Free Wake by Elizabeth Knox Page A

by exposed capillaries, glazed with a clear lacquer of lymph. She said, ‘When you’d been gone for nearly an hour we went to find you. We came around the bend and you were lying in the middle of the road. I rushed to rescue you. Sam was close behind me. She said “something’s wrong” and “stop” and “it shouldn’t smell like this”—but I wasn’t listening to her. When I fell over she tackled my ankle and pulled me out straight away. But it took us ages to get you out.’ Lily glanced at him and must have seen scepticism. ‘I did think at first that I’d fainted from low blood sugar,’ she said. ‘But it didn’t feel like a faint. And there was a weird smell.’
    â€˜There’s something stopping us leaving?’
    â€˜A kind of no-go zone. It makes you pass out. I did try twice to be sure. The second time I was crawling, so I just slumped.’
    There were house lights here and there in the settlement and the streetlights had come on.
    â€˜Where am I going?’ Lily said, as one more corner brought them to the intersection of Bypass, Haven, Beach, and Peninsula roads. The Mercedes headlights showed them two bodies lying on the intersection, both with diluted blood puddled under them.
    â€˜I live along there,’ Sam said—and William had to tear his eyes away from the bodies to look where she was pointing.
    â€˜Isn’t Peninsula Road a dead end?’ Lily said.
    â€˜You mean we’ll be trapped?’ William and Lily stared at each other, considering their options.
    From the back seat, Sam said in a musing tone, ‘It got dark.’
    â€˜Didn’t you notice it getting dark?’ Lily asked.
    â€˜I’m always home at this hour,’ Sam said. ‘I never work the night shift. I’m not licensed for it.’
    â€˜Sam?’ William said. ‘We need directions.’
    That brought her back to herself. ‘My bach is number 37. Three from the end.’
    â€˜â€œBach” is Kiwi for beach house. That’s what it says in my Lonely Planet ,’ William said.
    Lily turned onto Peninsula Road and drove slowly along it, peering out over the hood so she’d see any bodies before they went under her front wheels.
    â€˜Guidebooks are so useful,’ William went on, ‘though they could have included a bit more on local epidemics of madness and murder.’
    â€˜I don’t know how you two can make jokes,’ Lily said. ‘People are dead, and it’s horrible.’
    â€˜Was I making jokes?’ Sam asked.
    â€˜Grappa,’ said Lily.
    â€˜Grappa,’ Sam echoed, sounding more puzzled than chastened.
    Their headlights turned the kowhai at the gate of number 37 into a beacon of yellow. William reached out and switched them off. He and Lily sat still, watching the dark house, but Sam jumped out and hurried through the gate. She fished a key out from under a pot plant and unlocked the ranchslider. She turned on the light and stood waiting for them.
    Lily said, ‘You know, despite being slow, that girl has plenty of practical savvy.’
    â€˜She kept her head?’
    â€˜Yes,’ Lily said, then changed her mind. ‘Except that, when things were at their scariest, she started talking about herself in the third person.’
    â€˜Like how?’ said William.
    â€˜She referred to herself as Sam.’
    â€˜She does that.’
    Lily swivelled in her seat to face him fully. ‘The no-go zone was so strange that I kept shoving Sam’s weirdness to the back of my mind. But, look, when she stopped seeing to the old people and came to wait with me—she was a mess. Hiccupping from too much crying. Not at all the type to take charge.’
    William shook his head.
    â€˜No. Listen. We went to look for you and found you lying on the road. I rushed in and passed out. Sam pulled me out, but then she’s all snotty and weepy and hopeless. She