The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (21 page)

Andy’s rifle fell from his grip and slid across the street and out of his reach. The Turned grasped his head and smashed it into the snow. When the boy fought back he pummeled him left then right then left until it put its two fists together and starting hitting him with both hands at once. After that ceased, Andy would only be recognizable by his teeth, which would have to be found, and examined from the snow.

The Turned lowered its head, took a large piece of Andy’s neck and chewed on it, uncaring about the blood dripping from its mouth. Phillip leaned back against the wall of the bus while watching this and knowing that he would be next. When he looked at the rest of the dead dropping through the bus windows, he knew that he didn’t have a chance in hell and would rather it be on his terms, though very much rushed, than on theirs. Clary watched through his scope, trying to take them out but there were too many and he knew that firing was only going to bring them to him, which would not do the two of them and the many survivors that they needed both buses for any good. He mouthed ‘I'm sorry’ to Phillip who was more concerned with what was happening on his bus. Phillip unbuttoned a holster and pulled a cross out from beneath his coat then kissing it as he cocked his pistol. The Turned smelled the fresh blood in the bus immediately and rushed him. Phillip placed the pistol next to his temple and closed his eyes, then squeezed the trigger, sending a round in and out of his skull. Scott watched this, not having an easy time dealing with it. He whispered, “Is this what the world is now? Is this what it has come to? We couldn’t save them. We couldn’t do anything for them.”

Clary watched as the dead devoured Philip, ripping him effortlessly into two pieces. The Turned were in no rush to go anywhere and did not seem to know fear. They sat eating greedily, fighting over the scraps until they were picking at bones, breaking them open and sucking out the juices within them. Clary was thankful that at least Andy would not have to be one of them. Scott said, “All that those things do is hurt, how could God let something like that exist?”

Clary turned around, walked back into the bus and pat the kid on the back then said, “Sometimes the devil slides one past us, we are going to have our day though.”

Scott followed him up the steps of the bus and the two finished the short drive, having no other problems on their way there. Scott said, “We really need to take care of these things. I mean eventually they are going to make their way out to the base and that fence is a joke. It only takes one horde and the place is going to go into chaos. We either need somewhere better to live or need to take care of the place that we do live, don’t you think sir?”

Clary thought about it, but had previously looked up population numbers and the math that he had done to figure out how many of the dead there could be in Iowa was mind blowing. He had seen there were three million people in the state. If on hopeful figures, half of the people survived the first few days, that meant there was still well over a million zombies, which even if they were spread out, was still a horrible thought to deal with.

The sheer numbers of the Turned that he knew would happily pick him apart was depressing to try and wrap his head around. Clary looked to Scott, who after seeing what just occurred, was even more hateful of those things than he already had been. There were no sympathizers towards the Turned on base because they’d taken so much from so many.

Clary said, “I have no reasons that we need to allow these things on earth, but we need to figure out smarter ways to put them down. There’s just so many of them kid. Every time I've had to deal with them there has been loss, and with the numbers that we have, if we continue this way, we are going to be the ones extinct, and then there won’t be anyone to keep the rest safe. If we are going to look for a new place to live, we either need a pilot or we need to head west.”

“Why west?”

“Because when I was looking up populations when this first happened, and I realized that this place was going to be my new home, I saw that Illinois has about twelve million people. That’s a lot of fucking zombies Scott.”

Scott tried to think of a hundred of them rushing him and then started multiplying that until the numbers were too great to be able to realistically visualize. He sat back in his seat, thinking of that and asked, “You think west huh?”

Clary nodded but said, “And I still don’t think that leaving the base is the better of the ideas. You want to know what I think we should do?”

Scott nodded, nervous at what the idea was that Clary was thinking of with just a hint of evil in his expression at the thought of taking out all of them. Clary said, “I want to send them all back to hell, but if we could find somewhere to get them to be trapped then I say we blow the damn place up. It’d take a lot of work to get it set up but don't know why we couldn’t get it done. If we could rig a building, or a stadium for that matter, to blow, then we could take out thousands. We could make Iowa the first place that took back its land from the Turned. We could spread out and find survivors and train them as well. There’s almost one gun for every man woman and child in the United States. Out of the entire world we have the most firepower, that’s why we’ve never had anyone come after us, you know why they don’t?”

Scott was feeling his energy and said, “Why, because we have so many guns?”

Clary said, “Well yes, but the reason is because it’d be a fucking blood bath kid. If every able bodied man and woman took arms if someone tried to attack, they wouldn’t last a month here before our forces merged and we took them out. We might fight and bitch and bicker at each other but I promise you this my friend, it’s just like brothers and sisters, they act like they hate each other but you put the two of them together and they need to watch their backs, they’ll rip your fucking eyes out and they’ll do it with a smile on their faces.”

“So are you going to mention the idea to Aslin?”

Clary shook his head no, he said, “Nah I'm going to let today finish itself out. Maybe this week we can have a big meeting and discuss the future. I have a feeling today has taken its toll on people. I was honestly thinking that if we are able to find this many survivors still we need to set up a weekly or even daily run to try and find others. But if we are going to have things like what just happened to Phillip and Andy, then I can’t think that it would be a good idea to keep doing it. I think for taking out the Turned en masse, we need to do it when the weather is on our side and we have all the sunlight that we are going to need and no snow. We are handicapped by the elements, not that they aren’t, but they sure as hell still move better than we do in this shit from what I can tell.”

Scott knew this to be truth for sure. “So then from here on out, we just do what, hide until winter is over?” he asked.

Clary nodded, “We keep training, and we keep under lock and key and pray that they don’t come for the base until we are ready. I’d be happy to have a second location set up full of food and gear, but it all takes time and the luck of being able to succeed in doing it. This is worse than many of the war zones that I've had to jump into because there wasn’t anywhere safe enough to land and drop our asses off.”

“So you’ve been seeing horrible places long before this, did that make it easier for you?”

“It never gets easier kid. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen it once or a thousand times. Human life is human life and it’s a waste having to put it down because of some other leader’s plans. When we go over to other countries, people don’t really understand the thinking process behind any of it. We are Americans and while we are the greatest nation in the world, don’t get me wrong our vision is quite tunneled.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well think of it this way, the soldiers we are going over to kill are our enemy right? Why are they our enemy, because they are following some asshole’s directions and causing a lot of pain? What would happen if they questioned the guy in charge? That’s right; they’d probably get a bullet in the back of their head. So Americans jump into their land armed to the teeth, blowing up buildings, making people lose jobs, businesses shut down, making men and women try to kill us in the streets, and in the end we come home to a hero’s welcome and leave those countries under our ruling, and on top of that, ruin their economy all because we were trying to take out those in power usually."

Scott sat back in his seat looking up at the ceiling and then out the window at the snow passing by. "Jesus Clary, how the hell do you do a job like that and not go freaking insane?"

“Honestly? It isn’t that hard to tell you the truth. Some times are harder than others, but most of the time it is just trying to remember that our leaders are typically better educated and more informed than their leaders. I don’t see taking a sadistic leader over in Iran out as a bad thing when he is wining and dining and giving himself and his family every amenity that he can and leaving those starving in the streets. There are many third world countries who laugh at our system of helping those in need. Do I think that we needed to take care of everyone that doesn’t actually need our help? Hell no, but those that do need it should get it, and in a world like that they would be long dead and so would their loved ones. The other part about it is regardless of what anyone says, I'm still God damned proud to be serving my country, at least until my country told me that they no longer needed or wanted my service.”

Scott said, “You mean that didn’t leave you the least bit bitter towards the government?”

“No, not towards the government, there was so much shit that they were having to deal with at that time that they didn’t know what in the hell was going on. It was on one man’s shoulders for sending us here and then leaving us. They could have made attempts at trying to get us out of here, they could have flown someone in, but they didn’t want to try because they didn’t think that the risk was worth the fucking gain. One precious pilot for two SEALs with guns apparently isn’t much of a trade. But I can and will promise that if by some lucky damn miracle I run into the son of a bitch who left us here and said thanks for your help, that I'm going to make what a Turned does to them look peaceful and kind. I am not kidding, I can promise you this much!”

Scott nodded his head slowly, the bit of crazy that was pouring out of Clary’s eyes kind of gave him the creeps. He only had to worry for a moment because as they passed he saw the Humvee that Greg had been cruising in. He pointed to it as if Clary could miss the army truck crashed into the barrier of the bridge and spun around in the street. Clary slowed down looking at it, seeing there was no sign of blood or carnage in or around the truck. Scott asked, “So that’s a good sign right, that there isn’t anyone at the truck or any signs of pain?”

Clary said, “Really I was thinking that it was a good sign the truck had windows and tires all still intact, as well as doors. I’ve seen those sons of bitches rip them clear off of their hinges before and I tell you what, I'm pretty sure that they are capable of quite a bit more if they really wanted to or had reason to do so. They don’t know what they are capable of and I thank God for that.” When he got to the other side of the bridge he saw the gas station and the large truck that Aslin had said they would be in. He pulled into it, circling the station and getting a bit nervous about the bus getting stuck in the thick snow.

When they came to a stop, Aslin got out babying his arm and Clary could see instantly there was something wrong. Aslin said, “Hey, thanks for coming brother. I thought that you were going to bring someone with you? Did you decide that the people could just leave their shit at home and we’d come back for it?”

Clary, who was thinking he was the only one that had bad news to spread said, “No, not really. We lost the other bus on the way here. Phillip must have given it too much gas and it started to fishtail. He didn’t correct it right and the fucker flipped over on its side. When it came to a rest, the Turned came out of nowhere and they were on it like flies on shit. Andy did his best to try and persuade them to keep some distance from them but what they did to the two of them made me want to get sick.”

Aslin leaned against the truck shaking his head. He asked, “So we lost Philip, Andy, and the bus to take the majority of the people back in? What the hell is going on today? Hell I was actually a bit worried about having to break the news to him when he got here.”

“News? What news are you talking about?”

“The fact that we lost Shelman when we went to Ankeny. We can talk about it later, but it is over, he didn’t go by the Turned though, there was a firearm problem, and no, he didn’t shoot himself in the head.”

Clary said, “Well at least that makes one of them.”

“Phillip just gave up, he didn’t try to escape?” Aslin asked.

Clary shook his head no. “You don’t really know what you are talking about just yet. When they came out of the woods it was almost already too late for them. When I was watching Phillip through my scope I saw that he had lost his foot, and I don’t mean broken, I mean his foot was elsewhere and on the highway. What he did next made me feel bad for his existence and hope God would have serious mercy on his damn soul.”

“What did he do?”

“He put the pistol to his skull and squeezed the trigger. After that it was a matter of time before the Turned were down in the bus and literally ripped the poor son of a bitch apart. He didn’t know what hit him, not that it mattered after the bullet to the head.”

Aslin didn’t know what to say, the two had been the reason for the onslaught of death at Andy's and even though he probably knew that the group would be safer and better off without them, he still couldn’t help but feel a bit of guilt about the loss.