Survival Ties (The Outbreak Chronicles Book 1) by Trisha Leazier Page B

were driving down the road again.
The ride was going smooth for about half an hour before Sam stopped.
    “Damn it.” Was all he said.
    “What’s going on?” Sydney asked
as she made her way to the front of the bus.
    We all looked outside wondering
what was going on now. In front of us on the road were a bunch of abandoned
cars. A couple buses, an RV, a moving truck, and a semi-truck completely
blocking the road.
    “Shit. What do we do?” Sydney
asked.
    “I could back up and try
another way or we could go out and see if we can move them out of the way.” Sam
responded as he turned the bus off and sat there staring at the mess in front
of us.
    “Hey I don’t know if this helps
or not, but Wayne’s group and I had a system we were using when we went out for
supplies.” Aaron said.
    “What would that be?” Sam
asked.
    “We’d spray paint a green x on
doors of buildings that were clear and a red x on buildings that had Red Eyes
in them. I could go through and start marking the cars that are clear or ones
that have bodies in them.” Aaron suggested.
    “We don’t have paint.” Sam
said.
    “I have cans in my bag.” Aaron
responded.
    “You know it’s not a bad idea.
That way if the kids go out they know which cars to stay away from.” Sydney
agreed, patting Aaron on the shoulder.
    I followed Aaron outside and
watched as he started going from vehicle to vehicle. He was putting x’s on the
windows. After I’d been watching him for a while he came back over to the bus.
    “Do you want to help me with
this?” he asked, I noticed at least a couple cars have keys in them we can mark
those cars with two x’s.”
    “Yeah I’ll help.” I agreed and
he handed me two cans of spray paint.
    Soon we had every vehicle
marked, they were nineteen altogether. Eleven of them had red x’s and eight had
green ones. We were heading back to Sam when we started hearing a muffled
thumping noise. As we got closer to the noise we started hearing a voice.
    “Is someone out there? Please
help me?” the voice called out.
    “Where are you?” Aaron called
back.
    “The trunk of the red Neon.”
The voice answered.
    “Try the door, if its unlocked
pop the trunk and stay back till I say it’s safe.” Aaron directed me as we
stood by the Neon.
    I walked to the front of the
car and did as I was told. The door was unlocked so I popped the trunk. I
looked at Aaron and he nodded at me.
    “Come on over Ash, I may need
your help.” Aaron said as he knelt down looking into the trunk. I joined him
and found there was a black boy now sitting up.
    “Thank you,” he said to us as
he accepted the water Aaron offered him.
    “What’s your name and why were
you in the trunk?” Aaron asked him as soon as he stopped drinking.
    “Micah. Micah Hender. My dad
locked me in here.” Micah explained to us, “We were trying to get to Phoenix.”
    “Why?” Aaron asked.
    “We were going to find my mom
and sisters but we ran into this road block.” Micah said, “Dad tried to turn
around but the people behind us panicked. They left their vehicles when a group
of monsters came through. I heard screaming.”
    “How did you end up in the
truck?” I asked.
    “Dad thought I’d be safe in the
trunk and had me get in with water and protein bars. He left me the key so I
could get out if he didn’t make it back but the batteries are dead so it
wouldn’t work.” Micah answered.
    “How long have you been in
there?” I asked him, noticing that there were quite a few empty wrappers and
bottles and there was the smell of urine.
    “I don’t know. Three days
maybe. I ran out of water last night and the protein bars yesterday.” Micah
answered as he tried to lift himself out of the trunk, Aaron caught him before
he fell.
    “Whoa let’s get you cleaned up
and in some clean clothes dude, no offence but you reek.” Aaron told him. Micah
just nodded.
    “Yeah, let’s see if you come
out looking your best after being stuck in a car trunk for three