The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers

by Evans, Mike

  Ellie said, “You know I think that maybe we should stick to Shaun’s rule going forward.”

  Jenn said, “What rule is that Ellie?”

  “When we met Clary and Aslin yesterday and the rest of his team he came up with a rule that the past doesn’t matter.”

  Jenn said, “Isn’t that a little harsh? We aren’t suppose to think about our loved ones anymore?”

  “No it isn’t that we shouldn’t talk about our loved ones but I think it was more that he thinks that we shouldn’t talk about day one and those that we lost. Each time we meet someone new it isn’t making anyone feel better talking about who they lost and bringing up those feelings. He had a pretty rough day to and I think it’s eating at him.”

  Jenn went to say something but thought of her dad and her mom and how telling the story didn’t make her feel any better either. The thought that no explanation needed to be told to people was hitting her hard. “I think I get it, what matters isn’t what happened to those that we loved because we all lost someone. What matters- is that we survived.”

  Kya said, “And- we need to keep surviving,”

  Ellie laughed a little and Jenn and Kya just stared at her wanting to join in but couldn’t figure out after that story what it was that she could possibly be laughing about. Jenn had to ask, “What is it that could possible be funny right now Ellie?”

  Ellie shook her head picking back up her hatchet and started working. She said, “I don’t know it just seems like we sound like really serious right now. Less than a week ago I was laying around in my bedroom with Tina worrying about my mom and one of our biggest concerns were about the coming days was Tina thinking about Shaun and if he was going to like her new swimsuit.”

  Jenn said, “I’m sorry don’t you mean Greg? I thought you and Shaun kind of had a thing going.”

  Ellie said, “No, I most definitely didn’t mean Greg. With all the crap that was going on with my mom was happening, Shaun and I had a thing going on shortly and it was like as soon as it started I had found out about my mother and that put a stop to things. I knew it wouldn’t be fair to put Shaun through that.”

  Kya said, “Shouldn’t have been his decision?”

  Ellie shrugged, “Yeah maybe it should have been but at the same time the way I looked at it was he and his dad had both already lost his mother to cancer. I couldn’t make him be that close to me going through that it wasn’t fair to him.”

  “So Tina and you both like Shaun?” Kya questioned.

  Ellie shrugged, “Who knows at this point I mean she lost her dad and her brother on day one. Her brother Lucas was pretty brutal with what happened it really messed her up. She hates those things as much as anyone does. I think if she knew how to use one of those machine guns that there would be little keeping her from going on a Turned killing spree. So does she like Shaun? I don’t know she did, does she still, i’m not sure you’d have to ask her. But now that my mom and his dad are gone I think it’s important for everyone to have something to have someone to hope for. I think that is Shaun for me.”

  They worked the rest of the morning in quiet into the early afternoon. Andy brought sandwiches and water down for them on his fourwheeler and they sat staring around the property each wondering about what would happen in the days and weeks to come. The boys worked hard all morning as well splitting the much needed firewood that would be invaluable once the electric turned off, given it did. The longer they worked the more Patrick began to warm up to Joey, he found Joey’s playful and sarcastic demeanor as a breath of fresh air. He was silently thanking Andy for being paired up with him.

  *****

  The afternoon set was high and hot and they had been working all day long. The accomplishments seemed significant. The girls were bonding, each of them knowing that in times like these there was a good chance that they would need someone to speak to. The future being what it was, was a definite unpredictable thing. Ellie hoped secretly that when Tina got back she would be able to bond with them as well. She knew that she was hurting and was worried that things would become even more complicated when and if Shaun and her progressed in the way that she felt that they were going to.

  Kya walked out into the field stripping off her long sleeve shirt and holding out her arms feeling the fresh cool breeze on her bare arms. The hard work that they were doing was all that they needed to keep from being cold on the semi gloomy day. Ellie stopped working momentarily staring deep into the distant. She squinted into the distance the only sun that was out was blinding her view. She said, “Hey does anyone else see that?”

  Jenn said, “What more wood and more wood to clear? Yes I see lots of wood.”

  Kya laughed and Jenn said, “Kya don’t be dirty you know exactly what i’m talking about.”

  Ellie laughed but it was just a natural reaction trying to be one of the girls. She typically didn’t go out of her way for anyone to like her but she knew friends would be limited. She said, “No really over there do you see that? I don’t think it is a good thing.”

  Jenn dropped her saw walking to the edge of the timber where she was standing and peered into the distance making it two girls who culdn’t see anything. Jenn said, “What is it you think you see over there?”

  Kya said, “You know what it looks like to me?”

  Ellie said, “Yeah i know what it looks like. I think it looks just like a damn blurry blind spot.”

  Kya said, “Nah it isn’t that, it looks like a dust cloud. You guys don’t have dust storms here do you? I mean what the hell is that?”

  Ellie thought about the dust storm, thinking of the videos she’d seen of Arizona where you couldn’t even be outside during them and the translation into her thoughts couldn’t make it fit. After a minute she thought about the millions of times she’d seen a car driving down a gravel road and thought about the dust trail that it would produce. She realized instantly it was a car coming or a vehicle of some sort. She got a rush of adrenaline surging through her bones thinking that Shaun and them were back already with supplies and hoping everyone returned safely. She could already see Shaun jumping off the truck and seeing the shimmer in his eyes when the two of them locked onto each other.

  Ellie ran up towards the gravel road that met the house leaving the two girls behind. Jenn shook her head just a bit jealous that she didn’t have someone that she could be that excited to see. She did however want to see Jordan back safe and sound but that was a entirely different care to have for someone. Kya said, “Oh wow Ellie has got it bad for him doesn’t she? Which one was Shaun again?”

  Jenn watched as Ellie disappeared around the treeline shaking her head. “He’s the one that Ellie doesn’t take her eyes off of for one second. If I were you I would go after someone else if you are that worried about having a boy.”

  “I’ll be ok I just figured that he must be something special if she is that worried about him.”

  “I guess time will tell won’t it. I wonder how much stuff they got? I would think it would have been a lot right? I mean they’ve gotta have a stockpile of like - everything.”

  They worked slow staring at the treeline expecting to see the group coming back. What they saw sent shivers through them. Ellie came back around the treeline and she was not walking she was sprinting for everything that she had. She was sprinting without looking anywhere but the path in front of her. She cupped her hands over her mouth screaming, “Grab the guns, grab the guns and run!”

  The two girls just stared for a moment walking forward stopping their work. They saw the urgency on Ellie’s face but couldn’t see what the issue could possibly be. The fact that things could go all to hell within a few seconds was something they were still learning. Jenn tripped walking backwards and fumbled trying to get back to her feet. Kya helped her up yelling, “We gotta go, come on.”

  Jenn was still focused on Ellie who was running towards them motioning for them to get moving and to get up. A bus came into view behind Ellie making Jenn wonder even more what
the issue was. Kya grabbed the guns and their tools and started moving through the woods towards Ellie. Jenn followed still not running despite the warnings and as the bus came closer the threat was blatantly obvious. As the bus headed up the hill towards the house a horde of the Turned followed not very far behind it. Kya turned around seeing Jenn still on the ground. “Oh my god, get off your ass and move! We need to get back to the house, we need to get back to Andy and-”

  Jenn snapped out of it and one thought and one thought only hit her in the face. She whispered, “Joey, oh my god Joey.”

  She rushed past Kya leaving her standing there holding the rifle and gun belt. She turned over her shoulder screaming at her. “Kya, move god damn it! We need to get back to the hosue we need to move!”

  The two sprinted towards Ellie meeting her in the middle of the field. The bus was catching up to them and doing so quickly. Jenn screamed, “We need to get back to the house! We need to hurry.”

  Ellie took the gun from Kya looking behind them. She thought about her ammo supply and seeing the abundance of the Turned and knew they didn’t have a chance. “We need to let them know we aren’t going to beat them, we don’t have a chance.”

  Ellie pointed her rifle in the air and towards the woods behind them and fired once pulling back the bolt action and then fired again hoping that it would be enough warn the others.

  ****

  Patrick jumped when he heard the gunshots dropping the pieces of split wood he was stacking on the quickly, growing woodpile. Joey said, “Was - was that gunshots Pat?”

  Patrick walked slowly towards the edge of the house. He peered around the side of it and saw hell headed towards them. Joey yelled, “What, is it?”

  Patrick yelled, “It is a school bus coming.”

  “Why are they firing guns then?”

  “Because there are the Turned coming.”

  Joey didn’t care to look he pulled the axe from the wood he was splitting and ran past Patrick. He wasn’t worried about himself. Joey had one thing on his mind and one thing only, Jenn. Patrick whipped his head around when he went past trying to reach out and grab Joey but the boy was moving full speed and he was unstoppable; by the time he tried it was to late and he was off to the races. He made a beeline for Jenn and the girls who were full out but the Turned were catching up quickly. They were spreading out in the field following the bus knowing that there was something edible inside of it.

  Patrick ran down the hill after Joey. Jenn was motioning with both hands for him to turn around. She was screaming no and for him to turn around. She wasn’t worried about being saved she much like him and worried for the others safety. Jenn tripped in the field her arms flailing in front of her and hitting hard. Ellie and Kya kept running not seeing her go down and by the time they did it was too late. The only thing that brought their attention back to her was the screams that echoed up the hillside.

  Jenn tried pushing up to her feet but between the time it had taken for her to get back up was too much. It had taken to long and the Turned that had been tracking them down had closed in the distance. Ellie heard the scream and saw how far they were from Jenn. The Turned got within twenty yards and leapt into the air. Three of them landed on top of her knocking her back to the ground. The larger of the three pushed the smaller two away gripping her by the shoulders lifting her small body to its mouth and ripping into her neck. Jenn screamed, tears filled her eyes and the screams became gurgled as her mouth filled with blood. The other two ripped into her calf and thigh, the blood poured from the wounds they chewed hungrily. The bigger of the three growled at them the smaller two each ripped a thin leg off from its place and ran away leaving the alpha to its meal.

  Kya went to run back the thought that she could save someone was to much to ignore. Elie knowing that it was to late to do anything tackled her by the knees they went down hard smashing together in a mess on the ground. Kya kicked and pushed at ellie screaming, “Let go of me what’s wrong with you?”

  “Are you kidding, me what’s wrong with me? Those things just killed her what the hell do you think you are going to do, she’s good as dead or worse if they don’t finish her off. She’ll be one of them in a matter of minutes and then you are just going to be one more meal to be had. What do you think about that? Is that what you want, because if it is let me know i’ll le tyou run off and get your dumbass killed. But if you want to live and you want to survive then we need to get moving and we need to do it now. Those things arent turning away they are coming right for us. Those three there are just the first of hundreds probably coming this way.”

  Kya pushed Ellie off the two sat staring for a moment breathing heavy each of them thinking of their next move. Ellie grabbed for her guns not wasting the time putting the gun belt on around her waist. “If you are coming then lets go we don’t have much and that was when she saw the Turned flying in the air. The impossible distances that they were able to jump were mind numbing. As it reached its face in towards Ellies her face was painted with a reddish black mist. She closed her eyes protecting her eyes and mouth from the Turned’s blood.

  Ellie stumbled backwards pulling up her shirt and wiping the pieces of skull and mist of blood from her face. She looked at her own hands seeing the pistol and rifle knowing that she had not fired. She stared for a moment in pure confusion. A elderly voice came screaming but it was more of an echo, Ellie stared in front of her seeing a Turned at her feet it’s head was split in half. Kya said, “What - what happened?”

  The voice came again this time Ellie snapped out of it. It was Andy screaming from his second story bedroom. He had a rifle on a bipod and was screaming at the top of his lungs to move, his smoke damaged lungs did not posses very much yelling power in them. He motioned for them to come towards the house. Ellie shook herself out of her lucid state and backed up quickly seeing three more turned sprinting at them. It was as if god himself tocuhed them with his finger sending them to hell as each of their heads exploded. Ellie peered over her shoulder at the house seeing Andy sitting on a chair at his window never lifting his eyes from the rifle. He had a row of magazines sitting on the window seal ready to be locked in and used. The echoes from the rifle were deafening they filled the small valley that was Andy’s property. The line of down to the hoarde was litered with bodies bent in impossible ways. There bodies lay limp as their want for the kill and for the taste of the blood had left them.

  Just as Ellie had finally gotten the reaction she wanted from her legs which was moving Joey came running past them with tears in his eyes streaming down his round face. Patrick ran faster then she’d ever see the young man run. He had a look of determination that she also had not been witness to yet. She was trying to figure out what she was doing until Patrick looked like one of the Turned for a moment leaping into the air with no care of his own well being and tackled the much larger Joey. Both boys lost all of their air when they hit the ground and they hit the ground hard. Ellie winced when they went down, she was thankful that the axe that he was running with had not been landed on.

  Joey tried rolling to his side and pushing Patrick off but Patrick would not let him run further. Joey screamed losing his mind at the sight of his only sister and what ws being done to her. The Turned had ripped her insides open and had his head all but buried inside of her intestines. It’s head not coming up for air just buried deep in the warm fresh young meal. Patrick gripped at the axe screaming at Joey the only thing that he could thing of to save the boys life. “You need to come with us we need to be around when Jordan comes back. You’ve still got Jordan.”

  Joey was in the middle of screaming for his sister and trying to fight Patrick off at the same time. When he heard his brother’s name it was like a switch went off in his brain and he started running back towards the house. The other three had to hurry to keep up with him. Joey had his head down and was running hard. Andy’s gunfire was constant and the old man was ready to trade his life for the teenagers if it meant they would have a chance.


  Patrick screamed to Ellie as they ran, he said, “Where the hell are we going to go? What are we going to do?”

  Ellie said, “What do you mean? We need to get out of here!”

  Patrick said, “Understood, but what I don’t understand is what the hell are we going to drive away in? And who the hell is going to drive us. We don’t have a car, and everyone that knew how to drive something went on the gathering run. They took our only car unless Andy has another one!”

  Ellie stared around the property knowing the tractors would be useless being to slow and they would be ripped apart and that the fourwheeler would be good for two or three at best but no way would they all be able to fit on it. She stopped running staring at the bus still coming up the hill having regrets already for her thoughts. Ellie pointed at the bus, “We need to get on that bus. We need to leave with them.”

  Patrick said, “What about Andy? What do we do with him?”

  Ellie shrugged, “I don’t have all of the answers but if he is upstairs he isn’t going to make it back down. Lets just hope that they don’t find him. We aren’t able to do anything in the time that we’ve got to save him.

  Patrick said, “I’ve got to go in the house though, you guys see if you can get the bus to stop and pick you up. Try and get Joey to go with you would you please?”