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luke

Ilay on my back, one hand resting across my chest, the other holding Ava’s. She sucked in a breath and stirred before settling again—no doubt solving the world’s problems in her sleep.

Earlier, Varesh and Tim had been murmuring amongst themselves. Now, a light snore came from the other side of the room.

The rain and wind had finally eased, making other sounds more obvious. Clatters and bumps. A woman screaming. At one point, a child’s cry echoed through the estate, and I sighed through my nose.

The infected had multiplied, but from the direction of their moans, they were shuffling away from the crash site. Did that mean there was nothing left here for them?

Ava shifted under the blanket and rolled onto her back, releasing my hand as she searched for a more comfortable position. We couldn’t find comfort with cardboard and piles of thin, scratchy blankets, though. Only warmth.

Her head turned toward me, her features painted with a faint, blue-grey glow. “Are you awake?” she whispered.

“Yep.”

She searched under the blanket for my hand again, stroking my wrist. A few minutes passed, then her thumb went still.

“Is everything all right?” I asked.

Ava rolled half onto her side, her eyes glittering in the darkness. “I think you mean is anything all right?”

Someone rolled over and mumbled on the other side of the room. “I’m talking about you,” I said, keeping my voice to a murmur. “You’re awake when you should be asleep.”

A humourless smile tugged at her lips. “So are you.”

I reached over and pushed her hair back from her cheek. “I’m thinking about tomorrow and how we’re getting out of here with our car gridlocked. What about you?”

“I’m worried about Tim,” she said quietly.

“His shoulder?”

He’d been flipping from his back onto his good side all night, and no position seemed to keep him comfortable for long. At one point, he’d thrown back the blankets. Now, he was wrapped up in them again as if he couldn’t get warm enough.

“If hospitals were running, we could have had his injury looked at,” she said. “That fence was covered in dirt and rust.”

A cough came from the other side of the room. I lifted my head and checked on him again. Tim was facing the window with Varesh asleep behind him, one arm draped over his waist.

“We’ll take another look at it in the morning.” There were countless vehicles we could search for medication. The offices in neighbouring properties, too. We’d find something.

Ava nodded, her eyes directed past my shoulder before they found mine again. “And we need to find a working car somehow amongst all this mess.”

“That, too.”

She sighed. “We’d better get some sleep.”

When another cough travelled across the room, I had a feeling sleep might not be so easy to come by.

As soon as weak sunlight touched my face, I pushed the blankets off and stood, arching my back. I hadn’t expected to get much rest after the midnight whispers with Ava, but I’d drifted off eventually.

If Tim had coughed more in the early hours of the morning, I was too out of it to notice.

I left Ava half-asleep under the blankets and crossed the room to check on him like I’d told her I would.

Tim rolled onto his back before I reached him and stared at the ceiling, blowing out a breath.

My stomach dropped. I stopped and stared, unsure of what to say.

He looked like shit. His skin had lost most of its colour overnight and sweat dotted his forehead despite the cold. His lips were dry and cracked, and his eyes had turned glassy. Even wrapped in blankets, he looked to be shivering.