Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1)

by Trisha Leazier

  Angela stormed out of the room, stumbling and coughing and sobbing. She went into her room and slammed the door. The lock clicked. Choking sobbing sounds continued to carry through the bus. Sydney looked defeated. Axel looked guilty and hurt. Sam and Tone were whispering to each other. The rest just looked on, shocked.

  “Okay everyone we need to get some sleep. We’ll talk to Angela tomorrow and she’ll understand what she walked into. For now, she won’t hear anything we say.” Sam said.

  Daisy headed to her room with Axel on her heels. Through the open door we watched her hand him blankets and a pillow. He set up a place for himself on the floor at the foot of her bed, which looked a lot like a nest.

  “You got him?” Sydney asked her. Daisy nodded as she shut the bedroom door.

  “Ashlyn, do you mind Micah sleeping in our room tonight? He’ll sleep on the floor.” Sawyer asked me.

  “No that’s fine.” I answered.

  “Hey you should get sleep too; we’ll figure this out tomorrow.” Aaron told me.

  “Will it be okay?” I whispered to him as I hugged him.

  “I don’t know, but we’ll get through it.” He whispered back.

  I followed Sawyer and Micah into our room where he already had a spot made up on the floor and she was crawling into bed. I followed her and Micah turned off the light.

  I didn’t think I would sleep but as soon as I lay down I was out.

  The room was still dim but bathed in pink when Aaron shook me awake.

  “Shh.” He said motioning to Sawyer and Micah. Sometime during the night Sawyer had moved off the bed and was cuddled up with Micah. I followed Aaron out of the room and he led me outside.

  “What are we doing?” I asked him as we walked to the front of the bus.

  “Look, I’ve been thinking. I mean, things go bad, yeah, sure. Some of that bad was yesterday. We do what we gotta do, but it’s like you have to remember the good too.” He told me as he pointed to the sky where the sun was just beginning to peek out from behind the mountain. Within minutes the sky was pink chased by orange. Aaron was right, it was beautiful and I had forgotten that things could be this perfect.

  We were still standing out there watching the sky when Sydney came running out.

  “Are they with you?” She asked, sounding panicked.

  “Who?” Aaron asked.

  “Angela and Thomas.” She answered, looking around the other side of the bus.

  “No we haven’t seen them.” I answered.

  “They’re gone. They aren’t in their room and their stuff is gone.” Sydney said as Sam and Tone came up to us.

  “Any luck?” Tone asked as soon as he saw Sydney.

  “No they haven’t seen them. Where could they be?” She responded.

  “They can’t be far, we’ll find them. Angela probably panicked and thought she was saving him. The problem is if he’s really turning, then she’s in very serious danger.” Sam said more to himself as he placed a hand on his hat.

  “We can’t have everyone out looking for them; someone needs to stay with the bus and the kids that stay.” Sydney said.

  “You’re right Sydney; would you be willing to stay with the kids and keep everyone calm?” Tone asked her. She looked at him and nodded as his words sunk in.

  “Yes, I can do that.” She agreed, “I’ll go start breakfast.”

  “Tone you’re with me, Aaron would you be okay on your own?” Sam asked.

  “He won’t be on his own, I’ll go.” I told him. Sam looked like he was going to argue with me but Aaron cut him off.

  “Don’t worry I won’t let anything happen to her.” He said.

  “Okay we’ll head back the way we came, how about you both head the way we’re going.” Sam agreed even though he didn’t look happy about it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Both our little groups headed off in opposite directions. We had all grabbed some water to take with us. Everyone else on the bus was still asleep and Sam was hoping we would find Angela and Thomas before they woke up. Aaron was walking more in the ditch when we found the first foot prints.

  “I think they went this way, do you see where there’s mud?” Aaron asked and there on the ground by his feet were two sets of footprints.

  “Looks like they stayed in the ditch near the road. Should we get the others?” I asked.

  “Yeah but we’d have to run to get them, you up for that?” Aaron responded and I nodded.

  We ran back towards the bus. We could see Sam and Tone on the road up ahead, we didn’t want to yell and attract any attention.

  “Did you find something already?” Sam asked as soon as we caught up with them.

  “Yup, there’s prints in the mud, they’re small.” Aaron told him.

  We headed back to where we saw the footprints with Sam and Tone following us. Nobody said anything when Aaron showed them the prints. We started following the trail. It turned out that Aaron’s hunting skills had taught him how to track. He was picking up the trail when I thought there wasn’t one.

  We had been walking for quite a while steadily heading further into the woods when we came across an RV. We stopped and watched it for a while, but there didn’t seem to be anything going on around it. No one coming out or walking around and there wasn’t any noise coming from inside.

  “Do you think it’s abandoned?” Aaron asked.

  “Maybe or whoever’s in there is still asleep.” Sam answered, still scanning the area.

  “The trail heads towards the RV. Maybe they got lucky and found it abandoned. It would have given them shelter for the night since it seems she snuck him out as soon as we were all asleep.” Aaron said, “We haven’t seen any movement, I think we should check inside.”

  “Looks like that may be what happened.” Tone agreed, “Ashlyn stay here.”

  “No she comes. She’ll stay behind me but we’re not leaving her anywhere.” Aaron said and Tone just shrugged.

  We moved quietly up to the RV. There wasn’t any noise. Sam looked into the windows but they were all blocked. He tried the door and it opened easily and swung open. As soon as the light streamed in we saw the blood.

  Following the trail, we saw Angela laying on the floor under a table, Thomas was sitting on her. He was covered in blood and when he turned to us his eyes were red. I could feel the tears falling from my eyes. Most of Angela’s body was covered in blood. I could see her stomach was torn open and most of her innards were thrown around half eaten.

  Thomas was growling at us as he started to move towards us, forgetting Angela. I never saw Tone raise his gun, but I heard it go off and then Thomas was on the floor, a hole in his forehead. He looked so small.

  “Will she come back?” I asked looking back to Angela.

  “No, look at her head. Its angled wrong, it looks like she hit it when he attacked her. You can see where he dug into the wound.” Aaron told me gently. Sam was going into the RV.

  “What are you doing?” Tone asked him.

  “Seeing if there are blankets we can carry them in. I want to bring them back to the bus and bury them. Everyone will want to know what happened and say goodbye.” Sam answered as he vanished and returned with two blankets.

  I thought it was lucky that the blankets were a deep brown, they wouldn’t show the blood. Sam very carefully wrapped both the bodies. He handed Angela to Tone, and carried Thomas himself.

  “I want you two to go ahead and tell Sydney what happened and what we’re doing. Let her tell the others.” Sam said as he came out with the bundle that was all left of little Thomas.

  “You heard him Ash. Come on I’ve got you.” Aaron said as he grabbed my hand.

  I followed Aaron mostly by his grip on my hand. I wasn’t seeing anything around me. All I could see was Thomas’s face, with those Red Eyes, and all of Angela’s blood, it kept replaying. Aaron periodically squeezed my hand in an attempt to reassure me. I didn’t even notice when we walked up to the bus. Aaron got me on and sat me down at the ta
ble.

  “What happened? Is she okay?” Sydney asked.

  “No she’s not. We found Angela and Thomas but it’s not good.” Aaron said.

  “How not good?” Sydney asked.

  “Thomas turned. Tone had to shoot him. Sam and Tone are carrying the bodies back so we can give them a funeral.” Aaron answered.

  “What about Angela?” Sydney asked her hand was resting at the base of her throat.

  Aaron shook his head.

  “Oh God.” Sydney said.

  “Yeah, Sam said to let you tell the others.” Aaron answered as the others were starting to come out of the rooms.

  “Tell us what?” Axel asked.

  “Kids, gather round and sit down.” Sydney started and waited till everyone was seated.

  “What’s going on?” Sawyer asked.

  “It looks like Angela took off last night with Thomas. We found them but we were too late.” Sydney answered, “Tone and Sam are on their way back with their bodies, we’re going to bury them. I want all of you to be prepared for a funeral.”

  “This is all your fault.” Axel shot at Sydney as he started to cry, he let Daisy hold him but his eyes were shooting venom at Sydney. “If you would have told her the truth she’d be alive.”

  “Shhh, Axel we don’t know that she may have panicked sooner and it wouldn’t have ended any different.” Daisy told him as she hugged him and he held on to her.

  Everything around me seemed to be happening far away or to someone else. I didn’t even realize Aaron had his arm around me.

  “You’re going to be okay, Ash.” He whispered to me.

  I noticed that he wasn’t saying that everything would be okay, just that I would be.

  I looked around the table at everyone and could see the shock on their faces as the tears fell.

  “Will we all be okay?” I whispered to Aaron. He kissed my forehead.

  “I think we’ll all make it through this, once the shock wears off and we’re back on the road.” Aaron whispered back.

  Sydney was making her way around the bus checking on everyone. It seemed that was how she was dealing; she was trying to take care of everyone else.

  Axel still wouldn’t talk to her and he wouldn’t look at her. I was sure he’d forgive her once he thought about what had happened. When Sydney came around to me, Aaron told her that he had me.

  “You sure?” Sydney asked him.

  “Yeah, I saw what she saw, I got her. She’ll be okay.” Aaron said. Sydney looked up out of the window and I heard her sigh before she turned to everyone.

  “Sam and Tone are back.” She said “Let’s go help them and say our goodbyes.”

  No one responded but everyone got up and filed off the bus. There was more crying when they saw the blankets. Sydney came off the bus with shovels and I saw Axel take one from her. He went and started digging a hole as Sam dug another.

  Chapter Twelve

  The holes were dug.

  Sam was gently laying both Angela and Thomas into them. We all threw a handful of dirt onto them and said our silent goodbyes. Sam and Axel worked together to fill in the graves. Axel was shaking with every shovelful of dirt he placed over Angela.

  “I don’t know which religion they were so I’m not going to quote the bible here.” Sam started, “We are all here today to say goodbye to Angela and Thomas. Both were too young to be taken away but we’ll remember them always.”

  No one said ‘Amen’ or anything. Mostly everyone kept their heads down, saying whatever silent prayers that would send Angela and Thomas on their way.

  We all stood there for a while before Sam started tapping us on the shoulder and sending us back onto the bus. He stood next to Axel for a few minutes before he did the same. Sam kept his arm over Axel’s shoulders; it looked like that was the only thing propelling him back onto the bus.

  Axel didn’t even look at any of us, he went straight to the room Angela and Thomas had shared and shut the door.

  “He’ll be okay, just give him some time.” Sam told everyone as he headed to the driver’s seat followed by Tone.

  “How’s everyone else holding up?” Sydney asked as she looked around the bus.

  No one answered her, she got a few nods or shrugs but we were all silent.

  Everyone found a place to sit and was just taking comfort in the silence. We had all forgotten how bad things could be. We were in our own little bubble of safety on the bus, which kept us moving away from most of the bad things going on.

  The horror hadn’t touched us as much as it could have without our bubble as we headed to our destination. Losing both Angela and Thomas left us drained. I sat by Aaron and watched everyone else on the bus for a while.

  “How’re you holding up?” He asked me.

  “I don’t know.” I answered, looking at him.

  “Maybe Tone was right and you should have stayed back. Then you wouldn’t have seen all that in the RV.” Aaron said as he rubbed his temple.

  “You know I would have gone anyway. I would have been sneaking and who knows what would have happened then.” I told him, “What I saw isn’t your fault. I keep thinking if we would have found them sooner maybe Angela would still be alive.”

  “Don’t take me wrong, but maybe it is better this way. I mean how would Angela have dealt with losing Thomas?” Aaron said.

  “There is that.” I said.

  “I don’t want to sound like I don’t care because I do. I just picture them somewhere together. Where none of this is happening and they are safe, maybe with their parents.” Aaron continued.

  “That is a nice thought.” I agreed, “I like to think that they are someplace safe and happy. Maybe they’ll even watch over us wherever they are.”

  “Like our very own guardian angels?” Aaron asked.

  “I guess.” I answered, “I just wish Axel wasn’t locking himself away from everyone right now.”

  “He’ll be fine. I think he had a crush on Angela and now she’s gone.” Aaron said, “He’ll come out when he’s ready to face everyone.”

  Sydney passed out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to everyone. Axel had come out of the room that he claimed as his now, but he wasn’t talking to anyone.

  He had the chutes and ladders game in his lap and he was staring at it. He was barely eating his sandwich. Daisy was sitting near him. He wouldn’t even let her get too close.

  He may have stayed in the room, but he was shutting all of us out. He ate about half his sandwich before he got up to return to his room, he took chutes and ladders with him. As soon as his door closed, Daisy came and sat by Aaron and me.

  “Has Axel said anything to you?” I asked her.

  “No, but I didn’t really think he would. He got close to Angela based on them both losing their parents.” Daisy answered.

  “That makes sense, bonding with someone who’s lost what you have.” Aaron said as he looked at me. We had bonded over the loss of our siblings.

  Sam stopped the bus and when we looked outside we saw we were parked at a gas pump.

  “We’re fueling up and heading out again.” He called back. Tone and Sam started to get off the bus, “Everyone stay on the bus.”

  It was a quick stop. We watched Sam run into the store and came out with no problems while Tone was filling the tank up. Sam stood guard as Tone stood with the pump. As soon as the tank was filled, they both got on the bus and we started to pull away.

  “Not going to turn the pump off?” Sydney asked.

  “No, make it easier for anyone else who needs to fill up, we left a note on the pump telling them it was on as well.” Sam responded.

  “Where to next?” Tone asked.

  “There’s a junk yard near here, we’re going to park there tonight. There’s a fence around it that should keep the Red Eyes away from us.” Sam said, “We’ll just have to deal with whatever is inside the fence.”

  “Why are we worried about keeping Red Eyes out? We haven’t been worried about that any of th
e times we parked on the road.” Sydney asked.

  “We’ve passed whole hordes of Red Eyes so far. None of them seem to be following us but all it will take is them turning and following us. They could overtake the bus; a fence will help.” Tone answered.

  “There’s no need to scare everyone Tone. We’ve all been through enough today. Without being worried that we can’t sleep without being killed.” Sydney snapped at Tone.

  “Well, you asked and last time we decided to keep secrets we ended up burying two kids.” Tone snapped back. It was the first time we’d heard them be anything but completely supportive of what the other had said.

  Sydney looked like she was taken back. I knew in that moment she had made the call to keep all of us in the dark about what was going on with Thomas. She didn’t say anything just walked back to her room and shut the door.

  “You didn’t have to be so hard on her.” Sam said to Tone.

  “I know but I feel like if we would have been honest with Angela she wouldn’t have snuck off. We wouldn’t have had to bury both of them.” Tone responded, “I just hope she was out or dead when he started to eat her.”

  “I think she was already dead. She probably fell and hit her head when he lunged at her. I doubt she ever even felt a thing.” Sam said. Tone nodded but didn’t respond.

  The atmosphere was tense. We had lost people and no one had been prepared for it. It was still quiet when we pulled up to the junkyard. Sam and Tone went out to get the gate open and scout what we were going to be facing.

  Sydney still hadn’t come back out, so Aaron got behind the wheel and watched for either Tone or Sam to come back. He started the bus as Sam waved him through the gate, as soon as the bus was past the gate, he closed it. Tone waved the bus forward leading us to the spot Sam and he had found for us to park.

  It was weird seeing piles of cars on either side of us blocking off anything else. It was creepy, like driving right into a horror movie.

  Aaron parked the bus where Tone directed and shut it down. Neither Sam nor Tone got back on yet though.

  “Don’t look so worried Ash. They scouted the area otherwise they wouldn’t have waved us in.” Aaron told me.