The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers

by Evans, Mike

  Ellie said hysterically, “Where the hell do you think that you are going? You are going to get caught if you go in the house. We need to get out of here, and we need to do it now damn it Patrick, you aren’t thinking!”

  “Oh i’m thinking, clear as a effing bell. If I don’t go in that house then the next few days arne’t going to be anything but a slow and painful death.”

  Ellie stopped running and slowed to a jog, “What are you saying?”

  Patrick said, “I need my damn insulin. You know what happens if I go to long without it. I swear i’m just going to start carrying that crap everywhere I go. It seems like everytime we leave a house for more than a few hours the damn thing either burns down or gets infested with zombies. It doesn’t even seem to matter that we are outside of city limits. It is like they are drawn to us.”

  Ellie said, “They aren’t drawn to us Patrick. Its those morons driving the bus over there that they are here for. They might have never found us if they hadn’t followed them. I wonder what the hell they even want anyways?”

  Patrick screamed again pointing at Joey, “Get Joey and get on that bus, don’t wait for me I know exactly where i’m going. I’ll be out in just a minute. I’ll come out the back.”

  The Turned that were following the bus saw the teens and veered for the house. The thought that they could rationalize a easy meal versus a hard to eat meal was too much for them to ignore. They changed their course heading straight for them. Patrick disappeared inside the house and a handful of them sprinted after the boy. Patrick flew upstairs not worrying about himself but worried for Andy. He went to the old mans room screaming, “Hey it’s patrick don’t shoot me Andy.”

  Andy yelled, “Quit wastin time kid and get your scrawny ass in here.”

  Patrick didn’t need to be told twice. He entered the room seeing Andy still sitting in his chair looking out the window and picking off the Turned that had changed their path heading for the three teens still outside. Patrick who was not a idiot but felt compelled to still try after all that the man had done for them with nothing to ask for in exchange said, “We need to get out of here, we need to get you downstairs Andy!”

  Andy laughed shaking his head. He said, “Yeah you missed me going for my run this morning didn’t ya kid? Christ you know by the time that it takes me to get down those stairs i’m as good as dead. You can’t carry me, I can’t run, and those things will kill both of us instead of just me. I don’t have a chance kid. Every second you stand here pissing around is one less you are gonna have to get out of here. Those things will be in here and once they outnumber us inside the house there ain’t anything I can do to save you.”

  Patrick said, “So what are you going to do damn it?”

  Andy said, “Well besides kicking your ass outside, i’m going to push that dresser in front of that door and hope that good old American craftsmanship is enough and heavy enough to keep those things from getting in here.”

  Andy pointed to rifles on the bed and said, “Now you get your ass out of here kid, good luck to you ok you are a good kid you remember that you tell the others I said the same thing about them. I want ya’ll to survive you don’t worry about that damn cure you just stay safe and if you aren’t sure about someone you stay away from them. If those guys on the bus give you any trouble you don’t hesitate. Now take these rifles and ammo bag and get out of here. NOW!”

  Patrick ran to Andy and gave the old man a hug. Andy patted him on the back and said, “Alright thats enough of that mushy shit, you get out of here, come on i’m not kidding around here.”

  Patrick ran to the bed slinging both rifles around a arm and gripping the heavy ammo bag. He said, “Are these things ready to shoot?”

  Andy nodded, “You got thirty shots in each rifle. You look through that scope and put the red dot on whatever it is you want to go down and squeeze don’t pull that trigger. There is a little switch on the side of it you flip it up and it’ll show red instead of black that means its ready to kill. If you need more than sixty shots you’ve got bigger problems. Chances are you’ll be able to figure out the rest as you go. Now go!”

  Patrick stared at the old man that was already starting to get out of his chair to push the dresser over and couldn’t think of anything else to say as a thank you to the man. He sprinted out to his room looking over the balcony and seeing the Turned flooding through the door. He moved quickly to his bedroom grabbing his backpack that he kept his medicine and some extra clothes in. Patrick thought how it would have been nice, to be able to call somewhere home for more than one day. Patrick headed back out and saw the Turned making their way up the stairs falling over each other to be the first. They were following their noses and drunk with their hunger to be first to what they were smelling. Patrick heard a giant slamming that he figured could only have been the dresser that was in Andy’s room, it gave him a moment of hope for the old man.

  The Turned came to the top of the steps seeing Patrick and he did not wait another moment in the long hallway. He ran towards the back of the house and looked out the open window to the ground below. The porch in the back had a awning over it breaking up the drop down. Patrick knew if he had to jump without having something to land on with all of the weight he was carrying that he would surely break a leg, but he knew that the guns and ammunition was going to be what kept him alive. They came up the steps much quicker than he thought that they would and he looked at the rifles setting half of the gear down and shouldering one of the massive guns. He found the switch that Andy had mentioned and aimed steady as he could with his heart racing a mile a minute and as the first of the Turned’s head came into view he squeezed the trigger slowly taking his first shot and blowing through it’s head. The force sent it backwards tripping up the rest trying to make their way through the stairway. Patrick repeated his action for the next two and wasted no more time and jumped out of the window and to the awning below.

  *****

  Ellie ran to Joey gripping his shoulders trying to get him to focus on her. She jumped each time the rifle was fired and it was being fired constantly. Andy was the only thing giving them a chance at survival right now and she loved the old man for it. She pulled for Joey to move but she knew that she was kidding herself that she could drag a boy that weighed almost twice what she did. She screamed Joey, “You see that bus?”

  Joey seemed to come out of his trance like state for just a second looking at the bus and nodding his head slowly. “Good because that bus should be able to take us to Jordan. We need to get on that bus so we can stop them from coming back here. We don’t want what happened to Jenn to happen to the others right?”

  Joey face scrunched up as fresh tears made their way down his round cheeks. He shook his head no. “No this can’t happen to Jordan. No!”

  Ellie patted him on the shoulder edging him to get moving with her and he gripped her arm and sprinted for the bus dragging him behind her. Kya ran hard to keep up with the two of them. The bus came up near the house and Ellie pulled her arm free from Joey’s grip and started waving her arms. “We need to get on that bus, there isn’t any other choice.”

  Kya screamed, “You know the whole don’t ride with strangers thing that has been like you know drilled into our brains our entire lives, right?”

  Ellie waved frantically, “Are you kidding me right now, because we have so many choices. We can try and outrun zombies that never ever get tired topped off with the fact they run way faster than we do. Or we could go into the house which those things have already entered and just make it super easy for them to kill us. Or option C-”

  “Screw it, all the options suck Ellie! We get on the bus, but do me a favor if anyone on that bus trys to do anything stupid I mean you know what I mean, don’t hesitate shooting them. You got it!”

  Ellie nodded affirmative and they veered straight for the bus seeing that the Turned were splitting off between chasing them and going after Patrick and Andy in the house. Ellie looked over her shoulder realizing t
hat it had gone quiet and the hail of bullets bringing hell to the Turned had ceased. She looked up to Andy’s room praying she wouldn’t see the Turned filled in the room eating the old man but all she saw was a white curtain blowing in the wind. The window was no longer filled with the old man.

  Kya screamed Ellie looked behind the Turned were with in twenty yards the break in gunfire had given them time to catch up. Ellie prayed the bus would stop and wished she could do something about the Turned but knew there was nothing to do but run. Ellie screamed, “Get your ass moving Kya!”

  Kya reached down deep knowing that her legs were the only thing that would save her now. She put her head down leaning forward and pushed her legs harder than ever before. She was well aware that this was literally the race for her life and that there was no saviour coming to help her. She of course was wrong. Just as she thought she could sense the Turned within a foot of her a warm midst sprayed her back startling her. She looked back scared to see what it was and her ears registered at the same time the gunshot and saw Andy back in the window and firing again. She saw a Turned rolling on the ground it’s momentum now gone and skidding to a stop in the grass leaving a line of blood as it slid to a stop. It’s body tripping the Turned that were the closest.

  *****

  Eric paced back and forth in the bus keeping low knowing that at any minute the pounding on the ceiling could very well send a hand through the buses’ top. He stared behind them out the back of the bus and saw Turned coming from every street flooding after them. Eric screamed to Phillip, “Where the hell are they all coming from?”

  Phillip stared in the mirror shaking his head. “How the hell would I know the answer to that? That was a recess question right?”

  Eric snapped his head back, “You mean a rhetorical question? Christ how did you ever get your drivers license?”

  “Whatever college boy, how the hell would I know the answer to that though?”

  Between the two of them not talking for a moment they could both very well hear in between the thudding on the roof coming from above a loud cry coming. It made Eric crouch lower not knowing what the hell it mean but as they drove down the street they could see the Turned that were standing around in the street snapping their heads to the sound of it. Neither man was sure if it was the cry of the freak on the roof or the buses loud engine but they were beginning to both think that there was a very good chance that it was the cries coming from above. Eric said what they were both thinking, “I think its that fucker on the roof.”

  “Well get it off of there then!”

  “You want me to just climb out there and see if I can’t just have a one on one battle with something thats like twice as strong as me?”

  Phillip pointed to Eric’s side. “You still got bullets in that thing don’t you?”

  Eric nodded, “You know I do.”

  “Well then why don’t you send a few of them through the roof where that pounding is coming from and lose that little bastard.”

  Eric walked slow listening for the constant pounding. The kids were all pointing to where they were hearing it as well. Eric put the gun a foot from the roofs top and fired until the gun clicked empty followed by one last thud. They listened for a moment and Phillip swerved the bus and from the top they saw the Turned roll off the roof landing on its face on the hard concrete below. The kids in the bus made the men’s hearts jump when they screamed a cheer for getting rid of the immediate threat. Eric did not cheer with them as he looked directly behind the bus seeing the hoard following them no matter how fast they went they had the scent and would not soon lose it. He walked to the rear of the bus getting one of his first good looks at the Turned and not having to worry about them immediately trying to kill him or worse. He stared at them and yelled back to Phillip, “Hey man there is something weird about some of them.”

  Phillip screamed back over his shoulder, “What you mean like they rip people open and eat their guts? Or that they can bite someone and make them turn into one of them as well.”

  “No, well yes that is weird, but no that isn’t what I was talking about. What I meant is the fact that they look like they were burned. Their clothes are all blackened and burnt right, but it’s like their skin is just fine. Shit you wouldn’t even know that they were burnt if it wasn’t for their missing hair and clothes.”

  “So you think that they got burned and then healed? Oh that is just great!”

  “No it isn’t great-”

  “Christ, thank you Eric. I’m aware that it is bad. The nice thing is that at least the bullet to the head works. Can you imagine if they could heal from something like that?”

  Eric said, “Well from a entire Catholic upbringing I would say yes I have a idea. It would be hell, it would be hell on earth with people running wildly through the streets and hell’s demons running after them.”

  No one said anything for a minute and Phillip asked, “So are we still going to head out there? What if that guy is alive we might be bringing an entire hoard to them.”

  Eric said, “I think we will be ok. You saw the shop that place was trashed there is no way he got out of there alive.”

  “We didn’t see his van in the back though did we? It must have gone somewhere, maybe it went to his place, you know with him in it.”

  Eric pointed to the teens who were just now starting to get up out of their safe cover on the floor. “You see all those kids, they need someone to watch out for them. What are we going to do for them if we don’t have anything to protect them with”

  Phillip wanted to say something but knew that it could be certain death after seeing that news report and heading to the city without some sort of protection. Phillip looked at the address again and said, “So where do we need to go?”

  Eric said, “Head east out where that old railroad bridge is. There’s a farmhouse and not much else out there, that’s where his house is.”

  “What about those things following us? We aren’t going to be able to get out of the bus if those are right behind us. What are we going to do?”

  Eric said, “Well speed up, they can only run so fast, and we don’t have any choice, there’s nowhere between Des Moines and Adel that is going to have as good of a chance. There aren’t any gun shops in Waukee and besides we don’t know if it is going to get even worse if we head there or not. We need to try and be as quick as possible at the house. I’m sorry but i’m thinking of this shit as it comes up.”

  Phillip punched the gas pulling ahead of the following mob and prayed that they were going to have a chance. The idea of seeing the bus overtaken by them and the young lives ended too soon was difficult for him to get his head around. He made distance up and as they pulled across the bridge they could see people. Eric said, “Fuck it get up to the house and get those people picked up, we aren’t going to have the time to get out damn it. Let’s hope that they’ve already got some guns on them as well.”

  “They didn’t have anytime to know that we were coming, it’s not like they are going to be sitting outside waiting for a ride to come. They probably think that they are safe out here.”

  Phillip said, “Well they probably were safe until we came here.”

  One of the kids yelled from the back, hey there are some people in that field on the tree line over there. They watched as the Turned ate Jenn and the other two ran for their lives up towards the home. The instant guilt setting in made Eric and Phillip’s stomachs roll violently. “Just drive a fast as you can to get those kids.”

  Phillip held onto the wheel tight trying to keep from losing control. The gravel beneath made it hard to steer and the sides of each road were like quicksand that would suck the bus in and make it flip if he got to close to it. They sped up the driveway pulling the doors open and stopping in front of the house. They saw a skinny boy running into the house and the two girls bringing a boy with them.

  Eric said, “Hey what’s wrong with that kid is he you know?”

  Phillip said, “He looks like he
has downs, so what, you do realize that just because the zombie apocalypse has started full force that it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any kids like him, or the wheelchair kids, or people who are just plain sick. Hell I bet you one or two gay guys even survived day one.”

  “Yeah you just-”

  “Just what assume we don’t need to take care of anyone besides ourselves? He could have been one of these kids here just another kid that got into the bus.”

  “I know, it is just that shit is getting very complicated very quick. You remember we just wanted a bus, we wanted to get supplies and we wanted to get to that center in Des Moines. That of course is hoping that it is even still there, that it actually got set up.”

  “Life is complicated even more so now. We aren’t able to pick and choose what we are going to do. We have to take care of these kids, and probably those three there and the one that ran in the house. That girl in the field was someone’s daughter. We brought these freaks here we need to get them and keep moving. We won’t be able to wait around.”

  Eric said, “What if he has the guns here?”

  Phillip said, “Then maybe we wait it out for anotehr day and try coming back. Who knows maybe these things will get bored and move on, maybe they’ll lose interest in the property.”

  “We can’t just camp out man. What if the government decides to airlift everyone out of there? You want to be the asshole that shows up late and misses what might be the one and only ride out of town? Can you imagine a city overrun with these things, and us stuck in the middle of it.”

  Philip said, “Hey we’ve done alright so far for not knowing anything about these things. I don’t know what you are so scared of when it comes to Des Moines. I mean I saw the video and all just like you did.”

  “Dude I think the problem that you aren’t seeing here is population.”

  “You’re right I don’t see what you are talking about. We don’t have time anyways.”

  “If they aren’t there, we are going to have all the time in the world to try and figure out how to survive an apocalypse here. What i’m worried about is that we haven’t ran into to many people who haven’t become one of those things. Now multiply that by the entire damn population of Des Moines and think about what we are possibly dealing with man.”