Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (19 page)

“Is she going to be okay?” I asked
Drew once Diamond was gone.

“I’m really not sure.” He
answered, “I’ll figure it out later. Right now let’s enjoy your new room.”

“Enjoy how?” I asked.

“DVD cabinet over there is
stocked, let’s pick one to watch.” Drew said and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Drew decided he was going to
pick what we watched. Since the last time he gave anyone from the bus movies to
choose from, we had picked
The Walking Dead
. He sat in front of the cabinet
for a while going over what his options were. He was humming to himself as he
looked; I sat on the couch watching him. He was cute sitting there kind of off
in his own mind as he weighed the choices of which would be the best movie to
watch.

“Got one.” He said.

“Which one?” I asked.

“The first rule of fight club
is…” He quoted as he stood up waving
Fight Club
in his hand.

“Okay.” I agreed to it and
watched his whole face light up before he turned and got it set for us to
watch. He grabbed the remote and plopped himself down on the couch next to me.
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders as he hit play.

Aaron came to check on me and
he looked a little annoyed when Drew answered the door. He came into the room
and smiled at me, ignoring Drew.

“I’m going to see if I can find
that brother of mine and break it to him that his wild night was not what he
thought.” Drew said as he waved to me and headed out of the room.

“I’ll see you later.” I called
to him and turned to see what Aaron wanted.

“Hey there.” He greeted from
where he had sat himself down on the couch,

“Hey, how do you like your
room?” I asked him as I sat down in the chair.

“It’s nice. I slept on a real
bed.” Aaron said as he laughed, “It is really weird being off the bus. I feel
tense waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Yeah me too, it’s just odd
being safe.” I said, “How messed up is the world that when you’re safe it makes
you feel on edge?”

“Oh you know, put a group of
people on the road, trying to survive. Let them get to safety and they will
keep looking over their shoulders.” Aaron agreed as he shook his head even with
the smile on his face. “Did you know they have a pool?”

“They do?” I asked.

“Yup and Sam says we are going
swimming. So you have to find a suit and get ready.” Aaron said and hugged me
before he walked out of the room. The door wasn’t even closed for a minute when
Sawyer came hoping in.

“Did you find swimsuits in your
closet?” She asked, catching me off guard.

“I thought you were Aaron
coming back and no I haven’t even opened the closet yet.” I told her and she
smiled as she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the closet. She paused only for
a minute before she threw open the door. Revealing a walk in closet that was
filled with clothes. I walked in to examine what was there. Only to find that
everything was in sizes I could wear.

“He got all our sizes from the
hospital and did this. That’s why he said the rooms had to be all set up for
us.” I said as I laughed and Sawyer showed me the swim suit options I had. I
ended up choosing a blue and white polka dot two piece. Sawyer shut me in the
closet so I could change and find a cover to wear to the pool.

“Can you believe we get to go
swim and hang out by a pool?” she asked, almost jumping up and down. She was
clapping her hands together like a little kid looking at a pile of presents.

“Sam has one of those bus golf
carts out front, let’s go.” Micah called from the living room. Sawyer and I
looked at each other and raced out the door to meet up with the group.

Outside Sam was sitting in the
driver seat of what appeared to be a limo golf cart. I hopped in the front seat
beside him since no one else had. He smiled at me and patted my hand as he put
the cart in gear and we were off. Everyone was chatting to each other at once
so it was hard to make out who was saying what to whom. Sam knew where he was
going. I watched the buildings go by as he drove.

As we pulled up to the pool I
saw that Scott was sitting next to Hannah on a couple of lounges. I went to say
something to Hunter but Sam stopped me and put a finger up to his mouth telling
me to keep quiet. He was smiling and I knew he had set this up this way to
surprise everyone especially Hunter. Sam parked and everyone started unloading.
Hunter saw Hannah and ran to her side.

It looked like they were both
talking at once and she was showing him her wound. Hunter was talking to Scott
as everyone greeted Hannah. Scott had decided to stay with Hannah in the
hospital while she was healing; he said he felt more at home there.

“See Hunter? I told you it
would be worth coming.” Sam called, laughing as Drew pulled up in another cart
hauling a grill with him.

“Who is ready for a pool
party?” He asked as he parked.

“Drew, why haven’t we seen any
of the other guests?” Sam asked him as he glanced around our surroundings.

“Well they don’t hang out at
the hospital and near our rooms. Here, you’ll probably start seeing people
depending on what they’re doing.” Drew answered as Denver appeared from behind
the grill.

“Hey guys.” He greeted. It
didn’t seem like Drew had talked to him yet or if he did the message hadn’t
sunk in, and he was still all smiles. Drew shook his head at me when he caught
my eye.

“You excited about swimming?”
Drew asked me as Sam helped Denver roll the grill closer to the pool.

“Yes I am.” I told him as he
wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we walked to the pool. When we got
close he pushed me in, I had a good grip on him that he wasn’t expecting so he
lost his balance and came with me.

“Well that didn’t go as
planned.” Drew said as we both managed to make it back to the surface.

“I’ve been trained to be
prepared.” I told him as I laughed, he was laughing with me when he looked like
a thought crossed his mind. “What?”

“Training, that is what we
need.” He told me.

“What do you mean?” I asked
him.

“Tomorrow we should get
together and start training so the next supply run we have to do, we move like
a team.” He explained to me as he dunked me under the water.

“How would we train for that?”
I asked as I sputtered water and splashed him.

“We will get people to act like
Red Eyes. Figure out who will be in our normal supply run team. Then train
together so when we are out there we know what to expect from each other and
how to help.” Drew said. It was obvious that he was excited; he kissed me only
to draw away again and kiss me again.

“Let’s see what Sam thinks.” I
told him laughing and weak in my knees.

“After you.” Drew said as he
helped boost me out of the pool and followed me. We walked to Sam and he saw
almost at once that Drew was practically dancing.

“Either you have to pee or
you’re excited.” Sam told Drew as he tried not to laugh.

“I think we should get together
a team that will be our supply run team. Have them train together against
people pretending to be Red Eyes.” Drew said, “Think about it as a team we
would know and be able to predict what each other would do in a fight.”

“Drew, that is brilliant.” Sam
told him and hugged him. “We know we will have to do supply runs for whatever
comes up and that would make us as prepared as we can possibly be.”

“Right? We wouldn’t have to
wonder where everyone was or what they were doing. We would know that everyone
would be doing everything as planned. Not necessarily as for the run but in
training.” Drew was saying.

“That would be good. You
wouldn’t have to go and look for anyone since they would know where they are
supposed to be. If they weren’t, then they might be in trouble.” Sam agreed and
they went into what would be considered shop talk anywhere else. I went to find
Sawyer to tell her what Drew was thinking, and about him kissing me again. She
was of course with Micah.

“Hey.” I said to her as I
walked up and they both smiled at me.

“Hey.” Sawyer greeted me.

“Drew has a plan to start
training people who are going to be in the supply party. So they are more
prepared for the Red Eyes.” I told them.

“Where is he going to get the
Red Eyes?” Micah asked.

“What?” I was trying to figure
out what he meant.

“To train with.” Micah
responded like it was the obvious answer.

“Oh, he said we would be
training with people pretending to be Red Eyes.” I responded and Micah nodded.

“That is a good idea. Who’s
going to be in the supply team? When does training start?” Sawyer wanted to
know.

“I’m not sure who is going to
be on the team or when training will start.” I told her, “I know Drew is
talking to Sam about it and they are making a plan to start doing this.”

“It makes sense to have a team
practice together for real situations.” Micah agreed, “We should have thought
about it sooner.”

“Where would we have
practiced?” I asked him, “The roof of the bus as we drove down the road?”

“That’s a good point. I guess
we would have had to get here for us to be able to practice.” He reluctantly
agreed.

“Don’t worry I’m sure you’ll
think of some other great idea that will keep us all safe.” Sawyer said as she
rubbed his arm and winked at me.

“I’m guessing Ashlyn told you
what we came up with?” Drew asked as he walked to us.

“You really came up with it on
your own, I just happened to say the word that set your thoughts in motion.” I
told him as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

“She helped. What do you guys
think?” Drew responded still giving me credit when I didn’t do anything.

“It sounds like a good plan,
when do we start?” Micah asked, sounding like he was interested in doing it.

“First we’ll get everyone
together. Get seven or nine people to be part of the supply run team.” Drew
started.

“Why seven or nine?” Sawyer
asked.

“Two people to guard whatever
vehicle we take. Four to five people to go inside and two people as a backup if
we feel we need more for a run or if someone isn’t up for a run.” Drew
answered.

“That seems to be a good
number. Keep the groups small enough that we can keep track of each other and
learn how to work together.” Micah agreed, sounding impressed.

We followed Drew as he gathered
everyone else from the bus, to explain what his plan was. He gave brief
descriptions to people as we gathered the group together. It was causing excitement.
It felt like we had a real plan to help ensure our survival.

“I guess we should start with who
would want to be part of the supply group?” Drew asked as everyone sat down in
a circle on the lounge chairs we all dragged over to sit on.

“How do you want to do that?
Should we raise hands or do you have another idea?” Aaron asked.

“A raise of hands would be a
good start.” Drew decided after he thought about it for a minute. Around our
circle hands went up. I saw Drew, Sam, Sawyer, Micah, Tone, Sydney, Hunter,
Hannah, Aaron, Evan, and I raised mine. Drew counted and nodded.

“That gives us eleven I think
we can work with that. Hannah I’ll let you come to training to watch but until
you’re healed you won’t go on runs. Or do anything that could hurt you.” Drew
said as he looked around at us.

“Who are we going to get to
play Red Eyes?” Sawyer asked.

“I think first we should work
together and get to know each other. We need to learn each other’s strengths
and weakness so we know what to work on.” Micah responded.

“I like that. You’re right that
first we need to know what we have in the group. Then we get people to play Red
Eyes. By the time we have a supply run to do; we will be working together like
a well-oiled machine.” Drew said and it was obvious he was excited. I could see
the wheels working in his head to figure out how this would all work. It was
interesting seeing his mind work. I found myself wondering if that was a look
he learned from his dad whenever they faced a problem together.

Drew let us have our time at
the pool relaxing and now all were chattering about training. Axel was hoping
he could be a Red Eye and help us train. This started a game in the pool where
he was a Red Eye and we were all swimming away from him calling him ‘dead man,
dead man’.

He had his eyes closed and was
trying to catch us as we called out ‘dead man’ like playing Marco Polo. Sam
tried to get Denver to come and join us but he ended up deciding to go and find
something else to do. I think he wanted to try and find Diamond who we hadn’t
seen very much of since she found out she had slept with Denver.

There was a lot of splashing as
Axel lunged at Daisy. She barely made it away, but Hunter couldn’t change
direction quick enough. Axel’s hand barely grazed him before he lunged and
grabbed Hunter. They were both laughing as Hunter took his spot in the middle
of all of us. Everyone started calling to him and he started chasing us around.
I noticed he seemed pretty tuned into Daisy’s voice. I was betting he could
have found her even if she wasn’t in the pool at all.

“Foods up!” Drew called from
where he was standing by the grill. He was cooking some burgers and hot dogs,
along with a couple of cans of beans and corn.

“Hunter hasn’t caught anyone
yet.” Hannah called back from the lounge chair she was sitting on watching us
and laughing. Evan was sitting next to her and he had his sketchbook out. I was
interested to see what he had drawn of us all in the pool. I planned to ask him
after I got some food, since everyone from the pool was scattering up the sides
to get to Drew and food.

“Looks like we’ll have to take
a break.” Hunter told Hannah as he climbed out of the pool last, “What do you
want to eat?”

“I can get my own food you
know.” Hannah said to him.

“Oh yeah, how are you going to
carry a plate with that sling, smart ass?” Hunter asked her and she glared at
him.

“Fine, go be the big brother
and fend for your baby sister.” Hannah said to him and stuck her tongue out as
he turned away to get food for her.

Seeing them together made me
miss Marie. I wondered what she would have thought about everything I’d been
through to get here. I wondered what she would have said about Drew and if she
would be telling me to go for it or to avoid him. Aaron came over and took my
hand.

“They’re cute together, makes
me think of Emily and miss her. You miss your sister?” Aaron asked and I
nodded. “Let’s get food and we’ll sit together.”

“Mope together?” I asked.

“Yup that’s the plan.” He said as
we got closer to the food.

“Hey you two. After we eat the
supply group is coming with me to the gym and we’re going to start figuring out
what we need to do.” Drew told us as he handed us our plates.

“Sounds good.” Aaron responded.

We were sitting around the gym looking
at each other, as we waited for Drew to tell us what he thought the best course
of action would be for training. Drew looked like he was taking the measure of
everyone. Judging who would potentially watch his back when we faced down Red
Eyes. Diamond came in and sat watching, Aaron made a face when he saw her.

“I don’t think princess is cut
out for what we will be facing or doing.” Aaron said as he nodded towards
Diamond.

“I’m not here to join your
stupid team, I’m here to watch.” She replied.

“This really isn’t like a show
to watch or anything.” Drew said calmly to her without looking up.

“I can be wherever I want; you
have no say in that.” She snapped at him.

“Believe me Diamond, if you get
in the way here or cause any trouble with what we are planning to do, I will
forbid you from being here.” Drew told her, his voice dropped to ice and his
teeth were clenched.

“Well back to business, Evan
could you explain to everyone about how to mask our scent from the Red Eyes?”
Sam cut in.

“I discovered that if you smell
like one of them they leave you alone. They don’t go after each other, or at
least most of them don’t.” Evan answered as he glanced over at Diamond.

“How did you get their scent on
you?” Drew asked him, leaning forward towards him.

“The first time was an
accident. I was too tired to keep fighting and had ended up on the ground next
to two of them I had killed. Another group went by and left me alone. There was
one that seemed like it didn’t care what it ate and chewed on one of the ones I
was lying next to.” Evan explained.

“You actually stayed next to
dead things? Sounds more like a sick fetish to me. Where did you guys pick him
up?” Diamond sneered and laughed making Evan clench his teeth.

“Look little girl, I lost my
wife and daughter. I was tired of fighting and I gave up only to find out most
of them would leave me alone if I smelled like one of them.” Evan said through
clenched teeth. He was glaring at Diamond who paled a little when she caught
the look he was giving her.

“We got him at a gas station
where he surrounded the perimeter with chopped up Red Eyes. It seemed to keep
the area safe so people could fuel up.” Micah said to Diamond and watched her
expression change to disgust.

“So if we really get stuck we
can cover ourselves and just keep a look out for one that still thinks we’d be
tasty.” Sam said.

“Sounds a little gross.” Sawyer
said.

“It is, but if it helps keep
you alive it’s bearable.” Evan told her.

“We have a way to cover our
scent if we have to. What about making something that’s small enough to carry
easily but can be thrown. Then when it hits the ground, it makes noise drawing
the Red Eyes away from us?” Micah asked leaning towards Drew. They both looked
like they were feeding off each other’s thoughts and ideas.

“That should be something that
would be fairly easy to put together.” Drew agreed, “How much noise are we
hoping these will make?”

“Enough that it draws away the
Red Eyes. Loud enough that it’ll be a signal to the rest of the group that we
may need to hustle and get out of there.” Micah responded.

“What if we could make a dice
that when thrown would go off like those poppers only longer.” Drew added on. I
noticed them getting excited with this idea. They were both almost bouncing out
of the seats they were in. They both had their heads down while they were
thinking designs.

“I guess we know what their
strength is.” Aaron said as he smiled, it was amusing to watch Drew and Micah
together.

“Yes we’re both smart and like
to make things.” Micah said to Aaron and everyone laughed.

“Hey the idea they have going
is a good one, so we know that if we need to figure out gadgets we’ve got
people for that.” Aaron said as he looked around at all of us.

“So now the redneck wants
gadgets to play with.” Drew said to Aaron and smiled.

“Yes, yes I do.” Aaron
answered. It was nice to see them getting along and not looking like they were
going to go after each other.

“Who else has things we can
use?” Sam asked, looking around the circle we had sat in, “We have thinkers and
weapons people so far.”

“Or has anyone trained in
anything?” I asked.

“I have.” Hunter said, “I’m a
third degree black belt in tae kwon do.”

“Good that means you get to go
over basics with the rest of us.” Sam said as he clapped his hands together. He
seemed to think things were falling into place. When to me it just seemed like
random stuff was getting brought up.

“This may be gross, but maybe
we could come up with a bottled Red Eye smell we could spray on ourselves. To
help cover our scents when we have to be up close and personal with the Red
Eyes, it would help keep them away.” Evan suggested.

“That’s brilliant!” Drew told
him. “Yes, it would be gross on one hand. On the other it would help keep us
out of situations where we may have to gut a Red Eye just to cover our scent.”

Ideas were getting shot all
around the circle. Seemed like this was a brainstorming session of what we
could do to keep the team safe. Things we could use when we would have to
venture out of the dome. It was telling us how everyone’s minds worked when
faced with a problem. Drew, Micah, and Evan were going to go into a shop Drew
had set up to bring the ideas we had into reality.

The rest of us were going to
head back to our rooms. Diamond looked annoyed where she was sitting outside of
our group on a stationary bike. I noticed she was watching Drew with longing,
but she didn’t approach him and he ignored her. I wondered if she had talked to
Denver at all or if she was just avoiding him and hoped he would move on. Part
of me wanted to ask her but I knew even if I did she wouldn’t answer me.

“How long do you think he’ll be
intrigued by you?” Diamond surprised me by asking, and I noticed we were the
only ones left in the gym.

“What are you talking about
now?” I asked her, getting annoyed with these little conversations of ours.

“Right now, you’re new and
different. You survived out there with zombies running around. You’ve got
Drew’s attention because he thinks you’re brave and a survivor.” Diamond
responded, “How long do you think you can keep his attention?”

“One, we call them Red Eyes.
Two I’m not playing to try and keep Drew’s attention. I’m not like you where I
have to pretend to be what someone wants to get them to want me.” I snapped at
her as I walked past her to head back to my room.

Diamond didn’t say anything
else to me, but I was sure she was glaring at me. I could almost feel her eyes
throwing daggers at me as the door shut leaving her alone in the gym with her
thoughts.

I was glad to get back to my
room and have a bit of alone time. I found DVD’s of TV shows in a cabinet under
the TV and DVD player.

I ended up picking
Buffy the
Vampire Slayer
to watch, I used to watch it all the time with Marie. It
made me feel closer to her. I could almost pretend that she was making popcorn
in the kitchen and complaining at me for not pausing. It hit me that I would
never see her again, I missed her and I missed Carter. While we had been on the
road trying to get here, I didn’t let myself think about either of them too
much.

Now that we made it here I kept
wondering if there was anything I could have done differently. Anything that
would have meant they’d be here with me. Just had all the ‘What if’s’ going
through my mind. I didn’t notice I was crying or that Drew had come into my
room and was now sitting with me on the couch.

“I knocked but you didn’t
answer and the door wasn’t closed all the way so it opened a bit.” He said to
me as he took my hand, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just thinking about my
sister and brother-in-law. Keep thinking about what if I did something
different, would they be here now?” I told him and squeezed his hand.

“Your sister turned didn’t she?
From the transplant? What happened to your brother-in-law?” Dew asked all at
once.

“Yes, she did. Marie bit
Carter—she tried to attack Sawyer and me, but Carter grabbed her and she bit
him before Sam shot her.” I answered, “I feel like I should have been mad at
Sam but I never was. Marie wasn’t Marie anymore when she lunged at me and I
watched Carter change.”

“You’ve seen quite a bit in all
this haven’t you?” Drew asked as he put his arm around me.

“Not as much as other people
may have, but I saw a bit.” I told him.