The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans

by M. Evans

  They nodded slowly, knowing the information they'd just been given was actually nothing new. They hadn't learned anything yet further about the building, but were content that blowing it up would be the safe way to take care of it. They knew that if they bombed it to kingdom come, the men who were currently securing the tunnels would be dead with no chance of survival.

  Sergeant Smith called down to the tunnel to talk to the two men that were in a good position versus the two who were screwed but just didn't know it yet. He hit his radio to the tunnel. "Who's on duty down there tonight, son?"

  A soft voice came back, used to being ignored down there for their long boring shifts. "Sergeant! Private Phillips here and Private Gibson are holding down the doors, Sergeant!"

  Smith nodded wondering if the security down there had any chance. The doors were secured by electric keypads that required a keycard and a ten digit access code. Phillips, being a higher ranking private, was in control of the button which allowed access into the tunnels.

  "Okay! You to make sure it is locked down, and you don't let anything through your doors, you got it!? I don't care what you have to do! That's an order, Private!"

  Phillips was wondering why Smith had said anything rather than anyone. "Sarge? What exactly is going on, if you don't mind me asking, please?"

  "Son, if I had time for questions then you wouldn't be wasting my time. You just make God damn sure that door stays tight and you don't open it for anything!"

  Phillips, a short squat man, stared through the glass at his friend thinking shortly if something horrible was about to happen then he was thanking God for the opportunity to be on this side of the security door versus the side Gibson was on. He hammered on the window at Gibson who had been scrolling through something on his phone and not paying attention to the tunnel. Gibson pocketed the phone and looked at him in annoyance lifting his hands in what of it gesture, unsure why his normal eight hour day of sitting, staring, and no one--and I mean no one--coming down that damn tunnel ever, was being interrupted. He picked up the communication phone between the outside tunnel door and the inside. "Yeah, buddy? What can I do for yuh?"

  Phillips hit the intercom button for the phone on this side of the door. "I just got off the radio with Sergeant Smith. There is some big shit going down above us. He told us to go on high alert."

  Gibson picked up his AR-15 and slung it over his shoulder. He looked down the tunnel, not seeing anything out of the norm. He walked to the monitors and hit his video cam which viewed ten different locations along the eighth of a mile tunnel leading up from the hospital to his post. "It looks clear to me. What's goin' on up there? They need us to get up topside? Did you explain there's only us two down here?"

  Phillips looked a little sick thinking the words and then having to say them. "Gibson, the Sergeant told me that this door is to stay shut no matter what. I'd be surprised if my ability to make any of the buttons work was still a possibility."

  Gibson, ever an optimist, shrugged. "Hey, don't worry about it, man! You know they run them drills all the time to try an' make sure we're gunnuh be on our A-game, right? Whaddyuh think is goin' on up there? We're in the middle of nowhere, there ain't no one within a hundred miles of us, and it's not like them Taliban're gunnuh just sneak up on this base. I'll bet yuh a steak an' a beer they're jus' screwin' with us so's they can make sure we follow protocol down here to the last detail."

  Phillips was looking at a water bottle, nodding while listening to him. He was not filled with the optimism his young friend was. "Well, then, just to be clear, he told me this door stays shut. You want to go up that tunnel and see if anything sounds out of place? It's amazing these damn cameras don't have audio on them!"

  Gibson sat down and shook his head. "They were lucky to get this old base for medical work an' stuff. Yuh know it weren't built for training, support, or to learn how to make some poor bastard die quicker. I'm not gunnuh get all worked up and worried over this. Jus' 'cause brass ain't got nothing better to do, it don't make it my problem. By my count, we got three hours left on shift, then we can go wrap our lips around a bottle of beer an' a greasy cheeseburger."

  Phillips smiled. "You know if you're right, I'll buy the first round."

  Gibson laughed. "Reckon I had the exact same thought!"

  "What, you were going to buy the first round?"

  Gibson smiled, trying to get his friend's blood pressure back to normal. "No, I were jus' sayin' I had the same thought that you should buy the first round, too!" He hung up the phone and started humming to help pass the time. Still, he was keeping a closer eye on the cameras to make sure no one came down there trying to find the only other way to ground level.

  ****

  Sergeant Wayne was an eighteen-year lifer, counting off the days until retirement. He was in Echo building with Private First Class Parker and Private Jacobson. They had both been in for four years and were on two-day leave visiting a soldier from their squadron who had met with a roadside bomb. The doctors had told them he was going to make it, but there was a good chance he'd have to relearn everything over again--his soldiering days were over. They had been up in a cafeteria on the second floor when the sirens started blaring outside.

  Wayne jumped to his feet. Staring around, he walked to the windows and saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Get up, Privates," he told the others. "Let's see what's going on here."

  Parker, who would follow Wayne to hell and back, got up, slammed his coffee back and walked to the window. They walked away as the giant convoy of trucks started to come into view, and Jacobson joined them as they headed out of the cafeteria.

  Screaming was coming from the stairway. They ran there and saw something that made Parker physically ill.

  A patient covered in blood from his face to his feet was feasting on a young brunette nurse. Wayne had no idea what the hell was going on, but knew something was obviously not right. She was still screaming as the man was yanking and tearing at her blood covered, mutilated flesh, but then her body went limp as the screaming ceased.

  Jacobson yelled, "Soldier! Stop now! What the hell are you doing!?" He looked at the two men with him. "We need to stop him ... or it ... or whatever the hell that thing is!"

  Wayne nodded. "She's dead, son. Let's take this nice and easy, okay?"

  The man focused on him as Jacobson started slowly walking down the steps. He held his hands up as if it might help. "Just take it easy.... We need to get you back to your padded room, dude." He looked back at his companions. "Would you look at his eyes? Christ! They're bleeding!"

  The creature just stood on his haunches staring, chewing, watching three potential meals walk cautiously down the steps. The one in front had his hands out in front of him in a non-threatening manner. As they approached, the blood soaked man stood up, taking another bite of the liver that was in his hand. Jacobson whispered, "What should I do, Sarge?"

  In eighteen years, Wayne had never seen anything so gruesome. "What do you mean what should you do? Look at him! Shoot the son of a bitch!" Both men stared at Wayne who had already taken the strap off of his holster, and pulled his pistol, and slid the safety off as he raised it. "There's no saving this guy.... Something's seriously wrong with him!"

  The two young soldiers followed suit, and Jacobson, being in front, took lead position. He fired two shots directly into the man's chest as he had been trained. They went through his heart landing with an explosion of concrete into the wall behind.

  The creature looked down at its chest and the small amount of his own blood oozing out. He put a finger to it and licked it off. It refocused back on the three soldiers, and to their dismay, continued walking towards them. He took one pace onto the step and jumped up four at a time clearing them much quicker than they had expected, largely due to the fact that any other man they'd seen shot in the chest had died. This thing had only seemed to increase in anger. It leapt again into the air jumping off the railing for added height and landed on Jacobson's shoulders with his feet b
ending down and tearing through his jugular with a spray of blood painting the walls.

  "Oh, God! No!" Wayne screamed.

  Jacobson's body went limp as he gurgled, choking on his own blood, and fell to the floor. He gripped for the railing as he fell and the two men rolled in a blood spraying spiral down the steps--the creature never letting go of his neck. They hit the ground with a thud and the thing was tearing and ripping into his fatigues giving it his all to get to the meaty flesh beneath. Parker stared in horror at them and then at Wayne. "Bullets don't stop it, Sarge! What the hell are we going to do?"

  "Shoot the God damn thing in the head!" He didn't wait for Parker who was closer. He aimed directly at the front of the thing's skull, squeezed the trigger, and watched the back of its head explode and snapped it back like whiplash. The wall behind them was covered with blood, and pieces of brain dripped off of it mixed with black hair. They stood there in shock for a minute, fingers on the triggers, waiting for it to get back up. When it didn't rise back up, Parker asked, "Where the hell did that thing come from!? What happened to him!?"

  "How the hell should I know!? Shooting it in the head worked, though. Tell you what--anyone else we see on the way to the front door gets shot square in the fucking head!"

  Parker nodded, wishing he was armed with a machine gun and a few thousand bullets. They walked down the steps slowly and carefully, stepping over Jacobson's twitching body. Wayne grumbled, "Just keep going.... There's nothing we can do for him."

  They made their way around to the second set of steps going down the stairwell when they heard another gut clenching, ear curdling scream. Wayne poked his head around and saw the same scene, but this time it was an orderly. He showed a number of fingers for how many of these things there were. Parker placed a hand on Wayne's shoulder and the two became one going around the corner. They stepped all the way around and saw ten men all hunched over hospital staff. Parker dry heaved twice and Wayne smacked him on the shoulder. "Suck it up private, or we're both going to be screwed! Shoot the son of a bitches in the head and get to the front door! We can call security once we get out, got it!?"

  "I don't understand! What happened to these things!?"

  Wayne snapped at him, "When you're dead, tell me--does it matter?"

  They both raised their pistols knowing how to take care of them now. They walked up the hallway making quick work of them shooting each creature twice in the head. They all fell over their prey and the two soldiers were now walking backwards toward the front doors. "Sarge, we made it! This is worse than combat!"

  "At least these things don't have guns or mortars! Quit screwing around and open that door! Let's get out of here!"

  Parker pushed on the door and nothing happened. He looked at it, thinking maybe he had not pushed the bar correctly. It didn't budge. He stared at the seams of it. It was an electronic door, and signs advised there were magnets in use on this door, and people with pacemakers please refrain from using this door for long periods of time.

  Wayne turned around and saw Parker messing with the door. "Good Lord, boy! Do you need to go back to school!? Can't you open a damn door!?"

  Parker pointed to the sign and looked back at Wayne. "Locked! What do you want me to do?"

  "This can't be the only way out!" He looked at the wall by the entrance which was guaranteed to have what he was looking for. He slid a knife behind a panel and pried until it popped off the wall. He did a quick search for the you-are-here sign and located their position. "There's a tunnel beneath us! Let's get the hell out of here!"

  They reversed their path back down the hallway to a stairwell leading down to the tunnel which could get them out of the facility to safety. As they passed the stairwell they heard footsteps coming down. They looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, that the man they shot in the head was back again.

  It was worse. It was unexplainable to someone who hadn't been around to see the last day and the happenings behind closed doors. Only the medical doctors like Michaels, Christophers, and Major Stevenson really knew.

  The soldiers stood back to back watching the hallway, making sure no one came from their front or back. They waited an extra moment because knowledge was good to have in times of distress. They needed to know if these things were going to come back from the dead--or whatever the hell they were coming back from--no matter what force was used against them.

  What they saw was worse. A foot appeared first from around the corner of the steps. It was a black military combat boot leaving a bloody footprint. The rest of the figure came into view, dragging it's other leg behind.

  "Hey, Jacobson! Holy hell! You made it! What the hell, man!?" He went to head up the stairs to his comrade, but Wayne grabbed him by the shoulder pulling him back.

  "Look at him, will you!? He's missing chunks out of his arms! Chunks that the other guy hadn't ripped off of him! He's ... chewing! Oh, God, this thing spreads!"

  "If one of those things gets me, do me a favor--put a bullet in my damn head!"

  Wayne looked at him already raising his gun. "I already made that decision, Private. Just don't let anything touch you!"

  Wayne, not hesitating, pulled the trigger twice consecutively into what had once been a young man he had trained himself. The figure dropped to the ground unmoving. Wayne nodded after the confirmation. "Don't waste your bullets on anything but the brain. It's the only thing that stops them."

  "Why do you think the damn door was locked, Sarge?"

  Wayne wasted no time running up the steps to Jacobson's lifeless body, stripping his knife, extra magazines and his pistol. "They either screwed up something, or maybe they already know and figured that anyone on the inside is already infected or it's just easier to write us off for dead."

  "Would they do that?"

  "You see anything to prove otherwise?"

  They found the stairwell leading to the basement entry for the tunnel. They looked before they entered and saw a string of men and women all soaked with blood--soldiers, patients and nurses. Once they noticed the two men the look of hunger in their eyes intensified. They sprinted for them, snarling and growling, pushing and trying to shove past one another to be first.

  "Move! Move! Move! We got to get down there! Let's go, go, Parker, go!"

  The two soldiers stormed down the steps taking them as quickly as they could. They knew if everyone they had seen so far was either a meal or a monster, then soon the victims would become whatever these things were as well. They didn't have enough bullets to go around, and neither man wanted to become one of these ... things.

  They could hear their pursuers following down the stairs, gaining with every flight. They were five flights down and could see the door to the tunnel entrance. Wayne was breathing heavily now and gasped to the younger, faster soldier, "You run for everything you're worth, do you understand? You don't wait for me once we get into that stretch ... and that's an order!"

  Parker could see them gaining and could see the Sergeant was slowing down. He was running the best he could, but he was used to transport in a hummer and not having to run at all--one of the benefits and apparently a pitfall of being senior in the Army.

  There wasn't anything they could do about their limitations right now--they had to work with whatever was available. They made it into the hallway that led to the security entrance where the two unsuspecting soldiers were guarding. There was only an eighth of a mile between them and the two soldiers, but with a mob of flesh hungry monsters behind them in hot pursuit. They pushed through the double doors and Wayne knew in his heart and gut he wasn't going to make it. He pulled out his pistol and the extra he'd stripped off of Jacobson's he screamed at Parker, "You make it, God damn it! Run, damn you! Run!"

  Parker jogged sideways for a second, watching as Wayne bent over to catch a large breath. Watching for only a moment as he saw the bastards entering the hallway, spilling out, falling over each other. An explosion of gun fire blew up from behind him. He looked back at Wayne screaming at th
e top of his lungs, and meticulously picking off as many as he could, trying his hardest to give the young Private the biggest head start he could.

  He fired, blowing through the skulls of one--two--three--five--nine ... and then there were too many to engage. One leapt into the air and landed on his side, grabbing his arm, breaking it in half and ripping it off. Others landed next to him jumping in bounds and pulling at his limbs, his neck, anywhere--each grabbing and taking a tear of skin and meat, pulling and leaping as they attacked.

  Parker heard only the screaming and growling of what was following him.

  He no longer heard the war cry of his sergeant.

  ****

  Private Gibson thought he'd heard the echo of the door opening, but from so far away it was easy for his ears to play tricks on him down in the tunnel where silence is really all he can hear. Sometimes it can be loud enough to drive him crazy. He thought about it for a second, and, after the warning from Phillips a moment ago, was wondering whether it really was a test. He hit his security cameras checking the furthest away.

  Chills shot up his spine. One lone soldier with two pistols was firing one after another at an array of men and women running towards him. He saw the people running for him with their heads snapping backwards and they fell to the ground. He hammered on the door and frantically picked up the phone. "Phillips! Are yuh seeing this shit!? Do yuh see this!? There's a mad man on the loose!" He stopped talking when he watched something jump unnaturally into the air landing next to the shooter. It ripped his arm from the socket, but the soldier was still firing with his only good arm.

  "Somethin's comin' down the tunnel--comin' quick! Get ready!"

  He hopped to his feet and tightly gripped his machine gun. He was going to cut whatever was coming at him in half if it threatened him for one second.