ellie came out behind them taking in the new group. She thought it probably best that not everyone was going who would know what was going to come at the base and those that couldn’t shoot or drive were just as good as useless. Joey was yelling at his brother, “You let me go I can help.”

  Jordan was and Jen were both shaking their heads no and Joey was still trying to climb into the truck. He outweighed both of them and regardless of his shorter frame he had every ounce of muscle and probably some then that his brother Jordan did. Jen looked frail in comparison to the two brothers. She said, “Joey didn’t you say that you’d help Andy today. Him and Ellie said they were going to do some work around the farm.”

  “I’m going with him. He needs me.”

  Jordan said, “Joey I definitely need you buddy but I need you to help Andy. I was going to help him but I have to go get supplies with the soldiers. I’m going to go get a bunch of food for us. Is there anything that you want me to get?”

  “Yes get the right food and some magazines. I want some Roling Stones Jordan the stones rock.”

  Jordan wrote it down smiling, “You want it, we got it good.”

  Ellie walked over holding out a hand to Joey, “Hi Joey my name is Ellie.”

  Joey leaned over towards his brother and said, “Dude she’s hot.” He reached out a hand for Ellie smiling and shaking it and looked at Jen asking, “So she’s going to be helping Andy to?”

  Jen nodded smiling knowing that he’d probably have her annoyed by the time everyone got back but didn’t care if it meant that Jordan could leave and she wouldn’t have to worry about Joey headed to chase after him every five minutes. Andy yelled, “Hey Joey there’s a clipboard inside on the kitchen table do you think you could go grab it for me?”

  Joey did a quick salute and gave Jordan a big hug lifting him off of the ground squeezing hard. Jordan hugged him back patting Joey’s shoulder and said, “Go on and get the clipboard for Mr. Andy will you? If not i’m not going to be able to look for any of those Stone magazines that you want.”

  Joey disappeared into the house and Jordan yelled to the rest. “Hey you guys ready to go he’s going to stay busy for a short time and he’s going to become adamant that he needs to come with and good luck once we get to that point.”

  Aslin nodded leaning in and starting the pickup truck and Jordan, Tina, Greg & Shaun climbed into the truck alongside Clary and Aslin. They had a somewhat full truck but would be plenty more room if they ended up finding the vehicles that they anticipated. Andy walked up to the truck leaning in ignoring Aslin knowing that he didn’t know the area and looked straight to Shaun and Greg sitting in the backseat. “You boys know how to get there from here. You know that your best bets probably gonna be hittin the gravel roads.”

  Aslin said, “Wait what do you mean, we are trying to do this quick, you can’t tell me taking some dirt country road is going to be quick.”

  Andy didn’t answer he went back to looking at the boys. “Now you take those backroads you here, you stay off the main road, there’s two reasons on that. The first is you don’t want nobody following you and knowing where you are staying. Why because I don’t want no one knowing where i’m staying.”

  Greg said, “What’s the second Andy?”

  “The second what?”

  “The second reason you said there was two.”

  Andy scratched at his head mumbling something under his breath about how getting old sucked. “Well shit I can’t remember but you just do as your told. There’s going to be plenty of looters out there and you ain’t going to be able to keep them all from coming here but as long as we can keep it quiet maybe we can keep from having to do anything stupid.”

  Greg laughed and then stopped thinking of the idea if anyone knew they were here and had a safe place to sit out the war on the dead that they might find trouble quicker than any of them wanted to. Greg gave a thumbs up and Aslin pulled the truck out. “Hey so you think that you might tell me how to get there by the main roads you guys?”

  Greg and Shaun whispered for a second and shaun said, “Sorry Aslin but uh Andy has a point, well he probably had two but he couldn’t remember the second one. I have a feeling it would have been valid if he could have remembered it.”

  “You realize how much longer it’ll probably take to get there right, I mean if we don’t take a highway.”

  Greg laughed and said, “Yeah it’s gonna take a bit longer maybe a extra half hour. But you know what the good news is?”

  Aslin bit and said, “What’s that?”

  “Well since you aren’t from around here I don’t think that it so much matters since you couldn’t get there if you were hell bent on going there the other way since you don’t know that way.”

  Aslin smiled shaking his head and yelling through the back window where Clary and Jordan were sitting. “Hey Clary, have I mentioned that there is a very good reason why I never wanted kids?”

  Clary puffed on his cigar thinki
ng about it for a moment and yelled back in, “You know I think in the almost decade that i’ve known you that you’ve never brought it up so many times as you have in the past few days Aslin.”

  Aslin cracked his neck and said “Well I just hope they don’t keep giving me reasons to say it is all.”

  Clary laughed shutting the window perfectly content to not hear the banter coming from the trucks cab.”

  Greg pointed to the gravel road and they drove the distance mostly in silence. Shaun thought of Ellie and hoped that she’d be alright. He stared at the gun resting between his legs and thought of Kristy and her head as the bullet made its impact on her.”

  Aslin looked in the rearview and saw the expression on Shaun’s face. He was sure he knew what the boy was thinking about in one way or another. He’d seen the look on to many peoples faces and on his own. When Shaun looked up he saw Aslin staring at him. “What’s up?”

  “It gets better.”

  “What does?”

  “The hurt...the guilt...the pain of whatever you're going through.”

  “Really the nightmares i’m having aren’t going to be there waiting for me to go to bed every night?”

  “They won’t come every night you won’t think of it everyday with every minute you are awake.”

  Greg looked over at Shaun and nodded, ‘You to?”

  Jordan looked back at the two and said, “Sounds like you’ve had a shitty few days run. Do you think that what your dad made can be fixed?”

  Shaun shrugged, “You know as much about it as I do at this point Jordan. I’m not sure if they can cure people.”

  “I know my dad is still running around, I don’t know what they could do for my mom he acted like he didn’t even know her.”

  “They don’t man if you see your dad and they haven’t done the cure yet you make sure you stay away there’s nothing that you can do for him except put him out of his misery. Or keeping him from causing someone else pain.”

  “I can’t shoot my own dad that’s effed up.”