The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers (19 page)

Eric laughed before he could foresee the ramifications of doing so. Patrick stared at the small rifles and pistols they had for their gear and held up the assault rifles that Andy had bestowed upon them. He said, “Hey, just because we are kids doesn’t mean that we aren’t able to make it. God knows kids younger than us fight all over the world. Haven't you like watched the news before? They have kids my age and as young as some of those kids in the back of the bus walking around with full on machine guns and grenade belts. Just because we are American teenagers doesn’t mean we are any less capable...Got it!”

Eric held up his hands in as non-threatening of manner as possible doing his best calming motion as Patrick was squeezing the two rifles harder than he needed to. Eric said, “Hey it’s cool, don’t forget who stopped the bus for you kid. I’m more than confident that you guys can learn how to shoot those things, hell I could probably show you a thing or two. But don’t forget we were the ones who stopped the bus for you, we could have been real assholes and just kept on driving when we saw that hoard was following us but Phillip and I are stand up dudes and wanted to help you out.”

Patrick sat back taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down and said, “Yeah, well don’t forget that we aren’t useless. And don’t go throwing out the stopping to pick us up card yet. You seem to forget that we were doing just damn fine by ourselves before you went and brought a boatload of zombies knocking down our front door. That old man was one of the coolest adults i’ve ever met and he treated us great for the short time we got to be around him so again just back off a bit wil ya. It’s going to take me more than twenty minutes to be getting over this shit.”

Kya leaned over squeezing his arm and said, “Patrick, that was like totally hot, thanks for sticking up for us you rock.”

Patricks face went red as he tried to think of anytime a woman other than his mother or grandma had paid him any type of compliment. He tried to play it cool but did not possess the skills yet to do so. “Uh- yeah you know I just don’t want to be treated like a kid. After all we did yesterday I bet we’ve done more than anyone to try and help the human population and their survival continue.”

Ellie said, “Yeah and nobody is ever going to know we did anything I bet, not that I care, but what worries me a little bit more is the idea of us making it to that shelter and they just take away all our guns. What do we do then? We can try and leave but what do we do if we can’t leave. What do we do if we aren’t able to, and they take out weapons, and there is a outbreak. that would just be a line of crap that scares the hell out of me.”

Eric leaned over, “You aren’t much of a glass half full kind of girl are ya?”

Ellie thought about her story and thought of Kya telling her story and decided that this conversation wasn’t going to be any better by giving up the details of how her heart has been slowly breaking a little bit more each day. The constant struggles and heartache were continuous regardless of the small hurdles they'd been able to jump they just constantly seemed to fall three back. She said, “I tell you what Eric once, I get the chance to see Shaun and the others again and we find out that the place Phillip up there is driving for then I will be more than happy to jump for joy.”

Eric could tell she was hurting and wasn’t about to poke and prod further. He figured these kids were just time bombs waiting to go off emotionally. It didn’t take a genius to see that they’d been through some serious shit the last few days and was more than happy to not know the specific details that were sitting behind it. Better to be stupid and happy then educated and depressed. “We will do our best when we get there to stand by your kids sides and let them know that you know what you are doing with those things and that you are a more valuable asset to have those than just huddling in the corners waiting for someone else to save you and keep you safe. Hell you never know they might even fall for it. Unfortunately we are so far in-between where we were and where we are going that there’d be no point in hopping off the bus now. You’d just be out in the middle of nowhere without anyway of knowing how to get back.”

Joey looked over seeming to come out of his daze. The tears on his round cheeks had dried leaving two clean spots on each of them. “Pat you said that we were going to see Jordan. When are we going to see Jordan?”

The girls looked at him knowing that he’d been making promises that he wasn't able to guarantee anyone. Ellie whispered, “{Patrick, did you tell him that you would be able to do that? You know damn well you shouldn't be making promises like that. What if we don’t run into them, what if he doesn't come back? Then what really what then what are you going to tell him?”

Patrick was feeling cornered and snapped, “it isn’t like I wanted to lie to him. But when there was a ton of those things coming for us it was literally the only thing that I was able to think of. They weren’t going to wait around for me to tell him the truth. I didn't know the truth and neither do the two of you. We can tell ourselves that we will see Greg, and Shaun again and Tina but in the end it’s going to be a miracle. We all know that, and there isn’t anything that we can do about it. Am I sorry that i told him that we would see Jordan again when I didn’t know if we would? Hell no I am not because if he would have stayed freaking out in front of the house then both of us would have gotten eaten trying to move him and save him. But no that didn’t happen did it? He’s alive, you two are alive, and I am alive. And that is what matters. If it was you in my shoes you would have done the exact same thing.

Joey moved over into the seat beside Patrick gripping his shoulder tightly. “Why did you lie to me?

Patrick flinched as his grip tightened, “Joey you’re hurting me man.”

Joey nodded, “Are we going after my brother or not?”

Patrick dropped his head worried about telling himthe truth but decided just because he had special needs that he didn’t deserve to be lied to. He realized it was what the three of them were worried about as far as getting to the shelter and the government automatically taking their guns and treating them like kids. “The truth is Joey that I don’t know that answer. We want to meet up with them, and Ellie left a note for them to come meet us after they get back.”

Joey let go of his grip and looked away. Patrick could tell the friendship that they had begun to create had just been seriously damaged. “Friends don’t lie Patrick.”

“Joey the only reason that I told you that was because at the time you were freaking out. If you would have stayed there you would have unfortunately ended up like Jenn. I couldn’t stand the thought of having to tell your brother Jordan that we got taken by the Turned and lost both of his siblings. Can you imagine what that would do to him?”

Joey nodded, “Yeah I guess just don’t lie. You don’t know how many people think i’m dumb. Some of them think that I can’t even talk.”

Eric heard this and couldn’t have felt guiltier about his early conversation with Philip. Ellie said, “Hey do you think you could drop us off at the armory? Could you maybe take a detour?”

Philip looked at Eric and at the gas gauge and shook his head. He said, “Sorry Ellie but we don’t have enough gas to be driving forty miles out of our way, the gas mileage on this thing has to suck and it wasn’t new even ten years ago. If we drive out there and your friends are gone we might not have enough to get back to Des Moines. If that happens we aren’t much better off than we were in Adel except there’s going to be like so many more people.”

Ellie nodded knowing that he was making sense and liked the idea of having some gas in the bus to leave if they needed to. She knew that they were bound for some god luck, but that it didn’t mean they would ever actually be rewarded with it. They sat back watching the countryside roll by each of them filled with their own worries about what might happen as they made it where they were praying they would make it to.

Chapter number

              Clary drove slowly down the empty street. Greg kept checking his side mirror making sure there was nothing coming from behind him. “Do you think we are going to see more of those soldiers?”

Clary shrugged a shoulder committing to nothing. “If we do, I hope that they aren’t wearing their combat helmets. If we get lucky maybe we will find a group of survivors to bring back with us. Or if the set up here is good then maybe we will want to move our set up here? It is only a matter of time until the government tries to set up some sort of refuge shelter.”

“You say that like it is a bad thing.”

“No I think it is a great idea, if those seeking help aren’t already infected themselves. Once they Turn you know as good as I do that they will be diffciult to stop. throw on top of that hundreds or thousands of people all in a confined space and I don’t think that i need to tell you how that could end up, do I?”

Greg thought of the scene at the school and how wide opened it was and in his mind added fenes and gates and soldiers with guns and it was pandemonium. “It would be bad wouldn’t it. So if they do make them you aren’t going are you?”

Clary said, “No probbly not, if you kids want to go there, I can’t say that I’d blame you. You are all to young to havce to deal with this shit already, but it is what it is and I think you have just as good a chance with us as you do anyone. If it is going to to be months before tey are able to get anything igured out with what we sent them yesterday then it could be a long time coming. If they don’t figure anything out and they waste all this time and tell peple to hide instead of fight then we are just giving stupid amounts of time to one thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it, people can’t stay in their houses for months on end, especially if power goes out, or water goes off. There is no way that they had the means possible to be able to stay inside for that long either. Other than Andy or a prepper the normal person probably has two or three days of a supply to live off of. You look at your single guy living in a apartment and they probably started this ordeal with no food. They are going to be out looking to eat, and so are the Turned. There are some that will be able to get outside and not get taken by them but I think for the most part the longer we wait to start taking these things out the more time they are going to have to Turn as many of us into them.”

Greg wanted to say something but he knew that he was right. He thought about himself on day one and if he’d have pulled an all nighter out partying and woke up after it took place and went outside that he would have been a goner. If not that it would have been one of the luckiest days of his life not to run into one of those things. “So we wait.”

“Yep, that’s about all we need to do besides get the rest of them up to speed on things as far as being able to shoot and blow shit up.”

Greg thought about Kristy and didn’t want to but knew he’d keep thinking about it until he couldn’t stand to stare at Clary. He said, “So what happened yesterday? How did that go so wrong?”

“Go wrong? Are you kidding me kid. We all lived except Kristy. We had limited time, we had hundreds of those fuckers that we needed to get moving and we lived. The fact that you and I even made it out of the shop the first time was a miracle going hand to hand against those things. I don’t think you understand war buddy. Because this is war and I hate to tell you but she was a loss. If you don’t think i’ll have nightmares about the look on her face until the day I die that you aren’t giving me quite enough credit.”

“I’m not trying to blame you man, I just don’t understand what happened.”

“The door was old, the bomb was new and I didn’t expect it to splinter into pieces like that. If I thought that was happening I wouldn’t have sent a couple of teenagers into the building, I would have done it myself.”

Greg went to say something but he didn’t have a chance. There was a loud thud on the roof of the truck, followed by three more. Greg jumped in his seat, his first instinct was to look out the down window to see what it was. He got his head about half out before Clary’s giant hand gripped the back of his shirt and yanked him back inside the truck. A hand covered in blood swiped missing Greg by inches. Clary swerved the truck but nothing came off the side of it. A face came into review and Greg brought up his rifle but Clary already had his pistol in his hand and was aiming dead center at it’s face. He squeezed the trigger twice the first shot was all that the 45 caliber bullet needed to take him out. His head snapped backwards it’s skull split in half and the uniformed turned fell off of the side of the truck it’s body becoming entangled beneaths it’s tires ripping it into pieces guts and blood flying everywhere behind it.

Greg watched it happening in the rearview mirror making his stomach turn at the gruesomeness of it. As he was about to ask Clary if he thought that there were more on the roof when the answer become very clear. The roof started to pound again, the dents in the roof were each the size of the fist being pounded into it. Greg laid down in the seat aiming the rifle to the roof ready to squeeze the trigger. Clary yelled, “Greg don’t pull that trigger!”

Greg yelled, “Well why the hell not. They are going to bust through this thing in not time.”

“They aren’t going to get through this roof. It’s military steel and it’s tought. But if you go trying to shoot into the roof that bullet is going to come right back down toards you and kill one of us.”

“Well thats stupid what were they thinking?”

“They were probably under the mindset that they didn’t want to let the bullets from enemy soldiers come through the truck and kill anyone on the inside.”