The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers (11 page)

              Philip poked his head in through the window. “Hey you realize how much food is probably in there right? What I mean is are you sure that you really want to pass up on all of that? We could at least attempt to go and get it right.”

              Eric said, “Dude we don’t have anywhere to put it. Did you forget about us needing the bus? That was like the whole point in us coming here.”

              Philip sat back thinking of all the food they were temporarily passing on. He had forgotten about needing the bus but would be damned if he was going to mention the fact to any of his friends. “I’m just saying when we get a bus it might be a good idea. Isn’t there a veterans home around here?”

              Tim yelled, “Well we sure as hell aren’t taking the veterans bus if they have one there. There’s an orphanage on the edge of town. Hopefully they are far enough away from town that they are ok.”

              Philip laughed coughing out smoke, “So sorry, you’re saying no to taking a vets bus, but yes to stealing from a bunch of kids?”

              “Yes and we’ll just leave them there and put them out of their misery, seems like the right thing to do afterall.”

              The three men stared in awe at Tim who finally cracked a grin, the first one he had, had in a few days. Eric said, “Dude kinda a dark guy we can’t just go shoot a bunch of helpless kids man.”

              “I’m kidding, we should probably check on them anyways. I’d forgotten all about the place honestly. I’m sure if anyone else had still been alive that they would have forgotten about the kids as well.”

              Philip said, “Yeah but if they are alive what are we supposed to do with them? They aren’t our responsibility to take care of.”

              Tim twisted in his seat giving all the men a look to remember. “Lucky for ya’ll that i’ve got this truck and took you with me. you know even though you weren’t really my problem to deal with when those….well whatever the hell they are came after us.”

              Cedric nodded, “Alright, alright, so you dud usa huge freaking solid favor and we appreciate it, but who knows how many kids are out there. We don’t know how to take care of that many kids, do you?”

              “Cedric i’m going out there with or without you it’s my truck and I hate to be like this but just because the worlds going to shit don’t mean i need to become a shithead as well.”

              “Hey wait did you just call us pieces of shit?” Eric said.

              “I don’t know Eric it kind of depends on what your answers are going to be. We can do something great and help or we can worry about oruselves and.”

              Cedric cut him off, “For god sakes would you shut up. We all know that we aren’t going to go leave those kids to die. Of course if you’d have had a horrible memory maybe we wouldn’t be needing to drive out there and you could have thought of a bus located somewhere with way less baggage to pick up because of it.”

He put it into drive and the four headed out of town and straight for the orphans the Turned they’d seen had been in farmer’s fields. The only part of the Turned they could see visible were torsos hanging out of the cows carcasses. The sight was enough to make the men’s stomachs turn. When they pulled up to the gates it was not a sight that they’d been hoping to see.

              Cedric pulled to a stop away from the building, all of the men stared in awe at the scene in front of them. There were children age five, up to adults that must have been counselors. The van that had the school’s name on it was flipped on its side and covered with blood and gore. The windows were painted with welcome home messages across the windows. No one had to say it, they’d all realized that some of the kids had probably been offered ice cream and a trip to town to go and welcome home the girls at school. There was probably a contest with pictures being drawn, or names being picked for who got to go, smiling gleaming happy faces sitting dressed in school colors for the short ride.

              Tim saw the school bus parked half in the garage and smiled before trying to think of if he could or not do anything to the Turned. He was pretty sure that he’d be fine with shooting the adults but the fact that there were kids brought in a entirely new aspect to things. Philip said, “So this is like now the new worst thing that i’ve ever seen. What are we going to do about the kids? They could be treated, or cured per the news.”

              Cedric said, “The news is just telling people what we want to hear, to keep people calm, if there’s a cure, it ain’t coming anytime soon.”

              Eric said, “So you’re trying to tell me that you are ok with putting the rounds of that rifle through those kids’ heads?”

              “Those kids are more interested in eating us then a cure. I’m not saying that we go out of our way to shoot them, but yep if they come after me. Trust me the last thing that the world wants is for me to be one of those things man.”

              Tim said, “Don’t worry, if you get bit i’ll make sure and keep you from turning. I promise that I won’t let it happen.”

              “Is that suppose to make me feel better?”

              “Just start driving up there, and let’s see what we can do. Hell for all we know all them are infected.”

              The men made their way up the driveway slowly trying to keep from gaining the Turned’s attention. Something they all knew that they weren’t interested in having any part of, but knew it wouldn’t last for long. They were hopeful that the Turned were fighting to get in the orphanage only because there was a strong chance that it meant someone was still alive. As they circled around Eric jumped out of the back followed by Philip where they went into the garage looking for the keys to the bus.

When he found them Eric brought the giant vehicle to life and backed it up across the yard to the side of the  orphanage. Cedric hit his horn one time and gained the attention of everyone of the Turned. He drew them away from the building while Eric and Philip pulled up next to the main entrance to the building. Philip kept a watch while Eric ran up to the doors. “Open the doors, come on, do it, anyone alive in there damn it?!”

It took a moment just as Eric was beginning to think there wasn’t anyone alive when from the opposite side of the door he could hear items being moved that had probably been in place to keep the door secure. It took a few minutes but a pile of teenagers came out of the small building each of them carrying everything they owned in a backpack. Eric said, “Any of you bit?”

To which one of the teens replied, “Hey old guy did we rip your head off when we saw you?”

Eric nodded and thought how he could remember being such the smartass himself. Philip was sitting at the wheel and as the last of the teens ran on to the bus Cedric had begun to circle around. The speed he lost when changing his direction was all it took to give the chasing mob of Turned the upper hand. They engulfed the truck piling on top of it twenty or more of them each of them drunk with the idea of the meal that was on the inside of the vehicle. Tim fired through the roof and front window but it was to little to late and each of the two men knew that there was no hope for them. The windshield instantly had hands punching through it. The safety glass spider webbing and making it hard for them to reach in all the way. Their mouths bloody and angry were chomping unsure how to get around the glass. They started smashing their faces on the windshield out of frustration as others started reaching in from the car door windows.

              Tim and Cedric fired everything they had into the mob but it was of little gain to them. The hands that were coming through the windshield pulled it from it’s place and dived into the cab. The two men screamed in horror cursing their certain fate as mouths gripped tightly onto whatever piece of flesh that they could. They brought large and horrific chunks of skin and bone away. Blood squirted out from the cab covering the bodies who were fighting to get a bite of the warm meal. Philip and Eric sat stunned seeing the men that they had known for so long now gone. Eric said, “What do we do now?”

              Philip looked at the teenagers who’d been watching teachers, counselors, and friends most likely. Who had been Turned chomping at the bit to eat the men’s friends who had helped rescue them from their temporary prison and felt guilty knowing they would have had a better chance of surviving had they not came out to the orphanage and tried to save them. Philip yelled, we still need supplies we need to get out of here before they finish…..before they finish with what it is they are doing.”

              Eric hit the doors shut and the group left before the Turned had lost their attention on what they were currently focused on. The old bus roared as it came up to speed leaving the orphanage behind to be taken over by the Turned, who was always hungry for more, never satisfied. Philip bounced in the drivers seat yelling, “Where are we going now? Do you want to try and hit Des Moines to drop these kids off? We can see if we want to stay there?”

              Eric shook his head, “No, we still need guns. If we are going to Des Moines there’s going to be more of them and we need to try and be ready for that, you saw the news. We picked these kids up we need to try and be as prepared as possible to keep them safe or all we did was take them from one shit situation to another and I think given where we picked them up from  they’ve had enough of those issues.”

              Philip was getting used to the large steering wheel on the old bus and was bouncing wildly in the seat. “Fine so we drive by Andy’s shop jump out get guns, and then go to Des Moines. How does that sound dad?”

              “If you were my kid i’ve had given you away years ago Philip. Head up taking all the back roads that you can and lets see what we can find. So far there haven’t been any faces to worry about looting before we could.”

              “You think that we are the last one’s in town alive?”

              “No i’m sure there are more but how the hell do you figure out how many, or where they are. It looks like after the shit hit the fan that people went running. They probably were clueless that once they got bit that they were infected.”

              Philip looked at the rows of houses they were passing seeing many of them had cars in the driveway with blood streaks running down the car doors and said, “Dude there are probably zombies in all these houses. We need to just get out of town it isn’t safe.”

              “Considering we lost all our ammunition when Cedric and Tim were…...well you know what happened to them it’s not really a matter of debate for the two of us we need guns, we need ammunition we can’t kill those things with our bare hands you saw what they did to that truck, they ripped it apart.”

              A teen boy said, “Hi my name is Matt. Hey who are you guys?”

              Eric never even looked at him, “Kid we are just two guys trying to last a week in this mess.”

              “Well thanks either way for…..for you know saving us, we were pretty damn sure that we were screwed. When the counselors got home they came racing in and crashed the van that had all of the kids who had won the contest to go to town. The young kids were out at recess when they arrived and it was the worse thing i’ve…..the worst thing any of us had ever seen before. The little kids never stood a chance they were out in the side yard and when the van crashed the door looked like it had been blown off the side. The counselors and kids came pouring out and the teachers who weren’t on th trip supervising were outside with the little kids. They tried to get them inside but none of them made it. There were little ones being torn brutally it was horrible. The blood was everywhere and they never let up, some of the younger kids got a bite and ran away but then within minutes or hours in some cases they came back and were just like the others.”

              Eric said, “Well that is about the most horrible thing i’ve ever heard of. I’m glad that at least some of you guys made it. How did you keep them out for so long.”

              The teen laughed well the teachers and counselors were always complaining that the state was cheap about putting windows in the place because brick was easier to maintain. So anyways when it came time to try and block the windows it didn’t take all that much because those doors are like hard as a rock and we just put everything that wasn’t bolted to the ground in front of it. They stopped trying to break in after a while and just kind of stood out there in a daze. We were smart enough to keep our mouths shut and not make any noise that we didn’t need to.”

              “What do you mean?” Philip asked.

              “If you break them out of that trance or whatever the hell they are doing when they just stand there all stupid like then they go right back into a rage. So after the first time someone brought them out of it was enough that we were more than content to just sit in the dark. We tried calling the police and no one answered, we found the counselors cell phones in the office and none of them worked. We watched the news seeing that they were trying to organize a safe zone where those that weren’t infected could go and find safety. They said that they wanted it to be in Des Moines and those that could make it there would find food and shelter but the guy on the news got eaten before we could get anymore information. The emergency broadcast message came up stating that more news would be coming and that the CDC was currently in the process of doing everything that they could to try and get a cure. They were clear that a cure and keeping Washington safe were two of the top priorities.”