And the people they’d walked past on their way. They seemed muted, but polite. They were preoccupied with their own worries, their own concerns. Everyone was in this together, but at the same time they were all strangely… detached.

  Like everyone was looking out for themselves already.

  Naturally, Dan led the way. And he seemed pretty sure about what kind of things the group needed to gather.

  “Food should be easy enough to come by,” Dan said, two large rucksacks over either shoulder—like all of them. When Bethany had asked him why he had so many rucksacks, he said it was because he wanted to be prepared for something like this. She’d smirked, thinking he was joking. But it didn’t take her long to realise Dan was being deadly serious. Dan was always deadly serious, it seemed.

  “Most people will go for the obvious stuff right away. But the things with the real value are all in cans. We can handle that. But it’s the non-food stuff that we need to really think about putting together, especially if we’re thinking long term.”

  “And what sort of thing are you talking about?” Susan asked.

  “Pain meds, first and foremost. Pain’s something none of us can avoid. And when the blackout really takes a hold, people are going to hold up the pharmacies and the chemists in greater numbers. We need to make sure we’re all stocked up before that becomes a problem.”

  “So, pain meds. Check. What else?”

  Dan took a deep breath, like he was really considering all the items that might be needed. He really was a handy man to have around. “Lighters and matches, too. Honestly, a lighter is going to go a long way in this new world. Perhaps the most important item of all. Matches are a good backup. Make no mistake about it: fire’s going to keep us alive.”

  Bethany couldn’t help but smirk. She had a way of reacting like that—with humour—when things got serious. It had got her in trouble a few times in her life. Fortunately now, Dan didn’t notice her. But hearing him speak like this. Hearing him reel off a list of things they needed. It was bizarre. Hard to believe. He really did seem to know his stuff. Maybe those books and games weren’t so useless after all.

  But all this talk about fire keeping them alive and everything. That sounded a bit far-fetched. Shit wasn’t going to go that far, was it?

  He couldn’t be for real, could he?

  Dan went through a few more items that they should look for besides food. Some tinder for starting fires. Cotton buds and other essential first-aid supplies. Hand washes to avoid the unnecessary use of water. Mouthwash, soap, and paracord—whatever the hell “paracord” was, and for. What even was paracord?

  “The first things that are gonna go missing when shit goes down are the drinks,” Dan said. “Water, then other drinks. Then the bread, the crisps, and alcohol. People will be so focused on those things that we need to mostly ignore them. I know it seems counter-productive to avoid water, but there are better ways to gather and filter water, believe me.”

  Bethany found herself smiling wider. Unable to shake it off, now.

  “Something funny?” Dan asked.

  Shit. She shook her head. “It’s just… this. All this. It doesn’t seem real.”

  Dan tilted his head to one side. “It is real, I’m afraid. And the sooner we adapt to that reality, the better.”

  “One question,” Susan asked. “How do you know all this shit? And don’t tell me books and video games got me this far.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Dan said. “Novels can actually go a long way. Stuff by these post-apocalyptic authors. They write some really detailed stuff. Really well researched. You’d be surprised how much of that stuff stays with you.”

  “Well, I’m just thankful one of us here is a reader,” Susan said. “If it keeps us well-fed and watered through this blackout, then I can’t exactly complain.”

  There was one member of the group that was staying particularly quiet, though. And that person—surprise, surprise—was Olly.

  “Something bothering you?” Bethany asked, looking at Olly.

  Olly lowered his head. He was always a quiet guy, but this struck her as particularly quiet even for him.

  “Olly? What’s wrong?”

  “Just… just all this,” he said. Glancing over at his girlfriend, Susan. They’d barely interacted since she’d got here. It was odd. “Starting to wonder if maybe we should just head back home. We’ve got cars back at the cottage. We can make the most of what we’ve got.”

  Dan shook his head. “We’re going to need that petrol for fuel and currency when things go to crap.”

  “But if the cars break down then petrol’s not gonna be worth a thing, right?”

  “Just trust me,” Dan said, raising his voice. “Running away is not a good idea right now. I know it seems contrary to everything right now but the cities are going to be tearing themselves apart. And it’s going to get worse there before it gets better, especially when the panic truly takes a hold. Being in the country is better. It might mean learning to hunt and trap, things like that… but it’s a far better place to be than stuck in the suburbs and the cities right now. Believe me.”

  Bethany could understand Olly’s hesitation. But she was inclined to side with Dan, mostly because he already seemed to know so much already.

  They walked a little further, tension still intact between Olly and the rest of the group, and then they saw it.

  “Here we are,” Dan said.

  Bethany saw the little miniature supermarket at the bottom of the hill.

  She felt a tension in her chest.

  It was time to stock up.

  It was time to prepare.

  Whether it was far-fetched or not, as big a deal as she thought or not… that’s exactly what they were going to do.

  FIFTEEN

  GAVIN

  DAY ONE: 11:00 A.M

  Gavin Henton watched the message roll across the television screen before it all cut and faded out to a staticky mess, and he tried to comprehend just what he was going to do about it.

  It was mid-morning. The weather outside was stifling hot. Absolutely roasting. He was on the counter in the One Deal store around the corner from where he lived, the only guy working in here at the moment. He was pissed when he was called in for work. Today was supposed to be his day off. But Kayla needed cover because she was sick. He knew she wasn’t sick. She’d probably just had a late night with a few too many drinks. Wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. Naturally, it fell on him. Seemed unfair. But got some money in the bank for him, anyway.

  It was a small village, so it didn’t really need any more than two people working at a time, and right now he’d been left on his own. He didn’t mind being on his own. Rather that than mixing with other people, anyway. He wasn’t good with other people. He had bad acne. People had always teased him for it, growing up. It’d made him quite hateful of other people. Even the ones who were being kind to him. He felt like they were always looking at him like he was different. Like he was dirty. Even though it was nothing to do with how clean or dirty he was, ’cause he scrubbed his face every night.

  Scrubbed it clean until it bled.

  And besides.

  He was starting to think that perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing that he was on his own after all.

  Not now the news of the CME was beginning to spread.

  He listened to the silence of the supermarket. He looked around at the fresh bread, which still smelled delicious—might even grab one—and at the meat, and all the cans of food. He was sitting on a goldmine. And he knew that when the message of what was occurring really spread around a luddite village like this, it wouldn’t be long before they descended upon here and started taking things for themselves.

  Gavin wasn’t a selfish guy. He liked sharing meals, things like that. And he was always a very helpful person. The customers in here always said so. Mum always said so, too. What a good lad he was. A good lad who was now a good, good man.

  He loved Mum. She always made him feel good about himself, even when he should feel ashamed of himself.

  He looked around at more of that food. He wanted to share it. In his mind, he’d be king of the village, and everyone would come to him for food, and he’d share it out happily. They’d be so thankful for him. So grateful to him. So proud of their Gavin, their local man, who had amounted to so, so much. Women would love him. Everyone would love him.

  A love that he had craved, all his life.

  Finally.

  The love he deserved.

  But he had to think about his own safety. And if the news was true—if a CME big enough to wipe out the signals had hit, and was going to be followed by an even bigger flare that took out the electrics completely—then he had to be pragmatic, whether it appeared selfish or not.

  He had the advantage of understanding what a CME was, and just how devastating one could be. He’d heard stories that eventually, the world was going to descend into an EMP based war, and that EMP nukes were the new weapons to really fear. Not terrorism, not global warming, but EMP induced blackouts. He spent a lot of time in his attic room. When he wasn’t masturbating over questionable porn, he was researching conspiracy theories, going down internet rabbit holes, shit like that.

  Down in time for tea, though. Mum’s good boy. Her good, grown up boy, who needed to get his life in order, and get a place of his own, and get the hell out of this dead end village, and actually amount to something.

  But this CME event. Solar, by the sounds of things. Did whoever was sending this message out even know what they were talking about? Could it be that they were trying to brace people for the fact that things were already going to pot? Or was it possible that there was actually some sort of solar double-whammy going down, and the first punch had already struck?

  It seemed pretty damn typical that Mother Nature was doing her own job of clearing out the badness of this world before humans could get to doing it themselves.

  Hell. They’d already done enough damage as it was.

  He walked over to the door of the supermarket. He knew he was breaching protocol by doing this. He knew he could land himself in big trouble.

  But somehow he figured he wouldn’t have to worry too much about being in trouble for long. Not when the real trouble hit.

  He’d seen a television programme on what’d happen in the event of a blackout once. A first-person, handheld cam documentary-style account of just how quickly the world would descend into chaos once its overriding structures were taken away from it.

  And eventually, the world would split into two kinds of people. Not good or bad, but doers and non-doers. The doers were the ones who were going to rule, who were going to survive, no matter how morally grey some of the actions they took may be.

  He had every intention of being a doer, right from the off, even if it meant doing some things he wasn’t very comfortable with doing.

  He turned the sign to “Closed.” Then he bolted the door, and pushed a shelf in front of it, immediately cutting out the light.

  Then, he walked over to the back of the shop and grabbed the largest knife he could find.

  His heart raced. His chest tensed. He felt like a monster; like some kind of evil bastard who was heartless for even considering using a weapon like this.

  But he had to be willing to do it.

  He had to be a doer.

  Because it was the non-doers who were going to be the ones who were left behind, if this really was as bad as he suspected.

  He sat back against the shelves, knife in hand, and he waited.

  Nobody was taking his shit.

  Nobody.

  And if they tried, then that was on them.

  Their blood was on their own hands.

  Times were changing.

  He was Mum’s good boy.

  And he was going to do everything he could to protect this place.

  SIXTEEN

  LILY

  DAY ONE: 11:00 A.M

  Lily carried her final batch of supplies back to the car and she felt a sense of achievement unlike anything she’d experienced over the last few years.

  Which said a lot about the last few years.

  The sun had reappeared. It was burning, stifling hot as it beamed down from above. But instead of being fearful of the sun—after all, sun meant that more people were outside, which played nasty games with agoraphobics—she actually appreciated the day for what it was worth. Sure, she might suffer from social anxiety. Sure, the sun usually made her stomach turn in knots, because of what it symbolised. More people was never a good thing. Ever.

  But today of all days… today, things felt different. That sunshine. That warmth. It was beautiful. And if that beauty and positivity could transfer its way into her life and her quest to reunite with her son, then perhaps things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  Perhaps this could actually be the start of something, rather than an ending.

  That’s what she had to hope for.

  Pray for.

  Beast tugged hard against his lead. Harder than he usually tugged, anyway. He was a nightmare for that when she first got him. It was one of those things she never thought he’d grow out of. That she’d ever be able to train out of him.

  He seemed unsettled about something. It was strange, because he hadn’t acted in this way before. He was panting, dragging as hard as he could. Like he knew something was wrong.

  And that was enough to light a spark of anxiety.

  She’d trained his bad habits out of him when he was younger. It took a lot of work—and cost a lot of money, too.

  But in the end, she’d got there.

  But now, it was as if he’d reverted right back to square one.

  Like pure instinct had taken over.

  “Slow down, Beast,” Lily said. “You’re gonna pull my arm out of its socket.”

  She looked up and saw Terrance to her left. He was smiling at her, which admittedly made her feel a little self-conscious.

  “Everything okay?” Lily asked.

  Terrance’s grin widened. “You know, right now is the first time I’ve seen you totally comfortable with yourself during this whole journey. First damned time I’ve seen you comfortable in a long time, actually. Years, maybe. It suits you.”

  Hearing Terrance say that—that she came across as “comfortable”—was crazy. There were few things he could say that would make her feel better. There were few things anyone could say to make her feel more comfortable. And the second he mentioned it, brought attention to it, she started to feel like her grip on her comfort was falling away. The anxiety was growing again. Building. Swelling in her chest, in her tummy, right through her body.

  But then she disregarded the anxious thoughts creeping into her mind. They were irrelevant. That’s what she had to tell herself. Those thoughts were irrelevant. Entirely irrelevant. She was okay. She could be strong. She could do this. She just had to believe she could. It really was that simple.

  “Thank you,” Lily said. “For everything.”

  Terrance smiled even wider. “Thank you for helping me. Now let’s get this stuff back to the car and get ourselves on the road so we can find your Alex…”

  He stopped walking, then. He was staring right ahead. Lily didn’t realise what he was looking at initially.

  Not until she turned to face Terrance’s car.

  And when she turned to face Terrance’s car… she saw them.

  And she understood his hesitation.

  There were two men by the car. One was by the driver’s door. The other was sitting on the boot of the car.

  One of them was holding a pen knife.

  The man by the door, who was holding the pen knife, was bulky and covered in tattoos. He had short dark hair and a thick beard. Some people could really pull of a beard. Not everyone, but some blokes completely transformed with a beard. He was one of them.

  He looked like he might be a builder or something like that, an orange hi-vis jacket tied around his waist.

  “No need for any trouble here,” he said, clicking at the pen knife. “Just hand us that stuff, hand us the car keys and let us get the hell out of here.”

  Lily felt her throat tighten. Her grip on Beast’s lead intensified. It was times like these that she wished her trust Rottweiler was as aggressive as the stereotype suggested. Unfortunately, he was more likely to run up to this pair and lick them to death than he was to attack.

  He was a big softie. A total big softie. That was the problem.

  And, right now, it was a very big fucking problem.

  “Lads,” Terrance said, walking towards them. “Please. The store’s still full of stuff. There’s still plenty in there. More than enough to go around.”

  “But that’d be work, wouldn’t it?” the man with the knife said. “We’ve seen how long it’s taken you to gather all that stuff. You clearly know your stuff. Why should we go to those same lengths to get stuff for ourselves?”

  “Because it’s the decent thing to do,” Terrance said.

  The man smiled. “Come on, old man. Decent? You’re telling me you paid for all that stuff? Let’s put decency aside for a second here. Because you know as well as I do that decency isn’t going to get anyone very far anymore.”

  The standoff stretched on. The silence was deafening. All this time, Lily just felt her chest tightening, her breathing becoming a struggle, her heart pounding so fast that it felt like it might just burst out of her chest.

  She shouldn’t be here.

  She knew coming here was a bad mistake.

  She should be back home, doing exactly what the message had told her to do. Not here. Anywhere but here.

  Terrance walked closer to the man with the pen knife. Lily noticed his entire demeanour had changed. He seemed more confident. More self-assured. Which was… worrying. “You know, I was going to suggest we share some of our supplies. After all, cooperation is going to be an important thing in this new world. But after the way you’ve spoken to us just now… well, I’m not sure I want to do that at all, young man.”