The dead closed in on us, their moans layered over one another, rising in a macabre chorus as they followed the sound of the engine. A couple came around the front while the others closed in on the rear.
I gripped the steering wheel and lifted my foot off the brake.
The only way out of this was straight through.
“Hold on,” I warned.
The bullbar hit the first zombie with a sickening thud, and it crumpled in half before sliding under the chassis. The ute jerked, and Brynn wailed harder, her face blotchy and red.
Sadie braced one hand against the dashboard, the other wrapped around Brynn’s waist like a seatbelt. “It’s okay,” she said, “it’s okay.”
Another thump, another body. For a breath stealing moment, the tyres skidded, fighting for traction over the mess underneath.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Not now.”
A shape lunged at the passenger window before we could move—a man in pyjamas, jaw hanging crookedly, blood smeared across his cheek. Spindly fingers dirtied the glass, and his mouth gaped, revealing red-stained teeth.
Sadie cried out and turned her back to the view, blocking it from Brynn. I pressed harder on the accelerator and broke free of the body under the tyre, swearing when we got moving again.
With a hard swerve, I shook the infected man off without losing momentum. His hand dragged across the window with a wet screech, then he disappeared.
I loosened my grip on the wheel and unclenched my jaw, aiming straight for the exit. We may have been splattered with blood and pushed to our limits, but we’d made it out safely.
“We’re free,” I said, watching the road.
Sadie didn’t answer, too focused on rocking Brynn and murmuring soft words.
A quick check of the side mirror, and I took off down the highway, desperate to put some distance between us and the dead.
Brynn’s cries slowed as Sadie patted her back, and before long, she was hovering in that quiet space between awake and asleep.
“You okay?” I asked.
Sadie nodded without meeting my eyes. “I just want to get to your dad’s farm so we can breathe again.”
“No more stops,” I said. The adrenaline crash had my hands trembling. “Even if she’s crying. We can’t risk it.”
We made quick progress down the highway, avoiding abandoned cars here and there, dodging a few more of the dead as they aimlessly stumbled.
The land opened up wide around us, with endless paddocks and scattered gums stretching as far as the eye could see.
The farther we drove, the less evidence I saw of the pandemic, and I finally felt hopeful.
“Not long now,” I said.
An hour, maybe less.
Then we'd be at Fairmarsh, and everything would change for the better.
Thirty-Five
sadie
The closer we got to the farm, the more Theo’s tension escalated. He alternated between holding the wheel in a death grip and tapping his fingers on his thigh.
I felt every nervous tic, every sigh, in my bones. He didn’t know if his family had survived—or if they were still in this location. Anything could have happened after we lost communication.
I desperately wanted to say something to put his mind at ease, but I was as much in the dark about his family as I was about my own sister.
