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

been bitten on the ankle on day one. He walked forward a step, not feeling threatened by the Turned that was standing behind Ellie and roaring at the four of them. Time was passing as if the hourglass was full on both ends. Shaun didn’t know if he had said the words aloud or if he had only thought them in his mind.
    Shaun stared at Ellie and his entire world stopped as he watched each and every drip of her blood hitting the floor and causing it to splash into a small, dark pool. Ellie’s face was losing color and fading into a sickly white and was getting more and more pale by the second. Her legs began to wobble and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she fell forward. Her rifle fell to the ground as she followed suit.
    Shaun stuck his arm out to catch her, bringing Shaun mere feet from the Turned. As it reached forward for Shaun, he extended the rifle one handed and rested the end of the barrel under its chin.
    Shaun stared into its dead eyes that were peering back at him as he squeezed the trigger once, sending a single, full metal jacket through the back of its head and covering the ceiling ten feet above with rotted brains and scalp fragments across the previous aisle.
    Shaun yelled over his shoulder, “Joey come and pick her up, she’s hurt!”
    Joey did as he was told and the sound of food being kicked off of nearby shelves was an unwelcomed noise that was getting closer and closer. Greg yelled, “Shaun, we need to find a new place to hold up, come on dude, we need to get out of here. Shaun can you hear me? They’ll be here in seconds!”
    Shaun pointed to Ellie hanging limp in Joey’s arms. “Look at her for God sakes we aren’t going anywhere! The truck is ruined. The ground has six inches of snow on it. Where are we going to go with her Greg? Huh, can you tell me that God damn it?”
    “Well then, tell me what do you want to do? She got hit by one of them; she might start turning herself any minute if she did. That isn’t something we can take with us,” Greg said.
    Shaun walked forward and grabbed Greg’s parka tightly. He never stopped his momentum and slammed Greg into the shelves. He screamed, “We aren’t leaving her until she rips flesh from her own arm and we aren’t counting her out!”
    Greg stared at Shaun, dumbfounded. The two of them had never had any serious type of altercation and had never honestly thought that they would have one. “What do you want us to do Shaun? We can’t stay here much longer with these things running throughout the building.”
    “Go find yourself a cooler or a closet to hide her in. Greg, you give her the chance though, don’t put her out of a misery that we don’t know is really coming. You don’t do it Greg. You know the signs and you wait for them damn it! She probably just hit her head really damn hard”
    Greg asked, “Then you are planning on coming with us aren’t you?”
    “I need to secure the doors if we are staying. Those gunshots aren’t going to help us stay safe for long. They sure as hell aren't going to go unnoticed by anyone or any thing out there.”
    The sounds of the Turned running towards them were getting closer by the second. Joey said, “Greg we need to go, she’s bleeding pretty bad. I don’t know what to do for her.”
    Greg pulled out a field kit, grabbing out gauze that he could stuff into the wound as they ran towards the back. Shaun watched, making sure that Greg was listening. When he could see that they were looking for somewhere safe and weren’t going to stay by his side to try and fight, he turned around, shouldered his rifle and walked back towards the sound of the Turned who were quickly making their way towards him. Greg looked back as they ran for safety while watching his best friend in the world walk into the fight by himself and knew that if anything permanent happened to any of them that it would be his fault. Greg looked at Ellie, taking in her pale complexion which did nothing to make him feel