The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (27 page)

             
"Yeah, you can do something for me. I threw something out in my back when I came down here. Do you think you can help carry this big guy up that hill?"

              Charlie looked at the man, not really sure what the hell he was talking about. He looked a little confused and went to open his mouth, but Ralph cut him off. "Hey, don't sweat it! You see those two very skinny girls with me? They are the two who are supposed to help me get this big ass guy up to the helicopter. With the three of us we could do it, but this guy outweighs the two of them. You know and I know that isn't going to be possible. If you could help out, you'd be doing me a huge favor, kid."

             
Charlie nodded. "Yeah, no problem. I can help them get him up there. Do you think you'll be able to make your way back up yourself?"

             
"I can get up there. Did you get hurt in the wreck, or did you avoid it?"

             
Charlie shook his head. "I took a pretty good hit from the airbag, but I'm alright. I was more worried about my car. I need it to get to the airport. I'm supposed to leave in a few hours for Italy."

             
Ralph whistled thinking of the beautiful dark-haired and tanned women, and food which wouldn't do anything for his waistline. "Enjoy it, kid. These are the best years of your life!"

             
Once they fastened Ben to the stretcher, they made their way up the hill awkwardly carrying the hurt trucker. Ben started trying to lift his head and pull a bit against the straps restraining him. "Whoa, Ben!" Ralph asked, "Can you hear me? Do you know where you are?"

             
Ben just lay there not saying anything. A little pool of mixed blood and drool slid down his face onto the board. He kept trying to lift himself but the straps kept him in place. When they got to the top of the hill, Ralph leaned into the helicopter and shouted, "Hey, Henry! Could you of picked a bigger damn hill to land on!?"

             
Henry, a twenty-year veteran pilot, leaned back. "Depends ... did you want to land, or crash!? Get him loaded up! It sounds like Mercy could use our help back home! There's been code reds going off like crazy over the radio! Sounds like they are all losing their minds! Must be something in the air."

             
They lifted Ben into the helicopter and Ralph tugged at Charlie's sleeve to follow him. Ralph went up to a state trooper he knew and spoke to him. "Hey, Mitchell! This kid saved a man's life and helped us get him up the hill. Do you think there's any way you could help us get this young man to the airport? His car crashed into the back of the semi and it's shot. He has less than two hours to get to the airport and get through the security check points."

             
Mitchell stared at the young kid and shrugged. "I'll try and get him there but I can't make any promises." 

             
Ralph nodded knowingly, wiping the sweat from his forehead and shivering a little as the cool breeze came across the interstate pass. "Just do what you can to get him there. He seems like a good guy."             

             
Charlie smiled and ran over to Ralph shaking his hand. "Man, if he can get me there then you're a life saver, you know that!? This is one of those life changing trips!"

             
Ralph nodded. "Listen to Mitchell here, and don't be a pain in the ass, kid. Now get your bags and info you need for Mitchell, and get moving! You might just make it there on time."

             
The two men shook hands and Ralph hobbled back to get ready for takeoff, holding the sore spot on his injured back. He made sure all were secured and locked in before taking care of himself. He sat back rubbing his face and noticed some blood on his fingertips. He looked at the two other medics and pulled a mirror from his gear bag. He put it up to his eyes and noticed a small trickle of blood. He tried thinking of what had happened or if he'd gotten anything in his eyes. The more he tried to think about it the foggier it got until he couldn't think at all, and focusing was all but impossible.

             
Melissa started watching Ralph with an odd look on her face. She got distracted when she looked at the patient on the side of the helicopter. She noticed his eyes were now open and he was reaching up with his neck towards his shoulder. She thought he was trying to speak. She unbuckled her belt. Steering clear of the open door, she knelt down beside him. "Sir, can you hear me!?"

             
Bridget noticed this and pointed at him. "Loosen the straps! Give him some air!"

             
Melissa let the length out as Bridget unstrapped her belt as well. Ben lunged for her with his open hand, gripping her neck. She screamed as he pulled her in and tore into her shoulder and collar bone, gripping hard with his teeth.

             
Bridget looked at Ralph for help, but noticed that he was completely lethargic. She punched his leg trying to snap him out of it. She noticed that his eyes were bleeding. She hit his buckle. He looked up as she was freeing him and he bolted from the seat, pinning her to the ceiling with one arm and gnawing and ripping the flesh from her thin thigh.

             
Henry looked to see what the commotion was about, and did a wide turn when he saw the deranged and disturbing acts going on behind him. The change in momentum made Ralph drop Bridget who was bleeding all over making the floor slick with fresh blood. Bridget dropped to the ground screaming and crying in fear and tried to regain her balance.

             
The turning of the helicopter caused her to lurch and she fell from the doors.

             
Henry screamed, "
No! Bridget!
"

             
He tried spinning the helicopter in the other direction to keep her from falling, it was too late. The tail rotor came around fast chopping through her face and neck into her sternum. Her arms finally stopping flailing wildly as she was decapitated--a red mist of blood and guts and bones finely chopped by the blades left a red trail in the sky. Her hip bone became lodged into the rotor and the helicopter became impossible to control.

             
Henry knew there was no recovery from this and tried his hardest to steer it away from downtown Des Moines, but he was stuck spiraling toward the Capitol Building. He screamed as the helicopter spun madly, but Ralph came from behind stepping over the corpse of Melissa. Ben had chewed all the way through her neck now and he was tearing skin away from her face, holding her neck with one hand and treating her head like a turkey leg by ripping her nose off and chewing on it.

             
Ralph ripped into Henry's neck and tore the meaty flesh away quickly. He was hungry for the blood and couldn't resist. Henry unsuccessfully tried to maintain the helicopter's path at an angle which wouldn't blow it up when the inevitable happened and they finally crashed.

             
He was losing blood at an alarming rate and he knew it. He needed to get Ralph who had lost his freaking mind off of him. He kept the cyclic steering stick with one hand and reached for any weapon he could grab with his free hand. He stumbled upon his lightweight fire extinguisher. Pulling it from its cradle, he swung it in an arc into Ralph's head three times smashing
crack
!
crack
!
crack
!

             
Ralph finally released, feeling his head in confusion, and with a giant dent pushing into his skull. He was growling loudly at Henry but nonetheless letting go of his prize. Henry reached for his pilot's bag, grabbed for a towel that he could use to try and slow the bleeding, and felt a blessing. He let go of the towel and gripped a knife he kept in the bag. This was one of those times immediate survival needed to be a higher priority than bleeding. He pulled it out of his bag and ripped the blade from its sheath with his teeth, spitting the leather across the cockpit.

             
The feeling of a black out was growing stronger and more intense with every second. When he saw Ralph charging back at him he waited until he was close enough to smell. He moved to the side and towards the windshield of the cockpit, grabbing Ralph by the collar trying to stop some of his momentum. He was forced into the steering cyclic stick and, as he stabbed the knife through Ralph's eyeball and into his brain, he felt the force and pressure subside until he saw him fall to the floor.

             
Henry immediately let out a long held breath through a scream of pain of his own. He quickly applied all the pressure he could handle to the chunks that had been stolen from his flesh on his neck. In the fight with Ralph and against blacking out he had completely forgotten he was on a one way path to crashing. He turned around, screaming, "No! Please
no
!" only to see he had missed the Capital Building out of pure luck as the helicopter smashed into the busy downtown street.

             
When the helicopter crashed into the ground, everyone in the small space flew around like pinballs. Melissa's head bounced wildly from the front to the back. Ben, still strapped to the gurney, reached for it as it bounced just out of reach and out through the door. It slid diagonally across the pavement as the nose of the helicopter buried itself into the pavement. The blades snapped off as the force of hitting the concrete sent sparks flying.

             
A young couple in their twenties had been walking hand in hand, him dressed in his best blue suit and her in her nicest cream-colored dress. The helicopter crashed too quickly for them to react or run to safety. One of the three main blades snapped off, spinning vertically through the air, and skipping across the ground. It went directly through the man starting at his skull and ending at his crotch, leaving his girlfriend holding one hand as the other half of his body flew away--her left side and the street around them now painted red.

             
The second and third blade held strong together slicing another couple in their late eighties into horizontal halves. The spinning blade did not rest until it had cut through a cell phone tower, taking out almost all mobile communications in the Des Moines and surrounding area. At first, the people who had time to run did so and took cover as they watched the dangerous machine slide to a stop, sparks still flying. After it stopped, a few brave heroes jumped up and ran for the downed machine.

****

              Pat and his security assistant waited impatiently for the police to arrive. Pat watched the video monitors confirming the footage he'd watched wasn't playing tricks on his eyes.

             
The nurse who had spilled enough blood on the floor to cover the white linoleum had gotten up. It was easy to tell she was not the woman she was when she was attacked a very short time ago. Pat sat agape as he zoomed in. He could see the torn flesh, the bones in her torso, and the broken ribs from the attack sticking out through the skin. Blood covered her white nurse's gown from head to toe. He watched it twice, biting hard on his knuckles, gasping as he saw the unimaginable. She was tearing at her own flesh. Pat knew this day would be with him until the end of his years. He didn't know how much longer that would be.

             
Pat looked at Gutenberg. "How the hell did she get up with that much blood loss!? And what about the guy with the axe in his chest!? No one gets up and walks away from that!
What
is
going on
here!?"

             
Gutenberg watched the front of the driveway restlessly. He was on the waiting list for the police academy to accept him and was anxious to see them in action. He was sure if he seemed competent, maybe someone in the Adel police force would be happy to write him a letter of recommendation. He turned around and saw a look of horror and disgust on the old man's face. He was sure Pat was going to vomit. He'd seen the footage of the dead nurse and the man with the axe sticking out of him and didn't even so much as get an upset stomach. "Hey, Pat! You doing okay over there? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

             
Pat stumbled over his words. "I ... I've never seen
anything
like ... like this before! The nurse just ... just got up!"

             
Gutenberg ran over and watched in awe. "Wow! I can't believe she's up! She looked like she was a goner for sure! How is she moving? How is she alive?"

             
Pat blinked thinking about it, shaking his head in confusion. "I ... I don't know, but there's no way she survived that attack! For God sakes, look at her! She's completely torn to
shreds
! God, I hope the police get here soon!"

             
"If she needs help, we can't wait around here. We need to get up there! Someone needs to help her immediately!"

             
"Son, I understand what you're saying, but I don't think she's what you think she is. There is
no way
she's alive. We need to wait for the police to show up."

             
Gutenberg grabbed a walkie-talkie from the charging rack. "It's not like she's a zombie, Pat. What kind of place do you think this is!? Christ! We make vitamins! I'm going up there. If she needs help, she could bleed out by the time they get here!"