Day Zero: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (The Blackout Chronicles Book 1), page 16
A bit scary. Because it meant meeting more people.
But also reassuring. Because at least she knew this guy probably wasn’t a weirdo if he had a family.
Unless his family was a motorhome full of bloody dolls.
Now that would be a plot twist in itself.
She stepped in through the side door. Holding her breath. Growing a little more nervous. A little more cautious.
And then she saw them.
There was a woman and two kids. The children—a boy and a girl—were young, probably barely cracking ten. The woman had mousy brown hair and a nice, friendly smile on her face. A ponytail was tied and dangling right down her back. She looked welcoming. And again, that welcoming nature made Lily uncertain.
“This is my wife, Becky. And these are our two little devils, Aubrey and Clarissa. Say hi, kids. This here’s Lily.”
Clarissa stared at Lily with wide blue eyes. Aubrey grinned at her and waved.
“Oh, don’t mind our children,” Becky said. “They’re ridiculously shy at first, but once you get to know them, you’ll be lucky if you ever shut them up. So, thanks for coming here and giving us an opportunity for some peace and quiet, even if it isn’t for long.”
Lily smiled. “I know how it is. My son…”
She stopped, then.
“I’m sorry,” Becky said. “Did something happen to—”
“No,” Lily said. “I mean, I hope not. He’s still out there camping over Ambleside way. I was on my way to find him, and then some bad things happened. That’s why I was walking.”
“I’m sure wherever he is out there, you’ll be reunited with him soon. It’s good to know he has a strong mother out there searching for him against the odds no matter what.”
Lily felt a twinge of pride when Becky said those words. A strong mother. She’d never thought of it that way before. She’d especially never considered herself “strong.”
But then… she’d done things already that pushed her past the limits of what she thought she was capable of. Maybe she was strong after all.
“Anyway,” Steve said. “Enough nattering. Who’s for porridge?”
Lily watched as Steve ignited a strange-looking little portable stove, battery powered by the looks of things. She realised then that this motorhome was full of strange little gadgets—not to mention absolute stacks of canned supplies.
“You guys look like you’re all ready for what’s about to happen,” Lily said.
“Hobby of mine,” Steve said. “Spent the last eleven years researching prepping for the end of the world. Drove Becky half-mad, not to mention my kids. But now they know… Well, they’re pretty grateful, aren’t they, hun?”
Becky rolled her eyes. “Don’t allow him a moment to boast.”
“I’m right, though,” Steve said, as he stepped back and allowed the porridge to boil. “I mean, we could use the hobs. Really, we could. But why would we when we’ve got an opportunity to practice with the very tools we’ll be using when the power all goes out?”
“Isn’t there a chance all the battery-powered stuff’ll go down too?” Lily asked.
Steve pointed to the roof of the motorhome. “All lined with materials to make sure that doesn’t happen. The engine on the other hand…”
He didn’t finish, then. Just cleared his throat. Lily sensed an underlying uncertainty about something.
“I’ll teach you a few tricks, if you want,” Steve said. “I mean, you’re gonna need to know them going forward. The plan is to head up into the hills and set up camp there. What’ll happen over the next few weeks is people will gradually flock to the cities. If we can head to the hills then we can scan the villages for supplies. Then when the supplies run out there, we use nature to keep us alive. It won’t be easy. But we’re a step ahead of ninety-nine percent of people. So, whaddya say? Coming along for the journey?”
Lily wanted to say yes. She still couldn’t believe that things were being talked about in this way. But it was all happening so fast, and something was holding her back.
“I can’t,” she said.
Steve looked at her, disappointed. “Why not?”
Lily swallowed a lump in her throat. “As long as my son’s still out there, I can’t just give up on him.”
There was a pause, then. A silence. And in that silence, Lily sensed that the people around her understood the grim predicament she was in.
“We can help you find your son.”
Lily looked at Steve. She narrowed her eyes. “You… you can’t. You have to—”
“You said your son was in the Lakes, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Then we’ve got plenty of time to get there. But we have to move quickly. Because make no mistake about it, the clock is well and truly ticking.”
Lily shook her head. Tears were building in her eyes. “How… how can you do this for someone else? Someone you’ve only just met?”
Steve looked at Becky and smiled. Then, he sighed. “Because we’ve got two little devils of our own. And I know damn well I’d do anything to get back with them if I were in your shoes. So, what d’you say?”
Lily looked at Aubrey and Clarissa’s smiling little faces. Then, she looked at Becky, and back at Steve. She was still nervous. She was still sceptical about all of this.
But above everything, she was hopeful.
She nodded her head. “I’m in.”
“Good,” Steve said. “But we have to move quick. Because once the CME hits and the power goes… it goes for good.”
THIRTY-FOUR
LILY
DAY TWO: 8:30 A.M
An hour and a half of travelling with the Billingdon family and already Lily was starting to feel comfortable in their company.
Which was a remarkable development in itself.
The motorhome was warm, the sun shining in through the windows. Lily was sitting at the table with Aubrey and Clarissa. They were opening up a little, just as Becky had warned her. But it was nice to chat with them. It was nice to see them so calm about this entire situation. All Lily had seen up to now in the first twenty-four hours of this mess was panic. To suddenly see such certainty and self-assurance… it changed things. It certainly made her a fair bit more comfortable, too.
“The best thing to keep water in when you store is food containers,” Aubrey said, walking Lily through all kinds of tidbits of knowledge that a kid of his age had no right knowing—but she was glad he did. “Lots of people use milk bottles, but they aren’t good. They start leaking after a bit and they make everything else wet. But if you do use food containers you have to make sure they’re for food only or you could get sick from some of the stuff in there.”
Lily nodded, genuinely fascinated by everything this bright young man had told her. He’d told her that satellite phones could still be useful in a post-CME world. He’d told her about all different kinds of plants—the ones that were good, the ones that were poisonous. Just chatting to this young lad made Lily feel so much less intelligent. Fair play to him.
“How did you learn all this stuff?” Lily asked.
Becky joined them at the table, smile on her face. “They’ve always been fascinated. They’re their father’s children, that’s for sure. Streak of autism probably helps.” She smiled even wider at that. “I’m very proud of them.”
Lily leaned back against the seat, Beast at her feet. “And you?”
“Well, at first, I thought it was just a hobby. In fact, I kind of saw it that way right from the start. We all have our interests, and we all have our little delusions and fantasies. They keep us sane. But… well, it seems to me like all that work paid off in the end.”
Lily nodded. “I’d say so, too.”
“Mummy?” Clarissa said. She was still looking across that table at Lily. She’d been slower to open up.
“What’s up, love?”
She leaned into her ear and whispered something.
Clarissa looked up at Lily and smiled.
“So. My daughter’s incredibly shy. But she just asked me if she could play with your dog.”
Lily laughed. She looked down at Beast. “Oh, he’d love it. He’s not aggressive. Not in the slightest. Might look a bit scary. But honestly, if a mouse ran up to him, he’d hide in a corner.”
Becky laughed and rolled her eyes. “Not exactly ideal in a world like this, hmm?”
“Something like that.” She looked at Clarissa. “Yes. Yes, of course you can play with him.”
Clarissa smiled. She shot her arms into the air and went running off into the back of the motorhome, with Beast not far behind. Aubrey soon followed.
Lily sat at the table with Becky, now. She could sense something about Becky. Something unspoken. Like there was something there.
“They’re good kids. Really, they are. I couldn’t wish for anything more than them.”
Lily smiled as she thought of Alex’s little smile. “I know what you mean.”
“We almost lost Aubrey when he was just three.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
She thought she’d sensed a trauma in Becky. She certainly wasn’t expecting her to be so open about a large source of her trauma already, though. She was opening up. Lily wasn’t sure why. Or where it came from. But people always seemed to open up to her.
Sam used to say she’d be an incredible therapist. That she just had an energy about her. An aura. It was an energy that couldn’t be faked. People just picked up on it. That openness. They picked up on it and they found her easy to talk to as a result. Easy to open up to.
She always doubted it. Thought he was trying to big her up.
But now, she was seeing it again.
Becky shook her head. She hadn’t finished with her story. “Turned out Aubrey had a congenital heart abnormality that wasn’t picked up at birth. A more advanced form of what his old dad has. He got very sick. We didn’t know whether he was going to make it. But he pulled through. In the end, he had a pacemaker fitted. It was a scary time, but just knowing our son’s okay now… that’s worth so much.”
Lily nodded as she looked around at Aubrey, smiling and laughing as Beast licked at his face. “He seems like a great kid. A great kid who has been through an awful lot in his life already. Bless him.”
“The pacemaker,” Becky said. And Lily saw there were tears in her eyes now. “If this CME is as bad as we fear it could be… everything gets cut out. Everything.”
It took Lily a few seconds to understand what Becky was saying. But when the reality hit her, it punched her in the gut.
Hard.
“Becky,” she said. Fuck. What could she say? How did anyone respond to a revelation like that? There she was, thinking all about Alex. All about her and Alex. Like it was the only trauma or tragedy in the world. And this woman was faced with the very real possibility that she was going to lose her son in a matter of hours.
Fuck.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
Becky nodded. “He might well be okay. There’s mixed reports on how pacemakers would be affected by an EMP or CME. There’s mixed reports about how everything will be affected by an EMP. But just… the possibility alone. We don’t know. We can’t know. There’s only one way we’re going to find out. And there’s no running away from it. There’s no way of stopping it. We can only hope. Pray for a miracle. Pray the solar event doesn’t come to fruition. And if it does come to fruition… pray that it doesn’t affect pacemakers in the way we imagine it could.”
A pause. A pause that Lily couldn’t even speak in. A silence. Hanging there. Hanging there with so much weight.
And then, out of nowhere, this woman reached over the table and grabbed Lily’s hands then.
“You promise me you’ll look after your son and cherish him no matter what. And you promise me that you’ll let us help him. Okay? You’ll let us help him and you’ll let us help you. Because society will never rebuild if we don’t learn to rebuild the trust in each other.”
Lily looked into Becky’s tearful eyes, and she felt herself start to cry. She held Becky’s hand as the motorhome kept on moving, and she got flashbacks to when Sam had died. He’d gone out for a jog. He was healthy—almost too healthy.
But somehow there’d been an accident. The circuits in his heart not quite working together in the right way, probably for many years.
It’d killed him. He hadn’t known much about it. He’d gone peacefully, doing what he enjoyed.
But he’d left Lily way too soon. And he’d left her a mess.
But she was going to be strong for him now.
She was going to be strong for her son’s sake.
“I’ll never give up,” Lily said, tightening her grip on Becky’s hand. “I’ll find my son and I’ll protect him no matter what it takes.”
Becky’s hands squeezed tighter. She smiled at Lily. “Good,” she said. “Because we’re going to be right here by your side.”
Lily listened to Aubrey’s laughter as he played with Beast.
She listened to the naive innocence of youth.
And she thought about what might happen to that poor soul in just a matter of hours, and how little precious time he might have left…
She thought of Alex.
THIRTY-FIVE
WILL
DAY TWO: 9:00 A.M
Will was shit-scared about everything going on. Really, he was.
But sometimes being shit-scared made you do some weird things.
Really weird things.
He walked down the country lane with four of his mates, Harry, Eric, Jacob, and Simon. They’d been out walking ever since yesterday. Caused a bit of mayhem while they were out and about. Five lads, out together. It was always gonna happen, wasn’t it?
After all, there was no government anymore. Not as long as the power was out. And sure, they could pretend that they had control of people with that shitty curfew they’d imposed. That message they’d sent out to everyone. It was just like lockdown. Sending the peasants orders, while they were probably partying away right now. That message was supposed to scare people. It was supposed to keep them in line.
But after the COVID lockdown—after that great betrayal—people were never gonna fall for that shit anymore.
He thought back to lockdown. He didn’t see his parents for weeks. His nan died in the middle of it. They couldn’t even have a proper funeral for her.
Finding out that certain sections of the government had been partying away while everyone else was sticking together, trying to do the right thing… That was one of the biggest insults the public had ever received.
The biggest middle finger.
And this time. This time was different. They could send out as many messages as they liked. They could make out they were tough. And that they were in control. And that the power was still with them. They could do all that shit until they were blue in the face for all he cared.
But Will knew the truth and his friends knew the truth.
Without electrical power, you had no power. Not anymore.
Without electrical power… all order disappeared.
The ability to police.
The ability to monitor.
The ability to anything.
It all went away.
They were just making the most of that for as long as it lasted.
“Jacob, mate. Put it away.”
Will looked ahead and saw Jacob pissing at the side of the road. And not for the first damned time, anyway.
“Seriously,” Will said. “You spend more time with that thing outside your pants than inside them.”
“Yeah, well. It needs a bit of fresh air. You seem so obsessed with it. Want a closer look or something?”
He turned around.
“Shit, mate.” Will covered his eyes and looked away. Harry and Eric laughed. Jacob snorted.
“Yeah, well,” Jacob said. “Wanna think about it before having a go next time, don’t you?”
The five of them had been away on a bit of a lads’ camping trip when the news of the CME broke. They were relying on public transport to get them around. But when that hadn’t showed, they’d decided to walk their way back to the city.
They didn’t really understand what was going on. It was a bit shitty and a bit inconvenient. They’d seen a few scraps breaking out, and a few supermarkets struggling to cope with demand. But as far as Will was concerned, things would get better. They’d work themselves out. They always did.
They were just having a bit of fun before things did straighten out.
Simple as that.
He’d always craved something of a rebellious life. Didn’t everyone, to a degree? A life where you could get away with shit. Where you could do the kinds of things our ancestors used to do, without some government figure judging you for it, punishing you for it. One of the reasons he loved video games so much. Loved role playing games, especially. That escapism. That chance to live out an alternate life.
And in those alternate lives… he found himself leaning towards the badder side.
Towards the darker sides.
Always.
“I’m fucking starving, man,” Jacob said. “Can’t we like, rob a house or something?”
“Rob a house?” Harry said. “You gone completely bat-shit mad or something?”
“Well,” Jacob said, shrugging. “It’s not like the police’ll be fussed about us doing it. There’s gonna be so much crime going on that when the power does get back, they won’t be able to catch up with us anyway. Besides. I’m only on about stealing a fucking sandwich, not a TV. Maybe even make some bitch make us one, or something, right?”
Will felt the tension building up inside. Jacob could be a dick. He had a weird sense of humour. They’d been friends for a long time, so sometimes he didn’t properly recognise when he was stepping over the line or not. He was the kind of joker who made these dark comments, then when he got pushed on them, he used the classic, “I was only joking” defence.
But Will knew the truth. He knew him well.
He had an even darker side than Will did.
But also reassuring. Because at least she knew this guy probably wasn’t a weirdo if he had a family.
Unless his family was a motorhome full of bloody dolls.
Now that would be a plot twist in itself.
She stepped in through the side door. Holding her breath. Growing a little more nervous. A little more cautious.
And then she saw them.
There was a woman and two kids. The children—a boy and a girl—were young, probably barely cracking ten. The woman had mousy brown hair and a nice, friendly smile on her face. A ponytail was tied and dangling right down her back. She looked welcoming. And again, that welcoming nature made Lily uncertain.
“This is my wife, Becky. And these are our two little devils, Aubrey and Clarissa. Say hi, kids. This here’s Lily.”
Clarissa stared at Lily with wide blue eyes. Aubrey grinned at her and waved.
“Oh, don’t mind our children,” Becky said. “They’re ridiculously shy at first, but once you get to know them, you’ll be lucky if you ever shut them up. So, thanks for coming here and giving us an opportunity for some peace and quiet, even if it isn’t for long.”
Lily smiled. “I know how it is. My son…”
She stopped, then.
“I’m sorry,” Becky said. “Did something happen to—”
“No,” Lily said. “I mean, I hope not. He’s still out there camping over Ambleside way. I was on my way to find him, and then some bad things happened. That’s why I was walking.”
“I’m sure wherever he is out there, you’ll be reunited with him soon. It’s good to know he has a strong mother out there searching for him against the odds no matter what.”
Lily felt a twinge of pride when Becky said those words. A strong mother. She’d never thought of it that way before. She’d especially never considered herself “strong.”
But then… she’d done things already that pushed her past the limits of what she thought she was capable of. Maybe she was strong after all.
“Anyway,” Steve said. “Enough nattering. Who’s for porridge?”
Lily watched as Steve ignited a strange-looking little portable stove, battery powered by the looks of things. She realised then that this motorhome was full of strange little gadgets—not to mention absolute stacks of canned supplies.
“You guys look like you’re all ready for what’s about to happen,” Lily said.
“Hobby of mine,” Steve said. “Spent the last eleven years researching prepping for the end of the world. Drove Becky half-mad, not to mention my kids. But now they know… Well, they’re pretty grateful, aren’t they, hun?”
Becky rolled her eyes. “Don’t allow him a moment to boast.”
“I’m right, though,” Steve said, as he stepped back and allowed the porridge to boil. “I mean, we could use the hobs. Really, we could. But why would we when we’ve got an opportunity to practice with the very tools we’ll be using when the power all goes out?”
“Isn’t there a chance all the battery-powered stuff’ll go down too?” Lily asked.
Steve pointed to the roof of the motorhome. “All lined with materials to make sure that doesn’t happen. The engine on the other hand…”
He didn’t finish, then. Just cleared his throat. Lily sensed an underlying uncertainty about something.
“I’ll teach you a few tricks, if you want,” Steve said. “I mean, you’re gonna need to know them going forward. The plan is to head up into the hills and set up camp there. What’ll happen over the next few weeks is people will gradually flock to the cities. If we can head to the hills then we can scan the villages for supplies. Then when the supplies run out there, we use nature to keep us alive. It won’t be easy. But we’re a step ahead of ninety-nine percent of people. So, whaddya say? Coming along for the journey?”
Lily wanted to say yes. She still couldn’t believe that things were being talked about in this way. But it was all happening so fast, and something was holding her back.
“I can’t,” she said.
Steve looked at her, disappointed. “Why not?”
Lily swallowed a lump in her throat. “As long as my son’s still out there, I can’t just give up on him.”
There was a pause, then. A silence. And in that silence, Lily sensed that the people around her understood the grim predicament she was in.
“We can help you find your son.”
Lily looked at Steve. She narrowed her eyes. “You… you can’t. You have to—”
“You said your son was in the Lakes, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Then we’ve got plenty of time to get there. But we have to move quickly. Because make no mistake about it, the clock is well and truly ticking.”
Lily shook her head. Tears were building in her eyes. “How… how can you do this for someone else? Someone you’ve only just met?”
Steve looked at Becky and smiled. Then, he sighed. “Because we’ve got two little devils of our own. And I know damn well I’d do anything to get back with them if I were in your shoes. So, what d’you say?”
Lily looked at Aubrey and Clarissa’s smiling little faces. Then, she looked at Becky, and back at Steve. She was still nervous. She was still sceptical about all of this.
But above everything, she was hopeful.
She nodded her head. “I’m in.”
“Good,” Steve said. “But we have to move quick. Because once the CME hits and the power goes… it goes for good.”
THIRTY-FOUR
LILY
DAY TWO: 8:30 A.M
An hour and a half of travelling with the Billingdon family and already Lily was starting to feel comfortable in their company.
Which was a remarkable development in itself.
The motorhome was warm, the sun shining in through the windows. Lily was sitting at the table with Aubrey and Clarissa. They were opening up a little, just as Becky had warned her. But it was nice to chat with them. It was nice to see them so calm about this entire situation. All Lily had seen up to now in the first twenty-four hours of this mess was panic. To suddenly see such certainty and self-assurance… it changed things. It certainly made her a fair bit more comfortable, too.
“The best thing to keep water in when you store is food containers,” Aubrey said, walking Lily through all kinds of tidbits of knowledge that a kid of his age had no right knowing—but she was glad he did. “Lots of people use milk bottles, but they aren’t good. They start leaking after a bit and they make everything else wet. But if you do use food containers you have to make sure they’re for food only or you could get sick from some of the stuff in there.”
Lily nodded, genuinely fascinated by everything this bright young man had told her. He’d told her that satellite phones could still be useful in a post-CME world. He’d told her about all different kinds of plants—the ones that were good, the ones that were poisonous. Just chatting to this young lad made Lily feel so much less intelligent. Fair play to him.
“How did you learn all this stuff?” Lily asked.
Becky joined them at the table, smile on her face. “They’ve always been fascinated. They’re their father’s children, that’s for sure. Streak of autism probably helps.” She smiled even wider at that. “I’m very proud of them.”
Lily leaned back against the seat, Beast at her feet. “And you?”
“Well, at first, I thought it was just a hobby. In fact, I kind of saw it that way right from the start. We all have our interests, and we all have our little delusions and fantasies. They keep us sane. But… well, it seems to me like all that work paid off in the end.”
Lily nodded. “I’d say so, too.”
“Mummy?” Clarissa said. She was still looking across that table at Lily. She’d been slower to open up.
“What’s up, love?”
She leaned into her ear and whispered something.
Clarissa looked up at Lily and smiled.
“So. My daughter’s incredibly shy. But she just asked me if she could play with your dog.”
Lily laughed. She looked down at Beast. “Oh, he’d love it. He’s not aggressive. Not in the slightest. Might look a bit scary. But honestly, if a mouse ran up to him, he’d hide in a corner.”
Becky laughed and rolled her eyes. “Not exactly ideal in a world like this, hmm?”
“Something like that.” She looked at Clarissa. “Yes. Yes, of course you can play with him.”
Clarissa smiled. She shot her arms into the air and went running off into the back of the motorhome, with Beast not far behind. Aubrey soon followed.
Lily sat at the table with Becky, now. She could sense something about Becky. Something unspoken. Like there was something there.
“They’re good kids. Really, they are. I couldn’t wish for anything more than them.”
Lily smiled as she thought of Alex’s little smile. “I know what you mean.”
“We almost lost Aubrey when he was just three.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.”
She thought she’d sensed a trauma in Becky. She certainly wasn’t expecting her to be so open about a large source of her trauma already, though. She was opening up. Lily wasn’t sure why. Or where it came from. But people always seemed to open up to her.
Sam used to say she’d be an incredible therapist. That she just had an energy about her. An aura. It was an energy that couldn’t be faked. People just picked up on it. That openness. They picked up on it and they found her easy to talk to as a result. Easy to open up to.
She always doubted it. Thought he was trying to big her up.
But now, she was seeing it again.
Becky shook her head. She hadn’t finished with her story. “Turned out Aubrey had a congenital heart abnormality that wasn’t picked up at birth. A more advanced form of what his old dad has. He got very sick. We didn’t know whether he was going to make it. But he pulled through. In the end, he had a pacemaker fitted. It was a scary time, but just knowing our son’s okay now… that’s worth so much.”
Lily nodded as she looked around at Aubrey, smiling and laughing as Beast licked at his face. “He seems like a great kid. A great kid who has been through an awful lot in his life already. Bless him.”
“The pacemaker,” Becky said. And Lily saw there were tears in her eyes now. “If this CME is as bad as we fear it could be… everything gets cut out. Everything.”
It took Lily a few seconds to understand what Becky was saying. But when the reality hit her, it punched her in the gut.
Hard.
“Becky,” she said. Fuck. What could she say? How did anyone respond to a revelation like that? There she was, thinking all about Alex. All about her and Alex. Like it was the only trauma or tragedy in the world. And this woman was faced with the very real possibility that she was going to lose her son in a matter of hours.
Fuck.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
Becky nodded. “He might well be okay. There’s mixed reports on how pacemakers would be affected by an EMP or CME. There’s mixed reports about how everything will be affected by an EMP. But just… the possibility alone. We don’t know. We can’t know. There’s only one way we’re going to find out. And there’s no running away from it. There’s no way of stopping it. We can only hope. Pray for a miracle. Pray the solar event doesn’t come to fruition. And if it does come to fruition… pray that it doesn’t affect pacemakers in the way we imagine it could.”
A pause. A pause that Lily couldn’t even speak in. A silence. Hanging there. Hanging there with so much weight.
And then, out of nowhere, this woman reached over the table and grabbed Lily’s hands then.
“You promise me you’ll look after your son and cherish him no matter what. And you promise me that you’ll let us help him. Okay? You’ll let us help him and you’ll let us help you. Because society will never rebuild if we don’t learn to rebuild the trust in each other.”
Lily looked into Becky’s tearful eyes, and she felt herself start to cry. She held Becky’s hand as the motorhome kept on moving, and she got flashbacks to when Sam had died. He’d gone out for a jog. He was healthy—almost too healthy.
But somehow there’d been an accident. The circuits in his heart not quite working together in the right way, probably for many years.
It’d killed him. He hadn’t known much about it. He’d gone peacefully, doing what he enjoyed.
But he’d left Lily way too soon. And he’d left her a mess.
But she was going to be strong for him now.
She was going to be strong for her son’s sake.
“I’ll never give up,” Lily said, tightening her grip on Becky’s hand. “I’ll find my son and I’ll protect him no matter what it takes.”
Becky’s hands squeezed tighter. She smiled at Lily. “Good,” she said. “Because we’re going to be right here by your side.”
Lily listened to Aubrey’s laughter as he played with Beast.
She listened to the naive innocence of youth.
And she thought about what might happen to that poor soul in just a matter of hours, and how little precious time he might have left…
She thought of Alex.
THIRTY-FIVE
WILL
DAY TWO: 9:00 A.M
Will was shit-scared about everything going on. Really, he was.
But sometimes being shit-scared made you do some weird things.
Really weird things.
He walked down the country lane with four of his mates, Harry, Eric, Jacob, and Simon. They’d been out walking ever since yesterday. Caused a bit of mayhem while they were out and about. Five lads, out together. It was always gonna happen, wasn’t it?
After all, there was no government anymore. Not as long as the power was out. And sure, they could pretend that they had control of people with that shitty curfew they’d imposed. That message they’d sent out to everyone. It was just like lockdown. Sending the peasants orders, while they were probably partying away right now. That message was supposed to scare people. It was supposed to keep them in line.
But after the COVID lockdown—after that great betrayal—people were never gonna fall for that shit anymore.
He thought back to lockdown. He didn’t see his parents for weeks. His nan died in the middle of it. They couldn’t even have a proper funeral for her.
Finding out that certain sections of the government had been partying away while everyone else was sticking together, trying to do the right thing… That was one of the biggest insults the public had ever received.
The biggest middle finger.
And this time. This time was different. They could send out as many messages as they liked. They could make out they were tough. And that they were in control. And that the power was still with them. They could do all that shit until they were blue in the face for all he cared.
But Will knew the truth and his friends knew the truth.
Without electrical power, you had no power. Not anymore.
Without electrical power… all order disappeared.
The ability to police.
The ability to monitor.
The ability to anything.
It all went away.
They were just making the most of that for as long as it lasted.
“Jacob, mate. Put it away.”
Will looked ahead and saw Jacob pissing at the side of the road. And not for the first damned time, anyway.
“Seriously,” Will said. “You spend more time with that thing outside your pants than inside them.”
“Yeah, well. It needs a bit of fresh air. You seem so obsessed with it. Want a closer look or something?”
He turned around.
“Shit, mate.” Will covered his eyes and looked away. Harry and Eric laughed. Jacob snorted.
“Yeah, well,” Jacob said. “Wanna think about it before having a go next time, don’t you?”
The five of them had been away on a bit of a lads’ camping trip when the news of the CME broke. They were relying on public transport to get them around. But when that hadn’t showed, they’d decided to walk their way back to the city.
They didn’t really understand what was going on. It was a bit shitty and a bit inconvenient. They’d seen a few scraps breaking out, and a few supermarkets struggling to cope with demand. But as far as Will was concerned, things would get better. They’d work themselves out. They always did.
They were just having a bit of fun before things did straighten out.
Simple as that.
He’d always craved something of a rebellious life. Didn’t everyone, to a degree? A life where you could get away with shit. Where you could do the kinds of things our ancestors used to do, without some government figure judging you for it, punishing you for it. One of the reasons he loved video games so much. Loved role playing games, especially. That escapism. That chance to live out an alternate life.
And in those alternate lives… he found himself leaning towards the badder side.
Towards the darker sides.
Always.
“I’m fucking starving, man,” Jacob said. “Can’t we like, rob a house or something?”
“Rob a house?” Harry said. “You gone completely bat-shit mad or something?”
“Well,” Jacob said, shrugging. “It’s not like the police’ll be fussed about us doing it. There’s gonna be so much crime going on that when the power does get back, they won’t be able to catch up with us anyway. Besides. I’m only on about stealing a fucking sandwich, not a TV. Maybe even make some bitch make us one, or something, right?”
Will felt the tension building up inside. Jacob could be a dick. He had a weird sense of humour. They’d been friends for a long time, so sometimes he didn’t properly recognise when he was stepping over the line or not. He was the kind of joker who made these dark comments, then when he got pushed on them, he used the classic, “I was only joking” defence.
But Will knew the truth. He knew him well.
He had an even darker side than Will did.
