“Maybe we can come back here someday,” Becky said. “I mean, it’s a nice spot. Perhaps this isn’t the last time we’ll ever be here.”

  Lily smiled. She looked around at the hills, at the trees, at the perfect landscape all around them, drenched in sunshine.

  “Somehow I don’t think we’ll be coming back here,” she said. “But as long as we’ve got each other… all’s good.”

  Becky half-smiled, and she nodded. “I’d drink to that. If I had a drink. And it wasn’t like, mid-morning.”

  They let their kids play with Beast for a little while longer.

  Then, after some time had passed, they walked over to them.

  She held out her hand to Alex.

  “Come on, lad,” she said. “It’s time for us to get moving.”

  Alex examined her hand for a few seconds. Then he curled his nose. “I don’t have to hold your hand. It’s babyish.”

  Lily chuckled. She grabbed Alex and cuddled him hard, embarrassing him in front of all his friends.

  “I don’t care how it looks,” she said. “You’ll always be my baby.”

  “You seem… better,” he said.

  Lily felt a lump in her throat when Alex said those words.

  You seem better.

  Because if her son was noticing the change in her, then that was really something.

  Maybe things really were changing.

  Maybe things really could keep on getting better.

  “I am better,” she said, finally convincing her son to hold her hand. “And we’re both going to be better for a long, long time.”

  He tightened his grip around her hand.

  “And you?” she asked.

  Because she couldn’t pretend she hadn’t seen it. The way his eyes widened. The way his face went pale. The flashbacks. Of what he’d been through. The crash. The deaths of those around him.

  He might be smiling. He might be laughing. But much like he was limping after being trapped in the coach… there were cracks in his exterior.

  A strong exterior that, even as a kid, he tried to project, after what had happened to his dad.

  And she could feel it, too.

  What she’d witnessed happening to Terrance.

  What she’d done to that Eric guy.

  There was a darkness, underneath their smiles.

  A shock, that still hadn’t truly sunk in yet.

  And when it hit… it was going to hit hard.

  But for now, they were together.

  Together with Steve and Becky, they looked at the long road ahead, the sun peeking above the trees.

  “You ready?” Steve asked.

  Lily took a deep breath of the cool country air.

  She saw Sam in the sky. Saw him smiling down at her, looking so proud.

  Then she exhaled and she smiled.

  “Ready,” she said.

  Then, together, they walked.

  FIFTY-NINE

  BETHANY

  DAY THREE

  Bethany looked down at the little cross in the garden and felt sadness welling up in her chest and tears building up in her eyes.

  It was morning, and it was well after the time the CME was supposed to peak. She’d noticed it firsthand. Her phone, which had been clinging to charge pretty well, had gone out. A torch Dan had attached to his keys had stopped working. All of their watches had gone out.

  If there was any doubt about what might be happening, that was all gone now.

  It was weird. She was expecting a bigger event. More fireworks. Everything else was fireworks, wasn’t it? Eventful and dramatic. So, for the thing that the message had been teasing—the thing that the message had been threatening would change life for everyone—to be nothing more than a whimper… yeah, there was something surprising about that. Borderline anti-climactic, after everything that had been built up towards so intently.

  She watched Dan step away from the cross. Olly’s name had been sketched onto it. They hadn’t found his body, of course. It was too far a journey back to go get it. Which was tragic in itself. He deserved to be buried. He deserved a send-off. A proper send-off.

  But that wasn’t possible.

  It just wasn’t possible.

  At least they’d been able to commemorate him.

  At least they’d been able to remember him.

  That had to count for something.

  She thought about Will. How she’d managed to get through to him. How, in the end, he’d stepped up, and he’d taken his friend—that psycho Jacob—out. She kind of wanted to go back for him. To check he was okay.

  But this wasn’t the time for any sentimentality.

  Not beyond their own group.

  Bethany held on to Susan’s hand as she cried. Then she let go, walked over to the cross, said a few silent words. She felt so bad for Susan. She hadn’t had much of a bond with her before. But in losing Olly… she had seen a very different side to her. She cared about her. And she was going to have to stand here, right by her. Help her get through this. They were all going to have to help each other.

  Dan put an arm around Bethany. And when he did that, she felt so secure. Not reliant, but secure. There was a bold difference between the two that Bethany was fast learning about.

  And in the end, as Bethany looked down at that cross, she realised that her lack of responsibility-taking was what had held her back all along. All the problems it had caused her… all of them could be rooted back to that mistake with her younger brother.

  One moment having the gravity to change her life.

  But she’d changed her life again, now.

  She walked over to the cross and she put her hand on the ground.

  “I’m sorry we weren’t able to help you,” she said. “But we’ll do everything we can to honour your memory. I promise.”

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, then.

  She looked at it. Felt the attachment to her parents, the urge to hold on to it in case she got the opportunity to call them.

  She thought about doing something symbolic. Like burying it beside the cross.

  But she couldn’t let go of it.

  She had to hold on to it.

  Just in case.

  Even though it was completely and utterly dead.

  She stepped back, feeling a weight of attachment lifting from her shoulders. She stood alongside Dan and Susan, all of them processing their grief, all in their own ways.

  “So,” Dan said, breaking a long silence. “What next?”

  Bethany heard Dan’s voice, and she knew he was sincere. He wanted to know her opinion. He trusted her judgement. She needed to trust her own judgement, too.

  “I’d say we’d better get prepared,” she said. “Get stocked up. And start living our new lives.”

  Dan nodded. As too did Susan.

  “But first, I think we’d better figure out what to do about them,” Dan said.

  He pointed into the distance.

  Bethany didn’t see them at first.

  And then… she saw them.

  The man, the woman, the boy, and the girl.

  And then the woman.

  Holding her son’s hand.

  Rottweiler by her side.

  All of them looking at them.

  All of them heading their way.

  Together.

  The Blackout Chronicles continues in Book Two: Afterlight

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