Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (3 page)

Now all I could think was if I
would ever see them again, if they were facing the same things we were here, if
they were even alive right now.

“We should try to reach them.”
Sam said. “Give me their number, I’ll try and reach them while I try to reach
my nephew.”

“Okay.” I agreed. My hand shook
as I wrote their cell numbers down.

“What about Sawyer’s parents?”
He asked as he took the paper.

Sawyer started to cry.

“They’re camping and river
rafting. Supposed to be gone for three weeks.” I answered.

Sam left the room to make
calls. I sat for a few minutes just taking deep breaths.

Sawyer mumbled something I
didn’t catch and walked away.

I had to find my cell and try
to call my parents.

I was walking past the front
door when I heard a soft knock. I looked out of the door scope. I could see the
familiar black hair from a neighborhood boy who was three years younger than
Sawyer and me. I cracked the door open.

“Axel?” I asked.

“Yeah. Can I come in please?
There’s things out here.” He sounded like he had run all the way here. I let
him in and as soon as the door closed he was hugging me and crying.

“Where are your parents?” I
asked him, suspecting the worse.

“They’re dead. Carter attacked
dad, I shot him. His eyes turned red and he went after dad again and killed
him. He came after me but mom threw herself at him and told me to run. I didn’t
know where else to go.” Axel sobbed into my shoulder, confirming my suspicions.

“Oh Axel, I’m so sorry.” I told
him as I hugged him back and let him cry.

“What’s happening?” Axel asked
as he pulled away and wiped away the evidence of tears.

“We don’t know yet, but you’re
safe here.” I told him.

At the sound of footsteps, I
turned to find Sam coming our way.

“Were you bit?” Sam asked. He
must have heard what had happened to Axel’s parents.

“No I wasn’t.” Axel answered,
sounding more like his normal fourteen-year-old self.

“Good. Ashlyn I couldn’t get
hold of your parents. I did get ahold of my nephew and we are going to round up
everyone we can in the neighborhood and head to him.” Sam responded.

“Why are we heading to your
nephew?” I asked, not really wanting to face the craziness of what was going on
beyond the front door.

“Drew and his father built a
resort called Paradis Roulette. It’s a bio dome. It is solar powered and Drew
says that they haven’t had any outbreaks like we have. So we’ll be safer there
till we figure out what’s happening.” Sam told us.

I went to check on Jenny before
joining the others in the dining room. She was still sleeping in Carter and
Marie’s room.

Sam, Sawyer, and Axel were
already sitting around the dining room table when I walked in.

Sawyer had our chairs pulled
next to each other so we could share the large orange throw blanket. Axel chose
the seat next to Sam, his hands slowly spinning the cup in front of him. Sam
had already explained to them that we were going to try and make it to his
nephew’s bio dome resort.

“Wait. If we are bringing Jenny
with us, aren’t we contaminating the dome?” Sawyer asked.

“If she doesn’t turn crazed
before we can get her there. Drew has his own fully staffed hospital in the
dome; we can get her in an isolation room.” Sam responded.

“How are we going to get people
here to go there?” I asked.

“I’m going to call around and
we’ll see how many people show up before we leave for the dome.” Sam answered,
“I’ll start with a cop I know, him and his partner may be able to round up some
people.”

“So what do we do while you
make calls?” I asked.

“You can try to get hold of
your families.” Sam answered as he walked out of the room.

“I’m going to check updates on
Facebook.” Sawyer decided, “Do you want to come with me to the office?”

“Yeah, maybe we can even find
more information online.” Axel added as we followed Sawyer down the hall.

Sawyer turned into the office
with Axel on her heels. I stayed back near the door and looked at the picture
of my parents on my contact list. I tapped my finger on Mom’s and listened to
the ring.

No answer. Just the voicemail
full message.

I tried Dad’s next. After three
rings it went straight to his voicemail.

“Dad it’s me. There’s a lot
going on here. The neighbor Sam is with me and we are going to Paradis
Roulette. Call me please. I love you.” I said after the beep.

I tapped my phone off and went
to look over Sawyer’s shoulder. There were images and videos up that looked
similar to what we had seen.

“Turn it off.” Axel said.

Sawyer did.

“Let’s go back to Sam.” Axel
called over his shoulder as he headed to find the old cowboy.

Sawyer nodded to my phone and
sent me a questioning look as soon as we were alone. I shook my head.

“I’m sorry.” She mouthed to me.
I wiped the tears that trailed down my face away and followed after Axel.

Sam was pacing around the living room
when we walked in.

“Any luck?” I asked.

“He said he was going to find a
ride and be here.” Sam answered as he made another lap.

He was on the tenth lap when we
heard crashing in the back yard.

Peeking through the cracks of
the boarded windows we could see a huge bus lined up with the back of the
house.

Knocking sounded on the
backdoor.

Sawyer and I looked to Sam. He
shrugged and went to check it out.

Sawyer grabbed my wrist and
dragged me along as she followed.

Sam cracked the door open and
looked outside; he started laughing and swung the door the rest of the way open.

“You’re lucky this door opens
inwards, Tone.” Sam greeted the dark-skinned cop. His friendly brown eyes took
in the whole room in a quick sweeping glance.

“Yeah, well I was prepared to
knock it in if I had to.” Tone responded as he came into the kitchen, “There was
no way in hell I was bringing her back around to try again.”

“Why did you park so close?”
Sam asked. He looked out the door and down the length of the bus, “There’s not
even six inches between the house and that bus.”

“Things have gotten nuts out
there. We thought it’d be safer to get people loaded in if it was a straight
shot.” A woman’s voice came from just out of sight.

Once Sam stepped out of the way
a woman with black hair came out to stand next to Tone, she was a good foot
shorter than him.

“Good to see you Sydney.” Sam
said to her as he hugged her.

“I know on the phone you said
you wanted to leave in the morning but as Syd said, its nuts and we’re going
now while we can.” Tone announced.

“Okay, Sawyer please go get
Jenny and Axel.” Sam directed, “Ashlyn go start grabbing supplies.”

Sam kept everyone busy. He had
us gathering what we could. Clothes, food, blankets, pillows, batteries, and
anything else we could fit. When we’d finally emptied the house of useful supplies
he had us load onto the bus.

There was a girl asleep on the
couch when we boarded. Her back was to the living room area of the bus so all
we could see was that she had long emerald green hair.

The bus itself was huge. There
was no way this thing was your typical stock model from a lot.

There was a living room with a
hallway leading down one way and a kitchen on the other side. Tone was heading
to the kitchen through an open door that looked to be the front of the bus.

“Okay everybody, let’s get you
all settled in.” Sydney told us as we started rolling. She led Jenny down the
hallway to what must have been a bedroom.

Axel curled up in a recliner
near the couch. Sawyer and I sat down in chairs around a dining room table. I
was watching the green-haired girl wondering who she was.

“A tour bus, really?” Sam asked
Tone as he went through the door to the front of the bus.

“Yeah, I can drive the beast
and the girl back there was trapped in it after an outbreak at her band’s
concert.” Tone answered, “She said she never saw what happened to her band
mates and she can’t drive this.”

Sam closed the door shutting
him and Tone off from the rest of us. Sydney returned from the back of the bus
and sat down in the chair across from me.

“We haven’t been introduced,
I’m Sydney Tyme, my partner is Antonio Varqez, he goes by Tone. The girl on the
couch is Daisy Duke.” Sydney said.

“Wait, Daisy Duke as in Daisy
Chain’s Daisy Duke?” Sawyer asked, lifting her head from the table.

“Yeah, like Tone said she was
trapped in here. He thought it would be easier to travel in.” Sydney answered.
“I’ll introduce you when she wakes up.”

“Oh I’m Sawyer Raide by the
way.” Sawyer responded.

“I’m Ashlyn Glass.” I added
“And the boy sleeping on the recliner is Axel Bishop.”

Sydney showed Sawyer and me to
one of the bedrooms on the bus; it was the first room on the left. Jenny was in
the room directly at the end of the hallway.

“I know the rooms aren’t big
but at least there’s a bed to sleep on.” Sydney said as we crawled onto the
full size built in that touched both walls.

“Thank you. Is one of the rooms
yours?” I asked.

“Yeah, I took the room right
across the hall from you and Daisy’s room is the other door on this side.”
Sydney answered “You two should try and get some sleep. Do you want the door
open or closed?”

“Open.” Sawyer decided for us.

I didn’t think I would be able
to sleep, but the last noise I heard was a door closing.

Dreams were scattered. Images
of Marie and Carter dressed up walking out the door. Blood. Mom with her
camera. Screams. Dad holding tissue ready for when Mom grabbed it. A man being
ran over by a red car.

My parents with their eyes
glowing red.

I woke to my pillow wet with my
tears and the image of my parents haunting me.

Sawyer was asleep so I slid out
of the bed careful not to wake her and joined the few people who were awake. In
the living room Axel was up and playing Trivial Pursuit with Daisy.

“Morning.” I said as I sat next
to Axel on the floor.

“Hey.” Axel responded first.

“Back at ya.” Daisy responded,
“You must be Ashlyn.” 

“That would be me.” I told her,
“How’d you guess?”

“Axel said you had brown hair.
Want to play?” Daisy asked me even though it looked like they had already been
playing for a while. “We can restart or you could just jump in.”

I wasn’t comfortable sitting on
the floor playing a game while the world outside was going to hell in a hand
basket.

Sam came and sat on the couch,
silent for a few moments.

“We are going to make a stop
for supplies.” Sam told us.

“A stop where?” Daisy asked.

“A gas station to fuel up then
a department store for anything the gas station doesn’t have.” Sam responded, “We’ll
stop at whatever one we see first to load up on any necessities we need.”

“How is a gas station going to
have anything we need?” Daisy asked again. It seemed like the idea of stopping
freaked her out. Sam seemed to pick up on the same thing.

“It’ll be a quick stop and you
won’t have to get off the bus if you don’t want to.” Sam told her as he knelt
in front of her with his hand on her shoulder.

“Promise it’ll be quick?” Daisy
asked.

“I promise.” Sam agreed.

“Then I’m coming in too.” Daisy
said, she held her head up and rolled her shoulders back.

Tone pulled the bus up to the pumps.
Sydney and Sam were checking their guns. Sawyer and Axel didn’t want to go into
the station. Jenny came and sat on the couch. She looked disoriented and her
hair was all over her face.

“Sam, you know how to turn the
pumps on?” Tone called from the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, you pump while we grab
what supplies we can.” Sam called back.

“Okay, could you check out the
RV parked on the other pump too?” Tone asked.

“Yeah we got it.” Sydney
responded as she loaded her gun into its holster on her hip.

Daisy pulled her long green
hair into a ponytail and followed Sam to the store. I went with Sydney to check
out the RV.

The sky was gathering clouds
and the breeze smelt of rain. I remembered it was called
petrichor
from
some Greek mythology teachers thought we needed to know.

I stood next to Sydney looking
at the campsite picture on the RV and couldn’t figure out how knowing Greek
mythology helped me now.

“Stay behind me when we get inside.”
Sydney told me as we got closer to the huge unnecessary vehicle people
pretended to camp in.

“Okay. What are we going to do
if we find people?” I asked as she took the lead so I was looking at her black
hair in its ponytail.

“I don’t know.” Sydney answered
as she reached up to try the door.

Surprisingly it was unlocked
and opened easily.

The place was empty. There were
no dishes scattered around or clothes. Nothing to show that someone had been
here.

“This is pointless.” I said as
I picked at the hem of my shirt.

“Shhh.” Sydney hushed me, “Did
you hear that?”

“Hear what?” I asked.

She was already moving to the
closed door in the back. She signaled me to stay where I was, but I followed
her anyway.

Tilting my head towards the
door I could hear the faint crying on the other side.

“You don’t have to be afraid.
My name is Sydney and I am a cop. Are you hurt?” Sydney called softly through
the door.

There was no response for a
while.

“Are the other people gone?”
Finally came through the door.

“What other people?” Sydney
called back.

“The ones who attacked us. They
were everywhere and they were biting and eating people.” The response came.

“There’s no one here except for
the group I am traveling with. You can come out we won’t hurt you.” Sydney
called, her hand resting on the door.

The door opened slowly
revealing a girl with short brown hair. She looked to be about fourteen and she
was holding the hand of a little boy. Both their eyes were green and wide, the
little boy was still crying.

“Hi sweetie what’s your name?”
Sydney asked the girl as she crouched down in front of the boy.

“I’m Angela and he’s Thomas. Do
you know where our parents are?” Angela asked.

“We didn’t see anyone else.
When did you last see them?” Sydney asked.

“When we were attacked. They
made us stay and hide here, they said they’d be back, but they had to make sure
we would be safe first.” Angela responded, her tears slipping down her cheeks.

Sydney looked over her shoulder
at me and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. The chances of
their parents still being alive were slim to none.

“Let’s get you two onto our bus
and Ashlyn and I will take a look around to see if your parents found a safe
place to hide.” Sydney suggested, taking Angela’s hand. Angela nodded and followed
us out of the RV. Tone was pumping the gas into the bus as we walked up. Sydney
left Angela and Thomas with me as she went to fill Tone in on what we had
learned.

Angela was looking around when
she started screaming. At first I didn’t see anything, but then I saw where she
was looking.

Daisy and Sam were running
towards us and right behind them were people with red eyes.

I pushed Angela and Thomas
towards the bus and they ran but I didn’t think Sam and Daisy were going to
make it back to the bus. I could hear Sawyer screaming on the bus but couldn’t
hear what she was saying.

I was looking behind me when
hands grabbed me and shoved towards the bus and someone was running past me
towards Sam and Daisy. I focused on Jenny drawing the attention of the Red Eyes
as she threw herself into the group of them.

They converged on her. She
never screamed and within seconds she was gone under the mass of the group of
Red Eyes. Sam grabbed my arm and dragged me after him back onto the bus that
Tone already had running. As soon as we boarded he started driving.

“What about Jenny?” Sawyer
cried, staring out the window where the pile of Red Eyes was still squirming.

“She’s gone.” Sam told her
looking in the same direction.

“So we’re not even going to
try?” Sawyer yelled at Sam.

“Now listen, she sacrificed
herself to give us all a chance to get out of there. You remember that.” Sam
told her, “You give thanks. But she is past us being able to help her. Look at
that pile—I don’t think there’s even going to be enough of her left to rise
when the Red Eyes are done.”

Sam grabbed her shoulders and
forced her to look at him. Sawyer melted into him crying and he held her
rocking her back and forth.

“It’ll be okay Sawyer. We’ll
all be okay.” Sam was whispering to her as she cried.

We moved Angela and Thomas into the
room Jenny had stayed in.

Neither one of them said much,
the only thing we could do was let them process. I wanted to hope their parents
had survived, but I knew they had more than likely went the same way Jenny had.

I tried to take comfort in what
Sam had said and believe Jenny wouldn’t come back. But I knew in my dreams she
would be there with red eyes.

Axel stayed by Sawyer’s side
since she had curled up on the couch. He was holding her hand as she stared off
into nothing. Sam said she’d be okay in time. She was just processing what had
happened.

At this rate I wondered if we
would even make it to Paradis Roulette. Sam seemed determined. He had
disappeared up to the front of the bus with Tone and they had the door shut. So
whatever they were discussing we weren’t aware of. I figured they were planning
our route and dealing with the loss of Jenny.

“Hey.” Daisy said as she sat
down next to me on the bed.

“Hey.” I responded.

“I’m sorry about your friend.”
Daisy told me.

“She wasn’t really my friend.
Sawyer dated her son and she ended up with us after her husband went crazed at
my sister’s celebration of life. In the chaos she ended up with us. I feel
horrible that I didn’t try to get to know her.” I answered, spilling out things
I hadn’t even realized I was feeling.

“She seemed pretty brave, I
mean she really didn’t know me but if it weren’t for her I wouldn’t be here.
She had to have known what would happen to her by running out like that.” Daisy
said as she looked at her hands.

“So what happened in the
store?” I asked her. Neither she nor Sam had said anything about what had
happened before the group of Red Eyes attacked.

“Sam turned the pump on and
started gathering supplies. I think Jenny is my fault.” She confessed.

“How would that be your fault?”
I asked her.

“I wasn’t getting supplies. I
was looking for those little shoe figurines they sell everywhere to add to my
collection.” She was crying, “I knocked over a shelf and the noise must have
attracted the Red Eyes from the back room. Sam barely got me out of there. I
risked our lives and caused Jenny to lose hers for a glass shoe that I somehow
managed to hold on to through all that.”

“Daisy, you can’t blame
yourself. You didn’t know there were Red Eyes in the store and Jenny made a
choice for whatever reasons she had.” I told her as I put my hand on hers.

“I just feel like if I was
doing what Sam had told me to do we would have made it out of there without
being attacked.” She said.

“Maybe. Or maybe not. It could
have ended up that way no matter what. All we can really do now is stick
together and make it to Paradis Roulette. Hopefully Sam is right and we’ll be
safe there.” I said to try and comfort her, “Tell me about the shoes.”

“I’ve collected them ever since
my dad walked out on us when I was nine. My older brother, Luke, started
bringing them home for me. He still brings me new ones whenever we get to see
each other.” Daisy told me.

“That’s cool that he was there
for you and that you have something special with him.” I responded.

“Yeah, but I also don’t know if
he’s safe, or if he’s dead, or worse, if he’s one of those freaks now.” She
said, “I thought about going to try and find him but I don’t even know where to
start.”

“We can talk to Sam once we get
to Paradis Roulette, he may have an idea to help get other survivors to safety.
At least if it really is safe there.” I told her.

“Do you really think Sam will
help find my brother?” She asked, sounding hopeful.

“Yes, I think he will once we
get to safety.” I responded and Daisy hugged me.

It was surreal having someone
from one of my favorite bands sitting on a bed with me. I never thought of her
as a real person before, she was this huge deal up on stage or touring, adored
by fans.

Although now we were on the
same level. We both survived and were trying to figure out how we keep doing
so. As well as doing our part in keeping the whole group alive.

“Hey girls, I wanted to let you
know we’re going to make another stop soon for more supplies as well as
weapons.” Sam said from the doorway, “We want to be prepared so we aren’t
caught off guard like that again.”