The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (24 page)

Karen squeezed her dad tight, still not really getting it. She said, “Well it’s because we have you that we don’t have to worry Dad, we love you. We know you wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us.”

Theresa said, “That’s what dads are for. It’s your job to make sure that nothing happens to your girls.”

Lou smiled uneasily and said, “Well, that is true baby but that is only as long as I am around to take care of you. There’s nothing that I can do if I'm laying on my back and dead. I can’t say that I want anything to happen to me, hell I definitely don’t want it to happen, but we can’t control fate. Those things come from nowhere sometimes and there’s nothing that we can do under those circumstances. “

When both girls started to get tears in their eyes he pulled them into a bone crushing bear hug and said, “Now listen, I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not going to purposely serve myself up as supper. What I want to do is let you two train with these men. I want everyone on the bus that is willing and able to do so. We are going to have a lot of work ahead of us and we are going to have quite the gain from it. But we can do it can’t we? We are Dziegiel’s and we can do whatever the hell what we want to.”

The older girl Karen said, “Language Dad, language.”

Theresa said, “Damn right we can Dad, we’ll do whatever the hell it takes!”

Lou gave her a look and stopped immediately when realizing she was on board and that was good enough for him. The rest of the ride they kept quiet, trying to think of the things they were going to need to learn.”

Joey sat next to Patrick, looking out the window past him and trying to think of something to say. He asked, “You ok Patrick?”

Patrick didn’t say anything; he just stared out the window. Blood was the only thing that he could think of and the idea of having to put Maryann out of her misery was slowly breaking his heart. Joey shook his shoulder lightly and said it again, “Are you alright Patrick, are you going to make it?”

Patrick tilted his hand side to side. “I don’t know Joey, today wasn’t too good of a day. I’ve been worried sick about you guys all day and now I had to put one of my friends down. I can’t believe that Shaun and Greg have had to do such things and they aren’t totally fucked up in the head. I mean, it has to have changed them just a little right? I can’t imagine taking out Christy, or when Greg had to take out McClellan, and that they didn’t change a bit because of it, but they always act so normal, so well adjusted.”

Joey stared at Patrick and it was apparent to Patrick that what he said might have gone over his head. He patted him on the shoulder and said, “Yeah I'll be ok, I just need to go for like a ten mile run or something. I can’t imagine that it is a great idea having that kind of thing happen too long. There isn’t much I can do but get over it, right? It isn't like the zombies are going to leave us alone.”

Joey nodded slowly and asked, “Did you like the bat? It does a good job of breaking their heads open, huh?”

“The bat did a hell of a good job. As much as I like my gun, I think putting one or two down with one of those wasn’t the worse thing in the world. It’s almost therapeutic to get rid of some of the rage. Each crack that I got to do on its head made me feel better, but when I looked down and saw Maryann choking on her -”

Joey laid his head on Patrick’s shoulder and whispered, “I don’t think I want to know any more about this Patrick.”

Patrick thought about the blood pouring out of her face and neck and realized that he didn’t want to talk about it any longer either. He looked out the window, watched the snow go by and just wanted to go to bed.

Greg sat in the rear of the bus, watching and making sure that they didn’t have anyone following them, or more importantly, anything. There was nothing coming their way but he didn’t take his eyes off of the road. Thoughts of Shaun, Ellie, and now Maryann were running through his head at a mile a minute. Then, if he was able to push those thoughts aside, the guilt over Phillip and Shelman were more than he needed to deal with. Greg leaned his head against the window tapping it slightly and slowly but not too hard. Hammond leaned over and said, “Uh you doing ok there Greg? You know, hitting your head might not be something you want to do with the few number of brain cells you have to deal with the way it is.”

Greg stopped, not even realizing there had been someone paying attention to him doing what he was in the first place. He saw Hammond sitting in the seat next to him, gun at the ready, and said, “It’s been a long day Hammond, don’t give me too much shit.”

“You do realize that we are here because of you right?” Hammond asked incredulously.

Greg set his rifle down then headed straight across the aisle for Hammond. Bending down, Greg picking him up and slammed him against the back of the bus. Greg said, “I don’t need one more person reminding me of someone getting hurt, someone getting almost killed, or someone getting killed because of my goddamn actions, Hammond. If you think that I am kidding you, please speak again, say just one more thing Hammond and I promise you’ll be lying next to Shaun and Ellie in the infirmary.”

Hammond pushed back off of the side of the bus and said, “You don’t scare me Greg, I’ve been trained just like you have.”

“Maybe, but remember one thing, you came to help me out. I've been in the shit all day, and I can’t say that I am not tired, but my God, do I have some rage that I would love to spend and there isn’t anything that would make me happier than not having to go to sleep tonight with this much rage.”

Hammond pushed Greg back and said, “Just remember, you probably wouldn’t be on this bus if we hadn’t come for you. You haven’t had to see what we have today and I think you should be thankful for that. God forbid you just say thank you.”

“Well the first minute that I can go ten minutes without someone telling me how I effed up today, I will think about telling someone thank you, but between the shit I'm getting and the looks of death and threats, I've had plenty. Now sit down and keep an eye out for the goddamned Turned!”

Clary saw this and his voice filled the quiet bus, startling the people who were already wound quite tightly. He screamed, “What in God’s name are you two doing? Sit down now and shut up. You both have jobs to do and you aren’t currently doing them. You and the back of the bus are the last thing between these people and the dead.”

Greg sat down in his seat, putting an arm up on the backrest and looked out the window at the distance and hoped there’d be no more loss for the day. There had been more than enough of it. He thought of Shaun and the conversation that he did not want to have, but knew they would have to if they wanted to remain friends. In a world where friends were not in large supply, Shaun was as good as they came if there were a million of them to pick from. When they pulled into the base there were faces lined up everywhere, hopeful that they were going to get a look at the new people, and anxious to see what it meant when they came. The talk had spread across the base that they had to leave immediately and no one knew the answers as to why.

Clary pulled up in front of an empty set of barracks. “We are going to set your group up in your own barracks. Once you decide if you want to stay, if you think this place is safe and you like it here, then we can talk about new sleeping arrangements if you want.”

Lou stepped out first, waving to Clary and then to the new people. He kicked at the snow which was covering the front step of the entrance and opened the door. When he flicked on the lights they slowly started to hum, but the fresh bedding, neatly folded, and the smell of warm heat pumping through helped to make him feel at ease. His daughters came in behind and one said, “Well this just reinforces the whole thing about how there’s no place like home doesn’t it.”

Lou squeezed her and said, “Karen, this place is the safest place that there probably is, and now you can sleep at night without having to worry about the dead coming through our living room floor.”

Lou watched as the rest of the people came through the door and there was a blend of excitement and caution at their new home. He made sure that everyone was safe and sound before grabbing his gear and heading outside. “Dad, where are you going we just got here?” asked Theresa.

Lou said, “There are sick kids, I need to go and help them the best that I can. You two stay put for the time being unless it is supper time and someone comes to get you. These are good people but we will explore this base together.”

The two girls gave a thumbs up and began to make their beds for the three of them.

Chapter Twenty-one

Lou walked out into the windy late afternoon and looked around. The bus had left and there were no people standing around waiting for them in case they had questions. Lou followed the bus tracks until he found Clary backing it into its spot with Greg, Hammond, Patrick, and Joey standing around. A girl sprinted past them and almost collided into him. She said, “Sorry I, I got to go see them.”

“Hey no worries, but can you tell me where the base infirmary is please? I need to get there.”

She pointed and yelled, “It’s about three blocks that way, just stay straight on that road please. You won’t miss it when you see it.”

Lou gave her a thank you and started down the road to the infirmary. Just as she had said, she was true to her word; he easily saw the building marked infirmary on it with a red and white cross sign on the side. He checked the door, swung it open and walked in and looked around for anyone. The building was surprising well lit even though the day was entering into darkness. He walked down the facility’s main hallway and saw it was going to be one hell of a big place to run by himself if that is what they were thinking. He knew that if they could get a doctor here it would take at least half of that burden off of him. The idea that he could train some people and one day have a medical crew working alongside him was appealing.

When he found Aslin he could see that the man was definitely out of his place. This was not his profession and he had done what he could for them by making them comfortable. Lou knocked on the doorjamb then held up a hand of greeting and went in and got straight to work. He added more blankets to Shaun, knowing they’d do little to hurt anything and then found IV bags and got both of them going with fluids. Aslin asked, “What’s the IV for? Are they dehydrated?”

Lou said, “Everyone gets an IV, being hydrated is a miracle cure and it allows me to administer medication directly into their bloodstream if needed. You ever go tie one on one night and take a bag of this shit, you’ll feel like superman the next day. I have a feeling Shaun has an easier road ahead of him than Ellie does. I have nothing better to do than stay here by their sides until they are awake. If you could look around for some hot water bottles, those wouldn’t hurt to put under the sheets with Shaun. Other than that, you feel free to go do whatever you need to do. I told my daughters to stay put so if chow time comes, please let them know I said they can go with the others to eat. They don’t need to wait for me.”

Aslin found him the supplies that he asked for and then said a thank you and left, leaving Lou to watch over the two kids in their beds. He went outside to the snow, zipping up his coat and pulling back on his watch cap. He was tired of this day and realized they hadn’t had one like this in almost a year to date. It was something that he did not want to let happen ever again if he could control it. He headed back towards the vehicle depot.

Chapter Twenty-two

Kya watched the man to make sure that he was going the right way then realizing quickly she’d just met the first new person they’d been able to take in, in over months. She turned back and ran to the group, colliding with a very numb and confused Patrick. She hugged him, and he almost fell over. She looked into his eyes, seeing the usual light he had in them was distant and missing. She gave him a kiss and asked, “Patrick, baby what’s wrong, what happened out there?”

Patrick went to speak but Joey said, “He had a long day, not everyone that left today is going to come back though.”

She went to ask who didn’t make it but realized that it could wait. She knew who went and the questions somewhat answered themselves. She looked at Patrick’s glove and coat and saw how much blood there was and knew that he had seen things that he would not soon forget. She looked to Clary and inquired, “Hey Clary you need him for anything else today or can I take him off your hands?”

Clary said, “I think that you are going to do more good for him than us at this point.”

Joey gave him a hug and said, “It’ll be ok Patrick, we are all gonna be ok.”

Kya took him by the hand leading him out to the bunks. She was ok about the quiet but worried for him. When they got back there she took his blood covered clothes off of him and set them aside to take to the wash. He just sat there numb and looking like he was going to be ill, she’d heard Clary and Aslin talk about getting adrenaline highs and when they finally came down off of it was a shock to the system. She wondered if he should go the sick bay but figured it wouldn’t do much good if he was just sleeping anyways. She whispered into his ear, “I’ll come back and check on you later and bring you some food. Get some rest.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Aslin hit his radio and asked Clary where they were. Clary replied, “Me and Greg are sitting in the rec room waiting for you.” Aslin met them there a few minutes later. He saw that it was empty of everyone Clary and Greg were in there at the time. Greg was currently having a staring match, waiting and knowing that there was going to be a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to. Aslin sat down, joined in the staring and asked, “Greg, do you have anything to say before we get started on this?”

Greg shrugged and said, “If I knew what was going to happen today I wouldn’t have gone. I couldn’t stand any longer, staying here day in and out.”

Clary said, “We aren’t trying to keep you locked up Greg, it’s for your own good. It’s for all of your own good. Those things kill, you’ve seen that. We’ve lost four today, four people that left to save you, to go look for you.”

Greg pulled off his watch cap while leaning forward and said, “Did I ask you to come get me? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad that you did, I'm thankful for it. But if you would have stayed here, they would still be alive. The people we found are going to be able to help the masses. We have a nurse now; we have more people to help with the work. If you would have just waited for us, we would have come back eventually.”

Aslin slammed his hand down on the table, cracking the cheap wood. “You would have come back, you would have been ok? You cocky little shit. You do realize Shaun had one of the Turned about an inch away from his fucking head right? You think that he was going to be able to do something to defend himself while passed out on the ice? The kid tried saving you and ended up falling through the ice. He’d taken out a hell of a lot of them but there was still one left, and it was going to finish him off.”

Clary said, “Regardless of if it was an accident or not, you can’t do that. We have people who are trained, we need to do it right the next time.”

Aslin looked at Clary. “The next time?”

Clary said, “Once the weather changes, we are going to go out. There has to be people and we are going to find them. We are going to take care of the Turned. There’s no reason that we can’t make this place safe, but we are going to have to take our time to figure it out. Going out into a snowy fucking tundra isn’t the right way to go about doing it. You need to keep in mind how dangerous it is Greg. If you’d have just given it a few more months, you wouldn’t have ever crashed the truck. You would have just driven there and been done. But at the same time, remember there’s going to be plenty of Turned when the weather is nice. They’ll have absolutely no problems at all making their way around the city without snow and ice to deal with.”

Greg looked Aslin in the eye and said, “Thank you, thank you for saving Shaun. I didn’t know that and it wasn’t my intentions for anyone to get hurt. Even if we had gone out in the summer things like this could have still happened. We still could have gotten there and gotten into a crash. If you want me gone, just say it. I’m not ignorant, there’s some serious real estate out there that is empty right now. I won’t have much trouble finding a place to lay low for the rest of winter.”

They looked at each other and Clary said, “Christ kid, if you can’t admit when you did something stupid, you might need to move on. Or at the least, you make plans to get out of here once the winter is done.”

Greg sat for a moment and said, “It isn’t that I want to leave. Now don’t get me wrong, I'll leave and I'll do so happily if I need to. I’m not scared of being on my own, the idea of not having to deal with this damn zombie infested world doesn’t break my heart but I want to stick around for a while and see if we make it through. The idea that a precious few dozen people are using this entire base seems like a waste and the longer that I stay here watching us using up all the amenities that we have is eating me up inside. I mean, we aren’t hungry, we aren’t worried like those probably spending long days and nights in the darkness of a basement praying that they can make their way outside to get a single meal and get back before one of the dead find them. If you guys don’t see that you need to wake the fuck up. I know, watch my mouth, but really, think about others besides yourself. We, not just you, are being selfish. You are doing so much to show people your skills but why have a small group at our disposal when we could have an army, one that could match the numbers of the Turned and give us something to believe and have hope in. Think about this, you have a thousand Turned in a horde but you have a group of three thousand people spread out shooting a hundred rounds a minute each, we would shred those damn things. You want to have somewhere safe, somewhere that you don’t have to worry at all; well the best thing to do is make these sons of bitches extinct. You do that and I'll be the best god damn listener you’ve ever seen, I can promise you that.”

They sat back staring at Greg and thinking how they were almost always outnumbered or, at least in the beginning they had been. How the dead would come from nowhere, and that was because they never had the numbers that they needed to make sure that they were themselves protected. Aslin got up from the table, looked at Clary and said, “I’ve had enough of this day, and I'm putting it behind me with a stiff drink then I'm going to sleep until I actually want to wake up for once. If anyone has a problem with that, tell them to put it in the complaint box.”

Greg said, “We don’t have a complaint box.”

Aslin held up a thumbs up. Greg asked, “But what about what I said, what are we going to do?”

Clary went to speak but Aslin turned around interrupting and said, “We are going to find people who have been forced to hide, we are going to do it slow at first until we get a process that works for us. While we are waiting for the snow to melt anyways. Once the snow is gone we’ll ramp it up, I assure you, and since it was your idea, we are going to do our best to make damn sure that you can go with on as many of these as possible. If you have so many goddamn ideas you can start sharing them with us and quit wasting them. How does that sound? But it’s on one condition.”

Greg pumped himself up a little bit and said, “Wait, you guys are up for it? Sure, what is the condition? It can be anything.”

Aslin said, “You listen to the orders given to you, no more lying, and you don’t leave the base without telling me again. Because I promise you, if this base falls because of you, if any more die senselessly then I'll put you out on the street with little more than the clothes on your back and carrying an open bag of blood.”

Clary’s mouth dropped open. He pulled a cigar out and said, “You and us will talk again Greg, before we start doing this. Let’s see how Shaun and Ellie do over the next few days before we plan this. There’s a great chance if we go and leave him behind he’s going to be quite pissed, there’s a good chance he is going to want some payback after all of this, and he is one hell of a shot the way that it is.”

Greg said, “Yeah, you know that Shaun is always in on going off to take care of the Turned when he has the shot to do so.”

Aslin and Clary both opened the door to leave and Greg almost choked on the words but forced them out. He said, “Hey guys, I….I didn’t mean to do this, you know that, right? I would never do anything on purpose to hurt someone. I just….I just thought that you guys had trained us so damn good that we could do anything that we wanted to and get away with it. We weren’t planning on finding anyone; we mostly just thought we’d cruise out and come back. If it hadn’t been for the black ice, you probably wouldn’t have ever even known that we were gone. It wasn’t like we were going to stay gone forever. We literally just wanted to go there come back and then tell you what we were able to learn and what we saw, hoping that what you just told us we could do would happen.”

“Is that your version of a sorry Greg?” asked Clary.

Greg nodded looking expectantly at them then Aslin said, “Well I’ve known this asshole for a few decades and he’s still never said sorry for anything stupid that he’s done.”

“Are you kidding me, when have I ever done anything bad?” Clary asked.

Aslin looked around the base and said, “I’m sorry, do you need the reminder of why it is that we are in Iowa and stuck in Iowa in the first place? I mean, if you need a quick little reminder ya’ll just let me know, I’d be more than happy to remind you of it Clary.”

Clary knew exactly what he was talking about and absolutely didn’t need to open the old wounds of the past. He knew how royally he’d screwed up by sending the information to the brass in Washington before getting a safe transport back to their base. He had come to terms with it though after news reports of the United States being taken over. The only place that he could think of that might not have been taken over was Hawaii and maybe Alaska, but the Turned had infected the states like a disease, not picking or choosing who it infected no one and absolutely no one was safe from them.

Clary gave him the finger and pushed out through the door the rest of the way, happy to brave the cold if it meant the slightest amount of nicotine flowing through his system if even just for the day. There wasn’t any health benefit that he could think of that was important enough to skip it.

Smiling, Aslin watched him go and said, “Greg, we will make plans, why don’t you go get some rest before dinner. I got a feeling you could use it.”

“Thanks for giving my idea a shot after all of this, I was pretty sure that you were going to throw me out on my ass Aslin.”

“It wasn’t far from my mind, but unfortunately for you, you have something that we need to keep well stocked around here.”

“What, a beating heart?”

“Potential.” With that he let the door shut behind him. Greg just stared at the closed doors.

Chapter Twenty-four

Two days after getting back

Joey walked across the base; the wind was high and frigidly cold. He did his best to keep the wind off of his mouth allowing him to breathe without feeling as if needles were stabbing the back of his throat. He pushed through the infirmary doors and went straight back to Shaun and Ellie’s bedsides, just like he had done both days before. He unzipped his many layers until he could sit and make himself comfortable. Lou walked past, patting him on the shoulder and asked, “How you doing this morning Joey?”

“You know I could be better Lou, Aslin took charge of cooking this morning. Clary had said he had some things to do.”

“Well don’t worry Joey, some of the guys and girls on my floor could make miracles out of much less than the supply of food that we have here, so I'm thinking the food is going to get quite a bit better much quicker. We just need to let everyone find their place here before we try pushing them out of the kitchen. We wouldn’t want to make Aslin and Clary feel bad.”

Joey laughed, then said, “I don’t know Mr. Lou, I kind of think that with all the curse words that Mr. Aslin says in the morning when he heads down to the kitchen that he might not miss it too much. “

He laughed at this, he knew this kid was not someone that took a lot of work to like, he was naturally sweet and real. “So what’s on the docket for the day Joey, you sitting here helping me again with Shaun and Ellie?”

“Yup, I'm in charge of them when you need a break and there’s plenty of beds if I get tired. They need someone they know here when they wake up or they are going to freak out. No offense, but you’re really big and a stranger, and they’ve probably never had a reason to be in the infirmary before, so if we let them wake up like that they might go crazy and start crying and we don’t need any of that happening.”

Lou said, “You know that you are one of those friends Joey that people keep their entire lives. You can’t buy friends like you. I haven’t seen Greg in a few days, do you know if he is doing ok?”

“He’s been keeping to himself a lot. He’s been talking to Clary and Aslin almost every day though. Other than that he’s in the armory or going for runs. He’s the only one I know that is training as hard as he is.”

“He has something on his mind; there is little doubt about that.”

Shaun opened his eyes and looked around and saw a very fuzzy Lou standing near him. When Lou moved out of the way he saw Joey standing there. He lifted his head off of the pillow and laid it back down quickly. He could tell immediately he was very weak. Shaun asked, “Who the hell are you?”

Lou said, “Well nice to meet you too kid. My name is Lou and I'm a nurse that your friend Greg found a few days ago along with many others. I’ve been in charge of you and Ellie. You know Ellie I assume, right?”

Shaun tried to push up in bed but fell right back down. He turned his head, seeing Ellie laying there with a bandage around her head and in a hospital gown just like himself. His lip quivered when he saw her. The fact that Lou said it had been a few days made it extremely clear to him that she was not Turned, that they did not get her. It brought a tear to his eye and his lip began to quiver.

Lou said, “She’s ok bud or at least we think she is, as long as there isn’t more going on than what the eye can see. We still need to try and get a legit doctor in here, but I think that she should wake sometime, what I mean is, I don’t believe that it is going to be permanent. How badly she hit her head will be easy to know once she comes out of it and can answer some questions for us.”

Shaun tried to get up and Lou gently pushed him back to the bed. He said, “You are just gonna end up falling on your face kid, give me a second.” He hit the releases on the wheels and Joey and he moved the cheap nightstand that was the only thing separating the beds. They moved Shaun so that he was right next to her bed. “You think you could eat something Shaun if we went and got you some soup?” Lou asked.