Lives We Lost,The by Megan Crewe Page A

want Meredith seeing it.”
We didn’t speak, walking back to the house, but just outside the door, Gav turned and touched my face. Tears sprang into my eyes. I blinked, willing them away.
“I’m okay,” I said. “I’m fine. I just want to get out of here.”
“That makes two of us,” Gav said with a crooked smile.
He went back for the cat with a bag, and stashed it in the middle of his sled. We didn’t mention it again.
    The six of us didn’t reach the next town until the sun had arced across the sky and started slipping back down toward the trees. Tobias spotted it first, pointing to a ripple of snow-patched rooftops in the distance. Clouds were bunching along the horizon above them.
    Without speaking, we all picked up our pace to cross the last few spans of field. The warmth had let us open our jackets and loosen our scarves as we walked, but the soggy snow dragged at the sleds. Every muscle between my feet and my waist burned.
    The town looked about the same size as the one where we’d lost the truck. I reached for Meredith’s hand as we marched down the first street we came to, our sleds bumping sides. The emptiness was almost comforting. I’d rather we were the only ones here.
    We didn’t stop, but slowed to scan the laneways and side streets. On the first few blocks, we passed a couple cars, but both of them were obviously too small. Then I noticed a black pickup truck at the back of a driveway, its bed full of half-melted snow.
“You think that’d do it?” I asked.
    “We might as well try,” Gav said, his eyes brightening. “Let’s take a look.”
We tramped down the driveway together. Tobias tried the driver’s-side door. It opened, but he shook his head.
“Looks like someone already tried to hotwire it and didn’t know what they were doing,” he said. Frayed wires dangled beneath the steering wheel. “I don’t suppose any of you know how to fix that? ’Cause I don’t.”
Gav shook his head and kicked one of the tires.
“So we keep looking,” Tessa said calmly. “Sooner or later—”
She was interrupted by a low voice from the other end of the driveway. “Hey! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anyone over here!”
We spun around as footsteps thumped over the snow. A young man, tall and broad-shouldered, was lumbering toward us, sniffling and scratching a spot on his hip. His eyes flickered from us to the open door of the truck, and narrowed. “What are you doing to Mr. Mitchard’s truck? You shouldn’t be messing with that!”
He barged toward us, his round face flushed, and I instinctively flinched back, grabbing Meredith’s shoulder. Tobias froze, going white. Leo shifted to Tessa’s side.
Only Gav went forward.
He charged between our sleds a second before the guy reached them, throwing out his arms. “Hold—” he managed. The guy looked like he might have stopped, but he slipped on the slushy ground and crashed into Gav.
They both tumbled over, a pained breath escaping Gav as the guy’s shoulder smacked his chest. I shoved Meredith behind me and ran to help, not entirely sure what I intended to do. The guy who’d come after us rolled to one side, wheezing and then coughing. Gav scrambled up and backward, staying between him and us. He waved me back as I caught up with him. I ignored the gesture.
“He’s sick,” I hissed. “Your scarf!”
Gav’s hand leapt up. He tugged his scarf back over his lower face. Leo and Tessa came up behind us. Tobias hovered by the truck, staring at our attacker as if transfixed.
It wasn’t the guy he was afraid of, it occurred to me. Of course not. It was the virus. The enemy all his army training couldn’t prepare him to fight.
“Man,” the guy said, pushing himself up onto his knees. His jeans were soaked through from the melting snow, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Whoa, I’m dizzy now. Why’d you do that? I just wanted to see what you were doing.”
“Matt?” a voice called. A second figure appeared at the end of