Susan sat back down on the cushion beside Bethany as the boys played their video games. She had a cheap bottle of flavoured vodka in her hand, one of those bargain knockoffs that looked more like mouthwash than booze. Fluorescent shite. Felt wrong, really. Drinking something that looked like alien piss. Couldn’t be good for you.

  Then again, Bethany figured it being good for her wasn’t exactly the point, was it?

  “Sure I can’t get you one?” Susan asked.

  Susan was a pretty girl. Olly’s girlfriend. She was dark-haired, with freckles right across her face. She always seemed to have a bottle of booze in hand whenever Bethany saw her outside of college, which was all the time considering the pair of them didn’t actually go to the same college. And it fascinated Bethany in a way, this obsession with drink that preoccupied her generation. She’d tried it before, of course. And she’d been sick off it. When she said, “never again,” she meant, “never again,” unlike the majority of her peers who went right back to it when the temptation was too strong. She just didn’t get it. Didn’t like it. Didn’t see the appeal.

  She liked being in control of herself. Always. Maybe she was a bit of a control freak. She’d been called as much. By more than one person. Maybe there was something in it.

  Bethany shook her head, though. Out of politeness. “I’m good.”

  Susan shrugged, like it wasn’t that big a deal, but deep down, Bethany knew she’d be judging her for it. Everyone did, after all. “You should live a little!” She said it playfully, but Bethany knew that she was making a sincere point.

  “I’m good,” Bethany said. “Sorry to be such a killjoy. It’s just… what happened with the car.”

  “Right,” Susan said, staring at Olly’s arse as he crept down some VR corridor, his heavy breathing audible from here. “Yeah, that’s bound to have scared you. Which is all the more reason for you to get a vodka down you! It’ll take your mind off things.”

  “Is that all you care about?” Bethany said.

  She regretted it right away. Susan was nice. She was harmless enough. And at the end of the day, she was only trying to help. That irritability. It was creeping through again. Fuck. She needed to get a grip of herself. Couldn’t go being a killjoy this weekend. She knew her presence was controversial enough as it was. Especially since she’d been so whiny in general lately.

  “Sorry,” Bethany said.

  “No,” Susan said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t go on like I do. It’s just… well. I can see it’s still hurting you.”

  Bethany turned away. “Yeah. Well, my neck’s a bit stiff still. Should be alright tomorrow. At least Dan still managed to drive it. Will have to get in touch with the AA tomorrow. My dad’s gonna kill me, honestly.”

  “I’m not talking about the car accident, Beth.”

  Bethany felt a lump in her throat. She knew what Susan was talking about. It’s just she really, really didn’t want to talk about it. Especially not with Susan. No disrespect. Again, Susan was nice. She just wasn’t someone she really wanted to open up to.

  “I’m fine,” Bethany said, voice cracking a little as she spoke.

  “I know how good you and Stephen were. And you were together like, what, six months? Which is an absolute lifetime at our age.”

  That comment embarrassed her a bit. It was longer that six months, and surely Susan knew it. It was eighteen months. And there’d been six months before that where they’d basically been a couple, too. It’d had its ups and downs, but for the most part, it had been magical.

  Bethany knew she shouldn’t, but she allowed herself to think of the time she’d spent with Stephen and how amazing those months had been. She lost herself in those memories for a moment. Like picking off a scab and allowing the blood to seep out, fresh, once again. He’d been her first real boyfriend. She’d always thought he was out of her league, with his swept back dark hair and those piercing blue eyes. It was just the way he carried himself, too. His fashion sense, more leather biker jackets and Doc Martens than jogging pants and Stan Smiths. The aftershave he wore instead of the cheap school gym deodorant the rest of the kids wore. All of it just added up to perfection in Bethany’s mind. He was her idea of an ideal man. She’d had the biggest crush on him imaginable.

  And somehow they’d ended up together.

  She viewed their relationship through a positive lens. But it was only recently she was beginning to realise just how much she’d had her rose-tinted glasses on.

  It wasn’t the magical fairytale she sometimes told herself it was.

  Because… They’d had some good times. Trips to the cinema aplenty. Walks across Avenham Park in the glow of the setting sun, fingers interlocked. Ice creams together. Late nights together, lying on that old trampoline in his grandma’s garden, watching the stars.

  But the more she truly scrutinised things, the more she remembered those good times were too few. And it was only when their relationship came to an end that Bethany realised how little she actually knew Stephen at all, because of how little they’d spent with each other out of college.

  “He really cared about you, too,” Susan said. “Such a shame it didn’t work out. He was really keen.”

  That comment. What it implied. It stung her a bit.

  And she knew she should leave it. She shouldn’t bite. It was probably just her irritability speaking up again.

  But…

  Bethany turned around to Susan and frowned. “What’re you implying?”

  Susan took another sip of her drink. She was clearly drunk at this stage. Drink did seem to bring out what a person was truly thinking. Truly feeling. Another reason Bethany hated it. “I’m not implying anything. I just…”

  She let that “just” hang there, invitingly.

  Giving Bethany an opportunity to back away from it.

  To step down.

  But she wasn’t in a mood for backing down.

  “Just what?”

  Susan sighed and rolled her eyes. A “well, you asked,” kind of look. “Look, you hardly… well, you didn’t really pull your weight in that relationship, did you?”

  Once Susan had said the words, Bethany knew they could never be unheard.

  She wanted to slap Susan.

  Instead…

  She stood up and walked past Susan.

  Gritted her teeth.

  Eyes stinging.

  “Bethany, I’m sorry. It’s the drink. It makes me…”

  “It’s okay,” she said, walking out of the conservatory and into the lounge, making her way to the stairs. “I’m just… I’m just tired, that’s all.”

  She didn’t look back and smile.

  She just kept on going, towards the stairs, away from that room, away from all that judging.

  She slammed the door of her bedroom and threw herself face first against the mattress. Deep down, Bethany knew it wasn’t what Susan said that got to her. Not really.

  Just as it wasn’t what Dad said that had bothered her earlier.

  It was the knowledge that they were telling the truth.

  She did need to take more responsibility.

  She hadn’t pulled her weight.

  Both of them were so right.

  So, so right.

  She needed to be an adult.

  She needed to grow up.

  She pushed her head further into that pillow and she hoped that somehow, somewhere, she’d find an opportunity to be able to conquer the fears of taking responsibility for her own life that plagued her.

  Little did she know, that opportunity wasn’t far away at all…

  FIVE

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 9:00 A.M

  Lily heard her phone bleeping away and she squeezed her eyelids even tighter together, almost in denial of the noise waking her from her peaceful slumber—about the only form of peace she got.

  She didn’t know what time of day it was. In truth, she didn’t really want to know. She’d kept her smart watch on her wrist, but it would’ve run out of battery overnight. She could do with a new one. It used to last a while. But it was running low these days.

  Couldn’t quite bring herself to part with this particular one, though. It was the last birthday gift Sam had bought her.

  She remembered opening it. The big smile on his face. He was a right nerd, so most of the time, the presents he bought her were as much for him as they were for her in terms of excitement levels.

  But this… She loved the fitness aspects to it. She loved that she could put a little photo of the pair of them on the watch face.

  She didn’t want to part with it.

  Even if that battery was dying on her.

  Just like he did.

  She pushed that thought away.

  Gulped, and focused back on the present.

  No biggie. She’d charge her watch when she got up, whenever that was. She didn’t exactly have anything to get up for on a Wednesday. Wait, was it a Wednesday? Yeah. Yeah, it was a Wednesday. She might be losing her grip on reality sometimes. But she could still remember what day of the week it was.

  She yawned. Her muscles felt like they were filled with lead. Could she get away without working today? Sure, there was an editing deadline that she was keen to meet, and it wouldn’t do any harm to get a few thousand words down on her latest project. But the thought of any of that just made her feel so exhausted. She still had some money in the pot that Sam had left her. It was dwindling. Running out fast. She couldn’t keep falling back on it. When it was gone, it was gone.

  But…

  She was just so tired.

  So, she kept her eyes squeezed shut and avoided opening them for fear of seeing the light peeking through her curtains.

  Just pretend it’s night. Just believe it’s still night and you won’t even have to get up at all…

  She’d done this quite frequently. It was becoming an unhealthy pattern. Sure, there was nothing wrong with someone taking a day off from time to time. But the numbers she’d reached… Yeah, definitely more frequently than was healthy, in truth.

  Sometimes she’d sleep through two nights, and even when the third day came around she only rose to go to feed Beast, or to the bathroom, or to satiate the hunger cravings in her stomach—which were always for something unhealthy, lacking nourishment. It scared her how much more frequent these extended sleeps were getting, made even worse by the fact that Alex was away on his school trip. Alex gave her life real structure and purpose. Without him… what did she have?

  Without Alex… what would become of her?

  She heard her phone vibrate again.

  Then again.

  Then again.

  Her stomach started to tense. It was strange. She didn’t have any alarms set. Besides, it didn’t sound like the pattern of vibrations her phone made when someone was calling her. And who would be calling her anyway? Low battery, perhaps? Some kind of hack or malfunction? She couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to find out.

  The thought of facing up to anything just filled her with dread.

  But her phone kept on vibrating. So Lily reached a point where she knew she was going to have to at least acknowledge what was happening.

  She peeked through her heavy, sore eyelids and she saw it was light in her room. Beast was lying beside her bed, head on his paws. He wagged his tail. But even he looked a little unsettled by the constantly vibrating phone. Curious.

  But there was something else occupying her attention.

  Lily’s phone was vibrating and flashing. The screen was appearing on and off. It looked like there was some kind of full screen message on there. Definitely nothing she’d seen before.

  She frowned, then reached over for it, dreading whatever it was she might see. She wasn’t sure she was prepared for any kind of phone meltdown right now. Then again, she wasn’t really prepared for any kind of anything right now.

  She lifted her phone above her and squinted at the screen.

  The phone continued flashing and vibrating in her hand. She hit the side button to try and get it to stop, but all that did was cancel out the vibrations. The message was still on the screen, unmoving.

  It took a few reads of the message for Lily to even begin to understand what was happening.

  ***EMERGENCY GOVERNMENT BULLETIN***

  SEVERE SOLAR STORM IN PROGRESS.

  Initial disruptions to satellite services and radio communications are occurring as result of solar storm.

  A major CME impact is expected within the next 48 hours.

  Significant and widespread power outages are likely and expected. This is likely to affect all things electrical and battery-powered.

  All residents must:

  - Prepare for extended loss of electricity and communications

  - Conserve water and fuel immediately

  - Remain indoors during curfew hours (10 PM – 6 AM)

  Stay home. Stay calm. Further instructions will follow as conditions permit.

  Lily rubbed her eyes and frowned. She read the message again and again. CME? What the hell was all this shit? Was Electricity North West doing works on her power supply again? And what was all this about a curfew?

  It reminded her of COVID. Only… at least with COVID, she knew what was going on. There was a build up to it. It didn’t just happen out of nowhere.

  But this…

  She got out of bed, stretched her legs, walked out of her bedroom of her upstairs flat and fed Beast. She went back into her bedroom, walked over to the curtains and pulled them aside. She wondered whether this was some kind of prank, or whether someone had hacked her phone. She heard about these scams on the news all the time. She thought about ignoring it. But it was the way it was bleeping. Like it was an actual notification rather than a normal text.

  Like there was something in her phone, sending out this warning.

  But then she saw something.

  There were people across the street. They were standing at their windows and holding their phones. In all the houses all the way down the road, signs of life; life that Lily was sure was never present before.

  It made her uneasy. But the fact of the matter was clear to see.

  These people were looking right at each other, and right up at her, all trying to figure out whether they were getting the same messages.

  There was an answer in the collective confusion.

  Yes.

  They were all looking at one another in disbelief.

  In confusion.

  In realisation.

  Lily backed away from the window as Beast finished off his breakfast. He didn’t care about what was going on, of course. She sat in her chair and swiped away from the message, but it stayed fixed to the top of her screen. The notification just wasn’t budging. Which meant it really was serious.

  She rubbed her fingers through her hair. CME? She’d have to Google it. She’d have to figure out what they were.

  She tried to type CME into Google.

  No response.

  In fact she couldn’t get a response at all no matter what she searched for. Strange, because her phone was still connected to WiFi, and she had decent signal.

  People must be overloading the net providers searching for the same thing.

  Whatever it was, it was power related.

  Whatever it was… it was serious enough that curfews were being imposed.

  She put her phone down and thought about what she was going to have to do. This was out of her comfort zone. It was an unavoidable change to her circumstances that she couldn’t have predicted.

  But she remembered what the message said.

  STAY HOME. STAY CALM.

  She didn’t exactly need any encouragement. She usually only nipped out to take Beast for a walk up the street, anyway. Really, she should be grateful for a message like that. She was one of the few people who found the government’s “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” COVID messaging an actual blessing. Lockdown was bliss. But ironically, it was the worst possible thing at the worst possible time. Because it enabled her anxieties even more.

  But there was something bothering her. And that something was her son.

  She lifted her phone and tried Mr Rawlinson, the lead teacher on the camping trip up towards Ambleside.

  His phone went straight to voicemail.

  She cursed under her breath, then opened up the number for the school.

  After a few long seconds, she got through.

  “Brickford Primary School, how may I help?”

  “I…” Shit. Lily had got so ahead of herself that she hadn’t even taken the time to plan out what she was going to say, which was always a recipe for disaster. “My son. He’s on a camping trip. And the messages⁠—”

  “Sorry, you’re breaking up.”

  “My son. Alex. Alex Carford. He’s on the Year 2 camping trip with⁠—”

  “I’m sorry, Miss, but I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”

  “Wait. Please. Wait!”

  The line went dead.

  Lily sat back against the chair and put her hands to her face. She could feel her pulse in her neck. Outside, she could hear some commotion, as well as a mass of sirens in the distance. What was happening out there?

  She tried the television, but the signal was down.

  She tried her internet again… still not working.

  She tried to call Mr Rawlinson and the school again, but this time she couldn’t get through to either of them.

  Panic set in. But it was a refreshing kind of panic. Panic when induced by anxiety was frustrating because it was so unnecessary.

  But this…

  This felt necessary.

  She looked at Beast as he perched at her feet, tilting his head either side.