The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (25 page)

Shaun nodded and Joey didn’t need to be told, he ran out of the room and straight to the kitchen, screaming to anyone that would listen that Shaun was awake and that he was hungry. He got someone to get a small pot of food ready for the three of them to eat together in the sick bay and did his best to get it back without spilling any of it. When he was leaving, Kya was waiting outside and asked, “Joey, is it true that Shaun is awake? How is he doing?”

Joey nodded. “He just woke up about a half hour ago. He seems ok, but he’s really tired. Mr. Lou sent me to get some food for him. I think he needs to eat and get his energy back.”

“Well we will go get Patrick and Greg and be over after a while to see him; that is great that he is awake though. Is Ellie still asleep or did she come out of it too?”

Joey said, “She’s still asleep, you guys need to come see them, they aren’t dead you know. They are just asleep and would probably like some company. People don’t like to be treated different you know.”

She knew that he was talking more about himself now than them but she nodded nonetheless and said, “You know what Joey, you are probably right, we need to spend more time in the sick bay with them. It would do us good to let them hear voices of friends instead of putting it all on you and Lou. I’m going to go get the others now and we will be there in just a little bit, ok?”

Joey went to hug her, forgetting about the giant pot of soup and had to stop himself from pouring the scalding meal down the front of both of them. He nodded though and headed for the sick bay. When he got back, Lou had gotten Shaun up to a sitting position and Joey started to take out the crackers and spoons and bowls from the bag he had carried everything in. Shaun took a whiff of it and said, “Oh my God, I didn’t know soup could smell so good. Thanks Joey, I really appreciate it man.”

Joey balanced a bowl on a tray; the steam was dancing into the air until it disappeared. Shaun tried to reach for it and Lou reminded him, “Hey Shaun, unless you want to be wearing that soup, I would suggest that you let people help you, at least for today. If you can rest and eat today I bet within the week you are going to be as good as gold. We need to make sure that you don’t have any muscle fatigue; it doesn’t take long for that to kick in. I’m hoping that all of your muscle reactions are the same as well. If you can just do what you are told for the week, I'll have you back in killing condition.”

Shaun, who hadn’t shown anything but weakness as he was still coming out of the fog, nodded his head as he looked Lou seriously in the eyes. He said, “Yes, you need to get me back up and running because there are too many of those things out there and it is about time that we start putting the numbers back in our direction.”

“Man, are all of you kids so intense around here?” asked Lou.

Shaun replied, “Well sir, we have a lot of reasons to hate these things. We each have a story and we keep it to ourselves. Bringing up the past doesn’t help anything. People always used to say in school that we will let history repeat itself if we don’t pay attention to the past, but with the way things are currently, I don’t see anything whatsoever happening like that.

Joey knew about the missions out that were being planned but figured that he would let someone in charge mention it to him. Shaun took the spoon, watching it shake in his hand as he brought it up to his mouth. When the warm soup went down his throat he smiled, thinking he’d never eaten anything so good and that if it was going to, in some way, help him get his energy back, that he was going to eat as much as body would allow him. He asked, “Has Ellie been awake at all Lou?”

Lou shook his head no, he said, “She must have really smacked her head hard on something. Do either of you know what it was?”

Shaun said, “She was pushing me out of the way at the time. I want to say it was a shelving unit or the floor, but either way I know that she was out for the count the second it hit her. How much longer do you think that it is going to take for her to start to come around?”

“It could be days, it could be weeks, it is hard to say kid. But the important thing is that you are up and awake. The best thing you can do for her is let me take care of her and you focus on caring for yourself. You aren’t going to be able to help her with her recovery if you aren’t even able to get out of bed now are you?”

Shaun shook his head no, thinking this guy was not going to be hard to get to like. “So how many of you were there that made it back here?”

Lou said, “Well once your little group found us, I think we were sitting at around twenty-five or thirty people. I am not sure, we were together for so long it was the last thing that we needed to worry about. It wasn’t like we were taking head counts, there was just so much room and so many people and everyone did their best to work together and try and get along. It was out of our hands with the circumstances, so we just came up with jobs and I think that because of that it is going to make for a pretty easy transition here. It was really a godsend that Greg and Joey picked the apartments, of all places, to try and hide out while they were trying to wait for you.”

Shaun smiled uneasily thinking of Greg. “Yeah we should have never been out there in the first place, but that’s too little too late at this point. When I thought we were going to get taken over, I went outside of the grocery store and lured them to follow me. Well that is after I ran into one and had my life flash before my eyes. That damn thing tried ripping my head off but I got away…..just barely.”

Lou said, “What happened when you left? They said that you were seconds away from one of those things ripping your head off.”

“Honestly I don’t remember all of the details but I'd ran out on the ice. I can remember that and then I remember the ice cracking more than I had expected for it to and I fell beneath. I had to use my guns to kill one of the Turned before I finished out the magazine trying to break my way out from beneath in the cold frigid water. I was pretty sure that I was screwed, but I eventually got out. Unfortunately one of those things must have survived too but other than getting out I can’t say that I really remember too much about what had happened. I just know that whatever it was, I absolutely do not want it to ever happen again.”

“Yeah I can think of a lot of things which have happened which I have no interest in ever having happen again. I think that going forward things are going to be a lot better for us though or at least a lot safer,” said Lou.

Shaun wasn’t fully thinking yet and said, “That’s how it always plays out until one of those damn things comes from nowhere and rips your best friend to pieces in front of you. It really messes with your head man.”

Lou nodded slowly, thinking about his daughters and the fact that they still knew nothing that would help them and that all the training in the world still might not be enough if they got attacked and taken over. “Well are you going to be one of the ones training all the new people? They had discussed giving us training so that we are able to help with anything if needed.”

Shaun said, “I’ve been passed out Lou, I couldn’t tell you what they are thinking. I’m honestly surprised that no one has said anything about Greg. I would have thought that someone would have taken a few minutes to kill the son of a bitch after everything that happened with Ellie and me.”

*****

There was a knock at the door and Greg was standing there holding his watch cap in his hands. “Is it alright if I come in please I’d like to see Shaun and Ellie,” he asked.

Shaun nodded, motioning him in and Greg smiled glad to see his best friend awake and not looking like he was going to die again. He said, “Come on in Greg.”

Greg did and when he passed Lou he asked, “Would you and Joey mind taking some food for yourselves and eating in the infirmary break room. I have a feeling there’s a conversation that I need to have with Fox here that no one else needs to be around to hear if that is alright with you?”

Lou quickly got two bowls worth ladled up and pointed to the rest of the items for Joey to grab. They could hear Joey asking why he didn’t get to carry the soup on the way out and a reply from Lou about how he still wanted there to be some soup when they made it to their destination.

Greg walked up slowly and feeling like he was on death row. He knew that the hardest conversation he was going to have was going to be with Shaun and Ellie because he felt the guiltiest about what had happened to them. The feelings he had about Phillip and Shelman were beyond reproach as well as those he had for Maryann. He pointed to a chair and Shaun nodded. He said, “Look Shaun, I never meant for any of this to happen. The trip out was a stupid idea. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt and I'm sorry that you almost died. When Aslin told me about how close you were to being taken out, it felt like someone ripped my heart out of my fucking chest. I figured that you got away and that you would be back any minute. Once we got Ellie somewhere safe we never left the window, we were too busy looking out for you and seeing where you went to.”

Shaun said, “Thank you for getting Ellie to where you could protect her. It was the one thing that I was worried about. You know my own safety is always second when I have to worry about someone else getting hurt by one of those damn things.”

Greg said, “Yeah I know and I hope over time we are able to help you with that problem or at least get you to the point that you worry just the slightest bit that there is an issue with you doing something like that.”

Shaun said, “Well at least no one got hurt because of it. If anything would have happened to any of us I'm not sure that I would have been able to live with myself,” Shaun said.

Greg didn’t want to say it but he knew that he had to. “Well I can’t say that no one got hurt. We did have casualties and they were not pretty ones. When Aslin packed up to come and get us, first time around they got into a car crash out in Ankeny thinking that that was where we might have ended up. Hammond didn’t have his gun on safety and painted the windshield with Shelman’s brains. When Clary was on his way with the bus, he had Phillip and Andy following us. Well when Phillip lost control of his bus it rocked back and forth and flipped over. I don’t think I need to give you any details other than Shelman, and Philip, and Andy never made it to the apartments where we were picked up at.”

Shaun thought of them, though they were not best friends, but they had been around enough that they were definitely friends and he did care whether they lived or died. “Is that it, did we lose anyone else because of this?” asked Shaun

“When we were outside of the apartment complex there were a shit ton of the Turned and they came out through the second floor windows and it was close to being a slaughter. I thought we were all screwed honestly.”

“What caused it? Did they leave?”

Greg actually laughed thinking about it. “No but Clary raced across the street in one of the Army buses and fucking crashed into them. He took a ton of them out.”

“But not all of them Greg?”

“No, there were still a few that made it through. One of them jumped onto the pickup and Maryann was in back. Well let’s just say that it really messed up Patrick. He had to put her out of her misery before she Turned and he finished the thing off with Joey's baseball bat. There is something brutal about it when Joey hits them with it, trust me, I've seen it in the store when we were there he saved my ass. But when it was Patrick, he hit them with every bit of hate his skinny ass had and he cracked the damn thing’s head open. He didn’t stop kicking it until he was exhausted and its brains lay alongside Maryann’s in the truck bed. It was gruesome. I’d say that you are lucky that you were out for the count and didn’t have to see it.”

“Yes but if I would have been there then maybe I could have taken it out. Why was she in the truck in the first place?”

“They were protecting you and Ellie. They had you both in the back of the truck and you were dead to the world after Aslin got you out of the lake area.”

Shaun looked down at his soup while stirring it around with a spoon slowly. “So what you are saying is, she had to risk her life because of me? There was another girl that didn’t have to die because of my mistakes, something I shouldn’t have ever been an issue to take care of.”

Greg said, “You can blame yourself all you want Shaun, but it’s ignorant to do that. You aren’t responsible, you didn’t start this, if anything it’s your dad’s fault or Tina’s brother Lucas’ fault or his friends fault, or the asshole principal’s fault for not being in the hallway to watch over kids. It is a butterfly effect like no other. You need to stop blaming yourself. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you to watch out for yourself not just others but Christ, until you get it through your thick head I'm going to keep repeating it to you. I want you to understand this. I know you have every reason to be pissed at me, but if we are going to start this new brigade team you are going to have to be able to be trusted and to not get yourself killed.”

Shaun said, “Then I need Ellie to stay here, if and when she comes out of it.”

“Shaun if that’s the case then think about this, if you make her stay here, which you know that she’d tell you to go to hell, that you’d find someone else that needs your help, what if it is me, or Joey, or Patrick, or a hundred other people? There’s never going to be an end to who you need to take care of. That isn’t going to work if that is what we do.”

Shaun nodded slowly as he looked at Ellie. He realized he needed to look at her as a fellow survivor instead of as a responsibility. Shaun thought about if he loved her and knew that it wasn’t so much a question as a guaranteed feeling he had for her and her only, there was no one else that he loved like this woman or ever had. “I can’t make any promises Greg, but I don’t want to die, if I do then there’s not going to be anyone around to take care of your dumb ass.”