The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (11 page)

Clary asked, “Who are you going to take with?”

Patrick cut in, the longer he had to listen, the more horrible things that he was imagining happening to his friends passed through his eyes. He wasn’t stupid and knew that just a few more people against a horde of Turned weren’t going to make much of a difference. In light of that, all the things that they had been through together since day one basically meant that there was no way that he was going to stay here and wait while knowing that others were out looking for them. He knew he’d drive himself nuts if that ended up being the case. Patrick looked at Kya for a minute, thinking how he didn’t want to leave her and said, “Sorry.”

“For what?” she asked.

He hit the talk button on the radio, wondering if this was what soldiers felt like before they went off to war. He said, “Guys, I am volunteering. I want to make sure that you don’t fill up with people before I get my name in.”

Aslin said, “Good I’m glad to have someone that knows how to use a gun efficiently. Meet me over at the armory, we are going to get three more to go and then we need to get out of here. It’s less than three or four hours before it gets dark but probably sooner with the snow.”

“I’ll meet you over there in twenty, did you want me to try and find some more volunteers or did you want to do it yourself?”

“I’ll do it; you tell your sweetheart goodbye and let’s get rolling out of here.”

Patrick didn’t answer. He just leaned in and gave her a kiss. He said, “You wait up for me, I'll be back later.”

“And what makes you think that I am going to wait here for you and not come? You do realize they are my friends too. I mean, what have you known them, a whopping two days longer than me? And do you really think I could sleep knowing that you are out in that?” asked Kya.

“I know the guns better than you do, and you know that.”

“And what does that matter?”

“It means I'm going to be more handy out in the field, and that if I have to worry about something happening to you, then I am not going to be any good to Aslin or anyone else that we bring with. Just do this for me and we will meet up later, ok?”

“Wow this sucks, you do realize that right? You know that I'm going to drive myself insane sitting here and waiting for you to come back right?”

Patrick squeezed her just short of cutting off her air supply. “I can’t worry about losing you Kya, besides; you are the first girl who’s ever paid any attention to me. If anything happened to you I'd have to be single for another fourteen years.”

Kya laughed, gave him one more kiss, and brushed his cheek with her hand. She said, “You were only single for that long because teenagers don’t know something good when they have it standing right in front of them. Just promise me that you are going to come back tonight.”

Patrick kissed her forehead and said, “I’m sure as hell going to do my best. I love you and we’ll be back tonight. Why don’t you hang out with Clary on the radio and make sure that everything is ok? If we need help or anything you can sure as hell hope that we are going to be asking for it and doing so quickly.”

“Oh great, a fun filled afternoon with Clary,” Kya replied.

“I just want to know that someone is looking out for me if we need help.”

She nodded then turned around and walked into the blizzard. She was thinking that being in the Midwest wasn’t looking like the smartest place to try and survive the apocalypse the longer winter snow fell.

Chapter Fifteen

When Patrick showed up to the armory, Aslin had Hammond, McQuaig, and one of the top shooters, Maryann. Patrick actually liked that about Aslin, that he didn’t care if the teen was a guy or girl and that they all needed to learn and they shouldn't have to worry about anyone out there being reliant on someone else regardless of size, age, or sex. It was everyone’s responsibility to be able to do every job. He knew that they were a long way from there but working over the last three months training they had done quite a turnaround from whom they had been when they were first brought here.

Shelman walked out, looked around while stretching out with all of his gear on and nodded, looking a bit relieved when he saw Patrick. He knew few of the other kids that hadn’t come straight from the orphanage that they’d rescued and took to the base. Anyone that came after that hadn’t really wanted to talk to what they considered to be the old guy who didn’t shoot like the SEALs. He waved, nodding his head to the boy and Patrick did so back. Patrick asked, “What are you doing Shelman? Did you and Phillip draw straws?”

Shelman said, “No that’s stupid, of course not.”

Aslin came out checked over the crew and said, “Yeah that’s just dumb, they drew cards instead.”

Shelman said, “Yeah well, I've never had that great of luck anyways. I need more of you kids to learn how to drive better so we don’t get looked at first every time someone needs a competent driver.”

Patrick asked, “Why, so that you will be able to stay at the base and out of harm’s way?”

Shelman said, “Well when you say it like that, it just makes me sound like a coward.”

“And how exactly should it sound?” asked Aslin.

Shelman shrugged. “I don’t know, but maybe some way that makes me sound cool. Are we heading out or what? I don’t want to be out after dark, it's a bad damn idea.”

Aslin whistled then opened the back door for the kids to climb in and take the bench seats. Patrick took shotgun next to Aslin doing a quick sign of the cross before he buckled himself in. He rested his long range rifle next to him while keeping his AR tightly gripped in his hands.

Aslin asked, “You up for this?”

Patrick said, “Doesn’t much seem that they gave us a choice. But please, when you are thinking about the punishment that you wish to put on them, would you please remember that Patrick said toilets, like lots and lots of toilets for them to all learn on, maybe after chili night.”

Shelman wasn’t catching on and questioned, “What do you mean toilets?”

Patrick smiled widely and said, “You know like a toilet, preferably one you have crapped in recently Shelman, and one that they have to clean with a toothbrush.”

Shelman laughed and Aslin laughed. Aslin clapped Patrick on the back and said, “Seems like you are just as annoyed about this as I am kid.”

Patrick looked at him and said, “Are you kidding me? I couldn’t be happier being on this base. Kids bitching about wanting to leave and not looking at the good stuff we got going on. I love knowing that we are training to be able to take care of ourselves. If and when we do decide to start going back out to try and find people, I sure as hell wouldn’t have picked a day like today with a foot of snow and ice and wind to decide to start. That is, if he even had that smart of a reason to leave for. Besides, I had to deliver the shitty news and I have to leave my girlfriend here because if I take her with, all I'm going to do is worry about her the rest of the time, and I’m pretty sure she’s going to be pissed with me because of them.”

Maryann and McQuaig both asked, “What are we, chopped liver?”

Patrick smiled and showed that he definitely had spent time with Greg. He said, “No, not at all but at the current time we are dating and she is like a record holder right now.”

Aslin said, “For god sakes bud, TMI, TMI man.”

Patrick said, “Oh God no, nothing like that. All I mean is she is the first girl that I've ever met who has liked me besides my mom and my grandma. I have to say that I am quite a big fan of Kya the way that it is.”

Maryann was going to say something but Hammond cut in and said, “So the earlier we leave, the faster we are going to get back right?”

Shelman, without thinking beforehand, asked, “What are you in some kind of a hurry or something Hammond?”

Hammond pointed at the small circle that was supposed to pass for the sun at this point. He said, “Yeah, I sure do have a problem Shelman. You see that little yellow thing up there? Sure you do right? Well that’s the sun, and it’s winter, and since we are just now finding out about this stupid little road trip, one that we don’t even have a clue on where to start at by the way, daylight is running out.”

Shelman said, “Hey it gets dark and we come back, that isn’t really all that complicated is it kid?”

Aslin said, “We don’t talk like that Shelman, we are going to find them. If we get lucky, hopefully one of them will be running the radio and we will be able to get ahold of them and figure out where in the hell they are. If we were going out on a regular basis we would at the very least be smart enough to have a channel set up in advance.”

Shelman, who should have quit while he was ahead, asked, “Wait, what do you mean you should have a channel set up? Why don't you, that’s pretty damn ignorant is it?”

Aslin got into the truck, gripping Shelman around the neck with a hand that had chopped more wood as a farm boy growing up than anything else he had done on that farm. He clenched his neck, leaned in uncomfortably close, and whispered, “You know Shelman, there’s a good chance that yes we should have had a station channel set up. But you want to take a wild fucking guess as to why we haven’t set up a emergency radio channel for when people leave the base yet?”

Shelman nodded, trying to say yes but it came out shaking and confused sounding, “Uh ow huh.”

Aslin said, “Because we still aren’t allowing a single God damned person to go out and off of the base. The only thing that’s allowed on the outside of the fence is someone that hasn’t been accepted into the group yet, or one of the Turned. Now does that seem pretty not ignorant or do we need to continue this conversation, Shelman?”

Shelman tried to smile, wincing even more. He said, “Yes, you know that is one hell of a good point that you got going on there Aslin. Now if you could let go of my neck muscles, it might do me good to be able to turn my head just the littlest bit today don’t you think?”

Aslin squeezed just a little bit harder for a second, making sure that the point that he was attempting to make was very clear. He let go then motioned for him to roll out the truck. Shelman smiled then tapped his hand around on the steering column to find the key that wasn’t there. With a nervous smile he looked to Aslin who was already shaking his head and wishing that Phillip had been the one to draw the card. Aslin leaned forward and hit the button to start the vehicle. Shelman laughed nervously and asked, “No key huh?”

Aslin said, “Nope.”

“Why’s that?”
“Because the Army was worried that there would be a zombie apocalypse and at some point there would be zombies running all over the fucking place. They figured the first guy to get eaten was going to probably be the asshole driving the vehicle and carrying the keys.”

“You gotta be shitting me, really? They were thinking that far ahead?” Shelman asked.

Aslin did a sign of the cross then leaned his head back and pulled his winter hat down over his eyes as he enjoyed the laughter of the kids that were sitting behind him who had figured out long ago that he was full of shit.

Shelman swung around in his seat and barked, “Hey, let's show a little bit of respect, damn it. This is some serious shit we got going on here. If you were listening to him just then, you’d know how important it is for me to walk behind all of you so I don’t get eaten.” He pulled the truck out and Hammond pulled forward on the bench and grabbed one of the radios, as did the others in the Humvee, and started flipping through the radio channels.

Aslin asked, “So where do you think that they are? What are some of the towns around here?”

Shelman thought for a second and said, “You know there’s a damn good chance that they went to Urbandale or Johnston. They could have gone to Ankeny or Polk City too. It’s kind of hard to say. The first two would be my best bet though. We could travel the main roads, I don’t think that it is going to be too difficult to find them if we can get outside while there is still some light.”

McQuaig, who hadn’t thought it out, asked, “What you have some magic way of finding a needle in a haystack up there Shelman?”

Shelman smiled hitting the CD player that he had rigged in the truck and said, “No, but I do know that if you are smart enough to find the tracks you can follow them. If you get to the point that the sun goes down then those tracks aren’t going to do a whole hell of a lot of good now are they?”

The kids actually looked at him with a bit of surprise and shock and Aslin, who he’d thought had instantly gone to sleep, said, “That might be the smartest damn thing that you have ever said. Like ever, in your entire life, or at least in the time that I have known you. Of course, the tracks would all be covered by now.”

Shelman puffed up his chest a little, knowing it wasn’t the greatest compliment, but coming from Aslin it was about as damn good as he was going to get. He decided to take a chance and said, “If any of you guys hear anything different about where we ought to go, then you say something. Those damn radios are a work of art and they’ll go for miles on end so if they have it on, we are going to find them. I can’t think of a better place for them to go than Ankeny with all the shops that they have and the town is further away from Des Moines than others. Worst case scenario, there are so many damn houses in that town that we are still going to be on the safe side by headed that way. There isn’t a chance that any of those rich yuppies made it out there. So hey, at least we should be able to find somewhere to hold up at if we can’t get back today.”