The Orphans (Book 2): Surviving the Turned (8 page)

Shaun stood guard at the bottom of the ladder. “Get up that ladder! Do it now! Go!”

Ellie climbed quickly and lifted the rusty metal door upward, letting it fall open. She climbed the additional steps and disappeared for a moment. Tina called up to her, “Ellie, how’s it look up there?”

Ellie, who was feeling a little better, hollered back down, “It looks like a roof Tina. Wait—hold on.” She disappeared again and then came back to the opening. “Definitely a roof. Why don’t you two come up and join me? It’s zombie free.”

The fact that it was clear was all Tina needed to hear, and she quickly disappeared over the top to the roof herself. Just as Shaun placed his hand on the first rung of the ladder, a choir of growling echoed its way up the stairway, sending chills up his spine. Shaun looked around the corner and down the stairs to see five Turned running up the steps, taking impossible leaps and bounds. They were clawing at each other as they tried to be the first to make it to the second floor. They left bloody hand and footprints on the walls as they fought their way up the steps.

Shaun felt sick; he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it up the long ladder in time with the rate they were coming up the stairs. Shaun laid the axe on the ground and brought up the rifle. He did not want to draw the attention of the rest of the Turned, but at the same time knew if he did not take care of the ones closest to him, they in turn would take care of him. He shouldered the rifle, getting the first one of them in the gun’s iron sights, squeezing the trigger repeatedly.

He took out two with his first three shots, snapping their heads back and sending them backward tumbling down the stairs. After missing the third, he breathed a long breath, letting half of it out. He could hear his dad over his shoulder as he patted him on the back. “Remember, Shaun, if you aren’t in control of the gun, the gun is of no use to you. You need to breathe son, but you can’t rock the gun, or you just have one expensive paperweight in your hands.”

Shaun laughed to himself, thinking of his dad. He aimed true and fired a fourth and fifth time, taking out two more. They rolled head over shoulders down the stairway, colliding with each other. The fifth got toward the top of the steps and leapt at Shaun. He didn’t have time to squeeze the trigger; instead, he stepped to the side and kicked it in the face, sending teeth and blood spatter across the wall. As it growled from where it lay on the steps, Shaun put a foot on its shoulder and shot it through the back of the head.

Ellie poked her head down, looking as worried as a person could. “Shaun, stop shooting those things and get your ass up here now!”

Shaun was already skipping ladder rungs as he made his way to the roof. A brand new set of growling came from below him. He was pulling himself over the top, handing off the axe and gear, when a blackened hand gripped the calf of one of his dangling legs. He looked down at the Turned that had a firm grasp on his jeans. Shaun’s mind flashed back to his father and the Turned bastard who took a bite and infected him.

Shaun looked at the items in front of him; the axe was the only thing in reachable distance. He gripped it and remembered putting the cover on top of the blade, but he had no time to get it off. He saw the Turned, who once was a woman. Her hair was burned and melted to the side of her face, her lips gone from the fire, and her hands blackened and burned. She had a strong grip on him and started pulling herself up, mouth wide open and her neck bent back at an angle no human was capable of.

Shaun brought the handle down, bluntly striking her in the forehead with the handle—one, two, three times. She slipped down, gripping his foot and giving Shaun the time that he needed. He tossed the axe to the side and pulled out his sidearm. When he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. Trying to keep himself from panicking, he looked down and saw that the safety was on—something he would not allow to be a problem ever again. He flicked it off, aimed again, and put a single, nine-millimeter bullet through her forehead, which then burst out of the back of her skull. Shaun felt her grip loosen, and she fell the twenty feet to the floor, her hands and legs sprawled out, her dead eyes no longer filled with anger and hatred. She landed on another Turned, crashing their heads together. The Turned she fell on rose back to its feet, throwing the corpse like a rag doll. She bounced down the stairs, knocking over more of the Turned who had followed the commotion. Both girls grabbed Shaun, dragging him backward onto the roof. Ellie ran to the access door and slammed it shut.
She then took an arm’s length of rope and pushed it through where the lock would have gone, had there been one.

Just as she started to tie it, a burst of force came up from under the door, slamming it up a foot and knocking Ellie off of it. Tina and Shaun jumped on top of it putting every pound they had to help keep it closed long enough for Ellie, but the force to open it was never ending. Shaun yelled, “Tie it! Tie it now, before they get up here!”

Ellie scrambled on her knees back to the door, tying a knot on it as quickly as she could. She pulled a knife and cut the extra rope. The three sat, out of breath and staring at it; they knew what would happen if they forced it open. The beating and slamming to the door was persistent. Shaun said, “God, they don’t stop, do they? They just keep coming until they get what they want.”

They watched the rope anxiously, ensuring that it was not going to break. They pushed up to their feet, knowing how precious time was—and they weren’t about to waste it. They took advantage of the 360° view and looked around the city from where they stood on the roof. Numerous pools of blood stood out against the light color of the concrete street. Trails of red told the stories of the victims who bled out, only to rise again as one of the Turned.

They peered over the edge, staying silent and realizing that traveling by ground in the area was not an option. Tina leaned over, kicking gravel that flew off the roof and hit one of the Turned below who’d been waiting his turn to enter the building. The line stretched to the end of the street in a disorderly, hysteria-induced fashion. The man who got hit in the face with the pebble had the sense to look up, seeing the three young faces looking over the edge at him. He had a chin that looked as if it had been painted in blood. The blood continued past his chin, onto his white shirt, and down to his Levi’s. He screamed at the three of them, making them back up out of sight on the rooftop.

Tina yelled, “Oh my god—what a freak! What do we do? We can’t stay here forever!”

Shaun pulled her with him as he made his way to the opposite end of the building. “We run and get as far away from here as possible.”

Ellie looked at Shaun. “Run? Run? We’re on a roof, you realize that, right? What if we fall?”

Shaun sped up his pace, going into a full-on run even with the pack, two rifles, and an axe hanging from his shoulders. He went full speed until he got to the ledge, placing a foot on the lip of it, and propelling himself upwards and across the four-foot gap. He screamed in the air, “Don’t fall!”

Ellie and Tina shrugged, not seeing any options, and ran towards the edge. Ellie leapt first, followed closely by Tina. They jumped roof after roof, running the entire block from a second-story location. In a matter of a minute, the three had made it to the opposite end of the row of buildings. Then they stopped, taking a moment to breathe. Shaun set down the gear for a moment and massaged where the straps had been rubbing and burning into his shoulders. Ellie gave a thumbs up. “Great plan there, Shaun. That was a good time. Let’s go ahead and never do that again.”

Tina sarcastically raised her hand. “Oh yes, I second that.”

Shaun nodded. He was resting his hands on his knees until he pushed up and walked to the edge, keeping low until he was crawling army style. He peered over the roof’s edge, seeing that only a few stragglers who had came in late were roaming the streets below.

Tina crawled up next to Shaun. “So, what are we going to do now? I don’t see us having enough roofs to get out of town, much less get all the way to the woods.”

“
We
aren’t doing anything. I’m gonna run across the street to the car dealer and try to get us a vehicle. We can only hope that one of them has a full tank of gas in it.”

“You can’t drive, Shaun. It’s why I came with you, or did you already forget that?”

“Well, it doesn’t take a genius to start it and drive it to the side of the building, does it? After that, you can take over driving, and we get a brand new vehicle that we might be able to trust… unlike the van.”

Ellie said, “So how are you getting off of the roof, Shaun?”

Shaun walked to the far side of the building, looking down at a narrow rusty fire escape. “Well, this looks like it’s about a thousand years old.”

Ellie went to the gear, grabbing all of it and bringing it with her. “We aren’t staying up here and waiting for you. If you get seen and they come here, we are trapped. Show me how to shoot one of those guns or something.”

“They aren’t that easy to just learn, Ellie.”

“Then teach us dumbass.”

“I will, Ellie, but you need time. We need a place to do it. We need extra ammunition. We need every shot to not be a dinner bell telling those assholes where we are. We need to be smart or we’re not going to last very long.”

Ellie and Tina shook their heads affirmatively, knowing that he was right… not liking it, of course, and feeling useless and vulnerable because of it. Ellie said, “Well, if we can all make it across the street, what do we do then? I mean, if the place is locked up, what do we do?”

Shaun thought about it and realized that the day before was Sunday and they would have been closed per state law that you can’t sell a car on Sundays. Shaun pointed at the large picture window on the store. “Well, this is probably one hell of a bad idea, but we can break right in through the picture window; we’d have to be going light speed at that point.”

Tina spoke up. “Because… you’d be setting off an alarm and then you would be letting all of those things down the street know that there is a fresh meal. Damn!”

The three of them sat on the edge of the building, trying to figure out what the smart move would be but came up with little to make them feel better about what they should do. Ellie looked around at the roof they were on and then focused on a shed that had been placed near the north corner of the roof. She walked over, climbed on top of it, and lay flat; she peered through the scope of the rifle, which she carried with her. She inspected the building down the street from them. “Hey, guys! They have fire escapes and roof entrances.”

Shaun popped up onto the shed and looked through the scope at the building. It looked like their way into the dealership had pretty much been set in stone, unless they got stupid lucky and were able to get in through a side door. They gathered everything they could then Shaun put a small length of rope around the axe handle and slung it around his back. “Let’s get going. We don’t want to get stuck in rush hour.”

Tina sighed. “This is probably the first time ever that I would have preferred to go to school. Like, I totally would love to be sitting in a classroom being bored to death and talking with a friend about an uneventful weekend coming up.”

Shaun said, “Yeah, and this is just the second day. I hope they can cure this. I hope that they can end it either way.”

They started their descent down the fire escape steps. Shaun went first, then Tina, and Ellie last, one by one taking it slow and easy. They were doing their best to remain absolutely quiet. One of the Turned walked by the alleyway, in no rush to get anywhere. The three stopped moving instantly and paused, afraid even to breathe. He held up a hand to be perfectly still. When it continued walking, Shaun motioned for them to go down a few more steps at a time. They made it to the ground, each of them thankful to be off the ancient fire escape. Shaun checked Ellie’s rifle and made sure there was ammo in it. “Even if you can’t hit them in the head, maybe a good miss hitting a knee cap or the neck would be just as useful for us.”

Ellie nodded, remembering what he’d shown her yesterday on the hill and realizing it’d be damn near useless with the fact that she couldn’t lie down and take her sweet time to aim. Tina said, “What about me?”

Shaun thought about her for a second and grinned, nodding. “Yes, you just try not to get eaten.”

“Ass.”

Shaun walked slowly toward the street and looked around the edge of the building, seeing that there definitely was still a mob of them trying to get into Bynum’s Hardware Store. He looked the other way, and it was deserted as far as the eye could see. He motioned for them to follow him, and they ran out into the street. They stopped behind a car and peered both ways one more time. He raised his hand to keep them from going, and when it looked to be as good a time as any, they made a break for it.

They sprinted the rest of the way across the street, their gear bouncing on their shoulders as they ran straight into the alley and out of sight. Shaun waited a moment, setting the ammo bag down and checked the front door handle. He twisted and it didn’t budge. “Shit, it’s locked.”

He kept low on his way back to the girls and walked straight past them to the side door. He tried the handle on it as well, to no avail; it was locked. He pounded on the door for a second. “Yeah, we aren’t getting through this thing.”

It was a metal door—the type to keep people out when they weren’t invited—and without a key, there was nothing they could do to open it. They made their way to the rear of the dealership and saw a pair of feet sticking out from behind the wall. Shaun brought up his rifle and walked around the edge of it, pointing where he thought one of the Turned would be sitting. There was no Turned there chewing on a human carcass as he expected. He turned his rifle the opposite direction, seeing nothing, and then focused back on the feet. His eyes walked up its legs to a bloody pair of pants that was missing a torso. He dry heaved for a second at the sight and the smell. Iowa’s warmer May month had done nothing to make it smell any better.