The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (2 page)

Aslin and Clary both looked around while rubbing at the bridges of their noses and thought that they couldn’t possibly have to deal with the two of them for an entire apocalypse, but figured that they needed to have more than just a group of teens around. Having a few other adults even as immature as they might be were still somehow probably useful.

They walked out and looked around at a large crowd of teenagers; their original headcount guess had been fifteen. However, when they had gone back through with bunk assignments they found out there was at least twenty five, which was twenty five additional fingers on triggers that they hoped that they could rely on. They knew that having a base this size with such a small force was not something that was going to be easy to keep an eye on at all times. They had already figured out that there was a strong chance that the Turned did not require sleep.

Clary held up a hand as he stood up on a platform. He saw nothing but doe eyed children staring at him. He saw Greg yawning while trying his best to look as bored as possible. Shaun and Ellie were stretching and Joey looked like he was ready to burst off onto the run. Clary cleared his throat and said, “Now I know that we all know each other, and that we have been waiting for the best news, for the news that we were going to be able to rely on someone else to save us. That someone else was going to cure these, these inhumanly cruel bastards. They have all hurt you in one way or another, we’ve all lost someone, and we all have a story to tell. There isn’t anything that we can do to fix that after this. There isn’t anything we can do to cure these things. I hate to tell you this and it isn’t easy, we can’t protect you here.”

Andy walked forward and fear spread across the poor kid’s face. He held up his hands and said, “Wait, wait, what do you mean that you can’t protect us? We came here because we didn’t have anywhere else to go and now you tell me we aren’t going to be able to stay safe? It’s your job to protect us; didn’t you take an oath or something?”

“Look Andy, we aren’t babysitters. We took an oath while we were under the government's employment. That time stopped when we parachuted into Iowa looking for the cure. Do you know the story of what happened Andy?” asked Clary.

Andy shrugged, kicked at some gravel and said, “Yeah everybody knows. One of you two were dumb enough to send the research back to your bosses before they got you back off the ground again and on your way back home to somewhere safe.”

Clary waited for some of the chuckling to stop and ensured that he remembered who had laughed. Clary went to speak but Aslin cut him off and said, “Well just to clarify this, it wasn’t myself….it was Clary. I for one would never do something that stupid, that ignorant, that-”

Clary said, “Guys, should we skip ahead and have me show you the advanced physical hand to hand combat that you will be able to do once we are done training you? I can show you how to break hands, arms, legs-”

Aslin whispered so only Clary could hear him. “Fine, oh my God would you relax? Is it your special time of the month Clary?”

Clary took a deep breath. “Well I lost what I was saying.”

Andy said, “You were telling us that you weren’t able to protect us and then you were telling us how we can go about breaking lots of bones on things that are totally able to rip our arms out of our sockets.”

Clary went to say something but Shaun walked up and said, “Clary, I think you better get this thing going, you aren’t saying the right words that are going to motivate these kids.”

“Do you think you can do better?”

Shaun shrugged, “Yeah probably, I mean it’d be hard to do it worse wouldn’t it? The last thing I want to do is stand up on a podium and tell people something that could get them killed. They aren’t soldiers, why don’t you look at them for God sakes? They all look like they are scared; they don’t understand why they need to do this. It has been six months and they are still lost in the hope, regardless of how many times the news has told them that there was no hope coming their way.”

“Well, how do we fix that?” Clary asked.

Shaun said, “It is difficult to say. I think that they need to really understand what is going on. We’ve been taking perimeter watch for months since no one can shoot or handle a gun. They know that no good is going to come from the Turned. What they don’t know is that we aren’t alone and there are plenty of them everywhere. They still have hope that there is going to be help.”

Clary said, “Get up there and talk then. Over time I won’t be surprised if you are helping teach these kids what to do. The more we have helping the faster we are going to get them up to speed.”

Shaun asked, “Why is it a rush?”

“Because like you said, there is no help. When the dead run out of food in the city, they are going to move out of the city, or they will migrate. I don’t really know what the fuck they are going to do. But I do know that I want to be prepared for it. The last thing I want to think of are hundreds of those things coming at the fence, hell thousands of them not slowing down for anything and we do not currently have the manpower to deliver the firepower to keep them from coming through. I think we both know what happens if that is what it comes down to.”

Shaun motioned for him to move aside. He got up on the podium and held up a hand for the whispering that was taking place to cease. “Hey everyone, can I just have a couple minutes of your time please or whatever?”

When the talking got louder, Greg stepped forward and screamed at the top of his lungs, loud enough to make Clary and Aslin see the kid in a new light. He said, “Everyone shut up and listen to Shaun! He’s way better to listen to than Clary.”

Clary snapped around shaking his head, scratched the side of his scalp with his middle finger and stared directly at Greg. Greg smiled, and then went back to stand with some of the original orphans, Joey, Ellie, Patrick, and Kya.

The rest of the kids, to his credit, shut up immediately and turned their eyes to Shaun standing up on the podium who was not yet projecting a good deal of confidence. Shaun cleared his throat and said, “Hey, I'm Shaun, Shaun Fox. I don’t know about any of you but my day one in this didn’t go so great. I lost someone, and I am sure that many of you did to.”

Heads were nodding slowly, some looking down at the ground and others trying not to let tears form in their eyes. Shaun continued, “We don’t share stories of what happened to us. Why is that? I will tell you, because it doesn’t help anything, it doesn’t do anything to make anyone feel better. There isn’t any reason to try and one up each other in what horrible thing happened to us. We all lost, we all are mad. We’ve waited around for six months until we finally heard from the government that there wasn’t going to be any help. Now that we know, we need to protect ourselves. We aren’t going to wait any longer. You might not be pros with guns, you might not be violent. I wasn’t either; at least, I wasn’t violent. There isn’t anything that you can do now but kill them. It is simple, kill or be killed. You can’t hide forever, and these two can’t protect you forever. Can they kill these things? Yes they can. But when they eventually are outnumbered, what are you going to do? Do you want to hide and pray that after they strip every inch of muscle and edible flesh from these guys that they just leave? Do you really think that they’d leave, have you ever seen one of these things get full, or walk away from a meal that wasn’t going to Turn?”

The teens shook their heads slowly and Shaun continued, “We need to be able to defend. We can’t be useless, we have a lifetime worth of ammo at our disposal and we won’t run out, at least anytime soon. If you absolutely think that you can’t fight, there’s other work you can do on the base.”

Andy cut in, raising his hand and said, “Good, because I'm not killing anything, if you guys think you can learn how to be some special warrior be my guest-”

Shaun snapped and said, “Andy is it? I wasn’t done talking. What I was going to say was that if you aren’t wanting to be one of us, and you still want to stay then keep this in mind, and let my words sink in deep. Just because you stay does not mean that you will have anyone babysitting you. If you have a job to do and you are out doing it without anyone watching you, that is because those of us with guns will have our own work to do. There isn’t any guarantee that anyone will be able to walk around and make sure you are safe. Now if that doesn’t sit well with you then maybe you are going to want to stay with the group today to get a little cardio and gun training in before breakfast. I don’t know about you but when those things come for me, I sure as hell want to know what to do. I might not be able to out power one of them but I sure know I’d rather be able to say I gave it my all instead of standing there waiting for one of them to rip my heart from my chest. If you got any questions, then ask Clary or Aslin, as of now they are the ones in charge.”

None of the teens said anything and Clary ran past them and said, “Let's see if you kids can keep up with an old man. The longer you can run the better. You never know when a car is going to die, or you are going to end up in a shitty circumstance.”

Clary took the lead and Aslin ran in the back, screaming at people to keep up the pace and to make sure that they kept it up or that they’d do pushups and then have to sprint after them to catch up. They ran until they were at the top of a hill and Clary had sets of binoculars sitting on the top of the ridge. He pointed to town while taking a look through a pair, and said, “This is why we are running; this is why you need to train.”

Each of the teens took a look through the single pair of binoculars and when their turn was up they were ghostly white. There was no shortage of the Turned in the nearby town of Johnston. The teens didn’t mistake the fact that they were close, and it was much too close for comfort. The reality of what the men had said began to settle into each of the teens. The thought of the Turned running out of food and beginning to search with a new found hunger didn’t sit well with any of them. Joey looked up at Aslin as he took his eye away and said, “I don’t like guns Aslin. What am I going to do? I don’t want them to eat me, I don’t want them to eat me Aslin, what do I do?”

Clary put an arm around him pulling him to the side. He whispered into Joey’s ear until the boy looked visibly at ease. When Joey walked back to Shaun and Greg he had a slight smile on his face. Greg patted his shoulder and said, “What’d he say Joey?”

“Can you keep a secret Greg?” Joey asked.

He nodded and Joey said, “Well, Clary said that he is going to make me a special weapon. He said, that he was gonna make me something that I could split their heads open with.”

The two nodded slowly, not really understanding what he could make, and looking back at Clary who saw them and had a smile filled with pure joy at whatever weapon he was thinking of for Joey. Greg asked, “What the hell is he going to make Joey that he could actually use?”

Shaun shook his head when Joey patted him on the back before running off and almost knocking him over. “I don’t know but if someone has the muscle, I’d think that they can put some serious power behind their hits, don’t you agree?” asked Shaun

Greg watched as the hefty looking boy ran off, knowing that he was definitely not overweight but that he was ripped underneath that large frame. Greg said, “He wouldn’t do anything that is going to put that kid in harm. You do that and karma gives you a one way first class ticket to hell. Besides, you don’t think that he’d really let him go into battle, since, you know...”

Shaun shook his head a bit disappointed. “What, because he has special needs? Christ man, you realize that he has outlived his own family and thousands more who don’t have special needs? God knows how many people there are in the world that didn’t make it through day one. If he is lucky then great for him, but you know what, he has continued and continued to survive. No matter what gets thrown at us, he’s just like us, and he’s one of us so just make sure going forward we don’t treat him different. If you hold back, always worried if he’ll come through, that’s when he’s going to run right past you and something's going to rip out your heart and start eating it while you are laying there and dying.”

Greg started to say something but watched Joey walk over and whisper to the rest of the group and smiled. He realized that regardless of what has kept Joey alive this long, he wasn’t going to underestimate him or anyone going forward. He said, “You got it Shaun.”

Clary said, “I want everyone to get running now. Even when you are tired and you don’t think that you could possibly run any further, remember that they aren’t tired. I’ve yet to see one of them slow down. They don’t run out of breath, they don’t get fatigued. You might think you stink right now from sweat, but the smell of you is probably enough to make them feel intoxicated. Now I want you to keep those words in mind whenever you think you have to stop and when you can’t go on any further, because that moment of you giving up is exactly what they are waiting for. Everyone run back to the barracks and let’s get some food in you.”

Over the next three months the teens trained until their muscles and joints hurt and their fingers were raw from firing rifles until they could all be trusted with one. Jobs were given and perimeters were established to keep the grounds safe.

Chapter Two

9 months after day 1

Clary stood in the mess hall of the base with Aslin. Clary looked over and could see Aslin yawning and mumbling under his breath. “Quit complaining Aslin, it isn’t that bad.”

Aslin looked over with tired eyes. “I’ve been a Navy SEAL for over a decade Clary. I’ve been in shitholes, which of course don’t compare to the streets of this town now, but still bad.”

“You realize I was already in when you graduated SEAL school right? What’s up your ass? I have more years on you and I'm still making the most out of this place. If we didn’t find this base we would have been out on our asses after Andy’s burned down. I am confident that as good as we are and as helpful as the kids have been, the two of us would not have still been alive nine months later. Do I wish that we could have been stranded in Hawaii without any of the Turned to fight off and all the food we could eat? Hell yes, but we didn’t and this is our new home. It is going to be as shitty or as good as we make it.”

Aslin said, “Do you realize that when we parachuted down we were hard ass Navy SEALs on a mission to save America? Wait, no fuck that, we were going to find the cure to save the entire world. Since then we’ve been abandoned by the government, which let me just say, I'm still a bit bitter about. Maybe not as bitter about the fact that a certain asshole that I won’t point out, who may or may not be in this room, sent our only bargaining chip to hell in a handbag. When the shit settled and the dust stopped moving, we ended up as wet nurses to a fucking ton of kids, as well as a few rednecks who I'm still not sure why we let stay here.”

“The amount of people that are old enough to drive competently are limited, so unless they go blind then I'd say they have a reason to be here for now at least,” Clary said.

Aslin laughed. “You do realize that just because they are old enough to drive doesn’t make me feel a damn bit safer having either one of them behind the wheel. But I would have to say that it is better than Greg behind the wheel.”

Clary said, “Are you kidding me, anyone but Greg would make me feel better. Besides having Greg do anything but sitting behind a mounted machine gun is a serious waste of his talent. I don’t think I've seen many men catch onto shooting a machine gun like that kid has. It’s actually insanely impressive.

“He hates the Turned almost as much as Fox does. I don’t think he has gotten over seeing Christy take a steel shard through her chest that day.  Greg blames the dead for chasing them, shit he blames them for having to use the bomb in the first place. I still don’t want him behind the wheel unless he’s the last man standing and both my legs are broken.”

Clary said, “Well yes, he is a freaking maniac behind the wheel. I don’t know what freaks him out so much when he is out driving.”

“Zombies Clary, zombies. There’s lots of them, like you know, everywhere. Each and every one of them pretty much wants one thing and that is to kill and eat us. So if he doesn’t have a gun in his hands, then well, he gets a little tense. I know a lot of soldiers that felt naked when they got home walking around as just civilians, pre day one of course,” Aslin replied

Clary nodded, then pointed to Aslin and said, “I’ve got something you should know Aslin, it’s pretty important.”

“Man it’s early. I’m still waiting for the coffee to finish brewing you are treading in dangerous waters my friend.”

“Well it’s pretty important...you see right there, you are getting egg shells in the muffin mix, those kids are gonna eat you alive if you mess up their breakfast. You’d better pick that shit out of there,” Clary said.

Aslin dropped the spatula and walked out of the kitchen. “You cook the damn breakfast. This is ridiculous, are you seriously telling me that no one else on this base can figure out how to cook for everyone?”

“We are teaching people, but the idea of everyone on the base having food poisoning all at once because kids are cooking the meals half assed doesn’t scream as a good idea to me. Now wipe your tears and get your ass to work.”

Aslin scooped up the eggshells with a spoon then threw it into the sink and cursed under his breath. “I still say that this is total crap.”

Clary was rubbing his fingers together while smiling, playing the world’s smallest violin and Aslin refused to ask what it was that he was doing. Clary said, “Oh come on, you gotta ask.”

Aslin started filling muffin tins, ignoring him. “I don’t have to do shit; don’t you have something better to do?”

Clary looked at the food cooking and with the exception of it needing a good stir once in a while, his work there was done. “Nope other than going out and having a smoke, I can’t think of anything else I need to do. Giving you a hard time kind of seems like my number one priority until you stop your bitching,” he said.

Aslin asked, “So you think we got it so great, tell me one thing that I should be pleased about?”

Clary said, “I don’t know, how about the fact that you are on the inside of the gates. The fact that you aren’t one of them. The fact that everything we want to teach them is something that you already know. Do you want me to continue?”

“Yeah that is something that doesn’t make it hard to sleep at night, it’s nice having a roof over my head. We aren’t in some shit each and every second of the day, right?” Aslin asked.

“Well what I meant was that it’s pretty amazing that we survived, you’ve seen how many people haven’t made it. Then on top of all of that we found a fortified base that we should be able to stay at for quite some time. It is almost like we hit the lotto.”

Aslin joked, not really taking it to heart and said, “Pretty soon we are going to be the minority if we don’t do something, if you know what I mean.”

Clary stopped smiling and nodded his head. “You know that isn’t really all that farfetched man. Think about how many people we’ve picked up the first six months. Every time that we would go out, there were less and less survivors to bring back with us. I know at some point that sadly is a good thing because we know the food isn’t going to last forever, but God forbid we need to do some work for what we eat, right? If it means continuing the human race, I'm ok with eating a bit less food for a bit.”

Aslin said, “It is a shame that it happened in the first place, but you do know the last time I checked, we were SEALs not farmers, right? I mean, where the hell do we go and get more food at this point? I can only imagine that every place we could go to and steal rations would be empty by now.”

“And why is that?” asked Clary.

“Because, people get hungry Clary.”

“Yes, yes they do, but that is only for the living. Most of the people roaming the streets don’t care about the Wheaties and frozen pizzas left. We take a run through town, hit all the different stores that don’t look ransacked, and we are going to be set up for that much longer.”

Aslin said, “As always, it’s just that easy right? I say we have plenty, and for now we stay. Now if we want to go out on a mission to gather more people like you said, which is kind of what I think that you are secretly wanting to do anyways, then let's just call it that. It wouldn’t be bad to map off places that are hot zones and see where these things are sitting tight at. I don’t know if they get hungry but I gotta think that they are starting to run out of food in the very near future.”

“Fine, I’d like to get out and stretch my legs. These kids have been hard at it for months and I can’t think there’d be a better job to test what they’ve learned than to let them pull the trigger a few times against the Turned,” Clary replied.

“And what if we really do run into some of them? We lost so many originally I don’t know that I want to take that chance with them. Why don’t you and I do an initial run? I’m sure that the kids could tell us every grocery store there is and then from there we can simply figure out which ones would be the least risk to go and try to clear out.”

Clary said, “They are the closest thing to soldiers we got and nine months can seriously make someone adapt to their surroundings and their new life ahead of them. Hell, think how long boot camp lasts in the Army. These kids are months beyond that. There isn’t anything that makes a soldier want to do his job better than fear and hate. Well looking at what they got themselves up against when the shit hits the fan, I'd happily have to say that they have both of those things going for them and they have it in a big way.”

Aslin nodded, slowly thinking about it and after they set the muffins in the oven they started to head towards the other kids to wake them up to get ready for morning workouts, as well as the breakfast they had prepared. When they entered it was deadly quiet except for the light sound of snoring echoing through the massively big building. They had fortified a building even beyond Army standards and made sure that the place where the teens slept couldn’t be locked down tighter from the dead.

They had made their home co-ed with the strictest of commands that it was not a love nest but a place where they could rest and not have to keep an eye open for the Turned. There had been no attacks on the facility since they had made their way through it originally clearing out the Turned soldiers. They had ramped up the training regimen quite heavily once month six passed and they were informed that there would be no cure. The only way to put these monsters down would be to send a round through their head or to blow them up. Which was not always a guarantee to be successful.

The kids had all looked like a piece had died inside of them when news that there would be nothing they could do to save these people was announced. Clary and Aslin being loners weren’t quite as affected. Most of the children, with the exception of Shaun and his friends who’d already lost everything in their life on the first day of the outbreak, were thinking they had brothers, sisters, parents that would roam the earth for however long these monsters lived while wanting to kill anything that was available to them, including the loved ones whom they no longer recognized.

Clary walked down the middle of the two long rows of bunk beds feeling almost guilty about waking them. Many of the kids stirred in their sleep and knew that they were plagued with the dreams of loss and death and there was little that could be done to make them feel better about it.

When Clary got to the end of the row he saw that two of the beds were empty and had not been slept in. He ran his flashlight over and saw that it was Shaun and Greg’s bunks. Clary looked back to Aslin who whispered, “Where the hell are those two at?”

Clary scanned the bunks, thinking that almost no good could come out of Greg being on his own on the base at night. He knew that regardless of how much training he had, Greg was still just a teenager and prayed that he hadn’t taken any joy rides with any Army vehicles. When he saw Shaun’s bed empty, Aslin asked, “What is going on, are they seriously both missing?”

A light voice came from the dark, it was Joey, the boy they’d picked up on day two of the outbreak. He was one of the only two alive from the group; the rest had all been taken by the Turned on day three. Joey said, “Greg and Shaun are on guard duty sir. They’ve been gone all night long.”

Aslin knew that there were only a handful of kids that were trusted with the duty to guard at night. The partner to those kids was usually anyone that needed to learn by example and anyone else that was being a pain in the ass was usually the first to get assigned to it. He could see Greg was on it but asked, “Why is Shaun out there Joey, did he get in some sort of trouble that we didn’t know about? I didn't think that he was on the roster tonight to make rounds.”

Joey said, “No, he volunteered, he always does.”

Clary knew Shaun better than any of the kids. He knew that regardless of the number of times he’d been told not to blame himself for what happened and how there was absolutely no way that he could have predicted that his dad was going to start the world on fire, he still couldn’t let it go. Clary wasn’t sure if he ever would be able to get over it, which wasn’t something that he could blame the young man for. Clary had heard the story a hundred times from Ellie and Greg simply saying that all he was trying to do was go to class, and when he saw that someone, which of course was Ellie, needed help, he stepped up and did so much like he has done with anyone needing help since they arrived here.

“You think that you could walk down and relieve them of duty and see if they want to eat breakfast?” Clary asked.

Joey was quiet for a moment and Clary shone the light over to him and saw the young boy was smiling enthusiastically but was nodding his head in the dark making it somewhat difficult to see him. Aslin said, “Alright buddy we got plenty of food down there, don’t wait too long though or you are going to miss out on the hot grub.”

Joey looked enthusiastic for a moment and then raised his hand. “Uh, can I ask a question Mr. Clary?”

Clary nodded, knowing he could tell the kid a million times to just call him Clary and it wouldn’t do any good. “Sure bud, we need to get back and make sure everything isn’t burning after we get everyone up and moving.”

“Did Mr. Aslin make the muffins? I mean did he put them together?” Joey asked.

Aslin stepped up and said, “Yeah, and so what if I did?”

Joey looked to Aslin and then put up a hand up trying to keep Aslin from seeing his mouth. He said, “He uh gets eggshells in the muffins. When my mom made muffins they never were crunchy and Mr. Aslin’s always crunch when I eat them. I think I might stick to Mr. Clary’s eggs and toast, they always taste good.”