Page 15 of The Forever (When the World Fell #3)

Cruz

“ T he kangaroos did a number on the windshield.” I gave the jagged frame a passing glance as Ro and I transferred the supplies from our car to her Land Cruiser.

Remy and Gabe had already taken care of the jumpstart and refuelling of her vehicle, and left it running to blow out the cobwebs. We were almost good to go.

She handed me a plastic tub filled with vegetables, then grabbed the last one for herself. “Lucky they only took out the glass,” she said, as we went over to where her car was still parked in the shed. “Liv almost lost her head.”

There were a dozen ways last night could have gone horribly wrong, and I didn’t want to think about any of them now we were safe and well. “She told me you pushed her down to keep her safe. Thanks, by the way.”

“Wouldn’t want her ruining that pretty face.” She deposited the tub in the back and waited for me to add mine. “It’s almost as pretty as yours.”

The wind picked up and blew dead leaves across the ground, bringing the faint smell of decay that hovered in the air no matter where we were. I stepped back from the car and raised my brows. “Are you flirting with me, Ro?”

She grinned and closed the boot. “Not me. I know a taken man when I see one. Plus, I’d break you, and that wouldn’t be fun for either of us.”

With a startled laugh, I left the shed and spotted three figures strolling toward us from the direction of the dam—one brunette, two blondes—caught up in a conversation we were too far away to hear. Their faint chatter carried on the breeze, reminding me of more carefree times when no one had needed to worry about dangers lurking in every shadow.

Ro stood beside me, her shoulder brushing mine. “She looks happy with the girls, more relaxed. New day and all that.”

My heart swelled seeing Liv experiencing this kind of peace. “We had Jonah’s mother with us until a couple of nights ago. Liv was excited about being around other women again.”

“Your group’s almost even now.”

“Our group—you’re a big part of it.” I threw her a smile. “A loud part, too.”

“Watch it,” she said, her tone amused. “That face’ll only get you so far.”

The rear door to the house opened, and the guys poured out with their backpacks and weapons. Gabe clapped his hands together like a coach rousing his team. “Last leg, people. Let’s do this .”

“You’re clear about the drive there?” I asked Ro. There was one small town between us and our destination, and we were making an express trip through to avoid unnecessary dangers.

“Yep.” A smile hovered at her mouth as she took in Gabe’s enthusiasm and energy. “Tae and the girls are coming in my car. We’re following you. No stops for any reason other than medical or mechanical.” She switched her attention to me. “No running zombies over—and stay on the road wherever possible. Avoid the soft edges.”

No one could accuse her of being a terrible listener. “And flash your lights if you need to get our attention. No honking the horn.”

“It’s all locked in here.” Ro tapped her temple. “I might come off like a loose cannon sometimes, but you don’t need to worry about me.” As Liv and the girls crossed over from grass to asphalt, she smiled. “We’ve been stuck in one place for so long, I’m more than ready for something new. This is pretty bloody exciting.” She switched gears and called out to her nieces in her no-nonsense tone, “Come on, girls, pick up the pace. We haven’t got all day.”

“What’s your hurry?” Ellie threw back. “Keep your pants on, lady.”

Ro snorted. “You hear the way she talks to me?”

I bit back a smile. The girls’ true personalities were emerging now, and although Ro wasn’t Ellie’s mother, they clearly shared the same genetics.

My eyes locked with Liv’s, and I lifted my arm for her to slide under. She had a damp spot on her shirt from the ends of her ponytail, and as she pressed herself against my side, I tightened my hold and left a kiss on her hair. “You smell good,” I said. “Ready to go?”

She flattened her palm against my abdomen, letting out a slow breath as if trying to keep her excitement in check. “So ready. This is it. We’re going to find our new home today.”

We’d had that same thought for a few days now, but this time around it might actually be true.

Remy drove east through town with Gabe beside him, checking at regular intervals to confirm Ro was still following. Jonah and I sat in the back with Liv sandwiched between us.

We travelled down streets we’d never see again after today, keeping the mood light to offset the concern we were all feeling. Not knowing the location of the horde meant we couldn’t take our eyes off the scenery for long, and I scanned every side street as we passed.

Smoke still drifted from the rooftop of the burning building, and the almost black colour from yesterday had faded to lighter grey with wispy plumes of white.

As we approached the shed where we’d first encountered Dane, Liv turned in her seat to stare, no doubt remembering all the shit we’d been through yesterday—and every day before that. Since no bodies were lying on the gravel, I could only assume whoever had lost their lives there now wandered aimlessly as the newest members of the horde.

Liv faced the front again and sighed, briefly resting her cheek on my shoulder.

We were so close to our goal now.

All we needed was one good hour.

Remy swerved around a delivery van and a few splattered corpses. A cat raced behind a telegraph pole, and a magpie with a death wish flew by, clearing our windscreen just before impact.

When we reached the town boundary and the sign farewelling us from Darby Downs, Remy picked up speed, and we left the memories behind us.

The car fell silent as we disappeared into our own thoughts, and I contemplated what we’d been through, where we were going—and how the hell we’d keep nine people safe when we got there.

Several kilometres down the road, Liv was the first to speak again. “I’ve been thinking about those kangaroos,” she said, her thoughts taking a different direction to mine. “We’ll need meat once we get settled, so we could hunt them in the wild. Imagine how much their numbers would have multiplied in the past few years with no humans around to do the culling.”

“Okay, but… what do you know about hunting?” Jonah asked. “Didn’t you grow up in the city?”

“I don’t know anything about hunting,” she said, “but I had no other survival skills when this craziness started, either. Even if we can’t find the right weapons to take down kangaroos, there are still rabbits to trap—and we’ll be right next to the ocean. Anyone know how to fish?”

“Not yet,” Gabe answered.

The thick cover of trees and shrubs along the roadside petered out until all that surrounded us were empty paddocks and dry, overgrown grass. I gave Liv a sidelong look. “The only thing I know how to do in the water is surf, and I can’t see that being a useful skill.”

“Not unless you can grab a shark in a headlock,” she said, resting her hand on my thigh.

I took her hand and intertwined my fingers with hers. “I prefer having all my body parts attached if it’s all the same with you.”

“I prefer them attached, too,” she said, then her mouth closed in on my ear and she whispered, “especially the one I got to play with last night.”

“Olivia,” I said in a warning tone, sliding my thumb across hers. My pulse picked up, and the memories rushed in, throwing me for a second. I didn’t know if the others had overheard, but when Jonah choked on air and Remy met my gaze in the mirror, I got my answer.

Liv sent me an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

I shifted in my seat to make room for the reaction she’d stirred in me. “No, you’re not.”

She didn’t say another word, but her laugh was all the response I needed.

“What’s one thing you guys miss from the old days?” Remy asked.

“Beer,” Gabe said, needing no time to think it over.

We’d already made it to the halfway mark, with a long stretch of straight road ahead and clear skies in the distance. Liv’s forehead creased in a frown, then she answered, “Bread.”

Remy slowed to avoid a cluster of corpses, then gradually increased his speed. “Bread? Seriously?”

“I know. I was going to say pizza, but I miss everyday foods more than the rest,” she said. “Toast, fresh bread rolls with butter, sandwiches loaded with meat and vegetables. I had a favourite bakery on my street, one of those artisan ones. Kind of fancy and expensive, but my God, the smells…”

She gave me a look similar to the one we’d exchanged last night—and again this morning—and I didn’t know if I should be amused or offended that bread could turn her on in the same ways I did. “All right, we’re getting the picture.”

Picking up on my deadpan tone, she smiled. “It’s okay. You don’t need to be jealous of toast. What about you, Jonah?”

“Boobs,” he said without hesitation.

I kept my eyes on the scenery, not wanting any part of this conversation.

“You’ve always gotta take it there,” Remy said.

“What? I’m young. I’m a guy. There’s no Internet anymore. It’s torture.”

The barren landscape gave way to houses on large parcels of land, rural bus stops, a water tower. Trees on either side of us reached across the road like arms, their fingertips touching in the middle. We’d reached the last town before Bridgehill, a monumental achievement given all the challenges we’d faced along the way. “Pay attention, everyone,” I said. “Eyes open.”

“We’re sticking with the plan and not stopping, right?” Gabe confirmed.

“Right.”

Remy slowed, and we scanned the roadside. A couple of corpses loitered in the front garden of a house on the right, and a few more were on the left near a row of bushes. The road was pockmarked with damage, covered in weeds and dead foliage.

The town looked to be similar in size to Harriet, only more modern and in better condition—or at least it had been before everything turned to shit. I eyed off the small supermarket, then pulled in a breath when a couple of figures ran straight out the front door, waving their arms and yelling.

“Woah.” Remy braced himself with his hands on the wheel.

My eyes shifted from one detail to the next as we approached. There were no signs of others around and no car or motorbike to suggest they’d broken down.

A young couple—a man and a woman—both with backpacks.

Were they living here or passing through? Had someone stolen their car while they were making a pit stop, just like others had tried multiple times with us?

There were too many unanswered questions, a risk we weren’t willing to take.

“This isn’t like when we found Willow,” Liv said. “I’m getting a weird feeling…”

I shot her a look, my gut telling me to keep moving. “Yeah, me too.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not stopping,” Remy said.

As we closed in on the area, the man came straight for the car, holding his palm up as if he was used to people obeying his instructions. He wore clean clothes and had a neatly trimmed beard, his body the type of lean that suggested he’d been eating regularly rather than starving. The young brunette woman wore her hair in a similar style to Liv’s and for a moment, just a moment, I nearly lost my mind and told Remy to hit the brakes.

He drove past and swore when the man ran close enough to give the side panel of the car an angry slap. I checked over my shoulder, relieved to see Ro dodge the couple and keep moving. Not only did I not want to stop in a place where we were exposed and potentially putting ourselves in danger, but our cars were full. We had no room for strays.

“Good call.” Liv twisted in her seat and let out a whoosh of air. “Definitely a good call. Three more people just walked out of the supermarket.”

I looked back there and caught the movement. All men, and the casual way they approached the other two told me they were well known to one another.

Confirming we’d made the right decision didn’t relax my muscles, though. It only sharpened my focus and served as a reminder that it could be the first of many traps between here and Bridgehill.

“Stay alert,” I said. “That might not be the last attempted ambush, and we need to be ready for anything.”

“Great,” Jonah said. “Just when I thought we were cruising.”

“We’re never cruising,” I said, as we left the town behind. “Safety’s an illusion.”

Liv slipped her hand into mine as we passed the sign welcoming us to Bridgehill. “This doesn’t even feel real,” she said. “There were so many times I thought we’d never make it, but we’re here.”

I felt the slight tremor in her hand and squeezed her fingers. The most challenging part may have been over now, but we had no clue what was going on in this part of the state, and we couldn’t let our guards down for a second.

“Why don’t we split up and scout the town straight away?” Jonah said, leaning forward to look at me past Liv. “If we move fast, we could find the place before dark.”

“Maybe we should take it easy,” Gabe said. “Set ourselves up at a base first and come up with a plan from there.”

I watched the trees go by, preferring Gabe’s idea over Jonah’s. “We need to stop and catch up with the others, anyway, so we’ll talk as a group before we make any decisions.”

Remy crossed a pristine concrete bridge that looked to have been built within the last ten years. A dilapidated wooden version ran parallel to it, with a deep gully below.

As we officially entered the town, he eased off the accelerator, and I lowered my window. Even on the outskirts, the near-the-sea smell filled the car, and I breathed in the reminder of my previous life.

“Salty air,” Liv said, keeping her eyes on the road.

We passed a caravan park and a few industrial buildings, then headed toward an avenue of honour marked by rows of gargantuan pine trees. Whenever there was a gap between the taller buildings, rolling hills in the distance appeared.

An expansive playground adjoined a car park and community centre on the left, followed by several bed-and-breakfasts and a pub advertising upstairs accommodation.

As we drove into the town centre, shops on both sides were painted in yellows and blues. There were restaurants and cafes, takeaway food shops, clothing and souvenirs.

It would have been a tourist hotspot back in the day—especially over summer. Now, all the doors and windows were boarded up.

A missing detail suddenly registered, and I frowned, wondering if the others had noticed.

No corpses. Not one.

No sign of chaos, either. It was as if the rioting and looting in other parts of the country hadn’t touched them here in Bridgehill.

“Where are the dead ones?” Remy asked.

“And why’s it so clean?” Gabe added.

“Has Ro turned around and gone home yet?” Jonah asked, only half joking.

We were on the eastern coastline with nowhere left to go.

As far as residents went, the permanent population would have been small, and tourists weren’t travelling during the lockdowns that dragged on for endless months. Corpses must have been landing in town, swarming around for a bit and leaving, or they just weren’t heading this far from densely populated areas in the first place.

“This is… unsettling,” Liv said.

“Not what we’re used to anymore.” We needed a break and a chance to talk to the rest of the group, so I pointed at a town map on a notice board up ahead. “You want to pull over up there, Rem?”

“Sure thing.” He parked at the curb, and Ro stopped behind us.

“What was up with that couple at the supermarket?” she asked as we all assembled on the footpath. “I nearly hit the guy—and not on purpose, either.”

“Just another a-hole,” Liv said. “We’ve seen a few of them. All they want to do is steal your car.”

“So, you’re saying I should have clipped him?”

Liv squinted against the sun’s glare and turned to survey the quiet street. “I’m saying it wouldn’t have been a tragedy if you had.”

She drew her sword and strolled a short distance away, giving the boards across a window a testing tug while Gabe headed over to the map with Tae.

“This place is so weird.” Willow stared at the deserted street—a stark contrast to the scenes she was used to seeing in Darby Downs.

“It can’t be normal for a town to be this quiet,” Ro said. “Or tidy. I haven’t left home since Ultimus kicked off, but this has gotta be strange, right?” She looked at me for confirmation.

I didn’t see the point in hiding the truth. “I haven’t seen anything like it before.”

Harriet was quiet when we arrived, but we’d put that down to the horde collecting resident corpses on the way through. For all we knew, it could have been a ghost town before the horde arrived. Maybe this was how rural areas looked now.

I had to admit; the silence was eerie. If the sea breeze hadn’t been blowing through, there would have been no sound at all.

“Why are all the windows and doors covered?” Jonah asked.

Remy pulled the long-handled screwdriver from his belt. “Maybe to stop looting—or they were repairing damage that was already done.”

Other than dead leaves, there was no rubbish blowing around, and no abandoned cars or bikes in sight. I couldn’t even pinpoint areas where they once were and had now been cleaned up.

“It should feel safer here with no dead around,” Liv said, returning to the group, “but it’s the opposite.”

She huffed out a breath and met my eyes, sending a message with no need for words. Her mind had already processed all the explanations, and she wanted to run through them with me in private.

“We should get off the main street in case someone’s watching.” Ellie swept her gaze over the shopfronts and wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t like being out in the open when we don’t know what’s going on here.”

Our first task had to be finding a temporary base to keep everyone safe while we searched for the property over the next couple of days. It was already early afternoon. The thought of being out in the elements when the daylight disappeared had unease travelling down my spine. If we were clueless about what was going on here during the day, we had even less of an idea what happened after nightfall.

Tae and Gabe rejoined us after studying the map.

“Find anything?” I asked.

“The town centre’s made up of four main roads where all the businesses are,” Gabe said, “then the smaller, residential streets branch off it until you head up that way…” He pointed west where I’d spotted the hills on the way into town. “It looks like the bigger properties are spread out in that direction.”

“Let’s find a place to set up for the night before we do anything else.” Liv sheathed her sword and turned to Jonah. “I know you were ready to get searching right away, but if we can find a safe house, it just means some of our people can stay behind while we’re out looking.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m good with that.”

“I don’t know if we should be excited or scared.” Willow nibbled on her thumbnail and shared a look with her sister.

Seeing someone else display Dawn’s anxious tic was like a kick to the gut, and I vowed to make sure nothing bad happened to her. “Both,” I said. “You should be both.”