Clare and Dorran stepped into the bus. The doors creaked shut behind Clare. Dorran stepped into the driver’s seat, and she took her position in the chair beside him. The engine started with a rumble, and as the bus circled around the massive concrete pillars to face the ramp, Clare watched their friends in her mirror. The four of them raised their hands in farewell and stayed, waving, until they were out of sight.
The bus entered the ramp, suspension bouncing as Dorran navigated the narrow passage. They followed the two bends in the path then stopped at the shutters leading to the outside world. Clare faced the wall so that Dorran wouldn’t see how hard she needed to blink to keep her face dry.
His fingers grazed her arm, a gentle caress. “Are you sad?”
“They gave us too much food,” Clare said.
A hint of a smile lifted Dorran’s lips. “Are we going to leave some for them?”
She drew a hopeful breath. “Can we?”
He put the van into park and pulled two cases off the racks above the seats. Clare opened the bus doors, and he dropped the boxes outside, lined up neatly against the wall.
“I love you,” Clare said as he stepped back inside.
He smiled, took her hand, and pressed a quick kiss against it as he slid back into the driver’s seat. The door ahead of them rattled as it opened. Dorran coaxed the bus out then pulled up next to the speaker box Clare had used on the night she arrived. She wound her window down, reached across the distance, and pressed the button. “Hi, Unathi, are you there?”
The box crackled. “I am. Are you ready for me to shut the door?”
“Go for it.” Clare waited until the shutters started to clatter down behind her, then she said, “We left a couple of boxes in the hallway. Something to fill out your rations.”
Unathi sighed heavily. “We had a plan. Why does nobody ever stick to the plan?” A trace of fondness bled through the frustration.
Clare grinned. “We’ll miss you too.”
Voices followed Unathi’s: Johann, Niall, and Becca, all blending over one another.
“Be safe, all right?”
“I hope we can catch up again, sometime when the world isn’t such a mess.”
“Thank you for everything.”
Clare blinked back tears as the bus rolled forward. It only took Dorran a moment to unlock the chains on the fence, and Clare took over the wheel to coax the bus through the opening while he sealed it again behind them. Hollows began to chatter in the distance as the noise attracted them, but before they had a chance to get close, Dorran was back in his seat, and the bus was moving along the trail and towards the main road.
“Your time to shine, map reader,” Dorran said, smiling at her. “Where to?”
Keep reading: the story continues in Black Winter Book Four: Silence in the Shadows
Whispers in the Mist: Black Winter Book Three Page 36