Fuck. Maybe we are. It’s a good thing I’ve sworn off men because I have a feeling my dating life went from poor to non-existent.
Pain slices through my chest as I remember the reason. I still can’t believe Gale was about to leave me at the altar after humiliating me in front of everyone. I knew he could be an asshole, but I never expected him to act likethat.
Although maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Now I don’t have to endure the apocalypse with a man who thinks so little of me.
The walk to my small cottage that sits in the middle of the British countryside is agonising and takes several hours. And during those several hours, we see notone living person. There’s plenty of dead onesand even a few… not-so-dead ones that we have to hide from. It quickly becomes apparent that we may be the only survivors left.
By the time we reach the familiar lane that leads to my cottage, I’m sore as hell and hobbling. Lauren isn’t doing much better since heels are not for hiking. At least we’re mostly unharmed, safe and home.
Using his keys—since I don’t have mine—Tobias opens the door and lets us into my small, cosy cottage. The familiarity is enough to settle my nerves even if it’s fucking freezing in here. I go about feeding wood into my AGA oven and the wood burner in the living room to heat the house. Tobias and Lauren meet me in the kitchen after getting both fires going.
“Go grab a shower and some clean clothes, Liv, and then we can plan,” my brother orders as he rummages through my kitchen for tea.
I blink at him. “Plan?”
“Yep. We’re in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. It’s best we start acting like it if we want to survive.” With those lovely words, he ushers me out of the kitchen.
As I follow his orders, I’m left to wonder just how what should have been the happiest day of my life turned into the worst.
Overbearing Brothers
Olivia
Thirteen Months Later…
The frost covered grasscrunches beneath my boots as I sneak down the length of the hedgerow that surrounds my property. Harlow, the Australian Sheppard I rescued nearly ten months ago, trots by my side, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. Every few strides, I pause and glance over my shoulder to confirm I haven’t been spotted yet before continuing on.
I’m supposed to be feeding the horses, not out here, far from the cottage. Tobias has deemed it too dangerous for me, nomatter what I say or how much I practise with my bow. He thinks I’m weak, broken and a liability.
And sure, I’m a little broken; I still wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares and I’m terrified to step foot anywhere near a car. But dammit, the man can’t keep me cocooned in bubble wrap. The world has gone to shit and the only way I’m going to survive is to toughen up.
Especially now, after the harsh December and January we just endured, leaving our food stocks dangerously low.
So today, I’m going to show him I can survive in the outside world. I’m going to patrol the hedge until I find a zombie that’s close by, and then I’m going to kill it. Simple. All I need is to find one first.
I get about halfway down the hedgerow before Harlow growls, alerting me to a potential threat. Edging closer, I smell the zombie before I see it, the stench of rot thick in the air. It’s caught in the hedge, the thin, vine-like branches wrapped around its mangled, decomposing body. It’s so disfigured I can barely make out its face aside from those terrifying eyes that gleam with inhuman hunger.
No matter how many of these things I’ve seen in the year since shit hit the fan, I never get used to the look in their eyes. It’s so alien and predatory that it makes every cell in my body scream at me to run.
The moment it notices me, it struggles harder against the hedge, its moans growing louder and more desperate. I shudder and avert my gaze, instead focusing on drawing an arrow from my quiver and nocking it.
Okay, Ollie. You can do this. It’s just one zombie, no longer human. Just aim, pull back and let the arrow fly,I tell myself as I lift my gaze back to the zombie.
Sucking in a deep breath, I hold up my bow and take aim toward the thing’s head. With steady hands, I draw the string back as far as it’ll go.
“What the hell are you doing, Liv?”
Tobias’s voice jars me, causing me to release the string. The arrow flies wide, completely missing the zombie still struggling in the hedge and landing in the field beyond.
Fuck.
I growl in frustration and glare at my brother over my shoulder. He’s glowering back at me with a thunderous expression, his hands clenched into fists by his side and his jaw tight.
In the past year, my brother has aged significantly, no doubt because of stress and the hard labour required to survive in this harsh new world. Strands of his brown hair are turning silver at his temples and his forehead and corner of his eyes are more wrinkled than they were before. He looks closer to forty than his actual age of thirty-two, almost six years older than me. “What the fuck, Toby? You just made me miss my shot!”
I turn my attention back to the zombie as I draw another arrow from my quiver, intending to retake the shot. Only for Tobias to storm over to me and grab my bow before I can.
“Hey!”
