“What’re we going to do?” Lily asked.

  She knew she wasn’t going to get an answer from her dog.

  She sat there in total stasis until something made her jump to her feet.

  A large bang at her front door.

  There was someone outside.

  SIX

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 9:10 A.M

  Lily heard the banging at her front door, and right away, every muscle in her body went tight.

  The sun beamed through her front window, making her first-floor apartment stuffy with heat and making it hard to breathe. Outside, she could hear sirens and voices. And in her head, that message kept on replaying itself, over and over again. The message she couldn’t wrap her head around. The message she couldn’t understand.

  ***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.

  What was a CME?

  Was that why the power was playing up?

  And then there was the bang at her door again.

  Her throat went tight and dry. Beast came to her side, sensing trouble. He was good at that. It was almost instinctive. He growled steadily, even though Lily knew damn well he was a big softie and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Still, that was an advantage of owning a Rottweiler. People just assumed they were aggressive. That wasn’t a bad trait, especially when Lily tried her hardest to avoid people. At least no one would mess with her. Even if it confused Beast sometimes. He always wanted to just say hello to everyone. He never understood why so many people snubbed him like they did. Or seemed fearful of him. Wary of him.

  But right now, as she listened to the knocking at her door, Lily knew she had a choice. Ignore it and do exactly what the message said: Stay home, stay calm.

  Or, go down there and see who it was and what they wanted.

  No. That was madness. She wasn’t nearly confident enough to do that. She had to stay here and⁠—

  “Lily? Are you in, love?”

  When Lily heard the voice echoing through her letterbox, she felt confusion at first. She recognised that voice, no doubt about it. Who did it belong to? Who was calling for her?

  “I just want some milk, love, that’s all. No bother if you don’t have any.”

  And then it hit her.

  Terrance.

  It was Terrance. Her neighbour.

  She let go of a tense breath. It was just Terrance. Fucking hell. Course it was. Why was she panicking so much? What was she expecting?

  But then, that prompted another dilemma.

  Did she go down there and see him? Or did she wait here?

  Part of her wanted to go down there. An unexpected part of her that didn’t want to go through whatever this was on her own.

  Another part wanted to stay in here and ride it out, however long this CME or whatever it was took to unfold.

  The anxiety part. That was doing most of the talking.

  And that was telling her to stay put.

  Pretend she wasn’t awake. Or wasn’t home.

  She wasn’t even dressed yet. She hadn’t had chance to prepare for any interactions with anyone. She couldn’t go wandering down the stairs.

  That 48-hour deadline. Anything could happen. They’d talked about electrical outages. Well, how severe? And for how long?

  And how exactly was “further instruction” going to get out if her phone died or something? Especially if she couldn’t charge it.

  She heard the letterbox click as Terrance left, and she realised she only had one choice.

  She burst down the stairs, nerves and anxiety be damned.

  And she opened her front door.

  Terrance was walking away at this point. He turned and looked at her when the door opened. He was a tall, slim man with brilliant white hair. He must’ve been in his eighties, but he looked incredibly healthy for his age. He was a good man. He loved Alex and looked out for the pair of them. One of those friends you take for granted, only realising just how helpful they are when they aren’t actually around for some reason. He wasn’t remotely intimidated by Beast, either. And Beast loved him right back. He always told Lily she should get herself away with Alex, and that he’d look after Beast. She genuinely liked that idea.

  “Lily. There you are, love. Didn’t mean to bother you.”

  “Have you got the message?”

  “The message?” Terrance asked. “I don’t plug my mobile telephone in these days. I did get some phone call about something, but it was just one of those robotic voices. Figured it was someone selling something. They have these call centres all over the place now.”

  “No,” Lily said, hands shaking. Thrown right into the deep end of unplanned social interaction. She held out her phone in shaky hands. “This message. What does it mean?”

  Terrance frowned. He pulled on his glasses and took a look at the message. He read through it intently. And as he did, Lily realised asking Terrance wasn’t the best idea. He seemed like he was even less technologically inclined than she was.

  “My word,” he said.

  He looked up at Lily. It was then that she realised he’d gone a shade paler than he was when she’d answered the door to him just moments ago.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  Terrance swallowed a lump in his throat. “A… a coronal mass ejection. It’s—it’s from the sun. A huge burst of radiation shoots out. They’re usually pretty common. A few every day, usually. But if you’re getting this message…”

  He went silent.

  “What?” Lily asked, puzzled by all this rambling. And also rather surprised at the breadth of Terrance’s knowledge on the matter. She’d always thought him a sweet, innocent old man. This here was rather unexpected. “What does it mean?”

  Terrance cleared his throat and wiped his eyes under his glasses. He looked like he was transforming into full blown teacher mode. Come to think of it, he did used to be a teacher, didn’t he? Science teacher, back in the day. So maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised at his knowledge.

  “Sometimes, if an ejection heads in Earth’s direction, it can cause a geomagnetic storm affecting our planet. They can affect transmissions—everything from internet to radio and to satellites.”

  That explained the net outage and the phone issues, then. It was mad, though. All this. It sounded like something out of a sci-fi. Should she believe him? Take him at his word?

  What other options did she have?

  “But this CME thing in 48 hours,” Lily said. “What’s that about?”

  Terrance cleared his throat again. Lily had never seen him this bothered about anything before. “That’s the real problem. A coronal mass ejection comes from the sun as part of a solar storm. You get EMPs, man-made, nuclear. And you get CMEs. This… this sounds like a freak storm. And it’s freaky enough for the government to start warning people about it, it must be bad. And if we’re already seeing effects of it, two days before it properly hits at its strongest… damn. It must be bad.”

  It was all just noise to her. She was trying to understand. Really, she was. And she was grateful for Terrance’s knowledge. His wisdom. His willingness to educate. But it was all going in through one ear and out through the other. She was like that, sometimes. Especially when she was being asked to take in a whole load of information like this. Ejections of energy? Slow and fast? CMEs? What on earth was happening?

  And that “well” he’d ended on.

  Suggesting there was more to say.

  More to come.

  “What?” Lily asked, just eager to know what the hell was going on now. Not waiting around any longer. “‘Well’ what?”

  Terrance looked right into her eyes, and she sensed defeat tinged with a strange kind of excitement. “The initial solar activity. The stuff that’s affected the transmissions already. The one that’s playing havoc with the power. That must just be a precursor. A precursor to something much bigger, hitting in 48 hours.”

  “A precursor to what?” Lily asked. She wasn’t sure she actually wanted him to answer. She wanted to just go to bed, and close her eyes, and pretend none of this was real. None of this was happening.

  Terrance looked at Beast, then back at Lily’s house. All along the street, people standing by their cars, trying to use their phones, some of them departing and ignoring the advice on the message already. There was a strange atmosphere in the air. Like they were all in the midst of something significant. Something unlike anything they’d ever been through. The training wheels had fallen away, and now humanity was on its own.

  “We need to stock up right away,” Terrance said. “Both of us do. As a matter of absolute urgency.”

  Lily frowned. “Stock up? What do you mean?”

  Terrance removed his glasses and sighed. “Because regardless of what that emergency message says, something big is coming. And it’s going to change our world. Forever. And if that’s the case… I’m gonna need more than a bottle of bloody milk.”

  SEVEN

  BETHANY

  DAY ONE: 9:00 A.M

  Bethany heard the muffled voices downstairs and knew something was wrong.

  She opened her eyes and saw a beam of light peeking through the thin curtains in the bedroom. It took her a few seconds to realise where exactly she was. She panicked for a moment. She never liked waking up with that confusion of wondering where exactly she was. Went back to childhood, when she’d woken up at her auntie’s after a long car journey, and the bedroom door handle was jammed, and she thought she’d been kidnapped.

  But then it came to her.

  Dan’s cottage in the Lakes. That was it.

  And…

  Shit. Oh shit.

  She fell back against her pillow and sighed. Fuck, she wished she hadn’t remembered. Yesterday had been an absolute disaster from start to finish. First, she’d gone against her parents’ wishes and driven on her own to the Lake District for a few days away. Sent Dad nutty and got him right on his “you need to be more responsible” high horse. His favourite high horse to ride, these days.

  Then, she’d gone and got lost, destroying her sat nav in the process.

  And to top it all off, she’d been involved in a collision, which was certainly going to cost more than the pittance she earned pulling pints a few days a week.

  But those voices downstairs. They were what puzzled her the most. She’d gone upstairs in a huff when she’d had a little row with Susan. Susan told her she’d been responsible for her break-up with Stephen; that if Bethany had pulled her weight more, the pair of them might still be together.

  And hell. The hardest thing? Bethany knew Susan was probably right. She would’ve just preferred not to have been pulled up publicly for it, especially after the day she’d had.

  And especially not by a semi-drunk Susan, either.

  She listened to the chatter of the voices downstairs and reached over for her phone.

  First thing that struck her was that her phone was vibrating. Weird. She must’ve forgotten to cancel her alarm. It was nine a.m., so that made sense.

  But it didn’t seem like her alarm.

  And there was something on her phone screen. Even though there was no signal at all.

  A message.

  A message she had to blink a few times to actually read.

  ***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.

  Bethany frowned as she read the message again. CME? Was this something to do with her phone? Shit, that’d be just her luck. A broken sat nav, a knackered car, and now a messed-up phone. This really was turning into the week from hell. If only Stephen were here. He was the tech expert. He’d sort it in no time. She’d probably clicked on the wrong thing and downloaded a bloody virus. Wouldn’t be the first time.

  But the other stuff, too. Electrical outages. A curfew. And that weird order to stay at home and stay calm. What did it all mean?

  It couldn’t be for real, could it?

  It was giving her COVID vibes.

  And she didn’t like COVID vibes.

  She heard the voices downstairs and figured it must be some kind of trick. Dan and Olly were having her on. Well, see how they liked it when she unplugged their VR, or sneaked up on them both when they were knee-deep in a scary scene from that Dead Days game they always banged on about. Some game adaptation of a book from a local author. It was all over the news. Put her city on the map, for a whole fifteen minutes.

  Personally, she thought it was a bit shitty, and there were far more deserving authors than that fella.

  Yet still… the way her phone was vibrating like that. And the way the message wouldn’t clear from her screen even when she swiped it. Something wasn’t right here.

  She got up then and quickly got dressed. And to be honest, it wasn’t long before the message was at the back of her mind, and the real immediate problems were at the forefront once again. Her car. And then her awkward argument with Susan. God, she hoped she hadn’t screwed things up. She needed all the friends she could get right now. She was harsh with Susan. Sure, Susan’s comment was a bit uncalled for. A bit forward. But she wasn’t a bad person. And she spoke a grain of truth, too.

  She stepped out of the room and started to head downstairs, getting closer to the voices. She could hear Dan, Olly and Susan, and she found it weird that they were all up at 9am and seemingly sprightly. Maybe they’d been up drinking all night. Maybe they were still going. God, coming here was a bad idea. They might be friends, but they weren’t Bethany’s type of people to hang out with outside of college at all. Honestly, nobody was, not truly. She preferred her own company. She was just trying to distract herself from Stephen. Distance herself from the breakup. Focus on something else, for just a couple of days.

  But right now, she wanted her own company, more than anything.

  But her own company meant taking on more responsibility…

  She got to the living room of the cottage and saw that all three of her friends were gathered around the television.

  Bethany frowned. There was nothing moving on the TV. Just a blue background, full of static interference, and some words.

  “Hey, Bethany,” Susan said, as if their words last night hadn’t happened at all. Which, truth be told, she appreciated. “You seen this?”

  Bethany had seen it. And she felt dread building up inside when she realised that the words on the screen were familiar. Very familiar.

  ***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.

  The exact same words. On the telly now, too. She thought it might be a prank when she’d seen them on her phone. Or a virus of some kind. A dodgy app.

  But this…

  This was different.

  “You’re having me on,” Bethany said.

  Dan turned around and looked at her with his brown eyes. He was the same age as Bethany, but he always came across as older, especially with that beard he insisted on growing. He was calm. Mature. “We’re not having you on.”

  Bethany shook her head and started laughing. It was forced laughter, though. To try and break the ice. Break the impasse, of sorts. “The phone message and now this. Nice try guys. Nice try. Fair play to you, like. I wouldn’t know how to set something up like this.”

  “Bethany,” Olly said, turning around too. He was small, with short dark hair. He always spoke very quietly and came across quite timid. He wasn’t a man of many words. She didn’t know him awfully well. But he seemed quite nice. She often caught him looking over at her, though, the times she’d met him. Seemed a bit nervous around her. An odd partner for Susan, who was his polar opposite, really. “This isn’t a joke.”

  As the silence stretched on, Bethany’s smile faded. And as her smile faded, the fear began to grow. It started to dawn on her. What if they weren’t lying? What if this wasn’t some kind of joke? What if this actually was for real?

  “What… what does it all mean?”

  Dan stared at the television screen. His eyes seemed fixed on it. Completely fixed. He seemed deep in thought. Then he took a deep breath and sighed. “Do any of you guys have signal?”

  “None here,” Susan said. “Haven’t had any since that weird message came through.”