Liv shakes her head. “I can’t help you,” she says. “Even if I wanted to. This is my Grandpa’s jet ski. He was supposed to come with me, but he … he …” Her throat tightens, and she can’t finish the sentence.
The guy seems to get it. “I lost both my parents, too. And my sister. I’m the only one left, really.”
The pain in his voice is bad enough, but it’s the way he says it—in an almost matter-of-fact way—that really gets her.
Her lower lip begins quivering. “My parents,” she whispers. “They died too …”
“I’m very sorry,” the guy tells her. “I know how badly it hurts.”
Liv bites down hard and blinks fiercely to keep from crying. “I got the jet ski from my Grandpa’s home, and I have no idea where to find more. I’m sorry, but it’s only meant for one.”
The guy raises his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t you just say your grandpa was supposed to come with you?”
Liv feels like kicking herself for spilling the beans. “All right, it can carry two people. But it’ll go slower. And it definitely can’t carry all three of us. Besides, I’m going to Denmark.”
The boy raises his eyebrows in surprise. “You are? Why?”
“That’s really none of your business.”
The boy nods and looks from her to the jet ski. “Where did your grandpa get it?”
“I don’t know. He bought it many years ago. It’s been sitting in his garage. I never even …”
Liv stops talking as she realizes the boy has stopped listening. Instead, he’s looking past her.
“What?” Liv says, spinning around and staring into the forest of cars. “What is it?”
“I just thought I saw something,” the guy says. “But maybe it was just—”
“Look out!”
Liv turns around at the woman’s scream. She looks to the car where the door is now open and the woman is sticking her head out, pointing frantically.
Liv turns again to look in the direction, and—
And then she sees him.
TWENTY-TWO
The girl keeps darting glances back in the direction she just came from. She does it as a sort of reflex every few seconds or so, and Dan isn’t entirely sure she’s even aware of it. But it’s obvious that something—or someone—is back there somewhere, hidden between the many cars.
So when Dan spots the old man appearing less than ten yards away, he instantly connects the dots—he doesn’t even need to read the answer on the girl’s face.
That’s her grandfather …
Judging from how the guy looks, he’s either been beaten up pretty badly, or he’s taken quite the fall. His clothes are ripped open in several places, revealing nasty road rash on the skin underneath, his left wrist appears to be broken, and one knee can’t seem to straighten out all the way, giving him an awkward limp. None of that bothers him, though, as he heads straight for the girl, his pupil-less eyes locked on her.
She’s paralyzed for a few seconds, then she begins screaming.
“Get out of there!” Dan shouts, forming a funnel around his mouth. Even though the girl is standing right on the other side of the trailer, she doesn’t seem to hear him.
Dan is just about to move around the trailer to get the girl out of the way when another scream cuts through the air from behind him. He spins around to see Åsaa struggling with another woman around her own age. Åsaa is caught halfway inside the car, unable to pull in all the way, as the attacker is simultaneously blocking the door and getting at Åsaa’s kicking legs.
“Help!” Åsaa screams, writhing and flinging her fist at the face of the woman, who just snaps her teeth, trying to catch Åsaa’s hand midair.
Dan has already taken three steps in the direction of the car, intending to help Åsaa, when she slips and sinks down on her knees, mostly disappearing from sight. The dead woman wastes no time, but bends down immediately, and Åsaa cries out again—this time in pain. The dead woman rears her head back up in a predatory ripping motion, and Dan sees the patch of skin between her teeth and the blood smeared around her mouth—Åsaa’s blood.
Dan stops dead in his track.
Åsaa is still screaming as the woman bends down to take another bite.
From the right comes another figure into view: a man with a blonde beard that’s stained with dried blood. From behind the car, yet another zombie appears and joins in.
Åsaa’s scream is already growing weaker. Her hand reaches up, grabbing for something to hold on to but finding nothing. Two of the fingers are missing.
Dan feels the way too familiar sinking sensation in his gut as he turns away from the scene, thinking to himself in a surprisingly calm voice: I can’t do anything for her now.
It’s harsh, but it’s true.
What’s also true is that in twenty seconds or so, the zombies will lose interest in Åsaa.
Dan needs to act, and act fast.
He turns to the trailer, halfway expecting to see the girl getting eaten alive by her dead grandpa. To his complete surprise, though, the girl has jolted back into action and has jumped up onto the trailer. And she’s not just standing there, either. Instead she’s working to unfasten the straps holding the jet ski, ignoring her dead grandfather who’s trying his best to reach in and grab her.
Dan takes a running start and jumps up onto the trailer, causing the jet ski to sway and the girl to spin around and stare at him.
“Careful!” she tells him. “If it tilts onto the side, we’ll never get it into the water.”
Dan notices the jet ski is sitting on a low but very stern-looking trolley with wheels. The girl moves past him, her hair brushes his face and he catches a scent of lemons which almost makes him
