Dorran’s long fingers felt across the metal, searching for leaks or damage. He was moving slowly, and his eyes seemed distant.
“Are you all right?” Clare asked.
“Yes. Of course.” He shot her a quick smile. Clare knew him too well to think it was genuine.
“You listened to me when I told you to drive,” Clare said.
His glance seemed surprised. “Of course I did. I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t have. It was terrible advice. We got lucky, and that’s the only reason we’re still alive.” The laughter that had threatened her in the tunnel suddenly poured out, gasping and thin. Clare clamped her lips shut to cut it off early.
Dorran bent forward as he searched her face. “I will always trust your advice. It has saved us more often than I can remember. You have good instincts.”
“Next time my instincts tell us to drive towards a living nightmare, feel free to ignore me.”
He laughed, and after a second, Clare joined in. The ache in her chest lessened. Icy wind whistled across them, pulling on their coats and tangling Clare’s hair, as Dorran continued working through the engine.
Then Dorran voiced the question they were both thinking. “What was that?”
“It was a hollow,” Clare said. “It had to be. But… the others all looked at least vaguely human. You could see traces of what they used to be. But that…”
She pictured the malformed torso growing two heads and the six enormous legs that held it suspended in the air.
“The others were afraid of it,” Dorran said. “That was why they wouldn’t follow us into the tunnel.”
“There were bones everywhere. Mostly hollow bones, I think. It was eating them. That’s something other hollows don’t do, either.” Clare shook her head. “I mean, they will, sometimes, if they’re trapped in an enclosed place like a room or a car. In the wild, though, they mostly just ignore each other. But that thing…”
“It almost seemed to be waiting for prey.”
Clare nodded. She could picture it lurking in the dark, suspended on those impossibly long legs as it waited for hollows to enter its domain. The bones had all been picked over a dozen times, the marrow sucked out before the fragments were finally discarded.
In a world that felt miles from rational, Clare hadn’t realised how much she relied on rationality to cope. She knew the hollows’ rules. She knew what they looked like and what they were capable of. Now, they had encountered something that ignored all established principles, and Clare was back to feeling as helpless and vulnerable as she had been on the day she discovered the world had ended.
“This is okay,” Dorran said, shutting the hood as securely as the twisted metal would allow. He took Clare’s hand, infusing some confidence into his voice. “We’ll be fine.”
Chapter Three
Clare took over driving in the afternoon to give Dorran a break. He made an excellent assistant, keeping her cup full and bringing her snacks at regular intervals. They didn’t talk about the spider-like hollow again. Still, it stayed in Clare’s mind, and she guessed it was still in Dorran’s, too.
They held to the most rural roads, which lengthened their trip but kept them away from large towns. Twice, Clare had to backtrack when fallen trees or broken bridges interrupted their route.
The sun dipped towards the horizon. They discussed stopping, but Dorran thought they could safely continue through the night, and Clare agreed. Stopping created its own risks. They paused for a final break before sundown, to stretch their legs and refuel the bus. Then Clare filled thermoses full of coffee while Dorran served dinner, and they prepared to drive through the night.
Vivid colours splashed across the hazy horizon then faded. Stars appeared. They passed a sedan moving in the opposite direction and exchanged a wave with the driver. Clare was glad to see it. After a day with the roads to themselves, the car reminded her that they weren’t alone in the world.
Dorran noticed Clare was tired before she realised it. He rested a hand on her shoulder. “Time to switch over. Do you think you can sleep while I drive?”
“Sure.” She coasted the bus to a halt, its lights splashing across the long, weedy grass that flourished in that region. Dorran took over her seat. He waited until Clare settled into the makeshift bed at the back of the bus, then began moving again, keeping the speed steady and gentle.
Clare lay awake, staring at the boarded-over window beside her bed. The bus’s rocking motions were exhausting, and the motor’s purr lulled her towards sleep. When she turned her head to the left, she could see Dorran, the edges of his features pulled out of the blackness by the glow from the dashboard. The light almost seemed to be flickering over him as though it came from a fire. He must have felt her eyes, because he turned his head slightly to look at her.
“Go back to sleep, Clare.” A languid smile spread across his face.
She loved seeing him smile; she would never get enough of it. Clare smiled back, then the muscles in her face seized up. Something loomed out of the darkness ahead of them. Enormous legs, long and narrow like needles, punctured the road. The headlights washed over the grey skin stretched over brittle bones. Dorran hadn’t seen. He was still looking back at Clare, smiling at her.
Clare tried to yell. The word became trapped in her throat. Dorran didn’t stop smiling. There was no time to brake, no time to brace herself, no time to even breathe. The bus hit the creature’s limbs. Clare’s vision blurred as the impact wrenched her from the bed. Metal screamed as it twisted around her. She was tumbling, falling, unable to tell where she was or which direction was up. Then, suddenly, she came to a halt.
She didn’t feel any pain. It would come eventually, she knew, but her mind was mercifully clear at that moment. She opened her eyes. The bus was upside down, the rows of seats suspended from the ceiling. Flames crackled where fuel had spilt across the metal. The bus’s structure, which had seemed so solid before, was nothing but a contorted wreck. She couldn’t see the driver’s seat. Couldn’t see Dorran.
Clare pulled herself towards the bus’s front. Her legs didn’t want to move. She used her hands instead, resting her weight on her forearms to drag herself among the twisted metal and spot fires. Tears ran down her face. She had to be in pain, but she couldn’t feel it. She could only focus on the dark console at the bus’s front. It had collapsed in. The driver’s seat had come free from two of the bolts holding it to the floor and swung loosely.
Then she heard Dorran’s voice. It was full of fear and pain. “Clare… Clare…”
“Where are you?” She dragged herself closer, not noticing or caring as her chest scraped over loose bolts. Every limb shook. Smoke was filling the space, obscuring her vision and sticking in her throat.
“Clare…”
Then she saw him, lying behind the space where the driver’s seat had been. He was on his side, blood running across his forehead and dripping past wide, terrified eyes. His mouth opened, but it was the only part of him that moved.
“Clare…!”
Something dark rose behind him. Beth’s lips pulled back from her teeth, a tangle of gore and blood.
“Clare!”