The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie (12 page)

Aslin said, “Hey don’t assume that those people wouldn’t make it if the town is full of rich people. They can buy all kinds of useless shit that might help them to survive. Besides, just because there are some well to do’s out there doesn’t mean that there aren’t your regular working class also. Some of those yuppies might have entire caches of guns locked away that we don’t even know about. Hell, we might find a ton of survivors to offer to bring back with us. As long as they are on board with order, of course.”

Shelman said, “Well either way I think that it is a good idea that we don’t go and waste any time out there. Maybe we will be able to bring some supplies back with us if we see anything good.”

Aslin said, “No supplies Shelman, and no, I don’t have anything against it but there’s other times that we will be able to go about getting them. We need to spend our time wisely and make sure that we aren’t wasting what little sunlight that we have got left in the day. Just like you said, we either see tracks or we don’t, with the snow I’m gonna say not. I think that the radio is really our best and only chance. I think they’ll only have it on though if something bad has happened and that is if they were smart enough to take one in the first place with them.”

They took back roads towards Ankeny, unaware that they were headed towards the original outbreak spot first even before the hospital. The massive number of cars that were scattered around where the drivers had abandoned or been eaten did not feel them with hopes of finding many survivors to worry about bringing back.

When they pulled out onto the main road across from a Walmart, they saw no tracks as the wind was blowing too hard to see any and it looked like the snow had been there for an eternity and untouched. By the time they made it out by the interstate to survey, they drove very slowly, seeing a line of cars and semis. There was one semi that was crashed and a tanker behind it overturned. Eric rolled to a stop looking at it and said, “Hey look at that there truck, that’s from the drug making plant in town.”

Aslin looked at it and saw it was where they had gotten the papers that ended up doing nothing to save society. The car doors were open in the snow, or in many cases the car doors were missing from the vehicles. He said, “Shit would you look at that. That looks like it might be where everything started.”

Patrick looked at it and asked, “I thought everything took place at the hospital?”

Aslin pointed to it and said, “I don’t think that I can say for sure but it definitely appears to look that way to me. I don’t think that’s a good thing. There could be even more of those things here if the crash was this close to where Ankeny is. Look at the line of cars on the interstate along here, there’s no estimating how many people there could have been.”

Patrick looked both ways and saw thousands of cars that disappeared into the snow. He said, “I’d have to say a lot of them Aslin.”

Shelman asked, “So what do you want to do?”

Aslin looked at the snowy tundra and replied, “I don’t know, it’s impossible to know if they are here or not. Is anyone getting anything coming across on that radio back there?” The teens shook their heads no while clicking through the channels one at a time, waiting patiently for them to get contact with someone. Aslin said, “Alright, why don’t we head back towards the base, we can make our way to one of the other towns.”

“You think that we are alone out here? We must have had someone who made it after the first few days, right? You just want to leave? We should at least drive by the big shops here and see if their Humvee is anywhere to be found,” Shelman said.

Aslin went to say something until the snow started to let up and the Turned that had been hidden in the snow started to rise. They didn’t care about the cold and therefore were not bothered by it. Aslin mouthed holy shit and pointed then yelled, “We need to get the hell out of here, and we need to do it now!”

The dead that were at the front of the crowd were not alone and by the time Shelman had backed up a half mile, there were hundreds of the dead screaming and filling the space with echoes of pain.

Shelman said, “Ok then, Ankeny checkmark, bad idea to come back to. If you guys get a radio call from anyone let's go ahead and pray that it isn’t in Ankeny.”

Aslin yelled, “Pay attention to what you are doing Shelman, the last thing we need to do is-”

The truck spun out from behind them and one of the wheels went into the air after they collided with something that was in the street and big enough to send the rear end flying into the air. Aslin looked over to see a line of dead corpses frozen to the road. He tried to grip the wheel to correct the error of the driving. Shelman batted his hand away and said, “I know what to do damn it.” This statement was said just seconds before he hit a median and really bounced the truck up and violently coming to a stop and stuck.

The teens in the back that weren’t buckled were tossed around, bouncing and bumping off of each other. Aslin, who was strapped in, looked around at the disaster then a gunshot fired off and the window in front of him shattered in a small spot with something splattering the side of his face.

Aslin, who was too worried about the kids to wonder about his own safety, looked quickly at the window, focusing on it and noticing something that made him lose just a bit of hope. The window was covered with blood and when he turned his head ever so slightly, he witnessed Shelman’s eyes staring back at him, now dark and cold. The light of life that he always had in them was now gone. Pieces of his skull were stuck to the window and he rested on the steering wheel where he laid dead, blood dripping down into his lap.

Aslin went to touch his shoulder but he knew what the answer was before he did it. He wasn’t stupid and didn’t have to question the fact of if he was dead or alive. He looked into the back of the truck, Hammond was holding his rifle with fresh tears forming and falling down his face. Hammond said, “I’m sorry sir, I'm sorry! I didn’t know that the safety was off. I thought that it was on, but when I saw the Turned coming from the snow, I think that I thought we were screwed. I thought that they were going to come after us and that there wouldn’t be anything that we could do.”

Aslin snapped and said, “Well I think now would be a pretty good fucking time to get that goddamn safety on. When you see one of the Turned you flick the fucking thing off. This is not; I repeat not how we will lose men. I repeat this absolutely is not, not how we will lose people. Its things like this that make me think training you goddamn kids at all was a bad idea. What in the hell is wrong with you?”

Patrick put an arm on his shoulder and said, “Look it wasn’t what he was expecting to do. He did it on accident. It isn’t like he was trying to kill anyone. He did something stupid and there isn’t anything we can do to go back and fix his actions now is there?”

Aslin said, “No, and at least he isn’t going to come back as one of those things. I can’t imagine trying to have to kill him again.”

Patrick pointed his gun over Aslin’s shoulder, sending chills down his mentor’s spine. Aslin not understanding said, “You lower that gun right goddamn now kid or I swear to-”

Patrick unleashed a burst of four shots; bam bam bam bam, leaving Aslin unharmed and alive. The windshield which was already damaged, shattered fully now and the cold wind pierced Aslin’s skin. A group of the Turned now covered the truck’s hood. Patrick leaned past him and fired off two more bursts before finally stopping. Aslin looked out the window after figuring out the kid wasn’t going to try and kill him. He saw that there were dead coming and they were coming with a passion.

Aslin screamed, “Thanks, kid! We need to get the hell out of here now though. We can’t afford to waste any more time in here!” He looked at where they were then pointed and said, “I think that, that place is the way to go!”

Patrick looked at what he was pointing at and saw what looked like a never ending row of cars and trucks in a snow covered lot. He said, “You really want to hide out in a place that has nothing but glass covering the front of it?”

Aslin looked around and saw a Walmart and a hunting supply store that might as well have been ten miles away, knowing they’d never outrun the dead there. He yelled, “It’s your choice, but at some point we are going to need to leave this place unless we can talk Clary into coming out and picking us up from here!”

Patrick liked the idea of the guns that would be in there but figured the chances of there being much left inside the store was going to be quite a small one. He knew that it would be just as essential to have wheels as anything. He yelled, “Fine, ok, let’s go out and run to the car place.”

Aslin looked at the rest of them and said, “Grab your radios everyone. We are going to continue to try and contact the base and the others. We can split up the duty. I am sure we can count on Clary having the radio on. Now talking to Greg will be a lucky guess what channel he is on but if we are going to have to sacrifice and lose Shelman for this trip then we need to make sure it is a worthwhile trip out.”

Hammond sat there looking frozen in place. Aslin screamed, “I know it was an accident, but that was one that we can’t let happen again son. Now I need you to shake it off, and try and come back from it. There’s going to be plenty of time for you to be back at the base and mourn about it if you need to.”

Hammond looked up wiping at his eyes and asked, “What do you mean if I need to mourn, what kind of monster doesn’t need to mourn?”

Aslin shrugged, then said, “Just the kind that has done something like this before. Friendly fire is what they call it, and I've seen recruits get their heads split open by a chain of gunfire. It isn’t something anyone wants to talk about but shit happens and when it does, no one wants to have to deal with it. But eventually you are going to have squeezed that damn trigger so many times that you aren’t going to even have to think about the things that you are going to be taking out.”

“So you are saying that I'm going to get cold? Is that what you are?” Hammond asked.

“Son, I only thought that I’d seen the shit when I came here, and in my defense, until I had to call Iowa my home away from home, there was nothing that I had missed about war.”

“Wait, what do you mean? What do you miss about the times of war?” asked Patrick.

Aslin said, “Well, nothing honestly, but having a clearly defined line of who the bad and who the good are, isn’t something that is a small gift. The last thing that you want to do is shoot someone only to find out they weren’t a Turned. I don’t think that will make anyone feel better, but I'm sure that it will happen at some point. It is going to be-”

Aslin quit speaking when he looked out the front window and saw the Turned coming in one large horde. Aslin pushed up over the seat and into the back with the rest of the teens. He grabbed his pack that was loaded with ammunition and supplies and duck walked past them and kicked the back door open. “You guys go and head down to the door and stay low. I’m going to give these things something that they sure as hell aren’t going to want when they make it here.”

“So you are going to blow it up?” Patrick asked.

Aslin nodded, wanting to take out as many of them as possible. Patrick asked, “Do you remember Shaun’s story of when he thought it was a good idea to do that with Andy’s van in front of the hardware store? He almost got himself and the girls both killed when that happened. All you are going to do is ring a dinner bell saying, ‘hey come eat our dumb asses.’ Is that what you are wanting to do?”

Aslin went to speak and then shut his mouth as he knew the kid was right. He was having a hard time rationalizing it since he was still quite pissed about Shelman and the accident. He nodded and the two jumped out of the back. Aslin said, “Come on, let’s get going, those things are getting closer by the second.”

The teens followed him out. Hammond took the rear, looking over his shoulder at Shelman’s limp body lying up against the steering wheel. He made a promise to himself that he would never again have something like that happen. He knew it was no reason to lose someone over mistakes when there were enough threats roaming the streets in search of food, and not coincidentally, victims. Patrick yelled, “Hey Hammond, there is always time to grieve, just do it when the threat isn’t there, now come on!”

Hammond nodded then ran out the back with the rest and into the frigid cold air. They made their way down through the massive row upon row of last year’s car models, all with odometers that would never turn to one. The cars made excellent cover for them to go undetected. Aslin was in the lead followed by the five teens behind him.

Aslin walked quickly with his rifle up and Maryann was the first in line behind him. She watched as his feet went off the ground and he screamed as his rifle became his enemy. The strap was around his neck and shoulder and the force of it was enough to take him off his feet. He looked at the blackened hand that was attached to his rifle. Aslin, who should have been yelling for help, instead yelled, “Don’t wait for me, get your ass into that showroom and find something big enough to get the others! Go, Go, NOW!”

The teens hesitated for only a moment but would not refuse orders. Aslin turned his focus back on the dead and the task at hand. When it let go he slammed into the side of a truck tire, hitting hard. The Turned came up unapologetic and hungry. Aslin tried pushing up with an arm but he was pretty sure that he had dislocated his shoulder. The Turned leapt into the air then coming down only inches from his face. It screamed then leaned in and sniffed, ready to take a bite.