Read Online The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War by Mike Evans - Free Book Online Page A

maybe I should go up there.”
    “Who says that chivalry is dead, ass. You go on up, maybe we get lucky and you fall off and break your neck. We need to repopulate but I’m not sure you are made of the right stuff.”
    Hammond held his heart. He said, “Ouch, that was just a bit vicious. You keep talking like that and I’m not going to ask you out, McQuaig.”
    She pulled herself up on to the platform, laughing. “Come on, Fox, you better stay with me, my lucks getting better and better by the moment.”
    Shaun didn’t say anything and pulled himself up. He got McQuaig a strap hooked through a harness and one for himself. She said, “You sure we need all this crap on?”
    “Last thing we need to worry about is falling off from up there. You fall and we aren’t anywhere near Lou and you don’t stand a chance. Being around Lou is only going to help if we can get back and he knows what to do. He is a nurse and he isn’t going to be able to handle everything.”
    “But hasn’t he been reading all the medical texts that he can get his hands on?” McQuaig asked.
    Shaun hit the up button on the small platform; it shook as they began to rise because it had not been used in a very long time. “Right, he has been pulling double or hell, triple duty between blood drives, taking care of Ellie, and then working on learning. But remember the best way to learn how to drive is what?”
    “To actually do it?” McQuaig said unconfidently.
    “Exactly, unfortunately and fortunately he hasn’t had anyone to practice on. That is good for everyone and not. When the time comes that he needs to actually do something it is going to be his first time doing it. So let's just hope that he has put enough time into that text to be able to make sense of what it was saying to do.”
    McQuaig said, “Well, then let’s hope that nobody get-”
    Hammond screamed from below and his voice echoed. There wasn’t any question that he needed help and now. Shaun hit the light on his rifle taking aim at nothing. Shaun yelled, “I don’t see anything, what is wrong?”
    Hammond looked up fear and sweat on his face. He said, “I heard something. I heard something over there.”
    Shaun stood steady at the edge of the platform they were standing on and waited patiently.
    “He’s just being paranoid, Fox, come on, let's get this crap onto the platform so we can get it down. I want off this thing.”
    Shaun held up a hand and shook his head slowly no. He ran the lights back and forth across the floor. He started to see shadows crossing in the distance and they were not animals. He pointed his flashlight where he thought it was and tried to remember where Greg and Aslin were in the building. McQuaig said, “What, what do you see?”
    “Shadows that don’t belong there. Something is up and moving, I just don’t know what in the hell it is.”
    “What do you want to do, Fox?”
    “Shoot them in the head if they’re the Turned.”
    Hammond practically yelled from below. He said, “Aren’t you guys coming down here? You aren’t going to leave me down here by myself, are you?”
    Shaun looked down at him feeling guilty but refused to risk McQuaig’s life to go down and pick him up. He said, “You can climb up here Hammond, or hope that you make it through this, man. We don’t have time to come down and back up, I don’t think.”
    “I don’t like either of those options.”
    Shaun shrugged, “Those are the only ones you have. If you don't like it then you can run, but we know what happens when they’re running on their own and you don’t have anyone to take them out for you.”
    “You aren’t making me feel real good about all this, Fox!”
    Shaun clicked off his safety and peered down his rifle sight. He whispered more to himself than anyone else. “I wasn’t trying to, Hammond.”
    The boxes, a hundred yards away, exploded off the second shelf. The mowers that had been neatly stacked unassembled in them fell to the floor. The