“Me neither,” Olly said.

  “Bethany?”

  Bethany looked at her phone. Just seeing she had no signal made her stomach turn. “No. But… but I thought you said signal was always bad here.”

  Dan nodded. “Maybe so. But that doesn’t change the solar impacts of a solar storm. And it certainly doesn’t change the impact of some kind of bigger follow-up CME event.”

  “What impact?” Bethany said. What was Dan on about? He spoke about this CME thing like he knew what on was. Was she just dumb for not knowing? “Do you think maybe we should do what the message says? Head home or something?”

  Dan was silent for a moment. Then, he turned around and looked at each of them in turn. “We’re going to have to do something,” he said. “Because the signals have gone. Phone signals. WiFi signals. Broadcasting signals. And soon, when that CME picks up, everything else will go.”

  Wait. Dan really did seem to know more about what was going on. He spoke with a confidence. And he definitely wasn’t joking or messing around. He was serious. Deadly serious.

  “Everything else?” Bethany asked.

  Dan swallowed a lump in his throat. “The cars. The planes. The boats. The phones, clocks, torches. Everything electrically powered. All of it’s going to go. And we’ve no idea how long we’re going to be in the dark for.”

  EIGHT

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 9:30 A.M

  Lily stared deeply into her bathroom mirror and tried to psyche herself up for what she had to do.

  For what she knew she had to do.

  The only thing she could do.

  Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do.

  It was a nice day outside, the sun beaming down through the bathroom skylight. There was a slight breeze in here, because the skylight didn’t shut properly. It was the sort of thing Sam would’ve fixed. Or at least tried to fix, anyway. He wasn’t great at DIY when they first met. But over time, he got better. He improved. Which was quite sweet, to be honest. To see him trying his best to improve. Mostly for her. It was rather touching to see someone so willing to do something for your own benefit.

  On any ordinary day, she might’ve brought her laptop up here and sat in the sunlight, the skylight wide open. It was nice up here. Bright. She was technically an owner of a first floor flat, but that included a bathroom in the loft. It was a nice room. Very private, with nothing but the birds and the planes able to peek through inside her perfect little bubble. No people, staring in at her. Perfect privacy. Perfect peace.

  But she wasn’t going to be staying in here today.

  She stared at her reflection. She was pretty, once upon a time. But the stress of the last few years had taken it out of her, no doubt about that. Her dark hair was starting to grey at the roots. Her face was gaunt, and her cheekbones were beginning to protrude to a rather unhealthy degree. And the dark, plump bags under her eyes… oh word, the bags under her eyes. She’d been so caught up in her own little bubble of fear and worry that she hadn’t even taken the time out to care for herself. It was surprising, how quickly the dominoes could fall, when you stopped looking after yourself. Sleep. Diet. Exercise. A total collapse of motivation. So hard to pick yourself back up from those depths.

  The time for caring for herself started today. But not in the way she would’ve expected. Definitely not in the way she had planned.

  She took a deep breath of the clammy bathroom air and swallowed a sickly lump in her throat. Butterflies fluttered around her stomach at the thought of what she was going to do. Of what she needed to do. Not only was she going to leave this house, on a whim, which was a momentous decision in itself, but she was going to be pushing herself into places and situations she could barely even imagine contemplating just hours ago.

  And she didn’t even have her smart watch bloody charged.

  She thought about it. That gift, which Sam had bought her. She felt lost without it. She wanted to look down into it and see his face staring back, and feel close to him, in a way she struggled to explain.

  But she couldn’t.

  That chance was gone.

  That opportunity was gone.

  The fear was there. The panic was there. But she had to do her best to detach from it if she was to do what she had to do.

  And what was it she had to do?

  Get to Alex. Find her son and bring him home.

  That was her priority.

  She felt her hands shaking, her heart pounding against her rib cage so hard she could see her shirt moving. Not ideal for her health anxiety. Last thing she wanted right now was a heart attack.

  It was a mad idea. An epic journey that could end in disappointment, especially if his camping group had moved on in light of the news.

  But maybe signal was so bad out there that they hadn’t got the message. Perhaps Alex and the rest of his friends on the school trip were just going about their business as if nothing was different.

  What a surprise it would be when they realised things weren’t working anymore, if Terrance’s theories were correct.

  Lily found herself smiling then. Terrance. Technophobic old Terrance. What did he know about anything like this, really? Could he be trusted? Or were his “theories” just the ramblings of an old man with far too much spare time on his hands?

  Then again, he did once teach science. And he did seem to know what he was talking about. Or he spoke with a confidence, at least. Maybe she was mad for believing in what he was saying. But she was inclined to believe him, weirdly enough.

  Lily heard the sirens building up outside, and as much as she tried to convince herself that Terrance’s worst case scenario outlook couldn’t be correct, that niggling fear deep down told her otherwise.

  It added up.

  This madness actually added up.

  She splashed cold water against her face to get her heart rate down, wishing she could monitor it just to make sure it wasn’t in the danger zone. She inhaled two deep breaths. Then she looked at herself once again, a little light to her eyes now. She wasn’t sure her heart had stopped racing or was beating any slower. But she felt a bit more in control of herself now. A bit more measured.

  It wasn’t going to be easy. Not if what Terrance said was true.

  And it especially wasn’t going to be easy because of her reluctance to step out of her comfort zone, her anxiety and fears holding her back from doing anything that challenged her too much.

  But this was Alex on the line. She had to face up to her fears and she had to not only find him, but stock up, just like Terrance said.

  If she couldn’t do that, what kind of a mother was she?

  What kind of a mother couldn’t look out for her kid, when he was in need?

  She walked out of the bathroom, headed down the stairs, and saw Beast waiting patiently by the door, collar around his neck.

  “What you looking at?” Lily asked.

  She grabbed his lead, and he started bounding up and down in a frenzy.

  “Okay, okay,” she said, clipping his lead on and trying to calm him down. “We’re going to go a different route today, big man. A whole new journey. How’s that sound, hmm? How’s that sound?”

  He licked her face, full of excitement. And Lily wished she had the naivety of a dog. She wished everyone was just in this happy little world of their own where nothing mattered, not really. That would be ideal. No social anxiety. Nothing like that.

  Just excitement.

  Routine excitement.

  What she’d always wanted.

  But she wasn’t.

  Things did matter.

  She couldn’t just drop her anxiety.

  She had somewhere to go.

  To be.

  And her journey started now.

  She took a deep breath and took a final look around her lounge. The bookcase filled with unread novels. The potpourri, scent lost years ago. Beast’s little rag doll toy, the foam inside it long gone. He and Sam used to tug that toy together. They’d enjoy it. Have so much fun. Beast missed Sam, too. She was sure of it. He sometimes looked up at the door, with his ears raised. Like he always used to when Sam came back home.

  And he lowered his head and sighed when he realised it wasn’t Sam coming back after all.

  She looked around. She’d miss this place. However long she was away, she’d miss it. It was her bubble. It was her safety net. She spent the vast majority of her life here. And she was about to step out of it, despite that message telling her otherwise.

  Second thoughts crept in again. She looked at the phone, at that message.

  STAY HOME, STAY CALM.

  Should she?

  Should she wait here?

  Shouldn’t she just trust that the people who had sent this message knew what was good for her?

  Then she sighed and tightened her grip around Beast’s lead.

  Alex was out there.

  Terrance knew his stuff.

  So, it was time to start being proactive.

  It was time to start fighting.

  “Come on,” Lily said, as she began her descent down the stairs, towards the front door, towards the unknown.

  If at that point she knew exactly what she was about to come up against on her journey, Lily might’ve stayed at home.

  NINE

  BETHANY

  DAY ONE: 9:30 A.M

  Bethany scrolled right through her phone and did the only thing that made any sense to her right now.

  She tried calling Mum and Dad.

  The last time she’d spoken to Dad, he was annoyed with her. So much so that she wasn’t even sure he was going to answer her. It would be typical of Dad to ghost her for a few days to force her into being responsible. But now really wasn’t the time for sending out a message.

  She could picture the argument him and Mum will have had yesterday. Mum will have told him to go easy on her. Dad will have disagreed. It was a pattern she had witnessed more times than she cared to admit.

  She pressed her phone to her ear and held her breath. Her phone felt really hot. The battery was playing up lately. That would be just what she needed. The whole damned phone dying on her completely.

  She sat on the far end of the sofa. At the other side of the room, Olly, Dan and Susan were all talking about plans of action; discussing what they were going to do about this CME. Whatever the hell any of it meant.

  And as much as Bethany realised something was desperately wrong here, she still couldn’t accept the true severity of the situation she was in.

  She felt in limbo, somehow. Like, she could hear the words they were saying. And she could hear all these disaster scenarios they were talking about.

  But it still didn’t feel real.

  It felt more like a game.

  A VR game.

  One that Dan and Olly were deep inside.

  And, in spite of everything, she still wanted Mum and Dad’s advice, even though they were a thousand miles away.

  The phone was silent. There wasn’t even a dialling tone. She pulled it from her ear to check it’d connected. It had. Which didn’t bode well.

  “Come on,” she muttered. “Please. Please.”

  But no sound followed.

  No dialling tone.

  Not even that pre-recorded voicemail that Dad insisted was hilarious. The joys of the dad-joke. She’d never wanted to hear it more than she did right now.

  But nothing.

  She wasn’t getting through.

  Something was wrong.

  Deeply wrong.

  She cancelled the call and as much as she knew it went against the logic of her situation, she tried again.

  She felt guilty when she remembered the last time she’d spoken to Dad. He’d been mad at her, that was for sure. But she couldn’t deny how much he clearly cared about her wellbeing. He’d bought her that car. He’d set boundaries for her, which made sense considering she was a newly qualified driver. He’d trusted her. And she’d thrown that trust right back in his face. She realised it wasn’t good. It was really shitty of her. She should show him more respect. He just worried about her. And he had a funny way of showing it sometimes. But didn’t all dads?

  In a way, Bethany deserved to be on her own without their help right now. Especially after the way she’d spoken to him.

  The call ended in total silence once again. She pulled it from her ear, cancelled the call. She looked at their names and felt tears starting to well up. Should she try them again? Just once more, perhaps?

  She sighed and lowered her phone. Whether she liked it or not, she knew the truth. Mum and Dad weren’t going to answer her calls. She didn’t know for how long, only that it was going to be at least 48 hours.

  And then there was the threat of that bigger blackout after the 48 hours. The thing that, according to Dan’s interest in post-apocalyptic fiction and prepper subreddits, was going to be even more lethal than the solar storm that had already wiped out their communications. She wasn’t sure in how much reality his predictions were based. But she was inclined to believe him, since he seemed so serious now.

  It scared Bethany to think of a world where everyone was cut off. The world had become so dominated and so ruled by the media via their streams of communication. They relied on Instagram, TikTok, X. Without those institutions, who ruled, really? And what was to stop the bad people rising up and leading for themselves?

  And just what defined “good” and “bad” anymore?

  What even defined truth anymore?

  She took a deep breath and walked over to her friends, realising full well that any attempted calls were just a waste of phone battery right now. Valuable, precious phone battery.

  “So, what’re we supposed to do?” Olly asked.

  Dan scratched at the back of his head. He’d done that quite a lot this morning already. He looked troubled, stressed, but more like he was just sinking his teeth into a good maths equation than figuring out how to deal with a situation of the gravity that he’d described. “I mean, we have to be rational, first and foremost. The message informs us that a coronal mass ejection wiped out some of our communications and electricity. The fact they managed to inform us at all, that’s a good thing.”

  Wow. Some good fucking news then. Even if she didn’t entirely understand what the good news even was. “Then what’s the concern?” Bethany asked.

  Dan licked his chapped lips and rubbed his bleary eyes. She’d never seen him so serious. So, concerned. “The warning. About the CME. About how ‘widespread electrical outages’ are expected. And the curfew. Those things bother me. Because if this was as bad as it was going to get, why would they even mention that? Surely they’d be more keen on reassuring everybody that things were going to be okay?”

  “Maybe they’re just covering their arses,” Susan said. Chipping in.

  Dan tilted his head to one side. “Possibly. Or maybe they’re just preparing the more intelligent amongst us for the worst.”

  “And the worst is?” Bethany asked.

  “Total blackout,” Dan said.

  Bethany shook her head. All this, it sounded absurd. Totally absurd. “You can’t really think this, can you? I mean… even if the power does go down, there’ll be backups.”

  “Not for a strong EMP,” Dan said. With real confidence. “EMP is more man-made than this. But it’s helpful and it works for this too. Think of it like a nuclear bomb, only this nuclear bomb takes out all kinds of power. Battery powered things. Engines, like in cars and planes. Even pacemakers.”

  “You sound like you’ve been reading too many of those books,” Susan said. “And spending too much time on the Playstation.”

  “Those books are peppered with the truth to prepare people in the event of the worst-case scenario. The games… sure, they’re far-fetched. But they’re rooted in just enough reality to matter, too. And I’m not saying this will be the worst-case scenario, but… Well, I think it’ll pay to prepare. Just in case.”

  Bethany felt detached from reality. It honestly didn’t seem like this was an ordinary, real-life conversation. Prepare? What was he on about?

  “Now as you say,” Dan said. “I do know a thing or two about EMPs and survival, thanks to my nerdy reading.” He cast a judgemental glance at Susan. “Chances are the power will be back on and one day we’ll all look back at this as that mad weekend where there was a national blackout. That’s still the likeliest outcome, as far as I can tell. The fact that they’ve sent out an emergency message is concerning. But they’ve managed to send out an emergency broadcast. That’s a positive, too. So yeah. This could be something that all just blows over.” He paused. For long enough to matter. “Or…”

  He didn’t finish.

  Paused again.

  Just at the right—or wrong—point.

  “Or?” Olly said.

  Dan shook his head. “If the CME is as strong as it could be, then… well, we need to prepare for the worst. Prepare for the fact that the power could be out for a long, long time. And I don’t just mean… I don’t just mean here. I mean… globally.”

  “Globally? No chance.”

  “If it’s weapon-based, more localised. But this sounds solar. Which is a problem for everyone.”

  Bethany shook her head. This wasn’t real. Couldn’t be.

  “What do you mean by ‘a long, long time?’” Bethany asked. “Weeks? Months? Years?”

  “Decades.”

  Bethany paused. “Decades? No chance.”

  “Look, look. That’s worst-case scenario. But like I said, it’ll pay to prepare. So that’s what we need to think about doing right now. While we can. We’ve had a head start. We’re lucky we have. We need to take advantage of it. I’d rather be over-prepared than underprepared. You ready?”

  Bethany wasn’t ready. Of course she wasn’t ready. Decades? She had her whole life ahead of her. She had uni and a graduate scheme and a job and dating and marriage and… all of that.

  Was she really going to live her life in the black after all?

  She shook her head. No. Of course it wasn’t going to be the case. Dan was just thinking about the worst-case scenario. It was healthy to consider the worst outcome. He was a drama queen. They’d look back on this one day and laugh about it, just like he’d said.