The Banner Siblings (DISCONTINUED-REWRITTEN VERSION OUT!)

Chapter Twelve: The Run Part 1

"Logan—hurry!" Ashlyn yelled as she ran ahead of her brother, Logan following close behind. Logan was carrying Mike's rifle, while Ashlyn was empty handed. Ashlyn could hear a phantom close by, so Logan needed to hurry.

Logan dashed after his sister, tears in his eyes. This was so scary. He couldn't hear what Ashlyn could, so he had no idea if they were safe or not. He trusted Ashlyn though.
"Ah! There's the store!" Logan said as they approached the convince store the group agreed to meet at. The duo ran inside the store, panting heavily.
"Don't relax yet and keep your guard up. We still have a long way to go." Ashlyn said, keeping her eye out for the others. She spotted a familiar mop of brown hair out of the corner of her eye. The twins ran up to the store at full speed, Tyler opening the door and Taylor running in after him. They both panted heavily, trying to catch their breath.
"Fuck this shit seriously..." Tyler mumbled, going to true back of the store.
"Hey! Where the hell are you going?!" Ashlyn yelled back.
"Getting water—what's it look like I'm doing?!" Tyler snapped.
As Tyler got water from the back, Logan eyed their weapons.
"Where did you get the flail from?" Logan asked Taylor.
Taylor sighed. "Don't ask. What's our time right now?"
Logan looked at his watch. "30 minutes,"
Taylor sighed. "Good. Good that's good."
Logan shrugged and looked out the window. "Ah! I see them!"
"Where?" Ashlyn asked.
"Over there!" Logan said, pointing to Aiden and Ben as they ran over to the store. Ashlyn opened the door for them and they ran inside, out of breath.
"What took you guys so long?" Logan asked. Ben simply pointed at Aiden.
"Never mind that now," Ashlyn said. "We need to head to the graveyard. Now."
"We just got here!" Aiden complained as he flipped on the floor.
"Don't care. We need to keep moving. Until we know for a fact we're safe, we have to keep moving." Ashlyn snapped.
"We haven't seen any other than a few stragglers,"  Taylor pointed out.
"Yeah, chill." Tyler said.
"Shut up," Ashlyn snapped.
"Excuse you—?!"
"No Sh Sh Sh shut up!" Ashlyn yelled, holding her finger up. She listened carefully. Her eyes widened in fear as she looked back over at the group.
"We need to go. NOW." Ashlyn snapped.

Without wasting another minute, the group ran out of the store and to the graveyard. Their feet ached in pain, their legs sore from running. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them.
"Time?!" Ashlyn yelled as they ran.
"Eight minutes!" Logan shouted back.
"Just a bit longer," Ashlyn thought, petrified when she heard the sound of the phantom behind them. "It's close."
"The graveyard!" Ashlyn thought, relived when she saw the graffitied walls of the graveyard. She ran to the open gate, her hand hovering over the red button.
"C'mon hurry!" Ashlyn yelled at the others making sure all of them, especially her brother, got inside.
"CLOSE THE GATE CLOSE THE GATE!" Tyler yelled as he ran up to the gate. Ashlyn slammed her hand down on the button, Tyler running in at full speed. He clutched his baseball bat in hand and Ashlyn stood in front of her brother. The phantom charged at them, but luckily, the gate closed in time.

The group sighed with relief as soon as the gate was shut, the only sound being the phantom banging on the wall.
"Alright. Let's get on the bus," Ashlyn said as the group filed on the bus. She sat down next to her brother who was catching his breath. She tore off her boots and threw them to the side.
Tyler groaned as he flopped on the seat next toTaylor. "Ugh. That sucked."
Ashlyn sighed. "Ah. The banging stopped."
"It probably gave up or.......something." Tyler said, then looked over in horror at the door of the bus. A black claw creeped in slowly.

"HOW?!" The group screamed as they backed into the back of the bus.
"Can we open the back door?!" Ashlyn asked frantically.
"It's blocked!" Tyler yelled in a panic.
"W-what do we do?!" Logan said, tears in his eyes, petrified. Ashlyn grabbed his hand as reassurance.
"Die?" Aiden suggested.
"AIDEN!" The group yelled at him.

The phantom lunged. Ashlyn covered her ears as they all screamed, the last sound she registered was the sound of Logan's watch as it beeped. Their time finally done. Ashlyn sat up in her bed in a cold sweat.
"Way...way too close." Ashlyn thought.
"Everyone ok?" Logan texted the group chat.
Ashlyn sent a thumbs up emoji. Good enough, she supposed.
"We're good." Ben texted.
"LOL that was close." Aiden texted.
"Physically yes." Taylor texted.
"Mentally? No." Tyler texted.
"Did anyone finish the homework?" Ben asked.

Homework? What fucking homework? Ashlyn looked at her nightstand and saw a pile of unfinished homework. She groaned, texting a simple, 'screw it' in the chat. That was now a morning Ashlyn problem. She'd copy off her brother later if he did it.