Cruz steered the car to dodge each obstacle and kept his attention on the road. There were no indicators that any of the gang members were up and about yet, and I couldn't see any non-gang humans out on their own. If we were lucky, it would stay that way until we'd made it out of the city centre.
“Watch out,” I said, pointing to a tyre in our path.
Cruz gave it a wide berth, then swerved to avoid the body of one of the infected that lay in the middle of the road. I breathed a sigh and gripped the armrest. It wasn't just the obstacles that kept me on edge, but the pressure of knowing it could all fall apart at any second if the gang or a herd of the dead got in our way. My stomach was in knots, my breaths shallow. I strained my eyes to spot any potential dangers in the dark.
A group of the dead stumbled in front of the car several metres away, and Cruz locked onto them at the same time I did. Just as he eased off the accelerator and prepared to take a left onto a side street to avoid them, another one of the infected emerged from the shadows and stepped straight off the curb without warning. “Shit.” He swerved to avoid hitting it, and the rear tyre rolled over something hard that jolted the back end.
I held my breath and waited, hoping it wouldn’t be sharp enough to cause a puncture. If it did, we'd be stuck out in the open until we could take care of it—assuming there was an undamaged spare in the boot.
Cruz pulled up and shoved the car into Park. “I need to check it out. Can you keep watch and let me know if anything gets close?”
There were numerous dead roaming the streets, and with only the beginnings of a sunrise to work with, one or more of them could easily get the better of us if we weren't careful. "I'll take care of it."
I climbed out and pulled the tanto from my belt—a reminder of Haruto that I could take everywhere with me. While Cruz approached the rear tyre, I strode over to the infected man who’d caused the problem and used a two-handed grip to swing my sword at his head. His withered body dropped to the bitumen with a thud, and I performed a visual sweep to make sure there were no others close by.
My heart thudded fast, but I was focused.
The group we’d seen farther down the street picked up on the noise we were generating, and six of them turned in our direction. Taking on several at once required fast reflexes and all my concentration—in full daylight with every sense intact. This would be more of a challenge, but I'd left home determined to give it everything I had.
“We’ve got a flat,” Cruz said, keeping his voice low.
“Do you know if there’s a spare?” I asked without looking his way.
“Should be, but I need to move everything out of the boot to get to it.”
Some of our supplies were on the back seat, but we’d packed the bulk of them in the boot. The repair job would take longer than I'd hoped. “I’ve never changed a tyre before. I’ll keep doing this while you sort that out.”
I walked a few steps away from him and heard the smile in his voice as he said, “You mean there’s something youcan’tdo?”
With a breathy laugh, I kept my eyes sweeping from left to right as I approached the group coming our way. Each step closer had my stomach clenching in preparation, and the familiar tremble in my legs made itself known. I could do this—I'd done it many times before—it just required accuracy and speed. No time to second guess.
The first contender was a woman with matted grey hair and one missing eye. As she reached for me, I jammed my sword through her other eye and yanked it free. She dropped to the ground just as two decaying men came at me from both sides. I used all my might to swing my sword hard enough to slice off the tops of both their heads with a single sweep. Two thuds followed and sweat began to build as I locked eyes on my next target. She was still several steps away, so I chanced a look over my shoulder at Cruz.
He’d already pulled out every box and bag from the boot and located the spare tyre. From a glance, it appeared as if he was happy with the condition of it, so he grabbed the jack and went to work. Since he had it all under control, I returned my attention to the infected woman and dropped her with a swift slice of my sword.
It had been easy so far, but whenever I was stuck in the middle of a situation like this, I reminded myself not to become complacent. During our brief time on the road, we'd already discovered that it didn’t take much to throw us off course. One wrong move at any time could mean the end.
Three more of the dead were in the immediate vicinity, and I’d already taken down one of them when the sound of car engines registered in the distance. I’d only heard vehicles on the road a handful of times this early in the day, and the noise had my heart pounding. Without turning around to check on him, I called out to Cruz, “You hear that?”
“Yeah. Get back here. Fast.”
I dropped the remaining two infected, and my pulse beat out of control as I ran in Cruz's direction. He gestured toward an office building with its main doors smashed, and I headed straight for the entry while he grabbed our two backpacks from the rear seat. I’d stored our seeds, toiletries, powdered milk, and a gas fire lighter in those packs, along with the jumper cables and a change of clothes for both of us. They were our go bags in case we were separated from the rest of our belongings.
The car was still up on the jack, the rest of our supplies stashed on the side that faced away from the road. The thought of leaving it all out in the open like that pained me, but with the vehicles likely to be heading our way, we were going to be outnumbered if they were crammed with men who wanted to start trouble. Best-case scenario, they cruised past in the dark without noticing, and we could pick up where we'd left off once they were gone.
Worst case... I didn’t want to think about that.
Two sets of headlights shined on our location from a distance, pinning us like a spotlight.
They’d found us.
I gasped as I ran.
Our movements were too quick for them to mistake us for the infected. If they'd seen us, they knew we were human—and if they knew we were human, they were coming for us.
Cruz locked the car with the fob, and I took my pack from him as we ran into an expansive foyer. We crossed a polished marble floor, and when I pointed at the reception desk against the far wall as a potential hiding place, he shook his head. "Too obvious."
We pulled our backpacks on and scanned the area. "Maybe an office?" I suggested, and the two of us took off through a nearby doorway and landed in a long corridor. The lack of light made it difficult to see more than a few metres in front of me, but it looked like there were several doors on each side, most likely offices that were locked. It didn't matter. The cars hadn't arrived yet, so we still had time to find a better hiding spot.
