Brandy thought about her cousin, the boys who showed up with Shaun and what he’d told her of his past. She didn’t want to agree with him and crush his soul but she was having a difficult time finding the right words. “You know we’ve all lost people, Shaun. It sucks, but you can’t just assume they won’t be there ready for you.”
“Right, so put it out there, and if they don’t tell me to go to hell, then I’m good to just apologize until people forgive me.”
“If they don’t accept you then they don’t accept us. Timmy and I, and I’m sure Mr. Li, will go where you go. We aren’t going to send you out alone…you’ve done enough of that.”
Mr. Li stood behind the two, overhearing the conversation. He smiled and said, “I don’t know, Brandy. I like the looks of those fences and tanks.”
The two looked at him and the old man’s face broke out in a smile. Bob hit the release on the plane and the giant door began to open. The fresh sunlight poured in through the doors and Shaun and Mr. Li headed out of the plane first. Earl was on their heels and whistled when he saw the line of tanks.
Earl said, “Shaun, you think you could talk to the dude in charge here and see if I could borrow one of them there tanks, buddy?”
“Do you even know how to drive one, Earl?” Brandy asked.
“No, but seeing how this is a military base, Brandy, I feel like there’s a damn good chance that I’m going to be able to find some lovely resource material to help me learn a valuable skill such as tank drivin’.”
Shaun said, “Lemme have a really uncomfortable conversation with quite a few people and then maybe I can ask if that’s a possibility. Don’t go holding your breath though. This is probably the first time that I’ve been asked to give a tank away…not that we have much more rights to any of these then you do. I just don’t see Clary in a good frame of mind thinking handing one off to you as an intelligent idea if you aren’t trained and ready to go.”
“But you’re saying there’s a chance?”
Shaun walked out the descending tail of the plane. He was going to answer when movement on the highway’s tree line caught his attention. Scott and Joe both were carrying rifles in hand and were only a step behind Shaun and the rest. They put their guns up ready to fire and Mr. Li put up a hand shaking his head. He whispered, “I’m sure whatever is coming out will not be alone.”
Shaun said, “He’s right, if you start firing, you’ll bring all that are within miles this way.”
Scott looked back to the storage. Mark was trying to get some of the powder out of the containers. They’d packed everything with caution and care. Mark held up a hand looking like he was going to freak out if he couldn’t get the winch strap off. They all looked back to the trees when Mark’s face went white. He didn’t deal well with the dead and unlike many others did his absolute best to keep as much distance as possible between them and himself.
Shaun took off in a sprint heading straight for three of the Turned. Minus their skinny frames, their apparel resembled that of The Hulk, their clothes were tattered and in another year, they would probably be roaming the world naked. Joey watched from behind the fence as Shaun ran towards the dead. Joey had an excitement in his eyes that he hadn’t shown in quite some time. The joy that Shaun was back made his heart warm. Joey didn’t hesitate pulling the customized bat that Clary had made him. Clary reached out with an iron grip, catching the teen by his coat and keeping him in place, trying to figure out what the hell Shaun was thinking.
“You let me go, he doesn’t even have a gun, Mr. Clary. He’s going to get killed.”
“Of course, he has a…”
Greg whispered, “What the fuck is he doing? He didn’t take a piss before he left without taking a gun or two.”
No one else said anything. Clary raised his rifle but there was no shot that didn’t lead to a bullet going through the back of Shaun’s head or spine. No one saw it coming with the exception of Mr. Li who was already annoyed that he had not pulled his weapon. When they had found Shaun, he’d locked himself inside of an office to keep himself safe from The Turned. They had not been able to find him, but by dumb luck Earl had found the teen. When they’d had the building cleared Shaun had gone back through the floors he’d taken to get there and found Brandy and his weapons. By the time he was done Earl was pretty sure that they’d found a teenager with some serious fighting skills.
One of the three dead jumped into the air, soaring higher than any other human could. Shaun jumped, but unlike the Turned, he had a plan of attack and every intention of using it. He came down rolling in a summersault, and when he came back a blade that looked like it came out of nowhere was in his hand. The dead screamed a guttural growl, they never got full and were always hungry for their next bite of flesh. They could eat night and day and would still not know the word content. Shaun came up with the sword pointed at a ninety-degree angle. When it came down, he simply flexed his forearms as tight as he could and held steady. The weight and force moving forward was enough to cut clean through its neck. The Turned’s
