Free The Orphans (Book 5): Civil War by Mike Evans

dangers the way it is around here with all the heavy-duty weapons. The citizens of the base have lost so many already the last thing they need to do is lose more because of stupid accidents.”
    Patrick turned to start walking the perimeter but saw Kya. “Hey, hang on a minute, I need to go say hi real quick.”
    Bella checked her watch nodding her head and said, “Yeah, just hurry up, okay?”
    Patrick was smiling and running backwards. He said, “What, really, you already checking the time. How long you have been on guard duty? Try doing it for as long as we have, and see if you think it gets any better.”
    Patrick started to trip and righted himself spinning around. Bella watched as he ran scooping Kya up in his arms and spinning the two of them around.
    Kya said, “Wow, someone's enthusiastic.”
    Patrick leaned in kissing her neck and making her scream aloud at the unexpected chill. He said, “Wow, and I’ll be deaf too. You know I love to see you. I thought you were going to help out at the blood drive today while I was on shift?”
    Kya shook her head no. “Lou already has people helping him out. Joey was in there, but I don’t know how much good he was doing. I swear the second that blood bag hits the marker for where he is supposed to be at he runs over holds it up and the kid goes out for the count. If it wasn’t for having to worry about them falling off the table I think that it would be funny as hell. Lou is still running around like his head is chopped off. I think Ellie is a natural though, getting the needle out, and taking the blood bags to storage. I think she could be a hell of a nurse if she sticks by Lou.”
    Patrick was shaking her head no. “No way, that girl is going to stick by Shaun’s side until the end of this. They’re inseparable.”
    “Inseparable? Oh my god, I’m in love with a nerd, a complete nerd.”
    Patrick kissed her neck again. “A nerd that can shoot at the very least. I think I'm getting better the longer we date. I mean I can’t hold it up against any data but-“
    She gripped onto his camo hoody and when he looked down she pulled him in close giving him an embarrassingly long and wet kiss. She said, “I love nerds, don’t worry about it. I don’t want Bella thinking that you are on the market. You are all mine, and I’m keeping it that way, Patrick.”
    Patrick’s cheeks started to get red. “Keep that up, Kya, and I'm not going to be able to walk around on guard duty without looking a little awkward.”
    Kya kissed him again bumping her hips into his on purpose. She laughed as she walked away. “You have fun on guard duty. You catch up with me in a couple hours…see if you can find me.”
    Bella was shaking her head as Patrick awkwardly walked back. “You guys married already?”
    “No, not quite that serious, but we definitely love the hell out of each other.”
    “You got it bad for each other, huh?”
    Patrick nodded and the two of them began to make their way around the fence, checking the perimeter. He kept pointing out different areas saying where he’d seen the dead from time to time. Bella said, “So, you know something weird about this place?”
    “You mean besides having a bunch of teenagers training to be full blown military?”
    “Yes, besides that. You know that no one and I mean no one, talks about the past. I haven’t heard one person’s story about what happened to them, like, isn’t that strange. Did you guys just show up here one day and say no more talking about the past?”
    Patrick shook his head no and contemplated saying anything about it. “Well, to tell you the truth we have all lost somebody, and it's pretty apparent I think from the fact that we’re all alone, or almost all of us are. There are what, twenty adults and maybe sixty kids? Most of them don’t know how to shoot yet; they don’t know how to do anything really, so they’re lucky to even still be alive after almost a year. The stories are there and we could