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Somewhere behind us, muffled laughter came from inside a car.

My boots thudded across the wet bitumen as I sidestepped another pothole. A fine drizzle fell, too light to call rain, dampening my hair and shoulders.

I scanned the vehicles up ahead, then something snagged my attention. “There.”

“The silver car?” Ava asked.

Its rear end sat halfway across our lane, twisted at an angle no car would have stopped on purpose. Whatever it had hit was still out of sight.

Tim moved up beside me, his shoulder brushing mine. “Seriously?” He squinted. “That’s why we’re just waiting around?”

“Looks like it.”

Varesh stepped up on Ava’s other side, studying the blocked road. “If that’s all it is, we should be able to move it.”

“If all the tyres are working,” she said.

“At least we know what we’re dealing with now.” The knot between my shoulders loosened a bit, my backpack bumping against my spine as I lengthened my stride.

A crash—one or two wrecked cars. If we could get enough people to help, we might be out of here in half an hour.

As we reached the remaining vehicles, a baby cried somewhere behind tinted glass, and a Rottweiler launched itself at the back window of a car, its deep bark causing Ava to flinch and unconsciously move closer to me.

“Don’t you think this is weird?” she said.

“What?” Tim asked.

“Look around. No one’s outside now.”

I slowed. No one was asking questions anymore, either.

“That’s… strange,” Varesh said.

Every vehicle held occupants who were turned away from their windows or looking down at their laps. They were frozen, not making a sound, as if the pause button had been pushed—exactly the way we’d been taught to behave when we encountered a venomous snake.

My grip tightened around the pickaxe handle as we passed the last few cars.

“What’s going on?” Ava whispered.

“I don’t know.”

No one was impatient or curious anymore. They were frightened.

But of what?

Twenty-Seven

ava

“Oh.” I kept tight hold of my axe and blinked away the drizzle on my lashes.

The silver sedan came fully into view, its front bumper smashed against the rear door of a red Mazda. Both lanes were blocked, but it didn’t look like anyone had been sitting in the back of the red car, thank God.

Tim sighed and slid me a glance.

Varesh surveyed the scene, mouth pinched.

No one in either car attempted to climb out, and it only took a second to understand why.