The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War (23 page)

“How hard can it be, Shaun?”

“Well, Aslin, what have you been driving Humvees for, like, twenty years? We couldn't drive twenty minutes in that without you destroying it.”

“It wasn’t my fault that we drove up on a horde. If we could have seen them from the road there is no way in hell we would have ever gone into that parking lot.”

“Okay, so we get the bus, get it stuffed with as much blood as we can and then what, we’re still trapped with the blood.”

“Then you can use those young knees to head up to the top floor and see if you can’t throw a few gallons of blood into the wind and get it to bring the scent over to the other side of the building.”

Chapter 21

Clary sat for another hour per Lou’s orders. When he looked like he was going to bounce through the wall if he didn’t get freed from the bed, Lou finally yelled, “Okay, leave, Clary, you are driving me nuts. My lord you’d think you have something important to do today.”

Clary popped out of the bed taking a second to steady himself. The normal double eyes working for him wasn’t there and it was a first for him. The only other time he could think of being this impaired was when he had had a similar issue with his eye but that was in Baton Rouge with a bottle of whiskey and an all-day bender with the rest of the guys. He smiled for a moment until, like all memories, he remembered they were no longer alive. He said, “I’m going to do something for revenge today. We move on after that. You take all the time you need to mourn, Lou, so long as you stay here, brother. We’d miss you, and we need you. Besides you are the only one we know who can deal with these kids. Like, really, I’m not kidding. I don't understand how you don’t rip their fucking heads off some days.”

“If you were growing at a rate you couldn’t control, Clary, having things happen to your body that were hard to understand and deal with, and then on top of all that through a crazy cocktail of being a teen living like a soldier with zombies always as a threat, then I’d say these kids are doing okay.”

Clary was nodding and could see that the intensity was still there in him but the sadness was winning. He said, “You need anything, need help moving anyone, Lou, before I head out?”

“The only patient right now is Joey and I made sure he was on a wheeled bed so we could move him quickly. He’s one solid kid I don't think he hates anything but the dead.”

“You should have seen what he did to Bella, crushed her head in with what I can only assume was his baseball bat.” Clary said.

“Good, she deserved it,” Lou said. “If she didn’t like the way things were at home she could have confided in one of us here and we could have been the ones who did the attack, but that obviously isn’t how it went down.”

“That or this Cade fellow that I can only assume was the man that picked her up and carried her away was her father. Don’t worry they won’t be apart long, Lou.”

“Pieces of shit don’t go to heaven, Clary.”

“No, but they can reunite in hell. Hopefully with hot pokers up their ass.”

Lou laughed a little wiping at a tear that he knew would have friends if he didn’t get control of himself. “You’re a poet, Clary, God bless you.”

Clary made his way out looking around as he left and he passed two rooms that had been made to be the death room, basically. He thought about it and it broke his heart. He said to no one but himself there’s going to be a lot of holes to dig later today if this day ever ends. When he walked out a whistle came from above him and he looked up to see Ellie waving, resting behind a sniper rifle. He said, “You have any reason you need to shoot that thing, sweetheart?”

“I’m so not sweet, Clary. No, it has been pretty boring.”

“Boring is good, Ellie, it’s one of the best feelings in the world as long as you don’t get lazy because of it.”

“I like boring, Clary, it wasn’t a complaint. I don’t think that you have to worry about anyone getting lazy today. Have you checked on Shaun and them?”

“No, you know we keep it quiet if we don’t need anything. The last thing we need to do is get a horde on their ass because we wanted to say hi and then they hear the talking and you know the outcome.”

Ellie gave a thumbs up and pointed into the distance. “Scott’s over there, you go do your thing and the two of us got your back. Take it easy though, we don’t need to have you fall down because you overdid it. Besides we aren’t ever going to lift your big ass so unless you want Greg and me to have to figure out a way to move you then you'd better take it easy you understand?”

Clary held up his hands in defeat. He said, “You realize we aren’t doing anything but rigging a tank to be able to leak blood right? The biggest issue is going to be having room for it. But you know I think I can just rig it to the back of the tank and we can cruise down the street. Once we get near enough we’ll pop the cork on it and let the dead chase us down. I don’t care how strong those things are they aren’t getting inside a tank. Those things are solid.”

Ellie was smiling and cut in, “You mean like a tank.”

Clary not thinking about the smart ass pun said, “Yeah, exactly like a-”

She laughed rolling back behind the rifle. She yelled, “Go make something cool, Clary. I could do this all day.”

Clary was shaking his head thinking that she was going to be a pistol as she got older. He wouldn’t have her any other way though. When he got up to a row of tanks he saw the M1A1 Abrams and smiled happily wondering honestly if they even needed the blood now. The thought of taking this straight through their walls firing off a few shots with the main weapon would be decimating to their base. The machine gun mounted to the side of it would do no small amount of damage either. He liked the idea of sending the dead in while he had a front row seat. He picked the Abrams because it was the only one which he knew how to operate.

Clary ran his hand down the main gun on it thinking of sending hell from two miles away and hitting the target with little effort. He could not imagine having that happen to him and knew that they could fit upwards of forty rounds for just that gun alone and that if they sent that much that way that there would be little work for the kids to have to do. He was always all about being fair but when it came to people coming into his home like these had he would be relentless in his pursuit to kill every last one of them.

He went to the truck that the kids had been talking about using looking at the sprayer unit on it and saw that in as little as twenty bolts this was going to be his. When he was near being done getting it loosened he radioed McQuaig and Greg. They were there within a few minutes with nothing to report. Greg said, “I think we can like fill it without having to take it off of the truck, Clary.”

“Yes, smartass thank you for that information. That is just great. We decided that instead of having the truck, which, since I’m the one who is least able right now with the eye hang up, we would be safer in something else. The truck is still going to be too vulnerable to the dead finding a way to get in and then killing me. I’m not a fan of that idea so we’re going a different route.”

“What are you going to drive that they can’t make their way into?”

Clary nodded his head towards the row of tanks. Greg almost jumped when the thought of damage they could do to them hit home. He said, “Holy shit, are you kidding me? I don’t do the sniper rifle shit, too much math. Let me ride with you, come on, there’s room right? I can ride with you and we can go blow the hell out of those guys. Come on, please, you and me, we can have a good time in that thing.”

“No more caffeine, Greg, take a breath, buddy. Yes, you can ride with but only if you take it down about eight notches, bud.”

“I’ll try but only if you let me fire the main gun on this, holy shit we’re going to make those guys regret ever coming here!”

“I probably need both of you to help me get this thing rigged onto the tank. There’s a few rear bolts that I'm going to take out and then attach them through some binding that I’ll put on the back. When it’s time we put a hole in this thing and let it run. It has to hold fifty or more gallons I’d think if we are smart with when we start it that we should be okay. The people we drag behind it should make a pretty good mess once their road rash begins. Greg once you and I are close enough to that base, we fire off some welcome to the neighborhood shots. If any of them survive that they’ll have sniper fire coming from all directions, the dead coming through the gates, and when it looks clear you on a machine gun with bullet proof armor in front of you. How does that sound?”

McQuaig said, “Well, excuse my French but it sounds like those fucknuts are going to regret ever coming to our base. That is worse than day one and I can’t think of many times I have wanted to or been able to say something like that. Don’t get me wrong they deserve every single drop of spilled blood ten times over but it still seems like a horrible thing to experience.”

“That’s what they get for listening to bad ideas. If this guy is some sort of psycho then I want you to watch fence lines, McQuaig, there’s no telling if he is going to stay and fight or if he is going to run. The last thing we want to do is send hell down on him only to have him make it out and regroup,” Clary said.

“If I see anyone going for anything to get themselves free then I won’t give them any chances at all,” McQuaig said. “I don’t care if it is their back or chest facing me they’re getting one good one to the chest. There is no sympathy today, none of them deserve it. They’re all responsible in one way or another.”

Clary got the bolts out that they needed and within a half hour of give and take he had the very large plastic drum attached with a backup beneath it. As he got it tightened the rest of the way he was looking at his watch with his good eye. He was thinking about it but Greg saw him and said it out loud. “You think that they’re still alive, Clary? They’ve been gone a while and it isn’t that far away from here.”

Clary shrugged and said, “I don’t know, Greg, the only good thing that has happened today was still having one eye left to use, but that only came about because of death and destruction. We can’t afford to lose too many more people. I do know that for a fact.”

Greg went to call them on his radio but Clary shook his head. He said “They’ll be back soon. If not, we know where they were going. We could always drive out there in this and try and pick them up. There’s little those things are going to do short of tipping it over and I don’t even think those things are that strong. If they are then I say the next go around we take shells with us and go until they’re gone. This could do a hell of a lot of damage. They know how to make a call if they are in need of help.”

Greg said, “I know you are supposed to learn how to drive first, but I think maybe it might be a good idea since we have so many of these that you teach me how to drive one when it isn’t imperative that we are fighting for our lives. I swear to God I won’t do anything stupid if you show me how to drive one.”

“Yeah, if you are going to teach him how to shoot off and fire a tank, then I don’t think I'm going to feel really good about sleeping again…like ever, horrible drivers plus tanks don’t go hand in hand and I feel very confident about that.” McQuaig said.

“Relax, McQuaig, we will be just fine. He isn’t going to be driving around in one of these until I trust him like I trust myself. You think I’d let him go driving around in one of the most, if not the most, dangerous things on this base? I'm almost blind, not stupid, there’s a big damn difference, girl.”

McQuaig nodded slowly thinking how relieved she was. When they were done they gassed up the tank knowing they would have more than enough fuel for the trip there as well as back. When it was set to go they took a Humvee around back getting as many machine guns and ammunition as he could in the rear of it. He said, “I plan on having all of this work done before they get back. I don’t want to fight in the dark. They know where we’re going to better than we do. If we can take them while the sun is up we’re going to have a much better chance of succeeding on this little outing we got going for us. It never makes sense to fight out of your element and you kids haven’t had any real fights with other people. I really hope that everyone is up for it; there is no choking once it is time to take the shot. It isn’t the same as killing the dead. That shit can come back and get you. Believe me there’s been some serious pieces of shit that Aslin and my team had to take down at one point. They were the scum of the Earth and I can still remember pulling the trigger on each and every one of them, and the decimation that took place after the pull. I don’t worry so much about Shaun and you but there are a lot of people who don’t nearly have the firing time that you do.”

Greg clapped him on the shoulder. He wasn’t trying to make Clary feel any better but still felt a little guilty for saying it. “You realize that only, like, four of the kids left have shot one of the guns, and only a handful of times.”

Clary was mouthing four when McQuaig said, “Six, including Greg and Ricky. He forgot about him. Six is better because it is closer to a dozen and if we count you and Aslin then we’re good to go. Don’t you feel better now, Clary?”

Clary smiled uneasily, shaking his head, and was extra thankful for the large guns on the tank. “You know, considering the fact that we have this thing sitting here…yes, I do feel a little bit better.”

Greg said, “We had less than this when we left Andy’s if you remember. Shaun and I were going to head downtown by ourselves and with just the two of us. It isn’t about numbers it's about being smart when you’re doing it.”

“Christ, did you just tell me how to think and what to do? When did you start getting responsible, Greg?”

Greg shrugged as he walked back to the Humvee. “I don’t know; it seems like it snuck up on me, Clary.”

“It always does, smartass, it happens to the best of us, honestly. I was you once, you know; fast cars, faster women, and no good decisions anywhere in the vicinity. It's kind of amazing I don’t have any of you running around.”

“You know, I heard that in a movie that’s probably as old as you, Clary.”

“McQuaig, can you take Greg around for one more lap? We want to make sure when we come home tonight that we have as little to worry about as possible.”