“Dan’s right,” Bethany said.

  He looked at her differently then. As did Susan.

  “I shouldn’t have given Olly the keys. I should’ve done more. All… all my life I should’ve done more. And now I will. Now I have to. We all have to.”

  She put a hand on the middle of the table.

  “But we aren’t going to survive by tearing each other apart, either.”

  She looked intently at Dan, then.

  Susan put her hand on top of hers. She forced a little smile, but Bethany could tell she was still hurting.

  “We have to be in this together,” Bethany said, looking solely at Dan now. “All of us.”

  Dan looked at the hands.

  Then he looked back at Bethany.

  He took a deep breath, and he reached his hand over, put it on top of Susan’s.

  Bethany knew her lack of responsibility had been holding her back.

  She knew she had a lot of making up to do.

  That started now.

  It had to.

  FORTY

  BETHANY

  DAY TWO: 10:30 A.M

  Bethany wouldn’t go as far as saying time was a total healer, but an hour and a half later, and already she was feeling a little more optimistic about things again.

  Which was a weird thing to say when you were on the brink of a total widespread blackout, wasn’t it?

  She was in the garage with Susan. Dan was sorting some equipment into a Faraday cage in one of the other rooms. Faraday cage. Jesus. Didn’t even know what one was yesterday. Now, she was treating it like it was second nature.

  It was probably better for him to be alone for a while. He was the kind of guy who digested things at his own pace, and once he had, he would be much clearer about what he had to do—what they all had to do.

  Because—make no mistake about it—the way they were going, they were relying on Dan.

  But Bethany wasn’t just waiting around anymore. She wasn’t just holding out for Dan, because that wasn’t fair on Dan.

  Instead, she was taking stock of what they did have so they could figure out just how far it could go and how far they could take it.

  She looked over at Susan. She was stacking large, thick pieces of wood up against the garage window. Dan had told her that it would be best to have just one way in and out of this place, and even that place should be the least obvious. They’d settled on one of the upstairs windows. It was a bit of a jump down it and a bit of a climb up to it, but it was doable.

  Honestly, it still seemed a bit of a blur to Bethany. A bit of a weird, adventure-weekend-type blur. Like, to her, things were still going to work out okay. Olly was going to come back here. This CME thing wasn’t going to happen. Her phone signal was going to return. Mum and Dad were going to make it home. And this whole thing was going to be one big thing they spoke about at Christmas.

  Until the next big thing.

  And then the next.

  It wouldn’t feel real until it was actually real. Being away in the Lakes didn’t help it feel any more real. Because that was already a novelty in itself.

  She just hoped, whatever happened, that everything was going to be okay.

  But it didn’t hurt to be prepared, either.

  She looked at Susan.

  “You okay?” Bethany asked.

  Susan didn’t look at her but she nodded. “Get this done and we’ll be in a much better position.”

  “I don’t mean about the house.”

  Susan lowered her head and stopped boarding up the window.

  “Olly… whatever he did, he did it because he felt like he had the best shot handling everything away from here,” Bethany said. It took a lot of courage for her to find the strength to say that. “We’ll see him again. When all this blows over. I’m sure of it. But what he did. Driving away from here. I don’t think he’d ever do something like that out of pure malice.”

  “He left me here,” Susan said.

  Bethany sighed. “He left all of us here.”

  Susan glanced over at her and narrowly smiled. “You know, I think he preferred you anyway.”

  Bethany felt her cheeks flushing. She swallowed a lump in her throat. “What? I don’t know what you…”

  “He wasn’t really into me. I’m sure of it. Obviously, I love him like mad. But I never really got the feeling he was as enthusiastic about me as he was about you. Always talking about whether you were going to make it to events. Always nattering on about what you’d posted on your socials, all of them. I think he liked you. But he had no idea how to tell you he liked you. But I know he wanted to know you better. Guess this was his chance. And even then, he passed on it.” She shrugged. “Looks like he screwed us both over.”

  Bethany’s heart pounded. Her mouth was dry. “I genuinely don’t know what to say. I had no idea.”

  “I know you didn’t. He played his cards close to his chest. He’s an… intriguing person, to put it mildly. Besides, you’ve always got your head up your arse anyway.”

  “Bit harsh.”

  Susan tilted her head. “Come on, Bethany. Surely even you’ve realised that by now.”

  Bethany lowered her head then walked over to Susan’s side. They sat there for a while, silent, listening to Dan as he worked away in the other room.

  “You know, my little brother died four years ago,” Bethany said.

  Susan turned to her and frowned. “I… I didn’t know you had a⁠—”

  “Nobody does. Nobody in Preston anyway. I tried to forget that stage of my life. But he died because I was playing in the garden with him. Jason, he was called. He climbed to the top of the slide, and I should’ve been there. I should’ve been watching. But then he toppled back, and…”

  Bethany shook her head. She didn’t want to remember.

  “Since then I guess I’ve felt like I’d rather someone else be control of things. I’ve had no faith in myself, my own decisions or actions. Figure it’s better if I just leave it to other people. And that’s why it’s hard. That’s why it’s so hard. Taking responsibility. Like people keep saying. That’s why it stung hard. Really hard. When Dad said it to me on the phone. Because… because I hate it, but I know he blames me. He loves me. But deep down, he blames me. And it hurts. A lot. But I’m getting there. I’m getting there.”

  Susan put a hand on Bethany’s, squeezed it tightly.

  “You’re stronger than you think,” she said.

  Bethany looked at Susan and smiled back at her, then squeezed her hand too.

  For a moment, everything felt like it was going to be okay. She’d bonded more with Susan in these last few minutes than she had in the whole two years of knowing her.

  And she started to believe that the walls between this group were falling down, and that they were all going to come together.

  But she could feel something else, too, as she peeked out of the gap still open in the window.

  Someone was watching.

  Something was coming.

  And it was something they weren't going to be able to prepare for no matter how damned hard they tried…

  FORTY-ONE

  JACOB

  DAY TWO: 11:20 A.M

  Jacob still couldn’t get over what he’d just witnessed happening to Eric.

  And even though it was shitty—even though it was awful—it was one of the coolest fucking things he’d ever seen.

  He’d seen some horrid shit online. Stuff on TikTok at first. Horrid stuff with animals. And kids over in Mexico. Gang executions. Shit like that.

  And he didn’t know why it was, but he really wanted to see a load of that shit for himself, too. In reality.

  He’d had glimpses of it. Tried a few things here and there.

  Got him in trouble at school. And then at college. And then got him locked up when he’d tried to set that disabled kid’s feet on fire.

  He wasn’t sure why he was the way he was. He wasn’t sure if it had something to do with Dad. The stuff he used to watch. The things he did to Mum. Or to him, when he’d had too many drinks.

  But he didn’t see any point in making excuses.

  He didn’t hate who he was.

  Or being the way he was.

  He wasn’t ashamed.

  He enjoyed his interests.

  And watching that bitch pound Eric’s head with that hammer… that shit made him hard.

  “We wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for you.”

  Those words. Will’s words. Will really was a whiny prick. Jacob never liked him.

  Fortunately, the rest of the group were well under his thumb.

  They let him get away with shit other people didn’t.

  Losing Eric was a blow. ’Cause he was a proper ally.

  But he’d work with what he had left.

  He looked around at Will. Dared him to stand up to him. Dared him to say something else to him.

  And then, before he could, Will lowered his head.

  Backed right down.

  “We keep going,” Jacob said. “We’ll find her again, someday. Make her pay. But… this is why we need to be strong. People are crazy. And they’ll do shit to us. Unless we sort them out first.”

  “We could’ve never stolen the motorhome,” Will piped up again. “You put nails down. You did that just for… for entertainment.”

  Jacob looked at him again. Dared him to speak up. Smiled at him.

  And again, just as he expected, he backed down.

  Backed right down.

  He’d seen it in youth offender institutions, this sort of dynamic.

  And he’d seen it in prison, too.

  People piped up.

  But they soon fell in line, when they were put in their place.

  And, sure as shit, Will lowered his head again.

  “We push on,” Jacob said. Taking a deep breath.

  And then he turned around to the cottage in the distance.

  “And we start right here. With this place.”

  A smile stretched across his face.

  He had to suppress it a little bit. ’Cause they were all being emotional babies about Eric, still.

  But he felt good.

  Good about what’d happened.

  And good about what was gonna happen next.

  FORTY-TWO

  BETHANY

  DAY TWO: 11:30 A.M

  The cottage was well and truly sealed down at this stage, and Bethany found herself alone with Dan in the kitchen.

  He was still quiet. Natural, of course. He was never the loudest, shoutiest of guys. It wasn’t that he was ultra-reserved. It was just, when he spoke, he spoke with meaning. His words carried a weight with them.

  But now, he was especially quiet. He was annoyed, and he had every right to be. They’d risked their lives to gather those supplies they’d found yesterday, not just once but twice. Bethany herself had only narrowly managed to escape that second shop and had pushed herself way beyond her comfort zone in order to do so. She’d actually fought back against someone, showed a strength that she never previously thought she had. The adrenaline of that moment was still flowing through her bloodstream.

  It was still absurd to wrap her head around. She expected everyone to be working together. To be communicating. The lack of signal and television broadcasts and anything like that really had sent people loopy. Made people desperate. Desperate to start hoarding supplies and such.

  The news hadn’t helped. The weeks, months, years of warnings of threats from overseas. About how everyone needed to make sure they had enough supplies to last them a few days, in case of any kind of emergency blackouts.

  But people didn’t listen. They never listened. People just carried on, as normal, pretending everything was okay. Acting as if there wasn’t going to be anything to worry about. As if the world was just going to continue on, as normal.

  But then, when word came out that shit genuinely was hitting the fan… of course people weren’t prepared. They weren’t ready.

  Which led to a mad scramble.

  A mad, violent scramble, that wasn’t going to get any better until some kind of intervention.

  She shouldn’t be surprised. She wasn’t sure why she was, really. She’d seen it happen in other countries before, all over the news. As much as she wanted to believe that people would stay civil and keep their order… when it really came down to it, people were just as greedy and desperate as violent as everyone feared.

  If not worse.

  The lengths people went to when they were afraid and confused. They knew no limits.

  She knew there were going to be many more moments like yesterday’s incidents if the CME really was as strong as Dan suspected it would be.

  She had to brace herself—prepare herself—for that.

  She looked across the room at Dan. He had his back to her. Susan was in the garage, still tidying a few things up. Keeping busy to try and distract herself, and draw her attention from Olly’s disappearance, it seemed.

  Now seemed like the perfect opportunity to try and get Dan back on side.

  After all, they needed to stick together through all of this. They couldn’t start arguing even more.

  “Nice place you got here, Mr Holmes.”

  Dan turned around and frowned. “What?”

  She blushed a bit. “Just saying. First time I’ve visited this cottage. You’re very lucky you’ve got such rich, generous parents.”

  Dan looked gobsmacked. “Umm, Bethany?”

  “Yes, Daniel?”

  “Haven’t you been paying attention to anything that’s happened this last day? Have you been paying attention to what’s going to happen in less than twenty-four hours?”

  Bethany sighed and shrugged. She stood up and walked over to Dan. “I have. And it’s scary. Really, it is. But we aren’t going to get anywhere by tearing each other apart. That’s just going to leave us in the shit. We’ve… we’ve got to try and get along with each other.”

  “Olly should’ve thought about that before taking off with your car.”

  “Oh, it was a shitheap anyway. Besides. My sat nav’s knackered. Even if he could get GPS, you know what Olly’s like. More chance he’ll end up at the bottom of a lake than back in Preston.”

  She smiled. Dan still seemed confused by her sudden change in demeanour. “What’s got into you?” he asked.

  She sighed, then. Leaned forward, looked at the ground. “Look. I’m not going to pretend things are perfect here. They aren’t. I’m not going to pretend we haven’t all been responsible for one thing or another, either. Because we are. But we’re young, Dan. We’ve… we’ve made some mistakes. We’ve been scared. We’ve panicked. Even Olly. He… he did what he’s done because he’s scared. I can’t hate him for that. I mean, what’s happening right now. This isn’t normal, Dan. And I know we’ve made some mistakes. But we’re doing well. So well. And what Olly did… he was just afraid, Dan. He was afraid. Like we’re all afraid. We can’t hold that against him.”

  Dan turned away. “Then maybe you should’ve gone with him.”

  “God, are you going to sulk like a big baby all day?”

  Dan looked back, then. She hadn’t spoken to him like that before. He looked stunned. “What?”

  But the adrenaline was flowing, so she couldn’t stop herself. “You’re supposed to be our rock here, Dan. You’re supposed to know things that can help us get through this solar storm. Instead, you’ve got your bottom lip trailing on the floor because you lost a few bags of Malteasers.”

  “How dare you⁠—”

  “No. Snap out of it, right now. Put it behind you. Because this moping around look doesn’t suit you one bit. You’re a good guy. Way too good to be sulking around. So have a bit of something about you and move on, man. Because Olly’s gone. A lot of our stuff’s gone. But we’ve still got plenty. And you’re a clever guy. You’ll figure something out. Right?”

  Dan’s face was red. He looked like he was going to explode.

  And truth be told, Bethany felt pretty buzzing with herself. This… this wasn’t her. Standing up for herself like this.

  But she liked it.

  She really liked it.

  And she could get used to it.

  Maybe taking responsibility wasn’t so bad like this.

  She expected Dan to kick off. She expected Dan to explode. He had a temper underneath. And she worried what it might lead to.

  Instead, he just sighed, nodded, and looked at the floor. “You’re right. I’ve been a dick. I’m sorry. It’s just this whole thing. It’s a lot. And I feel like I’m the only one here who really gets it. ’Cause I read my nerdy books. ’Cause I have a feeling of just how bad it’s going to be. It’s made me snappy. It’s made me unpleasant. And I apologise. Truly. I… I’ve felt like I have to take everything on. For you guys. Because I care about you. I hope Olly is okay. I really do. But I’m worried about him. He’s a dick for what he did. He’s a dick, full stop. But… I worry about him. If this is as bad as I think it is… it’s not gonna be as simple as waiting it out. It’s bad news. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s such a dick…”

  “And I’m sorry for being a dick too,” Bethany said. She opened up her arms. “Dick hug?”

  Dan stepped towards her and held her.

  She pulled herself back and looked up into Dan’s eyes.

  Then there was a bang at the lounge door.

  She spun around.

  Susan was there.

  She was panting. Her eyes were wide. She looked… troubled.

  “What is it?” Dan asked.

  Susan turned around and looked back out of the lounge door.

  “Outside.”

  “What’s outside?”

  A pause.

  Then: “I think you should see for yourself.”

  FORTY-THREE

  BETHANY

  DAY TWO: 11:45 A.M

  When Bethany reached the upstairs window, it didn’t take her long to realise just what Susan was so concerned about outside the cottage.