The Orphans (Book 3): Strangers (25 page)

Clary realized this must be part of his genius idea that in their quick bickering he’d forgotten all about. Clary said, “What do you mean bringing everything from Andy’s wasn’t that the point in coming here was to get everything that we would need to be able to make until we know what's going to happen?”

Aslin did a circle pointing at all of the buildings. He said, “I know we came here with the intentions on going back. I totally get it.”

Clary got defensive thinking for a moment that he wasn’t thinking that he thought he would be going back to Andy’s. Clary yelled, “You mean you aren’t going back at all? You are just going to abandon everyone.”

Asln shook his head pinching at the bridge of his nose, “Try and stay with me Clary, really focus ok. This really big place has got everything we need including probably a few of the turned that we don’t need. My idea is that we go through the base kill them all. I mean them all, cure no cure I don’t give a shit. We secure this place is the point and then we make this place home. We have facilitys right here that we can use to just trian these kids, its safe, theres food, there is everything we need. I mean everything, you know as good as i do that place we are trying to call home is going to be to small and we won’t have the room for storage that we need to make it there. It is only going to be a matter of time before those thigns mae their way into Andy’s place especially being that close to his house.”

“You are more worried about the turned than you are about the people who are going to be out trying to take everything that isn’t nailed down?”

Asln said, “A lot of those poeple are just going to be looking for a place to stay. If we can offer somewhere safe, somewhere that they won’t have to worry about the turned maybe we will be able to start our own place our own-”

Clary cut him off not being defensive but just stating the end of Aslin’s thought, “You want to start a army. You want us to have our own group of people.”

Aslin said, “If we end up having to take out more of these things, then does it seem like that bad of a idea? If you really think about it, how bad would it be we can only watch so much of this base, or of Andy’s place if we don’t move on. We need to start making decisions. The longer we wait pissing around the worse things can potentially get.”

“So we go back right? We get the kids, and we come back.”

Aslin nodded, “We need to get them and get straight back. If we can get at least somewhere t sleep for the night secure we can start our clean sweep of the base in the morning.”

Clary said, “You think Andy will be up for it? I mean he’s lived at that place forever. What do we do if the others aren’t up for living at some military base?”

“Then they don’t have to. But this is mynew home, i’m coming back here with or without them. It just seems like to good a place to pass up after driving around. It seems there are turned everywhere and we might as well take the best spot that we can. Think of the communication we could have with the outside here, they’ve got to have somewhere around here that has a kick ass radio center. We are going to get updates hopefully or the nation is going to get them i’d like to be able to receive them.”

Clary stared around the bas, seeing the points that Aslin was making and couldn’t see anything in his logic about being wrong. He knew others might come there and having numbers wasn’t always a bad thing. Clary nodded and said, “You know I can’t say that what you are thinking about is really a horrible idea. I guess that is why there isn’t any food in the back of the truck huh.”

Aslin nodded and said, “Well should we get going?”

Clary shook his head and said, “Well since we didn’t know that this was going to be our new home, Greg and me went ahead and got crates and crates of guns and ammunition ready to take back with us.”

“They’ll still be here when we get back Clary.”

Shaun stepped up clearing his throat and said, “Hey we are taking some of those guns with us. We only have so much left the way it is. We need to be able to take out those things if we run into any of them.”

Aslin went to interject before really thinking about it and and Clary said, “Yeah he’s right. The last thing we need to do is get stuck out in the middle of nowhere without any fresh magazines.”

Chapter # Going Home

              They loaded the trucks with more than they could imagine needing under teh worst circumstances and headed off of the base. They picked up an additional truck on the way out leaving everyone driving but Shaun who rode with Tina. They’d all ripped into the supplies and had a healthy amount of rifles and mazagines in the giant cabs ready to go. As they headed back out Greg disappeared into the guards desk again hitting the controls to lower the fence back into the ground. Greg opened the door slowly as well and the German Shephard stuck its head through scaring Greg thinking that maybe the dog had turned but when a large pink tongue came out running itself up the front of Greg’s face his tension eased. He opened the door all the way giving the dog a minute of affection and the two of them walked out side by side. Greg took the truck that they had drove originally in and they made a convoy line back to the farm taking it slow and easy.

              They pulled up slowly to the edge of the road that would lead them to the farm and stopped. Walking across the roadway was a small group of the turned. Tina whispered, “Oh my god.”

              Shaun’s heart dropped into his stomach as he watched the Turned walking across the roadway in search of food. He whispered, “No, no damn it no.”

              Tina reached over gripping his shoulder but before she could Shaun had already grabbed a backpack full of magazines and a extra rifle and was opening the door to the truck. Tina said “Shaun wait, please this is what happened to Jordan.”

              Shaun paid her no attention to her walking up the dirt road. The rest of the group pulled to a stop seeing this and seeing Shaun. Cary, Greg, and Aslin were all screaming at Shaun to stop. Shaun heard them but it was as if he was in a pool under water. He didn’t stop he had one thing in his eyes and it was Ellie. The nightmare running through his eyes right now was her running from a pack of the turned, them running after her and taking her down ripping into her perfect skin. The screams he was imagining would haunt his nightmares he had no doubt of it. Shaun saw red and that was all he saw.

              Shaun sprinted up the side of the hill. When the turned noticed him coming they crouched and began their run towards him. Shaun went into auto mode not thinking just reacting. He pulled the trigger five times and five turned dropped the pink midst filling the air behind them. The gunshots brought more up over the hill Shaun focused on them crouching down and picking them off as fast as they could come over the hill. He knew distance was important and he did his best not to waste ammunition. Aslin came up putting a hand on his shoulder but he shrugged it off. He gripped Shaun’s rifle and took it away from hm. Shaun went to push Aslin but Clary gripped him keeping him from doing so. Greg yelled, “Hey let him go, now!”

              Shaun pushed off of him leaving them behind yet again and ran pulling the shouldered backup rifle. He sprinted faster than any of them could keep up with except for Greg. The two disappeared over the hill both of them ignoring the screams of the other three. Greg yelled at Shaun, “Hey slow down man, I get the point we need to find Ellie but you’re going to get yourself killed or worse!”

              Shaun ignored him but Greg finally caught up gripping his shoulder and the two went down on the ground hard. Shaun pushed up to his feet but Greg caught his foot. “We need to take them out, there arne’t more than twenty of them. Keep the distance, keep our lives. You gotta think Shaun.”

              Shaun wanted to say something but knew that he was right and that if he didn’t think that he wouldn’t be any better off to Ellie if he was dead or one of the turned himself. The idea of gong after Ellie as one of them was sickening. He held up a hand letting Greg know that he was thinking again. He said, “I’m thinking, I get it, its just the idea of losing her is-”

              Greg cut him off, “Yeah I get it, it is probably how I felt when they took Kristy yesterday.”

              “I get it, everytime I think i’m losing her is worse than anything I can think of. So your with me? We can do this right?”

              Greg looked at the field of turned and didn’t point out in the field the one lone leg with a sneaker on it that he wasn’t sure who its owner was to Shaun. He wasn’t going to be the one to break his best friends heart. Greg nodded and they lay flat until the turned were no longer. Aslin and Clary watched from the hill seeing the two working in unison and both of them stared at each other nodding. Clary yelled over the gunfire, “I don’t have a worry about those two at all.”

              Tina came up behind the two of them watching the boys. She was pretty sure she knew that Shaun would not only risk his life for Ellie but give it and felt a bit of pain about it. She said, “You guys aren't giving them enough credit. They aren’t quitters.”

              Aslin leaned over towards Clary, “You think the old man got out of that house before-before it went up in flames?”

              Clary pointed to the side of it shaking his head, “Are you kidding me look at the side of the house, this wasn’t set on fire, this damn thing was blown up look at the side of it. I would say tht someone set something off inside and who knows if he did or not. I don’t see any of the kids anywhere. I wonder where the hell they went?”

              When Shaun and Greg had finished clearing those that could be seen they moved closer to the house. Greg didn’t have to point it out Shaun Saw Jenn not knowing it was her laying in the field. For a second he was sure that it was Ellie making the worst assumptions immediately. The feeling again pouring over him about her not being there to go through this with him. Shaun ran to her stopping when he got close enough to realize that it wasn’t her that it must have been one of the other two girls. Aslin and Clary came up behind them. Clary said, “Do you know who it is? Is it Ellie Shaun?”

              Shaun shook his head no and Clary asked, “Are you sure that it isn’t Ellie?”

              Shaun was relieved, not happy about the fact that someone died but at the least hopeful that it wasn’t Ellie. “It isn’t Ellie I’m sure of that.”

              Greg said, “Yeah as much time as Shaun has spent staring at her i’m sure he knows every inch of her.”

              They moved through the property seeing leftovers from Jenn. They didn’t miss the fact that there were turned everywhere. Even more so than there had been taken out by Shaun and Greg. They saw that they were everywhere but there was a good deal of them close to the house. Greg said, “It looks like they might have been taking them out from the house or something.”

              Aslin said, “We can check the barn and look around but we need to get moving, we don’t know how many of them there are around here. There could be more making their way here as we speak.”

              Shaun started walking for the barn screaming out Ellie’s name repeatedly. He didn’t know why he was so hopeful given the scene around them but he couldn’t think of that thought any longer or he was going to make himself sick. Aslin yelled after them, “You boys we gotta go, we need to get moving, we don’t haave a choice!”

              The boys kept walking without looking back. They weren’t about to leave this place without looking at every last pace they could be hiding. Tina said, “They aren’t going to leave until they’ve looked everywhere, there’s no way he’s going to leave anyone behind especially Ellie.”

              The three ran to catch up to the boys and they made their way around the property. When they made it to the barn Tina opened the door and inside was a turned that was bloated and still eating nonstop regardless that there was no where left to put it. There was a cow long since gone laying beneath it. When Clary walked in and put one in its head they heard the low murmur of growling. It sounded like a dog being challenged or threatened. When he took the light across the top of the rafters dead eyes glistened back at them. They tried to count the eyes but there was no time there appeared to be to many of them and they leapt off of the rafters of the second level. They crouched near the cow apparently trying to decide if they should try and get what was in front of them, or if the cow itself was still a great enough bounty that they would be satisifed and that they could ignore the imposing threat in front of them. None of them were that lucky though they raced through the doors each of them trying to be the first to make it out.

              Clary screamed, “Fall back! Run back now!”

              Everyone complied knowing what the result would be if they didn’t. They turned to run and the turned flew out of the doors. Shaun grabbed Tina by the hand puling him behind her the two of them running for everything they could. Shaun felt her grip slip from his instanatly and when he turned one of them was throwing her to the ground, three of them jumped on top of her ripping viciously into her neck, her stomach, and her thigh. Shaun screamed, shooting the three of them as quickly as he could. But knowing that it was useless because she was gone and there was no hope left for her.

              Greg saw this and screamed to Shaun, “Shaun you gotta keep moving, we can’t stop moving, we gotta keep going, come on man!”

              Shaun ran sideways for a second still trying to make his decisions and broken hearted he ran after Greg. Clary and Asln tried to give the two boys some cover fire but it just wasn’t enough there were to many and they were to fast. They watched as Tina had been taken down Aslin thinking instantly had they just stayed at the base that she’d be around the next day still. The sight of Tina being ripped apart before Shaun took out the turned was to much. Tina tried screaming but the blood only gurgled from her mouth, she choked on it and tears came from her eyes. Her outstretched hand towards Aslin might as well have ripped his heart from his chest. He pointed his rifle at her and she nodded his head, but no matter how hard he tried to pull the trigger he simply couldn’t do it. He felt his cheeks growing warm as well. Clary looked back at him seeing him frozen and screamed to snap him out of it. “Aslin snap out of it bro, we need to get moving, or you’ll be next!”