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“You want to drag it out even longer? I thought I was seeing my parents today.”

“Not drag it out,” I said. “More… make decisions when it’s quiet instead of reacting when it’s not.”

“Makes sense.” Luke kicked an abandoned sneaker off the road. “We’re not even halfway to Melbourne. Even if we find another car soon, we’ll be heading into an unknown situation right when it’s about to get dark.”

“If it’s spread that far,” Kirby pointed out, weapon swinging by her side. “We still don’t know that yet.”

We didn’t have the benefit of news reports or the internet to keep up with what was happening. Driving blind into a city with Melbourne’s population was a risk I just couldn’t take. “It’s everywhere we’ve been so far.”

“I wish you’d stop making sense.” Kirby turned around and walked backward for a few steps, her boot scraping across a loose stone. She faced the front and sighed. “If we’re sticking around for the night, I need a change of clothes. Underwear. Deodorant. Know what I mean?”

Luke gave her a sidelong glance. “Easy done.” Then he looked my way. “And you need—”

I lifted my brows, scrambling for something not on Kirby’s list. “What do I need?”

“Tampons?”

Kirby let out a bark of laughter, her eyes shining as they met mine. She instantly sobered and checked over her shoulder again.

“Maybe in a week.” My skin warmed, and I fought to hold his gaze. “But not right now.”

“Right. I wasn’t sure after the farmhouse.”

“I know. That was just a lie for Jeremy’s benefit.” I smiled. “It’s sweet of you to think of it, though.”

“So sweet,” Kirby said, shoving his shoulder. “You’re such a good boyfriend.”

Luke didn’t get the chance to respond.

An incoming engine echoed down the street.

Twelve

luke

Shit. We were too exposed. No alleys on the opposite side of the road this time—just a pharmacy and a bookshop, with a dentist’s surgery farther down.

A few hours ago, I might have welcomed the chance to exchange information with someone new, but after Jeremy, we couldn’t risk it.

I moved onto the footpath with Ava and Kirby, the shop awnings providing a small amount of cover.

A bike had been chained to a rack outside the fish and chip shop, with its front tyre flat. I bypassed it and cupped a hand around my eyes, peering through the dusty glass. The interior was nothing but empty tables and stacked chairs.

Ava tried the door with no luck.

One shop along, Kirby checked the handle at the florist’s shop. “Locked, too.”

I pulled away from the glass and wiped my hand on my jeans. “Whatever happens, we’re not entertaining any bullshit this time around.”

Ava didn’t answer at first. She looked down one end of the street, then the other. “It’s not just one car,” she said, cradling the nail gun. “It’s two coming from opposite directions.”

With my eyes on the footpath, I shut out every other noise and listened. She was right. One had the distinct rumble of a V-8, and a smaller, higher-pitched engine closed in from the opposite end.

Each time cars had passed us on the highway, we’d had open space around us. Places to run. Here, the shopfronts boxed us in on both sides.

“We can’t hide,” she said, “but there’s no reason for them to stop. No one else has so far.”

Kirby rested the head of her axe on the concrete, unnaturally quiet for the first time.