Their hands were still wrapped together. Clare pulled them closer so that she could kiss Dorran’s. Then she glared up at him, infusing all of the conviction she felt into her words. “No chance in hell.”
The tightness in his expression broke. He blinked at her, shaken.
Clare pushed forward. “I fully intend to make good on that elevator promise, no matter how hastily made it was. You’re stuck with me now, buddy. ‘Til death do us part.”
Laughter rose out of him, rolling through his chest first, shaking his shoulders, and finally spilling into his face. He bent forward to touch his forehead against hers. Clare matched his grin, enjoying his delight.
“Truthfully?” His hand came up to stroke her cheek. “Are you certain you don’t… have any regret?”
“Out of everything I’ve done in the last week, I regret this the least.”
He wrapped his arms around her. She felt him lift her and leaned up to meet his lips. He was still chilled. The darkness hadn’t left his eyes. But, in that moment, he seemed more alive than he had in the past days. Clare kissed him hungrily, fingers tangling in his hair. He hummed happily. When he finally let her down, she was breathless.
Clare realised she still held the ring. She made to put it back on her finger.
“It’s all right.” There was a smile in his voice. “Keep it hidden for the time being. I have enough handicaps to winning over your sister as it is. I do not mind a secret engagement.”
“Sure.” She tucked it back in beside the USB.
Dorran bent in quickly to kiss her again, before finally letting her go.
Clare felt her smile fade as she stared outside their little square of shelter. Beth hadn’t returned.
She needs time to cool off.
Fog swirled around them in little eddies as drizzling rain coursed through it. She could barely see more than ten meters away. It made her skin crawl.
It’s not safe to be alone. Especially not with visibility this low. I shouldn’t have let her leave.
“Clare?” Dorran watched her then glanced into the mist.
She took a step towards the shelter’s edge. “I’m going to look for her. I’ll be back in a moment.”
“I will come too.” He pulled his jacket’s hood up then moved to do the same to Clare’s.
She cast a quick look at his pale skin and shadowed eyes. “You should wait with the bus. I’ll be quick.”
“No. This is a foreign environment, and we don’t know what is out there. I won’t let you go alone.” He lifted his eyebrows. “It is non-negotiable.”
“Hm. Okay.” She tried not to let him see how grateful she was. The mist played tricks on her eyes, building up shapes that vanished within a second. She wanted Dorran to rest, but she also didn’t want to walk into the unknown alone.
Dorran turned off the portable stove and retrieved weapons from the bus’s compartment. He took a metal pipe, while Clare picked up the baseball bat Beth had kept beside her chair. Then, together, they stepped out from the shelter.
The rain wasn’t heavy, but it was persistent. Even with the water-resistant coat, trickles crawled in under her jacket and dripped down her cotton top. Clare shivered.
The mist had grown thicker as early night dropped the temperatures. She thought she could make out a small patch of straggly trees and, farther ahead, clumped boulders. In the low light, they could have been anything.
“Beth?” Clare raised her voice as high as she dared. He word seemed to sink into the fog, swallowed, unanswered.
She checked Dorran was still at her side. He swung the pipe in slow arcs, eyes narrowed as he tried to see through the haze.
Clare thought she could hear sounds. She tilted her head, trying to pinpoint their direction, and stumbled towards them. Her shoes sank deep into the spongy ground as they moved downhill.
She risked calling again. “Beth!” Just like before, the word was snatched away and muffled by the endless white. Clare strained, but the only sound she could make out was a low, rhythmic noise. Like stones being scuffed. Or like a gathering of hollows chattering.
Stress keyed Clare’s nerves tight. The longer she went without a reply, the more afraid she felt.
Beth wouldn’t have gone far, would she?
It had been a mistake to let her leave on her own. Clare forged ahead, anxiety making her move faster than was wise. The noise grew closer. Trees, barely clinging to the slope, had grown lean and spindly from years of harsh winds and poor soil. Several had lost their grip on the hill and lay with their roots exposed.
Then a shape appeared through the fog. A silver ribbon, shimmering. Clare slowed. It took a second to realise what she was looking at.
A river had developed in the valley to carry the unprecedented deluge of water. It was recent enough that straggly, brown grass still lived in the riverbed, being pulled unrelentingly downhill. The water sloshed and jostled over itself, creating the noise that had drawn Clare’s attention. She looked behind them. She still thought she could see a hint of light from their camp, but it was so faint that it was almost invisible.
Clare cupped her hands around her mouth. All pretence at noise moderation vanished as she yelled, “Beth!”
This time, she had a reply. A chattering, jibbering howl rose from the hills. It was answered by a second and then a third hollow.
Chapter Five
“Oh.” Clare took a step back.
Dorran’s hand touched her shoulder. “We need to get back to the bus.”
She shook her head furiously. “Beth’s still out here.”
He hesitated, his lips pulled back from clenched teeth. Then he gave Clare another push. “I’ll search for her. Run for the bus and get inside. Don’t open the door unless you hear our voices.”
“Dorran, no—”
The words broke off as she saw movement behind him. Clare grasped Dorran’s jacket and wrenched him towards herself. A hollow’s jaw snapped through the air where his shoulder had been a second before.
The hollow had four arms: two longer, thinner protrusions growing directly below its original pair. All four of them snatched at Dorran as it rocked past, carried by its momentum.
Dorran swung the pipe past Clare. It made a heavy cracking noise as it hit a hollow Clare hadn’t seen.
She caught spots of white spiralling past her as the hollow’s teeth broke out of its jaw. Then Dorran grasped her arm and swung her around to face the bus. “Run!”
Instead, Clare put her back against his. There were at least two hollows, with more coming; she wouldn’t let him sacrifice himself for her again. Dorran planted his feet, weapon raised, but she could still detect a sway in his stance that belied his exhaustion.
A creature came at her through the mist. Its lopsided head rocked with each step. It opened its mouth, and its jaw was filled with row upon row of teeth. Hundreds of them jammed into its maw in uneven lines.
The shock slowed Clare’s reflexes. She swung a fraction of a second too late. Instead of connecting with the monster’s head, the wooden bat caught in its jaw. The rows of teeth tightened over her weapon, splintering it. Clare tried to pull back. The hollow wrenched its head to the side, and Clare gasped as the bat was dragged out of her grasp. Her palms smarted from where the fractured wood scraped her.