Who We Were | Book One

16. Not The Army

A black Land Rover sat beside the pavement, looking like it had seen better days. Underneath the bloodstains and mud that caked the bonnet was a white spray-painted logo of a rising sun. Zach noticed Josh's questioning look as we approached.

"Sorry about the state of it..." Zach apologised, gesturing to the large dent in the left side. "We ran into a bit of trouble a few days ago." I didn't dare to question what level of trouble involves that much damage.

"Jump in the back," Liz said, pointing to the rear of the car as she moved into the driver's seat. I opened the back door and slid across the seats as Josh followed after me, pulling the door shut behind him.

I began to feel uneasy as the car rumbled to a start but I tried to put it to the back of my mind.

"How long have you been travelling anyways?" Liz asked into the rear-view mirror as we sped along the road.

"Long enough," Josh replied bluntly, staring back at her.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife and I couldn't let him put us on bad terms before we'd got anywhere close to Cornwall.

"Just a couple of days," I clarified. He looked over to me, unimpressed. I raised my eyebrows in his direction, be nice. "Who runs the base in Cornwall?" I asked, turning back to the front.

Liz and Zach both glanced in each other's direction, but it was Zach who spoke. "Liz here keeps us on our toes, and alive more importantly."

She chuckled modestly at the compliment.

"Not the army?" Josh interrupted before I could speak.

"Army? God no," Zach laughed as Liz swerved to avoid cars in the middle of the road. "Nobody's heard from the army in months."

"No army?" I repeated, furrowing my brows as I remembered my parent's letter. "So, there are no safe zones?"

"Not around here, I'm afraid," Liz replied. "Or anywhere for that matter."

"How many people are at the base then?" I questioned, still trying to process everything that was being said.

Zach kept his eyes on the road ahead. "We're growing every day, seems like more and more people are heading our way. I think the word's getting around."

Liz interjected as she glanced briefly in the rear-view mirror. "That's because we're the only place that has been able to hold up through all this," she sniggered.

"The only place?" Josh asked.

Liz's expression faltered. "From what we're aware of, yes," she said, her eyes narrowing towards him. "Why? Have you heard of anywhere else?"

Josh shook his head. "No... no. I just... thought there would be more groups around."

"Whatever this thing is has hit everywhere harder than anyone could have anticipated," Zach chimed in. "We're all lucky to have survived this long."

I rolled my eyes to myself at the comment I'd heard so many times from the radio. It was a broken record all over again.

The sun had begun to set, sending the sky a muted shade of grey as we pulled into a driveway of a semi-detached house. The neighbourhood looked as if it was once rural and quiet, a place new parents would have moved to raise their kids. The bricks were discoloured, and a wooden plank had been nailed across the letterbox.

"It's not much," Liz explained as she clicked off the engine and hopped out. "But it's secure."

"Well, come on then," Zach said, looking to us in the backseat before he slammed the passenger door shut.