The Orphans (Book 2): Surviving the Turned (6 page)

Chapter 7
: Help

              Greg paced around in front of the window; he was ready for the three to be back already. He thought that separation was a horrible idea, even though he knew it wasn’t avoidable under the circumstances. There was no way Patrick would have made it down the hill. They had moved him onto the cot, where he sat up drinking water and trying to eat one of the ready-to-eat MRE meals.              

              Greg found that his thoughts got sidetracked watching Kristy. It wasn’t that he was checking her out like that… well, not completely. She was making piles of MREs and drinks. He stopped pacing and watched her. “What are you doing with all of that food?”

              She stopped arranging them for a minute, cursing that she’d lost count. “What did you say? It’s Greg, right?”

              Greg nodded, more to himself than her realizing full circle that they were little more than strangers. He pointed at her neatly arranged piles. “The food, what are you doing with all of it?”

              Kristy smiled, and before she could retract the words, she said, “Easy gas gauge.”

              Greg laughed saying, “It’s not going to affect all of us the same, Kristy.”

              She laughed, letting a snort out and immediately clasped both hands to her mouth as her cheeks grew red, wishing that she could retract it. “No… like a gas gauge. I wanted to make a chart of all our food so when we are getting low, we can do something about it. I just don’t know how long we have to stay here, and if I didn’t have something to keep me busy, I’d look like you—pacing back and forth. Are you pretty good friends with the three that left?”

              Greg nodded his head, thinking of his friends. “Yeah, you could say that. They are pretty awesome. Just don’t tell them I said that. Hopefully this is figured out before we need to eat all this crap.”
              “You don’t think it can go on forever, right? I mean, there has to be an end at some point; this just can’t be how it is forever, right?”

              Greg sat down at the table, looking at her. She could see the worry on his face. “I guess it depends what happens in town… well, hell, across the country really. I’d like to know what caused this.”

              Kristy nodded. “I guess this is better than what the alternative would be. I wonder what the rest of the people in town are doing.”

              “For their sake, if they haven’t turned, I hope they are hiding some place safe and that they stay there.”

              Kristy pointed at the pile of rations that they had brought up the hill. “Get up and stop being lazy. You need something productive to do.”

              She handed him the pad of paper she’d been putting her notes on. “You can help me by writing the numbers down as I count.”

Together, the two of them made a list and organized the supplies. It was a relief to focus on something besides their worries.

Tina gripped the seat lever and pushed as hard as she could to a reclining position. Shaun pulled his pistol, placed it up to the window, and squeezed the trigger, sending a forty-five caliber shot through the glass and into its head. The Turned let go of Tina and fell to the ground. Tina’s chest was rising and falling as she fought to calm her pounding heart. She lay there for a moment and cried while hugging her shaking body.

Shaun put a hand on her shoulder. “Tina, are you okay?”

Tina felt where the bloody hand had gripped her and lifted her sweatshirt, exposing a smooth, white stomach free of any cuts, scratches, or tears. Shaun tried not to focus on it. She pulled the lever again and tried to compose herself as she settled into an upright position. She gripped Shaun tight and gave him a hug, unsure of what else to do. Ellie gripped Tina’s shoulder and said, “Can we try the van again, please? Those shots are bringing them out in serious numbers.”

Shaun nodded, breaking Tina’s hug and turned over the key. The engine came to life with a shot of black smoke from the muffler. Ellie yelled, “Hey! Can you drive, Tina?”

She didn’t answer. Tina put the van into drive and peeled out down the street. They each looked behind them, counting at least ten more that had come out of five different houses. The bloodstained drapes blew in the wind, as they’d been pulled outward by dirty, bloody bodies. Shaun continued to watch as the Turned jumped through windows and sprinted wildly. He was taken aback by one home where a woman ran out the door without breaking through the window. Shaun watched closely; Ellie saw it as well and pointed at the woman. “Holy crap, that’s Rosa McBroom. She has the flower shop on Walnut Street.” Ellie opened the back doors. “Tina, you have to slow down. We can take her with us! Slow down!”

Tina let off the gas, slowing it down. Rosa smiled as hope spread across her face, thinking she had found a way out of the hell she was in. Ellie and Shaun had open hands ready to help her jump into the van. Rosa got within twenty yards, running for everything her body had left in it. One of the Turned came from nowhere, jumping through the air and tackling the woman. The Turned buried its mouth in the flesh of her shoulder and ripped a generous chunk from it. Rosa screamed in pain and fear. Ellie grabbed Shaun’s pistol, aimed it in the right direction, and pulled the trigger until it clicked on empty. Shaun reached over, lowering her hands. “I understand, Ellie, but we can’t save them all, and we can’t waste bullets. God only knows how many bullets we are going to need.”

The Turned jumped to its feet, forgetting all about Rosa, and sprinted after the van instead, following the noise and the promise of another meal. Tina looked in her rearview and didn’t need to be told to speed up. Rosa lay on the ground, twitching and shaking in the street. The blood pooled around her dark hair. By the time Tina was hanging a left, Rosa was already pushing up slowly, lifting her arm to her mouth, and tearing away at her own flesh.

“Do you want me to take the long way back, around town? Or do you think we should go through the middle of town?”

Ellie said, “I want to know if it’s just this street or the entire damn town.”

Shaun nodded as well. “Yeah, let’s do it; just don’t stop for anything… and I mean
anything
.
”

              Tina drove quickly through town. The three were very much in agreement that the more distance they put between those ravenous freaks and themselves, the better. The Turned were able to keep up with the van, running for a mile at breakneck speeds and not looking as though they needed to slow down to try to catch their breath. In a way, that part made sense since the Turned had no need to breathe.

              The residential streets seemed quiet and normal enough to the teens… until they
really
focused on their surroundings. There were numerous homes with cars in the driveway or on the lawn. Most of the cars had at least one door open, and they saw exhaust coming from the tailpipes of some of them. The owners did not even bother to turn the vehicles off before fleeing for the protection of their homes. Bloody footprints left trails leading up walkways, and handprints covered once-white storm doors, painting them macabre red.

              Shaun kept a watchful eye as they pulled into the center of town. The square, which hosted the community’s businesses and courthouse, looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it overnight. They drove slowly, passing a white sedan. The scene was like something straight out of a movie and made each of their stomachs do a backflip; a man hung from the driver’s side window of the car, his arms outstretched and just short of reaching the ground. The window appeared to have been smashed and the man’s body forcefully dragged through it, headfirst. His blood made a path to the pavement below, dripping into a pool beneath the car door and onto his tie. Tina said, “Where the hell is his head?”

              They looked around, but if it was nearby, they couldn’t see it. Shaun shrugged and Ellie sat back down in the van, shaking her head. All of them were having a difficult time accepting this as life’s new reality. They came to a stop, letting the van idle as their mouths gaped open. The Turned were everywhere, and they all seemed to be in a daze as they stood still, not paying any attention to one another. Ellie said, “What the hell is wrong with them? They’re just standing there. Do you think maybe they’re sleeping?”

              Shaun counted them from where he sat in the van. By the time he finished, he had counted to thirty. The majority of them—young and old alike—were dressed in the school colors and were probably attendees from yesterday’s homecoming rally. Tina looked over at Shaun and saw his face. “What’s wrong, Shaun?”

              Shaun, not actually meaning to be a smart ass, replied, “Well, a lot, Tina. Christ, would you look at all of them? They’re everywhere. What’s worse, we probably know all of them in one way or another.”

              Tina came back with, “Well, at least they seem to be calm at the moment. I mean, compared to yesterday.”

              Shaun opened his mouth to reply when the idling van interrupted him and fired out a bang from its muffler, followed by a shot of black smoke. The van shook violently once, making the trio grip whatever was close to them. There was a second bang, the engine revved loudly, and then it died.

              Ellie, who had been trying to breathe steadily, yelled, “What the hell did you do, Tina?”

              Tina twisted to glare at Ellie, arms thrown up in the air. “What do you mean what did I do? I didn’t do anything; it just died.”

              “Well, start it before they stop looking so tame and rip our damn heads off!”

              Tina didn’t answer. She just turned back around, realizing they were wasting time arguing over something that couldn’t be fixed. She tried to bring the massive vehicle back to life, turning the key over again and again, but the van could have cared less. It had made its final trip for anyone, and the engine did not respond; it just clicked. After the stress it had been put under yesterday, they were lucky the van got them to their destination in the woods and that it started the next morning.

              Ellie, out of character but seriously starting to debate her future on this earth, slammed the side of the van, making a deep, loud, echoing sound. “Damn it! Somebody do something! Now what the hell are we going to do?”

              Shaun snapped, regretting everything about that day. At the moment, he could give two shits about Patrick’s medicine and his well-being. He especially regretted bringing the girls with him. With every waking moment, he felt more and more responsible for the two of them. The fact that they had finally made it to the cabin where they would be safe for a while kept running through his head. If only they had stayed there. Shaun turned around in his seat, his eyes wide and shaking his hands in the air. “What do you want me to do? I can’t fix the van. It’s a piece of shit and it’s broken.” He pointed at Tina. “She’s turning the key and nothing’s happening. Not the best time to try and lift the hood and still not know what’s going on, you know?”

              Tears started to form in Ellie’s eyes. “I’m sorry I made you come, and I want to go home. I want to get out of town and never come back.”

              Shaun nodded, rubbing her knee and taking a few deep breaths as he tried to settle himself down too. “Yeah, I think that I…”

              Tina shook his arm when he was in mid sentence. “Shaun, uh…” Shaun was still concerned with Ellie. “Shaun, would you look?”

              Shaun only half looked over when Tina put her all into a shoulder punch that any boxer would have been proud to execute.

              Shaun snapped out of it. “Damn, Tina, that hurt.”

He rubbed his shoulder, turning around in his seat and through the smashed front windshield saw a visible nightmare approaching; his mouth fell open. The previously disinterested Turned were, one by one, turning their heads toward the van. The loud bang of the muffler and Ellie’s slam on the inner wall of van were enough to fully catch their attention.

              Ellie got up on her knees, gripping the driver and passenger seat to peer out the window. She saw the horde of Turned getting more interested by the second in what was happening fifty yards away from them. Ellie whispered, “Okay, new plan time; what do you want to do?”

              Tina beat Shaun to it. “Uh, I don’t know… pinch myself and wake up from this horrible nightmare, maybe?”

              Ellie reached up further, pinching them both, making each yelp. “We’re not dreaming, Tina, so what’s our second plan of attack here?”

              Shaun unbuckled his belt, grabbed his assault rifle, and tried to be the calm one. “We need to get out of here. They'll bash in the windows happily with their faces just to get the chance to get a piece of us.”

              Tina gripped his arm. “Wait—maybe they will lose interest in us.”

              The three stared out the damaged, blood-soaked window, focusing on a man dressed in what might have once been a white tracksuit who was missing his right arm. A stain of blood had painted the right side of him red. He looked around, walking slow at first, sniffing and tilting his head so as to get a better angle to listen and smell. Ellie whispered, “Oh shit, would you look at that guy.”

              The man snapped his head back down, looking straight at Ellie with dead eyes and screamed a primal growl toward the van. Those Turned who hadn’t been aware of what treasure was in the van, were now staring at it screaming along with him. Shaun looked to Tina quickly; worry spread across his face. “You, uh, still want to stay in the van, Tina?”