After repeatedly stopping to check out abandoned vehicles at the roadside, I parked in front of a row of attached, single-storey houses to take a break and continue the mission on foot.
We climbed out and hoisted our backpacks on. Liv unsheathed her sword while I removed my hatchet.
"There." She immediately pointed to a laneway running alongside the end property, leading to an alley at the back where the garages would be located.
I scanned the street in both directions before we took off into a confined area with limited escape options. There were no humans or corpses in the area, so we wandered down the gravel lane, dodging potholes as the sun heated our faces and the breeze swished Liv's ponytail. She seemed to be doing okay after our rough start that morning, and I hoped the rest of her first day away from home would be uneventful.
“I don’t know how much luck we'll have in this area,” she said, looking my way. “A lot of people around here were like me and didn’t own cars. We took public transport everywhere because it was easier than dealing with traffic and finding somewhere to park.”
Even if that turned out to be the case, at least we could search for food. My stomach had started growling again a couple of hours ago, and the way I felt now I could obliterate pretty much anything. We turned the corner and approached the nearest house. I tugged the handle on a dust-covered roller door, but it wouldn’t budge. We’d need to go inside to look for the keys.
Liv sighed as she stared down the alley and back at me. “Do you ever feel like this is pointless?”
I watched her carefully, wondering if she was on the verge of a breakdown, but her tone seemed more curious than defeated. “Every day. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes a minute, but so far it’s been every day.”
She gave me an amused look. “So, it’s not just me then?”
“No. This world’s so messed up it takes work to stay positive, and it’d be a hell of a lot easier if we had food in our stomachs, so let's get our break-and-enter on.”
Liv didn’t move. She just stood there looking at me with her mouth quirking at the edges. She could be sweet one minute, funny the next. Sexy. Smart. I never knew what to expect from her, and as much as I enjoyed having her attention on me, her mood confused me. "What?" I asked, feeling the sudden urge to smile.
“I’m just happy you turned out to be exactly the kind of man I hoped you were. I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone but you.”
Something strange happened in my chest then. A thud, a thwack of emotion that threw me off balance. Every time I looked at her, the attraction hit me like a physical force, but her eyes, her words, they didthings to me."Querida.”
She lifted her hand to block out the sun and tilted her head to one side. “I've heard you call me that before. What does it mean?”
“It means I like you.” I turned and walked up the path beside the garage. Better to end the moment now before I did something stupid like make a move on her.
“How much?” she asked from behind me.
I smiled, surprised we could talk about this without any awkwardness. When it came to Liv, nothing felt forced or unnatural, and it floored me that it could be this easy with someone new. “No comment.” I gripped my hatchet and tried the door handle. When I found it unlocked, I switched from flirt mode to focused in the blink of an eye. “Ready?”
“Always.”
I pushed the door and met resistance from the other side.
“What is it?” Liv rested her palm on my shoulder and leaned in closer.
I ignored the warmth of her hand and peered around the door, locating a lifeless body splayed face down on the kitchen tiles; a middle-aged man who looked to have only been dead a week or so. "It's a body, the non-moving kind." The stench of decaying flesh seeped through the crack, the smell so strong I considered shutting the door and moving on to the next house—but the dead man had me thinking we might find what we were looking for here. If he'd stayed the course throughout the pandemic, his car should technically still be in the garage. If he owned one.
I pressed my shoulder against the door and gave it a slow, steady shove. His bulky weight shifted across the floor, leaving a thick, rust-coloured trail behind it. When I stepped into the kitchen, the smell nearly overpowered me, and I blocked as much as I could with my forearm while I bent over the body to check for bite marks. It looked like he'd been sitting on the floor with his back resting against the door, and then fallen forward when he died.
Liv followed me inside and closed the door behind her, flicking the lock as a precaution. She kept watch while I pulled down the collar of the man’s shirt and inspected his neck and shoulders. Finding nothing there, I slid up his sleeve and located a bandage on his left forearm. Blood had flooded the surface in the shape of a circle, brown and hard now. The amount of bleeding he'd done on the floor didn't match the severity of the wound, but I had a feeling if I flipped him over, I'd find a knife and a self-inflicted injury somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach.
“Bitten,” I said, shooting her a glance. "Looks like he might have opted out to avoid turning."
She nodded in understanding, her eyes troubled. A reminder of Haruto, only differing circumstances.
He must have been caring for others who were bitten and ended up being the last one standing.
At least we knew to be ready for corpses.
"We'll clear the place first then search for food and keys." I switched from hatchet to knife, and Liv performed the same swap with her sword. We shared a brief look, then went to work clearing each of the rooms. Lounge, master bedroom, bathroom, laundry. The smell followed us everywhere we went, growing so pungent I could almost taste it as we headed down the hall.
All the doors were closed in this part of the house. It was dark as hell and hard to make out anything other than vague shapes. “We need some light,” I said, approaching what had to be a bedroom. I opened the door and my arrival stirred the lone occupant in the darkened room. When I heard the shuffling, I knew I was dealing with a slow-moving corpse.
“I’ll leave you with that one.” Liv moved on to the next room.
