Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

I didn’t know how long we had been
driving while we all recovered from the adrenaline that had run its course. The
laughter had died down leaving silence. Sydney had come out and made sure
everyone had eaten but she quickly returned to Hannah’s side.

“Sam, I hate to tell you this,
but we’re going to need gas.” Tone said, breaking the silence.

“Can we make it till it gets
closer to dark so we can park near the station for the night?” Sam asked and
Tone stayed quite while he thought.

“No, we have till about lunch
then we’ll have to stop.” Tone answered.

“Okay.” Sam said after a minute.
“Next gas station you see we’ll stop. By the time we eat we should be away from
places people might hide to set up an ambush.”

Tone nodded and kept watching
the road. He tapped Sam when he saw one that looked clear. As we pulled up a
man came out and waved to us. Sam looked like he’d rather keep driving but
since Tone was driving, we stopped. Tone rolled down his window and the man
came up to it.

“Hello there.” The red-haired
man greeted, “I’m Evan Smith, welcome to my station.”

“Your station?” Tone asked.

“Yes sir. Got myself all set up
inside and been getting food as payment for filling people up.” Evan answered
and smiled making his blue eyes look playful.

“How are you keeping the Red
Eyes away?” Sam asked and Evan looked a little sheepish, the smile leaving his
eyes.

“Red Eyes? That’s what you call
them? I’ve been calling them Shadows, but heard all sorts of names for them.”
Evan said, “I keep them out with a perimeter I set up. It’s of cut up Shadows.
Keeps them immobilized, but the others seem to stay away since they don’t smell
me over them.”

“Gruesome, but smart.” Tone
responded.

“Yeah, I got them out of sight,
don’t want to scare people.” Evan said.

“People will stop coming this
way.” Sam said, “Why don’t you fill us up and come with us?”

“I’ll be fine here; people
won’t stop coming.” Evan said as he hooked up the pump to fill the bus up. Sam
was watching him the whole time. “You are all set.”

“Look, I’m serious about people
not coming this way. The Red Eyes are figuring out how to stop people.” Sam
told him, “You should come with us, you have skills we could use and we have
plenty of room.”

“Where are you heading?” Evan
asked, looking like he was thinking about the offer.

“Paradis Roulette, it’s in a
bio dome.” Sam answered.

“Has the outbreak happened
there?” Evan asked.

“No.” Sam answered.

“What makes you so sure it
won’t happen?” Evan questioned.

“We’re not, but our chances in
there are better than our chances out here.” Sam responded. “With what we’ve
seen on the road we would be leaving you to die if we drive away without you.”

“Why are you so sure people
won’t make it this way?” Evan asked.

“The Red Eyes are staying to
the side of the road and charging cars. There’s a bunch they’ve knocked over,
we made it because we are in a heavy bus.” Sam responded and Evan’s eyes
widened with the thought of Red Eyes having the capability to think.

It was scary that they were
thinking enough to figure out how to get to people inside cars.

“Well you have convinced me
that going with you is my best chance for survival.” Evan finally said after
thinking. “Let me go get my stuff.”

“Sam do you know what you’re
doing?” Tone asked once Evan was out of earshot.

“He’s been here for a while and
he figured out how to keep the Red Eyes away. That’s a skill we might need even
after getting to my nephew.” Sam responded.

“Why would we need a skill like
that after we get to the dome?” Tone asked as he watched for Evan’s return.

“As Evan said, we are not sure
if the outbreak will stay at bay once we are in the dome. Plus if it does
happen there we need to be able to survive.” Sam responded as Evan came out
walking with a bag slung over his shoulder and a wagon dragging behind him.

“What’s in the wagon?” Tone
asked as he jumped out to help Evan load up.

“The food I have. Figured I’d
add it to what you have if we’re all together now.” Evan said as he handed over
the bag to Hunter.

“Welcome aboard.” Hunter
greeted as Evan stepped onto the bus.

“Thank you.” Evan responded and
bowed his head slightly, “Now I assume you all know my name—who am I traveling
with, may I ask?”

Hunter went around the bus and
introduced Evan to everyone in turn. Evan shook everyone’s hands and met their
eyes as he was told their names.

“How did you figure out the Red
Eyes wouldn’t come around if they smelled others like them?” Axel wanted to
know, speaking out what most of us were thinking.

“By accident actually. I was
attacked and by the end was too tired to drag the bodies away I couldn’t even make
it to cover. I woke up and the other shadows just walked by me, the bodies had
covered my scent and saved me.” Evan explained.

“That was lucky for you.” Aaron
commented.

“Yes it was and I found that if
I set up the perimeter with them they wouldn’t come sniffing about.” Evan said.

“Why do you call them shadows?”
Sawyer asked.

“Because they are shadows of
the people they once were.” Evan answered, “Not really any different then you
calling them Red Eyes.”

Evan went through and added the
canned food he had brought with him to the pantry. He was impressed to see that
we had a working refrigerator that had the rabbit meat in it. Tone got us back
on the road again, heading away from Evan’s gas station.

He watched it disappear out the
window. He looked almost sad and I wondered how he had ended up on his own in
all this. I tried to think about how it would have been to be caught in the
outbreak all alone. Thinking back to all the close calls we faced as a group, I
knew if I had faced them without help I would be dead by now.

There was a fire burning way
off in the horizon. The smoke column was black and angry looking from what I
could see out the window. It made me think of Hunter’s father’s garage and the
fire that ate away his life.

He seemed happy to have Hannah
still and I wanted to ask if that meant he was closer to her. Or if it meant
she was the only member of his family he had worried about. I couldn’t ask him
though; it would be cruel to make him talk about the loss of his family.

I looked towards where Sam had
said Paradis Roulette was and I could see that the dome was looking bigger.
More of it was visible which was a good sign. It meant we were closer.

Evan hadn’t integrated himself
into the group. He was sitting off by himself watching everyone else interact.
He was staying quiet but he had a notebook in front of him that he was doing
something in. I finally got curious enough to go and see what he was doing. I
sat down next to him and looked at the paper in the book he was holding up with
his knees. He was drawing everyone on the bus. Even with me sitting next to
him, he kept working on a girl sitting by the window looking out. The girl was
me, where I’d been sitting before coming over to see what he was doing.

“You’re good.” I told him and
he smiled before putting the pencil he was using down.

“Thank you. Ashlyn right?” He
responded looking at me.

“Yeah. So why are you drawing
all of us?” I asked him.

“Before all this, I was an
artist, now I draw what I see; keeping an image documentary reminds me that I’m
not crazy.” Evan answered.

“So you’ve drawn everything
you’ve seen?” I asked him and he handed over his sketch book.

“Yes I have; you can have a
look but I should warn you some of it is more on the gory side.” He told me as
I started from the beginning.

The first drawing was of a
street with lots of people running and houses on fire. There were shadows going
after people, but they were too far away to see clearly. The next image was of
a Red Eye up close holding onto an arm that was no longer attached to a body.
Followed by a picture of a little girl holding the hand of a woman in a field
of sunflowers.

The next drawing showed the
woman from the last picture on the ground as a Red Eye dragged her away. The
little girl was holding the woman’s hand, trying to pull her back. The next one
was of the little girl sleeping. She had a teddy bear wrapped tightly in her
arms, there were tears running down her face. There were more pictures of
people sitting around a fire and then ones of them dying.

Then came a drawing of a cross
in the ground, the name Eve was carved into it and a teddy bear sat by the foot
of the cross. The next drawing was of the gas station overrun with Red Eyes.
The next one was the perimeter he had set up, there were bodies on the ground
that had arms and legs cut off. There were drawings of cars filled with people
waiting at the pumps. All loaded up with whatever belongings the people had.

“Who were the little girl and
the woman?” I asked him as I got back to the drawing of all of us on the bus
and handed the book back.

“My wife and daughter.” Evan
answered as he flipped through till he got to the picture of them in the field.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Julie died saving Eve from an
attack. She got dragged away while Eve screamed.” Evan answered, “I barely got
her out of there but there was nothing I could do for Julie.” He responded.

“How old was Eve?” I asked.

“Eve was five and I lost her to
the shadows. We were where I thought we would be safe, but it wasn’t, they left
me barely enough to bury.” Evan said.

“I’m sorry.” I told him looking
at the drawing of the woman and child playing. They both looked so happy and
carefree in the midst of all they had probably seen at that point.

“Don’t be sorry, we have all
lost people, being sorry almost seems like we’re sorry we had them when we did.”
Evan said, “Miss them and love them, hold their memories near but don’t be
sorry.”

He touched the face of the
woman then the little girl.

“That’s very well put.” Aaron
said as he sat down on the other side of me. “You’ve got some talent there.”
Evan nodded and was silent again. “I like the way you captured Ashlyn lost in
her thoughts.”

“She’s an easy subject to draw,
she stays still.” Evan agreed and Aaron laughed.

“I am not that still.” I told
them.

“Oh Ash, you go off in your
mind and a whole day could go by, and you wouldn’t know.” Aaron said and Evan
laughed.

“Are you two related?” He asked
us.

“No, actually we’re not, at
least not by blood.” I answered, “Why?”

“You two are like brother and
sister.” Evan responded.

“It’s more like losing people
brought us together.” Aaron said, “I think that forms a bond pretty much as
strong as a real family’s.”

“I think you’re right. I’ve
been watching all of you the short time we’ve been driving. It’s obvious you
all have been through stuff together.” Evan said, “Makes me glad I did come
with you. It’s a good reminder of the good there still is in the world.”

“You’re a part of that good in
the world now.” Aaron told him.

Evan seemed more at ease
talking to Aaron and me. After hearing what he had to say about his family, I
could see why he’d withdrawn himself from any group he ended up with. He
watched Red Eyes tear his family apart, and who knows how many others.

I sent up a silent prayer that
he had more hope being with us then he had at the gas station.

Sam finally had Tone stop so we
could have lunch. Although he wanted us all to stay on the bus since we’d been
seeing more Red Eye activity as we went. They left us alone since we weren’t on
foot. Unless they were already close and went for the movement.

Movement seemed to draw their
attention until something else drew them another way.

Sam made everyone a lunch of the
rabbit meat. It was a quick lunch. As soon as Tone finished, we were driving
again. There was hope out there. We all knew where the dome was and being able
to see it had all of us antsy to get there.

“It’s been days since I had
warm food.” Evan was saying as he took another bite.

“Yeah, we saw your supply was
canned.” Hunter said to him.

“Being hungry, it didn’t matter
too much what I was eating but having hot food now makes me realize how much I
missed it.” Evan said as Sawyer came around and gathered everyone’s dishes to
bring back to the kitchen.

“For the most part we’ve been
pretty lucky and haven’t had to deal with the whole being on the road stuff too
much. Well we’re on the road but I mean like out there, since we have our
moving house.” Daisy said.

“Speak for yourself, they found
me in a trunk of a car.” Micah added in playfully, pushing Daisy.