The Last Orphans (18 page)

A knock on the door
woke Shane with a start. The sun had set, and thick darkness engulfed the room.

“Yeah,” Shane yelled
, hating he had to get out of the comfortable hotel bed. He felt like he’d just fallen asleep and, with Kelly pressed against him, he wanted to stay where he was forever.

The door o
pened, and a flashlight shined in.

“You two
lovebirds ready to roll?” Steve teased.

Aggravated and
irritable, Shane almost objected to being called lovebirds, but Kelly spoke before he had a chance.

“W
e’re coming,” Kelly said through a yawn, climbing off the bed and stretching.

That she didn’t retaliate to
Steve’s comment sent heat surging through his body all over again. Shaking off the embarrassing surge of emotion, Shane got up, feeling like the short nap made him sleepier instead of refreshing him.

They followed Steve out into the living room,
which was lit up by a battery-powered lantern sitting on the coffee table. Jules waited by the front door, her arms crossed and her expression impatient. Shane and Kelly slipped on their body armor and helmets, and then Aaron handed them their guns. The cold metal of the M-16’s stalk in Shane’s hands brought the reality of the battle they would soon face to the surface.

He glanced at Kelly, remembering the tender moment they’d
shared a couple of hours ago, and how it seemed like the weapon was starting to affect her mind. Shane was scared fully awake, knowing he had to keep her safe—had to shut down the weapon before it got to her.

“Follow me
,” Jules said, then turned and led the way out of the room, down the hall and into the lobby.

Kids
milled around the lobby, filling their backpacks with extra ammo and supplies and loading their guns. A cloud of excitement and dread amplified the tension in the room. Jules led Shane and his group over to a couple of tables set up with food. Shane picked up a sandwich and a soda, taking a big bite. His nerves were winding tighter by the second, and he didn’t have much of an appetite, but he knew he’d need the energy so he forced the sandwich down as fast as he could.

“You guys get some rest?” Maurice asked,
walking across the lobby toward them.

“A little,”
Tracy replied, sounding annoyed by his concern, like the business at hand was far more important. “Are your people ready?”

“They
’re all on edge,” Maurice said, glancing around the lobby. “But they’ll be fine.”

Jules provided backpacks
with water bottles and snacks for each member of Shane’s team. Tracy split the remaining M-16 clips between them, and Shane stuffed the six she gave him into his pack. Trying not to worry they’d run out of ammo before they made it to the capitol, he put the backpack on and slung his gun over his shoulder. Walking over to the busted-out glass that was once the front entrance to the hotel, he gazed out into the darkness.

He remembered his foot
ball coach telling him a team could only be as strong as its leader. These kids would be looking for an example of courage and aggression. Maurice seemed to be a natural leader, and Shane wasn’t sure he could do any better. But he couldn’t leave Kelly’s or any of his other friends’ safety in the hands of a stranger. Whether he liked it or not, Shane had to take charge of these kids and lead them downtown. He took a deep breath, trying to channel Coach Rice one more time. He turned around, facing the kids scattered across the lobby.

“Alright people,” he boomed. They all stopped chattering and turned toward him, eyes wide with anticipation. “We got a hell of a fight ahead of us
, but we have the advantage. Shamus’ gang fights for the sake of fighting—they have nothing to live for. We fight for our little brothers and our sisters. We fight to protect those we love,” Shane glanced at Kelly, “so we cannot lose.”

The kids star
ed at him, as if waiting for him to say something else. Shane had run out of words, and he hoped they’d cheer and rush out of the building into battle—like the football team heading onto the field. Of course, this wasn’t a game. Shane could tell by the frightened looks on their faces that they knew many of them would die on this dreaded night.

“Let’s go!
” Shane shouted, pivoting on his heel. 

He hoped the kids would stand up and f
ollow him, but he didn’t dare look back to find out if they did. He knew he couldn’t show any hesitation, and he’d fight his way downtown by himself if they didn’t join him anyway. There was no turning back for Shane—he was going to shut the weapon down or die trying.

“
You heard the man,” Maurice said with a booming voice behind him. “On your feet—let’s do this.”

A rustling and a wave of chat
ter followed. When Shane turned down the sidewalk, Kelly stepped to his right side and Aaron on his left. He dared a glance over his shoulder and saw Tracy and Steve behind him. Maurice’s people spilled out of the hotel and fell in after Shane’s brave little group, following them down the street.

They’d gone a block, weaving around car accident
s and stepping over the bloated carcasses of adults, when Shane heard Maurice yell at the chattering mob, “Keep quiet! We don’t want them to hear us coming.”

A moment later, Maurice jogged up and walked next to Shane
. He carried his black shotgun and had two pistols strapped to his waist that looked like the type the police used.

“
While I admire your general badassness in leading us into the fight, we can’t have you guys marching into Shamus’ teeth at the head of the group,” Maurice said.

Shane looked at him, surprised by the comment. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you guys are the only ones who know how to shut off this super weapon that’s downtown, right?”

“Yeah—
I suppose so,” Shane replied, not slowing his urgent pace.

“So we need to get you past Shamus’ gang
alive, so you can do what you got to do,” Maurice said, his tone saying it should be obvious.

“W
hat do you propose?” It relieved Shane that Maurice was thinking on his feet and acting like the leader Shane suspected he might be.

“I say we have my people surround you,
and then we’ll push straight towards the capitol building. Once we’re there, we can hold off Shamus’ gang while you guys go inside and do your thing.”

“Okay—
sounds good,” Shane replied. The stocky kid turned to go back to his group. “Hey Maurice,” Shane said, stopping him.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Thanks for helping us, man.”

“I did
n’t think we had a choice,” Maurice replied, flashing a smile.

Two minutes later, Maurice had passed through th
e crowd behind Shane and his friends. Shane heard the jovial kid telling everyone to turn off their flashlights and ordering some of them to run ahead and take up position in front of the group. Half of the mob ran forward on either side of Shane, more kids than he saw earlier when Maurice called for those brave enough to help at the parking structure. Shane realized, to his relief, Maurice must’ve gathered more recruits while he napped, and now he was surrounded by a small army of brave teenagers.

“We should
cover the upper parts of the buildings on either side,” Tracy said, waving the barrel of her gun at the second floor of an office building they passed. “I’m betting they’ll attack us from up there.”

The
wind kicked up, covering the noise of hundreds of feet pattering down the dark, five-lane street. Lightning flashed across the sky, and Shane worried they might have to deal with another tornado on top of all the daunting challenges already ahead of them. But other than the brewing storm, the city seemed quiet. Shane hoped Shamus’ people had sought shelter and called it a night. So many lives would be saved if they could make it to the capitol building undetected.

A motorcycle engine roared to life down a side street to their right, followed by another to thei
r left, shattering any chance they hadn’t been noticed. The engines revved and then grew quieter, headed toward downtown. Shane guessed they were scouts who went to tell Shamus to prepare for the approaching assault.

“They’ve spotted us,” Shane shouted
, adrenaline pumping through his veins and sweat forming on his brow. “Brace yourselves, people.”

The sound of shotguns
cocking and safeties clicking off rippled through the crowd around Shane. Two blocks later, motorcycles zipped up and down streets parallel to the one he and his small army walked on. The number of whining motorbikes increased with each block—giant, angry hornets getting ready to attack. When Shane and his mob walked over the hill, he caught a view of flashlights and torches flickering ahead, undoubtedly a gang of Shamus’ people forming to stop the invasion into their territory.

Shane could barely make out
Maurice walking at the head of the pack with his shotgun pointed down such that he could raise it in an instant and fire if necessary. They made it to the bottom of the hill and approached the gang of thugs. A flash of lightning illuminated Shamus’ tall, skinny form at the head of the pack of armed teenagers, which looked to be as many in number as Shane’s new allies. Maurice raised his free hand and stopped the mob behind him a half block from Shamus.

“What are you preppies
doing down in this neck of the woods?” Shamus asked, shining his flashlight up from under his chin in a way that cast his eyes in shadows and reflected off his gold grill. The boy obviously had a flair for the dramatic—he looked like the devil.

“We’re just passing through, Shamus,” Maurice replied
, his stern voice as deep and loud as the thunder, but still managing to be friendly and disarming. “Best if you move aside.”

“You got them kids who
tore through here in that armored car, blasting my people to bits, with you?”

“I don’t see how who we’ve got with us is any
of your business,” Maurice replied, sounding so authoritative and intimidating that Shane was sure Shamus would back down. “Now step aside.”

“Well, it is my business. You leave those kids with me, and
I’ll let you pass,” Shamus offered, the threat clear in his voice.

“
Ain’t happening,” Maurice replied, raising the barrel of his shotgun.

“Then we’ll have to take them from you,” Shamus yelled.

The thugs with torches and guns moved forward, shouting threats at Maurice and his gang.

“Stay tight,” Maurice yelled over his shoulder. “Let’s punch through these bastards.”

The mob surrounding Shane and his friends surged, pushing them forward. When they encountered Shamus’ gang and had to stop, guns started popping off, first one at a time and then in a barrage of explosions. Adrenaline pumped through Shane, and he raised his gun toward the building on the left side of the street. Pulling the trigger, Shane shot a boy who leaned out of a window, aiming his gun down into Maurice’s gang. The kid fell to the street, dead before Shane even realized what he’d done.

There was no time for Shane to feel any remorse over killing the boy. Gun barrels flashed in the second floor windows of the building,
and Maurice’s people dropped all around him. Survival instincts taking over, Shane aimed and picked off the snipers as fast as he could, afraid they’d hit Kelly or one of his other friends if he paused for even an instant.

With the deafening noise of hundreds of guns going off
and people dropping dead all around him, Shane felt disassociated from his body, like he watched a character in a video game and wasn’t actually killing and couldn’t be hurt. Kelly stood next to him, and Steve stood on the other side, their flashing barrels raised and waving back and forth like Shane’s. When his clip went empty, he dropped it on the ground, reached around to his backpack, and retrieved another. Slamming it into the gun, he knew his ammo was dwindling, but there was no choice but to continue firing.

The mob surrounding Shane and his
friends sidestepped down the street, pushing through Shamus’ gang. Suddenly, the head of a boy walking in front of Shane snapped back in a most unnatural way. Something warm and wet splattered his face, and he realized the poor boy’s skull had opened up. He fell against Shane, leaving a trail of hot blood on his bulletproof vest as he slipped down, collapsing dead on the ground.

Using his sleeve, Shane scrap
ed the dead kid’s brains off his face and pointed the M-16 up at the balcony where the barrel of a gun had just flashed. The flickering light illuminated a teenage girl with tight braids hanging from either side of her head. She held a rifle aimed at him. They only stared at each other for an instant, but it seemed like an eternity, long enough for Shane to feel horrible about pulling the trigger. Her gun barrel flashed again, and Shane saw another one of Maurice’s people drop in front of him. Kicking himself for the lethal moment of hesitation, Shane fired a burst of rounds from his weapon, and the girl slumped down onto the balcony, her gun falling end over end to the street below.

“They’re mowing us down,” Maurice yelled. When the conflict started, Shane saw at least thirty kids between him and the stocky leader of the assault. Now he counted half that.

“We have to charge them,” Shane yelled. “Run!”

The remainder of Maurice’s people surged forward together, pressing into Shamus’ gang. In the chaos of the charge, Shane ended up next to Maurice.

“Get back,” Maurice shouted
, stepping in front of him. “We have to keep you alive.”

Shane ignored him, leveling his gun
and switching it to automatic. He wasn’t going to get stopped here, he was going to make it to the capitol building, and no amount of armed thugs was going to stop him. Seeing the flash of the enemy’s guns and Maurice’s people dropping dead beside him, Shane sprayed the kids blocking the road with bullets and rushed forward into the opening he created. Dropping to a knee, he fired at the armed teenagers again, cringing as he watched them die.

Something hit Shane in the side of the head
, and he fell to the ground. Looking up, he saw Shamus, standing over him with the butt of his gun raised, about to smash Shane’s skull. The skinny gangster bared his gold teeth in a vicious grin and raised the gun higher.

Seeming to come from nowhere
and moving faster than Shane imagined the chunky boy could move, Maurice leapt over Shane and buried his shoulder into Shamus’ gut, knocking the wiry teenager to the ground.

“I got him,” M
aurice yelled, pressing his knee into Shamus’ throat. “
Go
!”

Kelly and Aaron caught up and helped Shane scramble to his feet. The
y charged into a thin area of the gang blocking the street with what remained of Maurice’s people at their heels. Adrenaline masking the pain of his bruised skull, Shane kept shooting and running with Aaron and Tracy on his right side and Kelly and Steve on his left.

A block down the street, Shane couldn’t find anyone
left to shoot at. By some miracle, they’d made it past Shamus’ thugs.

“They’
re on our tail,” Tracy yelled, not giving Shane a chance to rejoice at their success.

Looking over his shoulder without stopping, Shane saw the torches and flashing guns moving in behind him. At least a third of Maurice’s people had made it through the roadblock, running backwards and shooting their guns
to slow down the advancing thugs.

“They won’t be able to hold them off for very long,” Aaron yelled.

“This is our chance,” Shane said. “We have to get to the capitol, now!”