The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War

by mike Evans

  Owen looked in his rearview mirror at Jr. on the ground and said, “Looks like we won’t have Jr. around anymore boss.”

  Cade had knelt back down and was kissing Bella on the forehead. He said, “Until you are in the ground, honey, we aren’t going to separate. I'm so sorry, baby, I never thought in a million years something like this was going to happen to you. I never would have had you go into that rats nest if I’d have known this was going to be the fucking outcome. I swear to God that if I have anything to say about it that every last one of those bastards are going to die and do so by my hand.”

  Owen slowed when he pulled up to the road. There had to have been fifty of the dead making their way towards the fence line. Cade tried to smile but the emotion just wasn’t in him. All that he could think about was his daughter’s skull and it being crushed in. They drove until the dead were everywhere, speeding back towards their base. They hit the radio when they were close and Owen said, “We got some trailers coming behind us and I want you boys getting that cleaned up and doing so now! I got the boss with me and if I were you guys I would refrain from saying anything whatsoever about anything.”

  A voice, Jep, came back, “Can you be more specific?”

  Owen tried to think of a way to say it and shut the window to the tailgate. He said, “Yeah, Jep, I can explain things to you. When the boss comes back, if I were you I wouldn’t talk to him. Bella went in a few months ago and didn’t come back out of this. We left before Cade could have a breakdown and we lost him.”

  “Oh shit, I’m okay not talking to him then. How close are you guys?”

  “Half a mile away. A shit ton of them went into the base. I don’t know if we’re going to see anyone coming back that we left behind though.”

  “You guys just left people there?”

  “To fight and to kill those bastards. They have more shit than they know what to do with there, though, fucking grenade launchers, and machine guns, and God knows what else. That was just one guy. We’ll be going back I’m sure of it. There’s no way he isn’t going to seek retribution on them.”

  Jep said, “Whatever, just get your asses back here if you got dead on the trail, that ain’t no joking matter. We’ll do everything we can and get all men on the gate. Give us a minute and take a detour if you can. But we’ll be ready for you. We still got plenty of men left here.”

  “Whatever, just get your asses moving. I’m going to take the long way, if things go worse because of it then God help you.”

  He looked to the man in the passenger seat and said, “We need to get someone back there who can keep those things from getting any closer than they are.

  Travis said, “And that gets to be me, I guess?”

  “Well, considering the fact that I’m currently driving, Cade is in his own personal hell right now and there’s no one else in here then, yeah, I’d think that probably leaves you. Take two of the rifles with you and get your skinny ass back there. The sooner, the better.”

  “There ain’t no chance I’m going to be able to hit those things in the head from a moving truck with a rifle.”

  Owen slapped him in the chest and said, “If you don’t do something then we aren’t going to have to worry about tomorrow. You don’t know anything do you? Those things don’t die unless you shoot them in the head, agreed, but there’s nothing saying that you can’t take them down temporarily while they get a shot to the spine, or knee, but if you just hit them in the stomach or arm they’re going to come at you even more pissed off than you think that they ever could be.”

  “No shit, Christ, you know how many times we’ve had them things coming after me and I wasted all those bullets trying to hit them in the head.”

  Owen looked over at him baffled. He said, “I can’t tell you how interesting that is to hear. Are you like someone's nephew or a brother?”

  “How’s that?”

  “I just think someone as ignorant as you has to have done someone a serious favor, or been related to someone for you to get the go ahead to stay here.”

  “Yeah, I was with my Uncle Jake when the shit hit the fan. He got a call from Cade on his radio and grabbed every damn gun he’d had and left town for a few days with them. Once the initial panic stopped and people tried to bunker down that was when we came back into town and took over that community we’re staying at.”

  “Well, that is really interesting, Travis. Now you can get in the back, or I can toss you out the door but I need something and I don’t care what it is right now to keep those things from catching up. We got some curvy ass roads coming up and I’m not going to be able to do fifty miles an hour. That being said, which option would you like?”

  Travis looked at the little white lines passing and thought of the road rash from the ground he’d get at forty miles per hour and held up his hands. He rolled down the window climbing up on the edge of the doors window and put two rifles over his shoulder. Owen said, “Shake a leg, kid, those fuckers are gaining.”

  Travis wanted to ask why Cade couldn’t help but when he looked down at the man clutching onto his daughter like his life would end if he let go he decided to not say anything. He pushed up slowly, climbing up onto the truck’s roof while making sure to avoid Cade and Bella when he stepped down. The words of condolences ran through his head and then he thought of Jr. and seeing him being sliced into pieces with his knife.

  Travis fell forward as a bump hit the truck almost flipping over the edge. He caught himself on the tailgate and collapsed in a heap near its edge. When he saw that Cade was in a world of his own he decided quiet was as good as anything. He put the rifle on the tailgate using his left arm to rest it on. When the first of the dead was in his sights he took the first shot he could. The shotgun blew through the leg and bone of the first in the long line of the dead. Its leg went out from beneath it and it skidded to a bloody stop tripping up the first few running behind it. When he thought they were safe the others seemed to run faster, infuriated that others had fallen. He pumped off every round he could, tearing through flesh and bones and they got the much needed time for Owen to swerve in and out of the curves.

  Within a few minutes Owen had gone on the detour route and the men back at home had the time to collect themselves and arm the front of the building. Once Owen was on the main drag he floored it and did not slow down until he was within the compound itself. He skidded to a stop and a distinct thud came from Cade and Travis in the back. He was so relieved that they’d survived that he didn’t put together the fact that he had just sent his boss into the back of the truck when he was not in a safe place mentally.

  Owen could not have gotten out of the truck faster. He sped to the back of it jumping on the tire and into the bed. He saw Bella crumpled against the truck bed and where it met the truck’s cab. He felt his manhood rise up into his throat. When Cade looked up at him he already knew that he was a dead man. Owen, who felt he had been fighting every day since the beginning of the outbreak, wasn’t going to just die because the man in charge was pissed. He pulled up his shirt exposing a forty five and pulled it as quickly as he could. Cade stepped forward knife out and gripped tightly looking like a deranged man and one that knew how to use it.

  Owen leveled his gun but it was too late. Cade was already bringing his knife up. He gripped his gun hand with his left and brought his knife into his wrist bottom to top. Owen screamed immediately trying to clutch at his wrist and free the knife. Cade lifted his arm up still holding the knife and twisting it with Owen screaming until it was pointed at the man’s own face. The other men were watching in awe unsure what they should do.

  Cade pulled the trigger blowing out the back of Owen’s head. The momentum from the bullet sent him in a heap to the ground falling head first. Cade looked down watching the rock beneath Owen’s head turn from an almost blinding white with the sun shining on it into a crimson red. The spot would be a reminder, he thought, to anyone stupid or cocky enough to try and take his power.

  The rest of the
men started to walk over. When Travis moved in the back of the truck Cade pulled his pistol aiming it dead center at Travis’ chest. He held up his hands lifting the handle for the truck’s bed. He said, “Sir, I just thought that we could get the tailgate down and get Bella somewhere more comfortable.”

  “What in the fuck do you think we’re going to do to make her more comfortable? Would you look at her for god sakes!”

  Travis was nodding his head slowly. He said, “I…I just want to say that I was going to go and dig her plot, unless that was something that you wanted to do. I don’t want to step on your feet, sir. You did want to bury her didn’t you?”

  Cade stared at Bella lying crumpled in the back. He pulled her up gently cradling her in his arms. Travis gripped his shoulder as he helped him down off of the tailgate. He did not want to see him topple with Bella in his arms. Cade turned around after walking past the men and glared at Travis. “Go get the shovels so you and I can do this together. If it is one thing from the old days that we should be allowed to do it is to be able to bury the ones we love.”

  Jep was standing nearby and looking at Owen. He said, “So, uh you want us to bury Owen too?”

  Cade looked at him for less than a second. “I said loved ones. I don’t know about you, Jep, but if you want to break your back making him a hole then be my guest. Just make sure that you do it on your own time and when your watch is over.”

  Jep looked at Owen thinking of the size of the hole that he was going to have to dig. “No worries, boss, we’ll just toss him over the fence. I got an idea that there will be something that comes across and makes a meal out of him.”

  Cade shrugged, “Suit yourself then, just mind what I say.”

  Jep didn’t want to ask anything else but couldn’t help himself. “Hey, Cade, did you want us to stay up here? Are we going to have any shit hitting the fan because of this?”

  Cade turned around thinking about it for a second. “You boys stay up on that ledge. If the dead don’t get those people I think we might see them come our way with ill intentions. They had all kinds of shit there, way better than those rifles you boys got. Lemme know if you have any issues up here; we are going to need every single man we have when they decide to come around if they know who it was that hit them. If they didn’t then it is just going to be a matter of time before they find us.”

  *****

  Six hours later

  Cade and Travis had been taking time going back and forth with the shovel. It was near six in the evening and even with the cool air both of them were shirtless and sweating heavily. When they had the hole to the length that Cade wanted they got a small stack of two by fours from homes which had not yet been finished. Within an hour they had the best casket that they were able to make. Cade laid her comforter in there and wrapped her delicately in the blanket. A few of the men came and lowered her in by rope slowly. The radio squawked and it was Jep. “I don’t want to interrupt you guys but you better get up here and bring everything you can get your hands on.”

  Cade hit his radio, “Are they coming for the wall or is it the dead?”

  “Hard to say, sir.”

  “Well, it should be a pretty fucking easy answer you idiot! Do you see the dead or do you see the soldiers coming?”

  “Uh, I see both. I don’t know what is going on!”

  Cade did the sign of the cross over Bella’s grave and screamed to the men, “Get your asses moving, you heard him!”

  Chapter 16

  Base

  Ellie saw Bryan didn’t have much hope left in surviving the day. She could hear Clary screaming from behind almost impossible to make sense of. When she went back he jumped when she gripped his shoulder. She said, “Hey, Clary, stop swinging damn it or I’ll leave you here. What is the problem with you?”

  “Make sure that they’re all dead. Make sure that none of those men make it through the day. None of them deserve any compassion from us.”

  “What do you expect me to do, just shoot them in the head?” Ellie asked. “What about mercy…isn’t that something that people still deserve to receive?”

  “Not when those people were coming in with one intention, which is that of cold blooded murder. They didn’t have anything but death on their minds. There would be no survivors right now if we hadn’t done something to take them out.”

  Ellie said, “That isn’t how I want to fight though. That isn’t the war that I believe in.”

  “Well, Ellie, unfortunately for your ideals sometimes there isn’t a choice in the matter and we need to fight with any means possible. If you have a problem with that then you need to reassess the way that you view the world. Mercy isn’t for the weak and it is something we give those that deserve it. It’s going to be damned hard to grant that to someone who is trying to kill you while you are trying to give them help and sympathy. There’s little you can do for men like that. They want what we have and they aren’t going to stop trying to come after us until that point in time that all of us, or all of them, are dead. If you aren’t prepared to deal with that then you will have to be ready to deal with death. There isn't any middle ground. Now help me get up and get us out of here. Do you see any of theirs that is moving?”

  Ellie looked around and saw one of their men trying to hobble away. She said, “Yeah, there’s one guy that’s walking towards the fence line.”

  Clary said, “I have a change of heart Ellie, can you put one of those rounds in his leg please?”

  “How is that a change of heart?”

  “Because if I could see right now I’d personally and happily put a bullet in the fuckers skull. Do it before he gets away!”

  Ellie did as ordered feeling a little guilt that she worried was still going to be there in the days to come. She squeezed the trigger once and a scream erupted from the man who fell to a knee. Clary said, “You take me over to him I need to have a talk with him, Ellie.”

  “But you're blind right now, Clary.”

  “Yes, Ellie, I noticed that, thank you. That is the sole reason that I need you to take me over there so that I can talk to him. I would like to know what he knows and if he tells me then we won’t nearly have the issue of dealing with me like he could.”

  Ellie gripped his wrist and Clary pushed himself up from the ground. The two walked over to the man who was screaming holding his leg. Ellie took his rifle tossing it far out of reach. When he saw feet walking around him he tried to pull his pistol but Ellie kicked him in the gut quickly stripping the knife and a pistol from his belt rig. She said, “He had a knife and gun on him, Clary. What do you want me to do with them?”

  “Just hand them to me, we can go from there.”

  The man tried to let up off his gut but hurt worse when he let go. “You stupid bitch, you are going to regret doing that. You don’t know who you are messing with. You don’t know anything!”

  “Uh, that’s actually funny because I know that I have guns and a big ass Navy Seal standing next to me. You are in a field, all alone, injured and everyone with you either abandoned you or they’re dead. What exactly do I need to worry about?”

  He said, “Well, unlike you I’m not deaf. You have just as long as I do left to live because those things are coming. If you can’t hear them screaming at you then you are fucked because he’s blind and it's obvious that you are deaf.”

  Clary listened deeply for a moment and his new found blindness did bring his hearing onto a new level previously not in his list of abilities. Clary knelt down touching the man’s foot. He kicked Clary off and Clary said, “Ellie, which one of this guy’s legs has been shot?”

  “His right, why?”

  Clary reached up the man’s leg feeling through the blood soaked pants. When the man punched Clary in the face, Clary gripped onto the man’s jacket pulling him up close and brought his forehead down into where he thought the man’s nose would be.

  He hit just a little lower and broke his mouth open and the bottom portion of his nose. The man stopped laug
hing immediately and gripped the blood now coming down his nose. Clary said, “So, where are you from, asshole?”

  The man said, “If I tell you then my boss is going to whoop my fucking ass. That is if he lets me back on the base after failing him and everyone else.”

  Clary said, “At least you have a hope that he likes you. The only reason you are still alive is you have things that I need to know. If we only have a little time left before the Turned show up then I will use everything up to and including my dying breath to find out what I can from you.”

  “Well, you might as well kill me then because I’m not saying shit.”

  Clary went down the man’s leg until it started to feel wet. He said, “Let’s hope that you haven’t been with too many dirty women over the last year, or lifetime I guess.”

  “Why don’t you go to -”

  Clary dug his finger into the bullet wound hooking his knuckle inside of the man’s wound and lifting up. Tears instantly filled his eyes and he began screaming just as loud as he could. Clary said, “Tickles, doesn’t it, asshole?”

  “I’ll talk, I’ll talk, just let me go, just stop please, fucking hell stop and I’ll talk!”

  Clary lifted up on his finger tearing at the skin. “I think that I’d like to just hang on until I get what I need out of you. You want this over quicker then I suggest that you speed shit up. I’d hate to think what kind of damage I can do if I leave it in here for too much longer. Hey, I tell you what, ass, maybe I should just rip out your fucking knee cap. You could probably find someone around to try and fix your knee, I mean no one here or probably in this state for that matter, but I’m sure some asshole like you could figure something out. You guys are pretty handy if you are able to survive in this shit. At least you were pretty smart until you decided to bring your plague of these assholes to our gates. What you didn’t think we’d have something to retaliate with?”