The Orphans (Book 4): White Lie by Mike Evans

few streets and see if anyone comes out. I’d have to think the sound of a Humvee rolling down a street, or any noise at this point that isn’t a horde searching the streets for meat, would get someone’s attention pretty easily.”
    Shaun thought of the first six months after and the trips out they had been making to get survivors. By the time they announced that there was no cure and that there would be no rescue, they were finding less and less people each time. He said, “I think that we can definitely do some recon. Johnston isn’t all that big, as long as we stay out of Des Moines.”
    Ellie pushed Shaun, and asked, “Wait, so we are going to be the only ones going? There isn’t going to be Aslin or Clary or one of the other adults going with?”
    Greg said, “Joey tell them, I was talking to both of them this morning, they wanted to see me before I even ate this morning, didn’t they?”
    Joey nodded his head and said, “Yes that is true, Shelman and Phillip tried not to feed him his food, if they did that to me, oh man they’d feel the pain.”
    “So when do we leave, what are we taking with us?” Ellie asked.
    Greg, who had considered these questions already, said, “We take our normal training guns and we just stock heavy with everything we can think of. I was going to take a nap, but if you guys are good to go then I say the earlier we leave the better. Last thing we want to do is drive in the night with snow.”
    Shaun was getting excited about the prospect of leaving. He had been thinking of people for months as well but understood getting things set up on base before inviting everyone they could to come be a part of it. Aslin and Clary had been running those individuals currently on the base through drills day and night until everyone knew their job and place. This was all so that they could be a part of something bigger, which was keeping everyone safe, unturned, and alive. Shaun said, “Wait, I'm gonna go talk to Clary, this seems too damn simple. I just can’t believe they decided to let us leave. I mean-”
    Greg interrupted him and said, “Hey, if you want to talk to them be my guest, but you are going to add on an additional half hour. I’d hate for you to go talk to them and then have them change their minds. I mean, what if you put a thought in their head and then they decide to cancel our getting to leave? Don’t you want to have a day away from this place; it’d almost feel like old times?”
    Ellie, never one short of having sarcasm, said, “Oh yes Greg, because you know how we have such fond memories of cruising around town in our Humvee, armed with machine guns back in the good ol’ days huh?”
    “No, ok I can understand that. I’m just saying that getting some freedom wouldn’t be the worst thing and if this one goes well, maybe we could go out each day as part of our work. Like we could get to explore and start mapping the safe and not safe areas. We could eventually start cleaning things up.”
    Shaun was nodding his head, thinking immediately of the Turned and as usual, feeling like he needed to kill all of them that he could. He knew if this chance presented itself that he would happily take out what he could as long as he didn’t put Ellie or the others in any danger.
    He had been smart enough early on to know that if he didn’t learn how to handle himself, it would be only a matter of time before he either became a meal or one of them. He’d been thankful for the things that he had been learning from Aslin and Clary, knowing they would be invaluable in the coming years.
    Once it was broadcast that there was no cure, they had come to the realization that if they couldn’t be cured then they would educate as much as possible to try and keep themselves from becoming one of them. Shaun felt as confident as ever that they could do this trip as he felt he’d learned more than anyone, not just wanting to learn one thing from Clary or Aslin but learn everything that he