The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War

by mike Evans

  When they made the corner there was an outline of steel going through and Fox and Aslin were reading each other’s mind. They gripped the gate pulling it out and slamming it until they heard the click and reassurance of their temporary safety. The dead slammed into it piling until they looked like the ones in the middle would be suffocating. The dead went for as far as the eye could see until they looked like they melted together.

  They took a knee while catching their breath and Aslin said, “Okay, so now we got this going for us which is nice.”

  “What the hell do we want to do now?” Shaun asked.

  Aslin looked back and did the sign of the cross just thanking him that they made it this far. He said, “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think we were going to get this far. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I wish this place was home and we had everything they have there.”

  Shaun said, “Really, that’s the best you got, huh?”

  “We’re outnumbered hundreds to one, Fox. I say we find the blood and then we see if they have a car or truck we can use given they have a garage in the first place.”

  Ricky was up on his feet pacing back and forth. He hadn’t been through anything like this and didn’t understand what they were doing and why they were just sitting there. “Why aren’t we doing something, there has to be something that we can do. We came for the blood because they like it, right? Well, what about out of sight out of mind?”

  Aslin said, “We’re listening, what are you trying to say?”

  Ricky said, “Yeah, really simple, we go and grab the blood and we toss that shit off the roof. They go crazy trying to get to it, we drive our little blood donor car away when they aren’t thinking about us. Then when we get far enough away and we don’t stop. You got a better idea then I'm totally up for it, but at the time this seems like the best thing we have going for us.”

  Shaun said, “Sounds good to me, Ricky. Let’s go find the blood and then we go from there.”

  The gates behind them were rattling and Aslin did not trust them nearly as much with all of the weight that was being forced into them. He said, “You boys keep going and find the blood. I'm going to keep an eye on those gates. I'm hoping if we can stay out of their sight that the out of sight part can start working. You never know how long it is going to take them to settle down once they’re worked up.”

  “Depends, but I wouldn’t want to hang out here any longer. The smell of us might be enough to keep them pissed off and hungry,” Shaun said

  “Then let’s kick it into double time, boys.”

  Shaun and Ricky walked quickly through the halls. Shaun was reading the rooms and when they found a wall sign with labels he ripped it from the wall and the two of them raced to the second floor near the elevator. Ricky said, “I don’t like walking around this place in the dark, it seems stupid.”

  Shaun said, “Well, I’d say from the flickering of the stop lights and everything that the power is almost done. I honestly can’t believe there’s still anything left, and I don’t know what happens to blood that isn’t refrigerated. I hope that it didn’t spoil, but really I don’t see the dead being picky. I mean they’re pretty stupid most of the time.”

  “Yeah, so stupid that they’re the ones in charge of everywhere,” Ricky said.

  Shaun had never really thought before about the dead being in charge. He just always thought that they were the ones that outnumbered and that the living just needed the time and right possibilities to take control again. The death that they had been responsible for would seem minimal when the living took back their lives again. They would decimate them and take back, ruling the world. Shaun said, “It’s temporary, Ricky. We’re going to be back again, you watch. I promise you.”

  “You are pretty optimistic, Shaun, for a kid that’s seen some of the worst from what I’ve heard.”

  “Just don’t believe everything you hear. I don’t think anyone out there has had it harder than anyone else. I think the ones that have had it the worst have been those who didn’t survive, and unfortunately a lot of them are going to have to deal with death twice.”

  Shaun saw the room they’d labeled donor on it and stopped. He pointed and the two went in looking around with rifles up. Ricky was walking in front and Shaun pulled him behind him. He said, “You keep your safety off, and your finger off that trigger until you got something that you need to take out, you understand me?”

  Ricky said, “Is there a reason you are going to run lead on this?”

  “Yeah, because I’ve been training with the Navy Seals daily, for almost a year. You can say that in a year from now and I’ll happily listen to you and let you be bait. I don’t think there’s anything here to be scared of but I’d rather be safe than sorry and a group of dead coming for you doesn’t make me feel any better about anything.”

  They walked in seeing more blood than they ever had in their life including what had been spilled. Shaun said, “There’s so much of it. We could fill one of the truck’s sprayer tanks or whatever it is that Clary gets rigged up as many times as we want to. Now we just need to figure out how to get it somewhere.”

  “I say we get Aslin and see if there’s a ride anywhere. There’s no point in trying to get ourselves a ton of blood that we can’t do anything with.”

  Shaun nodded and when they ran down Aslin was holding up a hand for them to slow down and be quiet. Shaun whispered, “We found the effing motherlode of blood, Aslin. I can’t believe how much we found. Good God, it’s going to be a blood bath…literally.”

  Aslin said, “Then it seems like we should try and find a vehicle, huh?”

  They went through towards the back seeing a door that said, Garage/Underground Parking. Shaun said, “You think there’s anything down there, Aslin?”

  He shrugged opening the door and turning on the light to his rifle. As they made their way down the steps, the darkness surrounded everything that their flashlights did not touch. Ricky said, “You know the longer this thing goes on the less I like the darkness. There doesn’t ever seem to be anything good that comes from it.”

  Aslin said, “You know one good thing that happens once in a while, Ricky?”

  “What?”

  “When people can shut the fuck up when they’re in a dangerous situation and we know that there’s something nasty coming for us.”

  Ricky didn’t need any further direction or to be told directly to shut up. They walked slowly down the steps and when Shaun saw the dead he winced, looking back to Aslin who was already raising his rifle and walking forward. He wanted to race up the steps and get a higher vantage point but Aslin was done with running today if it could be avoided.

  Shaun followed closely behind him and Ricky took the rear position. Aslin let off a deafening string of shots and decimated the first five in their path. Shaun ran his light around seeing dead rising from their resting place behind trucks and fired off sending head shots leaving nothing but death wherever his bullets struck. Ricky was looking around wildly but did not look high. The dead that they had walked directly under dropped to the ground wrapping his arms around him and latched its mouth on to his neck.

  Ricky screamed no as the first and last bite of flesh that it was going to take from him was torn from his skin. The dead screamed a bloody gurgle in triumph as it chewed. Tears filled Ricky’s eyes and his legs quivered as the blood loss and the results of what was going to happen hit home. Shaun aimed down at the dead and a piece of his heart broke as he watched Ricky’s lips trembling and saying words he would not forget soon nor would it be the last time the future hero would hear them. “Help me, Shaun.”

  Shaun took a deep breath squeezing off one round that split the dead’s skull like a zipper front to back. Ricky dropped to his knee crawling forward a foot and out of where the dead had fallen. He said, “Thank you, Shaun.”

  Ricky began to convulse, the Turn now happening much faster than usual. Shaun said, “I'm sorry,” and pulled the trigger once sending a round t
hrough the top of his head. The idea of letting him go through the Turn made no sense to him and knew if it was ever his turn to be in that role that he would gladly be put out of his misery. The idea of becoming one of the Turned wasn’t something that he could handle dealing with. The only thing worse was watching it happen to the ones that they cared for and he refused to let anyone go through that if and when it was possible to stop it.

  Aslin put a hand on his shoulder. “We need to get out of here, Shaun, before we can’t.”

  “When is it going to be enough? We’re losing people quicker than we can get new ones back. I don’t want those people. I want our friends. I want the ones that have been around us from the start. I just keep thinking if we don’t get our numbers back, we aren’t going to make it, Aslin.”

  “Welcome to the mind of a warrior, kid.” He took his Seal pin from his shirt and clipped it onto Shaun. He said, “You earned this. I’m sure if Greg was here he’s earned one by now as well.”

  “I can’t take this.”

  “Yeah, and that is why I didn’t give you anything, kid. You earned it tenfold. There’s no question about it. I would have never been able to survive what you have had to put up with when I was your age. Your dad and the outbreak on day one… You guys even had your own fall out bunker that you could’ve stayed in but instead of that you risked your lives for Patrick, and then when Greg heard the call asking for people to help you all went back again regardless of what we were acting like towards you. Like I said, you weren’t given anything, you earned it.”

  Shaun looked at the small pin that looked more like a medal pinned to his chest. He said, “Let’s make sure this parking garage is cleaned out and then we go from there.”

  The two walked slowly taking their time making sure that there were no spots the dead were able to hide. When they were confident that the place was cleared out Aslin found the motor pool keys and after a quick minute they figured out that there was only one thing that they could drive that would be able to transport all of the blood that they needed.

  Shaun laughed a little as they walked around the large white bus that had smiley faces of blood drawn all around it. He said, “Do you know how to drive one of these?”

  “How hard can it be, Shaun?”

  “Well, Aslin, what have you been driving Humvees for, like, twenty years? We couldn't drive twenty minutes in that without you destroying it.”

  “It wasn’t my fault that we drove up on a horde. If we could have seen them from the road there is no way in hell we would have ever gone into that parking lot.”

  “Okay, so we get the bus, get it stuffed with as much blood as we can and then what, we’re still trapped with the blood.”

  “Then you can use those young knees to head up to the top floor and see if you can’t throw a few gallons of blood into the wind and get it to bring the scent over to the other side of the building.”

  Chapter 21

  Clary sat for another hour per Lou’s orders. When he looked like he was going to bounce through the wall if he didn’t get freed from the bed, Lou finally yelled, “Okay, leave, Clary, you are driving me nuts. My lord you’d think you have something important to do today.”

  Clary popped out of the bed taking a second to steady himself. The normal double eyes working for him wasn’t there and it was a first for him. The only other time he could think of being this impaired was when he had had a similar issue with his eye but that was in Baton Rouge with a bottle of whiskey and an all-day bender with the rest of the guys. He smiled for a moment until, like all memories, he remembered they were no longer alive. He said, “I’m going to do something for revenge today. We move on after that. You take all the time you need to mourn, Lou, so long as you stay here, brother. We’d miss you, and we need you. Besides you are the only one we know who can deal with these kids. Like, really, I’m not kidding. I don't understand how you don’t rip their fucking heads off some days.”

  “If you were growing at a rate you couldn’t control, Clary, having things happen to your body that were hard to understand and deal with, and then on top of all that through a crazy cocktail of being a teen living like a soldier with zombies always as a threat, then I’d say these kids are doing okay.”

  Clary was nodding and could see that the intensity was still there in him but the sadness was winning. He said, “You need anything, need help moving anyone, Lou, before I head out?”

  “The only patient right now is Joey and I made sure he was on a wheeled bed so we could move him quickly. He’s one solid kid I don't think he hates anything but the dead.”

  “You should have seen what he did to Bella, crushed her head in with what I can only assume was his baseball bat.” Clary said.

  “Good, she deserved it,” Lou said. “If she didn’t like the way things were at home she could have confided in one of us here and we could have been the ones who did the attack, but that obviously isn’t how it went down.”

  “That or this Cade fellow that I can only assume was the man that picked her up and carried her away was her father. Don’t worry they won’t be apart long, Lou.”

  “Pieces of shit don’t go to heaven, Clary.”

  “No, but they can reunite in hell. Hopefully with hot pokers up their ass.”

  Lou laughed a little wiping at a tear that he knew would have friends if he didn’t get control of himself. “You’re a poet, Clary, God bless you.”

  Clary made his way out looking around as he left and he passed two rooms that had been made to be the death room, basically. He thought about it and it broke his heart. He said to no one but himself there’s going to be a lot of holes to dig later today if this day ever ends. When he walked out a whistle came from above him and he looked up to see Ellie waving, resting behind a sniper rifle. He said, “You have any reason you need to shoot that thing, sweetheart?”

  “I’m so not sweet, Clary. No, it has been pretty boring.”

  “Boring is good, Ellie, it’s one of the best feelings in the world as long as you don’t get lazy because of it.”

  “I like boring, Clary, it wasn’t a complaint. I don’t think that you have to worry about anyone getting lazy today. Have you checked on Shaun and them?”

  “No, you know we keep it quiet if we don’t need anything. The last thing we need to do is get a horde on their ass because we wanted to say hi and then they hear the talking and you know the outcome.”

  Ellie gave a thumbs up and pointed into the distance. “Scott’s over there, you go do your thing and the two of us got your back. Take it easy though, we don’t need to have you fall down because you overdid it. Besides we aren’t ever going to lift your big ass so unless you want Greg and me to have to figure out a way to move you then you'd better take it easy you understand?”

  Clary held up his hands in defeat. He said, “You realize we aren’t doing anything but rigging a tank to be able to leak blood right? The biggest issue is going to be having room for it. But you know I think I can just rig it to the back of the tank and we can cruise down the street. Once we get near enough we’ll pop the cork on it and let the dead chase us down. I don’t care how strong those things are they aren’t getting inside a tank. Those things are solid.”

  Ellie was smiling and cut in, “You mean like a tank.”

  Clary not thinking about the smart ass pun said, “Yeah, exactly like a-”

  She laughed rolling back behind the rifle. She yelled, “Go make something cool, Clary. I could do this all day.”

  Clary was shaking his head thinking that she was going to be a pistol as she got older. He wouldn’t have her any other way though. When he got up to a row of tanks he saw the M1A1 Abrams and smiled happily wondering honestly if they even needed the blood now. The thought of taking this straight through their walls firing off a few shots with the main weapon would be decimating to their base. The machine gun mounted to the side of it would do no small amount of damage either. He liked the idea of sending the dead in while he had a front ro
w seat. He picked the Abrams because it was the only one which he knew how to operate.

  Clary ran his hand down the main gun on it thinking of sending hell from two miles away and hitting the target with little effort. He could not imagine having that happen to him and knew that they could fit upwards of forty rounds for just that gun alone and that if they sent that much that way that there would be little work for the kids to have to do. He was always all about being fair but when it came to people coming into his home like these had he would be relentless in his pursuit to kill every last one of them.

  He went to the truck that the kids had been talking about using looking at the sprayer unit on it and saw that in as little as twenty bolts this was going to be his. When he was near being done getting it loosened he radioed McQuaig and Greg. They were there within a few minutes with nothing to report. Greg said, “I think we can like fill it without having to take it off of the truck, Clary.”

  “Yes, smartass thank you for that information. That is just great. We decided that instead of having the truck, which, since I’m the one who is least able right now with the eye hang up, we would be safer in something else. The truck is still going to be too vulnerable to the dead finding a way to get in and then killing me. I’m not a fan of that idea so we’re going a different route.”

  “What are you going to drive that they can’t make their way into?”

  Clary nodded his head towards the row of tanks. Greg almost jumped when the thought of damage they could do to them hit home. He said, “Holy shit, are you kidding me? I don’t do the sniper rifle shit, too much math. Let me ride with you, come on, there’s room right? I can ride with you and we can go blow the hell out of those guys. Come on, please, you and me, we can have a good time in that thing.”

  “No more caffeine, Greg, take a breath, buddy. Yes, you can ride with but only if you take it down about eight notches, bud.”