Which reminds him.
“So, once we get to shore,” he says, looking straight ahead, “are we going to split up?”
A few seconds before Liv replies: “Depends on exactly where you’re headed, I guess.”
“The house is a few miles outside of Viborg. It’s on Mill Road, if that tells you anything?”
“The one north of town?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“That’s nowhere near where I’m going.”
Dan feels an unexpected stab of regret. “Oh. Okay.” He realizes how much he was hoping for Liv’s company. Well, anybody’s company would have done, really. The thought of going that last distance alone is what scares him.
It’s like in The Lord of The Rings, he hears a thought tell him. It sounds eerily like William. At the very end, Frodo had to do the most difficult part on his own.
“But we can go to Viborg together,” Liv says. “If we can find a car, I’ll drop you off on Mill Road and go on to find Solveig.”
“That would be great,” Dan says. Then it hits him. “You know how to drive a car?”
“Sure. Don’t you?”
“I’m not old enough to have a driver’s license.”
Liv scoffs. “Me neither. Doesn’t mean I don’t know how to drive a car. So, you’re telling me you never even tried it?”
“Well, I tried it once, earlier today. But it was only a few minutes.”
“Why haven’t you tried it before?”
Dan shrugs. “I don’t know, I’m just … not into that kind of stuff.”
“Not into driving? I thought all guys loved anything with a motor.”
“Not me.”
“Then what are you into?”
Heat begins rising to his cheeks, as Dan suddenly feels like he’s under investigation and needs to defend himself. “I don’t know. Reading and stuff.”
“Like, books?”
“What’s wrong with books?”
“Nothing,” Liv says, and Dan can hear she’s smiling. “You’re not really a tough guy, are you?”
“I never said I was.”
“I just figured you had to be, since you managed to survive this far.”
“Well, I guess that counts for something, right?”
“Meh, could have been luck.” She’s obviously teasing him now.
Dan shakes his head. “It’s a shame you didn’t get to meet William. He would have loved you.”
“It’s here!” Liv says, leaning closer. “Pull over.”
Dan turns in the direction she’s pointing and slows down the jet ski as they approach the banks.
“Hey, there’s a car!” Dan exclaims, as a dark blue van appears from behind a row of trees lining the banks. “Maybe if the keys are in it, we can use that.”
A moment passes before Liv answers. “Oh, no,” she whispers.
“What?” Dan says in alarm, scanning the banks, ready to turn the jet ski away and gun it. “You see something?”
“That’s … that’s my dad’s van.”
“Oh,” Dan says.
Liv already told him how both her parents died when a dead person barged into their living room, while her sister narrowly escaped by climbing out the window. Afterwards, her sister called Liv to break the bad news over the phone. That was the last time they spoke.
“I’m sorry you have to see his van,” Dan says. “I’m sure it’s not nice being reminded of what happened to—”
“You don’t get it,” Liv cuts him off, her voice thin. “My dad didn’t drive it here …”
“No, of course. Then maybe someone stole it?”
“Why would they come to this exact spot? This is where we always used to go.”
Dan stops the jet ski completely, letting in bob gently in the low waves twenty feet from shore. “So you think your sister drove it here?” he asks, turning to look at her.
“I’m afraid so,” Liv says, biting her lip.
“Why would she do that?”
“To get away, of course. We only use the van when we need to transport the jet ski.”
“Oh,” Dan says again, finally catching on. “So she left the country. I guess that’s a good thing. It means she’s alive.”
“It also means I won’t be able to find her. Come on. Ride it up all the way. Careful, it’ll stop once you hit the bottom.”
Dan does as he’s instructed. The jet ski meets the sand, stops abruptly and tilts gently to the side, allowing them to get off and walk up onto land while only getting their feet wet.
Dan is only wearing one shoe and makes a mental note to find a new pair as soon as possible.
Liv heads straight for the van. It’s parked facing the water, so it’s not until now Dan can see the rear, and he realizes the back doors are open.
“Be careful, okay?” he calls after her.
“I will,” she calls back.
Dan turns slowly and checks the surroundings in the dying light of the day—a habit he’s developed over the past few days without really thinking about it.
Then Liv screams.
Dan spins around, expecting the worst. But she’s just standing there, staring into the back of the van, both hands clasped over her mouth.
“What is it?” Dan shouts, moving closer. He can’t hear anything from inside the van, which means it’s probably not a zombie.
He stops next to Liv, who still hasn’t moved, and looks inside.
The back of the van is empty except for a person lying on her side, eyes closed as though sleeping. She looks exactly like Liv with the only difference being her clothes—she’s wearing what Dan takes to be a wetsuit.
She’s lying in a pool of dark, dried-up blood.
TWENTY-NINE
The shock of seeing Solveig dead is a lot worse than seeing Grandpa—despite the fact that Solveig really is dead and hasn’t turned into a flesh-eating monster.
The way she just lies there, looking like she’s sleeping, waiting for someone to come wake her up, makes a stream of childhood memories go flying by in a flash—her and Solveig waking up together on a sunny Saturday morning, the two of them on the beach, Solveig smashing Liv’s sandcastle, that day they both learned to ride a bike, hi-fiving each other—and it’s all too much for Liv, she can’t take
