The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (14 page)

The teens, now tasked with a job, went in opposite directions looking around and doing what had been requested. There was no pounding on the smoky tinted windows but there was also no shortage of shadows casting themselves on the front of the showroom from the late day sun.

Patrick asked, “You think they are still alive right?”

Hammond replied by asking, “You are pretty close to them right?”

Patrick nodded, “Yeah if it wasn’t for them I'm sure that I would have been dead a few times over again, why?”

“Well, I guess I was just contemplating how much of what I think is going to happen actually did. No, I don’t think that they are all alive. I think if they went off on their own and that they probably didn’t survive. If any are alive, I can see Shaun and Ellie or Greg and Shaun maybe making it out of there. I only say this because well, Joey can’t shoot and I don’t see him making it too far, if you know what I mean.”

Patrick picked up the gear that he was supposed to grab. Hammond tried taking some of it and Patrick pulled it from his grasp and said, “Don’t worry about it ok. I can handle a lot of weight.”

Hammond actually was a bit surprised at how much the thin teen could handle. He said, “Yeah I sure would say that you can. I didn’t mean to underestimate you man.”

Patrick looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Maybe there are other people that you shouldn't underestimate also. Joey is a hell of a lot tougher, and for that matter, braver than you are giving him credit for. Did you know out of his family he was the only one that made it? His brother and sister both got taken out. But out of all that he is the one who survived. There was a zombie in a parking lot and everyone was frozen, knowing they couldn't get their guns up as fast as the thing was coming out. Joey fell backwards still took the thing out. He snapped its head back and then literally stomped on its head until the damn thing was dead. Now do you still want to try and not give him the credit that he deserves?”

Hammond said, “Man, I….I didn’t know that was him. I can’t believe that, that was like one of the cooler Turned stories that I’ve heard. I’m sorry; if I'd have known that was him I would have -”

Patrick cut him off by shoving the pack into his arms. He said, “You missed the point and that is too damn bad. What I was trying to get across to you is the fact that regardless of what someone looks like, or what you assume they are capable of, because of it you shouldn’t judge. You never know, there is a good chance that they could quite possibly be the one and the only one around to save your ass. Now did I get my point across to you?”

He nodded his head slowly, thinking about the boy who was probably a bit shorter than himself but had every bit, if not more, the muscle that he did. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to change the way he thought over night but was aware at the least that he needed to start making a bit more effort towards it.

The two took the gear back and there was plenty of room now for them to put all of it into the rear of the truck.

“Do you want me to sit in the back? I have my full auto on me; we can take care of anything that tries to take us by surprise if you want to Aslin?” Patrick asked.

Aslin nodded and said, “I know how damn cold it is so the second that we get out of town I think that we need to stop and get you back in here. If I let you stay back there you are going to end up getting a mean case of frostbite. I don’t think that you want that, regardless of what Kya might do to get you back to good health.”

Patrick’s face, which was already red from the cold, went to new limits of turning fifty shades of red. He said, “Christ man, be cool alright, just because there weren't any old woman that made it doesn’t mean you need to give me a hard time.”

Aslin said, “You know I'm not that old right?”

Hammond said, “Well you sure wouldn’t know that by looking at you.”

Aslin gave up. Turning his head and looking at Patrick, who was judging him with every second at how old he thought he was. He yelled at the girls instead of the boys.

“Hey did you two find the remote switch so we can get in and out of here?”

The girls nodded and Aslin tossed off two grenades down to Patrick who just stared at them. He went to pull the pins and hold down the handles but Aslin screamed, “Christ, what are you stupid! Don’t pull those now, take them to the door we came in at and throw them as far down as you can, try and take out cars that we aren’t going to want. Leave the sport utilities and heavy duty trucks alone, will ya?”

“So what are we trying to do, send these things to hell or just to the other end of the parking lot?” asked Patrick.

“Both actually would be nice. We just don’t need to worry anymore about casualties than we need to. If we just go slow and use our heads, there’s no reason that anyone else needs to lose their life today. I sure as hell don’t want any of you all getting bit. I want the rest of us to be relaxing at home and taking it easy later, not having to worry about anything except our normal worries that come up day to day.”

Patrick disappeared and when the boom went off in the distance, Aslin revved the truck and yelled orders left and right. Maryann hit the door to go up while Hammond took shotgun with his machine gun hanging out the passenger window. He peered down the sights and was ready to go.

McQuaig climbed up on the back wheel and into the bed of the pickup. When the door came up, Maryann slid into the backseat with her gun out and ready as well. They pulled out slowly, thanking God himself that the Turned had followed the blast and when Patrick came around the corner they didn’t waste any time once he dived into the bed of the truck.

Aslin pulled out into the parking lot, driving for the exit. He slammed on the brakes when he saw exit blocking their way out. When the truck stopped it sent Patrick and McQuaig into the rear window and doing so hard. Patrick punched the window and Maryann slid it open. She said, “What?

Patrick wiping at the blood coming from his forehead yelled, “I’m sorry, what the fuck do you think I want. Why the hell did he slam on the brakes?”

Patrick didn’t get a useful answer, instead he got a string of curse words coming from Aslin followed by him beating the hell out of the truck’s steering wheel at the same time as using every variation of curse words he knew. Patrick ignored Maryann and helped McQuaig to gain her balance. He pushed himself up and looked at the surroundings with the snow just barely falling. He saw that all exits to the street were blocked by cars or by columns that rose out of the ground. Patrick yelled, “Why the hell do they have such fancy security here? It is just a car lot isn’t it?”

Aslin swung around in his seat still looking pissed off. He yelled, “Yeah it’s just a car lot but it has like a thousand fucking cars on it, and I’d assume the owner, if he was still alive, would like to keep them on his lot for if and when this thing ends. Most likely though he had these in place long before the zombies came.”

“Well we don’t have any other choice but taking this one. What the hell are we going to do?” Patrick asked.

Aslin looked at the row of the small compact cars that were up against the ditch that led back to the road and he yelled, “Why don’t you two get your asses inside the truck, we don’t need any blood in the air. All it’s going to do is cause more havoc and trouble for us.”

The two teens, both bleeding from the first stop, didn’t need to be told a second time to get inside. They hoped out of the truck’s bed and into the front. When they gave him a thumbs up, Aslin pulled the truck around giving a good fifty yards and floored it, spinning all six tires at once until they caught their grip and when they did, they catapulted forward with a fury.

The teens clenched at the seats and Aslin screamed while holding the steering wheel with only one good arm. When he got up to the small cars he hit two of them dead center, catapulting them down into the ditch below. The large truck didn’t slow down, it bucked up over the parking bumps in the drive. Before he went headfirst into the ditch, he swung the wheel turning the truck and riding along the side of the ditch. He made it to the driveway on the opposite side of the beams that came out of the ground and corrected the truck heading south and back towards the base. When he looked into the back of the truck he saw that unlike him, there had been a definite lack of blinking for quite a while. “Is everyone ok? Or at least ok based on today's standards?” he asked.

The teens just stared, unsure what they should say or how they should answer. Maryann said, “I don’t think that I'm ok, but I'm not sure what, if anything, you could do about it. Today’s going to be pretty difficult to forget.”

Aslin said, “Don’t try and forget it, just don’t let it take over your life. One day we can hope to have a place so secure or so far away that the Turned won’t be a threat.”

Patrick asked, “Do you really think that there is somewhere like that out there? Where could we go that we could have something like that?”

Aslin said, “Really, we haven’t had time to think about it. Our number one job has been getting you ready so that when we had you trained we could try and find somewhere. Maybe Hawaii would be good or any island really if it hasn’t been infected by those damn things. There has to be somewhere right? Unless it’s airborne. But if it is, I wouldn’t think that you and I would even be worried about them because I think that we would be one of them. As long as we keep our eyes open and stay safe, we should be able to handle these things.”

“Well why do you think that so confidently?” asked Hammond.

“Because the alternative of being one of the Turned isn’t a pleasant one Hammond and surviving this and living out my days on a warm beach with a cold drink and good cigar is much better for an alternative. If you want to fight these things your entire life, you be my guest.”

Hammond sat back in his seat, thinking of his family and seeing them taken from him and said, “No, I think that I would rather be able to put the gun down and just live a life. I don’t care what it is as long as it isn’t looking over my shoulder my entire life. I’d say we could put a gate up somewhere, but you know those things would just tear it down.”

Aslin didn't say anything; he knew there wasn’t anything left to say. Their future would be a bloody one until it was time to move on. He thought of the others in the group and knew that Shaun and Greg would be hard to get to follow in a path of safety. He knew that the two of them had plans to take out the Turned eventually and for sure knew that Shaun would not part from the mission. When it came time for them to finally go their separate ways, he prayed that everyone knew enough to survive and get by from day to day.

Chapter Sixteen

When Greg heard what he could only assume was a grenade blast, he checked his watch, letting the final minutes’ tick by before he signaled to Joey to grab Ellie and make their move. They went out towards the front. Greg looked around and to Shaun’s credit; the son of a bitch had taken all of the Turned with him. He pushed the door open, letting Joey out and then pushed it shut behind him trying to guarantee none of the Turned would squeeze through and back in. He looked around and saw apartments that were sitting off of the main road and figured they were as good as any.

Joey asked, “Where are we going to go Greg?”

Greg pointed to an apartment complex. “We need to make our way over there, you good to bring Ellie that far?”

Joey nodded and they made their way across the street. They kept close to the businesses, trying to stay out of sight. When they went past the strip mall that was close to the grocery store, the glass disappeared and became a set of hands reaching for them. Joey tried to back away but the hands gripped the back of his hooded sweatshirt. He dropped Ellie and Greg could only see mouths coming in towards Joey’s neck. He grabbed Joey’s sweatshirt himself and pulled out his handgun and fired off blind shots with enough force to at the least take them back a few steps. Joey was screaming at the top of his lungs and Greg pulled him forward, patting him on the back and giving him a quick hug.

When the Turned rose from the ground, Greg kept Joey in the hug while whispering it was going to be ok to him and leveled the pistol and fired off well placed shots until those that were looking at his good friend like a meal were flat on their backs. Joey snapped out of it, shook free of Greg, bent down and brushed the snow off of Ellie’s face. He said, “I’m sorry Greg I didn’t mean to drop Ellie. I didn’t want her to get hurt. Those hands came outta nowhere.”

Greg patted him on the shoulder and said, “You are doing great Joey, don’t even worry about it brother. We need to keep moving though and get Ellie somewhere warm and safe. I think if we go west to one of those apartments where we crashed the truck we should be able to start a fire. I remember that they had chimneys and if we could find some wood we should be good to go.”

Joey picked up Ellie’s sled looking at Greg and still breathing heavy. He said, “Greg, thanks…..thanks for saving me, I really appreciate it man.”

Greg clapped him on the shoulder pulling Joey from the side of the store. More hands came from nowhere and Greg thought of the ones that Shaun had taken on by himself knowing that he needed to do his part. He pulled one of his grenades from his coat and ripped out the pin. He said, “Joey run, I want to get moving, the last thing we need to do is toss a grenade and send shrapnel into Ellie there.”

Joey didn’t need to be told to run, he gripped Ellie tightly and sprinted, bringing his knees up high through the snow. The sled leaving just two light tracks as they made their way away.