Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) (9 page)

The holes were dug.

Sam was gently laying both
Angela and Thomas into them. We all threw a handful of dirt onto them and said
our silent goodbyes. Sam and Axel worked together to fill in the graves. Axel
was shaking with every shovelful of dirt he placed over Angela.

“I don’t know which religion
they were so I’m not going to quote the bible here.” Sam started, “We are all
here today to say goodbye to Angela and Thomas. Both were too young to be taken
away but we’ll remember them always.”

No one said ‘Amen’ or anything.
Mostly everyone kept their heads down, saying whatever silent prayers that would
send Angela and Thomas on their way.

We all stood there for a while
before Sam started tapping us on the shoulder and sending us back onto the bus.
He stood next to Axel for a few minutes before he did the same. Sam kept his
arm over Axel’s shoulders; it looked like that was the only thing propelling
him back onto the bus.

Axel didn’t even look at any of
us, he went straight to the room Angela and Thomas had shared and shut the
door.

“He’ll be okay, just give him
some time.” Sam told everyone as he headed to the driver’s seat followed by
Tone.

“How’s everyone else holding
up?” Sydney asked as she looked around the bus.

No one answered her, she got a
few nods or shrugs but we were all silent.

Everyone found a place to sit
and was just taking comfort in the silence. We had all forgotten how bad things
could be. We were in our own little bubble of safety on the bus, which kept us
moving away from most of the bad things going on.

The horror hadn’t touched us as
much as it could have without our bubble as we headed to our destination.
Losing both Angela and Thomas left us drained. I sat by Aaron and watched
everyone else on the bus for a while.

“How’re you holding up?” He
asked me.

“I don’t know.” I answered,
looking at him.

“Maybe Tone was right and you
should have stayed back. Then you wouldn’t have seen all that in the RV.” Aaron
said as he rubbed his temple.

“You know I would have gone
anyway. I would have been sneaking and who knows what would have happened
then.” I told him, “What I saw isn’t your fault. I keep thinking if we would
have found them sooner maybe Angela would still be alive.”

“Don’t take me wrong, but maybe
it is better this way. I mean how would Angela have dealt with losing Thomas?”
Aaron said.

“There is that.” I said.

“I don’t want to sound like I
don’t care because I do. I just picture them somewhere together. Where none of
this is happening and they are safe, maybe with their parents.” Aaron
continued.

“That is a nice thought.” I
agreed, “I like to think that they are someplace safe and happy. Maybe they’ll
even watch over us wherever they are.”

“Like our very own guardian
angels?” Aaron asked.

“I guess.” I answered, “I just
wish Axel wasn’t locking himself away from everyone right now.”

“He’ll be fine. I think he had
a crush on Angela and now she’s gone.” Aaron said, “He’ll come out when he’s
ready to face everyone.”

Sydney passed out peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches to everyone. Axel had come out of the room that he claimed
as his now, but he wasn’t talking to anyone.

He had the chutes and ladders
game in his lap and he was staring at it. He was barely eating his sandwich.
Daisy was sitting near him. He wouldn’t even let her get too close.

He may have stayed in the room,
but he was shutting all of us out. He ate about half his sandwich before he got
up to return to his room, he took chutes and ladders with him. As soon as his
door closed, Daisy came and sat by Aaron and me.

“Has Axel said anything to
you?” I asked her.

“No, but I didn’t really think
he would. He got close to Angela based on them both losing their parents.”
Daisy answered.

“That makes sense, bonding with
someone who’s lost what you have.” Aaron said as he looked at me. We had bonded
over the loss of our siblings.

Sam stopped the bus and when we
looked outside we saw we were parked at a gas pump.

“We’re fueling up and heading
out again.” He called back. Tone and Sam started to get off the bus, “Everyone
stay on the bus.”

It was a quick stop. We watched
Sam run into the store and came out with no problems while Tone was filling the
tank up. Sam stood guard as Tone stood with the pump. As soon as the tank was
filled, they both got on the bus and we started to pull away.

“Not going to turn the pump
off?” Sydney asked.

“No, make it easier for anyone
else who needs to fill up, we left a note on the pump telling them it was on as
well.” Sam responded.

“Where to next?” Tone asked.

“There’s a junk yard near here,
we’re going to park there tonight. There’s a fence around it that should keep
the Red Eyes away from us.” Sam said, “We’ll just have to deal with whatever is
inside the fence.”

“Why are we worried about
keeping Red Eyes out? We haven’t been worried about that any of the times we
parked on the road.” Sydney asked.

“We’ve passed whole hordes of
Red Eyes so far. None of them seem to be following us but all it will take is
them turning and following us. They could overtake the bus; a fence will help.”
Tone answered.

“There’s no need to scare
everyone Tone. We’ve all been through enough today. Without being worried that
we can’t sleep without being killed.” Sydney snapped at Tone.

“Well, you asked and last time
we decided to keep secrets we ended up burying two kids.” Tone snapped back. It
was the first time we’d heard them be anything but completely supportive of
what the other had said.

Sydney looked like she was
taken back. I knew in that moment she had made the call to keep all of us in
the dark about what was going on with Thomas. She didn’t say anything just
walked back to her room and shut the door.

“You didn’t have to be so hard
on her.” Sam said to Tone.

“I know but I feel like if we
would have been honest with Angela she wouldn’t have snuck off. We wouldn’t have
had to bury both of them.” Tone responded, “I just hope she was out or dead
when he started to eat her.”

“I think she was already dead.
She probably fell and hit her head when he lunged at her. I doubt she ever even
felt a thing.” Sam said. Tone nodded but didn’t respond.

The atmosphere was tense. We
had lost people and no one had been prepared for it. It was still quiet when we
pulled up to the junkyard. Sam and Tone went out to get the gate open and scout
what we were going to be facing.

Sydney still hadn’t come back
out, so Aaron got behind the wheel and watched for either Tone or Sam to come
back. He started the bus as Sam waved him through the gate, as soon as the bus
was past the gate, he closed it. Tone waved the bus forward leading us to the
spot Sam and he had found for us to park.

It was weird seeing piles of
cars on either side of us blocking off anything else. It was creepy, like
driving right into a horror movie.

Aaron parked the bus where Tone
directed and shut it down. Neither Sam nor Tone got back on yet though.

“Don’t look so worried Ash.
They scouted the area otherwise they wouldn’t have waved us in.” Aaron told me.

“Yeah well then where are
they?” I asked wondering what would be keeping both Sam and Tone outside.

It was still early evening so
we had enough light to see outside but there was no sign of the two being
around the bus.

“Probably making sure everything
is secure. Double checking that we will be safe. You know they both take the
safety of this group very seriously.” Aaron said as he watched me, “We’ll stay
put till they come back.”

Sydney still hadn’t come out of
her room, but Axel did. He was sitting with Micah and they were talking. I
couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was good to see Axel interacting
with someone.

“Well look at that.” Aaron said
smiling as he pointed towards Micah and Axel.

“Yeah I think he’ll be okay.” I
said as we watched the two boys bond over whatever they were talking about.
Sawyer came out and her eyes searched for Micah instantly.

She gave them space when she
saw Axel sitting there talking to him. Sawyer smiled as she watched them. I was
watching her and I remembered seeing her give the same look to Josh right after
she met him.

It was good seeing her eyes
light up again. They’d been shadowed since she saw Josh at the hospital attacking
the nurse and it got worse when we lost Jenny.

“Hey.” She said to me as she
came over and bumped her hip into mine.

“Hey back.” I told her wrapping
my arm around her waist.

“Hey, now is there something I
should know?” Micah called to us making Axel laugh.

“Oh, did she forget to mention
that I’m her wife?” I asked and looked at Sawyer.

“Umm, no she did not mention
that.” Micah answered.

“Oh am I just not good enough
to mention now?” I tried pouting at her but neither of us could keep a straight
face.

“So is that a joke? Or…?” Micah
asked looking between us. Sawyer tried to cover her laugh with a cough. I
couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled up.

“You’re both dorks.” Micah told
us. He smiled as he rolled his grey eyes. He wrapped his arm around Sawyer.

“Well now that’s a sound for
sore ears.” Sam said as he climbed back into the bus followed by Tone. “You
hear this Tone?”

“Yeah, great sound to come home
to.” Tone said, “What do you think we missed?”

“Well apparently Miss Sawyer
here is seeing Micah but forgot to mention she was Ash’s Mrs.” Aaron said.

“Well Micah, looks like you’ll
have to learn to share.” Tone said without missing a beat.

“Oh…Micah, good luck man.”
Aaron joked as Sam stood there, a small smile crawling onto his face.

“It’s good that we all find
times to laugh and enjoy that we are all alive. Bad things are going to happen
and they will keep happening.” Sam said, “We have each other so try to remember
good things, help each other through the bad.”

“He’s right. If we let the bad
in this world take us over, we won’t survive.” Tone agreed.

“Does that mean we should
invade Sydney’s room and drag her out?” Daisy asked. Tone looked towards
Sydney’s door.

“No I should be the one to go
and talk to her. I shouldn’t have said what I did to her; she thought she was
doing the right thing.” Tone decided and headed to her room. He knocked but she
didn’t answer. That didn’t stop Tone; he walked in and shut the door behind
him.

“I think he’s brave.” Aaron
said to no one in particular.

“I think you might be right.”
Sam agreed.

“Why?” Axel asked looking back
to Sydney’s door.

“It’s best you learn this
lesson young son. An upset woman is a lot like a bear. If they’ve locked
themselves away like Sydney did, you’re entering their lair.” Sam told him.
Axel looked at him for a few minutes while he processed the information.

“Well it’s a good sign that we
don’t hear screaming or things being thrown.” Aaron said and shrugged, “Maybe
she’ll let him keep his limbs.”

“Should someone check on them
to make sure?” Axel asked as he turned his attention to Aaron. Sam laughed as
he shook his head.

Tone came out of Sydney’s room
limping and holding his hand. All of us fell silent wondering what had happened
to him.

“It was a battle but she said
she’ll come out.” Tone said as he collapsed onto the couch. He threw his arm
over his eyes and let out a moan.

“Are you okay?” Axel asked as
he got up and crouched by Tone.

“Have you ever braved dealing
with an upset woman?” Tone asked lifting his arms off one of his eyes.

“No.” Axel answered, “Can I get
you anything?”

Tone didn’t answer. Instead
Sydney snuck up behind Axel and grabbed him in a bear hug causing him to scream
in surprise. Tone sat up laughing.

“Sorry kid it was you or me.”
Tone apologized through his laughter.

“You tricked me!” Axel accused
as Sydney put him down.

“Yes he did.” Sydney said as
she turned Axel to look at her. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I should have
told everyone what I was suspecting.”

“Okay, but no more secrets”
Axel said as he hugged her. “As Sam told us we have to hold on to each other
and keep reminding each other that we’re still here. There’s still some good in
the world.”

“Well I didn’t quite use those
words, but yeah.” Sam said as Sydney smiled and hugged him back.

“What’s for dinner?” She asked
as she looked at Sam.

“Wait, I never said I was
cooking.” Sam said as he looked at Sydney.