Page 9

“We need to stop soon.” Dark greys had mixed with washed-out blues and oranges, and the closer the sun got to the horizon, the more my stomach twisted.

“We still haven’t worked out where yet.” Luke’s hands shifted on the wheel. He’d been driving for a while now without a break, the past half hour in silence.

“Anywhere.” Kirby leaned between us from the back. “I’m not loving the idea of being stuck in the car when it gets dark.”

If we parked somewhere out in the open, we could end up surrounded, with no weapons and no sunroof to escape through.

Nothing much had changed since we’d left the airport. More stranded people pleaded for lifts as the guilt from leaving the first family behind lingered. Teenagers rode bikes or walked in small groups, and the infected were scattered in every town or suburb.

In all that time, I hadn’t heard a single siren or helicopter, and the only emergency vehicles I’d seen were abandoned.

“The SUV’s out of commission the second we stop,” Luke said, not that we needed the reminder.

With sixty-eight kilometres left in the tank, we wouldn’t have a choice soon, anyway. “I don’t think it matters. We’re almost empty.”

“Why don’t we just fill up at a petrol station?” Kirby asked. “Anyone have cash?”

“Nope,” I said, “but we could try ATMs.”

“Cash won’t help.” Luke rested one hand on his thigh while the other gripped the wheel. “It’s not safe to put fuel in a car while it’s still running.”

We kept encountering one problem after another, and the constant stress had almost sapped my will to live. If it hadn’t been for the muscle twitching in Luke’s jaw, I might have been fooled into believing none of this bothered him.

I stared out the window, wondering how far and fast it had spread.

Was Sadie safe inside her building, staying put like I’d told her to do? Did she have enough strength to fight one of these things after being so sick?

I wished we could call or text to ease both our minds, but the networks were still down.

“Let’s just find a place to stay while we still have enough light,” I said. “It’ll be easier to deal with everything after we’ve had some sleep.”

“Not a house,” Kirby added. “Please, God, not a house. There’s no way of knowing what’s inside.”

We passed through another stretch of businesses and scattered homes, where an empty fire engine sat half on the footpath, blood smeared across the driver’s door. Farther along, a trio of cars had stopped in the middle of the road, creating another obstacle for Luke to weave through.

I knew nothing about the area, where to go or what to do.

“Think of a building that would have been closed during lockdown.” Luke slowed and swerved around an infected man, one arm hanging broken by his side, and the other gone—torn from his body. “At least we know it’ll be empty.”

My stomach rolled as I turned away from the sight. “An office or a school. Maybe a library?”

He gave a thoughtful nod. “Somewhere small, so we can cover the exits.”

“And just to narrow it down, I don’t give a shit about beds,” Kirby threw in. “We just need a place with lockable doors. Off the main streets.”

That would have been the bare minimum even twenty-four hours ago. Now, it almost felt like we were asking for too much.

Half an hour later, we cruised toward a corner petrol station with every bowser occupied. Long lines of vehicles waited at both entry points, and people were everywhere, standing beside their cars or sitting behind the wheel, honking horns.

“This is insane,” I said, hearing the tremble in my voice.

Two women had grabbed each other’s hair, the nozzle still jammed in the van’s tank beside them. I couldn’t tell if they were fighting over petrol or one of them was infected.

Nearby, a solid-looking guy slammed a baseball bat into an infected man’s head as he reached for a blonde woman on the ground.

“We couldn’t have stopped anyway,” Kirby said. “There’s no way I’m getting involved in that.”

A bearded man in a beanie caught sight of our car, and time seemed to slow as he watched us approach. His features hardened, and before I could decipher what his expression meant, he dodged the fighting women and ran straight at our car.