The sun was setting—already, unbelievably—and Lily had no idea where she was or where she was going.

  Night was settling in, no doubt about it. Soon, darkness would be here in full force. It’d been a nice day, mostly. Sunny. But now it was getting later, the sun setting was making everything a whole lot cooler.

  But Lily didn’t care. She was running out of care.

  She just wanted to find Alex.

  She just had to keep on going.

  Even though she was finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping on going at this stage.

  She looked down at Beast. He was slumping along by her side. He was always into his walks, so for him to be showing visible discontent must be a bad sign.

  “It’s okay, lad,” she said, out of breath and losing the sensation in her blistered feet. “We’ll be there soon.”

  When she said those words, she felt guilty. Because she knew damn well she couldn’t guarantee that they’d be anywhere soon. She’d tried loosely following roads leading to the campsite where her son was, but it’d been a while since she’d seen a sign for Ambleside and she was in the middle of the countryside. Tall hedges either side of her. Nowhere to turn.

  She could only keep on going.

  She could only walk onwards.

  She thought about asking someone for help. But her run-in on the road had knocked her right back to square one, confidence-wise. Everyone was out for themselves, now. Herself included. The bloke was right. It was selfish of her to lecture him on “sticking together” when she was literally on the brink of stealing his car. It wasn’t her finest moment. She was ashamed.

  As she lifted one foot and put it in front of the other, she looked down at the protein shake in her other hand. She hadn’t even had a sip of it yet. She wanted to make it last as long as she possibly could—she’d only drink it if she absolutely needed to.

  And she needed to. She really needed to.

  But she was going to make it last even longer.

  She thought about Terrance. Alone, in the car park. No way of contacting an ambulance. No one around willing to even help, either. Panic setting in. Surely someone had found him by now. Moved him. There were good people around. But this was never about good or bad. What were they supposed to do with him? The roads were gridlocked. The emergency lines were down. The hospitals were crowded already no doubt. And they were only going to get worse.

  The further she walked, the more Lily began to realise something, as she thought back to the incident on the road earlier. She could still taste the blood from it.

  And the more she thought about it, the more she started to realise that there had been something holding her back all along. And that something was her inability to reach out to other people. Her inability to push herself out of her comfort zone and seek help before trying to go for the more obvious option—and end up doing something selfish as a result.

  It was a problem. It’d always been a problem with her, trying to self-medicate, trying to sort herself out. It’d been a problem that had alleviated a little when Sam was alive.

  But that problem had reared its ugly head all over again now he was gone.

  And it’d reared it even more now she was facing a catastrophe all on her own.

  She knew she needed to change. She knew she needed to find the strength to be different.

  But she couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

  A splitting pain shot right up her right foot, and she didn’t even try to fight it anymore.

  She fell to the ground.

  Her heart raced. Her breathing became laboured. Everything around her felt like it was spinning.

  She lifted her phone to her ear and with her shaking hand, she hovered over the voicemail. She knew she shouldn’t. After all, the voicemail was dangerous. It was where she always went to when she needed comfort… but it never brought her comfort. Never.

  But she needed a fix right now.

  She tapped on his name in the voicemail section of the phone.

  She listened to the crackling of the line and wondered if maybe the voicemail network was down too.

  Then, she heard his voice.

  “Hey Lil. Heading home from work now. Just wondered if you wanted me to grab you a pizza on my way back? Ciao!”

  She felt a tear roll down her cheek. Her battery was running low. She knew she should try and make it last, even if she didn’t need it right now.

  But she replayed the message.

  Again.

  And again.

  And again.

  And for the first time all day, Lily felt total happiness.

  She was okay as long as she was with Sam.

  She was okay as long as he was beside her.

  She kept on playing it until the voice cut off mid-speech.

  When she looked at her phone, her battery had finally cut out completely.

  And as she sat there on the road, Beast beside her, the sun edging closer to the horizon, she closed her eyes.

  TWENTY-NINE

  BETHANY

  DAY ONE: 3:00 P.M

  Bethany held her breath as the heavy footsteps of the men got closer to her position on the floor of the shop.

  She stared at the end of the aisle that she was on. If she could just run across there, she could find her way to the door and sneak out. Dan, Olly and Susan had clearly managed it. There was no reason why she couldn’t, too.

  But she’d been further into the store when the men had entered. She’d tried to loop around them, only to notice them taking a different route.

  So now it was just her and them.

  She listened to the men throwing stuff onto the floor and she knew they weren’t the orderly type by that alone. They were causing a racket, clearly no care for the supplies that they didn’t deem necessary.

  Bethany didn’t want to cross them any time soon.

  She held her breath, heart racing, the taste of vomit surfacing, and wished there was someone here to help her. She could attempt to make the run. She didn’t have much time, but she could make it for sure.

  But she wanted someone beside her to hold her hand, to tell her everything was going to be okay.

  Only that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Check the electronics,” one of the men said, his voice gruff. “Two-way radios, walkie-talkies, things like that.”

  She had all the remaining two-way radios in her bag.

  And she was on the electronics aisle.

  Her grip tightened. Her knees locked.

  She could hear the man getting closer, emerging around the corner.

  There was no use in hiding anymore. Hiding wasn’t going to save her this time.

  So she did the only thing she could think to do.

  She stood up and she made a break for it.

  She didn’t hear any shouts. She didn’t hear anyone alerted to her presence.

  She just heard her footsteps thumping against the floor as she made her way to the shop door.

  She could do this. She could make this. She could⁠—

  Someone stepped out in front of her.

  She stopped right away. Her halt was so sudden that she slid back, cracked her head on the floor beneath her.

  “Well,” he said, walking over to her. “What do we have here?”

  Bethany’s head spun. She kept hold of the two-way radios. She tried to crawl back in the direction she’d come from, but two men were standing there blocking her way.

  She was alone with these men.

  She looked at all of them. They were all muscular, covered in tattoos. All of their heads were shaven down to skin. And they all had this weird look in their eyes. The only thing Bethany could compare it to was that look people sometimes gave you when you were playing in the school playground when you were younger. That sense that these people were excited; that they were living out some twisted fantasy in a world without boundaries.

  “Do you speak?”

  “Just let me go.”

  “Oh! You do speak.”

  The man in front of Bethany held out a hand. She didn’t want to take it. She knew what men could become when society’s boundaries were taken away. Even when the boundaries were in place, they could still transform into monsters.

  “Just let me go. Please.”

  The man sighed and he pulled his hand back. “See, we could let you go. We really could.”

  A pause. And that pause dragged on forever. In all truth, Bethany wasn’t sure she wanted to hear what followed it.

  “Or,” he said, “you can hand us those supplies you’ve gathered there.”

  Bethany’s stomach turned. On the one hand, she was relieved that they were asking for nothing more than supplies. But on the other hand, she’d worked hard for these supplies. She couldn’t screw up. Not again.

  “I need to survive too,” she said.

  “Oh, sure,” the man said, folding his arms and nodding. “I can believe that. But what do you need two-way radios for to survive on your own?”

  Bethany looked at her bag.

  She could see a box of two-way radios showing.

  The man stepped over to her and crouched over her. He was so close that Bethany could smell his rancid breath, and see a fleck of meat between his coffee-stained teeth. “I won’t ask who you’re taking those for. I won’t even ask how many of you there are. All I ask is that you hand your stuff over. All of it. Otherwise… well, we’re gonna have to think of something, aren’t we love?”

  Bethany’s heart raced. She couldn’t believe what this man was implying. She’d been told that the world was full of monsters like him, but she’d never truly believed it. Sure, there were creeps, but the vast majority of people just seemed… well, normal.

  It was day one and already she’d learned that wasn’t true.

  She couldn't believe just how quickly the world was losing its grip.

  If this was day one, what would day two be like?

  And, god forbid, day thirty?

  “Come on,” he said, reaching out a hand to touch her hair. “We don’t need to delay any longer here. What’s it gonna be?”

  Bethany looked at the bag full of two-way radios and the other supplies she’d gathered.

  She wanted to hand them over. She didn’t want this to be her responsibility.

  But… no.

  She reached into the bag and pulled out one two-way radio.

  Then she grabbed another, and another, leaving her with two of her own.

  She slid them over to the men. She saw them each looking at the boxes.

  “I appreciate you handing me this, love,” the main guy said, lifting the box. “But I said I wanted all of your⁠—”

  “Tough,” Bethany said.

  Then she did something she never thought she had in her.

  Something that she knew was going to put her in major danger.

  But something she knew she had to do.

  She swung the bag across the man’s face.

  Hard.

  She watched his head fly to the side. Blood flew out of his mouth. He lost his balance completely and tumbled to the floor.

  She was caught up in adrenaline. Every instinct in her body told her to stay put.

  But she knew doing so was suicide.

  So she got up and ran.

  She dodged the outstretched fingers of the two other men. She pushed the shelves down on her way, blocking their escape.

  And when she got to the door of the shop, she ran and ran, and she didn’t stop running.

  She didn’t look back.

  It must’ve been about fifteen minutes later that Bethany arrived at the boat.

  And fortunately, Dan, Olly and Susan were waiting there for her.

  “Bethany!” Dan said. He rushed over to her and went to hug her, then stopped awkwardly. “Are you… are you okay?”

  Bethany wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I’m fine. Just a little altercation, that’s all.”

  “We were worried about you,” Susan said. “Wanted to go back for you. But you have to understand…”

  “I understand,” Bethany said, not even wanting Susan to go into the new rules of this world. “But we’d better get going, fast. And I mean fast.”

  Dan nodded. And as Bethany climbed onto the boat and sat there as they began to paddle away, she looked back at the coastline.

  She smiled.

  That’s what taking responsibility felt like.

  That’s what being in charge of her own life meant.

  And, for the first time in a long time, she felt good about herself again.

  THIRTY

  BETHANY

  DAY ONE: 8:00 P.M

  Thirty-seven hours to go, give or take, and Bethany had no idea where the last eleven had gone.

  It was night. The sun was starting to set, the illusion of sundown enhanced by the thickening of cloud. Dan was setting up some of those Faraday cages in the garage, which Bethany understood now. It was basically used to block electromagnetic fields—a shield against an EMP or CME, if you will. It’s a sure way of safeguarding electronics from external radio frequency interference. The way you set one up? Simple. Aluminium foil. Wrap your item in a few layers of it—three at the least—and that should likely be enough to protect electronics from going down.

  Dan seemed extra paranoid though, and put his torches, radios and portable stoves in shoeboxes, which had also been covered in aluminium. Seeing all the stuff they’d managed to gather, Bethany was surprised. They’d had a few rucksacks, sure, but they’d actually managed to gather a fair load.

  Bethany had to admit she was sceptical about how much good a bit of tin foil could do when faced with a scenario like the one that awaited them, but again, she trusted Dan. He’d pulled through so far. She owed him that much.

  But Bethany was sitting at the dining room table on her own now. They’d been putting supplies away for a while. In all truth, they had a decent haul of canned food, first aid, stuff to get them through a couple of weeks at least—if they rationed. And as scary as this whole situation was, Bethany could feel herself growing into it, getting used to it. Adapting.

  It wasn’t going to be easy. But she could be strong. She’d proven that much already.

  She smiled as she leaned back and remembered how she’d swung that bag against the man’s face in the shop earlier. It was so out of character for her. In the past, she’d probably start screaming and begging somebody else for help.

  But she’d taken her life into her own hands. If she could keep on doing that, then who knows how far she’d be able to push herself.

  She was sitting there staring at the blank television across the room when she became aware of a presence nearby.

  She looked around and saw Olly lurking at the door.

  “Sorry,” he said, lowering his head and stepping back. “If you wanna be alone, I’ll…”

  “No,” Bethany said. “It’s… it’s okay. I was just taking a break.”

  Olly nodded, not quite making eye contact with Bethany. “Sure.”

  He grabbed a chair beside her and the pair of them sat together in silence.

  “Almost time for curfew,” Olly said, looking at his watch.

  “I’m sure the countryside police will be right on our cases.”

  Olly smiled. “Should probably put this watch into one of those cages of Dan’s anyway. Wouldn’t want it to stop working.”

  His voice cracked a little on that last word, and although she couldn’t explain why, Bethany felt a twinge of guilt over her judgemental treatment of Olly so far. He really wasn’t a bad guy. She’d just got him wrong.

  “Sentimental value?” she asked.

  Olly shrugged. “Something like that. My dad… he had cancer. When he was dying, he gave me this. Told me to keep it ticking and he’d always be with me. So I… I can’t stop it ticking, y’know? I can’t let it.”

  Bethany’s guilt increased as a bitter taste filled her mouth. “I’m sorry. About your dad.”

  “It was a long time ago. Still hurts, y’know? But… but as long as I keep wearing this and as long as it keeps ticking, I feel like he’s here with me. Like he’s directing me. Telling me the right things to do.”

  “Are you sure that’s not just Susan and Dan?” Bethany asked, trying to break the ice a bit.

  Olly smirked. “Yeah. That sounds about right.”

  “What’s the deal with you and Susan anyway?”

  “Huh?”

  “Sorry. I know it’s… not my place to ask. You two just don’t seem…”

  “Don’t seem what?”

  Bethany shook her head.

  She expected Olly to ask her to continue. But he didn’t. He just stared off into space.

  “Things were good. Then not so good. And now… it’s like we’re at the end. But neither of us wants to say it. And yet it’s still going to hurt. When it happens.”

  He blinked, then. Gulped a bit.

  Then looked down at that watch again.

  Bethany put a hand on Olly’s arm. He glanced up and made eye contact with her, then smiled.

  “Dan’s Faraday cage will keep your dad’s watch ticking, don’t worry.”

  “Dan’s…”

  He stopped then and shook his head. Bethany sensed he wanted to get something off his chest. But he didn’t, and in the end who was she to pry him about anything?

  She took her hand away and leaned back into her chair. “I suppose we should get some food then some sleep.”

  Olly nodded. “I’m taking watch first.”

  “Lucky you.”

  “Yeah. Sure they’ll be terrified when they see me on the doorstep with a shotgun. ‘Get off ma lawn!’”

  Bethany giggled, and she saw Olly laugh too. He stood up without saying anything, then started to make his way towards the door again.

  “Oh,” he said. “Dan said something about the lining in the shed being good for blocking electromagnetic waves or whatever. A big Faraday cage style thing. Said he might be able to keep your car running if he puts it in there.”

  “Oh wow. That’s quite something.”

  “I’ll pop it in there if you want.”