It was morning.
He’d slept right through.
He was supposed to wake after a couple of hours to take watch. He knew he’d drank far too much of that shitty gin. Shit…
He turned over, expecting to see Iqrah and Bruno by his side, when his stomach sank.
Iqrah was nowhere to be seen.
And neither was Bruno.
He scrambled to his feet. Head felt a little dizzy. Shit. He’d really fucked it now. Dozed off, left Kirsty awake. Maybe he was wrong to trust her. Maybe she was just getting him drunk and had plans of her own; plans to take Iqrah away.
Maybe she’d spiked him. Maybe that was all part of her plan.
Maybe those weird feelings he’d felt for her last night were all just a game after all.
“Iqrah?” he called. He walked down the aisle of the gas station. The shelves they’d put in place of the doors had been moved aside. Outside, he could see sunlight, bright and warm against the glass. A scorching day. Felt roasting in here. Sweaty and grubby, which was always pretty much a certainty anyway in these times, but particularly so right now.
He walked to the front of the gas station and stopped.
Silence outside.
Nothing but a gentle breeze. A smell of warmth to the air. Birds singing.
“Iqrah?” he called.
His voice echoed around the street. Panic intensified. Not just for Iqrah, but for Bruno, too. That fear. That raging fear deep within of being abandoned, of being left alone again, right as he’d started to trust, right as he’d started to believe.
He walked out onto the warm tarmac, somewhat sheltered here by the covering over the station. A smell of stale gas filled the air. A couple of rusty cars sat in the bay, abandoned. He didn’t want to look inside. Didn’t want to see any reminders of the great event all those years ago. Skeletons and bones were just commonplace now, a part of the scenery. But seeing the bones of a young child and remembering how rapidly life had gone from ordinary to extra-ordinary was still unsettling.
The day that became commonplace was the day you lost your humanity. No matter what you’d done.
He ran to the edge of the petrol station. Looked up and down the street. Saw heat rising off the surface of the road. Judging by the position of the sun, it was late morning. Fuck. How’d he slept right through? Definitely spiked. Something was definitely wrong.
He looked either side. Tried to look for a trace of Iqrah, Kirsty, Bruno. Just any sign at all they were around, any sign of which direction they might’ve headed in.
But then even more dread set in. Because he didn’t know how long they’d been gone. He had no idea when they’d set off. Could’ve been right after he’d passed out last night.
Sickness punched him in the gut.
His body shook.
He put his hand around his mouth. “Iqr—”
“You want to stop shouting like that, jeez. You’re gonna attract attention.”
Noah spun around.
Kirsty stood there.
Iqrah by her side.
Bruno running over to him, jumping up at him, wagging his tail.
“What the fuck?” Noah said. “Where’ve you been?”
Kirsty’s eyes narrowed. “Um, we went for a little walk to see if we could find any supplies. Grabbed you a cereal bar. Dusty, and at least seven years out of date. But it’ll do.”
“Seriously? You—you walk away like that? Leave me in there to think something’s happened to you?”
“Jesus, Noah,” Kirsty said. “Chill. We’ve only been round the block. And besides. We’ve got some good news, right Iqrah?”
Noah had barely even registered Iqrah in his angered state, which he instantly felt bad about.
Looking at her, he noticed two things right away.
First, she was up and walking, and she looked a hell of a lot healthier than she did last night. More vibrancy to her. More colour to her cheeks.
And there were her eyes, too.
Looking right at him.
A smile on her face.
“I can see again,” she said.
Noah sighed. It was more a breath of relief than anything. “Iqrah, that’s… that’s great.”
“I woke up, and I could see just fine. I don’t… I don’t know what happened. But it must’ve been the way we came together back at Blackpool. I still feel… weird. But I can see. So it’s getting better. We both have to be getting better. Right?”
Noah rubbed his hand through his hair. Truth be told, he was still reeling from the shock of thinking he’d lost these people to really concentrate on what Iqrah was saying.
But she had her sight back. That was something. That was a goddamned relief.
“Sorry,” he said. “I just…”
“It’s okay,” Kirsty said, thumping his arm. “Anyway. Get a cereal bar down you. You look like shit.”
Noah took the cereal bar from her, had a couple of bites of it. She was right—it was definitely off, but it was something. No knowing when the next time you were gonna eat was, so had to take small victories wherever they came.
“Me and Iqrah found something else on our travels,” she said.
Noah tried to keep it cool. Didn’t want them to think they were totally off the hook for scaring the fuck out of him just yet. “Oh yeah?”
Kirsty pulled out a large road atlas. “Bit browned. Bit curled at the pages. Some pages missing completely. But at least we have a proper route towards Morecambe to figure out right now.”
Noah looked at the map, right where Kirsty was pointing.
“So we’re a lot further from Morecambe than we were before. But at least now, we know where we’re at. I dunno how long it’s gonna take to get there exactly, but I reckon a few days.”
“I don’t know if we have a few days.”
“Then unless you’ve got a way of getting us there super speedy, it’s something you’re just gonna have to take. Something we’re gonna have to work with.”
Noah nodded. Didn’t like admitting defeat, but what else could he do right now?
“Look,” Kirsty said. “It’s a beautiful morning. We’re all still breathing. Iqrah’s got her sight back.
