Fifteen
Liv
“ T his freaking storm just won’t let up.” I stood at the kitchen window as the weather raged on outside, rattling the house, and keeping my nerves in a permanent state of readiness. From time to time, lightning illuminated the yard and highlighted another one or two of the infected tumbling around out there. Several minutes ago, the wind had swiftly changed direction, and now they were coming at us from the rear of the house. It might have been comical if it was a scene in a movie, but this was reality, and I was too concerned they might damage our cars.
"Come away from the window, querida, ”Cruz said from behind me.
I turned from the glass and faced the room. He’d taken a seat with the boys around the dining table, where they were working on the leftover food from earlier. Candlelight created moving shadows across their faces, and they chatted in such a laid back way it was as if the storm barely registered.
Dawn had been gone for about an hour, and I hoped she was sleeping in the back bedroom rather than worrying. I remembered my first full day away from home, the mental and physical exhaustion that hit the second I stopped moving. She’d been through a lot today.
I wandered past Cruz to check the situation in the living room, hoping we were seeing the worst of the weather now. We could all do with a few hours’ sleep before we set off in the morning.
The wind had extinguished the trio of candles that were originally burning on the coffee table, and cold air swirled around the space, sending dead leaves skittering across the carpet. With the tree still a feature in the room, it felt like the outside had come inside, just as I’d feared. At least Cruz had thrown the decapitated head back where it came from, and the twins had dragged the body out the front door, dumping it and rushing inside again to avoid the rain.
I approached the sideboard that we’d shoved against the unbroken window and picked up one of the toppled photo frames to entertain myself. Lightning lit up the picture just long enough for me to see four kids at the beach, sitting near the water's edge around a lopsided sandcastle.
Going off the decorating in the farmhouse, the owners would have been older, maybe seventy or so. I figured these had to be their grandchildren. As I considered the chances of them being alive, melancholy swept over me.They reminded me of the photos of the blonde girls I'd seen in the house back in Melbourne, a family that had once looked so happy and perfect, and now no longer existed.
I picked up another frame, a couple dressed in outfits from the sixties accompanied by a handwritten note sent from husband to wife on their anniversary. I turned it toward the candlelight coming from the kitchen to read the cursive writing, a love letter detailing their special moments and what she meant to him, how he missed her whenever they were apart. It pulled at every heartstring and had me dragging in a ragged breath.
Facing the window again, I swallowed the emotion clogging my throat and blinked tears from my eyes. We'd all given up so much, our lives changed forever, and for some, extinguished way too soon.
I missed my family, my dad's strength and wisdom, my mum's wild sense of humour and love of adventure. I missed the life I might have been able to create for myself, the opportunities that would never be within my reach again. My heart ached for the losses we'd endured, my chest heavy with the weight.
Cruz came up behind me and cupped my shoulders, pulling me back against his chest. He must have sensed my mood was off because he didn't utter a word.
I returned the frame to the sideboard and looked at him over my shoulder. “Do you think about your family and friends and the way it used to be?”
A sudden gust of wind whipped through the room, flinging a doormat inside against the broken branch. Cruz urged me over to a corner to avoid the weather. He stood in front of me, positioning me with my back to the wall, no doubt a tactical move to block me from flying objects. “I try not to dwell on them being gone,” he said. “It’s easier if I just focus on the memories from when they were alive.”
“I bet you had an amazing family, all about love and food and quality time—or maybe I’m just romanticising the old life because it’s gone for good.” I leaned against the wall as laughter drifted through from the kitchen. The sound chased away some of the sadness inside me, and I gazed up at Cruz feeling hopeful that we could build a safe life for all of us, where Dawn wouldn’t feel so stressed and unsure, and Remy and Gabe could be part of a big family again.
“No, that’s… pretty accurate,” he said. “My mum was the centre of everything. She brought all the warmth and life. Without her, it wouldn't have been the same.”
I pictured all of them with dark hair, dark eyes, and gorgeous smiles. His mother would have been beautiful, wearing pretty dresses and filling their home with love. I imagined the music, and aromas drifting from the family kitchen, the free-flowing wine, and laughter. It made me ache for the past in a way I hadn’t until now because I’d never get to know that part of him. I wouldn’t see him interacting with his parents and brother; I'd never be with them at Christmastime or celebrate their birthdays. They wouldn't know my name, grow close to me, learn to love me.
Cruz and I were starting with nothing, building a life together from rubble.
“They’d be proud of you if they could see you now,” I said, pushing my feelings aside. “ I’m proud of you, and we barely know each other.”
He stared at me for one long, drawn-out moment, his expression difficult to read in the too-dark room. “That’s not true, though, is it?”
“That I’m proud of you?”
He gave me a patient smile. “That we barely know each other.”
As the rain pummelled the house and the wind whipped through the trees and shook the walls, warmth grew inside me. Rarely in my life had I met a stranger and somehow already known them; these were special connections that just couldn't be explained—and I had that with Cruz. We’d found it in a war zone.
I took hold of his wrist and placed his palm on my chest, resting it above my heart. “I feel like you’ve always been in here,” I said, “and all this time I’ve just been waiting for you to show up.”
He made a funny sound in his throat as his thumb swept over my breast. He cupped the back of my neck with his free hand and lowered his head. His lips touched mine in a brief kiss, then he pulled back and looked into my eyes. “I knew you were meant for me the second I saw you,” he said. “Before we even spoke to each other—before I saw you up close. I knew.”
My heart overflowed with love, and I reached for him.
The biggest crash I’d ever heard in my life rang through the house, and I jerked back from Cruz. Our eyes met. My heart lurched. The entire house shook on its foundations, and my gaze flicked to the doorway leading through to the hall. “That came from the bedrooms.”
When we ran for the hallway, Jonah and the twins were already on their feet. All five of us rounded the corner and stopped short at the sight. Another branch had split the roof in two, the impact taking out the hallway ceiling as well as what looked to be the bedroom next to Dawn’s. I hoped it wasn’t her room.
Terror took hold of me as I stared at the devastating level of damage. I clutched Cruz’s arm as Jonah shouted obscenities. That wasn’t even the worst of it. An ominous creaking sound followed, and more of the ceiling gave way beneath the weight of the branch.
I leaned backward through the hallway door and watched in disbelief as the kitchen fell in on itself, crushing the dining table and four of the chairs. The screech of grinding metal and snapping wood ended. Straight afterward, rain rushed into the house, soaking the interior in seconds.
If it had happened a moment earlier, all three boys would have been dead.
Panic raced through me. Dawn. Where the hell was Dawn?
I faced the damage again, my mind whirring with questions.
"Mum!" Jonah approached the fallen branch and slapped his hands against the side, standing on his toes to search for a place to climb over. Too much of the collapsed roof had been dragged inward from the sides, though, and it appeared to be blocking all access.
We all had our shoes on, our weapons on our belts. We were ready to go, and it was more obvious than ever that we needed to face the storm and get the hell out of here while we were all still breathing.
“I can’t get through,” Jonah shouted over the noise.
“Outside,” Cruz said. “Let’s go.” Then to me he added in a low voice, “Don’t you dare leave my sight. ”
There was no point in any of us staying inside the house. In or out, the danger appeared to be the same. I nodded quickly, my stomach clenching with fear as we readied ourselves to leave through the front door.
“Remember not to get so caught up in searching for Dawn that you forget to keep an eye out for corpses,” Cruz warned everyone.
I hadn’t heard her yelling and there was no sign of movement from the other side of the branch. None of us had a clue if she’d been knocked out by the impact or she was trying to free herself. The thought that something terrible might have happened to her nearly paralysed me.
Jonah stepped outside first, leaning into the storm to counteract the force of the wind. With his knife in hand, he looked left and right to check for danger, then raced off around the side of the house. Remy and Gabe followed, weapons at the ready, and Cruz and I brought up the rear.
The cold sting from the rain made me gasp. I shielded my eyes from the assault, and my hair and clothes were drenched in seconds.
It took more effort than I expected to stay on my feet, and Cruz manoeuvred me in front of him, gripping my belt from the back to help propel me forward.
The guys were already at the spot where the damage had occurred, and seeing the pure scale of it under the light of an almost full moon made my stomach drop. It wasn’t just a branch this time. An entire tree lay uprooted amongst the wreckage. The smell of wet earth surrounded us as Jonah scooted to the other side of the trunk, looking for the place where Dawn’s room had once been located.
I braced myself and followed with Cruz close behind, hoping to hear a cry of relief or any sound at all to indicate that she’d survived.
Lightning struck a nearby tree that was still standing, and the crack that split the air sent a jolt through me. Until now, all the chaos had been caused by the wind; now we had to worry about lightning, too. Cruz wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me with him, picking up the pace. “Come on, carino,” he said. “This isn’t good. We need to get moving.”
We avoided the crater left behind by the tree and joined the others on the opposite side of the massive root ball. As soon as I set eyes on the state of the building, my worst fears took over.
My heart thudded double time, and I turned to catch the hard glint in Cruz’s eye. He’d already made up his mind about the likelihood of Dawn surviving; to him, it was just a matter of time before we confirmed the truth.
The fallen tree stopped the wind from passing through and gave us a slight reprieve, letting us focus on more important things without worrying about me being blown away. I swallowed my fear and launched into the worst of it to help.
“Form a line!” Cruz called out.
We stowed our weapons and fell into line, spending the next ten minutes passing bulky pieces of tin and board from one person to the next—Cruz first, then me, followed by Gabe, Jonah, and Remy—keeping the area free from crowding and blocking Jonah from a close-up view of the scene. He accepted his position without argument, almost like he knew it would be an image he didn’t want in his head.
Part of the bed poked out from under one of the bigger branches, and her backpack had been flattened by the trunk. When I spotted her booted foot hidden underneath in the shadows, I grabbed Cruz’s elbow and pointed it out without saying a word. He nodded and picked his way through the debris to reach her while Jonah waited behind us, none the wiser.
The rain eased off as if a higher power finally recognised our need for a break, and my eyes remained locked on Cruz, my pulse pounding in my ears.
This wouldn’t be ending the way we hoped.
We were on a mission to recover a body, and the realisation had my heart breaking for Jonah.
I checked on the guys to make sure they were staying far enough back from whatever we were about to uncover. Remy was off tackling one of the infected while Gabe kept his arm around Jonah’sshoulder, a show of support for someone who was still so unfamiliar to him.
We’d only known the twins for half a day, and they’d already slotted into our group like part of the family.
Tension built inside me, and I faced Cruz again, dreading when Dawn’s death would become a reality. He finally revealed the bed, and I stepped through the remains of the wrecked house to see her.
She lay pinned under a branch with her chest crushed to a degree that there was just no chance of survival. Her eyes were closed, her mouth parted. To my non-expert eye, it looked like she’d died in her sleep. Part of me was desperate to believe she hadn’t been scared or in pain when the roof caved in and took her life.
Cruz straightened and gave me a direct look that spoke volumes. I nodded and drew a long breath, forcing down the tears that rushed to the surface. With a swell of sympathy for Jonah, I braced myself and prayed for courage, then turned around and locked eyes with him, giving a gentle shake of my head.
Some part of him had known the second he saw the extent of the damage, but having it confirmed erased all hope that he might be wrong.
His mother was dead.
Jonah’s features filled with pain, and his knees gave way beneath him. Gabe knelt beside him, and a sob tore from me. I chanced another look at Dawn—the woman I hoped would become like a sister to me, an older, wiser female for me to lean on and learn from. Another wave of emotion rose inside me, and I willed it away, telling myself to keep it together for Jonah’s sake. This wasn't about me, and we were still in such a precarious position.
"We need to get out of here," Cruz said. Without waiting for an answer, he swung me into his arms and stepped through the wreckage, setting me on solid ground once we were clear. "What’s left of the walls might come down in this wind,” he said, turning me toward the house and pointing at an unstable piece of roof. “We can’t do anything for her right now."
I understood his concern—I could see it right in front of me—but if not now, when? We couldn't leave her there. I wouldn’t leave her.
The wind whipped my hair and flapped my shirt against my skin, but I barely noticed the cold. All I could think about was that Dawn had been healthy and finding her place in the group one minute... then the next, she was gone. "She died." My throat hurt, and I could barely believe the words coming out of my mouth, even though my eyes had seen the truth. "All she wanted to do was sleep through the storm so she wouldn't be scared, and she died."
A flood of tears wanted to burst from me. I choked on a sob as my heart broke for a young man who’d lost his dad months ago and now his mum.He’d spent his entire life as only child, and now he had no parents, no home. Just like me, only so much younger.
"Stay out of the wind." Cruz squeezed the back of my neck and pressed a kiss on my temple. "I need to go to him."
I sniffled and nodded as he left me. The rain was nothing more than a drizzle now, but the wind still ripped through the trees and grounds, blowing the dead around and wreaking havoc.
Remy came over to me and merely stood close rather than offering physical comfort. I appreciated the careful way he watched me in the darkness. “Man, this world just fucking sucks, ” he said as we faced the yard.
“Most of the time, but there are so many good parts, too.” My heart filled with love as I witnessed one of them happening right in front of me. Cruz helped Jonah up from the ground and pulled him into an aggressive hug, wrapping his arms around him and offering comfort. Whatever he said to Jonah had him nodding and his shoulders shaking with emotion.
Just when I thought I couldn’t love Cruz more, he cupped the back of Jonah's head and let the hug go on until Jonah was ready to pull back; protective, caring, comforting—a man who led with kindness and strength. He’d told me I was the key to our future, but we were all cogs in a machine that ran smoother when each of us was involved. We’d lost one person tonight, and it didn’t feel the same anymore.
Another one of the dead shuffled toward the house, barely keeping its balance as the wind pushed it forward a couple of steps. Two more of them were several metres behind it, one losing its footing and dropping into a fast-moving roll in our direction.
“Want to help me take care of them?” I asked.
“Sure,” Remy said. “Let’s do something useful.”
We took off with our weapons drawn, and Gabe joined us as we approached the dead. I kept close to Remy in case the wind became too much for me, and we took care of the practical matters. The emotional ones like recovering Dawn’s body would have to wait until the worst of the danger had passed.
Later, we’d extract her from the collapsed room and bury her somewhere peaceful and pretty—and once she was laid to rest, we’d depart for the final step of our journey with her son in our care.
I’d only known her for a couple of days, but as with all human connections in our post-pandemic world, it seemed like so much longer. The thought of moving on from here without her made my heart hurt—and seeing Jonah lose his mother in such a horrific way nearly broke me.
The storm eased off in the early hours of the morning, but none of us stopped working for more than a few minutes at a time, determined to keep at it until we could free Dawn andgive her the burial she deserved. We were never coming back to this place, but I had a feeling it would bring Jonah a small amount of peace knowing we'd taken care of her before we left.
He and the twins were busy digging a grave in what would be a picturesque part of the yard when the sun rose in the morning, leaving Dawn forever resting beside a garden bed they’d already cleared of weeds, a place where flowers and shrubs grew while the sound of the river flowed nearby.
During the night, I went inside and searched the cupboards for sheets to wrap her in and keep her covered. Jonah hadn’t gone near her body since it was discovered, and he didn’t need to see her injuries when we lowered her into the grave. I wanted him to remember her the way she was when she left the lounge room that last time, with a sense of belonging and the contentment of knowing we’d take care of him while she was gone.
None of us could have imagined she wouldn’t be coming back.
Cruz and I took on the task of dragging debris from the area near where she lay, clearing a path for later when we’d carry her out. We only stopped to take care of the infected that wandered onto the property, or sometimes just to breathe and share a look of exhaustion.
Morning crept in to replace the darkness, and after trying unsuccessfully to drag a piece of wall frame from the pile, I straightened and sighed, feeling the ache in my shoulders and the heaviness in my heart.
With my hands on my hips, I glimpsed Dawn’s broken body from the corner of my eye, and emotion tightened my throat. When tears threatened to spill over for the first time, I looked away and met Cruz’s gaze.
He stopped working to assess my expression. “Are you okay?”
On the brink of losing it, I huffed out a breath and wished we could have chosen a smaller house in town instead; a street where there were no towering trees to threaten our safety, where houses were packed in nice and tight to protect us from the brunt of the storm. Maybe then Dawn would still be with us, and I wouldn’t feel this crushing weight—for the group, but mostly for a son who’d lost his mother.
I blinked and tried to smile to put Cruz’s mind at ease. “I’m just worried.” I kept my voice low, but the others were far enough away that I probably didn’t need to bother.
“About Jonah?”
“Mostly.” I moved closer to Cruz in the flattened area we’d cleared, leaving Dawn’s body behind. “We don’t know him well enough to have any idea how he’s going to handle this, or if we should travel the rest of the way before he’s had time to process what happened.”
Cruz looked over my shoulder in the direction where Jonah was digging. “You thought you’d need a few days to adjust after you lost Haruto,” he pointed out, his tone gentle, “but you found a way to be ready the next morning.”
Life changed too quickly these days, and it was easier to move on than it used to be—especially when there was an urgent need to get moving. We didn’t have that kind of pressure here, though. “It’s different when it’s your mum.”
He spent another minute watching the guys, no doubt taking in the smallest details. “I’ll talk to him about waiting a couple of days—but I think he’ll be fine if we’re fine.” Cruz brought his gaze back to me. “He has a talent for picking up on moods and adapting to whatever’s going on around him, so if you can find a way to keep this under wraps...” He gave me a sympathetic smile and caught a stray tear rolling down my cheek. “He’ll have an easier time getting through it.”
Our gazes meshed as his meaning sank in. I pulled my shoulders back and scrubbed my hands down my face, sighing between my fingers. Sometimes he made way too much sense. “You’re right. A slap across the face would have been just as effective, but I like your way better.”
Cruz palmed my hair and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “Come on. Let’s carry her out of here and give her the funeral Jonah needs.”
So, as the sun peeked over the horizon, its first rays of light catching droplets of rain on the grass and turning them into glittering diamonds, I held Jonah’s hand while the others lowered his mother’s wrapped body into the earth. He said a few words over her grave, his strong, stoic demeanour somehow more heartrending than if he’d broken down in tears. We each tossed a handful of wildflowers in with her, and once the formalities were over, everyone took turns covering her with shovelfuls of damp, heavy dirt.
Jonah and I found some rocks to border her grave and fashioned a couple of sticks into a cross held together with a cord from an old sleeping bag I found in the linen closet. When there was no more work to be done, and his mother’s grave stood alone in the breathtaking amber light of the early autumn morning, I turned to Jonah and wrapped my arms around him.
“We’re family now,” I told him, holding him close, “and if you ever need to talk to someone—about your mum or anything else—you can come to me. Always.”
He hugged me back as Cruz waited off to the side, watching us with sadness in his smile. Although it made my chest ache, it confirmed one thing for me, without a doubt.
As Jonah’s arms loosened around me, and he stepped back with dry eyes, I knew I’d told him the truth.
We were family, and whatever happened next on this journey, each of us would do anything for the other.
Remy, Gabe, Jonah… and the man I'd come to love more than anything.
Cruz.
THE END
Thank you for continuing Liv and Cruz's story.