The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (13 page)

Aslin pulled his pistol but it caught his wrist bending it until he dropped the pistol, losing it in the snow. Aslin was already thinking about the life he had, and while he didn't wish for it to end, he knew that he had done good with his time on Earth. He laid his head back wishing he could pull the pins on his grenades hanging from his chest. Aslin closed his eyes trying to think of something else that was more pleasant than having his limbs ripped from their places. A single rifle shot went off and it echoed across the wide open space. The pressure of the hands loosened until it became nothing, when Aslin opened his eyes he saw the Turned resting on its knees, its body limp. When he pushed it off of him he saw that half of its brain was on the ground next to him in what was once the white crisp snow, now bloodied and ruined. He looked into the snow trying not to blind himself and saw Maryann lying flat atop one of the trucks, using the roof of it as a shooting bench with her rifle still smoking.

Aslin gripped his pistol and put it back into its holster and pushed up with his good arm. He hobbled down, using his rifle to help keep his balance until he got his feet fully back under him. He knew that just because one was gone meant nothing. The others were definitely still coming because to his knowledge of the Turned, they did not know fear or how to give up.

More growling came from behind him and he watched Maryann melt back behind her scope and the rifle started to buck in her small hands. Patrick came up next to her as did Hammond. There was a small army keeping him safe and he made it down into the doorway which McQuaig was holding open. She patted Aslin on the shoulder not knowing of course it was out of place and said, “Hey glad your head’s still attached sir.”

Aslin scared the hell out of her when he screamed at the pain. He knew how to put it back in place but didn’t want to think about the fun of it. He needed to get inside and strip off his gear so that he would be able to do it correctly. He knew there wasn’t a point in waiting as there wasn’t a base doctor that he would be able to go and see to have it corrected. He went as quickly as possible, getting the gear off and yelling over his shoulder for the kids to get inside and to lock down the door. He walked to a corner, took a deep breath, stood against a wall and waited a second, aiming his shoulder at it.

“Isn’t that going to hurt Aslin?” asked Patrick.

Aslin looked back at him while nodding his head then put a knife handle in his mouth and slammed his shoulder into the wall just right. The pain went through his body, SEAL or not, it hurt and he could barely keep his feet under him. Patrick wheeled a chair over to him putting it in place for Aslin then said, “I think that you need to sit down before you, well, before you fall down Aslin.”

Aslin didn’t need to have that request made more than once; he collapsed into the business chair and let the knife drop from his mouth. The teeth marks in the handle would not be going away anytime soon. He instantly had a brow of sweat despite the cold temperatures.

Hammond asked, “Are you okay? Did you break anything?”

“No, nothing is broken, just really fucked up. Hey Maryann, get over here.”

Maryann came over slowly, worried about the ass chewing that was possibly coming her way for not listening to orders. When she was within grabbing distance, Aslin used his good hand and pulled her tiny frame off balance and into him. He squeezed her tight, giving her a hug that she hadn’t had since losing her parents months ago. She squeezed him back and patted his shoulder then asked, “So you aren’t angry?”

“About you saving my life? No I'm ok with that actually. Hammond, Patrick, thank you. You all did great, this is the exact reason why we trained you, and this is why I am so damn pleased that we did. Now give me a few minutes and let’s find us a ride out of here. We left with a mission at hand and we aren’t going back until we finish it, or until we run out of daylight.”

The kids were all in for this and nodded in agreement. Hammond asked, “Do you want to wait around here, or do you want to get going?”

Aslin looked down at his shoulder, trying to roll it and thinking of the idea of having the rifle pressed up next to it and squeezing off the trigger and sending a round through one of their skulls. He said, “We can go now, but honestly, Patrick or Maryann are going to have to take lead on the shooting from this point forward. I have to be honest when I say my shoulder is effed up and I don’t think that it will be the same for a few days. I’ve never had to deal with this on a mission. It’s an old injury and I've always been lucky enough never to injure it when we were out in the shit.”

“Are you going to be able to drive, or do you need one of us to do it for you?” asked Patrick.

Aslin tried lifting his arm knowing he was going to be not much better than useless. “Well I'd say with the current weather conditions one of you is going to have to be in charge behind the wheel. Which one of you has got the most driving?” he asked.

McQuaig answered, raising her hand slowly. Aslin said, “You got a lot of time behind the wheel do you?”

She said, “Depends on what a lot is.”

“More than twenty hours?”

McQuaig said, “Well, Clary let me back it up more often than anything.”

“Back it up?”

“Yeah, when we were moving supplies, he’d back it up to the doors and when we needed it a bit closer he’d let me in.”

Aslin looked up at the roof, staying calm. He knew that it wasn’t her fault or for that matter, any of their faults. It was something they just hadn’t learned yet. Given the fact that no one had tried to go out before now, there had been no reason to get behind a wheel. Aslin cursed a bit under his breath and said, “You know what, I’ll do my best to handle the wheel. If I can’t do it, someone is going to and excuse the pun, give a crash course in the art of winter driving.”

The teens nodded slowly, none of them wanting to have anything to do with it. Aslin reached out a hand and Hammond gripped it, helping him up. They walked around the showroom, thankful as hell for the tinted windows on the outside. There would be no way of the dead knowing that they were in there. If they stayed quiet and didn’t bleed there wouldn’t be anything that would draw them into the showroom.

Aslin left his gear where he’d dropped it, knowing that he wouldn’t be leaving immediately, and they walked around slowly looking at the showroom. “You realize these aren’t going to do shit for us right?” Aslin asked.

Hammond pointed at one of the corvettes and said, “What, you don’t think a supercharged sports car is going to do anything to help us out? I think they’d never be able to catch up to us in one of those things.”

Patrick said, “Well one thing to think about Hammond is that we didn’t go over twenty miles an hour the entire way here. You know why right? Yes, because there was a ton of snow to drive through on the way here.”

Hammond pointed to the car and said, “I know, but it’s a corvette, I've never ridden in one of these.”

Aslin sighed while looking at it and rubbing his good hand along the edge of the car. He said, “I have, when we were down in Florida for a few days before leaving for a mission. We had a weekend pass and me and Clary had rented one. We drove down the coast in it and pushed the car to its limits. I will happily make you a deal Hammond. If we survive this and come out of it ok, then I promise you I will bring you back here when the snow is gone and we will break this thing before we let off of the throttle, that I can guarantee you. God it would be fun taking it out on the open roads.”

Hammond clapped him on the shoulder, excited at the prospect and not thinking of the injury. Aslin reached for him with his good hand ready to grip him with nothing but pain in mind, but Hammond ducked away and out of reach. Hammond held up his hands in worry and said, “Maybe we should look for that truck to take us the rest of the way before we head out to the snowy tundra.”

Aslin couldn’t stop thinking of the throbbing in his arm and walked away ripping desk drawers open until he found a bottle of painkillers then eating a small handful no water to chase it with. They made their way into the back of the shop and saw that most of the cars in the service bay were sitting with hoods up and engines out of them. He looked in a large circle and said, “I hate to say this but we are going to have to try and start a few of these cars. Let’s hope that the owner had his employees keep plenty of gas in his vehicles or we are going to be shit out of luck.”

Patrick said, “You know we could always call Clary and have him come to get us.”

“Yeah we could do that but at the same time think about it. If he comes then no one is going to be left to take care of anyone. We won’t have any way of them being protected and if something happens to both of us there will not be many people left on the base to train anyone. If there is an attack then I hate to think of what could happen,” replied Aslin.

“Okay whatever you think we should do is fine. But are you sure you don’t want to at least let him know that we are a man down and well…..things aren't going so damn hot right now?” asked McQuaig.

Aslin took the radio and headed into the back of one of the offices of what looked like the manager for sales. He hit the radio and Kya answered, “Hey this is Kya, what is going on? Were you able to make radio contact with them? We’ve been trying to contact them as well but haven’t had any luck yet. I am pretty sure Clary is going to kill Greg when he gets back.”

Aslin thought of Shelman and was thinking that he was feeling the exact same way about the tongue lashing he was going to give him when he found him-if he found him. Aslin said, “No we haven’t had much luck. Go out and grab Clary will you, I need to give him an update.”

“Is everything ok?”

Aslin opened his mouth to say something but stopped, knowing that it wasn’t going to benefit a God damned thing to tell someone what happened with Shelman. When Clary came on Aslin said, “We lost the truck, we are working on getting something else here. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem though.”

Clary clicked back over and asked, “Wait, so you crashed the truck?”

“I didn’t crash the truck it was - well it isn’t important who crashed it. I don’t think that they are in Ankeny though. We are going to start heading back that way. We found a car dealership and we’re going to find a way to get back. I think they’ll know that they are up shit creek so if you hear from them let us know. We’ll keep one radio set to channel four.”

Clary had spent more time with Aslin than family over the last decade and he knew when something wasn’t straight. “You sure everything’s alright brother?” he asked.

Aslin said, “It isn’t anything that can be fixed, we can talk about it when we get back.”

“Keep your eyes open out there. Make sure that you get back and go find those damn kids. I have a very large boot ready for Greg’s ass when they get back here.”

“Gotcha, you’ll be second in line. Since I am out in it, I get the first kick.”

Aslin set the radio down and took a breath then pulled out the drawers hoping for the kind of salesman he was assuming he’d find. He looked in the deep drawer and saw a glass and an amber filled bottle and said a silent prayer. Aslin took the bottle out, ignoring the glass and threw back two quick pulls on it helping to numb the pain running through his shoulder, it didn’t take long for it to take effect. They’d not been drinking at all the last nine months. The thought of staying alive seemed more pertinent to them. He tucked the bottle back away into the man’s drawer and made his way back out. The teens that had been walking around dangled a pair of keys out in front. Aslin looked around for them and said, “What are those for, I already told you that we aren’t taking the corvette.”

Hammond said, “Don't worry sir, I already got those keys in my pocket. I don’t want any looters coming and taking this thing away from me. Who knows how many chances are going to come up to get out and enjoy ourselves.”

Aslin just stared and Patrick said, “We aren’t taking the vette, don’t worry. There’s a second showroom, and they’ve got a truck over there like the one we had originally when we picked you guys up on day two, except it’s a heavy duty one. There shouldn’t be any issues with the weather going forward as long as we can stay off of the ice.”

Aslin walked in the direction of their pointing, thinking that the truck they had found might be four wheel drive at best. He had forgotten almost all of these kids had grown up in Iowa and when they said heavy duty they were not kidding. He saw a brand new, dust covered dual rear tire truck with a diesel engine to boot. Aslin smiled ever so slightly, nodding his head in massive approval. “Christ you guys can pick out a truck just fine now can’t you?”

Patrick said, “Yeah this is what all the big time farmers in our town use. The ones who needed to get their cattle over to the auction house on their own.”

Aslin didn’t have to ask the animals fate at the auction house; he’d been to enough of them growing up with his own father and his grandfather to know exactly what happened to them once that lucky animal had fetched a hefty enough price. Aslin climbed in slowly, using the running boards under the truck’s doors to help himself practically fall into the truck. He tried moving his shoulder and was beginning to get a little bit of motion in it.

“Hey don’t you want to get your stuff before we get going out of here?” asked Patrick.

Aslin said, “Well I'm assuming that none of you checked that there was any gas in the tank right?” The group nodded as a whole and Aslin turned the key over, happily seeing that there was three fourths of a tank available, which with the size of the engine that the massive truck had, there wouldn’t be any issue getting anywhere in the near vicinity if the lucky call that they were very much hoping came through, did. Aslin put his head out and said, “Patrick since you aren’t all banged up why don't you go ahead and get the supplies I brought. Hammond you seem like you deserve to get to help at this point. Why don’t you tag along and help him get the gear. Maryann and McQuaig, why don’t you look at the front. There’s got to be a place to automatically get the door to send it up and down easily.”