Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (13 page)

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.

“Yeah 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?”

“Please, call me Scott, and of
course, take me to her.” Scott told me as he dropped all but one of his bags
and followed me back to where Hannah was.

Scott kept Sydney back in the room
with him but he wanted everyone else out of his way. We all sat where we could
in the living room, waiting to hear if he could help or not. It seemed to take
forever before the door opened and he came out alone.

“I got the bullet out and we
got the wound properly bandaged. The girl needs rest, so Sydney said she’ll
stay with her while she sleeps. She said to tell Hunter she’ll get him when she
wakes.” Scott said. You could almost see the relief in the air. He smiled as he
looked at all of us.

“Thank you for picking me up.”
Scott said to Sam.

“Don’t thank me, I was going to
drive by, it’s Ashlyn you should thank—she recognized you.” Sam responded as he
kept his eyes on the road.

“Well then, thank you Ashlyn.”
He said to me and smiled.

“We needed a doctor.” I told
him and shrugged.

“So I guess I was just in the
right place at the right time.” Scott said.

“I guess so.” I told him and
went back to sit on my bed again.

It was good to know that Hannah
wasn’t going to be in pain from the bullet anymore. However, we still needed to
get her to safety to heal. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Dr. Minnow now being
on the bus with us but at the same time maybe he knew what was happening.

I wanted to ask him, but I was
afraid he was going to answer yes and tell me that it had been one of the
risks. I didn’t want to think that Marie had agreed to something. That she knew
it could cause something like what we were facing now.

Sawyer found me again and
joined me. I could feel her shooting looks at me like she was trying to read
what was going on in my head. After a while she stopped and watched out the
window. We passed more vehicles that had found themselves on the side of the
road. At least these ones weren’t knocked over.

She looked like she was
watching places that could be hiding Red Eyes more than anything else. There
was a patch of blue sky showing through the clouds now like someone had punched
a hole into the grey.

“How many people do you think
the Red Eyes got back there?” Sawyer finally asked me.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to
think about it.” I told her as I looked at her.

“If Hannah wasn’t hurt would
you have had Sam stop to pick up Dr. Minnow?” She asked, not meeting my eyes. I
got what she was saying. She wanted to know if I blamed him for what had
happened to Marie and if I would have left him to die as some sort of payback.

“I don’t think I could have let
Sam drive by him.” I told her and I caught the little sigh she tried to hide.
“Do you really think so little of me?”

“No, just with him being
Marie’s doctor and all we’ve been through. We’ve all changed and I just wanted
to make sure that wasn’t something that had changed about you.” Sawyer said all
in one breath, making it barely understandable.

“I don’t know how I feel towards
the guy but he was alone and we did need a doctor for Hannah. I’m not making
friends with him or anything but yeah.” I told her trying not to be mad that
she had thought I could leave someone to die.

I didn’t say anything else and
eventually Micah came looking for Sawyer. She went to join whichever game Axel
had picked now. I felt bad that I was glad she wasn’t in the room with me
anymore.

I started to cry thinking about
Marie, wondering what she would do if she was here right now. I know she would
have stopped for Dr. Minnow as well, even if she blamed him. Thinking about
Marie made me think about my parents. Would I see them again? Had they made it
someplace safe? I turned so I was facing the window as I let myself cry for
everything that was lost.

I cried until it seemed like
all my tears dried up. I decided it was time to join the group again, I went
and washed my face and went to grab another taco. I sat with Aaron at the
dining room table and he smiled at me.

“You doing okay?” he asked me.

“Yeah, just needed to cry.” I
told him and he nodded.

“So how do you know the good
doctor?” Aaron asked me.

“He was Marie’s doctor for her
heart transplant. Marie was one of the human trials. She was one of the first
to become one of the crazed and a Red Eye.” I told him and watched as he sat
back and took it in. His face became blank and cold.

“Do you think he may have
known?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t think so. I mean, I
know Marie signed papers pertaining to her being in a trail program. I don’t
think anyone could have seen this happening.” I answered him, “I just have
issues seeing him, it makes me think of Marie.” Aaron stood up and went into
the living room, I followed him.

He went straight up to Scott.

“Scott, you worked with the
people that this started with, so please tell us, what’s going on.” Aaron
stated in front of everyone drawing all their attention.

“Yes, I worked for Clydework
but I don’t know what’s happening. Nothing like this happened in the animal
testing we did.” Scott responded, “The animals all did really well.”

“How is it that both Hannah and
I have been bitten but neither one of us has had any symptoms?” Hunter asked
from where he was seated with Daisy on the couch.

“I don’t know why that would
be, but could I do some testing on you two when she’s healed? Maybe there’s an
abnormality in your blood and since you are related it’s in both of you.” Scott
said.

He looked like his mind was
already trying to solve the problem, like it was just an equation on a board.

“I’d have to talk to Hannah
when she wakes up.” Hunter said as he watched the doctor.

“Let me know, maybe the answers
are in your blood.” Scott repeated.

No one had anything to say to
that and the conversation faded to silence. Some people from the group headed
out of the room and to their rooms to be away from the tension that we were now
drowning in.

Almost everyone had already
headed to bed when Sam decided that we should stop for the night and rest. He
pulled the bus off the road a bit to be out of the way, where people would
leave it alone. Tone switched seats with Sam so if we had to leave quickly
there would be fresh eyes on the road. I stayed in the living room with Aaron;
I felt better knowing he was on the other couch. Scott went and slept on the
floor in the room with Sydney and Hannah in case they needed him during the
night.

The sun was barely turning the sky
pink when I noticed the smell of meat cooking. I found Aaron and Hunter working
in the kitchen together.

“Did you guys go hunt?” I asked
as I rubbed sleep from my eyes.

“Yeah, only managed to get a
few rabbits.” Hunter answered.

“It’s enough to feed everyone.”
Aaron said.

Tone started the bus to get us
on our way. The bus rocked forward but didn’t move.

“Sam we got a problem.” Tone
was telling Sam as Aaron headed to the door to check out what was going on. He
came back looking grim.

“We got the back tires sunk in
mud.” He announced, “I’m going to take the old clothes out and see if we can
get some traction to get us out of here.”

“I’ll come out with you.” Sam
told him and hauled himself out of his seat.

“Me too.” I added and sat up.
We were heading out the door when Micah, Hunter, Daisy, and Sawyer came out of
their rooms. They followed us outside and saw what we were facing with the
tires stuck into the mud.

“I’m going to get the clothes
as much under those tires as I can.” Aaron told them.

“How about after that, when
Tone tries to move it again, we all try pushing and see if we can add some
force to get it out.” Hunter added and Aaron nodded. Once Aaron had the clothes
set up as best he could he nodded to Sam.

“Tone let’s give it a shot.”
Sam called out to Tone and he started pressing the gas as we all pushed. The
bus didn’t budge. Sam looked defeated.

“We need to get what we need
off the bus and get to walking.” He said to all of us as Tone leaned out the
door of the bus to see what was going on.

“It’s going to be hard to move
Hannah.” Hunter was saying.

“Hey before everyone starts
panicking, let’s give this one more shot.” Aaron said making everyone look at
him.

“Better be quick. Looks like
we’ve got company.” Tone said pointing to a group of Red Eyes heading our way.
I counted at least fifteen of them but I kept losing count as they moved.

“Tone if we get the bus out
don’t stop until you get back onto the paved road. We’ll catch up but if the
bus gets stuck again we’re done.” Sam called into the door.

Aaron was throwing more of the
clothes he had grabbed under the tires. He joined us at the back as soon as he
was done and put himself in position next to me. Sam followed him over and
found an open spot between Daisy and Sawyer to place himself.

“Go Tone!” He yelled and Tone
hit the gas.

The bus lurched forward and we
all pushed with everything we had. The bus kept going, spilling all of us onto
the wet ground behind it. Looking up, I saw the Red Eyes were almost on us.
Tone got the bus back onto the solidness of the paved road, then the first Red
Eye made a grab for Daisy.

She screamed and kicked as
Hunter grabbed her under her arms and pulled her away. He got her onto her feet
and sent her running towards the bus before he turned and kicked the one off
Micah.

Aaron had Sawyer on her feet
and got her heading to the bus with Micah right on her heels. Next he turned to
me while Hunter held off the Red Eyes that got too close. Sam was ahead of us
heading to the bus.

Scott was standing outside the
bus helping everyone get on. Hunter was right behind us as we ran, I heard him
fall and turned grabbing Aaron as I stopped. We got Hunter back up between us.

The Red Eyes were catching up
as we jumped onto the bus. Followed by Scott who was reaching for the door as
the bus started moving. He stumbled forward missing the door. Sam caught him by
his shirt and pulled him back kicking the door shut as he did. We all stayed on
the floor panting as Micah started to laugh.

“You know we were almost Red
Eye kibble, what’s so funny?” Daisy demanded.

“We survived a scene straight
out of a horror movie.” Micah gasped between laughter.

“He’s right.” Aaron added
agreeing and shaking his head.

“Yeah, if this was a movie what
would they call it?” Tone called from the front of the bus.

“The wheels on the bus.” Hunter
answered as both Daisy and he gave into laughter. Even Sam was laughing as he
joined Tone at the front of the bus.

“That was too close.” Tone said
as he glanced into the rearview mirror at us.

“Yeah, but Aaron was right to
try again, which means we’re not walking.” Sam agreed.