It's taken us four hours to get to this point, the group finally walking down the old M25 motorway, a road that's been torn up by the carnage of bombs and resultant weeds. Only small, cracked sections of the previously tarmacked ground are still intact.
The overhead signs that insist you Get in Lane remain above the road, directions to the different parts of London still standing.
"I remember coming down this road," Anna breathes out, her eyes wide as she stares up at one of the signs. "It was always so damn busy."
"My parents had a fucking accident on this motorway," Emilia says, looking behind us, the stretch of road never ending.
"It was always so jammed up," I reply. "We never used to go on it. Sometimes it was easier to take the other roads out of London."
"The rest of us weren't clued up on life in London," Emilia says with a small smile. I loop my arm over her shoulder, dragging her towards me and resting my lips at her ear.
"Well... let's just say I remember all the private spots."
Her face reddens as she swats my chest. "It's probably all pretty private now, you dweeb!"
"Dweeb?"
"You heard me!"
"I don't take kindly to being called names, Mrs Hastings."
"Mrs... Hastings," she repeats and I widen my eyes when I realise what I've said. Shit.
"Myles, how's it looking?" I call out, looking away from Emilia and instead striding towards the front of the group, rubbing my neck with my hand.
The guy still looks broken up, the haunting expression on his face reminding me what we've just lost.
Myles furrows his eyes at the horizon. He insisted that Jen had told him enough to be able to get us to London. None of us dared argue.
He's mumbling under his breath, before finally looking up at me.
"I think we need to head into the middle. Go straight through," he tells me. I avoid looking into his empty eyes and instead nod, staring at the ragged London skyline. "We can head straight to where you lived and see what's happening there. We'll expand our search from there," he finishes.
"Alright." I nod. "I assume you'll need help navigating London?"
"For sure." He scoffs. "It would have been so much easier with the damn map," he pauses, instantly realising his mistake as he reminds us what happened to the fucking thing. "Kieran and Jen knew what they were doing," he mutters.
"We're doing fine," I reassure him, giving him a small, weak smile.
"I appreciate the pep talk," he answers.
"Are you feeling okay?" I ask and he shrugs.
"No," he admits and I nod, not pressing him any further. Both him and Anna have stayed quiet ever since they lost their siblings, and we've let them retreat into their own, heartbreaking worlds. There's nothing any of us can say to help them right now.
YOU ARE READING
Broken South
Romance[18+ COMPLETED] BOOK 2 A war that destroyed the world. It came and it went, leaving death and chaos in its wake. In the resulting turmoil England has split into four regions, a safety measure that was 'essential' to ensure that violence would not r...