Eight
Cruz
“ T his was Carter Lawson’s house,” Jonah said, pointing to a place five doors down from Mrs. Mackley's. Yellow brick, solid, with a narrow driveway and a separate garage set further back. The tree out the front needed pruning, its branches scraping the gutter and dropping leaves into the knee-high grass.
I pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. "How did you know him?"
Jonah opened the passenger door and stepped out. “He was my best friend from kindergarten. We were friends all the way through… until Ultimus hit.”
Shit. He'd grown up with the guy. I could only imagine how many friends someone of his age would have lost. “What happened to him?”I asked, climbing out and meeting his eyes over the roof of the car.
"The usual."
We'd left our backpacks at Dawn's since we weren't far from there, so I locked the car and walked without the bulk weighing me down. The sun was sliding closer to the horizon, and I surveyed our surroundings as we headed for the garage. It wouldn’t be long before the shadows turned to full darkness, making the corpses harder to spot.We needed to wrap this up fast and get settled in for the night.
“The virus spread around school before they shut it down,” Jonah said, grabbing the roller door handle. He tried to lift it, but it was locked. “He passed it onto his sisters and parents, and the whole family died during the first wave.”
“And no one’s lived here since?”
"Not as far as I know. They died when people were still being taken away and buried, so it should be empty.”
With my knife in hand, I walked through to the backyard. It was just a collection of weeds with an old trampoline and a rusted swing set in the centre. When the breeze picked up and swirled through the space, the swing launched into motion, and a lonely creaking sound drifted toward us.
I bounded up the two steps to the back door and tried the handle. Locked again—and with no glass panel to crack.
“Wait. There's a spare key.” Jonah’s gaze swept over the weed filled garden beds either side of the steps, and latched onto a small rock wedged between two bigger ones. He flipped it over and snagged the key from the hidden compartment, passing it to me.
As I opened the door, I threw a glance his way. “You might think there’s no one in here, but assume this place is filled with freaks. Waiting around corners, hiding in shadows. Don’t go into any space thinking you’re safe. Watch my back, and I’ll watch yours.”
He gave me a quick nod as if he’d heard the same spiel from his parents, but it bore repeating.
I took in the way he was clutching his knife, and before we went inside, I grabbed his wrist. “Hold it like this,” I said, changing his grip from underhand to overhand. “It frees you up to attack anything in the front, behind, and to the side with the same hold—and it’s harder for someone to take it off you.”
He tried it out, keeping the knife a safe distance from me. “I get it. Thanks. Makes more sense that way.”
“Better get moving. We’re running out of daylight. Eyes open.”
He nodded again, surer of himself this time, and followed me inside.
I stepped into the laundry and waited for him to join me. Jonah locked the door without being asked and paused for further instruction. “We’re just looking for keys to the garage and car,” I said, walking through to a spacious kitchen that looked like it might have been renovated not long before the pandemic. “Don’t worry about anything else for now. We'll do some scavenging tomorrow before we leave.”
Jonah followed me, keeping his voice low. “When I used to come here, they had one of those key holders on the wall near the front door.”
I passed through the lounge room into a hallway that went in both directions. One end presumably led to the bedrooms and bathroom, and the other took us to the main entrance. There were no signs of corpses—freaks—and no sounds other than our own footsteps.The place smelled stale and unoccupied.
And there, on the wall where Jonah had said it would be, was the key holder filled with several sets of keys. “You want to check those, and I’ll give the house a quick sweep?”
“Sure.” Jonah sifted through the keyrings while I took off to clear each room and make sure there were no surprises. When I rejoined him, he was examining the bulkiest bunch. “Found the key for the car,” he said, holding up the ring with the fob attached. “They only had one car. An SUV. Carter's dad was a cycling nut, so he rode his bike everywhere. I'm guessing the key for the garage would be on this one, too.”
“Good. We need to get moving before the daylight’s gone.”
Jonah tossed me the keys, and we stepped up the pace as we headed back outside. Night set in earlier this time of year, and he kept watch as I bent over the roller door and tried one key after another. With no cars, streetlights, or sounds that humans made during normal daily life, the atmosphere always took on an eerie feeling when daylight faded.
So, when a scream split the air, the hairs on my arms rose and every muscle in my body tensed.
I’d never heard Liv scream before, and I instantly knew it was her. I was half-joking when I suggested it was the best way to get in touch with me while we were gone, but it turned out to be an effective method. She’d used her voice like an alarm. Deliberate, loud, steady, and clear as fucking day.
When it stopped dead, my adrenaline kicked in full force.
“Mum and Liv.” Jonah grabbed my shirt and yanked me, as if he could drag me there quicker than I already intended to go.
We left everything behind and took off running, my pulse keeping time with my steps as we pounded down the footpath toward Jonah's place.When another shout split the air seconds later, my pace increased along with a growing sense of dread.
"Did that sound like your mum?" I asked, my breaths coming hard. I already knew the answer.
"No."
Corpses didn't make those noises, so it could only mean one thing.
We had company.
My heart threatened to pound through my chest as I slowed to a walk and approached the front garden. Jonah and I needed to stop twice to take out corpses in our path, each delay only compounding the urgency. If Liv had been hurt, if anything had happened to her, I'd bring down a world of shit on whoever was behind it.
Candlelight glowed through the mesh of the security door, which meant the main door had been left open. If I had to guess who'd dropped the ball, I’d put my money on Dawn. Liv wouldn't overlook a detail like that—and now someone was in there with them, more than likely using them for leverage to take the car.
This fucking car of ours was turning out to be as much of a liability as an asset.
"What do we do?" Jonah whispered in a rush.
"Wait and assess," I said. "Don't do anything without word from me first. Keep close.”
If we’d had the same level of training and life experience, one of us could have gone through the front door while the other went around the back, but I needed to keep an eye on Jonah as well as everyone else. I had no idea how many were in there.One, two? A gang? If he made an emotional decision in the heat of the moment, it would put us all at risk.
He nodded his understanding and looked to be in control of himself. His eyes were focused, his body language prepared rather than scared. The signs were good, but he hadn’t been tested yet. He didn't know if his mother was hurt—or if she was still breathing.
God, I hoped they were both okay.
I crept up the porch steps and flattened my back against the wall, leaning closer to check out the interior. The candles in the lounge room did a pretty good job of lighting the scene—and what I saw had me wanting to send Jonah straight back to the Lawson house to wait for me there.
Dawn lay motionless on the floor in the entryway, but I couldn’t get a clear enough view of her to see if her chest was rising and falling.
I took a beat to think it over and concluded the best way to get him to behave like a capable adult was to treat him like one. Heading back down the steps, I grabbed Jonah’s arm and eased him away from the door, out of sight. “You need to keep it together,” I warned in a low voice. “Can you control yourself?”
"I'm good." He glanced at the house, then returned his attention to me. “What’s happening?”
“Your mum’s on the floor," I said, watching him. "There's no blood around her, no obvious injuries, but she’s not moving. If I had to guess, I'd say she's been knocked out.”
“Shit." He sent another look at the front door. "What about Liv?”
The determined note in his voice gave me the confidence he could handle the situation without losing it, and his interest in Liv's wellbeing only elevated my opinion of him. “I couldn’t see or hear her.”
I didn't want to say out loud what that might mean, but from the look on Jonah's face, he'd already figured it out. Liv would have fought hard and given it everything she had, but if she was outnumbered, the chances of her coming out on top were low. The thought that she might be dead had my gut twisting and my throat tightening. Surely I'd feel it if she was gone? Some part of me would have to just know she'd left the earth.
Jonah swore again and stared at me. “We're going in, right?"
I nodded, psyching myself up to end some more lives today. “Stick close to me while we scope out the situation. We need to find out how many are in there."
He gave me a hard stare, his body vibrating with tension. "Then what?"
"We tear their fucking heads off.”
Jonah held his knife in the grip I’d taught him. "Let's go."
The kid was a fast learner, and after a questionable start, I’d already warmed to him. I weighed up the options of knife or hatchet and went with my knife. If I got the chance to throw a weapon, my blade was the best bet in a confined space. All I could do was hope my aim turned out to be as accurate as Liv's this morning. “I'll keep whoever's in there occupied while you check on your mum—but we don't want to move her unless we have no other choice. Understood?”
He gave me a brief nod, and we both stepped onto the porch. I leaned in again to monitor the room. After a longer look this time, Dawn's position hadn't changed, but her chest was moving up and down. At least we had some good news. I threw Jonah a glance and whispered, “Your mum’s breathing.”
His eyes filled with relief, then narrowed shortly afterward. "Now we need to know what's going on with Liv."
I returned my attention to the lounge room and caught the profile of a woman standing in the corner. Dressed in filthy clothes, her ratty red hair fell around a face that was taut with either pain or concern. She rocked from one foot to the other, agitated, and blood ran down her arm. Liv had stabbed her, and seeing any sign that she'd been alive at some point to inflict the wound gave me hope.
“What do we do?” the woman asked someone I couldn’t see from my vantage point.
“Nothin’," a male voice responded. "Wait—and when they come back, we use this chick to get the car keys off ‘em.”
Rage burned inside me, and I pulled in a deep breath to keep it under control. Liv hadn’t made a sound, but I could only assume wanting to bargain with her meant she was still breathing. I needed to see her, just so I could confirm for myself that my entire world hadn't ended.
“But what then?” the woman asked.
“We leave town for fuck’s sake. Get out of this shithole.”
“What are you gonna do with her?”the redhead asked.
“Jesus Christ. Too many questions. Dunno yet! Maybe we leave her, maybe we tie her up and take her.”
"The bitch knifed me! She's not coming with us—and why don’t you tie her up now , so you don't have to keep holding her? "
Mi amor. It sounded like Liv had given them hell before the guy detained her. I wished she'd nicked an artery on the woman, but the redhead was still standing, so it was unlikely. The two continued arguing while I planned my next move. No other voices chimed in. I glanced at Jonah, who stood beside me with an expression of intense concentration.
We'd gathered a few important details about what was going on in there. There were most likely only two of them, Liv had fought back, and she wasn't currently restrained with anything other than a weapon or a pair of hands—which meant she could help fight if she hadn't been too badly injured.
And that was the kicker that got me moving.
I opened the screen door and stepped inside, scanning the room in seconds.
Just a skinny blonde man with neck tatts, and the redheaded woman. Both had knives. No guns. Back in my early patrol days, these were the type of weasels we arrested for robbing stores while they were high on meth, and they had no issues with throwing their own mothers under the bus if it meant saving themselves—a factor that could end up working against us. They weren't people you reasoned with because they just didn't care about the same things everyone else did.
The guy stood near the entertainment unit with one of his hands clasping both Liv’s wrists behind her back. The other hand pressed a knife against her ribcage. If his swollen cheek and the blood seeping from a scratch down his neck were any indication, she'd got a couple of hits in before he grabbed her.
Her sword lay on the floor near her feet.
Her knife was missing from the sheath in her belt.
Pride and overwhelming relief surged through me as my eyes met hers. She looked concerned, but not panicked.
“Evening,” I said, keeping my tone calm and casual.While my attention stayed on the strangers, Jonah slipped in behind me and crouched to check on his mother.
Both froze, and the room flooded with tension.I took a couple more steps toward them and stopped when my nearness further agitated the woman. The man jolted in surprise before trying to cover his reaction, and the hand holding the knife against Liv's torso twitched.
“Ah, he’s back,” he said, grinning a yellow-toothed smile. I'd loosen a few of those fucking teeth as soon as I got the chance.
“You know these two, Jonah?” I asked without taking my attention off the man. In a small town, it wouldn’t be out of the question to think he’d come across them at some point.
“They’re a few years older than me,” Jonah said. “The one with Liv’s a tweaker who hung around the skate park back when we were kids. The other’s Shaky Sue. She used to hassle people outside the shopping centre for money and start fights with anyone who looked at her wrong. Both losers in case you haven’t picked up on that.”
“Got it.”
“That’s not nice, you little shit,” the tweaker said. “Is that your mum over there? She made a sick fucking sound when she hit the floor. Hope I didn’t punch her too hard.”
Allowing this to devolve into a trading of insults would only make it more difficult to control the situation. I switched my attention between the two of them. “What’s the plan here?”
“Glad you asked.” The tweaker smiled, but it was all false bravado. He'd backed himself into a corner—literally—and his lack of foresight would be the last mistake he made. “You’re gonna throw us the keys, and we’re gonna take that car off your hands. If it all goes smoothly, you can keep this bitch. If you try anything, we’ll take her as entertainment for all those long hours on the road.”
“I already told you,” Liv piped up, “I just met everyone today. We're using one another to get to where we're going. None of these people care about me .”
She was clever, lessening the connection in the hope it would take away their advantage, but it was too late. The glint in the tweaker’s eye, even when he was smiling, told me the decision had been made. He’d committed to the deed and wouldn’t be backing down, which meant I'd have to kill him.
“ This guy gives a shit about you,” the tweaker said, yanking Liv around until she fully faced me. "Pretty boy looks like he's gonna cry. I wonder what he'd do if I cut you?” The tip of his knife dug into her t-shirt, and when her eyes locked on mine, her wince of pain ramped up the urgency. “Or touched you,” he said, dragging the knife across her breast. He circled her nipple with the blade and sent me a satisfied smirk.
He knew. He knew what touching her would do to me—and most importantly, to her .
Anger turned my body rigid. The fear in Liv’s eyes pushed me over the edge.
This fucker was about to die.
“Jonah.” I turned my knife until I had the blade between my fingers, the handle pointing at the floor.We were about to find out if my aim matched Liv's, and if it didn't, both of us needed to be ready to charge in.
“I’m here.” He moved in beside me.
“Watch the woman,” I told him, then I shot Liv a glance. “Quack.”
She understood. Her body dropped without warning, straight out of harm's way. Before anyone could catch onto what was coming next, I threw my knife hard and struck the tweaker straight through the chest—the exact spot where his heart would pump its last beat.
He opened his mouth, bewildered for a fraction of a second. A beat later, his weight dropped to the floor, crashing into Liv on the way down.
Breathing hard, her gaze found mine as she stumbled free and steadied her footing.
She was safe, but we weren't out of danger yet.
The woman shifted into panic mode, and as I reached for the hatchet on my belt, she sprinted straight at us, shoving through the gap between Jonah and me.
Jonah gripped her shirt, but it tore from his grasp.
She barged outside, slamming the security door against the brick wall. While her footsteps thumped away from the house, I considered running after her and trying to track her down in the dark, but she could be anywhere and there were people who needed me here.
Everyone sprang into action at once, and the house became a hive of activity. Jonah dropped to his knees beside Dawn, trying to rouse her with a shake and words spoken too quietly for me to hear.
Liv kicked the dead guy in the stomach—hard—then leaned over him and yanked my knife from his chest in a detached manner that was new. "Asshole." She wiped the blood on the man's jeans, then kicked him again and straightened, offering the knife to me handle first as if nothing had happened. I waited too long to take it from her, and she lifted her brows.
With a sigh, I grabbed it and stowed the blade in my belt.She appeared to be operating on autopilot, but when the urgency passed, she’d hit the wall. Or maybe she wouldn't. Liv had never been all that predictable, and our situation was ever-changing. She'd already proven her ability to adapt.
“Sit down and take a minute,” I told her. “You don't need to do anything right now. Jonah, help me move him.”
He'd already urged his mum into a sitting position, and Dawn blinked as she looked around and tried to grasp what had happened during the short time she was out. Her eyes landed on the dead man, then wrenched away to find me. Seeing her regain consciousness filled me with relief, but we needed to get the man's body out of here before his presence caused her further alarm.
"Grab his legs," I instructed.
Jonah jumped up from the floor with the speed and ease of youth and hooked his hands in the ends of the man's jeans.
I took the bulk of his weight at the other end and shuffled backwards to the door, pissed that we'd been put in this position again—but it could have been worse.
At least we'd met two decent people today, even if three others had let us down.
Liv rushed over to hold the door open for us, and I met her eyes as I passed through. "Back in a minute. Lock up behind us, just in case she’s still around."
"Don’t be long."