Chapter 2
Overbearing Brothers
Olivia
Thirteen Months Later…
The frost covered grass crunches beneath my boots as I sneak down the length of the hedgerow that surrounds my property.
Harlow, the Australian Sheppard I rescued nearly ten months ago, trots by my side, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.
Every few strides, I pause and glance over my shoulder to confirm I haven’t been spotted yet before continuing on.
I’m supposed to be feeding the horses, not out here, far from the cottage. Tobias has deemed it too dangerous for me, no matter what I say or how much I practise with my bow. He thinks I’m weak, broken and a liability.
And sure, I’m a little broken; I still wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares and I’m terrified to step foot anywhere near a car. But dammit, the man can’t keep me cocooned in bubble wrap. The world has gone to shit and the only way I’m going to survive is to toughen up.
Especially now, after the harsh December and January we just endured, leaving our food stocks dangerously low.
So today, I’m going to show him I can survive in the outside world. I’m going to patrol the hedge until I find a zombie that’s close by, and then I’m going to kill it. Simple. All I need is to find one first.
I get about halfway down the hedgerow before Harlow growls, alerting me to a potential threat.
Edging closer, I smell the zombie before I see it, the stench of rot thick in the air.
It’s caught in the hedge, the thin, vine-like branches wrapped around its mangled, decomposing body.
It’s so disfigured I can barely make out its face aside from those terrifying eyes that gleam with inhuman hunger.
No matter how many of these things I’ve seen in the year since shit hit the fan, I never get used to the look in their eyes. It’s so alien and predatory that it makes every cell in my body scream at me to run.
The moment it notices me, it struggles harder against the hedge, its moans growing louder and more desperate. I shudder and avert my gaze, instead focusing on drawing an arrow from my quiver and nocking it.
Okay, Ollie. You can do this. It’s just one zombie, no longer human. Just aim, pull back and let the arrow fly, I tell myself as I lift my gaze back to the zombie.
Sucking in a deep breath, I hold up my bow and take aim toward the thing’s head. With steady hands, I draw the string back as far as it’ll go.
“What the hell are you doing, Liv?”
Tobias’s voice jars me, causing me to release the string. The arrow flies wide, completely missing the zombie still struggling in the hedge and landing in the field beyond.
Fuck.
I growl in frustration and glare at my brother over my shoulder. He’s glowering back at me with a thunderous expression, his hands clenched into fists by his side and his jaw tight.
In the past year, my brother has aged significantly, no doubt because of stress and the hard labour required to survive in this harsh new world.
Strands of his brown hair are turning silver at his temples and his forehead and corner of his eyes are more wrinkled than they were before.
He looks closer to forty than his actual age of thirty-two, almost six years older than me.
“What the fuck, Toby? You just made me miss my shot!”
I turn my attention back to the zombie as I draw another arrow from my quiver, intending to retake the shot. Only for Tobias to storm over to me and grab my bow before I can.
“Hey!”
“I told you not to come out here without me, Liv,” he says, dodging my attempt to snatch my bow back. “You could get yourself killed, especially with zombies around.”
I roll my eyes. “Oh, come on, stop being so dramatic. It’s just one zombie, and it’s completely stuck, unable to do anything. It’s perfect practise for when I go outside.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that you’re not going anywhere? It’s far too dangerous for you outside, even if you’re able to shoot a bow.”
Here we go again. “You do realise that I can’t stay here forever, that I’ll eventually need to leave and go outside?”
He shakes his head. “You’ll never need to. Not with me and Lauren here.”
Frustration bubbles in my chest, but I tramp it down.
I need to stay calm and reasonable. And not turn it into a shouting match like our previous arguments.
“But you need me, especially now that we need food. I can be useful out there. I can carry things or look for food. Please, Tobias, I want to help.”
He softens slightly. “I know you want to help, but you’re better off staying at the cottage, where you’re safe.”
“I wouldn’t have to go far,” I say, not willing to give up. “Maybe I could go to the woods up there—” I point to the top of the hill where the small woods lie “—and hunt us some food. I’ve seen a couple of deer in there, as well as squirrels and rabbits.”
He shakes his head. “We don’t need you doing that. Not when I can find us the food we need.”
I grind my teeth, getting more frustrated that he’s just not listening to me.
I understand he wants to keep me safe—fuck knows I want that too—but him keeping me locked up will come to bite us in the ass if something happens and I’m suddenly the one who needs to scavenge. But he’s too damn stubborn to see that!
Harlow whines and presses against my side. Without thinking, I drop my hand to the top of her head, but sinking my hand into her soft fur does little to staunch the anger boiling in my chest.
“Toby—”
“I said no, Liv and that’s final,” he barks before marching up to the stuck zombie, pulls out his knife and slams the blade home into its skull. The eerie glow from its eyes immediately dims as it collapses to the ground in a rotting heap.
Jerking his knife from the corpse, Tobias turns on his heel and levels a thunderous glare at me. “I want you to march yourself back down to the cottage and don’t you even think about arguing back.” He shoves his knife back into its sheath.
I bare my teeth at him in a silent, frustrated snarl and stubbornly stand there, glaring back at him. He may have raised me after our parents died, but he constantly forgets that I’m no longer a child he can order around.
He sighs and rubs his face with one hand, the other still holding my bow. “Olivia, don’t test me. Not today.”
I bristle but relent when I see the weariness in his eyes. The constant stress of living in this fucked-up world is pressing heavily on his shoulders. I wish he would let me help him instead of carrying it all himself and leaving me to feel like a useless burden.
We trudge back to the cottage in silence, the only sound being the crunch of our shoes against the frozen ground. Tobias doesn’t give me my bow back until we’re at the back door of the cottage.
“If I see you up there by yourself again, Liv, I’ll take that off you permanently,” he warns before ducking inside.
“Asshole,” I mutter, glaring at the door for a moment before following him.
The warmth of the small country kitchen envelops me as I close the door after Harlow.
Leaning my bow against the wall next to the door, I turn to see Tobias has already sat down and pulled Lauren into his lap.
Three mugs of steaming tea sit on the table and I grab one while trying to ignore the twinge of envy at my brother and his wife.
I’ve never been held by a partner like that.
Gale wasn’t affectionate outside of sex and brushed me off whenever I asked for a hug.
The men before him weren’t that affectionate, either.
A part of me longs to have the easy tenderness that Tobias and Lauren have, even though I know I never will.
Dating prospects in the apocalypse are practically zero for me since I don’t leave the cottage.
Not that any man would want me, not with my issues.
“You got any plans for today, Ollie?” Lauren asks. She’s leaning her head against Tobias’s shoulder, a soft smile on her lips as he absently strokes her hair.
“I’m mostly just going to get the garden ready for planting in the spring and figuring out which seedlings need starting soon,” I say as I take a seat on the other side of the table while ignoring my tumultuous emotions.
I turn my attention to my brother. “Are you going out?” I only just keep the bitterness out of my tone.
He nods. “I’m going to hit up the village fifteen miles west of us before paying Andy a visit to see if he’ll trade us some food for labour.”
Even though society has gone to shit, there are still people out there willing to trade and help others out. Andy is one of those people. He lives about two miles up the road and often trades with Tobias for cheese, milk and meat from his goats and things he gets from others that he doesn’t need.
“When are you leaving?” Lauren asks softly.
“In about an hour.”
The two of them share a look I can’t decipher.
Tobias sighs. “I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise,” he murmurs as he strokes her cheek with the back of his fingers a moment before bending down to press his lips against hers.
And that’s my cue to leave.
Pain lances through my chest as I hurry out of the kitchen and outside into the frosty winter air.
Even though it’s been over a year since that bastard humiliated me at the altar, it still hurts.
While I now see that we would’ve been miserable together—hindsight for the win—I can’t help but feel like he was my last chance at having a romantic relationship.
Taking a seat at the small seating area we have set up with a sigh, I sip my tea and focus on my surroundings.
The ponies; Apple, Cinnamon and Bean are happily munching on the hay I gave them earlier while Harlow lies in the winter sun next to me, a contented expression on her face.
I try to remind myself that even though I’ll probably be alone for the rest of my life, at least I’m still alive and surviving.
That’s more than can be said for many people since the world fell.