Page 12 of The Forever (When the World Fell #3)

Cruz

A s the car lured the majority of the horde away, I sprinted alone down the street, making the most of the opportunity I’d been given.

Several corpses had hung around the front of the store, and they all turned at the sound of my footsteps. Gathering my strength, I knocked one off its feet with a forearm to the chest and smacked the next in the skull with my hatchet.

Adrenaline and willpower kept me moving. I didn’t know how long Tae had left, whether his condition would worsen rapidly or we’d still have him with us by morning. Either way, we needed to get him out of here and back among familiar faces.

I leapt over a lone tyre and rammed a shopping trolley into two more corpses, mowing them both down and clearing my path. When I was almost at the car, I fished the fob from my pocket and unlocked the door, tossing my hatchet on the passenger seat before I dived inside.

With a silent prayer, I tried the engine, swearing with relief when it turned over.

Not two seconds later, a pair of hands hit the window and slid down the glass. The corpse leaned closer to peer inside, and as its vacant eyes met mine, I eased away from the curb.

A short distance down the road, I pulled over and tapped the steering wheel with my thumb. Gabe emerged from the darkness first carrying both of our backpacks, with Tae close behind.

Gabe’s eyes glittered with relief as he rounded the car, and I moved my hatchet off the passenger seat to make room for him.

“Did you have any trouble?” he asked, shoving one pack into the footwell and keeping the other on his knee.

“Most of the corpses were already gone,” I said, still catching my breath. The feeling of urgency wouldn’t disappear until Tae was safe, and I’d set eyes on Liv again.

Tae dropped into the rear seat on Gabe’s side and closed the door. His features were twisted in pain and blood had already seeped through the bandage on his arm.

We’d need to give it proper attention when we were back at Ro’s, but for now, all I could focus on was getting him there.

I flicked the headlights on and touched my foot to the accelerator. Other than the injury itself, his health had shown no signs of deterioration. No fever or light-headedness, no confusion. The coughing I remembered from the early days of Ultimus hadn’t kicked in yet, either. If he was lucky, he’d live to see at least one more sunrise.

“How are you feeling?” I asked him.

“All right. Just pissed about what happened, that’s all.”

I took a right and stared into the darkness. “I’m sorry, for the record.”

“Not your fault.”

“But still. I wish I’d got the door open faster.”

“You could have got it open slower, and we’d all be dead.”

“Still no symptoms?” Gabe asked, twisting in his seat to look at Tae.

“I can hardly breathe, but I think that’s just the anxiety kicking in,” he said. “At least there’s no fever yet, so I’ll get to say goodbye to everyone before it goes downhill.”

It blew my mind that we could have this conversation when he seemed so fine, especially knowing how fast his health would decline over the coming hours.

After another couple of turns, I pulled into Ro’s driveway and switched to practical mode. “I’ll see if I can find some pain meds. I’m sure Ro’s got some lying around.”

“If it gets bad, just use one of those bullets on me.”

“Tae…” I hated talking about this, but I wasn’t the one with a death sentence hanging over my head. “Just keep me aware of how it’s going, okay?”

I followed the drive around to the rear of the house and parked, noting the empty spot where the other car had been. Not back yet, which could mean one of many things—all of which I’d try not to dwell on.

“Probably luring the dead ones away first,” Gabe said as we all jumped out.

I rounded the car and grabbed my pack from his extended hand. “Thanks.”

Jonah was already standing at the sliding door as we headed for the house. He moved back, his eyes zeroing in on Tae’s arm first before me. “Did something bad happen?” he asked as Tae passed through without a word.

“I’ll explain inside. All good here?”

“Don’t get pissed…” He struggled to hold my gaze as Gabe stepped around him and disappeared inside. “But Liv drove off with Ro to look for you guys. She was pretty sure you set off a flare.”

“I did. It’s fine. They’re the reason we made it back.”

His tense posture deflated. “Thank God for that.”

I forced a smile and went inside to find a few solar powered lanterns set up in the kitchen and living room. Ellie was stretched out on the extended recliner with a blanket draped over her, all alone until we walked in.

We dropped our backpacks in a pile, and she glanced up at Tae. “Hey,” she said. “Welcome back. Willow’s gone to bed, and Remy’s…”

Remy appeared from the hallway, dressed in a fresh set of clothes. With a wide smile, he strode over to embrace his brother, and it took him all of two seconds to spot the rifle. “What the… are you serious ?“ he asked. “Where’d you find that?”

The tremor of excitement in his voice momentarily lifted my mood. “In a shop in the middle of town.”

“Loaded?”

“Six rounds.”

He raised his brows, impressed.

Ellie caught sight of Tae’s injured arm and lowered the footrest, shooting out of her seat to go to him. Their voices blended together, rising in volume, and when her anguished cry rose above all the noise, I sighed. The next few hours wouldn’t be pretty.

A car pulled up outside, and my heart felt like it could pound straight through my chest. “Back in a minute,” I said to Remy.

Forgetting about Tae for the moment, I opened the door and searched the darkness. Liv had parked on the other side of our car and had already started walking toward me with Ro, her steps smooth and unhurried.

Upon first inspection, they both appeared unharmed, and the tightness inside my chest eased. “Thank God for that.” I rubbed my hands down my face and sighed into my palms. “Thank God.”

When I pulled my hands away, Ro was smiling. “There’s mister tall, dark, and gorgeous,” she said. “Told you,” she added for Liv’s benefit, giving the impression she’d been worried about me, too.

The corner of my mouth turned upward. I’d never been this happy to see someone I barely knew. “Thanks for the help, Ro.”

“No problem,” she said. “It’s good to see you back in one piece. Everyone okay?”

“Right now, yeah. You’re needed inside, though.” I didn’t see the point in getting into it when she could learn everything she needed to know from the man himself.

She frowned a little on her way past, leaving me alone with Liv.

With the mist and darkness behind her, she appeared ethereal somehow, and the moment I set eyes on her, the noise in my head went quiet. “ Mi amor. ”

Liv rushed the final few steps that separated us and slipped her arms around my waist. “I’m so glad you’re okay. What went wrong? How did you get trapped?”

I hugged her tightly for a minute, then eased back from her. As I opened my mouth to give her the condensed version, I frowned and picked a couple of pieces of glass from her hair. Once they were gone, I cupped her chin and turned her head to the side, noting the droplet of blood on her temple. We weren’t the only ones who’d run into trouble. “Forget that. What happened to you?”

“A kangaroo.” She looked over her shoulder. “You can’t see the car from here, but it’s a complete mess. The whole windshield’s gone.”

“You ran into it?”

Her gaze came back to me. “It went through the windshield while we were stationary, so I guess it technically ran into us. Where are the guys? Is Gabe okay? Tae?”

“Gabe’s fine.”

“And Tae?” Her gaze moved over my features. “Why do you look so cagey? What happened?”

“He got bitten.”

Her expression shifted from shock to sympathy to grief all in the space of a few seconds. Before she could comment on the shitty news, a loud cackle came from inside the house.

A laugh like that could only have belonged to Ro, but the sound didn’t fit with the seriousness of Tae’s condition.

Liv huffed in disbelief. “She’s lost her mind. That’s the only explanation. I’ll find out what’s happening.”

Neither of us had the chance to move in that direction. Gabe barged outside, his expression animated. “You’ve gotta come see this,” he said. “Get in here.”

He ushered us both inside, and the noise and happiness that greeted us had me frowning. Tae sat on a barstool with his arm resting on the kitchen bench, the lantern highlighting Ro’s features as she flushed his wound. Jonah, Remy, and Ellie crowded around to inspect the damage like a group of high school kids watching a demonstration from a science teacher.

“See?” Ro pointed at the exposed wound as I moved closer. “No teeth marks. You cut it on something—and you cut it good—but whatever it was, you weren’t bitten, you big doofus.”

Tae’s head fell back, and he let out a long, loud breath that encapsulated every feeling swirling in the room. “Not a bite.”

I smiled as the heaviness inside me lifted. Maybe we would have figured that part out ourselves if we’d paid more attention to his injury. “After the night we’ve had,” I said, “it couldn’t have ended any better.”

Tae laughed and gave his forearm an incredulous look. “I seriously thought I was dead. Must have been the metal racks near the door.”

Gabe clapped him on the back in congratulations, and Ellie gave him a side hug.

We’d been living with permanent exhaustion, pushing through shitstorms from one day to the next—most of the time just trying to keep our heads on straight so we wouldn’t make any monumental mistakes—and seeing the support from our group soothed something inside me.

“So… how do you feel about stitches?” Ro pressed the edges of the laceration together. “Sorry to tell you, but this isn’t going to heal on its own.”

“You’re not sorry to tell me. You’re smiling . Don’t worry about it. It’ll be fine.“ Tae tried to pull his arm away and winced when she held on tight.

“Well, that’s tough. If we don’t sew you up, you’ll just tear it open again every time you move.” Ro appealed to the group. “I’m gonna need two people to hold him still.”

“What?” Tae’s eyes went wide. “Wait!”

“Make that three people,” she said. “No time to wait, sweetheart. Let’s get this done. We need you ready to leave in the morning with the rest of us.”

My brows shot up. All we’d done was float the idea of her group coming to Bridgehill, and she’d already made up her mind. “You’ve decided?”

Ro shrugged. “What the worst that could happen? We find out we don’t like it and come back here the next day? It’s only an hour’s drive. You get my car running, and we’ll be along for the ride.”

Tae tried to drag his arm away while she was distracted, but she pulled it back without looking at him. The last part of our trip could be a hell of a lot more complicated than hanging a U- turn and heading home, but I wouldn’t ruin the moment with the truth. “I can do that. We’ll talk more in the morning,” I said. “You under control here? I’m about done for today.”

“All good.” She smiled. “The girls and I are using the first bedroom on the left. Take your pick from the other three—and there’s the couch for anyone who wants to stay out here.”

“Thanks for the hospitality,” Liv said. “And for riding shotgun with me. I got a kick out of being Thelma to your Louise.”

Ro laughed. “Not a problem.”

As the others went about rustling up supplies for Tae’s stitches, I left Liv in the kitchen to grab a lantern from the lounge room.

When I turned around, she was still standing in the same spot, smiling at something Ro had said to her—the two of them had clicked so fast it was like watching a couple of lifelong friends in action.

As our gazes met, her humour disappeared, and she gave me a small smile. The connection sent heat thrumming through my veins, and my fingers flexed around the handle of the lantern, but I stayed right where I was, watching her a little longer.

She’d been through a lot today, but it didn’t seem to matter.

When I tilted my head toward the hallway in invitation, she smiled and stepped away from the others to follow me.