The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers (18 page)

Kya thinking of what Jenn had said to her spoke up, “Do you mean us, or do you mean you? Jenn said, that the two of you seemed pretty close, like if there was a couple here already it was probably the two of you.”

Ellie said, “It’s complicated but I don’t want to leave without him knowing what is going on. I can’t put him through that. He’s lost just as much as anyone, he couldn’t feel more guilty over what happened between his dad and my mom. He thinks that if he would have just left me to be picked on at school that there would never have had any of this happen. I’ve tried my best to explain to him that things happen for a reason, and while i didn’t have a good reason why there would be a zombie apocalypse that there was still a reason. We might not know it for a long time to come but maybe one day we’d understand. We need to get off this bus.”

Patrick said, “We need to stay on this buy. If they leave us out here in the middle of nowhere and those things come up this way after us we would be screwed. I got a couple rifles but it still isn’t enough. We need numbers and speed and we don’t have either yet.”

Ellie shook her head, “Well these guys are heading to Des Moine to some safe place.”

Patrick nodded his head, “Yeah they mentioned that on the news but who knows if it is going to be safe. Frank said to stay away from Des Moines. But now all of a sudden we are just going to head straight there with complete strangers and from what I can see in the bus absolutely no supplies?”

Eric said, “You do realize that we are in the bus right? We can hear you speaking?”

Ellie nodded, “Oh we aren’t stupid, we totally know you are here. I just don’t care. We have people we care about believe it or not. They are out getting things that we were going to need if we wanted to survive out here. But now when they come back they are going to drive up to a very scary looking scene. You see the place that he left that was peaceful and safe; well that place is overrun with the Turned. The house now has been overrun and probably gotten totally trashed. And as little as I want to say it there is a really, really good chance that old man who was firing ot the window and not worrying about his own well being is probably one of those bastards meals by now. I don’t know what I would do if we ran into one of them and it was Andy.”

“So are you four going with us or are you staying here? I know apologies are like assholes but it is about all I can offer,” Eric said.

Patrick looked at Ellie as they saw the house growing smaller in the distance. “Ellie you realize if we go that there is nothing leaving Shaun to know that we made it. Nothing to know that those thing didn’t eat us or that we wouldn’t be walking towards them ready to kill.”

Ellie knew what would happen if they were left on their own and those things caught their scent. They would tire out before those thing ever stopped running and that would be the end of them. She thought of the dream she’d had running for her life and having the group chasing after her. The worst thing she could imagine would be having the tables turned on her and running after the boy that she couldn’t see herself living a day without. The idea of her going after him and ripping into his flesh would be more than she could handle even though she knew there would be no way of her knowing who he was.

Eric cleared his throat trying to get a answer out of her she stared a set of daggers at him that only a young woman was capable of. She looked at Patricks bag and tore into it ripping out a white shirt. She went to the front of the bus seeing a black sharpie and started carefully writing a message on the back of the shirt. Phillip said, “Do you need help?”

“Wit writing? No I think i’m good, pull up over by that fence though.”

“Why what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to attach this message to it and I am going to pray that Shaun sees it as he is coming back from the armory.”

“And this Shaun kid is going to come and try to find you in Des Moines, just like that? You don’t think he’ll cut his losses?”

Ellie smiled a knowing grin at Phillip He’s a Fox it isn’t in their dna to quit, to give up, to move on. They wat something they go after it full force. It doesn’t even matter if it means the end of the world will come from it. They go after it. If he sees the message you can pretty much guarantee that you are going to be meeting him.”

“Done deal then?”

Kya leaned up, in between them. “Well that is if you and the other guy don’t get yourselves eaten first. I got a feeling if you keep bringing zombies place that you aren’t going to be real popular in the world as it is now.”

Phillip said, Yo do realize that it was an accident right? I’m not sure how many times we can say this to you.

Kya said, “Well I’d say two or three probably isn’t enough, but yeah we know you weren’t purposely trying to ruin our ives right? You weren’t trying to do that on purpose right?”

Phillip just shook his head and looked to Elie pointing to a barbed wire fence that was running the side of a main road before the properties long drive started. “Is this good to post your note to that kid? You think he is going to see it here?”

Ellie shrugged and nodded yes, “Yeah it’s going to have t do. I just really hope that he sees it. It really sucks we can’t just wait for them, but who knows how long they are going to be there I don’t want to get that close to that many Turned again anytime soon if we can avoid it at all costs.”

Patrick said, “It just seems like we keep finding ways to run into them. I still think going to the shelter or camp whatever they call it is a bad idea. We don’t know enough.”

Eric said, “Well unfortunately we don’t really have anyway to to find out anything else. The news is shotty at best. I saw this morning on tv where the camps were going to be made depending on your state but you have to keep one thing in mind that we don’t know if they know if those camps are still running if they got established or if-”

Eric cut him off, “Or what kid?”

Kya finished his sentence thinking it out in her head ahead of them. “The Turned overtook the camp.

Patrick said “Can you imagine the pull that it would have on the Turned if they smelled that much fresh meat, that many people screaming to get in, to fight their way inside. It’d be a slaughter there’d be nothing stopping them. If the soldiers protecting them didn’t know about headshots they might as well be throwing rocks at them.”

Eric said, “Yeah those things look like they might be able to heal themselves.”

Ellie said, “What are you talking about? Why would you think they can heal. That is like probably one of the worst things that i’ve ever heard before.”

              Eric said, “Hey i’m just guessing, I don’t have any like hard proof or anything but from what we saw just a little bit ago they had burnt clothes like someone torched they.”

              Ellie cut in, “That was us actually. You know Dee’s Diner in town, well we kind of blew it up when we were trying to get Andy free from his shop. There were to many Turned in front of it though to be able to do anything about it. So we lurred them into the diner and one of the guys from the seals unit is pretty good at blowing things up. Well he set the gas lines in there to blow with a grenade he took out a ton of them with the explosion.

              “So he just set a bomb, that is pretty bad ass.”

              Patrick said, “It was until the door that he rigged it to became a hundred pieces of shrapnel and impaled itself into one of our groups chest killing her. It hit her so fast she didn’t even know it had happened. Then that was when the Turned came after her and - and that was the end of it. There was no saving her she was gone.”

              Eric nodded, “Ok well yeah - that sucks. But those that didn’t get blown into pieces by it were left wandering the streets until we drove by. One of them on top of the bus was screaming this horribly cry. It was like they were calling them like they knew what they were saying. They poured into the streets from everywhere tracking and hunting us. But the weird thing was is that they had the charred clothing but their skin looked new, dirty, and burned but new. If it hadn’t been for the clothing and the missing patches of hair we wouldn’t have known that they’d been burnt at all.”

Ellie said, “You’ve got to be kidding me right? Jesus they can heal? How is that even possible?”

Patrick said, “You heard Shaun right? His dad was trying to create a cure, not a monster. The healing might just be a side effect of it?”

Ellie laughed, “Because they need one more thing going for them god.”

Phillip pulled up to the fence hitting the door to the bus. Ellie got off swearing up a storm as she walked to the fence. The idea that the things would heal if they weren’t killed was infuriating her beyond the point of control. She attached the shirt to the barbed wire, hoping that the winds that Iowa was famous for would continue throughout the day and that he would be back before dark and see the shirt flapping in the wind. She kissed the shirt hoping that he would be holding it in his own hands very soon. She knew that she had to have hope regardless of what stood in front of her. She looked back to the bus seeing the two grown men. She was unsure if they would have the know how, the smarts, or worse case the luck to keep the small group alive.

She jogged back to the bus seeing some of the turned coming up over the hill and following the sounds of the rumbling engine. It was this or sure death neither one was she interested in. The bus drove off the hoard slowing down as they pulled away out of its sight and the sound of its engine fading away leaving them to head back towards the house.

*****

              Andy sat on his bed, the brass from his rifle was quickly splintering the door. The Turned on the opposite side were relentless and banged on it with a fire inside of them that would never be put out unless lead or something else was embedded in their head. He wasted no bullets, with each one that stuck their head inside the growing hole was one more target to be had. They piled up in the hallway the dresser in front of the door was bouncing back and forth the force hitting from the opposite side was only being challenged by the craftsmanship that was poured into the projects of the olden days when Andy was a much younger man. But no amount of nails and wood woud be able to keep him safe. The door eventually buckled its hinges breaking from their place and they poured into the room. Andy smiled, he’d lived a fulfilling life and done right by those that he knew, loved, and by his country as a soldier. He would be damned if he would go out scared. He thought of the kids for a moment praying that they would be ok, that they would make it and be able to continue to survive.

              Andy reached to the side of the bed pulling out a fuse and giving one last puff on his smoke making the embers glow bright. He placed it up next to the glowing tip watching it impatiently counting the seconds he had until it lit. The sparks that shot off of it looked like a sparkler on the fourth. He dropped the fuse and blew out one last stream of smoke as the Turned leapt for him ready to do their worst, the only thing that they knew.

              Andy grunted as their mouths tore into him. He fought back the tears as the pain flooded the many bites that were being taken out of his old body. He knew that it was going to happen that it would be instant. The lights in his eyes went out slowly the blood loss was too much to keep consciousness. The fuse swirled around the floor winding its way under the bed until it reached the long line of cannisters that had been stacked beneath it all connected. The room went up in a giant fiery ball of energy. The open windows gave all of the air that the fire needed to grow in its intensity. The Turned would not be healing from this. The explosion and the heat were too much to be able to heal from. They would hurt no one else, Andy would be their last victim. By the time the house was done burning anything on the top floor would not be getting away. The black smoke filled the sky the old wood burned happily.

Ellie stared as they drove and with each minute getting further and further away. When she saw the black smoke she said a prayer for Andy but knew that there’d be no chance of seeing the old man again. The final gift he must have bestowed upon them was taking as many of the Turned as he could. She knew that there was no way to have that much smoke and not be burning something of intense size. Ellie started to lose it but sucked in long deep breaths trying to keep it together. She hit Patrick in the arm to get his attention pointing back in the direction of the home. They just keep taking. They just cause pain.”

“So far, yes that’s all that i’ve seen. I can’t see anything good coming from them ever other than their deaths. I don’t care if there is a cure at this point. If one of them comes between me and my friends i’m putting them down. The minute I learn how to use these guns the way I need to I will kill ever damn one of them if I need to. They are evil, and I hate them more than anything.”

Ellie looked at the complicated rifle as well thinking exactly along the same lines as Patrick. “It kind of seems like if we want to not worry about survival everyday that it might not be an horrible idea to be able to. I told Shaun and them yesterday that I wanted to learn everything I could. We are going to to get through this. Who knows what's going to become of us eventually but damn it at least we will be around to see.”

Kya said, “I’ve never shot anything before. Do you think that they’d teach me how to use one of them?”

Ellie nodded her head, “I think if it means there is one more person that tey can rely and trust to keep them safe that yes, yes there is a good damn chance they are going to be able to teach you as well - if they are able to find us. If they can't find us then I bet they just treat us like kids.”