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  “Hey!” Amy’s cry cut through the silence on the road, drawing the attention of everyone in her direction. “I think I’ve got something over here!”

  Rushing over to Amy’s position, Harrison wondered what she might’ve found. She was sitting in the driver’s seat of a very modern looking Range Rover with the door wide open, the vehicle’s paint job almost still sparkling in the sunlight. It didn’t look like the sort of car that they would be able to get started; Harrison was certain it was built with the most high-tech equipment available.

  “That won’t start—will it?” The prepper questioned as he jogged up beside her, voicing his suspicions out loud.

  “No, I’ve already tried,” Amy shook her head, pulling the useless keys from the ignition as she spoke. “But take a look around the back.”

  Harrison raised his eyebrows, turning to Len and James, who had now also joined them and shrugging. Following instructions though, the three of them walked around the back of the SUV, the rear of the vehicle backed up against the side of the highway, the driver having clearly lost control of it before the engine gave out. There, strapped to the back, were two high-speed bicycles, top-of-the-line models equipped with several gears and sturdy off-roading tires.

  Len let out a low whistle. “They look expensive.”

  “They are,” Harrison confirmed, remembering he had seen some similar bikes advertised in a magazine he subscribed to a few months back. They had been selling for a couple thousand dollars, and the ones in front of him looked even newer than those.

  “Only one problem though,” Len continued speaking. “There’s only two of them.”

  “Yeah,” Amy appeared behind everyone else, following them round from where she’d sat in the driver’s seat. “I thought that, but maybe we could make it work?”

  Harrison reached forward and carefully detached one of the bikes from the back of the car, resting it on the ground beside him and pushing it back and forth a few times to test out the wheels. “These are heavy duty frames,” he nodded, “but I’m not sure they could carry two people and all our stuff.”

  Shaking his head slightly, Harrison grumbled at them not being able to use the bikes. He so desperately wanted to get to Toronto today and using a bicycle could mean he’d be there in no more than eight hours. Thinking about it, after all the time that had already passed since he had last seen Nina, it suddenly became an opportunity Harrison struggled to give up.

  “Could I…?” Harrison started to pose the question, stopping short as he was uncertain of what to say. He didn’t want to abandon Len and his family, especially not at some random point on the side of the road after they had all followed him into Toronto. But if they all continued walking, they likely wouldn’t reach the city until nighttime the following day. If Harrison rode himself, he could be there by the early evening. It bought him over a full day and after so long it was too tempting to turn down.

  Len looked over at Harrison, the prepper clearly running through some serious thoughts in his head. It didn’t take a genius to know what Harrison would be thinking and, in an instant, Len knew he couldn’t stand in the way. “I think you should go, Harrison,” Len spoke calmly. “Go on ahead, if you want to.”

  “Are you sure?” Harrison’s enthusiasm notably piqued at Len’s suggestion, though the prepper tried hard not to show it too much.

  “Of course,” Len nodded. “We’ll be fine without you. And we’ll keep heading northeast to Toronto anyway. You can’t just turn away from this opportunity though, when the bike will get you there so much quicker.”

  “Will you all be safe?”

  “You’ve taught me pretty much everything I know,” Len laughed. “I think I’ve got the skills to keep us going for a few days.”

  Harrison cracked a smile, overcome by Len’s support for him going on alone. The two of them had formed a true friendship over the weeks since they’d left Chicago; it was something Harrison was going to treasure for the rest of his life. He would miss his companionship greatly, but Harrison knew this was something he had to do. With a supportive nod from Amy as well, his fate to take on the next stage of the journey alone was sealed.

  “I’ll leave you signs along the way,” Harrison spoke as he pushed the bike around the side of the SUV and into the center of the road. “If you keep following this path, you’ll reach Toronto eventually. This is the way I’m going to travel too, but if anything changes, I’ll leave you a sign.”

  Len nodded, knowing that Harrison would do his very best to warn them of any danger they were going to approach. He had faith in his friend, and while it was slightly terrifying being left to look after Amy and James on his own, he also had faith in the abilities he had learned and picked up from Harrison.

  “Good luck,” Len smiled as he patted Harrison on the back. “I look forward to meeting your daughter.”

  “You will,” Harrison smiled back as he climbed onto the bike, his rucksack, the Remington A3 rifle, and his Glock pistol all strapped firmly to his body. “I’ll see you soon.”

  With a cloud of dust as Harrison pushed the bike forward, the prepper started pedaling fast and putting distance between himself and the rest of his group. Len looked on with Amy and James on either side of him, all three of them staring after Harrison in silence as their friend very quickly disappeared into the distance, his body growing smaller and smaller as he rode off toward Toronto. Len whispered a tiny prayer under his breath as he watched Harrison, imploring that his friend would find his daughter and that all of them would see one another again.

  ***

  Just six hours later, Harrison could finally see the telltale signs of Toronto in the distance. He hadn’t stopped once since leaving Len and the others behind. Sweat clung to every inch of his body, his clothing soaked through despite the hot sun that beat down on him. Blisters felt like they had formed all over his feet and across his lower back where his rucksack rubbed as he cycled, but none of that bothered Harrison. He was so close now, no amount of pain or threat of exhaustion was going to stop him.

  Slowing his pace slightly—as he had done several times to rest while still moving forward—Harrison pulled out his water canteen and drained the final contents of the bottle. He had another inside his rucksack, but he wouldn’t get to that until he stopped properly. At least he had ridden through the most extreme heat of the day by now and the air was gradually starting to become cooler.

  With his eyes fixated on the horizon, Harrison squinted against the setting sun and pursed his lips as he made out what was left of the Toronto skyline ahead of him. The CN tower was unmistakable, though it was the only thing that really still was. The rest of Toronto lay in ruins, and a few skyscrapers also graced the air, but it was nothing like it once was. Coming to a complete stop for the first time since leaving everyone behind, Harrison felt like he needed a moment just to take it all in.

  A short moment was all he allowed himself though, after seeing what had become of Toronto, he knew he needed to get there as soon as possible to try and find his daughter. He wondered whether there was even anywhere left for Nina. She was married with at least one child now, but that was as much as Harrison knew. Would her family still be together? Len had been extremely lucky to find Amy and James. Harrison had half-doubted it would happen until the day when they all finally united. Could Nina be equally as lucky? As he pushed forward on the bike, he desperately hoped the answer would be yes.

  It took just under an hour for Harrison to finally reach the proper outskirts of Toronto. Even though he had never been there himself, he knew instantly it was nothing like it had been. Buildings lay in ruins on the ground, the sight of potentially a hundred plane wreckages littering the vast expanse ahead of him. It seemed unusual for so many planes to have fallen in the same area, but considering the size of the city and how many planes flew into and out of Toronto every day, Harrison could believe it. All the smoke and flames that he was sure had once engulfed the city had now passed, leaving nothing but a dus
ty and broken landscape in its wake.

  Cycling through it, Harrison’s head almost spun on his shoulders as he tried to take it all in. The first still-standing building was perhaps another half a mile ahead of him; that was his destination. Darkness was starting to creep in now, and he knew it would be too dangerous to enter the city at night. Even with so much of it now gone, it was a new and unfamiliar landscape and now that he was so close, Harrison didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.

  As he reached his home for the night, he took one more forlorn look over Toronto before pushing his bike inside. Tomorrow he would find his daughter. Tomorrow, he hoped, he would have a family of his own again.

  Chapter 19

  In the light of day the next morning, Toronto was in even more of a sorry state. Harrison had barely slept all night, tossing and turning through torturous dreams of how he might find his daughter. He dreamed she was just a child again, running through the ruins of the city as it crumbled around her, each path more dangerous than the last.

  He woke up in a cold sweat, his clothes drenched and his heart pounding against his ribcage. It had just been a nightmare, but he was aware the reality could be just as haunting. Nina may not be a child anymore, but she had one of her own. Harrison had a grandson, a little boy whose name he didn’t even know. Through all of this he had pushed forward in an attempt to find Nina, but now that he was so close, he was realizing what lay within Toronto was much more than just her. It was his chance at redemption. He had failed Nina, but he could make things up to her child. He could be a family man again—all he had to do was find his family.

  Deciding to leave the bicycle behind, Harrison set out on foot into the city—or at least, what was left of it. The main road into Toronto was still distinguishable, but only just. Wreckages and ruins lined every inch of it, shells of buildings almost swaying in the faint breeze behind them on either side of the highway. Some had been torn down so only the metal structure remained; others were completely demolished into piles of stone and rubble. Not a single one stood completely intact though, some form of damage visible in every direction.

  Something else that was constantly unavoidable were the bodies. Most seemed to have been incinerated—likely from the explosions caused by the plane crashes, Harrison assumed—but some were recognizable. Harrison couldn’t decide what was worse to look at: a human skeleton stripped of all its once-discernable features, or the decaying state of human flesh. Just as he had done before, he forced himself to look, checking each one to make sure Nina wasn’t amongst the dead.

  Where to start looking for his daughter and her family was a bit of a mystery to Harrison. There were buildings that remained standing, but even after the short period of time that Harrison had been navigating through them, it was obvious no one was inside. Toronto was like a ghost town, everything and everyone wiped off its surface, their lives and history swept up in the dust.

  Despite his negative feelings, Harrison refused to give up hope. He had taught Nina well when she was younger and she knew how to survive; he had faith that she would’ve found a way. He remembered the lessons he’d carried out with her in secret, Sophia disapproving of the things he was teaching such a young girl. Those lessons might have saved her life now though: how to start a fire, build a shelter, locate clean water, and, perhaps most importantly, how to defend herself.

  Walking further into the middle of the city, using the CN tower to direct him, Harrison forced himself not to dwell on those memories of the past. He needed to be alert and ready for anything now. His mind had to be clearer than it ever had been.

  As he stepped over a charred airplane seat, Harrison looked up at one of the many plane wreckages up close. The front end was completely demolished, buried under rocks and rubble from the building it had landed in. The roof had clearly collapsed, leaving no chance of anyone escaping the plane, if by some extreme miracle they had survived the crash. Now only the tail was noticeable for what it had been, one side sticking out into the road, the other pointing up into the clear, blue sky.

  That particular crash seemed to have had a domino effect on the buildings around it, each of them crumbled and broken, some completely missing from their space in the street. It was rather impressive how much damage had been caused, the planes likely just a catalyst for even worse destruction. Shaking his head to himself, Harrison tried to imagine what it would’ve been like to be in Toronto during it all. Chicago had been bad enough, and he hadn’t even experienced the chaos in the center; his only hope was that Nina hadn’t lived nearby.

  His daughter’s whereabouts, however, hinged very loosely on that hope. Without knowing what street she lived on, or even which area of the city, Harrison knew he might have to search the wreckage for several days. He had already planned to map the city out from the center, working in a spiral so that he covered every inch of it, leaving no stone unturned in his quest to find his daughter.

  As a result, he allowed himself to pace fairly quickly toward the CN tower, marveling at its height and stability amongst everything else. It was pretty much the only landmark that remained in Toronto—how it had survived was a bit of a mystery to Harrison—but he was glad it was. Once he reached it, he paused for a quick drink of water, wiping the sweat from his brow in the already blistering heat of the sun. Toronto covered about two hundred and forty square miles. He was about to search every one of them.

  ***

  “Look!” Len exclaimed as he ran over to the opposite side of the road where they walked, jumping over a lamppost that had capsized and now lay at an angle by the side of the highway. “We’re definitely on the right trail.”

  True to his word, Harrison had been leaving markers along the road he had ridden, signs for Len, Amy, and James so they knew they were still going the right way. He hadn’t stopped riding for any of them, but had occasionally turned back on himself slightly, drawing a figure eight in the dirt that covered the road. It was such an unnatural pattern that Len knew it had to have come from his friend, his trust in Harrison never wavering.

  “Another one?” James called out as he ran over to join Len, walking the line of the figure eight carefully, like a tightrope. “So cool.”

  “It can’t be much farther now,” Len continued as he ruffled his son’s hair, dust spilling out of his golden locks in the early morning sunshine. “I think we’ll make it by nightfall.”

  “I hope so,” Amy sighed, still uncertain about everything—though she too had encouraged Harrison to go on ahead. “I don’t want to spend another night out here.”

  The first night the three of them had spent without Harrison had been interesting. In part because they camped by the side of the highway, completely exposed and vulnerable to anything or anyone that might come across them. But also because all three of them had been crammed into one tent, the second whisked away on the bike with Harrison. Len hoped it was due to their location that Amy didn’t want another night like that, rather than the proximity the two of them had been forced to share. It had been quite a few years since the two of them had shared a bed—as much as he could call a sleeping bag in a tent a bed. In a way, Len was glad James had been sandwiched between the two of them.

  “We’ll make it,” Len replied with confidence as they continued walking. “We’ll see Toronto in the distance at any moment, just you wait.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Amy replied, her mood worsening with each passing day. “I’d give anything for a warm bath and a comfortable bed right now.”

  Len laughed quietly to himself, remembering just how much Amy had enjoyed the little comforts in life when they had been together. “Well, how about this,” he proposed. “The next bathtub we come across, I’ll fill for you. Even if I have to boil each pot of water one by one. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Amy looked up and finally cracked a smile, appreciating what Len was doing to lighten the mood and keep them pressing forward. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

  “Can I have one too, Dad?”


  Len laughed louder this time, giving James a playful shove in the back as he did. “You can have one too,” he grinned. “I’ll fill baths for everyone, okay?”

  “Great,” James smiled as he started walking ahead of the two adults. “I can’t wait.”

  With a final chuckle to himself, Len readjusted his rucksack on his shoulders slightly and let out a comfortable sigh. Even if there was still a long way to travel on the road ahead of them, he was happy to be making the journey with his family. He would do everything he could along the way to keep the smiles on their faces and to fill them with hope and anticipation for the future, rather than dread of what might be around the next corner. He was adamant that they would make it to Toronto and, even if the city were in ruins, it would be a new starting point for their family. Whether it was the end of the journey or not, they would make it work. Of that he was certain.

  ***

  Four hours later, Harrison was finally forced to stop. He took shelter in the rickety doorway of what had once been an apartment building or an office block of some sort and shrugged his rucksack off his back onto the ground. The shade provided some welcome relief from the midday sun, the temperature well above a hundred and not even close to cooling down.