Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (10 page)

“Oh I know. I just threw you
under the bus.” She said, “Now who’s up for a game?”

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.

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.”

Feeling the bus moving again
even though it was slow going was more calming than staying in the middle of
the road. Sam kept his eyes scanning the road making sure he was driving
carefully. Sydney stayed in the living room with us splitting her attention
between watching out the windows for more trouble and checking on all of us.

Tone’s ability to figure out
the map he had got us to the garage. There was a tall guy with dark hair
standing with two boys. One had brown hair and the other was a blonde. They
were outside working on boarding up windows to the house. They all stopped and
turned when they heard the bus. When we pulled up, the oldest of the three
waved at us and came over to Sam’s window.

“Well how are y’all doing?” the
guy asked, “I’m Jeb and these here are my boys, Jacob and Jesse.”

“We need a new tire, ran into
some trouble on the road a ways back.” Sam answered. “Would you be able to help
us get her all fixed up?”

“You didn’t lead that trouble
to my door did ya?” Jeb asked.

“No sir, we left it in a
ditch.” Sam answered. Jeb nodded.

“We can probably fix it up, but
it won’t be free.” Jeb said.

“Am I right to think that money
means very little anymore?” Sam asked.

“It don’t do much right now.”
Jeb agreed.

“We have food and medical
supplies.” Sam offered.

“That would be an acceptable
payment seeing how I do have family here to take care of.” Jeb agreed. “Go ahead
and back her into the garage. You and yours can go hang out in the house while
my boys and I get her up and running again.”

“Sounds good, it will sure be
nice to sit in a house for a bit.” Tone called back to Jeb.

Sam went ahead and got the bus
all backed into the garage. We followed him into the old farm house. There was
lemonade laid out on the table with cups, so Tone poured everyone a glass and
we sat to wait. I was beginning to feel on edge about being off the bus and in
a stranger’s house.

“Sam, I’m going to go find a
bathroom.” I told him as I stood and made my way to the nearest hallway.

The first door I opened was not
a bathroom. It reeked like an outhouse and there was a blonde woman chained to
the wall by a collar around her neck. It looked padlocked. She turned when the
door opened and I could see bald spots from where she had pulled her hair out.
She had ice blue eyes and was foaming at the mouth; there were claw marks on
her face and neck.

Her clothes were torn and there
were more claw marks on the wall where the chain was securely bolted. She was
watching me while moving her head side to side before she growled and ran at
me. The chain stopped her but the force threw her onto her back as her legs
came out from under her. I quickly backtracked out of the room and closed the
door.

I tried the next door but this
room was much the same only there was an old man sitting in a chair. He didn’t
have much hair left but he also didn’t look like he had clawed himself up at
all. The room had the same smell as the first one, but the guy in the chair
didn’t respond much to my being there.

He was watching me but not the
way the woman had been. He started to growl slightly and I left him, shutting
the door between us.

I tried one more door. It was
the last one in this hallway. There was a blonde girl, who looked close to my
age, in this one. The room smelled cleaner. She turned around to look at me and
a look of surprise filled her ice blue eyes, the same eyes the woman in the
first room had.

She had some claw marks near
her neck, like she had tried to pry the collar off.

“Don’t leave.” She said when I
turned to leave the room.

“Who are you?” I asked her,
“Why are you chained up?”

“I’m Hannah, I’m Jeb’s
daughter.” She answered.

“Why are you chained up?” I
repeated.

“Three days ago when I was
trying to feed Mama and Grandpa Archie, Mama bit me.” Hannah explained, “Daddy
is afraid I’ll turn dangerous and take off like Mama did.”

“You were bit?” I asked taking
a step back.

“Wait! Don’t leave! I’ve been
in here three days.” Hannah said as she took a step forward, the chain stopped
her. “I haven’t shown any symptoms like Mama and grandpa Archie did.”

“If you’re not showing symptoms
why are you in here?” I asked.

“Daddy won’t let me out; it
took Mama and grandpa Archie less than two days to start showing symptoms.”
Hannah explained, her eyes kept darting back to the door.

“Why does he keep you all
chained if he thinks you’re dangerous?” I asked her.

“He thinks we’ll get better so
long as he feeds us and makes us take whatever medicines he gets his hands on.”
Hannah answered.

“Do you think he’s right?” I
asked.

“I’ve seen those monsters,
that’s what bit Mama. I don’t want to be that. If there’s really no hope for me
I want someone to end this not only for me but for mom and grandpa Archie.” She
answered.

“I don’t know if I can help
with that. Your dad and brothers are fixing our tire and I don’t think they
wanted us to even see you guys, let alone kill you.” I told her.

“I really haven’t shown any
symptoms; maybe you can get me out of here? Take me with you? You’ll do what
should be done if I do start showing anything right?” She asked and she sounded
desperate. “Please, I know dad loves us and that’s why he’s doing this but it’s
cruel.”

“Let me go talk to the guy who’s
kind of in charge of my group.” I answered as I backed out the door.

“Just hurry, I can sneak into
your vehicle without my dad or my brothers seeing me.” She pleaded as I shut
the door to go to Sam about what I had seen in the rooms and what Hannah had
told me.

Sam took one look at my face
and he got up to see what was wrong.

“Ashlyn?” Sam asked.

“Sam, Jeb has his daughter
locked in a room and chained to a wall.” I told him, “Her mom and grandfather
are in other rooms and they’re crazed. She got bit three days ago and hasn’t
shown any symptom. She wants us to get her out and to go with us.”

“How long did her mom and
grandfather take to show symptoms?” he whispered back.

“Less than two days from what
she said.” I told him.

“She knows if she goes with us
and starts that we have no choice but to kill her before she can hurt us?” He
asked.

“Yeah she said that’s what she
wants; she doesn’t want to be a monster.” I told him, “But the collar on her
neck looks metal and there’s a padlock on it. Can we get her out?”

“Last room down the hall?” he
asked and I nodded. “I can see if I can pick the lock than if she can make it
onto the bus without her family knowing we’ll take her. Go sit with everyone
else and don’t say anything about this till we are on the bus and away from
here.”

I did as Sam told me to and
went to sit next to Aaron. He looked at me before he leaned over.

“I heard what you two were
saying. You’re a good person Ash.” He whispered and said nothing else.

I was on the edge of my seat
waiting for Sam to come back. He returned just as the other door opened with
Jeb walking in, followed by his sons. Jeb saw where Sam had come from and I
could see the blonde boy looked mad.

“What were you doing back
there?” Jeb asked.

“You know they’ll turn and when
they do they won’t be them anymore. You’ll be putting your boys at risk.” Sam
said instead of answering.

“No, you see my wife and dad
got bit when they ran to the store. My daughter, Hannah got bit a few days ago
but I can fix them, all they need is medicine and they’ll get better.” Jeb said
explaining to Sam. “I had to chain them up, they aren’t well and they aren’t
thinking. That’s how Hannah got bit.”

“He didn’t have any right to go
back there.” the younger son, Jesse, screamed as he hurled a glass of lemonade he’d
picked up.

It hit an old shelf that had a
canister and a burning oil lamp on it. The shelf broke on impact sending its
contents to the floor. The canister apparently had oil in it. Once the gas
around the flame of the oil lamp broke the oil ignited into flames.

“Boys go get your mother,
grandfather, and sister, now.” Jeb screamed at the boys and they ran into the
hallway. Before they emerged from the first room the fire consumed the mouth of
the hallway. Leaving no way for them to come back out that way. The boys saw
this and ran back into the first room.

Sam got everyone moving,
running out of the burning house and towards the bus. Jeb was still standing
waiting for his family, he wouldn’t leave without them. Outside we saw that the
window to that first room was boarded up from outside.

The boys wouldn’t be able to
get out that way. Sam made it to the bus first and got it started as the rest
of us piled on. Hannah was sitting at the dining room table though nobody said
anything to her yet.

“Everyone on?” Sam called out
and Tone looked over us all doing a head count, his eyes stopped and stayed on
Hannah.

“We’ve got everybody. Get us
out of here.” Tone responded. “You the daughter?”

“Yeah.” Hannah answered.

“You go crazed I will shoot
you.” Tone told her and Sydney shot daggers at him with her eyes.

“You’d better.” Hannah told him
and looked out the window. The house was collapsing and the fire continued on
to the garage as Sam made it to the end of the driveway.

Sydney was seeing to the cuts
on Hannah’s neck from the collar. We heard honking outside. Looking out of the
window we saw there was a guy in an old pick-up truck flagging Sam down. Sam
stopped and rolled his window down.

“Where’s that fire at?” the guy
asked, sounding panicked.

“The garage. Son, you don’t
want to go that way.” Sam told him.

“Did they get out?” The guy
asked.

“No son, they didn’t make it.”
Sam told him.

“What happened?” The guy asked
as his face paled.