The Orphans | Book 8 | Retaliation

by Evans, Mike

  Ellie tried making her way into the back, over Joey, but he held her, trying to keep her safe as always. Lucas was firing off shots still, but he had no way to aim at the moment. One of the bullets grazed the arm of one of the Turned, and although they felt no pain, they did not appreciate being shot. Their meals were all that they focused on, and right now, this meal was pissing it off.

  The Turned took the rear of his head with both hands, pulling one back quicker possibly than it had meant to and ripped a section of hair out of the rear of his skull. Lucas did a half-assed job of screaming, it was nothing of his doing, but because the Turned held so tightly on his face it had smashed the bones in his jaw, and his lower lip and teeth hung limp, swaying side-to-side.

  The Turned used its other hand and began smashing his face into the Humvee’s roof. Lucas was beginning to black out very quickly and realized he didn't have much longer left on Earth if he didn't try and do something quickly. He tried firing off a few more shots but it did nothing and the Turned only seemed to get angrier by the second as it became intoxicated with the idea of eating him, given the blood that was like a sweet perfume making its way into its senses. His blood was coming from between his clenched teeth.

  Lucas knew as soon as the blood came from his face and head that it was pretty much over. There were no white gloves used when it came to being handled by the Turned, they were brutal and ruthless, and passion, if they could talk, was not something in their vocabulary. It turned out he was still kneeling down, keeping its balance the best that it could, to put him in the perfect spot to get a chunk of his neck. If Lucas could have put himself out of his misery, he would have, but being able to focus under pressure was something you learned from experience, not a book.

  Ellie could see the blood gushing down his neck and as much as it hurt her heart to not do everything she could for someone she knew, it was too late. There would be no more Lucas; he would only become another one of the Turned. He would not be saved, and in less than a few minutes, he would not be Lucas anymore.

  Lucas felt her hands on his thighs, and even though he knew what the outcome was, he felt hope or that there was a chance. He hadn't really seen people turn first hand, so at this point in time, ignorance was bliss. He thought she was going to pull him free of the Turned’s grasp. Lucas was wrong and this would be his end. The Turned was chewing frantically, like it was the last time it would ever eat again. Little pieces of his neck were dropping out of its mouth; small pieces of skin dangled from between its teeth. Lucas was still trying his best to yell, but shock was the only thing he was going through as the hands, which he thought were there to try and save him, lifted his legs up, pushing him out of the Humvee. Lucas let go of the side of the roof, falling down, trying to grab on and hold onto the door handle, but lost his grip sliding beneath the Humvees tires. It bounced a foot up in the air, making a sandwich unfortunately no one, even Yassa, would be forgetting anytime soon.

  Everyone cringed but it only lasted for a moment, because just as soon as Lucas was gone, a replacement that no one wanted was in his place. The Turned came down quickly, holding on to the side of the Humvee,, a tattered replacement for Lucas was in its place and everyone with a gun was bringing up their rifles, not hesitating for a moment. They all were too late to the game though. When the dead came leaping inside of the Humvee it was met with a 3-inch spike through the center of its skull. Joe, who had never felt so incapable to help another, saw Joey with a look of anger like he’d never seen in a teen. Especially this one, considering he was a very, very good-natured, sweet boy, who Joe would have to guess had not been upset too many times in his life. Joey pulled back the bat, putting up a foot to brace the Turned, and when he got it free, kicked it out of the Humvee.

  Yassa looked over to Joey and said, “You are a badass, Joey. You know that right? How could you possibly be single?”

  Joey's cheeks started to grow red, the sweet smile the boy was known for quickly started to come back into his normal happy expression. Joey was going to reply how there were just too many choices and he didn't want to break all the other girls' hearts, but a sobering thought came out as Ellie screamed, “I think there's still one more up there!”

  Ellie unfortunately for them was correct. When the Turned appeared out of nowhere only showing its head, Joey went to strike a second one in the face. The Turned grabbed onto his bat, ignoring the spikes. Joey sure as hell was not going to allow that to happen. Clary had taken the bat early on, once he saw Joey didn’t want anything to do with guns. He had heavily modified it to look more medieval than baseball friendly. There were spikes coming out of all directions on the top of it as well. Joey, who had no shortage of muscles available, pulled back as hard as he could, slicing through the Turned’s hand. He left only one intact, which at this time, he kind of wished it would have grabbed his bat with both hands and he would be able to get him off of the Humvee.

  Joey yelled, “That's my bat and Mr. Clary made it. You don't get it.”

  The Turned tried to still grab with what was left of its deformed mutilated hand, not realizing apparently what function it served for, and this case past tense: served. Joey checked his bat making sure that everything on it looked intact and okay. When the Turned tried to enter a second time, it just ran out of dumb luck, reached, grabbing onto the handle of the Humvee and lifted it up and the door flew open as the Humvee was bouncing around as Joe was trying his best to keep everyone alive and not crash the Humvee.

  The Turned only stayed for a moment on the door, but unfortunately for them they were practically dealing with a professional bodybuilder, only worse. The Turned, as it fell to the ground, used its one remaining good arm, putting it around and gripping hard unto the window of the Humvee and when they thought they were going to be rid of it semi-painlessly, it put its feet down on the ground pushing hard, pulling back, and the door and the zombie both disappeared.

  Yassa could not hold back the sarcasm and just felt compelled to ask, “So when we get to the college and try to get all that shit on our list? Are we thinking we're going to lock up the Humvee? I mean we wouldn't want anyone going and taking it, right?”

  Without hesitation Ellie responded, “Cute, Yassa. No, but I would probably suggest checking the back seat. I mean, unless you want to get in first and we can go from there?”

  He responded as maturely as possible, scratching the invisible build up in his eye with his middle finger.

  Joe said, “We just need to find somewhere smart when we park. It doesn't take a genius, but I do believe it is doable. Now if anybody wants to go back, just say so now. Otherwise, I say we make do with what we have. I don't think we want today to be a complete loss, do we?”

  “I'm sad that we lost Lucas,” Joey said, “I don't understand why people who haven't dealt with these things just assume that it's easy. If they were that easy to deal with, not everyone would have to hide from them. I bet there are a ton of people who just don't come outside because like they don't want their faces ripped off of them. Don't you think?”

  Lucas's friend Brett said, “I know I don't want my face ripped off. If Lucas was too dumb to wait, I guess unfortunately that is on him. That wasn't what we wanted to have happen but you can take a dump in one hand and wish in the other and see which one you get full first.”

  Joey took the comment literally asking, “Why would you ever take a dump in your hand?”

  Brett rolled his eyes, trying not to be a jerk about it. He simply said, “You know Joey, I honestly can't think of one reason why anyone would ever want to poop in their own hand. It was just something that my Grandpa Danny used to say. He had a lot of weird sayings that, to be honest, were funny but didn't make a whole lot of sense.”

  Joey asked, “Do you guys think they poop?”

  They should have known what he was talking about but they didn't. Yassa replied, “Who poops? Are you talking about girls? Because they definitely poop, and they fart. They won't ever let you know that until after you'
ve dated them for a while. Joey, you just remember that though if something stinks and you know for a fact it wasn't you, it was them. That's all there is to it, I mean…”

  Joey said, “No, I mean the Turned. Do you think they eat and like, take dumps and stuff? You think they drink?”

  Yassa could go all day with this as a conversation and thoroughly enjoy himself doing it. Kya responded, “Hey, I don't know if you guys realize any of this; but I think that you might be missing the fact that we just lost someone to The Turned, again. He's probably already ripping off a chunk of his own arm. Do none of you guys care? I mean, are we that numb to losing people that it is what it is and it just happens? Because if that's the way we're going to act, I don't really know that that's worth going on for.”

  Joe knew damn well that cops would do their best to try and mask their feelings, mostly by talking in a joking matter about the gruesome horrible things that people, not even counting the Turned, were capable of doing and he said, “Kya, it might just be a coping mechanism. I'm sure they don't mean anything personal about it. I think that it's just how some people deal with it.”

  “Well, I guess if you ask me, which I know no one did, and don't care that I think that's a really, really crappy way to deal with the dead.”

  They rode in silence for a few blocks, hoping they could make it to the college campus before the Turned were able to find them. When they made it through a small portion of the city that was densely populated, which was mostly a commercial area for small businesses, they found a small victory that there hadn't been any of the Turned lying in wait.

  Joe bit his tongue as he tried to think of something positive to say. He realized they were lucky to be alive after that, at least everyone but Lucas, that is. He approached the hill going down steeply, trying his best to navigate in and around and going in between cars. He had to take the ditch a few times to keep them from having to stop. He felt his testicles rise up in his throat, knowing at this point they were fully committed, and there would be nothing that could be done to turn around if they needed to. Joe couldn’t say that being trapped was all that pleasant. To make matters worse, because in this world it seemed it never went well, the next thing to go by was unfortunately over another bridge. This bridge had cars as well and luckily for them there were no trees for the Turned to wait dormant in so they could come after them.

  Joe let off the gas, trying to take in the neighborhood. He’d worked Chicago his entire career and he knew a ghetto when he saw it. Houses that seemed to be from the fifties, souped up cars that might be worth more than the houses. Lawns were unkempt, which during a zombie apocalypse was probably more normal than not. He actually laughed at the idea of someone going out and using their riding mower while holding a shotgun in one hand. Ellie saw him smiling but didn’t care. She said, “You need to take a left onto Forest Avenue.”

  Joe couldn’t help himself and asked, “So, no offense, I mean not that you have anything to do with the college or where it is, but this is a real legit college that we are going to? I mean it isn’t just a shack in some ghetto?”

  Ellie knew that there was, at one time before all of this, a well-kept breathtaking college university located down here. She’d been down with her mom for the Drake Relays and thought if it wasn’t too expensive it might be for her. Ellie replied, “Funny fact, the college was here a very long time ago, like a hundred and fifty years ago. How was Chicago a hundred and fifty years ago? Was Wrigley in a better place back then?”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you might be a pretty sharp kid. A complete smart ass, but a wise kid for your age,” Joe said with a smirk.

  Ellie said, “I can give you a better history lesson on the finer facts of Iowa that I know, later, if we get through this.”

  Yassa said, “It is really interesting what you are saying but...maybe we ought to be focusing now that we are close, and our once four door set up is now that of a tripod. As much fun as it’d be to get ripped out of here by one of the Turned, I would have to say I’d be okay if that didn’t happen.”

  Ellie, who had been more focused on the conversation than anything else, was going to reply with more than a smart-ass comment when she took a hard, long good look at the school. The campus itself was enormous and covered multiple blocks. She was trying to decide if, when all of the shit had hit the fan originally, it had been during the Drake Relays, and she was starting to think that she quite possibly was right in thinking that it was. There were buses everywhere surrounding everything in front of the school. Something looked off about them and all the same at the same time. She couldn't quite comprehend why her brain didn't like what it was seeing.

  Ellie asked, “What in the hell is wrong with those buses?”

  Joey who had noticed it as well but had figured it out quicker said, “I think the other side of the buses are all flat.”

  “Why the hell would they go and do that? It's not like the Turned can't jump. I don't understand what they were thinking?” Ellie questioned.

  “Well, if any of those people are still alive, maybe we can ask them. It'd be nice if there was someone who knew what we were doing and could send us to go the right way,” Joey replied.

  Yassa wasn't too enthusiastic about having to deal with new people. They typically were a pain in the ass and it was a rare occasion that he met anyone who understood his way of thinking. When Joe got up next to the buses, he used it to his advantage. Yassa asked, “Did you want to get a little closer to the bus, Joe, I mean you're not actually scraping metal just yet. I think you got a few inches. Do we not like the doors anymore?”

  Joe was well aware he didn't care for him and more than likely never would. Being a police officer usually meant you did not have many friends who either were not fellow police officers or who at the very least were usually upstanding individuals. It was part of the trade-off of being a police officer. Joe replied, “You remember that tripod joke you made, you know when a teenager was ripped out of the car and eaten alive falling to his death? Right, so I thought maybe just maybe it might be a smart idea to lock this thing down in any way that we can. Last thing, personally, that I want to do is actually succeed at doing this and then die and then go through all that shit just to make it back here and have some goddamn zombie in the backseat leap out and tear my head off.”

  Yassa was picturing his own head, not so much Joe's, being torn off and thought it would be a cool way to go, but he definitely still had plans for this life. Joey asked, “So how are we going to get up over those buses? They're like a hundred feet tall.”

  Brett couldn't deal with the stress of the situation, especially after losing his friend Lucas and said, “There's no way in hell those are a hundred feet tall. Are you an idiot?”

  Ellie finally regained her position in the front seat, turned around ready to yell and Joey said, “I don't know, Brett, but I do know that if you call me a name again that I'm going to take this bat and stick it somewhere that's going to hurt really bad. Do you want to go there or can we just get along and do this thing?”

  Brent stared at the bloody bat still dirty with pieces of the Turned on it. He was making some pretty confident guesses that he wanted to stick it where the sun wasn't going to shine and had very little aspirations of Joey sticking a bat up there. Brett replied awkwardly, “No, I think that we're okay. I get kind of stressed out sometimes, like pretty much anytime the stupid Turned are around us, and it makes me do dumb things sometimes. I am sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. I think you're actually a pretty cool kid.”

  Joey nodded, sitting back in his seat, and one by one they filed out of the Humvee, making a quick, half-moon circle around the vehicle with everyone looking in a direction trying to make sure that they had not brought any unwanted attention to themselves. Joe looked up at the top of the buses and these were all what appeared to be touring or school sport buses and they were much taller than your normal, run-of-the-mill yellow school bus. Joe knelt down making sure tha
t Joey had been correct and unfortunately, he was right. There was no shortage of darkness coming from beneath the bus with the wheels tilting back. I guess it gave them one more way to not have to worry about the dead or at least a direction in which they would be possibly coming from.

  Yassa, who typically didn't need much help from anyone, took a few steps back putting his rifle strap over his shoulder and resting it behind his back got a running start and raced forward towards the closest bus. Everyone watched realizing it was not going to be one of those quick missions where you actually make plans beforehand and you don't have to worry every three seconds about someone dying.

  When he got close, he leapt onto the front tire, gripping the rearview side mirror and putting his hand out, gripping on to the side of the windshield, pulling himself up, trying his best to keep his balance while never moving and after a second when he was feeling safe, he knelt down, jumping one last time, wiggling and fighting to pull himself all the way up to the top.

  When he got up to the roof, he stayed low, taking a look around and surveying what was in front of him. Yassa looked over the edge of the bus and asked, “Who's climbing and who’s jumping?”