by mike Evans
“What do you mean blood, like you want to go out and take out some Turned?” Shaun asked.
“You know that normally I'm all for that and Greg probably is also, McQuaig, but right now…”
“Oh, just shut up you guys! Look outside, do you see the machine for moving snow, well it has an empty sprayer on the back of it. We know Des Moines is filled with the dead. What would happen if we fill that thing up with blood and then hang some of those douchebags off the back of it to have them snack on and drive it right through their fence. You think maybe they would be a little bit preoccupied with the dead coming into their home base especially if they don’t have a gate out front. While they’re doing that we can launch hell on them and leave nothing alive. If we miss any of those guys, then let the dead take them out. I have no qualms about who does what job as long as every one of them dies. We’ve had too many narrow escapes when we go out, we don’t need to worry about shit like this when we come home. They’re a threat we don’t need in our lives. So what do you think about that?”
Greg didn’t say anything and ran up picking her up, and spinning her. “That is genius, did you seriously just think of that? Wow, I love that. Really, that is great. Shaun, do you think it will work?”
Shaun was nodding slowly looking at the truck. “We’d just have to make sure the blood isn’t too thick, but we could probably water it down a little bit. I doubt the dead need full on blood. They can catch that scent with no issues at all usually. The only other thing would be to figure out a way to reinforce the cab. I don’t want anyone getting killed just because they’re dealing with an idea they didn’t come up with.”
McQuaig said, “I figured that I could drive that thing in there.”
“You must be kidding; you are too good behind a rifle to do anything like that. We need you to stick close and have a perch spot that you can pick them off as quickly as you are able to.”
She was nodding slowly, “Who’s going to drive it in?”
Greg said, “I could always do it, maybe someone could grab me last minute before I drive in there. I don’t think anyone that goes in there is going to be coming back out if they have anything to do about it.”
Shaun said, “It’ll be okay, we stop that thing fifty yards away and floor the truck, that gated community is so long it won’t matter where it hits that gate as long as it gets there. It’s the impossible to miss target. Even if they end up taking out its tires, we can keep shooting on those that come up trying to take it out. How does that sound?”
“We have a lot of blood but I don’t know if you have enough to keep the Turned following that thing. I mean eventually we run out and then they just try to destroy the truck and the poor bastard that is inside. It’s going to be scary enough having some poor shit ride up to pick up the person. You think that Clary and Aslin are going to go for it?” Greg said.
“Well, considering the amount of manpower that we have left I think that it is a hell of an idea. If they don’t like it then I’d love to see what they come up with. We get enough gear that we won’t run out of ammo and I say we go over to the clinic. Whenever Clary is able to roll is the perfect time to move.”
The teens went through the rest of the gear that they would need and got enough for the rest of the survivors. When Greg saw Shaun packing away a few extra items he couldn’t help but ask. “What are you getting there?”
Shaun smiled and said, “I was just thinking that if they were stupid enough to come after us that we can take one of Clary’s grenade launchers. The second that they’re trying to make their move we unleash a second wave on them. They won’t know what the hell is going on. They obviously wanted some of this stuff, well we can show them in style just how damn capable our little group is, even after their assault.”
Greg said, “You know, Shaun, how I hate to shoot your puppy because we all know you are the super genius stud but uh you know what I just realized after a few weeks’ worth of the donations that have been going on?”
“If it's going to help Greg then go ahead and pull the trigger, I can get a new one.”
Greg said, “We’ve been spending all this time donating blood and we never thought about going to one of the blood centers in Des Moines, or even to the hospitals. Instead of letting blood drip we could have gotten everything in one hit.”
McQuaig said, “That is definitely something that we probably could have known. Hell, maybe today wouldn’t have happened.”
“I wasn’t trying to place blame for today,” Greg said. “It is just that I thought we could get a shit ton of blood and save what we have. Why waste resources if we don’t need to. Shaun’s idea is still damn smart but can you imagine how many different blood banks there are across the United States.”
Shaun started to smile thinking of this. “If we spread the word through the internet we have a chance to make a difference if others can do what we’re going to do then maybe we will take back America before it is too late. They won’t have to waste time collecting blood donations we can all just steal it. Greg, you might be a genius.”
“What do you mean I might be a genius? It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Chapter 19
A few hours later
Clary and Aslin were sitting silent by Joey making sure that if the boy did wake up that there would be someone there to tell him he was okay. Shaun was pushing the cart and Greg was handing out gear to people regardless of if they knew what to do with it. Clary and Aslin watched as they approached and could see the teens were in a very much different attitude than the grieving ones they’d been when they left for the armory. Aslin said, “What is it?”
McQuaig answered, “We have what we think are some pretty kickass ideas, guys. We think we could create a diversion that will expose those men as well as probably let some of the dead take them out for us.”
Clary said, “What are the ideas? I’m not in the mood today to be screwed with.”
“We take one of the snow plows in the vehicle pool and top off the sprayer with blood.” Shaun said.
Aslin leaned forward dying to hear the outcome of this. “And that would do what for us?” Aslin asked.
“I thought if we tied their dead behind the trucks to lure them along and then on top of that spray a few hundred gallons of blood as we make our way that we could pretty much have them losing their shit when the truck makes its way to their gates.”
Aslin said, “Uh huh, and since those things aren’t remote controlled who exactly do you think is going to drive the truck with what you seem to think is going to be an absolute shit ton of the dead following it? Second question: what is going to keep those things from jumping up on the truck cab ripping the window out and killing the poor bastard driving it?”
Shaun said, “First, no clue who’s driving, we thought though that we could reinforce the windows with rebar or something to keep them out, mix that with a high speed and plenty of blood to keep them busy and I think the drivers got a chance. I don’t know if you want to drive right through the gates or ditch the truck last minute when you are with in a safe distance that you won’t get shot but that you can still get out before the Turned make their way close enough to get you or whoever it is.”
Clary was taking this all in and thinking of all the blood drives that they’d had and wondered if they were even close to being able to have nearly enough to fill one of those trucks up. He said, “I don’t think that we have enough blood to do that. It isn’t a bad idea at all. I just don’t think that we have the resources available to pull off what you guys are talking about doing.”
“We figured that out, actually.” McQuaig said. “We were thinking that if we went ahead and got blood from a blood bank that we could probably get enough to fill it up and then some. We might have enough that we could bring back the extra and we could do this again once these guys are dealt with and can get back to what Shaun originally wanted to do. Not too bad of an idea, is it?”
“Well, shit that would h
ave saved us some time with Fox’s big plan there wouldn’t it? I like the idea of the truck and where to get the blood. I doubt anyone else is doing anything with it right now.” Clary said.
Shaun choked back the laugh for a second because he knew that it would annoy him as much as it had himself. He said, “Bad news though Clary, it gets worse.”
“How could that get worse?”
Greg cut in, “Because I was the one that thought of it. I knew that you would love that.”
“It is hard to put that into words because of how much I love that it was you. I have to wonder if that is a good idea then.” Clary said.
“He was due at some point for a great idea,” Aslin said. “Try not to give him too hard of a time, Clary. You and I should have thought of something along those lines a long time ago. The blood was smart but God knows there’s plenty of it already bagged that no one probably has any intentions of using. We don’t have any use for it as of now. Taking those men out as quickly as possible seems like a good idea. If you think you could get the rebar in place, Clary, then the kids and I can run out and get the blood. Do you think you could handle that or do you want me to think of something else? Hell, we could always take a tank out there. You guys think that that would be a little easier than having to put in the rebar and praying they don't rip through it?”
Clary said, “We could top one off with diesel and go wherever the hell we want. You take a few backup trucks so we can drop you guys that know how to shoot here and there at different distances and we can pick them off like fish in a barrel. How does that sound to all of you?”
Aslin said, “Considering the fact that no one here knows what they’re doing for any of that then I say that we do the tank. We don’t have to worry about ditching anything last minute and hoping that the Turned don’t get a hold of the driver they can shoot at the tank all damn day.”
Greg said, “Can we put in something to shoot the blood behind us? I'm sure that there are plenty of things that we can use to have the hooks attach to those pieces of shit and that we can use as bait.”
Clary nodded and said, “You all get me the blood and by the time that you make your way back we will have something rigged up that we can put the blood in a container and shoot it behind us. They can’t stand noise either so I think that we should get something that is going to get them going insane. Maybe we can crank some Metallica as we roll down the street. If that doesn’t bring them around then I don’t know what will along with blood and fresh flesh being dragged across the roads.”
Shaun held up the gear and said, “We couldn’t be more stoked, why don’t the three of us go for it and that way we don’t leave a skeleton crew here. Or maybe we just have two people go, what do you think, Aslin, I assume you’ll be one of the two heading out right?”
He nodded and said, “Yeah, the pirate here better not try doing any driving until he absolutely needs to.”
Clary was already scratching at his eye with his middle finger for much longer than he needed to. Aslin got up from the chair patting Joey on the shoulder. He said, “Kya, do you think you can hang out with Joey here for a bit? I want Ellie and Scott both up on the roof with rifles. If something comes back this way I want to know when it’s here and I want a bullet in them before they step too far into our safety zone.”
Kya said, “You do realize that I’m trained with these things. I’m not going to be a toy soldier walking around and carrying this thing. There are eight other kids that can sit here.”
“And you are the only one that I know who is still alive, knows how to shoot, and loves Joey like a brother. Everyone might love Joey but at the exact same time remember that when he wakes up he will be hurt, and scared, and not know what is going on. On top of all that the first thing he might remember is running to the medical base with the dead body of his best friend Patrick in his arms. All that together is a shitty way to wake up from anything,” Clary said.
Kya started to protest but looked at Joey. She’d never seen the boy so vulnerable looking and she’d been there when his sister had been taken in the field by the dead. She nodded, still looking over at Patrick and said, “You know one thing to consider is taking Patrick somewhere else. I really don't know what is going to go on with Joey when he gets up but if Lou isn’t here and he wants out of that bed then he’s going to get out of there. He outweighs me by a hundred pounds I’m sure.”
Aslin said, “I’ll take Patrick down to the cooler they have on site for the dead in the base morgue. When this day is done, we can start digging. We can put our deceased to rest, repair the fence, and come back stronger from this.”
Ellie said, “I think healing some hearts would be just as important as anything but I agree about rebuilding. We need those gates secure or no one will ever want to sleep again.”
“First thing we need is no threats,” Clary said. “There won’t be any mercy on this trip, those that came for us are going down, and there won’t be any burials just one final shot to the skull to make sure that they don’t come back in any capacity, living or dead, for us. Are all of you going to be able to handle that?”
Shaun was stuck in another world. The thoughts about the blood bank were running through his head mixed with the idea that if he had never gone back out on his own that these men would maybe have taken a long time to realize they were even here.
He’d practically drawn them a map the first time he ran a magazine down full auto at their group and sped off dressed like a soldier. He wanted to speak to Ellie about it but knew if he told her there was something additional that he was putting blame onto himself for that she would probably lose her shit with him.
Clary snapped after everyone but Shaun had answered him. He said, “Shaun, Shaun, we need you to stay with it today, son, there is no hundred yard stares until you come back to it. We don’t have the resources for you to do that, you going to be okay?”
Shaun looked around seeing everyone staring at him and wondered how long he’d been in his own world. He said, “Yeah, whatever works.”
Clary said, “No, not really, Shaun. I said we’re going in, we are doing headshots when we are done, and can everyone handle that? I don’t think you or for that matter that anyone else here has ever had to kill another human with the exception of keeping them from being one of the Turned or to put them out of their misery from being eaten by one of them.”
“You really are worried about me taking those guys out, Clary? They came into our home and acted as one of us and then killed some of the few people I have left with us who I care about. Yeah, I’d say that I’m okay with killing them. But I do question taking Greg with us.”
Greg was looking at a pamphlet for blood donation in the community and looked up and said, “Screw you, dude, there isn’t any reason you got, that I can’t go with on this. There’s a blood bank not more than twenty minutes from here. You want me on that gun on the way. Don’t tell me you think it is a good idea to not send some of the best. Clary obviously isn’t going. The two of you can only look so many directions.”
Shaun said, “It isn’t that, but I think if we would have been here the first time shit hit the fan that we would have been able to ward those guys off. If there were gunshots going off right off the bat that maybe they would have not been an issue. I’d like you and McQuaig to cruise around in a Humvee. If there is so much as something that looks out of place, then I want you to spend a drum of bullets on whatever it is that makes you question something being wrong. If we lose anyone we won’t have many more than we did on day two and we were running a skeleton group back then if you remember.”
Greg thought about it, thinking if they did lose anyone that it would be horrible. The idea of trying to bring in new souls to the base was on the bottom of his list. He thought about how hard he had lobbied for them to bring in the living and how life was sacred. He could still remember pulling up and seeing the smiles on everyone's face when they found the last group and Bella saying how happy she was to know
there were other survivors.
Had he known then he’d have saved everyone the trouble and put one in her head. “Then the two of you don’t do anything stupid while you are gone. You could take Scott or Ricky with, really wouldn’t need to be a rocket scientist, if there’s dead and they approach, you take them out.”
Ricky realized they were saying his name. He’d been staring out the window checking to make sure that no one was trying to come back. The loss of his friend hadn’t been easy either. He said, “Wait, I’ve never had to go out before. You sure today is the day that you want to start?”
Greg said, “Worst case scenario, Ricky, is you get eaten, bud. You’ll be okay. Aslin and Shaun have done all kinds of dangerous stuff together and they’ve always came back. Come on, McQuaig, you get to drive, and I get to mow down anyone or thing stupid enough to come through our gates.”
Ellie said, “Keep your radio on channel five and I’ll let you know if we see anything approaching. We aren’t having any other losses today from our group. It is going to be a team effort to keep this going.”
Greg checked his radio as they walked out. Ricky said, “Hey, uh, are you really serious about me going with you guys?”
Shaun said, “The others here don’t know how to use a gun and can’t drive to save their lives yet. Yep, that makes you qualified, probably feel lucky, huh? If you got a problem with it you can tell whoever is in charge of their group when we get there and are putting them out of their misery. Which is more than they deserve.”
“I don’t know if I can handle it, you guys might be making a serious mistake.”
Aslin gripped the kid by the shoulder walking him out to the cart that Shaun had brought over full of weapons. He said, “You get one of these, and this, and an entire bag of ammo. See, now you look like a real life soldier. You won’t screw up, because if you do, we all die. So keep that in mind won’t you.”
“Was that supposed to make me feel better?”
