Page 41

“I’ll wait here until we know the car starts,” I said. “Bring it around, and I’ll jump in.”

While the two of them hurried over to the pale blue Corolla, I backed up slowly with the rifle trained on Jeremy. As soon as the grass gave way to gravel, I took a closer look at the gun. I’d never handled one before.

Stones stuck to my damp socks. Car doors opened and closed behind me.

My hair blew around my face, the chill seeping through my clothes and into my bones.

I fumbled with the rifle until I worked out how to check the ammunition. Empty. A combination of anger and relief raced through me. Did he know, or was he too caught up in his own bullshit to check how many rounds were left?

After the last door slammed, I still hung around, ready to beat him to death with the gun if he launched himself at me. But nothing moved that wasn’t stirred by the wind.

The engine turned over behind me, and every nerve ending fired to life.

It was over.

We were free.

Gravel crunched under the tyres as the car rolled closer, and I chanced a look over my shoulder. Ava pulled up and smiled at me through the window.

I didn’t need an invitation. With one last check on Jeremy, I turned and ran for the car, pitching the rifle into the long grass before I dived inside.

“Why did you throw it away?” she asked, gripping the wheel.

“It was empty. We’ve got no ammo, and I’m not hanging around long enough to find more.” Within seconds, I had the door shut and my socks off, pulling on the pair Ava had left on the console.

“That shitbag was threatening us with an empty gun?” Kirby asked.

“Yep. Probably didn’t know it, though.”

The tyres spat up stones as we took off down the long driveway, and I pulled on my boots, thankful to have them back.

“I’m grabbing our bags from the wreck before we go anywhere,” Ava said.

We were all breathing too fast, staring up at the hill as she eased out onto the road and drove in the direction we’d just come from.

The house looked smaller from down here. Less intimidating. Hard to believe an unhinged stranger had made himself at home there.

Kirby let out a shaky laugh now that we were out of immediate danger. “That was crazy town.”

Ava’s jaw flexed, and she kept a firm hold on the wheel. “I don’t want to think about what happens to the next people who stop there—even without a gun.”

I didn’t either. He’d trapped us before we even knew about the rifle.

Kirby shifted in her seat, unable to take her eyes off the farmhouse. “We had to leave him alive,” she said. “We only kill infected, and we haven’t seen any police since we left the airport.”

Ava didn’t respond.

She just kept driving and checking the rearview.

Eleven

ava

“Can you hear that?” A dull thud-thud-thud vibrated through the steering wheel into my hands.

We’d doubled back and grabbed our weapons from the crashed car, barely making it past the farm again when the noise started.

“Hear what?” Luke kept his eyes on the road.