Well screw her.

  Screw them both.

  “We’re going to be okay,” Susan said. “We’re going to make it, you and me.”

  Olly smiled back at her. “I know,” he said.

  But as she turned away, he felt his face drop instantly.

  He loved his friends. He loved his girlfriend. Really, he did.

  And they would forgive him. One day, they’d forgive him.

  But as soon as they got their supplies, and as soon as they got them back to the cottage, that was when he needed to act.

  He was going to take some supplies for himself.

  He was going to take Bethany’s car—seeing as it was the only car he could take after Dan’s parents brought the rest of them up here—and head back home to the city.

  He was going to leave them all.

  Because sometimes survival meant making the difficult decisions.

  He looked across the shimmering water at the shop, which grew ever nearer, and he paddled harder.

  They would forgive him.

  They would understand.

  One day.

  TWENTY-SIX

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 12:45 P.M

  “Get out of my fucking car right this second. Don’t make me ask you again, either.”

  Lily gripped the steering wheel of the stolen car with her shaking hands. What was she doing? What the actual hell was she doing? This wasn’t her. Stealing anything. Let alone a car. And sure, she needed to get away from here. She needed to find Alex, her son. But like this? No. That was madness. It was crazy.

  And yet here she was.

  This was what the shock of what’d happened to Terrance had driven her to.

  And what the panic had done to her.

  Her heart raced. Her chest tightened. Everything around her seemed to be blurring away, and all that mattered was the situation she was in right now: the man and his two children standing opposite her.

  The man telling her to get out of his car.

  She sat there and she didn’t feel like she was in reality right now. It was as if she was outside her body, looking at something unfold.

  But that wasn’t the case, was it? She was very much deep in this situation right now. Deep, deep in it.

  She tasted a bitterness right at the back of her throat as she looked at those two beautiful children. A boy and a girl. Neither of them could be far off Alex’s age. The thought of stealing from them suddenly became all the more real. The guilt kicked in again. The shame. She wasn’t thinking straight. Everything that’d happened today, it had driven her to this reaction.

  But this wasn’t right.

  It just wasn’t right.

  She was stealing from a man who was just trying to help his children get by.

  Just hours after she’d been told to stay in her home, she was out here acting like a savage.

  What did that make her?

  The man’s hands slammed against the car bonnet. “It’s not a question. You’re going to get the hell out of my car right now, or I will physically drag you out. None of us want that.”

  Lily looked around. More people in their cars and outside their cars were staring on. Some of them were shaking their heads, whispering to one another, tutting. She wanted more than anything to just curl up into a ball and disappear, as the embarrassment and the anxiety multiplied. Beast sat by her side panting, like this was all just a novelty to him.

  She was ashamed.

  But she needed to find Alex.

  She needed to find her son.

  Just how far was she willing to go on that quest?

  She kept hold of the steering wheel. Even though she knew she should get out and go, there was an opening ahead of her. A small gap, in between a few of the cars stacked up on this road. She should just put her foot down. The man would jump. He’d drag his children out of the way. He’d do anything to protect them. Any parent would.

  But what if he didn’t?

  She couldn’t live with the knowledge that she’d hurt someone… or even worse.

  She couldn’t just drive off.

  That wasn’t her.

  So she was going to have to try something else.

  “My son,” she said. “I… I didn’t want to steal from you. Really, I didn’t. But⁠—”

  “Get out of the car.” He didn’t seem to be listening. Even slightly.

  “I was with a neighbour. A friend. We—we were trying to gather supplies of our own. But something happened. He… Someone stabbed him. And now it’s just me and my dog.”

  “Don’t make me ask again.” Still, none of her words were getting through.

  “I’m trying to find my son. Alex, he’s called. He’s probably about the same age as your son. And I… I’ve screwed up. I know that. I can see it. But I’m sorry. Really.”

  She expected the man to shout at her again. She expected him to demand she stepped out of the car.

  But something in his eyes had changed. He looked like he understood her, somehow.

  “We have to stick together,” Lily said. Echoing a sentiment Terrance had shared. “We can’t let everything tear us apart. I need… I need your help. Please.”

  The man started walking slowly around the side of the car then. He got to the driver’s door, put his hand on it gently.

  “Come on,” he said. “Just open up.”

  A speck of hope filled Lily’s body. He seemed calmer. She felt confident she had diffused the situation, then. Maybe he’d help her find Alex.

  She let go of the steering wheel as the man opened the driver’s door.

  He looked her right in her eyes.

  “I don’t give a shit about your son,” he said.

  He grabbed her then, right by the hair. She tried to wriggle free of his grasp, but it was already too late. He threw her out of the car. She smacked face-first against the road and tasted blood. Beast—soft as he was—hopped over to her without trying to defend her and licked at her face, making sure she was okay. He didn’t go to attack the man or anything. He was more interested in looking out for her.

  She lifted herself up, hair covering her face, palms on the road. She looked up at the man, then at all the other people trapped in their cars around, all watching. Some of them recording. Some wincing. Some asking if she was okay. But still keeping a distance. And she felt like she was beyond embarrassment now. She was beyond anxiety. She was beyond it all.

  “How dare you,” the man said. “How dare you have the absolute gall to tell me that we have to ‘stick together’ when you’ve just wrecked that man’s car over there, when you’ve just knocked that guy off his bicycle, and when you’ve tried to steal from me and my children.”

  “Please,” Lily said.

  The man rushed over to her. “How dare you.”

  She braced herself for a kick or a punch. And maybe she’d deserve it.

  She gritted her teeth.

  Waited for the pain.

  But it didn’t hit.

  Instead, the man just exhaled strongly out of his nose and backed off. “You did this. Remember this. You did this.”

  He reached into his car then and grabbed a protein shake off the back seat.

  He threw it at her. Hard.

  “Enjoy this. Because the way you’re going, it’ll be the last fucking scrap you ever consume. I hope you find your son. I hope you wake up. I hope you realise it’s not all about you. But we’re done. Savour that drink. It’s more than you deserve. Come on, kids.”

  They got into the car. And when they climbed in, Lily saw the boy peeking through the back window at her. For a moment she thought she was looking right at her Alex. He was his double. His absolute double.

  And that only went to make her guilt over what she’d just attempted even worse.

  Her shame even worse.

  But then the car turned around, left the pile-up—like so many others were doing now—and drove away.

  Lily stayed on the road, Beast by her side.

  She stayed there, eyes burning into her.

  People trying to speak to her.

  Asking if she was okay.

  Surrounding her.

  But she couldn’t stay here. Not with the chaos she’d already caused. Not with the reputation she’d gained for herself. If she stuck around here much longer, she wasn’t going to be in for the best time.

  Besides. When this solar flare picked up, if Terrance was right, then it wouldn’t just be phones and lights—a whole bunch of cars were going to feel the full force of it, too.

  Totally defeated, protein shake in hand, she forced herself to her feet, Beast beside her.

  She swallowed the metallic taste of blood in her mouth and she looked over the embankment at the side of the road, over towards the trees.

  And then, before she could cause any more chaos, she walked.

  Alone.

  Lost.

  Totally lost.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  BETHANY

  DAY ONE: 2:00 P.M

  It was a whole hour later and they were at the next shop on their journey, and the nerves were truly beginning to kick the hell in.

  The sun had well and truly broken through the thick covering of clouds now. It was one of the nicest afternoons Bethany could remember for quite some time, in a strange kind of way. In a way, that was a problem, too, because she was growing thirsty and tired of all this physical activity. Which wasn’t ideal, with these weird blackouts already spreading across the country—and what was going to follow when the next hit came and punched the power out entirely.

  But she was quietly optimistic, too. This shop looked far less ominous than the last one. And while she couldn’t account for what—or who—might be inside, the chances of running into someone as nutty as the guy at the last place were surely slim. That was a rare incident. One that couldn’t have been predicted. But it didn’t mean every shop was going to be like that. They’d been unlucky. That’s all it was.

  Right?

  “You remember the plan?” Dan asked.

  Bethany rolled her eyes. She heard Susan sighing. Dan’s famous Plan B.

  “Two-way radios. Torches. Electronics that we can store in a Faraday cage and protect. Then the other stuff, too. Protection from the cold, like thermal blankets. Because even though it’s warm today, it’s not going to be that way forever. We could do with some charcoal to cook with… but that’ll run out eventually, so it’s only a short-term solution. And more important than anything, we need to work on a rainwater collection method, and figure out a way to keep the barrels we’re collecting it in shielded from debris and things like that. It’s… it’s not going to be easy getting all this stuff here. But we’ve already done this shop once, remember.”

  Dan nodded at himself, but he didn’t seem totally satisfied. Even though, admittedly, he knew a bunch about surviving, he didn’t seem confident in himself. Bethany was surprised how much he knew. Sure, Olly was less convinced by Dan’s knowledge. And he could be a bit of a cock at times. But right now, he was the only one who had anything even near a plan. That was something. “I don’t think this place will be quite as well stocked with the things we need, unfortunately.. But it’ll do the trick. As long as we can just get enough then… well. That’ll do. For now. Until we need more.”

  “I’m still looking forward to hunting lessons,” Susan said. “Real life Lara Crofts in no time, right Bethany?”

  Bethany smiled. She knew she was acting quiet. That was just in her nature whenever she was a little nervous. She always closed off whenever she was getting nervy. Besides, she’d never been one to speak up in circumstances or situations like these. She preferred to just let other people make the decisions and the calls. So it was typical that she was doing that all over again. She did it with Mum and Dad. She did it with Stephen. And now she was doing it all over again, when things were perhaps more desperate than ever. She knew it wasn’t ideal. What was it Dad said the last time they’d spoken? Something about taking responsibility. Which, ironically, was exactly what Dan had said earlier, too, at the shop.

  She was beginning to notice a theme. And she wasn’t sure how to feel about it at all.

  But at least she was acknowledging that there was a problem. At least she recognised that things had to change.

  “You all good, Beth?”

  She turned around and was once again surprised to see that it was Olly who had spoken to her. Which was weird. Olly never just smiled and addressed other people out of the blue. He was quite timid—or rude, she hadn’t ever really figured that out.

  But right now, he was smiling quite widely at her.

  He seemed to have taken something of a shine to her today. He and Susan weren’t talking much. They were an odd couple. They didn’t even seem like much of a couple, to be honest. They didn’t even seem like friends. They were an odd match.

  She rubbed the back of her neck. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I’m good. You?”

  “Good,” he said, quite simply and assertively. “That’s good.” He didn’t say any more for now. It made her feel a bit weird, though. Again. Nice that he was checking in on her. She just wished he was a bit clearer about what he wanted and what he was thinking.

  Which she knew was a bit rich coming from her, since she’d closed off completely. But still.

  They walked on towards the shop. The electronic doors were still working, another thing that the people of this world took for granted. Another thing that, if the CME news was true, would be gone in a flash.

  There would be so many things that disappeared. So many things that they just took as given… gone.

  They walked inside the shop and right away Bethany felt anxious about the size of it. It was smaller than the last one they’d been to, the corridors more narrow. Anything could be waiting around the corner. Anyone could be watching.

  And she got that feeling that someone was watching, once again.

  Maybe it was legit. Maybe someone was watching.

  Or maybe it was all in her head.

  Maybe her mind was playing tricks.

  She hoped so.

  She got on with the things she’d been allocated to gather—canned food, mostly. Spam, canned chicken and beef, kidney beans, baked beans and tuna were all top of the list for various reasons. Sure, canned food wasn’t exactly as nutritious as fresh, but there was only one way they were going to get fresh when the new world really took a hold…

  To be honest, the focus on trying to find these items distracted her from the wider horrors of events and how they were going to go. She didn’t know for how long she’d be able to distract herself, but as long as she could for now, then that was something.

  But there was something that was really bothering her, and that was why this place was so quiet. Dan had insisted it wasn’t as well a populated an area as even the village earlier had been. But still, that didn’t mean this place should be a ghost town, right?

  People were sure to be flocking to places like this.

  There were millions of people in Britain.

  Where were they?

  Then again, this was the countryside. When the message broke of the solar storm, perhaps the vast majority of people had done the seemingly sensible thing and headed straight home.

  Maybe that’s what Bethany should’ve done too at the first sign of trouble.

  So maybe, for some reason, they just hadn’t made it here yet.

  After gathering some more tins, Bethany turned a corner and spotted a box of two-way radios. They weren’t her thing, but she could get them back to Dan. He’d be impressed. At least it’d prove she was pulling her weight.

  On her way to find Dan, Bethany saw something unusual.

  Olly, who was supposed to be helping Dan gather the electrical supplies and something for this “Faraday cage” of his, was looking intently at the stacks of water bottles.

  “You okay, Olly?”

  He looked up at Bethany, shakily. “Yeah. Saw some water. Thought it’d be silly to ignore it.”

  He had a point. But Bethany still couldn’t shake her suspicion of this guy. “Well Dan’s supposed to be on that. So he’ll get round to it, I’m sure.”

  Olly nodded. “Right.”

  She turned away to get back to her salvaging.

  “Bethany?”

  She looked back. And for a moment she saw a flash of uncertainty in Olly’s eyes. Guilt.

  “What?”

  He opened his mouth then he shook his head and smiled. “Nothing. Just… just glad we’re all together, that’s all.”

  Bethany felt guilty then. Maybe she’d been harsh on Olly. This wasn’t an easy set of circumstances, and everyone was bound to deal with them in their own, different ways.

  “Me too,” she said, smiling back at him. “Me too.”

  She heard something outside and went over to Dan and Susan.

  “What was that?” Susan asked.

  Bethany went still. Totally still.

  “It was nothing,” Dan said. “Just⁠—”

  Laughter.

  Then a barrage of footsteps marching into the shop.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Dan said. “Now!”

  He ran off, Susan and Olly closely behind him.

  Bethany went to move.

  But then she saw something.

  The men were inside the shop.

  She’d missed her opportunity.

  There was no time for her to get out of here.

  She crouched down behind the shelves and listened as the people stepped inside. Bethany’s heart raced. She wanted to believe these were just good people. Normal people who were just here to get some supplies of their own.

  Then she heard them.

  “Get the fucking water first,” a man’s gruff voice said.

  “And if there’s anyone in here?”

  “Fuck ’em,” he said. “You saw the message. What’s here is ours now. And nobody’s gonna fucking mess with us.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 8:00 P.M