The Outbreak Chronicles Book One Survival Ties

Chapter 24

Aaron split off taking Sawyer with him, Drew ended up with Micah, and Evan took my arm and led me down one of the aisles. Sam whistled twice signaling, and then we could hear the cage door sliding open.

"When they start coming we keep within talking distance. No wondering away from each other." Evan told me, and it reminded me that at one point Evan had a family he tried to keep safe.

"Ok." I agreed as we start glancing at shelves. We were pretending we were pulling things off without actually touching anything. Before long one of the Red Eyes came down the aisle we were in. Evan quickly threw things in its path and the Red Eye tripped, sprawling it onto the floor. I stayed close to Evan as we made our way to the end of the aisle and started back towards the cage. We heard Sawyer scream a couple aisles over, Evan changed direction as we went towards the sound. Aaron had the Red Eye pinned and Sawyer was on the ground.

"It came around the corner; she panicked and ended up tripping." Aaron said as he kept the Red Eye pinned. I helped Sawyer up and Evan went to help Aaron.

"Girls head down the aisle, Aaron shove the Red Eye backwards and we'll catch up to the girls." Evan said and Aaron nodded. I had to help Sawyer; she hurt her ankle when she tripped so her arm was around my shoulders as I helped her walk. We heard the Red Eye fall behind us and Evan came up beside us and swept Sawyer up into his arms as we kept going. We met up with Micah and Drew joined us as we got to the end of the aisle the Red Eyes were following us. We led them back to the cage. As soon as we got them locked away Micah took Sawyer up to the hospital to have her ankle looked at by Scott. Sam waved Hannah down to see what notes she had taken.

"What did you see?" Sam asked her as soon as she had joined us.

"Sawyer is our weak link right now; she panicked and ended up hurt." Hannah said.

"Yeah, girl needs some work. She let her fear take control and if we would have been in a real situation we could have both been killed." Aaron said, he didn't sound angry at all.

"So we have a starting point for where we need to put some work in." Sam said, "How about the others Hannah?"

"Evan and Ashlyn stayed close together looked like they were communicating. They wouldn't move on without the other. When the Red Eye came they acted swiftly and moved on. They responded to the scream they heard, they moved almost as one." Hannah read out of a note book, "Drew and Micah stayed where they could see each other. They used a lot of hand signals and also moved quickly when Sawyer screamed. The way they started to go ended up blocked by a Red Eye and they dealt with it by using what was available to them. They used noise to attract the Red Eye's attention elsewhere. They threw screws behind it."

"Well so far we have a real team starting to come together." Sam said.

"Do you think Sawyer is going to be able to handle situations like this? Real situations where people are depending on her." Hannah asked, "Panicking out there could put people in real danger."

"She can learn, this is just the first practice. We'll see how bad her ankle is and we will work with her and help her control her fear." Aaron responded standing up for Sawyer, "She's never faced the Red Eyes before and it just got in her head."

"I'm going to go check on Sawyer and see what Scott says about her ankle." Sam said and started to walk away.

"When you know, bring her and Micah and meet us at the edgeless pool." Drew told him and the rest of us just looked at him.

"Where are we going?" Evan asked him.

"There's an edgeless pool set up on the roof of the spa. It has amazing views and I think we should celebrate being alive there." Drew answered.

"I like this plan." Aaron said.

About an hour later I was walking up to the spa where we decided to meet up. Drew joined us a couple minutes after I had; he had Diamond and Denver with him. Diamond looked defeated as she followed Drew.

"Hope you don't mind, but I didn't want her just moping in her room." Drew whispered in my ear and kissed me. I saw Diamond flinch when my eyes caught her watching us. Denver was standing as close to her as she would allow.

"I understand." I whispered back to Drew.

"Let's head up and enjoy being alive and together!" Drew called out so everyone could hear him. I noticed there were faces mixed in with all of us from the bus. They must have been here in the dome before we arrived, because I didn't recognize them. We all followed Drew up the stairs that led to a beautifully set up pool. The water went all the way up to the edge of the roof. There was some sort of clear Plexiglas material, so it looked like the pool had no edges on three sides. There was a grill set up on a wood deck with a few tables set up as well as lounge chairs.

"This is perfect." I told Drew.

"Yeah and we'll be up here when the sun sets. Wait till you see what that does to the water and how it looks with the edges the way they are." Drew said and kissed my hand. He headed over to the grill and lit it up. He was throwing steaks on it as I turned to take in everyone around us that were here, alive, and safe. Denver looked like he was trying to talk to Diamond, but she wasn't listening she was staring at Drew.

Micah joined us helping Sawyer who had her ankle wrapped. She was smiling as he put her down on one of the lounge chairs. He sat near her and they both waved at me. Aaron came over to me and watched them for a minute.

"Seems like we stumbled into paradise." Aaron told me.

"It would appear so." I told him. Aaron swept me up in his arms and spun a couple of times before throwing me into the pool. I screamed as I went airborne and came out of the water sputtering and coughing. Aaron jumped in after me, I saw Sam was laughing. Sydney and Tone were both sitting on the only edge the pool had with their feet in the water. I didn't even see Drew jump into the water till he emerged, as water from the splash was still falling around us. One of the people who must work for Drew was manning the grill and cooking up something that smelled amazing.

"Look there." Drew said pointing to where the sky was starting to turn pink. The water at the edgeless sides was also turning pink. As the sky changed colors the pool water changed with it. Soon we were sitting in water dyed pinks, reds, and oranges. Off in the distance we saw a flare flying up into the sky.

"Do you see that?" I asked Drew as he was already moving to get out of the pool.

"Yeah, I need a map." He said. He went over to what at first glance, looked like a little table but he opened it and pulled out a folded paper.

"What is this of?" I asked him as he smoothed out the paper in front of us.

"A map of the area." He told me as he glanced up to where we could still see the tail of the flare.

"What are you doing?" Aaron asked as he joined us.

"That flare came from around this area." Drew said pointing down to a spot on the map. Aaron, Drew, and I looked down at the map and back to where the light from the flare was disappearing.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We're going to go and find out who shot it off and see if we can help." Drew answered as a second flare went up into the air in the same spot.