“Why did you want me to see?” I asked. I was gagging at the sickly-sweet decaying smell.
“This is the only thing we’ve seen.” He said.
“Yeah.” I responded.
“Where is everyone now?” He asked.
“I don’t know if I want to find out.” I said, “I just want Hunter to get back with the keys so we can leave.”
“Ash really look at her.” He said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Her only injury is her throat.” He answered.
“I saw that.” I said.
“If Red Eyes did this there would be more injuries.” He pointed out.
“I didn’t think about that.” I said.
“Let’s look around a bit more over here.” He said.
I followed him between the vehicles. Now there was more blood. We were getting closer to an open garage. The parking lot was less packed over here. There were also people scattered throughout the cleared space. Dead people.
All of them were only missing pieces and appeared uninjured beyond what was gone. The man closest to us was missing both legs. Another man was missing his arms.
Something clattered to the ground in the garage. Aaron pulled me behind a white sedan. He had his finger to his mouth.
“What did you break now?” A man’s voice asked.
“Nothing, I just bumped the table.” Another man answered.
“Make sure you didn’t wreck any of Roger’s supplies.” The first man said.
“Believe me I wouldn’t risk that.” The other responded, “I like to eat not be eaten.”
“Have you seen Kendal since she went to patrol?” The first asked.
“Haven’t seen her yet. She’s probably with Taylor.” The other answered, “You know how those girls are Mitch.”
“Yeah Don, I know.” Mitch responded, “They’re lucky they have something Roger wants, otherwise they wouldn’t be here now.”
“We’d better get the meal started before Roger gets back.” Don replied.
“How long did Roger say he’d be gone?” Mitch asked.
“He said he’d be back for dinner. He wants the blonde tonight.” Don said.
I looked at Aaron. He shook his head and put his finger to his mouth.
“You going to help me get her?” Mitch asked.
“Fine.” Don responded.
We heard a door close.
“Back to the others.” Aaron whispered.
I nodded.
He kept hold of my hand as we made our way back to our group. Hunter was just coming back with the keys when we walked up.
“You two okay?” Hannah asked.
“No we got to move out now.” Aaron said.
“What happened?” Tone asked.
“Cannibals.” Aaron answered.
“Serious?” Hunter asked.
“Yes, let’s move now.” Aaron said holding his hand out for the keys to the black pick-up.
Hunter handed out the keys and the teams loaded into their chosen vehicles. Aaron pulled out first leading everyone away from the dealership and towards the sporting goods store. I kept checking behind us, waiting for someone to chase us.
I didn’t even notice when we pulled up to the store.
Aaron turned off the truck and my heart pounded in my chest.
Hunter parked on our driver side while Tone pulled up to the passenger.
Even after everyone unloaded, no one said anything until we were sure no one was around and we were inside the walls of the store.
This place looked like I expected everything to look. Racks were knocked over, shelves were picked clean. The only items left appeared to be broken.
Aaron, Hunter, and Hannah spread out picking up things from the floor. Aaron was smiling with every discovery he made. I didn’t understand why he was happy, he was holding pieces.
“I can’t believe these got left.” Aaron said.
“What do you got there?” Hunter asked.
“Bows.” Aaron answered.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.
“Nothing. They’re just not strung.” Aaron answered.
“Why would they be left if nothing’s wrong?” I asked.
“Bunch of reasons.” Hunter answered.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Someone didn’t know how to string them or couldn’t find the string.” Hannah answered, “Or someone who thought a crossbow would be better.”
“Doesn’t really matter what they thought.” Aaron said.
“Their leavings are our gain.” Tone said.
“Do we have everything we need for them?” I asked.
“Sure do.” Hunter answered.
Daisy was staying quiet over by a window.
“What’s up?” Hannah asked her.
“Do you guys hear that?” She asked.
Everyone stood still and listened.
In the distance there was the rumble of an engine.
It was getting closer.
“I vote we load up and head back to the bus.” Tone suggested.
“I second that.” Hunter said.
We were on our way back to Petalite Springs Resort. Aaron made sure to lead away from the approaching engine. I still kept a look out for someone following us.
Aaron stopped the truck in front of the broken window we had driven through with the bus.
The bus was gone.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“It’s still early they should have still been here.” Aaron said.
“Something must have happened.” Tone called from his open window.
“So we head to Paradis and hope we find them on the road.” Aaron responded.
Tone took the lead as we headed back to the road with the hopes that we would see the bus on the way.
Chapter Nineteen
It wasn’t long before we came across a fence stretching across the road. Our bus was also stopped there. Tone pulled up to the passenger side. Hannah and him both grabbed everything out of the Wrangler and went back on to the bus.
Aaron pulled up to the driver side and waved to Sam.
“Glad to see you all found us.” Sam called once he had his window down.
“Why’d you leave early?” Aaron asked.
“Had to. People showed up.” Sam answered.
“People?” Aaron asked.
“Yeah a man. Called himself Roger.” Sam answered, “Called the hotel his hunting ground.”
“Everyone get out okay?” I asked.
“Yeah we go lucky and everyone was already on the bus.” Sam responded.
“He didn’t follow you?” I asked.
“That was the weird part.” Sam said, “But now there’s this fence.”
The fence went well into the trees on either side and didn’t look like there was a way we could get around it. Someone pulled up behind us blocking the way. Another truck drove up beside our truck.
“The way’s blocked we’ll have to turn around.” Sam told the stranger who started laughing.
“Oh, we know it’s blocked, it’s our fence.” The guy said as he watched Sam for a reaction.
“Well we’ll be on our way then, if your friends would be so kind as to move out of our way.” Sam explained as another guy walked up. This guy was obviously the leader, everyone backed away from him as he walked by.
“See, now there, we have a problem.” The leader said as he took the other guys place by Sam’s window.
“How do we have a problem?” Sam asked. I could see he was tense.
“We want your bus and you can’t go forward with the fence there. You can’t go backwards since we got you blocked.” The leader said.
“Who the hell are you?” Sam asked. He gripped the steering wheel hard and his knuckles were losing color.
“They call me Captain and we’re land pirates, you see our black flag flying there above our camp.” Captain answered.
“Land pirates?” Sam responded.
“Ye
ah you come through our territory and we take what we want.” Captain answered.
“We can give you some supplies to buy our passage.” Sam told him.
“We don’t need supplies.” Captain said.
“What do you want?” Sam asked.
“We want your fancy bus.” Captain answered.
“Look we’re trying to be reasonable. You’re not taking this bus from us, I don’t care who you are.” Sam told Captain.
“Oh but you should, you see I got bit and look at me. I’m the picture of health. They can probably use my blood as a cure, but I won’t let them without charging.” Captain laughed as he spit foam from his mouth.
“Hate to break it to you but you don’t look like a picture of health with that foam.” Sam said.
“That foam doesn’t mean anything.” Captain argued
“Get the hell out of our way or we will start shooting.” Sam responded
I saw Sydney moved into position by one of the windows where the pirates didn’t see her.
“You ain’t going nowhere with our bus and whatever is on it.” Captain said as his people cheered and he made rude gestures at Sam. I saw Sam tap his finger a couple times before he nodded. Sydney fired off two shots quickly that put down a couple of Captain’s men.
Captain’s people pulled out their weapons. I dropped down below the windows as Sam hit the gas and went through the fence. Aaron waited till the bus was clear of the fence and hit the gas pulling us in line behind Hunter’s orange Ranger.
The pirates all scattered screaming at Sam as they tried to stop the bus by climbing onto it. There were Red Eyes on the other side of the fence. They flowed into the hole and went after the pirates running instead of us.
One guy got a good grip on the bus and Sydney leaned out a window. She shot him in the leg. He let go and was swarmed by the Red Eyes. Sydney waited till his head was visible again. She fired off a shot straight into his forehead cutting him off mid scream.
We could hear screaming and gunfire outside. It grew fainter as Sam led us away putting distance between us and the pirates.
Sam pulled over when we were miles away from the pirates. I helped Aaron grab the supplies we had in our truck. Back inside the bus Hannah was on the couch bleeding.
“What happened?” Hunter asked as he noticed his sister.
“Return fire came through that window before she got down. I can’t get the bullet; it seems to be wedged into the bone.” Sydney told him.
“Can’t you just leave it there and stop the bleeding?” Hunter asked as he lifted Hannah’s head into his lap.
“I don’t know. If I do she may lose the ability to use that arm and it could make it worse.” Sydney was telling him as Aaron came over to where I was.
“You okay?” He asked me as he sat down beside me.
“Yeah. Is Hannah going to be okay?” I responded.
“I don’t know.” Aaron told me as he looked at Hannah, “Depends on when we can get that bullet out of her.”
“So we have to get to Paradis Roulette before we can really help her.” I stated as we watched Hannah cry. Hunter had taken off the hoodie he had been wearing and I saw the bite marks on his forearm. I stared for a minute before I realized that they were human.
“Hunter what are those marks?” I asked, “Were you bit?”
“Oh.” He responded and looked at his arm, “Yeah, I got bit when Mama and grandpa Archie did. I was helping them escape when it happened I hid it from dad when I saw what he was going to do with them.”
“So just like Hannah. No symptoms?” Sam asked, joining the conversation.
“None.” Hunter answered.
“You should have told us.” Sam said.
“Sorry sir, with everything going on I forgot.” Hunter answered. Sam nodded.
“We have to get her arm wrapped and steady till we can get her someplace for help.” Sydney said bringing all attention back to Hannah. I was impressed she wasn’t screaming. Although looking at Hunter and seeing the expression on his face, I was thinking maybe it was more surprising that he wasn’t screaming.
Sydney got Hunter to carry Hannah to the room she had been using. She would have a bed to lay on while we continued to head to Paradis Roulette. Tone found some pain killers to give her and a sedative so she could hopefully sleep till we had help for her.
Daisy brought a few extra pillows from her room to help make Hannah as comfortable as she could be in her state. Hunter looked haunted as he came back to the living room and sat on the recliner.
“We are going to keep her sedated for the rest of this trip.” Sydney said, “I’ll stay in the room with her but I want all of you to stay out so we can keep her still.”
Hunter didn’t look happy about not being able to be the one staying with his sister. He also didn’t challenge Sydney. Daisy went and sat next to him and he let her hold his hand. I was watching them as Aaron came over and put a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t say anything, just patted my shoulder and walked into the kitchen. Sawyer and Micah were starting a game of Life with Axel, which was good, it would get his mind off Hannah. I ended up following Aaron.
“It’s quiet.” He told me.
“Everyone’s processing what happened. I think they all want to be respectful to Hunter.” I responded catching a water bottle he threw to me.
“True I feel bad for Sam driving. He must be feeling the pressure to get to Paradis now.” Aaron was saying as I took a drink of the water.
“I would not want to be in his shoes right now. He doesn’t have it easy being the leader and all.” I agreed.
“Come look at this.” Sam called.
I followed Aaron to stand in the doorway of the front of the bus.
“What’s up?” Aaron asked.
“You see that in the distance?” Sam asked, pointing to what looked like the sun reflecting off a giant mirror.
“Yeah I think.” I answered.
“That’s Paradis Roulette, we are close enough to see it right now, and we just have to get there.” Sam said and Aaron patted him on the back as I looked at our destination.
It looked far away to me with a lot of things between us and safety. I could see Sam was determined to get us there.
“Are we going to make it?” I asked Sam, still looking out the window.
“We’ll make it; just have to keep it together.” He answered.
“Are we going to have to hunt?” I asked
“I don’t know, depends where we stop and how long this leg takes us.” Sam answered.
“Aaron said we found cannibals at the dealership.” I told him.
“That’s what Tone had told me. I think Captain was part of that same group.” Sam said.
“Do you think we’ll run into more people like the pirates?” I asked.
“I hope not.” Sam answered.
I went back to my room where I could just stare out the window. I could still see the building Sam had pointed out but it didn’t look like it was getting any closer yet.
The sky outside was an angry grey color that blocked out sunlight. It made it look more like night than day outside. Sawyer came and sat with me. She watched out the window with me. She leaned her head against my shoulder.
“I missed you.” She said.
“I missed you too.” I responded.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again when Sam left the hotel.” She said.
I wrapped my arm over her shoulders.
Outside there was movement in the trees. We could see they were human but they moved more like animals.
“Are they following us?” Sawyer asked after we had watched them for a while.
“Maybe or there’s something out there and we just happen to be going in the same direction.” I told her as one of them broke away from the group and charged the bus.
There was a sickening thud as it hit and bounced off. Others started doing the same thing, so soon we were hearing thud, thud, thud as one after another hit the side.
“What are they doing?” Sawyer asked, watching as another one charged.
“I think they’re trying to stop us.” I told her and pointed to where there were a couple of SUV’s on their sides.
“They’re hunting us using a technique that worked on other people passing by.” Sawyer said as the group gave hitting us a couple more tries. The bus was too heavy for them to knock over the way they had the SUV’s. They gave up and backtracked to wait for another vehicle. It was weird to think they may be finding ways to hunt.
“Do you think they might all be forming packs?” I asked and Sawyer looked back out the window.
“I don’t know maybe they just find it’s easier to get food all together.” Sawyer answered.
Up ahead outside I saw that there was a car on the side of the road. There weren’t any Red Eyes by it but there was a man standing there. I went to the front of the bus to get a better look. As we got closer I could see the man was fairly tall with dark hair and was wearing black rimmed glasses.
“Sam you have to stop.” I told him and he looked at the man.
“Why?” he asked, “It could be a trap.”
“That looks like it might be Dr. Minnow, the doctor who did my sister’s surgery.” I told him and he slowed down and rolled down the window. The man walked over quickly.
“Are you Dr. Minnow?” Sam asked once he was close enough.
“Yes I am.” Dr. Minnow answered looking like he was trying to place Sam.
“Are you alone?” Sam asked which seemed to confuse the doctor more.
“Yes I barely made it away from those creatures back there but I ran out of gas.” Dr. Minnow responded.
“Okay, grab your stuff you’re coming with us. Bring any medical supplies you have, we have a girl with a bullet lodged into a bone in her arm.” Sam told him. Dr Minnow hurried back to his car and grabbed a few bags then rushed back to board the bus.
“How long were you stuck?” Sam asked him.
“I’ve been there about a day, hiding in the car. I saw you coming and thought I’d take the chance you would stop.” He responded then his eyes landed on me, “I know you.”
“My sister was Marie Forde; you were her doctor for her heart transplant.” I told him, “I’m Ashlyn. Our friend in the back is hurt. Can you help her, Dr. Minnow?”
Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) Page 12
