The Orphans | Book 8 | Retaliation Read online

  The Orphans

  Retaliation

  Vol 8

  By Mike Evans

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  © 2020 Mike Evans, All Rights Reserved

  Thanks to my beta readers Karen, Leslie, & Rebecca. You ladies are wonderful!

  Chapter I

  The CDC plane

  Shaun stared out the window, not really focusing on anything. He’d seen the green trees of Iowa and the rolling hills that seemed to go on for miles upon miles a million times before. It was just a way for him to not worry about having to talk, to answer questions, to do anything but think. His thoughts tortured him, always wondering if he’d make the right decision or about what he was doing. It seemed like everywhere he went, death accompanied him, taking those who he cared for the most. When he’d left Iowa full of guilt, he’d headed straight east, and that had been one of the few times he’d had a reason to leave the state. Being in a plane now was definitely not something that was his normal. He had not been in a plane before today.

  He had been an involuntary participant in the zombie apocalypse since day one. Shaun thought about Ellie and prayed she had survived. He’d blamed himself one too many times when someone had been lost to one of the Turned. They’d been unstoppable when unprepared, and even with supplies and firearms at the ready, they still had proved a difficult adversary, and it had not made for an enjoyable apocalypse. With all of those that had been taken, he’d learned one of two things, the first was there was no cure, and the second was no one was safe from them. He’d almost been taken by one more times than he could count.

  Shaun ran the awkwardness of landing and seeing everyone he cared about through his head over and over again. Every scenario that he thought of was one that broke his young heart. Not knowing who was still around, how they’d handled him leaving, how their encounters with the dead had gone if there had been any, or if anyone would be there to greet them at all. When he’d mentioned the military base in Iowa to the group in the plane it’d been a no brainer. They’d spent a year plus in the confines of the CDC building in Chicago and they knew that the time left that they could stay there was going to be limited. Resources had already been low and the number of the dead weren’t shrinking. They took every ounce of the drug to put the dead out of their misery and fought their way to the airport. The hope that there was somewhere safe to go was worth the risk.

  Earl saw Shaun looking deep in thought, not something he dealt with too often but could pick it up in others. He walked over, collapsing on the seat next to him. His neck wounds had begun to heal nicely, as expected. No one in the group had complained when Earl had been healing and ordered not to speak. That short time was over and he was making up for what he thought had been precious lost time. Earl nudged Shaun, winking and smiling. Shaun hadn’t tried to get close with anyone from the new group but had been thankful for them and the powder that was able to put the Turned down. Earl looked over the window and said, “What’s happening, man? You look like you gotta take a shit or something. You doing alright? I got nothing but love for planes now that I don’t got no damn drill sergeant tossing me outta any planes.”

  Shaun still wasn’t sure how to take Earl. The thought of a kid sitting eating too many paint chips had crossed his mind more than once. His dad had been in the military and had jumped out of many airplanes. “You did jumps in basic training?”

  Earl shivered at the question. “You don’t even wanna know what they used to do in basic training, man. Wake your ass up at four or five in the damn morning, on purpose. They make you run, do push-ups and sit-ups. You go running for miles. Christ, who runs for miles? Have you ever seen someone in the military running around Des Moines? Hell no you don’t, they always got them Humvees or the cargo trucks that fit a whole shit ton of soldiers. Them six packs ain’t gonna stop no bullets. Have you ever seen some soldier walking round the damn desert with his shirt off and a six-pack to protect him? No, no you ain’t. Being how they got themselves bullet proof armor to wear. I’d take a wild guess that even with this here keg sitting here that I still wouldn’t be able to slow down one of them bullets.”

  “You knew before you signed up what basic training was, right?” Shaun asked.

  “Shoot, I thought it was just some basic training, just like they say. See, I didn’t ask too many questions, and they didn’t give me too many answers. Couple times signing some papers and a pee test and a bad breakfast and I was off and headed down to what they call basic training.”

  Shaun didn’t really know what to say. Earl was really the first of his kind, and he wondered how he had survived an entire year plus. The fact that he’d been locked away in a CDC building probably didn’t do anything to hurt those chances. “I don’t really know what to say to that.”

  “Shoot, you don’t gotta say nothing. It’s like a fart in the wind.”

  Shaun was going to say something but there wasn’t a lot to add to a phrase like that. Earl’s attention was drawn to what the pilot, Bob, was doing. The plane started to bank heading out and turning around as it made the final approach to land on the highway outside of Camp Dodge army base. Bob hit the radio and said, “Please put your dining tables in an upright position and make sure that your seatbelts are fastened.”

  Earl slapped his knee laughing. It didn’t take much to hit his sense of humor in the right way. The rest of the group just shook their heads, the comedy of the moment passing them. The stress of taking off having an angry hoard quite literally following them down the runway and on top of that having a destination that led to an army base that a teenager claimed was there, safe, and that he hadn’t been to in months made none of them feel better. Scott and Mark had tried their best to get Shaun to make a call or communicate in some way to them and verify they were there but he’d only said that it needed to be done in person. He’d been so confident that they’d survived that the group decided to give it a try. They figured in the worst-case scenario they could just keep flying if it looked overrun with the dead until they found somewhere else that was safe.

  The entire group on the plane stared out the windows now. The answer of if they would land or continue was answered instantaneously. They flew over the base and saw a few groups standing. Until they started waving and then running to a main building did they realize that the people below were still very much alive. Shaun thought back to how he usually felt on the first day of school, or when he was trying to first date Ellie, and how compared to right now, actually seemed like a pleasant feeling. He thought if he could make it through the next few hours without puking that it would be a miracle. Mr. Li placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered, “You need to focus on something other than what you are frightened of, Shaun.”

  “That’s easier said than done, Mr. Li. I can’t just forget about what I’ve done, and who has been lost along the way.”

  “You could shorten your can’t to a can, there’s no t in can,” Mr. Li said with a knowing smile.

  Shaun was going to rebut but with nothing to say he wasn’t sure what he could retort with. The plane came in fast, its brakes screeching as the giant plane began to slow down just as quickly as it could. Those standing, who had ignored the warnings from Bob, lost their balance, going down to a knee. Earl tried to sit down as the gear touched, and the force sent him stumbling backwards onto the bench and beyond it. He slid off the rea
r, reaching in the air for something to catch himself with but found nothing available. The plane went up and back down one time and that was enough for Earl to topple off the bench, landing on his ass and back all at once with his cowboy boots sticking directly up in the air. The force of the hit squeezed out whatever gas he had built up and it echoed through the plane.

  Timmy couldn’t and didn’t try to hold back. He roared with a high pitch squeal that only a little boy his age would be able to achieve. Earl let out all of his air, looking over at Timmy and thinking of his buddy Jude, who was probably the same age he thought, and refrained from holding out his favorite finger. Shaun almost smiled, and when the plane straightened back out, held out a hand for Earl and helped him right himself.

  Earl climbed cautiously onto the bench and smiled saying, “Good thing I got me a belt on today, or ya’ll might have seen a lil bit more of my pride and joy than you might have wanted to.”

  Scott’s son Austin said, “Anything is too much, Earl.”

  Scott was going to tell him to mind his elders but he agreed. He was a little worried now that they were landing next to an armed military base with not much more than the clothes on their backs and the guns taken from the Chicago Police Department on day one. The thought that if they were not welcomed, they’d very quickly have an issue had been weighing on his shoulders. They still had ammunition, but it would be very hard to match up to a well-stocked military base he thought. Scott motioned to Shaun when he looked around the plane, taking in their last moments on it, at least he hoped that they’d not be sent away, not that he would be able to blame anyone if they did. At the very least, he hoped these people could stay.

  The plane rolled to a stop and Bob walked out of the cockpit stretching his back. Earl asked, “Well, what the hell are we sitting around for? I’d say it’s time to get off this damn plane. Shaun, do you think that there’s any cold beer on this base? I haven’t had nothing but pop, water, and coffee in so damn long I couldn’t tell you the last time any bubbles I like touched these succulent lips.”

  Shaun didn’t respond; his head was in a million places and Earl’s question was at the bottom of his list. Brandy put a soft hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly. “Hey, are you okay? You look like crap.”

  “I feel like crap. I didn’t think I was ever going to come back to Iowa. I left wanting to go solo, and all I did was pick up people along the way and get them killed. That’s all that ever happens.”

  Brandy thought about her cousin, the boys who showed up with Shaun and what he’d told her of his past. She didn’t want to agree with him and crush his soul but she was having a difficult time finding the right words. “You know we’ve all lost people, Shaun. It sucks, but you can’t just assume they won’t be there ready for you.”

  “Right, so put it out there, and if they don’t tell me to go to hell, then I’m good to just apologize until people forgive me.”

  “If they don’t accept you then they don’t accept us. Timmy and I, and I’m sure Mr. Li, will go where you go. We aren’t going to send you out alone…you’ve done enough of that.”

  Mr. Li stood behind the two, overhearing the conversation. He smiled and said, “I don’t know, Brandy. I like the looks of those fences and tanks.”

  The two looked at him and the old man’s face broke out in a smile. Bob hit the release on the plane and the giant door began to open. The fresh sunlight poured in through the doors and Shaun and Mr. Li headed out of the plane first. Earl was on their heels and whistled when he saw the line of tanks.

  Earl said, “Shaun, you think you could talk to the dude in charge here and see if I could borrow one of them there tanks, buddy?”

  “Do you even know how to drive one, Earl?” Brandy asked.

  “No, but seeing how this is a military base, Brandy, I feel like there’s a damn good chance that I’m going to be able to find some lovely resource material to help me learn a valuable skill such as tank drivin’.”

  Shaun said, “Lemme have a really uncomfortable conversation with quite a few people and then maybe I can ask if that’s a possibility. Don’t go holding your breath though. This is probably the first time that I’ve been asked to give a tank away…not that we have much more rights to any of these then you do. I just don’t see Clary in a good frame of mind thinking handing one off to you as an intelligent idea if you aren’t trained and ready to go.”

  “But you’re saying there’s a chance?”

  Shaun walked out the descending tail of the plane. He was going to answer when movement on the highway’s tree line caught his attention. Scott and Joe both were carrying rifles in hand and were only a step behind Shaun and the rest. They put their guns up ready to fire and Mr. Li put up a hand shaking his head. He whispered, “I’m sure whatever is coming out will not be alone.”

  Shaun said, “He’s right, if you start firing, you’ll bring all that are within miles this way.”

  Scott looked back to the storage. Mark was trying to get some of the powder out of the containers. They’d packed everything with caution and care. Mark held up a hand looking like he was going to freak out if he couldn’t get the winch strap off. They all looked back to the trees when Mark’s face went white. He didn’t deal well with the dead and unlike many others did his absolute best to keep as much distance as possible between them and himself.

  Shaun took off in a sprint heading straight for three of the Turned. Minus their skinny frames, their apparel resembled that of The Hulk, their clothes were tattered and in another year, they would probably be roaming the world naked. Joey watched from behind the fence as Shaun ran towards the dead. Joey had an excitement in his eyes that he hadn’t shown in quite some time. The joy that Shaun was back made his heart warm. Joey didn’t hesitate pulling the customized bat that Clary had made him. Clary reached out with an iron grip, catching the teen by his coat and keeping him in place, trying to figure out what the hell Shaun was thinking.

  “You let me go, he doesn’t even have a gun, Mr. Clary. He’s going to get killed.”

  “Of course, he has a…”

  Greg whispered, “What the fuck is he doing? He didn’t take a piss before he left without taking a gun or two.”

  No one else said anything. Clary raised his rifle but there was no shot that didn’t lead to a bullet going through the back of Shaun’s head or spine. No one saw it coming with the exception of Mr. Li who was already annoyed that he had not pulled his weapon. When they had found Shaun, he’d locked himself inside of an office to keep himself safe from The Turned. They had not been able to find him, but by dumb luck Earl had found the teen. When they’d had the building cleared Shaun had gone back through the floors he’d taken to get there and found Brandy and his weapons. By the time he was done Earl was pretty sure that they’d found a teenager with some serious fighting skills.

  One of the three dead jumped into the air, soaring higher than any other human could. Shaun jumped, but unlike the Turned, he had a plan of attack and every intention of using it. He came down rolling in a summersault, and when he came back a blade that looked like it came out of nowhere was in his hand. The dead screamed a guttural growl, they never got full and were always hungry for their next bite of flesh. They could eat night and day and would still not know the word content. Shaun came up with the sword pointed at a ninety-degree angle. When it came down, he simply flexed his forearms as tight as he could and held steady. The weight and force moving forward was enough to cut clean through its neck. The Turned’s head rolled away and into the grass out of sight, its body dropping where its momentum ran out.

  The other two never slowed down or showed any fear or concern for their fallen brother’s fate. Shaun didn’t either. He had a plan and just as much hate for the dead as they had hunger for him and every other living thing they could sink their teeth into. Shaun didn’t wait for it to get close to him. He sprinted straight for the second, and as it reached out to grip Shaun, he stopped and spun his leg out in front of the Turne
d, tripping it and sending it forward. The third was running so fast now that it was running on all fours, gripping the dirt and propelling itself forward. Shaun held the blade pointed straight forward and the Turned impaled itself on the two feet of steel stopping at Shaun’s hands. The blade stuck out of the rear of its head. He tried to pull the blade out but it was stuck in its teeth as well as through the rear of its skull.

  The second one rolled to its side, throwing Shaun off balance and backwards. Shaun went to pull a kama that looked like a hatchet. Shaun brought it around sidearm, getting ready to bury it in this thing’s skull, but Mr. Li knew that the young teenager still had very much to learn so he had made a blade seem to come out of nowhere. Shaun had to take a step back to make sure the handmade weapon did not stab him. A single drop of blood glistened off of the tip of the long blade, and as quickly as he’d seen it, Mr. Li had retracted the precision killing tool and made it disappear. It dropped dead, but this time it would stay that way. There would be no further torture to others.

  Shaun stood still and focused, looking into the woods; nothing else was coming from the shadows of the thick forest. The sound of tree branches snapping in the distance could be heard though. Shaun put his kama away and put his boot on the side of the other’s skull and took the sword’s handle in both hands and pulled it out, wiping the blackened blood on the dead’s tattered pants and sheathing it. When he turned around, he had nothing but watchers. Brandy, who’d trained right alongside Shaun, as well as Timmy, weren’t surprised at what they’d seen. They knew what he was capable of and so much more.