"What do we do now?"
Zarah stood beside Danny, shielding her eyes and squinting towards Sydney, its southern outskirts hazy on the horizon.
Once they were sure the ground had stopped tearing itself apart, they'd gotten out of the car to assess the damage. The car, thankfully, was okay, its trip through the paddock fence doing nothing more than scratching the bonnet. But the earthquake had decimated what remained of the road, and any path along it would bring them dangerously close to the newly formed crater.
Zarah made sure to give it a wide berth, keeping it in the corner of her vision least it start ripping open again, but Danny wasn't bothered. He stood at its edge, peering down into the depths and biting his lip.
"We have to keep going in the car," he said, kicking a stray pebble into the crevasse and turning back to Zarah. "It'll probably take us another day or two if we walk from here. We'll get as close to the city as we can, and then we'll reassess."
Zarah glanced back at the 4-wheel drive. The Brentons were still locked in the boot and Cassandra was watching them like a hawk, her expression equal parts terror and terrifying.
"I don't think Cassandra can walk," Zarah murmured, knowing Cass wouldn't like it voiced loudly enough for the Brentons to hear.
"I know," Danny said, frowning. "We might have to leave her."
He didn't sound happy about it. Leaving anyone behind was risky with the danger the Brentons posed. Either they left Cassandra out-numbered or brought the Brentons with them, where, if Zarah took her fighting experience into account, they were still outnumbered.
"What if we..."
Her words trailed off when Danny straighten beside her though, suddenly alert. His eyes had narrowed on the direction they'd come from and Zarah followed his gaze.
The day was hot, the horizon wavering, but the sun was reflecting off something metallic, flashing in and out of sight between sparse gumtrees and shrubs as it came towards them.
"Get down," Danny said, and he grabbed her arm and pulled her behind the car with him.
Cassandra and the two Brenton's were still in the vehicle and he hissed at them to stay out of sight as the object drew closer.
Zarah could hear the roar of an engine now, and she peaked around the bonnet.
It was a motorbike, zooming down the highway at a speed that made Zarah's stomach clench considering how unpredictable the roads had become. The rider's helmet reflected the sun in flares and flashes as they weaved between the potholes, moving much faster than their car had.
A couple minutes later the motorbike was level with them, the rider not sparing them a glance, their car probably looking as abandoned and immovable as all the others they'd passed. Zarah saw a flash of blonde hair from beneath the helmet, heard a rev of the engine, and then bike veered off to the other side of the crater, disappearing behind its lip.
Zarah stood, looking after the bike with a growing sense of disquiet.
"Did you see who that was?" she asked, turning to face Danny.
"No," he said. "They had a helmet on."
"It was Arelie," Zarah said, her voice grim. "I saw her hair. I'm positive it was her."
Danny's lips pursed, following where Zarah's thoughts had already landed.
"She's still trying to find Leah."
Zarah nodded and Danny looked after the bike once more, weighing up their options.
"Get in the car," he said. "We have to go."
...
It took another few hours, but Leah eventually convinced Jared that they should try closing the portal again. He didn't want to. Or, more specifically, he didn't want her to.
He was perfectly happy sacrificing himself. The longer they went without any sign of Alice, the more willing he became. But he wasn't the one who had to do this. Leah was. Or, at least, she was part of the equation.
The worlds needed balance. That was what Brenton had said. So maybe it went wrong because Leah wasn't balanced anymore. She was no longer connected to the live world. Whatever particles made her up these days, it wasn't anything from there. But Jared was. And he'd lost his portal too.
Maybe if they both tried to pull it into them, maybe if they managed to split the portal between them, it'd work.
The theory was half-baked and risky, but they were running out of time, and Jared had accepted it begrudgingly. Mostly, Leah thought, because it meant he took the risk alongside her.
They waited until the sun was high, burning bright enough that all the creatures from the in between had retreated to the house, cringing from the light, and then they left the apartment. They crept down the stairs and onto the street, both on high alert.
Leah's leg still twanged with every step, her calf muscles not fully knitted back together, but they couldn't waste any more time.
Even while they'd been planning, the world had rumbled around them, Leah's ears popping as portals opened nearby, devouring houses and roads and people before disappearing again.
They didn't have any time left. If it didn't work this time, it wasn't going to work at all. The world would come to an end and all of them with it.
They reached the house quickly, undeterred. But as they stood outside, Leah could see the curtains rustling, the inside teeming with animals that'd tear them limb from limb the moment they entered.
"So what now?" Jared asked.
Leah glanced at him and found his eyes narrowed on the house, his lip stuck out in a subtle pout. She tried not to roll her eyes. He was sulking, still unhappy enough with this plan that she knew he'd be no help in forming it.
Leah glanced at the house again, considering.
"I'm not sure," she said. "Let me think."
She turned away, scanning the street. What they really needed was sunlight on the portal, for the house to be knocked down or cracked open and the creatures inside sent scrambling. But unless another portal opened right beside it, she didn't know how to achieve that.
A flicker of movement off to the right made Leah freeze. More patrols. More creatures returning to their base. For a second, she didn't know what to do. They were standing in the middle of the road. If they moved, the creatures would know they were there, but if they stayed still, they might run straight into them anyway.
The movement morphed into a figure, emerging from the shadows across the street and hurrying towards them. But it wasn't swollen and elongated, or loping with that strange, lurching gait. Leah recognised the soft, auburn waves instantly, and relief burst through her system.
"Alice!" she breathed.
Jared had frozen with Leah, instinct stilling him even as he faced the house, but at her voice, he spun around, his eyes flying to follow hers. But Leah was already off, hurrying across the road and pulling her adopted mother into a crushing hug.
Jared was beside them in an instant, touching Alice's arm gently, as if trying to reassure himself that she was really there, and Leah pulled back, scanning Alice and checking for injuries.
She looked exhausted, but other than that, intact.
"Are you okay?" Leah asked, keeping her voice to a murmur, not wanting to attract anymore attention. "Did any of them get you?"
"I'm fine," Alice said. "I was sitting in the car when some of those things came out of the house. I remembered what you said about how they follow noise, so I turned the engine on and used the cover to run. I saw you two come out, but those creatures were everywhere and I couldn't figure out where you'd gone."
Jared squeezed Alice's arm again and Leah could see the relief painted all over his face.
"You did the right thing," he said.
Leah was about to agree, her mouth already opening to express her relief, when there was a rumble of an engine. The three of them turned. A motorbike was racing up the street, the driver clad in black and heading straight for them.
...
Next chapter out in two weeks!
- Skylar xx