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.
