“Charming.”
“Look on the bright side here and there, Noah. Plenty to smile about today. Right, Bruno?”
Bruno sat. Wagged his tail. Barked excitedly at Noah.
Noah shook his head. “Bright side bullshit.”
Kirsty patted him on the back. “That’s the spirit. Now come on. You’ve slept the morning away already. We don’t have all day. You ready?”
Noah looked at the gas station.
Then at the heat rising off the road ahead, last night’s threat of a storm hiding in the distant past.
“I guess I am,” he said.
“Good,” Kirsty said. “But you’d better pick your pace up today. Can’t have you slowing us down again, right, Iqrah?”
Iqrah nodded. “He’s so slow, right?”
“You cheeky…”
They laughed. And Noah found himself laughing, too.
“Right,” he said. “Come on. Less talking, more walking.”
“You should trademark that one,” Kirsty said.
They walked together, and again Noah found something deep inside. Something unexpected.
Noah found himself warming to Kirsty.
As dangerous as it was.
As lethal as it was.
Thirty minutes later, Colin reached the petrol station, saw the doggy footprints and the discarded cereal bar wrapper, and smiled.
“We’re close,” he said.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Noah should’ve known the sense of optimism running through him would only last so long.
It was early afternoon. They’d been walking all morning. Blinding sun, burning heat. He felt groggy as fuck. Could really do with a shower. But then couldn’t everybody?
They’d waded away from the seafront and into the suburbs. Terraced houses stared down at them as they walked through these abandoned, derelict streets. So much broken glass lined the pavements. Tall grass swamped the gardens as the man-made gave way to nature. Every now and then, Noah swore he saw movement in these houses, behind the torn, moth-ridden curtains, but he knew it was probably all just in his head.
He listened to the footsteps against the hot tarmac. Him. Kirsty. Iqrah. Bruno. Bruno panted away a little too, clearly overwhelmed by the heat. It did seem to have come out of nowhere. Usually, you could prepare yourself for a heatwave like this. You saw signs with the weather; noticed patterns.
But this was excruciatingly bad, right after they’d been on the brink of a storm last night, too.
And there was a sense of positivity in the air that made Noah slightly concerned, too.
Made even more ominous by how unarmed they were. The sedative rifles were spent. All they had were knives. He felt targeted. Defenceless. Exposed.
He looked around at Kirsty. She glanced away immediately. Noah flushed. Fucking hell. He felt like a kid again. All these little glances, all this blushing. Why couldn’t he just face up to what he wanted? Accept reality? There was an attraction there between them. No point beating around the bush.
But fuck it. Now wasn’t the time or the place to be catching any kind of feelings for somebody. He didn’t really feel like it would ever be the time or the place to be catching feelings for anybody anymore.
Focus on the road ahead.
That was the goal.
“How far we got?” Noah asked.
Iqrah lifted her head from the large road atlas. She seemed to be enjoying the fact she could actually see again, so was definitely making the most of that talent right now. “We’re nearly at Southport.”
“Which means we’ll be heading by wonderful Blackpool again pretty soon,” Noah said. “Just our luck.”
“Why do you have such a downer on Blackpool?” Kirsty asked.
“Seriously? You have to ask that question?”
Kirsty puffed out her lips. “Is he always this grumpy?”
Iqrah smirked. “Pretty much.”
“Seriously,” Noah said. “I’m not having you two ganging up on me all the time. If this is how it’s gonna be, then you’re gonna have to learn to play nicely.”
The pair of them laughed. Noah found himself laughing too. But again, it felt risky. It felt dangerous. It just felt too… close.
“We take a break at Southport,” Noah said. “Preferably not when we’re deep in the suburbs or whatever. There’s some countryside around there. Some fields. I dunno about you two, but I’d rather be some place I can see what’s around me. There’s too many places for people to hide here. Not sure I like it. Bruno says he isn’t keen either.”
“Dog whisperer now, huh?” Kirsty asked.
“Something like that. Gotta even these numbers somehow.”
They walked further down this street of terraced houses. When they got to the end of the road, they were in an old market town. The sort of place that looked dead before this pandemic, the nail firmly slammed in its coffin now.
It still creeped Noah out. The thought people used to walk these streets. Kids used to run down the road, playing hop-scotch. Lollipop ladies let them cross. A happier life. A simple life. A life robbed.
“You okay?” Kirsty asked.
Noah jumped a little. Looked around. “Yeah.”
Kirsty narrowed her eyes. “You seem a little… I dunno. Jumpy.”
“Aren’t you a little jumpy?”
She put a hand on Noah’s arm. “We’re gonna be okay, pal. Iqrah’s an expert map reader. We’re all in this together. We’re gonna make it to Morecambe just fine. Have a bit of faith, okay?”
Noah’s instinct was to resist. To rubbish Kirsty’s promise of faith and hope.
But in the end, he figured he’d try it for a change.
He nodded. Sighed. “Sure, I can spare a little hope.”
“Good,” Kirsty said, a smile creeping across her face. “About time you cheered up.”
She turned around and walked over to Iqrah. And as Noah watched them walk off ahead with Bruno by their side, he couldn’t shake the sense of disquiet that had come over him. The only thing he could compare it to was that fucking Rains of Castamere episode of Game of Thrones. Everything seemed okay. It felt too calm. The calm before the storm.
And yet he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why things felt so wrong.
Probably because he had something to lose now.
He shook his head. Didn’t like that thought. Made him feel uneasy.
He walked off after Kirsty and Iqrah. Reached their side. He felt alert, on edge. The sense they were being watched grew
