Free The Orphans (Book 2): Surviving the Turned by Mike Evans Page B

mouth in the flesh of her shoulder and ripped a generous chunk from it. Rosa screamed in pain and fear. Ellie grabbed Shaun’s pistol, aimed it in the right direction, and pulled the trigger until it clicked on empty. Shaun reached over, lowering her hands. “I understand, Ellie, but we can’t save them all, and we can’t waste bullets. God only knows how many bullets we are going to need.”
    The Turned jumped to its feet, forgetting all about Rosa, and sprinted after the van instead, following the noise and the promise of another meal. Tina looked in her rearview and didn’t need to be told to speed up. Rosa lay on the ground, twitching and shaking in the street. The blood pooled around her dark hair. By the time Tina was hanging a left, Rosa was already pushing up slowly, lifting her arm to her mouth, and tearing away at her own flesh.
    “Do you want me to take the long way back, around town? Or do you think we should go through the middle of town?”
    Ellie said, “I want to know if it’s just this street or the entire damn town.”
    Shaun nodded as well. “Yeah, let’s do it; just don’t stop for anything… and I mean anything . ”
                  Tina drove quickly through town. The three were very much in agreement that the more distance they put between those ravenous freaks and themselves, the better. The Turned were able to keep up with the van, running for a mile at breakneck speeds and not looking as though they needed to slow down to try to catch their breath. In a way, that part made sense since the Turned had no need to breathe.
                  The residential streets seemed quiet and normal enough to the teens… until they really focused on their surroundings. There were numerous homes with cars in the driveway or on the lawn. Most of the cars had at least one door open, and they saw exhaust coming from the tailpipes of some of them. The owners did not even bother to turn the vehicles off before fleeing for the protection of their homes. Bloody footprints left trails leading up walkways, and handprints covered once-white storm doors, painting them macabre red.
                  Shaun kept a watchful eye as they pulled into the center of town. The square, which hosted the community’s businesses and courthouse, looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it overnight. They drove slowly, passing a white sedan. The scene was like something straight out of a movie and made each of their stomachs do a backflip; a man hung from the driver’s side window of the car, his arms outstretched and just short of reaching the ground. The window appeared to have been smashed and the man’s body forcefully dragged through it, headfirst. His blood made a path to the pavement below, dripping into a pool beneath the car door and onto his tie. Tina said, “Where the hell is his head?”
                  They looked around, but if it was nearby, they couldn’t see it. Shaun shrugged and Ellie sat back down in the van, shaking her head. All of them were having a difficult time accepting this as life’s new reality. They came to a stop, letting the van idle as their mouths gaped open. The Turned were everywhere, and they all seemed to be in a daze as they stood still, not paying any attention to one another. Ellie said, “What the hell is wrong with them? They’re just standing there. Do you think maybe they’re sleeping?”
                  Shaun counted them from where he sat in the van. By the time he finished, he had counted to thirty. The majority of them—young and old alike—were dressed in the school colors and were probably attendees from yesterday’s homecoming rally. Tina looked over at Shaun and saw his face. “What’s wrong, Shaun?”
                  Shaun, not actually meaning to be a smart ass, replied, “Well, a lot, Tina. Christ, would you look at all of them? They’re everywhere. What’s worse, we probably know all of