The Orphans Brigade by Mike Evans

The Orphans Brigade

    By M. Evans

    © 2014 M. Evans, All Rights
Reserved
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    It had been approximately five years since
Dr. Frank Fox a man that had thought he was saving the world had
been responsible for the loss of four billion people’s lives. More
blood had been shed because of one man’s obsession to cure the
woman he loved than all the wars of mankind put together. The
numbers were not able to be measured any longer. The loss was to
great, but estimates were approximately four billion lives
lost.
     
    ****
     
    Day +1497: July
4 th ,
2021. World Population 1,985,110,986. Four years since X-74
unleashed on American soil
     
    The teens were lined up in prone position
across the edge of the roof, stationed on top of the abandoned
government building in Virginia. Everyone had a job to do: the
trusted were in charge of picking off the Turned, while newbies
were handling clips and refilling them as quickly as they could.
The bullets were flying out of the rifles and dancing on the
ground.
     
    In another time on another day, these teens
would have been nodding off in a class somewhere, worried about if
a girl liked them or if they would be asked to the prom.

    Pulling triggers as fast as they could, in
their sights was a group of day-ones they could tell weren't
freshly turned. They had worn clothes and sunken cheek bones--even
the signs of frostbite which, being close to nightfall, were hard
to see. They still had the hunger for flesh as bad as the day they
had turned.

    The ground was covered with bodies. The
heads looked like bombs had gone off in them, and the marksmen were
aiming only for the skull. The Turned were trying to get through
the wreckage. They weren't trying to take the building--they only
wanted to eat every living person then move on to find more.
     
    The leader of the group, showed no emotion
or excitement, he merely selected another target. His shot exploded
the creature's head, going in the back and blowing apart the chin.
The girl beside him tapped him on the shoulder and shouted above
the noise. "Shaun, you've been at it for hours. You need to take a
break. There are plenty of people here willing and able!"

    Shaun never took his eyes off his prey,
sighting them through his scope. "There's plenty of room for them
to slide in, Ellie. Go tell someone else to take a break!"
     
    Ellie looked down at the row of teens. She
watched through the blasts as the Turned were falling at an
unbelievable rate which gave her the lightest shred of hope. "You
need a break or you won't be any good when we really need you!"

    A group of Turned were clumsily climbing up
the side of the wall. Shaun, who had seen thousands upon thousands
of these things, had never seen them do this. He reached and
grabbed Ellie's arm, pulling her to the edge. He pointed and
argued. "Look they're learning! They're climbing and they've never
done anything like that before. Hell, the only reason they get
through doors is eventually they figure out to rip them off! We're
going to need to clear the Turned on the ground so we can make it
to a different spot."
     
    Shaun waited for one to jump to a new ledge,
grabbing hard. He drew his backup gun, a twelve-gauge shotgun, and
blew its face off. Only its skull and the skin peeled back from the
sides remained. Its bloody tongue hung out as its body spun,
scraping and bouncing off the brick on the way down.
     
    Ellie watched, realizing she couldn't change
his mind. "Can't you trust me to keep the wall safe?"
     
    Shaun laughed. "Remember--you have to earn
trust."

    Ellie kicked him in the leg. "You don't
trust me!? Are you effing kidding me!? And you can't kill them all
yourself, Shaun. It's impossible! You need help...! We need
help!"
     
    Shaun fired one more shot, rolled to his
back, and looked up at Ellie. The sun was setting over her
shoulder, and his eyes couldn't feel more tired. "Of course I do",
he chuckled. "You've been with me longer than X-74's been