I need to move.
I need to pick a course and go with it.
I can’t stay out here in the open any longer than I already have.
The faint ribbons of light sputter through the gaps between the cars, all piled and stacked and interconnected across the road.
I creep through the labyrinth.
This was one hell of a crash.
And I learn that not everyone made it out.
I see the evidence of that in the cars that I squeeze by.
Blood on upholstery, mostly decomposed bodies draped over steering wheels and hanging out of windows.
The baby stuff churns my gut. The blankets, the toys, the car seats.
Then the dog harness dangling over a seat—
I throw my gaze away.
Face twisting, I battle against my own intrusive thoughts—of how the fuck this happened. The cars wouldn’t have been working by the time the dark fae marched over the land.
So this crash… it happened before the blackout stole all technology and machinery from us.
This chaos must’ve gone down in the initial panic, when the news of the blackout spread.
That means people did this.
I can almost hear Bee speaking back to me, ‘Fear, Tess. Fear did this. Not people.’
I don’t see the difference.
If Samick was with me now, he would pause and throw a look down at me—he would sense the bitterness eating away at me. He would study me.
But he isn’t here.
I’m on my own again.
For the time in months, it’s only my bootsteps pressing into the loose gravel of the road.
Actually, for the first time since the blackout hit. I haven’t been alone through any of this, not really—not beyond sneaking off to pee or sitting on watch.
I’m feeling the weight of that realisation.
I stop glancing through the car windows. I keep my stare focused on my boots creeping through the faint wisps of light. And I steel myself against the bubbling fear.
I need to get through this pile up, but the longer I walk through the maze of cars, and scoot over the bonnets, the more cars I realise are blocking my path.
It’s like a crash of a hundred cars—but suddenly starting at the edge of the buildings still standing, like back on the road where the fight started, there were once cars locked together and crushed, but the flames of other units burned them all away.
That means this place is on borrowed time.
I shouldn’t hide.
I should pass through the streets and roads until I’m free from it all, and I should walk the lonely road.
