“Yeah well then where are they?” I asked wondering what would be keeping both Sam and Tone outside.
It was still early evening so we had enough light to see outside but there was no sign of the two being around the bus.
“Probably making sure everything is secure. Double checking that we will be safe. You know they both take the safety of this group very seriously.” Aaron said as he watched me, “We’ll stay put till they come back.”
Sydney still hadn’t come out of her room, but Axel did. He was sitting with Micah and they were talking. I couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was good to see Axel interacting with someone.
“Well look at that.” Aaron said smiling as he pointed towards Micah and Axel.
“Yeah I think he’ll be okay.” I said as we watched the two boys bond over whatever they were talking about. Sawyer came out and her eyes searched for Micah instantly.
She gave them space when she saw Axel sitting there talking to him. Sawyer smiled as she watched them. I was watching her and I remembered seeing her give the same look to Josh right after she met him.
It was good seeing her eyes light up again. They’d been shadowed since she saw Josh at the hospital attacking the nurse and it got worse when we lost Jenny.
“Hey.” She said to me as she came over and bumped her hip into mine.
“Hey back.” I told her wrapping my arm around her waist.
“Hey, now is there something I should know?” Micah called to us making Axel laugh.
“Oh, did she forget to mention that I’m her wife?” I asked and looked at Sawyer.
“Umm, no she did not mention that.” Micah answered.
“Oh am I just not good enough to mention now?” I tried pouting at her but neither of us could keep a straight face.
“So is that a joke? Or…?” Micah asked looking between us. Sawyer tried to cover her laugh with a cough. I couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled up.
“You’re both dorks.” Micah told us. He smiled as he rolled his grey eyes. He wrapped his arm around Sawyer.
“Well now that’s a sound for sore ears.” Sam said as he climbed back into the bus followed by Tone. “You hear this Tone?”
“Yeah, great sound to come home to.” Tone said, “What do you think we missed?”
“Well apparently Miss Sawyer here is seeing Micah but forgot to mention she was Ash’s Mrs.” Aaron said.
“Well Micah, looks like you’ll have to learn to share.” Tone said without missing a beat.
“Oh…Micah, good luck man.” Aaron joked as Sam stood there, a small smile crawling onto his face.
“It’s good that we all find times to laugh and enjoy that we are all alive. Bad things are going to happen and they will keep happening.” Sam said, “We have each other so try to remember good things, help each other through the bad.”
“He’s right. If we let the bad in this world take us over, we won’t survive.” Tone agreed.
“Does that mean we should invade Sydney’s room and drag her out?” Daisy asked. Tone looked towards Sydney’s door.
“No I should be the one to go and talk to her. I shouldn’t have said what I did to her; she thought she was doing the right thing.” Tone decided and headed to her room. He knocked but she didn’t answer. That didn’t stop Tone; he walked in and shut the door behind him.
“I think he’s brave.” Aaron said to no one in particular.
“I think you might be right.” Sam agreed.
“Why?” Axel asked looking back to Sydney’s door.
“It’s best you learn this lesson young son. An upset woman is a lot like a bear. If they’ve locked themselves away like Sydney did, you’re entering their lair.” Sam told him. Axel looked at him for a few minutes while he processed the information.
“Well it’s a good sign that we don’t hear screaming or things being thrown.” Aaron said and shrugged, “Maybe she’ll let him keep his limbs.”
“Should someone check on them to make sure?” Axel asked as he turned his attention to Aaron. Sam laughed as he shook his head.
Tone came out of Sydney’s room limping and holding his hand. All of us fell silent wondering what had happened to him.
“It was a battle but she said she’ll come out.” Tone said as he collapsed onto the couch. He threw his arm over his eyes and let out a moan.
“Are you okay?” Axel asked as he got up and crouched by Tone.
“Have you ever braved dealing with an upset woman?” Tone asked lifting his arms off one of his eyes.
“No.” Axel answered, “Can I get you anything?”
Tone didn’t answer. Instead Sydney snuck up behind Axel and grabbed him in a bear hug causing him to scream in surprise. Tone sat up laughing.
“Sorry kid it was you or me.” Tone apologized through his laughter.
“You tricked me!” Axel accused as Sydney put him down.
“Yes he did.” Sydney said as she turned Axel to look at her. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I should have told everyone what I was suspecting.”
“Okay, but no more secrets” Axel said as he hugged her. “As Sam told us we have to hold on to each other and keep reminding each other that we’re still here. There’s still some good in the world.”
“Well I didn’t quite use those words, but yeah.” Sam said as Sydney smiled and hugged him back.
“What’s for dinner?” She asked as she looked at Sam.
“Wait, I never said I was cooking.” Sam said as he looked at Sydney.
“Oh I know. I just threw you under the bus.” She said, “Now who’s up for a game?”
Chapter Thirteen
We were playing Clue. We had broken into teams of two so everyone could play.
Sam worked in the kitchen. The aroma of cooking burgers, potatoes, and corn drifted in the air. Tone had partnered with Daisy and they were playing as Mr. Green because of Daisy’s hair. Sydney and Axel were a team playing as Miss Scarlet. Sawyer and Micah had teamed up and chosen Professor Plum. Aaron was my partner and we were Mrs. Peacock.
“Okay so we think it was Mrs. White in the Ballroom with the Revolver.” Sawyer said as Micah moved the purple piece into the ballroom.
“Well we have Mrs. White and the Revolver.” Tone said.
“And we have the Ballroom.” Axel responded. Everyone marked off the new information on their paper before the next move. Next up was Sydney and Axel. They rolled and moved their red piece into the Kitchen.
“Okay so it was Mrs. Peacock in the Kitchen with the Rope.” Axel said.
“Yeah well we have Peacock and the Rope.” Micah responded.
“We have the Kitchen.” Aaron said. He rolled as everyone filled in their papers. I moved our blue piece to the Billiard Room.
“So it was Green in the Billiard with the Knife.” Aaron guessed.
“Nope we have the Billiard room.” Micah responded.
“We have the knife and Mr. Green.” Sydney added in. Next up we had Tone and Daisy rolling. They moved their green piece into the Hall.
“So Mustard in the Hall with the Candlestick?” Daisy asked.
“We have the Hall.” Sawyer said.
“Candlestick.” Aaron said.
“No one has Mustard?” Tone asked; everyone shook their heads. “One mystery solved.”
“Now it’s just a race to figure out the weapon and room.” Daisy laughed. As Micah took the dice and rolled. Sawyer moved their piece to the Conservatory.
“Colonel Mustard, in the Conservatory, with the Wrench.” Micah guessed.
“We have the Conservatory.” Axel responded.
“Anyone have the wrench?” Sawyer asked. After everyone said they didn’t Axel grabbed the dice to roll. They used their roll to move to the Study.
“How about Mustard, in the Study, with the Wrench?” Sydney asked. Nobody spoke up. Tone grabbed the packet in the middle of the board and pulled out the three cards in it. He revealed Colonel Mustard, the Wrench, and the Study.
“Nice you guys win.” Tone congratulated Sydney and Axel with high fives.
“Just in time for dinner to be served.” Sam called from the kitchen.
We quickly picked up the game and headed in to grab the food. Sam had laid everything out on the counters in a line. So we could grab a plate, buns, burger and go through to put everything we wanted on it.
It was an assembly line for dinner with the last things being fully loaded baked potatoes and the corn. We were all quieter as we ate, enjoying our meal and each other’s company. Sam had even put on some music with an iPod and speakers. He didn’t put it on very loud so it was just background noise.
“Wow Sam, I didn’t know you knew how to work one of those.” Tone said as he finished his potato.
“Very funny Tone.” Sam responded, “Besides I’m not that old.”
“Well I think it’s time everyone got some sleep and we can get an early start tomorrow, get back onto the main road.” Sydney told us, “Come on kids get a move on.”
We all obeyed.
Micah went in to share the room with Axel; he kissed Sawyer as he walked by her. She giggled as she followed me back to our room. We didn’t talk, just crawled into bed to sleep. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I laid down.
The bed felt like heaven as soon as I got comfortable. Sawyer was asleep almost before her head was on her pillow. I looked up at the dark ceiling listening to her breathe.
I woke in the morning to the sun shining through the window and the bus was already moving. Sawyer was asleep when I left the room. It was surprising seeing that the living room was pretty much empty. Aaron was sitting on the couch reading a book. Tone was driving while Sam sat in the passenger seat navigating.
“Morning.” Aaron greeted me, “Those two are boring.”
“Hey now, we can hear you.” Tone called back.
“Well that was the point.” Aaron told him and winked at me, “There’s some oatmeal on the counter. I made it about an hour or so ago.”
“Thank you.” I told him as I went to grab a bowl. I sat down next to him with my bowl and looked out of the window. In the distance there was black smoke rising to the sky.
“A fire?” I asked him as I nodded in the direction with my chin.
“Yeah, wasn’t burning when we parked so it must have started last night.” He answered, “See that smoke—how it’s black.”
“Yeah?” I answered.
“Means the fire is still burning, if you see the smoke turn white it means the fire is out.” Aaron responded.
“Is it going to cause us any problem?” I asked.
“Hopefully not, but it is the reason Sam wanted to get an early start. Wanted to try to get ahead of it so there would be no chance of it cutting us off.” Aaron answered as he picked his book back up. He was reading The Enemy by Charlie Higson.
“What’s the book about?” I asked him.
“Pretty much zombie apocalypse.” He answered.
“Really? With everything going on, that’s what you choose to read?” I asked him.
“It sounded interesting and they have the whole series on the bus so why not?” He said, “You should read it when I’m done.”
“Maybe I will.” I said as I went and washed my bowl. “Although reading about the end of the world while we are kind of living it is a little weird don’t you think?”
“Maybe or maybe it will give me survival ideas.” Aaron laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Micah asked as he came out to the living room.
“Not much besides Aaron reading a zombie apocalypse novel.” I answered. Micah just looked at me for a minute.
“Really? Can’t you just look outside for that?” He asked, looking at him.
“Could but this is research for how to survive.” Aaron answered.
“Right I’m grabbing food.” Micah said and headed for the kitchen, shaking his head.
Aaron went back to reading and I watched the smoke out the window. Not long after everyone was up and there was constant chatter as background noise. It was a good reminder that we were all alive. I stopped watching the smoke to take in the people around me in their various activities.
“Quite the family we have, isn’t it?” Aaron asked as he looked at me over the top of his book.
“Yeah seems so.” I responded.
“Hey you seem kind of down. What’s up?” he asked me, sitting up.
“Not down just been thinking, or I guess worrying would be a better word.” I answered.
“About?” he asked.
“It seems like this trip is taking a long time and I worry we won’t make it.” I told him as he took my hand.
“Ash it’s taking a long time because Sam and Tone are trying their best not to draw attention to us. They’re staying away from where they think there might be a lot of people.” Aaron said.
“Why are they avoiding people? Shouldn’t we be trying to help as many as we can?” I asked, thinking of all the people we may have left to horrible ends.
“Don’t want to chance running into the wrong sort.” Aaron said.
“Wrong sort?” I asked.
“People like my brother, they would try and take the bus from us and where would we be without the safety of our home?” Aaron asked me. He was right, not everyone was out to help others. There were people out there that would only be out for themselves. Some people just won’t care that the world was turned upside down. All they cared about is themselves, not who they hurt to insure they get safety or supplies.
“That why we’ve barely stopped?” I asked.
“Yeah, Sam doesn’t like the area we’re in right now. We were followed for a while yesterday before we stopped for gas. They gave up when we didn’t stop but we could run into others who won’t. So Sam is avoiding roads that have signs of frequent use.” Aaron answered.
“Were we really being followed or could it have been someone just traveling the same way?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Could have been either but we can’t take chances that could cost us the thing that is really keeping us safe.” Aaron said, “I know how my brother thought so at least I can give Sam some advice to help us.”
“Your brother was a really bad guy, wasn’t he?” I asked him and he put the book down.
“Yeah he was.” He answered.
“So how did you turn out to not be like him?” I asked.
“I saw how he was to people and how people treated him for it. I didn’t want to be like that. Though I did whatever he said to avoid his anger. I liked having people wanting to be my friends for me. Not because they were scared what would happen if they weren’t.” he answered, “Plus I had Emily.”
“I’m sorry you grew up like that.” I told him.
“Don’t be. I have some skills that could be useful now. Besides there’s no reason to regret the past that you can’t change when there’s a future ahead.” He said and laughed, “Don’t feel sorry for me.”
It was hard to be upset around Aaron; he took what was thrown at him, dealt with it and moved on. Like now his past growing up sounded horrible but he was smiling, like it was nothing. I admired him and hoped his attitude would be one I could learn to get through the challenges we were bound to face.
Chapter Fourteen
I looked out the window to see a black lifted truck was riding up beside us. A guy in the passenger seat, his face obscured by his red beard and aviator style sunglasses was waving his arms trying to get Sam to roll down his window.
“What do you think Tone?” Sam asked.
“I don’t see weapons yet. Window down and we don’t have to pull over to see what they want.” Tone answered as he shrugged. Sam nodded and hit the button to roll his window down.
“Howdy friend.” Sunglasses called.
“Howdy.” Sam called back.
“How bout y’all pull on over and we have a chat?” Sunglasses asked.
“No offense but we don’t know you.” Sam told him. “We aren�
�t pulling over.”
“Now come on, is that anyway to be?” Sunglasses asked.
“I’m sure you can understand we have kids to protect. We don’t know you so we aren’t pulling over.” Sam told him and reached for the window button.
“Look friend I told you to pull the damn bus over.” Sunglasses growled, “Either you pull it over or we shoot it over.” Sam rolled the window up and nodded to Tone. Sunglasses started waving a gun where we could see it.
“Everybody get down!” Sam shouted as bullets started hitting the side of the bus. Sydney threw a gun to Aaron as Tone got a couple of spots set up for them to open windows to return fire.
Sam kept us moving at a steady pace, he didn’t try to speed up. The guys in the truck could outrun us. We all heard when one of the back dual tires got hit. The bus swerved violently tossing us all to the side. The back end of the bus slammed into the truck sending it off the road where it rolled into the huge rainwater ditch on the side of the road.
“Is everyone okay?” Sam asked.
“Just a few bruises.” Sydney told him as she went around and checked everyone.
“Anyone still following?” Sam asked.
“Not right now, can’t even tell if anyone climbed out of the truck.” Tone answered. Sam waited until he couldn’t see the people who tried to ambush us. As soon as he felt we were safe he stopped and Tone went to check the damage done to the tire.
“The other one is fine but there’s no way we can change the busted one.” Tone was saying, “The bus is way too heavy for us to do it.”
“Didn’t we see something about there being a garage around here?” Sam asked, “Maybe we can figure it out there or find someone willing to take payment to help us.”
“Yeah, I think I know which one you’re talking about.” Tone said, “That Jeb’s Garage we saw the sign for. I can find it on the map and have us there in no time.”
“Are we going to be safe at a garage?” I asked. My hands were shaking.
“I don’t know. Could be that we get there and no one is there.” Tone told me, “We’re okay now. Sydney, Sam and I have been through worse than this.”
Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) Page 9
