R.M. Allinson

THE LONG ROAD HOME

For my Canadian.

^{CHAPTER ONE}

Tom

NOT for the first time, Tom wondered why they hadn’t stayed in Vancouver. Home was covered in a foot of snow and it had been 15 degrees below zero when he’d kissed his wife goodbye at Pearson airport in Toronto. Here, it was a relatively balmy six degrees above. Almost shorts weather. The city was in fine form today. The clouds had lifted, allowing some of the winter sunlight to trickle through. From his hotel room he had a lovely view of the sparkling Burrard Inlet all the way to the snow dusted North Shore mountains. He could almost see the gondola taking people up to Grouse Mountain. As he watched, a cruise ship left the dock and slowly steamed out under the Lions Gate Bridge. For half a second Tom thought it might hit the bridge, but evidently the sailors knew what they were doing and the gigantic boat made it through. He wondered where they were going. Hawaii, perhaps, or maybe Alaska.

Tom turned from the view and did a quick check in the mirror. Hair not too messy, no toothpaste on his face, no food in his teeth. Satisfied, he straightened his tie and left the room. He walked up the corridor to room 407 and knocked.

“Mike, you ready?” he called through the door.

“Yeah, give me a second,” came the muffled reply. Tom studied the ceiling, and then his shoes. Either Mike was taking a lot longer than a second, or Tom had the shortest attention span on the planet.

Finally, Mike made an appearance. Tom raised an eyebrow. Mike usually wore crumpled, un-ironed jeans and old worn-out t-shirts from various band tours; his Radiohead one seemed to be a particular favourite. Today Mike was barely recognisable in his new, well-fitted suit and tie, and polished leather shoes. It even looked like he’d attempted to brush his unruly hair. Tom blinked a few times; Mike had actually trimmed his beard.

“Didn’t realise you were out to impress the boss so much, buddy.”

Mike looked puzzled for a moment, and then laughed.

“Oh. Nah, mate. It’s not Fred I’m trying to impress; that new receptionist from the Vancouver office is smokin’ hot. You met her last night, right?”

“Which one was she?” Tom asked.

“Emma.” Tom was silent, sorting through all the faces he’d met last night. There had been three younger women, but Tom couldn’t remember which one was the receptionist, which one was the accountant and which one was the developer, and to make it worse they all had similar names. Emily, Amelia, and Emma.

“The Aussie one?” Tom took a stab. She’d been the only one who really stood out. She’d been excited when he’d told her his wife was a fellow Aussie and that he’d been to Australia and knew how to pronounce Melbourne and Brisbane and even Wagga Wagga correctly.

Mike laughed. “I know you’re partial to those Down Under chicks, but no. The other younger one. The brunette, not the blonde.”

“Right. Point her out later.”

_____

They sat through a yawn-inspiring presentation from a guest speaker that Tom supposed was meant to start the conference off with a bang, but turned out to be more of a fizzle. The crowd was restless and Tom kept checking his watch. Mike was fidgeting next to him. The seconds were ticking by at an excruciating rate and Tom found himself day-dreaming about a coffee break. Was he more in the mood for pastries or fresh fruit? He couldn’t decide. Coffee. Coffee was a definite though.

“I can’t sit through another hour of this,” Mike muttered as they filed out of the conference room for a coffee break.

“Pretty painful. Think it will get any better? It can’t get much worse.” Tom grimaced.

“I’m not gonna risk it. Come upstairs with me, we’ll come back down for lunch. No one will notice.”

Tom glanced around. He couldn’t see his boss.

“I haven’t seen Fred this morning, have you?” Tom asked.

“Nah. The man’s probably hungover and sleeping it off. Didn’t you see how generous he was with the whiskey last night?”

Tom laughed. “All right then.”

_____

The lobby was eerily quiet when the two men stepped out of the elevator an hour and a half later. They’d watched a replay of the Maple Leafs-Bruins game. He wasn’t sure why they’d bothered. The Maple Leafs had lost spectacularly… as usual.

Tom frowned and looked around the empty lobby. He couldn’t even see the receptionist at the front desk.

“Where is everyone?” he asked.

Mike shrugged. “Don’t know. I thought there were meant to be people telling us where to go or something.”

“Yeah, same.”

“I think I can remember my way to the big conference room. That’s where they said lunch would be served, wasn’t it?”

“I think so,” Tom said. The free whiskey and vodka last night at the conference welcome party had gone to his head pretty quickly. He should have written the instructions down. He probably had the program up in his room somewhere.

They headed towards the staircase. Tom paused when a door near the staircase clattered open. A smartly-dressed woman stumbled past them, sobbing. Tom and Mike stood dumbfounded as she raced to the hotel entrance, heels clacking on the tile floor.

“Wonder what was wrong with her?” Tom said, looking after the distraught woman as she hailed a taxi.

“Women…” Mike said with a shrug.

They passed three huddled hotel maids, on the way to the conference room. One of them, an older woman, looked like she was trying to comfort the younger two. Tom stared at them, wondering what on earth was going on. Had there been a robbery? A murder?

The conference room was up ahead. Mike and Tom glanced at each other and then sped up. It didn’t sound like the usual lunch-time commotion.

Tom and Mike hovered in the doorway. Tom took in the room. The buffet overflowed with food, but almost everyone was ignoring it. A woman Tom didn’t recognise was hyperventilating, but her table companions were oblivious to her. Instead their attention was on the large screen at the front of the room. Tom spotted his boss, Fred standing by the screen looking grave. He had his arm protectively around Janice, his assistant. One of the guys that Tom recognised from the Vancouver office — he thought his name might be Ravi — was fiddling with the sound box.

Tom blinked and then focused on the screen. The President of the United States filled his vision. Tom caught the words ‘asteroid’ and ‘unstoppable’ flash along the bottom of the screen.

The sound system suddenly came to life.

“…asteroid, known commonly as Cecelia, is predicted to hit the Earth in approximately two months time. Yes, I can confirm that we have been working tirelessly in an attempt to divert this disaster. Alas, we have failed so far.”

Tom frowned at the big screen.

“What the hell?”

The program switched from the president to a shot of a reporter standing out front of the White House. “And for those of you just tuning in, there’s been some shocking, breaking news. After a press conference given earlier today by two NASA officials, the President has just confirmed that a giant asteroid is on path and will collide with our planet in a matter of weeks. So far, all attempts to divert or destroy the asteroid have failed.”

The screen switched back to the president speaking.

“We have not given up, I repeat, we have not given up. We have our very best people working on this, and I have faith in them, and in Almighty God. This is not our time. I urge all of my fellow Americans, and all citizens of this planet, to remain calm. I repeat, please remain calm.”

Calm was the last thing Tom felt like being, and from the buzz of conversation and chairs scraping, it was the last thing most people in the room felt.

Tom stared at Mike, who just stood there shaking his head.

“Well, shit. The bastard was right after all,” Mike said after a moment.

“Who? What?”

“I’ve been hearing rumours about this,” Mike said.

“Rumours? Where?” Tom wracked his brain, but all he could come up with was the crack-pot homeless man who regularly sat in front of his local Tim Horton’s and informed them they were all doomed, that the end was nigh, that the wrath of the gods was coming from the sky to smite them all. He’d been saying the same thing for five years.

“My crazy brother-in-law. I didn’t really take him seriously though. This is fucked up.”

Tom didn’t reply. He just blinked at the screen. This couldn’t be happening. It must be some sort of hoax. End of the world? No. It couldn’t be true. That sort of thing only happened in movies and books. And it nearly always worked out for the best.

“Is this for real?” he eventually said.

“Looks like it.” Mike was alternating between staring at the big screen TV and his phone.

Tom rested his head in his hands. This couldn’t be real. Claire would know if it was a hoax. More than once, Tom had fallen for an online hoax, only for his wife to laugh and tell him the truth.

“Claire. I’ve got to call Claire.”

Tom pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled his wife’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Tom frowned at his phone. Maybe she was trying to call him. He sat the phone on the table and stared at it, willing it to ring. It did. Tom reached eagerly for the device, but it wasn’t his wife.

“Hi, Lisa,” he said to his sister. “Is Claire with you?”

“No, she’s at home. Are you seeing this?”

“Yeah…”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I tried to call Claire, but it went to voicemail.”

“She said she was going to turn it off so she could concentrate on finishing off some article. I’ve got your boys. She’ll be here in a couple of hours. She probably hasn’t got a clue what’s going on.”

“You’ve got Tristan and Noah? Are they okay?”

“Yeah, they’re fine. Molly’s sitting with them now. They’re watching Toy Story.”

“Have you told them anything?”

“No… I… I’m waiting for Claire. Besides, they’re too young to really know what it means.”

“What does it mean, Lisa?” Tom didn’t know if he really wanted an answer.

“I don’t know yet, Tom. It’s too early. I’m sure we’ll find out more over the next few days. What you need to do is get on a plane and get back here.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I think I’m a bit in shock or something.”

“Same here, little brother. Where are you?” It was getting noisier as more and more people started calling people. Tom glanced around the room. One lady was openly weeping.

“In the conference room. We just found out about ten minutes ago. It’s getting a little nuts in here.”

“Okay, well you go figure out your flights, and I’ll look after your boys for you until Claire gets here.”

“Thanks, Lisa. I owe you one.”

“Don’t be silly. They’re my nephews. I love them. Stay safe, brother.”

“You too. See you soon, hopefully.” Tom hung up and tried Claire’s number again. Despite what Lisa had told him, he was still disappointed when his call went straight to voicemail. He sent her off a quick email asking her to call him, and then left her a Facebook message as well. Even if she had her phone switched off to focus on her work, he knew she still sometimes needed the internet for research and was known to be guilty at times of a little sneaky glance at Facebook or her email. He hoped this wasn’t one of her more disciplined days.

Messages sent, he looked to his friend.

“We need to get back to Toronto.”

Mike nodded. “I’m sure Fred will forgive us for skipping out on the rest of the conference. I’ll call the airline and get our flights changed.”

“Okay, thanks, buddy.”

The two men went back up to Mike’s room. Mike yanked open the bar fridge and pulled out two little bottles of scotch. He offered one to Tom.

“I’m sure Fred will forgive us.”

“Sure about that?” Their boss was notorious for not approving extraneous spending on business trips. Fair enough, in Tom’s opinion, but he knew it grated on some of the other staff.

“It’s the end of the world. What’s he gonna do? He probably won’t even get a chance to see the bill if this is all true.”

“Good point.”

They both slammed the bottles back. Tom grimaced at the aftertaste. He felt it burn in his belly. Tom turned on the TV and flicked channels while Mike looked up the number for the airline. Most channels were showing something about the asteroid.

“Can you believe it?” Tom shook his head. Ironically, one channel was playing Deep Impact. Armageddon was scheduled next.

Mike snorted when he looked over. “Wonder if that was a coincidence, or someone’s got a sick sense of humour in programming.”

“I’ll go with sick sense of humour,” Tom said.

“I dunno, maybe it’s hopeful? I mean, don’t those movies all have happy endings? Earth is saved at the last minute. Shouldn’t they be playing Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, or whatever that Steve Carrell movie was called?” Mike mused. “They all die in that one. Come to think of it, I think that was a rip-off of Last Night. They should play that. Oh, and I saw a preview for an Aussie movie the other day — can’t remember what it was called. The asteroid hits in the northern hemisphere and they know the fireball is coming, and they’ve got like twelve hours or something, but they know death is coming.”

“Yeah, I’ll check that out. Get some tips.” Tom sighed.

“You get onto the wife?” Mike asked. Tom could hear classic hold music coming from Mike’s phone.

“Nah. Talked to my sister though. She lives around the corner from us. You’ve met Lisa, haven’t you?” Mike nodded. Tom ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, anyway, she’s got the boys. She said Claire’s in lock-down mode working on finishing off an article for her freelance business.”

“Oh. Shitty. She’s gonna get a nasty surprise when she logs back on.”

“Yeah.” Tom frowned. He really wished he could be at home with his family right now. He just wanted to hold his wife and sons. Claire was going to freak out. He wanted to be there for her. That’s what husbands were meant to do. Instead he was stuck on the other side of the damn country.

“No luck?” Tom nodded towards Mike’s phone. Mike sighed and shook his head.

“Just this stupid hold music. Why don’t they get a better playlist? And they keep interrupting the crappy stuff with a pre-recorded voice to let me know that value my call, and someone will be with me as soon as possible. It’s annoying. I keep thinking someone real’s actually going to talk to me, but it’s just a recording and back to the hold music.” Mike glared down at the phone.

Half an hour later, Mike’s phone was still blaring out horrendous music. The two men morbidly channel surfed and then settled in to watch the ending of Armageddon.

“Where’s good old Bruce when you need him?” Mike shook his head.

“Wonder what it’s like out there?” Tom nodded out the window.

Mike shrugged. “Probably a lot of confused and scared people.”

“Yeah. Wonder how long ’til shit hits the fan?”

Mike screwed up his face. “Well, we are in Vancouver… they do like to riot here.”

Tom grimaced. “Yeah, but this is serious. Not a hockey game.”

Mike just shrugged and lay back on the bed with an irritated glance at his phone, through which Tom could still hear the on hold jingle.

“Maybe we should just go out there?” Tom sighed. “Get on the first plane heading east.”

“I don’t really fancy being stranded out at the airport though,” Mike said. “Not when I could be waiting here at this nice, fancy hotel with a stocked mini-bar and room service that I don’t have to pay for.”

“You have a point…” Tom conceded.

“But you’re right. If we don’t have any luck tonight, then we’ll head out there tomorrow and use our good looks and charm to get on a flight home.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tom said with a hint of relief. He was getting impatient just sitting around the hotel room. Maybe he should use the time to go and check on his grandparents. They’d be worried. They didn’t know he was in Vancouver yet. He had been planning on going out there and surprising them after the conference finished. If things really went south, and the asteroid really did hit Earth, then this might be his last chance to see them. That was a very strange thought.

“Do you have any family in Vancouver?” Tom asked.

Mike shook his head. “Nah. Got a great-auntie up in Prince Rupert, but the rest of the family is in Ottawa. Well, apart from the cousin in China. Oh shit, I think my granny’s down in Florida. Yeah, she is. Mom told me the other day she got a post card from her.”

“Oh. My grandparents live on the North Shore. Deep Cove,” Tom said.

“Well what are you doing sitting around here for, buddy. Go out and see them before we leave.”

“Yeah, I was just thinking I would.”

Mike and Tom both jumped at the knock on the door. Looking a bit sheepish, Mike threw his phone at Tom and got up off the bed to answer the door. A young woman stood there. Tom recognised her from the Vancouver office. He couldn’t remember if she was Emily, Amelia or Emma though.

“Hi,” she said falteringly.

“Hi, Emma,” Mike said. “Pretty crazy day, huh.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

“What can we do for you?”

“Actually I was wondering if I could do anything for you. I know you guys aren’t from here, and don’t have cars or anything. I just wondered if you had anywhere you wanted to go, the airport maybe, or a relatives or something?”

“Oh, thank you. That’s very kind and thoughtful of you.”

“Well, it’s not just me. Emily and Amelia are offering as well.”

“Well then, it’s kind of all of you.”

“I just would hate the thought of being away from home at a time like this, is all,” Emma said.

“Thank you. I’m actually just on hold with the airline, we’re going to change our flights. I haven’t been able to get through yet though,” Mike said.

“Oh… I…”

“This might be too much of a hassle, so feel free to say no, but my grandparents live out in Deep Cove. Would it be possible to drop me out there?”

“Yeah! Of course! That’s no problem. I actually live out that way myself. Sort of.”

“Excellent. You’re the best, Emma.” Tom smiled at her. Emma blushed.

“It’s nothing, really. When do you want to go?”

Tom glanced at Mike who just nodded.

“As soon as possible?”

“Okay, no problem. I’ll just check with the others and see if anyone else needs a ride out that way. I’ll come back in a few minutes,” Emma smiled weakly and shut the door.

“That sure is thoughtful of them,” Mike said.

“Yeah. Was she the one you liked?” Tom asked, thinking back to that morning.

“Oh. Yeah. Doesn’t seem so important right now…”

“Hang on, I should call my grandparents and let them know I’m coming,” Tom said. He reached for his phone and tried to dial his grandparents, but there was no answer. “Well, I guess it will have to be a surprise. I hope they’re home.”

“Get Emma to wait in case they’re not. You don’t want to be stranded out there with no way to get back.”

“Yeah, good point.”

Tom jumped when his phone rang in his hand. Claire. Finally. He answered quickly.

“Claire, baby! Are you okay? Are the boys okay?” He forgot for a moment that his boys were at Lisa’s.

“Hi, yeah, they’re fine. They’re at Lisa’s. I’m on my way there now. Are you okay?” She sounded calmer than he had expected.

“This is crazy,” Tom said.

“I know. I don’t know what to think, Tom.” Okay, Tom thought. Maybe not so calm.

“Me either, baby.” He tried to think of something to comfort her but came up blank.

“Asteroid? Is this some big practical joke that’s got out of hand?”

“That would be nice, but I don’t think so. The president… and the Prime Minister’s put out a statement as well. I’ve been trying to call you, I was getting worried.”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to get that piece for the Nicholson’s finished. Lisa offered to look after the boys for the afternoon and I shut everything off.” He heard her take a deep breath.

“Please don’t do that again,” Tom said. He hated the thought of not being able to contact her, not now.

“No, of course I won’t. I’m sorry.”

“I wish I was home,” Tom sighed.

“Me too, when can you get back?” Tom looked over at Mike who was still glaring at his phone.

“I’m not sure. Mike’s been on hold with the airline for ages already. Regardless, we’ll go to the airport first thing in the morning.”

“Why not now?” Claire asked. She sounded impatient.

“I want to check on Grandma and Pa before I go,” he said. “I’m about to go out there now, actually.”

“Oh, right. Of course. Give them my love.”

“I will. Give the boys a hug and kiss from me, and tell them I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Okay. Be careful, Tom. Call me back as soon as you know what’s going on.”

“I will. I’ll see you soon.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

He hung up and stared at his phone for a moment longer, wishing he could just teleport through the phone lines or something and be back home with Claire and their sons.

There was another knock on the door. Tom got up from the chair and answered it. It was Emma again.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Yep,” Tom said. He waved goodbye to Mike. “I’ll call you — I’ll be back later.” He followed Emma out into the corridor. “Do you need to get your coat or something?” Emma looked him up and down. “I know it’s colder in Ontario, but it’s still pretty chilly out there.”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking… my room’s just up here.” They walked up and Tom unlocked his door and grabbed his coat and scarf from the chair where he’d dumped them last night.

They took the elevator down to the basement in silence and Emma led him over to her car; a small two-door silver hatchback.

“Thanks again for doing this,” Tom said as he squeezed into the passenger seat. The car wasn’t made for people who were six foot three.

“It’s fine, we were just thinking about how horrible it would be to be stuck in another city or like, another country or something, and we wanted to help. It was Amelia’s idea, actually. She’s Australian, you know. She’s freaking out that she might not be able to see her family again…”

“Oh, shit. Yeah. My wife’s Australian too. Her parents and sister are back there still…” Tom’s stomach dropped. Bill, Liz and Lucy hadn’t even crossed his mind. What if… no, surely something will happen, someone will figure something out. It will turn out all right in the end.

“Shitty. Yeah. Amelia was trying to look at flights to get back, but they’re too expensive. She has a boyfriend here, but still, if this is for real, it’s family you want to be around, isn’t it?”

Tom thought of his sons and sister and nodded.

“If you guys need a lift out to the airport tomorrow, just let me know. The trains might be running, but in case they’re not, I’ll give you my number. There was something on the news before about taxi driver’s charging crazy expensive fares already… I hope it doesn’t get too bad.”

“Yeah me too.” They drove out of the underground car park and into the traffic. It was fairly busy. People were rushing around, but it didn’t really look all that different from normal rush hour.

Emma must have been thinking the same thing. “It looks the same. But everything’s changed.”

“Yep. Well. They’ll probably figure something out. Let’s not give up just yet. It is the twenty-first century after all. We’re not like the dinosaurs.”

“They said on the news that it’s bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs,” Emma said in a small voice.

“Yeah, I know.”

They were both silent as Emma navigated the busy streets.

“I hope the bridge isn’t too clogged. Apparently the Lion’s Gate isn’t moving,” Emma said after a while.

That was the trouble with the North Shore. Only two bridges to get in and out.

“Where do you live?” Tom asked, in an attempt to make conversation that wasn’t about their impending doom.

“Blueridge. By the Seymour River?”

“Nice, yeah I know it,” Tom said. “I used to go swimming there in the summers with my cousins.”

“Cliff-jumping?” Emma glanced sideways at him. Tom laughed.

“Once. I was a pretty wussy kid. My cousins dared me.”

Emma grinned. “I love it. You’re not meant to, of course, but it’s so exhilarating. I really want to go bungy jumping. Amelia and I are planning to do it in Australia when I go visit her… I mean. Well. If I go visit her…” Emma stopped, confusion in her voice and face.

“Let’s try not to think about it too much right now, eh? At least until we know more.” Tom suggested.

“Yeah, good idea. They’ll figure something out. I don’t exactly know who ‘they’ are though to be honest…” Emma trailed off.

_____

It was fully dark by the time they made it to the Ironworkers Bridge. Traffic crawled across. The lights on Grouse Mountain sparkled. Tom wondered if anyone was still up there. Imagine that — spend your day skiing and come off the mountain to the news that the world might end in a couple of months.

Emma had turned the radio off when her attempt to find some light-hearted music had failed. All of the stations were talking about the asteroid, except for one station that was playing death metal, which Emma quickly skipped over.

The traffic improved a bit once they got over the bridge and off the highway. Tom tried calling his grandparents again, but there was still no answer. He left a message on their answering machine and wondered when they’d get around to getting cell phones. His Gran in Ontario even had her own blog, which she updated with her gardening progress and preserving tips. She had a bigger following than he did. His B.C. grandparents, his mother’s parents, on the other hand were complete technophobes. He marvelled that they even had a computer, until he remembered that Uncle Sam had given it to them ten years ago as a Christmas present. He didn’t think it had been turned on since then.

When they got closer to Deep Cove, Tom directed Emma to his grandparents’ house until they pulled up into the familiar driveway.

“Thanks again so much for doing this,” he said. “Can I just ask one more favour? Wait a moment until I make sure they’re here? I haven’t been able to get through to them.”

“Yeah, sure. Just give me a wave. Here, wait,” Emma scrambled around to find a pen and a scrap of paper. “Here’s my number.”

“Thanks,” Tom said as she handed him the paper.

He put the piece of paper in his wallet and climbed out of the car. He huddled down into his scarf as the cold, damp night air bit his nose, and wished he’d grabbed his toque.

Tom smiled at Emma who sat watching him intently from the car, and strode up the path to the front door. Their car was there. That was a good sign.

He knocked.

^{CHAPTER TWO}

Claire

THE first thing Claire did was check the date. February 12th. Definitely not April Fools Day. Maybe the website had been hacked. She closed it and opened the CNN and BBC websites, as well as CBC, The Age, and the Toronto Star. They all said variations of the same thing.

Asteroid. Unstoppable. The end of the world.

Impossible.

The second thing she did was pinch herself. Hard. She wondered for a moment if she’d dozed off at her desk and if this was all just a dream. How can the world suddenly be ending between lunch and dinner? There’d been nothing out of the ordinary when she’d checked the news this morning. Just your usual celebrity melt-downs, political scandals and media beat-ups. She’d turned her phone and internet connection off for a few hours to take advantage of the boys being at their aunt’s house, and to concentrate on getting the article she was working on finished, and now this.

Claire morbidly clicked on one after another of the articles. Phrases jumped out at her.

“…it is being reported that the asteroid is even bigger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs…”

“…the asteroid was first discovered almost a year ago by amateur South African astronomer, Frank Langdale, and named for his youngest daughter, Cecelia…”

“…“I urge all Americans, and people around the globe, to attempt to remain calm”…”

“…the President has confirmed that all known methods to attempt to divert the asteroid have been attempted and were unsuccessful…”

“…“This is God’s punishment for all of our sinful, greedy, blasphemous ways. The end is nigh.”…”

“…This is catastrophic. This is what happens when funding is cut from research and development, and we have a Prime Minister who doesn’t believe in science. This thing should have been spotted months or even years ago, but thanks to all the funding cuts both here and overseas…”

“…Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst…”

Claire started to feel dizzy. She put her head down on the table and reached blindly for her phone and switched it back on. She waited impatiently for the damn thing to start up, and then stared at the last two numbers called: her husband and her parents. They’d have to wait, she needed to make sure her boys were okay. She pressed Lisa’s name.

Her sister-in-law answered on the first ring.

“Claire, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah. What the hell?”

“I don’t know, it’s nuts. I tried to call you…”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I had my phone off. Are the boys okay?” Claire asked.

“Yeah, they’re fine. I haven’t told them anything. Tristan’s a bit cranky and asking for Tom.”

“I’ll be right over.” Tom. She wished Tom was here.

Claire hung up and grabbed her coat, scarf and car keys. She refreshed the news feed, hoping to see a report about it all being a false alarm and not to worry. No such luck.

Claire pulled on her boots and tried not to slip as she dashed to the car. Fresh snow was tumbling down. She started the engine and let it sit idle for a minute, warming up. Pulling out her phone, she dialled her husband and put him on speaker phone.

“Claire, baby! Are you okay? Are the boys okay?”

“Hi, yeah, they’re fine. They’re at Lisa’s. I’m on my way there now. Are you okay?”

“This is crazy.”

“I know. I don’t know what to think, Tom.”

“Me either, baby.”

“Asteroid? Is this some big practical joke that’s got out of hand?” she said more shrilly than she intended.

“That would be nice, but I don’t think so. The president… and the Prime Minister’s put out a statement as well. I’ve been trying to call you, I was getting worried.”

“I’m sorry, I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to get that piece for the Nicholson’s finished. Lisa offered to look after the boys for the afternoon and I shut everything off.”

“Please don’t do that again.” His voice sounded tight.

“No, of course I won’t. I’m sorry.”

“I wish I was home.”

“Me too. When can you get back?” Her husband was only out of town for business trips once or twice a year. Of course it had to happen now.

“I’m not sure. Mike’s been on hold with the airline for ages already. Regardless, we’ll go to the airport first thing in the morning.”

“Why not now?” Claire asked. She wanted him back here as soon as possible, by her side.

“I want to check on Grandma and Pa before I go. I’m about to go out there now, actually.”

“Oh, right. Of course. Give them my love.” It had completely slipped Claire’s mind that Tom’s other grandparents lived in Vancouver.

“I will. Give the boys a hug and kiss from me, and tell them I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

“Okay. Be careful, Tom. Call me back as soon as you know what’s going on.”

“I will. I’ll see you soon.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.”

Claire hung up and pulled carefully out of the driveway. She never liked driving in the snow, but she’d had to get used to it since moving to Toronto. She’d never even seen snow until she’d moved to Vancouver, but the winters on the west coast were relatively mild compared to the east. When she’d first moved to Canada on her working holiday permit, she’d imagined a freezing, snowy winter. She hadn’t counted on Vancouver’s soggy rather than snowy weather. It had only snowed three times her first winter there, and then the snow had been soft and slushy and only stuck around for a day or two. She’d been very excited to see her first snowfall, and rather surprised when her Canadian housemate had grumbled about it. The Toronto winters were much more like what she’d imagined a Canadian winter to be. She still wasn’t entirely used to actually driving in them though.

The streets were strangely quiet as Claire drove through the light snow. People were probably still finding out. Not everyone was glued to televisions or the internet. She only saw one other person on the short drive, and he was doing a relatively mundane activity of taking his dog out for a walk. She didn’t know what she’d expected. Riots in suburban Toronto? She shook her head and rubbed her face after she pulled into Lisa’s driveway.

The porch light was on. Claire knocked, and then pushed the red door open without waiting for an answer.

“Hello! It’s me.”

Noah, her eldest son, came racing down the hallway, blonde curls flying. Tristan toddled along behind him, brown eyes sparkling and a happy grin on his face.

“Mummy!”

Claire knelt down and braced herself as Noah barrelled into her. They were soon joined by Tristan falling into them.

Lisa followed behind the boys a bit more sedately. Her little dog, Max, cowered behind her ankles. Claire looked up at her and smiled weakly.

“Hey,” was all she could manage.

“Hey,” Lisa replied with an equally weak smile.

She unentangled herself from the two little boys after a long moment, giving them each a kiss and squeeze and stood up to give Lisa a hug.

“Thanks for watching them,” she said finally. She didn’t want to talk about it yet in front of the boys.

“No problem at all, they were little angels. Weren’t you, boys?”

Noah grinned up at his mother and aunt and nodded. “Yes. Molly made cake.”

“Cake! Oh my, how special. What kind of cake?” Claire asked, following him back up the hallway to the living room. She picked up Tristan and held him close, breathing in the smell of his hair. It calmed her, somewhat.

“Choco choco cake!”

“Chocolate cake?”

“Yes! Choco choco.”

“That was very nice of Molly to make for you.”

“Mummy want some?” Noah asked.

They walked into the lounge room and Claire saw the remains of the chocolate cake. It looked like Tristan had sat on it. Or fallen face first, she wasn’t sure which.

“No thank you, my darling. Not right now. Maybe later.”

“I save you some.”

“Okay. Thanks, Noah. Hi, Molly,” Claire said to her thirteen year old niece, sitting on the couch. Molly gave her the ghost of a smile. So, she knew.

“Thanks for entertaining Noah and Tristan today.”

“That’s okay,” she said quietly.

Claire didn’t know what else to say. Molly was a bright kid. She knew what this could mean.

“Can I get you to keep watching them for a bit? I need to talk to your mum without them underfoot.”

“Sure,” she said and held out her arms for Tristan. Claire passed him over and ruffled his brown curls. He looked so much like Tom.

“Thanks, Molly. Noah.” Claire knelt down in front of her eldest son. “Stay here with Molly. I’m just going to be in the kitchen with Auntie Lisa.” She wiped a bit of crumb off his cheek.

“Okay, Mummy.”

Claire stood up and watched him climb up onto the couch to snuggle up next to Molly. Molly started asking him which movie he wanted to watch next. Claire walked backwards into the kitchen, not wanting to take her eyes off the boys. Lisa was waiting for her.

Claire sank down into a chair at the kitchen table. Lisa silently pushed a mug over to her. Claire reached for it, and then held it up and sniffed it. Coffee and whiskey. She took a long sip.

“So,” Lisa said eventually.

Claire put the mug down and closed her eyes.

“I’m having a hard time processing this,” she admitted.

Lisa quirked her eyebrows. “I don’t think you’re the only one, hon.” She paused and took a sip from her own mug. “Have you talked to Tom yet?”

“Yeah, I called him straight after I spoke to you. I wish he was here. Have you talked to him?”

Lisa nodded. “Yep, he was pretty worried when he couldn’t get ahold of you. I told him you’d just switched everything off to concentrate.”

“Thanks. I can’t believe this,” Claire said. “What, I mean, how is this even possible?”

Lisa sighed deeply and took another large sip. Claire caught a whiff of Lisa’s drink — it smelled a lot stronger than hers.

“We’re insignificant,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Claire frowned.

“I just mean, when you think about it, we’re just these tiny little specks floating around on a minor planet revolving around an insignificant star in a remote part of the galaxy. We get hit by stuff all of the time. The big ones just aren’t quite so often. It’s our curse that it happens in our lifetime.” Lisa said all the while staring into her mug.

“Are you drunk?” Claire looked sideways at Lisa.

Lisa snorted. “No. I kind of wish I was though. Is Tom going to be able to get back soon? He wasn’t sure what was going on when I spoke to him.”

“Yeah, I really hope so. He’s going out to the airport in the morning. He was about to head out to see your grandparents when I talked to him.”

Lisa blinked rapidly. “I should call them.”

“How’s Molly taking the news?” Claire glanced out towards the living room where she could hear Tristan gurgling away and Molly’s quiet, soothing voice.

Lisa bit her lip. “We haven’t had a chance to speak properly about it yet. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Noah. Tristan’s too young, but Noah’s a sharp little cookie. He could tell something was wrong though, he’s been trying to cheer Molly up all afternoon. I thought I’d be able to talk to her when they went down for a nap, but Noah refused. He said he’s a big boy like daddy and daddy doesn’t take naps.”

Claire grimaced.

“I’m sorry. He’s been doing that every few days lately. I’ve been tempted to get Tom to take naps just so he will and I can get a bit of peace and quiet.” All too often nap time was the only bit of the day that she had to herself, and she was loath to give it up. Claire felt immediately guilty for thinking that way; in a few short months she might be getting all the peace and quiet she needed… permanently.

Claire tried in vain to hold back the tears that were suddenly prickling her eyes. Lisa reached over and clutched Claire’s hand.

“Hey, it’s not for certain yet. There’s still time for them to figure something out and save the world,” Lisa said.

“I sure hope so,” Claire said and tried to smile.

“Have you had a chance to talk to your family yet? Mom called before, she’s worried about you being so far away.”

Claire shook her head. “I came straight here after I found out. I’ll call them when I get home.” Claire pushed the thought that she might never get to see her parents and sister again out of her mind. One thing at a time.

“What are we going to do?” Lisa asked after a moment.

“What do you mean? What can we do?” Claire looked up at her sister-in-law. She was running her hands through her short brown hair and looking distractedly out the window.

“If things get bad… I mean, if they don’t deal with this problem soon, like if there’s no announcement tonight or tomorrow that they’ve solved the problem and we’re not all going to be blown to smithereens, then I don’t think most people are going to be taking the president’s advice and staying calm.”

“What do you think’s going to happen?” Claire’s thoughts hadn’t gone that far ahead. All she could think about was her sons and Tom getting home.

“Shit’s gonna hit the proverbial fan.”

“How long do you think?”

Lisa frowned into her mug and got up to refill it. “I don’t know. Not long. I’d like to think better of our fellow human beings but thirty six years on this planet has made me cynical. They shouldn’t have told us.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because the next two months or however long we have, or until they figure this damn thing out… I don’t think it’s going to be pretty or easy.”

“But wouldn’t you rather know?” Claire asked. She knew she would. Did.

“Not really, not when there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Claire pondered her sister-in-laws words.

“But if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be able to prepare yourself,” Claire said.

“What do I need to prepare myself for?” Lisa demanded. “If it’s going to be as bad as they’re saying, then there’s nothing to damn well prepare for! The death of everyone I know and love? The end of everything I hold dear? The end of our species? The end of our world? When I can’t do a damn thing about it? To be perfectly honest, I think I’d rather that surprise me out of the blue.”

“I don’t know… I want to appreciate everything while I still have the chance,” Claire said quietly.

“Ah, yes. Of course. But, Claire my dear, that’s the beauty of it. I already do. I tell Molly I love her each and every day, even when she’s being an annoying little brat — I still love her and she knows it. I don’t take any day for granted, I haven’t for a long time. Not since Guillaume died… and probably even before then, not since Dad died. It just became sharper after I lost Guillaume.”

“But…” Guillaume was Lisa’s husband. Claire had never met him; he’d been killed in a car accident years before she’d even met Tom, when Molly had been a toddler.

“No ‘buts’, Claire. This is bad. For everyone. You’ll see. Does your little sister still live in Melbourne?”

“Lucy? Yeah, she does. Why?” asked Claire, slightly puzzled by the change in topic.

“Is she close to downtown?”

“Um, Elwood’s kinda close to the CBD, I guess. Like, maybe ten k’s or so?”

“You should tell her to get out of there if she hasn’t already thought of it herself. ASAP. Your parents are still on the farm, right?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere.”

“Great. They should be safe enough out there.”

“Safe from what?” Claire wondered out loud. City or country wouldn’t matter when the threat was from the sky.

“Safe from people,” Lisa said darkly. “People do stupid things when they panic. I don’t know about you, but I kinda feel like panicking.”

Claire blinked rapidly. How quickly would things change? She frowned down at her hands. Lisa was definitely right. People would panic. Her breath came faster and shallower.

“Deep breaths, hon.” Lisa reached across and squeezed her hand again. Claire closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing and tried to slow her rapidly beating heart.

“You’re right,” she said through clenched teeth. “They shouldn’t have told us.” Claire opened her eyes and took a deep breath. “I should email Lucy.”

Claire pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened up the email app.

Lucy — go home to Mum and Dad’s. Don’t stay in the city. I’m worried that things are going to get ugly soon. Keep in touch and be careful.

Love Claire xox

She hoped Lucy would listen.

“It was pretty quiet on the way over here,” Claire murmured after putting her phone away.

“Claire, honey. We live in the suburbs.” Lisa fumbled around for a moment and pulled a remote out from under a pile of papers. She pointed it at the small television that sat on the side-table. Claire watched intently. They were reporting only about the asteroid news, of course. But behind the newsreader were images of people rioting and looting.

“Where’s that?” Claire demanded, thumping her mug back down on the table. “It’s not Toronto is it?” She squinted at the television, trying to find a tell-tale landmark.

Lisa turned up the sound.

“—wide-spread looting occurring in downtown Los Angeles. The president has issued another statement urging citizens to remain calm, and that he hasn’t given up faith that a solution will be found in time. In the meantime, the National Guard is reportedly on their way to Los Angeles to restore order—”

Lisa turned down the sound and shook her head. “Well, that certainly didn’t take long!”

“Do you think it will spread here,” Claire worried.

“Probably.” Lisa shrugged. “It’s a city full of people and people are renowned for doing stupid things.”

“What should we do? I wish Tom was here.” Not that he’d know automatically what to do, but over the course of the past eight years she’d gotten used to talking over any problems or issues with him, and deciding on a course of action together. She felt uncertain without him here.

“He’ll be back soon enough. I hope. He’d better get that butt of his onto a plane first thing tomorrow. Who knows how long the airlines will keep running for?”

Claire groaned. It had barely crossed her mind that flights might be cancelled permanently, but now that she thought about it… all of those pilots and flight crews, ground support and traffic controllers, check in staff and maintenance workers. They’d all have families or friends they’d want to be with. They wouldn’t want to spend their last months of life ferrying around other people in exchange for money, when all people would want would be more time.

“He said he would. Should we leave the city? Just in case?” Claire didn’t like the thought of her sons being near possible riots.

“I think that would be prudent. Maybe we could go to Uncle Jim’s. Mom’s place isn’t big enough for everyone.” Claire’s mother-in-law lived in a cozy two bedroom cottage in a small town about an hour out of Toronto.

“When should we go?”

“I’ll call Uncle Jim tonight. I think we should go as soon as Tom gets back.”

“We should get some supplies to take with us. Who knows how much longer the shops are going to be open for? And how much longer they’re going to even have food,” Claire said. It was all too quickly dawning on Claire how rapidly everything in the cities would fall apart. The food supply would surely break down at some point. She looked out the window, and thought longingly of her mother’s huge vegetable patch. It was the height of summer over there in Australia. The garden would be brimming with food. They wouldn’t starve. Not even close.

“You’re right. How late is that supermarket around the corner open until?” Lisa asked.

“Midnight, I think.”

“We should go tonight, before we have to resort to looting.”

“Should we bring the kids? What if it’s already getting nasty out there?”

Lisa shook her head after a moment. “No, I think they should stay here. Molly can look after the boys.”

Claire glanced at her watch. “We should feed them. It’s after their dinner time.”

“All right. Dinner, then bedtime, and then we’ll go out and stock up.”

_____

The two women made a quick dinner and fed the kids. Noah protested when Claire said it was bed time, but he eventually capitulated after a promise of two stories and that he could sleep in Molly’s room. Molly rolled her eyes at her, but smiled at Noah and led him upstairs. Claire watched them until they were out of sight, and then followed Lisa out to her SUV.

The snow had stopped falling. It was only a short drive to the supermarket from Lisa’s house. It seemed like they were not the only people thinking ahead. Claire had never seen the supermarket so packed at this time of night before. They both hovered inside the door for a moment, before being buffeted aside by the oncoming stream of people. There were only a few shopping carts left, Claire quickly grabbed one.

The bottled water shelf was almost empty when they reached it. Claire had to get down on her hands and knees and pull the last two slabs to the front. She tried not to feel too guilty about taking them both.

Claire and Lisa had written a list of essentials they thought they’d need while they’d prepared dinner. Water, power supplies, food. Plenty of non-perishables like rice, flour, beans and tinned food. Claire paused in the middle of the fresh produce area and looking longingly around at the fruits and vegetables that had been shipped here from around the world. Bananas from South America. Pears from her own Australia. Apples from New Zealand. Apricots, peaches, plums, mangos and pineapples from somewhere warmer. They wouldn’t be able to get any more fresh summer food soon.

Lisa stopped in front of the mango and pineapple section and reached out for some fruit.

“What?” Lisa demanded, almost defensively. “They’re my favourite fruits and who knows when we’ll get a chance to eat them again. The canned version just doesn’t cut it.”

“No, no, go for it. I was just thinking the same thing.”

Claire pushed her way through to the fancy cheese aisle. It was a lot less crowded there than in the staples aisle. Lisa trailed after her with the shopping cart. She grinned when she saw what Claire was dropping into the cart; some of the most expensive cheeses that they never usually bought but often drooled over. There were a few that Claire had been wanting to try for a while. If she didn’t try them now, she might not get another chance.

The slowly made their way around the supermarket and filled up the cart with an assortment of dried and tinned fruits, legumes and vegetables, rice, flour, pasta, lentils, beans, and anything else that caught their eyes. They stayed clear of the frozen section. Lisa said she thought Uncle Jim probably had a generator, but she couldn’t be sure. They’d need to go on a fruit binge over the next few days in order to eat it all before it started to go bad.

Claire looked over the shopping cart, wondering if it would be enough food to last them two months. She wasn’t sure. It looked like a lot of food, but still. She was used to being able to go shopping every day if she needed to, and she usually did.

“Do you think it’s enough?” she asked. Lisa frowned at the pile of food.

“I honestly don’t know. I’m used to only feeding me and Molly. I remember Mom buying mountains of food each week when Tom was a teenager and it would all disappear pretty quickly.” Lisa let out a sigh. “I’ll talk to Mom and get her to do a big shop too, and Uncle Jim as well. We won’t be able to fit too much in the cars with us and the kids and everything.”

“Good idea. Will your Mom come to Uncle Jim’s too?”

“I think so. She’ll want to be with us and her grandkids. She doesn’t want to abandon her house, but I think she’ll come anyway.”

They joined the check-out line. It was moving at a glacial pace. There were only two registers open. Claire frowned as she watched one woman walk brazenly out without paying for the overflowing shopping cart full of groceries. She wasn’t at that stage yet. It had only been a few hours.

“What about your grandma? Juniper, I mean, not your B.C. grandmother.”

Lisa shrugged. “I’m not sure, I haven’t talked to her yet. She’s not all that far away from Uncle Jim’s, really. It would be a challenge to get her away from her greenhouses…”

The line moved slowly forward. The girl looked extremely frazzled, but Claire thought the young man on the next register over looked very zen. Did he know? The news must still be trickling through to some people. Not everyone had televisions, or spent every waking hour online, or perhaps they were out fishing or hiking for the day. What a thing to come back to. It kind of reminded her of one of her favourite books from when she was a teenager, where a group of friends go camping for a week in the bush and come back to find their country had been invaded and the world turned upside down. Those kids had an enemy to fight though; how do you fight a space rock? Hopefully one of those astronomers down at NASA or the European Space Agency or China’s version — whatever they were called — would figure out what to do.

“How long do you think they’ve known?” Claire asked. The queue inched forward. They reached the magazine display. Claire idly wondered if they’d bother putting out an updated issue about the asteroid, one that wasn’t all about some movie star’s possible baby bump… Baby bumps. All those babies who might not ever get a chance to be born. Her babies. Claire gulped for breath, and then shook her head. Now was not the time or place. She could fall to pieces later, at home, in the privacy of her own bedroom.

“Hmmm, what?” Lisa had been staring at the magazines as well with a frown on her face. “It kind of forces home how utterly pointless it all is, doesn’t it?” She waved a hand at the gossip magazines.

“Oh, I dunno. I always need to keep up with the Kardashians.”

Lisa snorted. “Uh huh. Sure you do. Do you even know all of their names?”

“Sure. Kim… umm… K… Katie? Kylie? Keira?”

Lisa let out a soft laugh. “You’re so obviously a pop culture expert, hon.”

Claire shrugged. She’d never even been able to figure out what the Kardashians were even famous for.

At last it was their turn. The girl hurried through their purchases. Claire blinked at the total. It was more than her whole months grocery budget. She pulled out her credit card and wondered if she’d ever have to pay it off.

_____

Once they were back at Lisa’s house, Molly came downstairs and gave her mother a long hug. Claire watched them for a moment before stepping unobtrusively into the kitchen. Mother and daughter followed her in after a couple of minutes.

“How were the boys?” Claire asked.

“They were fine. Noah eventually went to sleep.”

“Thanks for being such a big help today, Molly. I know it hasn’t been easy,” Claire said.

“It’s okay. They kind of kept my mind off it.” Molly looked down at her feet.

“Do you want to stay the night? The boys are already settled,” Lisa offered. Claire thought about it for a moment, but shook her head.

“No. Thanks, though. I kind of want my own bed tonight.”

Claire helped Lisa and Molly unload their groceries, and then Lisa helped carry the sleeping boys out to her car. Claire hoisted Noah over her shoulder, marvelling at how heavy he’d gotten. It seemed like only yesterday when he’d been a mewling, helpless infant, small and light enough to fit into the crook of her arm. She used to sit there with him in the small hours of the night, marvelling that she’d created this perfect little creature. She quickly banished the thought that he might not get any bigger.

She strapped Noah in, and then held out her arms for Tristan. Sweet, little Tristan. She gave him a kiss on top of his curls before buckling him in as well, and then turned to give Lisa a big hug.

“See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Hopefully Tom will be back by then. I’ll give Uncle Jim a call and see what he says.”

“Great. Thanks for everything,”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you in the morning.” She gave Lisa a squeeze and kissed her on the cheek.

“Okay, well, be careful. Call me if you need anything. I’m a light sleeper.”

“Thanks, and you too.”

Claire climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine and cranked the heater. Lisa waved and then went back inside to the light and warmth.

_____

The boys didn’t stir on the drive home, nor when she took them one by one into the house and put them in their beds. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, watching them sleep. The phone vibrating in her pocket brought Claire out of her reverie. She walked into her own empty bedroom and pulled the phone out. It was a message from Tom. She laid back on the pillows and opened it.

Tom: I’m back at the hotel. Grandma & Pa send their love. So do I. Miss you baby. XOXOXO

Claire called him back, wanting to hear his voice.

“Hey, how are you?” she asked when Tom answered.

“I’m not sure. How are you?”

Claire paused, thinking. “I’m not sure either. I just got back from Lisa’s. We stocked up on food and essentials.”

“Good idea. I got Pa to do the same. He was pretty resistant. They don’t think this is real.”

“Really?” Claire blinked. It hadn’t even occurred to her that people would think the President would prank them.

“Yeah…” Tom told her about his visit, and the rest of his day.

“Did you figure out your flights?”

“No.” Claire heard Tom let out a big sigh. “We finally got through, but they said all their flights for tomorrow are full. We’re going out to the airport first thing in the morning though. We should be able to sort it out in person, probably with a different airline.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I hope you do. Keep in touch, let me know what’s going on and which flight you’re on. I’ll come and pick you up.”

“Thanks, baby. I’ll let you know as soon as I do. Tell me about your day. What did our crazy sons get up to today?”

“Well, I think Tristan sat in a cake… Noah wanted me to still eat it.”

Tom laughed.

“I wish I was there.”

“Me too, Tom.”

Claire continued to tell him about the boys, Molly, and the rest of her day. They avoided talking about the asteroid for the most part, and what it might mean for their future. She wasn’t sure about Tom, but Claire knew she’d prefer to talk about it in person, with his arms wrapped around her.

“I think I should try and get some sleep,” Tom eventually said.

“All right. Good luck at the airport. Let me know when you’re on.”

“Will do. I’ll see you tomorrow, my love.”

“Have a safe flight. I love you.”

“I love you too. Goodnight.”

Claire nearly replied with ‘sweet dreams’ but stopped herself. She doubted anyone much on the planet would be having sweet dreams this night.

“Goodnight,” she eventually said. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Claire put the phone down on her bedside table. She didn’t feel like sleeping yet. Her thoughts drifted to her little sister, Lucy. Lucy’s life had barely begun. She had all these dreams for ‘later’ and now later might never come. She’d muddled through her Bachelors and then stayed working at that stupid call centre instead of doing something she actually enjoyed. Or travelling. Claire had suggested numerous times for Lucy to just pack up and get a working holiday permit and come to Canada or go to London, or something. Lucy was scared of travelling on her own though, and kept telling Claire she was waiting for Jess, waiting for Katie, waiting for someone. She’d finally just gone ahead and booked a holiday to Spain for September. And now September might never come. Not fair. Claire grabbed her phone and opened the email app to see if Lucy had replied. Nothing. She looked at the time and did a quick calculation in her head. It was late afternoon there. They should be home. She called her parents number, wanting desperately to hear both their voices, but there was no answer. Not for the first time, Claire wished she wasn’t so far away. She’d give anything to sit at the old, familiar kitchen table and have a cuppa with her mother. Her dad could never sit still for long. He’d be bustling in and out of the room, something to fix in his hands, pausing to give Mum a kiss on the head.

Again, she wondered if she’d ever get to see them again.

Claire tried calling again, this time to her mother’s mobile, then her father’s, cost be damned. But still, no answer. Her father’s phone went straight to voicemail.

Sighing, Claire got up from the bed. She checked on the boys again. They were still sleeping peacefully. Tristan was softly snoring away, and Noah was cuddling his favourite teddy bear, Blinky. If she looked at her sons for too long, the unfairness of it all was going to drown her. Three and one. No time at all. It always broke her heart when she read reports of whole families wiped out, in car accidents or fires or whatever the tragedy was. You start your family, have hopes and dreams for your kids, that they will grow up, love, laugh, cry, be happy and be fulfilled. You don’t start a family thinking that you’ll all be wiped out by a space rock.

Not fair.

Life’s not fair, she heard an echo of her Year 10 Maths teacher, Mr Kingston. His favourite saying.

Claire shut her eyes.

No.

What to do? What to do?

^{CHAPTER THREE}

Tom

“GRANDMA? Pa?” Tom called out. “It’s me. Tom.”

The house was silent. Tom pushed the door open wider and stepped inside. He called out again. This time he got an answer.

“Down here!”

Tom stepped back outside and waved to Emma and gave her a thumbs up. She waved back and reversed back up the driveway and out of sight.

Tom turned back inside and followed his grandfather’s voice to the basement. They were both folding the laundry.

“Tom! What are you doing here?” Tom’s grandmother demanded as she swooped in and gave him a fierce hug.

“I was in Vancouver for a conference. I tried to call you, but I couldn’t get through.”

“Oh, you should have told us,” his grandmother admonished him.

“He just said he couldn’t get through, Vera,” Tom’s Pa said.

“That’s now, he should have told us before that he was coming. I would have made a nice dinner.”

“I’m sorry, Grandma. You’re right, I should have.” There was no point in arguing with her. “I wanted to make sure you’re both all right.”

“Oh, yes. Of course. We’re fine. We’re both fine, aren’t we, Bob?” Bob nodded.

“You just missed your Uncle Sam, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

“Yes, he came over to bring us some lemons.”

“Lemons?” Tom frowned, puzzled. What on earth did they need lemons for at a time like this?

“Yes. I ran out. I had an urge to make lemon flummery. It’s your Pa’s favourite.”

Bob nodded again, with a fond smile towards his wife.

“You had an urge to make lemon flummery…” Tom repeated.

“Yes, that’s what I just said. Really, Tom. Are you jet-lagged?” Vera looked up at Tom in concern and felt his forehead.

“Vera, Toronto’s only a three hour time difference, he wouldn’t be jet-lagged.”

“Well, you never know. There’s something wrong with him, don’t you think, Bob? He looks poorly.”

This was surreal.

“Don’t… don’t you know?” Tom finally managed to ask.

“Know what, dear?”

“About…” Oh god, why did he have to be the one to tell them? “About the asteroid.”

“Oh. Yes. That. Sam did mention it. But I don’t believe any of that Fox News rubbish,” Vera said firmly and continued to iron one of Bob’s shirts.

Tom glanced at his grandfather who nodded along with his wife. “Quite right, quite right. Load of bullshit.”

“Pa… Grandma… It’s not just Fox News. Everywhere, everyone is reporting about it. Even the President of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Canada have come out and said it’s real. This isn’t a prank or a hoax. There’s an asteroid coming. A big one.”

Vera paused and looked at Bob.

“I don’t believe it,” she finally said.

“It’s just a big hoax, you mark my words,” Bob said. “They’ll turn around in a couple of days and say ‘Oops, our mistake, it’s all going to be fine, you didn’t have to panic.’ And by then the markets will have crashed and there will have been riots, and who comes out on top? Someone will be getting rich out of this, you mark my words, young Tom.”

“Yes, quite right, dear.”

“If I were you, Tom, I’d put money on the market crashing. What do they call it? Short-selling or something?”

“Yeah… short-selling,” Tom said absently.

“Have you got some spare money? I’d get on it quick if I were you. I told Sam the same thing.”

Tom stared at his grandparents in disbelief. He realised in a flash that nothing he could say would change their minds.

“Okay, Pa. I’ll look into it.”

“That’s a good lad. Now do you want to stay for dessert? Grandma will have that flummery whipped up in no time.”

Tom looked helplessly at his grandparents and tried to refrain from sighing. Who knew? Maybe they were right. Stranger things had happened.

“Okay. I’ll stay for a bit. Thanks, Grandma.”

“Excellent. Now, I have a light-bulb I need some help changing. Sam isn’t tall enough.”

Tom spent a rather surreal couple of hours with his grandparents. It was pleasant in a way, not talking about the asteroid, and not really thinking about it.

It couldn’t last though. Tom’s cell phone rang. It was Mike.

“Hey, buddy. How’re the g-parents?”

“Yeah, they’re in denial.”

“Oh. Really? Huh, well, fancy that.”

“It’s been a bit strange, but kind of nice in a weird way. Did you get through to the airline?”

“Yeah, that’s why I called. They said all the flights tonight are full, and so are the one’s tomorrow, but to come out to the airport anyway, and they’ll see what they can do. We’re on a list for cancellations. And I figured we could check the other airlines too. ”

“Yeah, good thinking. Okay, I hope we can get a flight.”

“I know. I was pretty pissed, three hours on hold and all for nothing. I tried looking online, but I kept getting errors.”

“Yeah, that sucks, man. Well, I’m going to be back in about an hour or so. I’m gonna get some supplies for Grandma and Pa, despite what they believe, and Pa’s going to drop me back in the city once traffic’s calmed down.”

“All right, then. I’ll see you later. Dave’s smashed, you should see him. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.” Dave was a colleague who worked with Mike and Tom in their office. He didn’t normally drink, and usually kept to himself.

Tom nearly laughed, but it died in his throat. He hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.

“Pa.” Tom turned to his grandfather, who was helping himself to a second bowl of lemon flummery. “I want you to humour me.”

Bob put his spoon down and frowned at Tom. “What is it?”

“I’m going to take you to the Superstore, and we’re going to stock up with a few supplies. Just in case.”

Bob waved his spoon around and shook his head. “It will all blow over in a few days, you’ll see.”

“I really hope you’re right, but just in case it doesn’t, can you do this for me?” Tom looked beseechingly at his grandfather.

“Oh, all right. If it will make you happy.”

Tom sighed in relief. He’d been thinking; he didn’t know how much longer the shops would remain open for. He wasn’t planning on returning to work any time soon, not until they got the all clear, and so he hardly expected that some kid working at a check-out would. Pa and Grandma didn’t exactly strike him as the looting type, and Pa was more prone to feeding the squirrels instead of eating them. If it was summer, then they’d have the vegetable garden, but it was the middle of winter. He worried that they’d go hungry.

“Vera! I’m just taking Tom down to the Superstore, he wants to get something.”

Tom’s grandmother poked her head around the door. She’d been in the kitchen putting away some dishes.

“Okay, dears. Be careful.”

Tom gave his grandmother a kiss on the cheek and then followed Bob as he grabbed the car keys and went out to the car.

It was a short drive to the Superstore. The roads were a lot emptier than they’d been when Emma had dropped him off, although when they pulled into the parking lot, Tom realised that a lot of other people must have had the same idea.

Tom slowed his pace to match that of his grandfather’s. They walked carefully through the parking lot, dodging people racing back to their cars with loaded shopping carts.

“What’s everyone in a rush about?” Pa said with a frown, side-stepping an exhausted looking middle-aged woman with an overflowing cart.

“The asteroid, Pa. People are taking this seriously. Who knows how much longer the stores will even be open for? That’s why I wanted you to come, so we can stock up, and get you two enough food to last you until…”

“Until it all blows over,” Pa said firmly. “Yes, that’s a good idea, Tom.”

Tom rubbed his head. “Yeah… until it blows over…”

They walked into the store. Tom made a point of avoiding any shops or shopping centres on busy days like Black Friday or Boxing Day, but he imagined this must be what it would feel like. He managed to snag a shopping cart and pushed it back to where his Pa was standing in the middle of an aisle, looking around himself and shaking his head.

“I’ve never seen it so busy here before,” Bob said.

“I told you, it’s because of the—”

“The asteroid, yes, I know. Now I’m starting to think maybe the supermarkets started the rumour…”

“Pa…”

Bob held his hands up. “All right, all right. What do we need?”

Tom scratched his stubble and looked around as well.

“Non-perishables, I guess. Water. Canned food.”

“Grandma doesn’t like cooking with canned food much though Tom. She prefers it fresh. Or at least frozen.”

Tom repressed a sigh.

“Do you have a generator?” Tom asked after a moment.

“No.”

“Well, if the power goes out, then you won’t have a freezer, and if the stores close you won’t be able to get any fresh food, so cans it is. Actually, maybe we should get you a generator too.”

“I suppose we can always donate it to Goodwill when the madness has passed.”

Tom didn’t reply, just pushed the cart down the tinned food aisle.

Twenty minutes later, he had a cart full of non-perishable foods: flour, rice, pasta, cans upon cans of different fruits and vegetables and more. He hoped it would be enough to last them, and that Uncle Sam would help them out too.

The line-up for the check-outs was long, but they eventually got through. Pa helped him load the groceries into the car.

“Your grandmother is going to think I’ve gone mad,” Bob muttered as they piled the last bag in and shut the door.

“Look Pa, I really do hope you’re right, and that this will all blow over in a few days, I really do… but just in case it doesn’t, now you’re not going to starve. Like you said, if it’s all a big mistake then you can donate the food to a homeless shelter or something.”

Bob just humphed and climbed into the driver’s seat. They drove back up to the house in silence. They pulled into the garage and Bob turned to Tom as he turned the ignition off.

“Thank you, Tom. For worrying about us.”

Tom nodded. “Here, let me help you unpack. You could keep it all out here if you don’t want to stress Grandma out yet.”

“Mmm, I might just do that. Let’s put it all in the tool room. She doesn’t go in there very often.”

After they’d put the groceries away, Tom followed his grandfather back into the house and spent the rest of the evening talking about the family. His grandparents asked questions about Tom’s two little boys and told stories about Tom’s mother and uncles and aunts as children. They didn’t turn the television on.

“Traffic’s probably died down by now,” Bob said after a lull in the conversation and a particularly large yawn.

“Yeah.” Tom looked at his watch. It was almost 10:30 p.m. “I should let you get some sleep. Thanks for dinner and the nice evening,” Tom said.

They all stood up. Bob grabbed his car keys, and Vera opened up her arms for Tom. He bent down and gave her a tight hug, holding the old woman longer than he usually would.

“Love you, Grandma.”

“I love you too, Tommy. Take care of yourself. Give our love to Claire, Noah, and Tristan.” She kissed him noisily on the cheek. “Be careful out there, Bob.”

“Of course. I’ll be back soon.”

Tom followed his grandfather out to the garage. He stared at his grandmother as she waved from the front steps, wondering if he’d ever see her again.

_____

The hot water hit his back and trickled over his body. It was comforting, in a way. He rested his head against the tiles, and took a deep breath, trying to hold the panic in. He wasn’t sure whether it was comforting or terrifying that everyone was in the same boat.

He thought about people who are diagnosed with some deadly disease, and told they’ve only got a week, a month, a year, whatever the time limit was. How different it was when it’s the whole planet that’s been given the diagnosis. Only in this scenario, there’s no doctor to turn to, no bucket list to complete.

His boys wouldn’t get the chance to grow up.

Tristan had only just started talking.

Noah wasn’t even in school yet.

No first day of school.

No first kiss.

No falling in love.

No little girl for him and Claire.

Why now? Why them? Why their lifetimes?

There was still so much he wanted to achieve, to accomplish, to experience. They’d been talking about moving to Australia for a couple of years, to be closer to Claire’s family while the boys were young, and to give their kids an experience of both their parents’ cultures. If this whole asteroid thing turned out to be true though, then they wouldn’t get the chance.

Damn it.

What happens when you die? Tom had never given it much thought before. He didn’t want to find out any time soon either.

The room swam around him, the steam making him feel light-headed. He slumped down in the shower, sitting on the tiles like he used to when he was a kid and let the water run over him.

He didn’t know how long he stayed there, but eventually he got out and wrapped himself in one of the fluffy robes. He really wanted Claire. He pulled out his phone and sent her a text. It was pretty late in Toronto, and he wasn’t sure if she’d be awake. She called back almost straight away. He answered the phone in relief, just wanting to hear her voice.

^{CHAPTER FOUR}

Claire

CLAIRE wasn’t entirely sure when she slipped into sleep, but she woke with a start when her cat, Lancelot, jumped on the bed and batted her face with a ginger paw. She batted him back and he jumped off the bed with a reproving meow.

She realised with a tinge of guilt that she’d forgotten to feed him last night.

“Sorry, boy. Shall we go and get you some breakfast?” Lancelot kept up a one-sided conversation while Claire pulled on her warmest dressing gown and a pair of the thick possum merino wool socks her mother had sent over for Christmas. She followed the cat down the hallway and downstairs to the kitchen. She yawned. It was still dark outside. Claire felt even guiltier when the cat dove into his food bowl with an enthusiasm he didn’t usually display. She hadn’t spared a thought for him last night. She cocked her head, listening. The house was quiet. Not a peep was coming from the boys room. She checked the clock on the wall before remembering that the battery had stopped a few weeks ago. She kept meaning to buy a new one for it. No point anymore.

Claire left the cat to his meal and went back upstairs to grab her phone. It wasn’t quite 8:00 a.m. Sighing, she sat down on the edge of her bed, rubbing her head. What to do? It was midnight in Australia. Too late to call home now. She’d have to wait. It was almost 5:00 a.m. in Vancouver too, so no new messages from Tom. She wondered if he was actually sleeping, or just tossing restlessly. He wasn’t a very good sleeper at the best of times. Claire had seemingly inherited her father’s ability to sleep through anything. It hadn’t bothered her at all when they’d lived on busy roads, or near both a hospital and a fire hall in Vancouver, but it had driven Tom nuts. Even when the babies were little, it was usually Tom who first woke up to their cries. He’d have to nudge her awake so she could go and feed them. She’d often wished, especially at 3:00 a.m., that men could breastfeed as well.

She was surprised that the boys were still sleeping. They’d had a rather late night last night, she reasoned.

Claire stood at the sink, looking out over the small backyard. The winter sun was creeping over the horizon and painting the yard in a pink glow. She filled up a jug and watered her potted herbs on the window sill. Thyme, coriander, basil, parsley, oregano, and mint. After growing up on the farm with parents who liked to grow as much of their own food as possible, Claire had always tried to maintain at least a small garden. Herbs were easy, even when she’d lived in small apartments. She ran her fingers through the thyme and then leaned over and smelled it. With her eyes closed, she could almost imagine she was a small girl at home, sitting in the middle of her mother’s herb garden. Safe.

She turned and looked around the kitchen. It was relatively clean. She had been planning on giving the oven a proper scrub down, but she’d wait for confirmation of the asteroid being diverted before she committed to that job. Claire jolted forward, reaching for her laptop.

Claire held her breath and scanned her news feed eagerly. She let out a big sigh after a few moments. There was nothing new; nothing good at any rate. She read, aghast, at reports of looting and unrest spreading around the world. London. New York. New Delhi. Paris. Beijing. Moscow. Johannesburg. Neither Toronto nor Vancouver was on the list, nor Melbourne. Not yet.

Claire tapped her fingers on the table and took a deep breath. She felt helpless and out of her depth. Astronomy had never been one of her passions. She had no idea what to expect from the asteroid strike. Would death be instantaneous? Would the planet explode? Would it be isolated to one area, or would the whole planet burn? Or perhaps would it be more like a nuclear winter, with everything and everyone slowly withering away until there was nothing left. What exactly was going to happen? Some animals had survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Could that happen again? Surely not everyone on the entire planet would die. Or would they?

Claire slumped down and let her head rest on the table. She groaned in frustration. She needed more information.

Clicking around to a few web pages, Claire only managed to make herself even more confused and frightened. There was so much contradictory information being put up.

Before long a faint cry of “Mummy!” reached Claire’s ears. She went upstairs to the boys’ room. Noah was sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes. Tristan was crouched in his cot, playing with some toys that had been left there. He gurgled happily when he spotted her hovering in the doorway, and offered her his soggy teddy bear that he’d obviously been chewing on. Claire envied them for a small moment.

She got Noah up and dressed first, and then let him ‘help’ her get Tristan ready for the day. Claire tried not to think about all of the things they’d never get to do, milestones they’d never reach together if the asteroid actually hit.

“Mummy?” Claire started, and realised she’d been staring at Noah for too long.

“Sorry, honey. I was off with the fairies. Let’s get you two some breakfast, shall we?”

Claire spent the rest of the morning playing with her sons and trying to be as in-the-moment as possible.

_____

Claire’s friend, Hannah, called around lunch time, pulling Claire away from the mess of toys on the lounge room floor. Claire had met Hannah at a Mom and Tots group she’d gone to a couple of times when Noah had been a young baby. Hannah had been one of the only other mums there that Claire could actually see herself being friends with for their own sakes and not just because they’d had babies at the same time. Hannah skipped the formalities.

“Have you seen the news? People have started looting Downtown.”

“What?” Claire asked, startled. “No, I haven’t. Here? In Toronto?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure?”

“Uh huh. It’s getting ugly out there,” Hannah said, voice tense. “This is crazy.”

“You said it.” Claire sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I suppose it was only a matter of time, but I didn’t think it would happen this quickly. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”

“My friend Jacqui was mugged this morning too. You know Jacqui, I think you met her at my birthday dinner last year.”

“Oh my god. Yeah, I know her. Is she all right? What happened?”

“She does some charity work, helping out the homeless, handing out food and blankets and that sort of thing. Well, she was doing that and some kid with a knife grabbed her and demanded money. She didn’t have any though, only food, but he wasn’t interested in that apparently.”

“Is she okay?”

“Yeah. She’s shaken up, but she wasn’t hurt. Some of the guys she sees regularly saw what was happening and chased the kid away.”

“Oh, thank goodness.”

“Do you have somewhere to go? I think we should get out of the city. I don’t like this.”

“Me too. Tom’s got an uncle with a farm a few hours away. We were thinking of going there.”

“Good, yes, that would be a good idea, I think. How’s Tom taking it?”

“He’s in Vancouver. He’s on his way back though, he should be here by tonight. Do you have somewhere to go?”

“Yeah. My grandparents live in a tiny town that’s barely on the map. I can’t imagine there’ll be any looting or rioting there. I was going to offer for you to come too if you didn’t have anywhere else to go. They have plenty of room.”

“Oh, thank you, Han. That’s sweet of you. I think Tom’s uncle will work out, but if it doesn’t I’ll let you know.”

“I don’t want to leave. But I’m scared to stay.” Hannah lived closer to Downtown than Claire did. They’d just finished renovating their kitchen. “I’m terrified that when I leave, it will be for the last time and we won’t be coming back.”

“Me too,” Claire said after a moment.

They spoke for a few more minutes. Hannah promised to come over and say a proper goodbye before she left Toronto. Claire promised the same if they were the first to leave.

_____

As soon as Claire hung up from Hannah, the phone rang again. This time it was Lisa.

“I called Uncle Jim,” Lisa said, getting straight to the point. “He said we’re more than welcome to come up for however long we need.”

“That’s a relief. You’ve seen the news? They’re already looting here.”

“I know. I saw it. We should get out of here as soon as possible. Is Tom on a flight yet?”

“No, not yet. I got a message from him just before; they’re still waiting at Vancouver Airport.”

Lisa huffed. “He’d better hurry up and get back.”

“They’re trying. It sounds like it’s a bit out of their hands at the moment.”

“Well, fingers crossed for him then, I guess. Want me to come over?”

Claire glanced around. “Yeah, if you want to.” She wasn’t sure what they’d do, but the company would be nice.

Lisa arrived fifteen minutes later.

“Where’s Molly?” Claire looked behind Lisa down the empty driveway.

“With Guillaume’s sister and her cousins. She wanted to spend some time with them before we go.”

“Ah. That’s… a good idea.” Claire wished yet again that she could just pop over and see her relatives.

“Yeah. I didn’t know what to do with myself with her gone. I was bouncing around the house, I started packing but then I didn’t know what to take… Have you spoken to your family yet?” Lisa asked, almost reading Claire’s mind.

“No,” Claire sighed, and glanced at her phone. “It’s still pretty early there, only 4:00 a.m. I’ll call in a couple of hours. Mum and Dad usually get up pretty early. I did try calling them last night, but there was no answer. I hope they’re okay.”

“They will be. At least you got to see your Mum a few months ago,” Lisa said in what Claire supposed was meant to be in a consoling way.

“Yeah, at least there’s that…”

Lisa and Claire joined Noah and Tristan back in the living room. Claire sat with Tristan in her lap, while Noah did his own version of Show and Tell, and updated his mother and aunt on the various shenanigans his toys had gotten up to in their absence, while Lancelot the cat surveyed them contentedly from on top of the bookcase.

_____

It was finally late enough in Australia for Claire to call home. She left Lisa with the kids in the living room and headed to her bedroom. She sat down on the side of the bed and dialled the familiar number and waited. It didn’t take long for her mother to pick up this time.

“Hi, Mum. It’s Claire.” She picked up the photo on her bedside table of herself, her parents and Lucy all together at Lucy’s university graduation. They all looked so happy. Her father looked particularly chuffed. That was the last time she’d been home and seen her father in the flesh.

“Oh, Claire. Thank goodness.” Claire could hear the relief in her mother’s voice. “ I was trying to call you, but the blasted computer voice kept saying I couldn’t make international calls.”

“Are you okay?” Claire asked, and then wanted to take it back. Of course she wasn’t ‘okay’. What a silly thing to ask.

“Yes. No. I don’t know, darling. I haven’t slept yet. I can’t. How are you? How are the boys? Tom?”

Claire paused.

“I don’t know how I am, Mum. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. The boys are fine, they don’t know what’s going on. Tom’s… Tom’s in Vancouver. On a business trip.” Her voice caught at the end of the sentence.

“Oh, sweetie.”

“It’s okay. He’s going to come home as soon as he can, and then we’ll figure something out,” Claire said firmly.

“I hope he’s safe.”

“Me, too. Have you heard from Lucy? I emailed her yesterday, but she hasn’t replied.”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve been trying to call her, but she’s not picking up her phone.” Liz sounded worried.

“It’s still pretty early over there, maybe she’s asleep still. Don’t worry about it yet. But I do think she should get out of Melbourne as soon as possible. The mood here’s a bit frightening, and there’s already been reports of rioting in Los Angeles and other places… she’ll be safe with you and Dad on the farm.”

“Yes, you’re right. I’d want her here anyway. And you and Tom and your boys. I wish you were closer, Claire.”

“Me too. I’m sorry, Mum.”

They spoke for a few more minutes. Claire wanted to speak to her father as well, but he was already out in the paddocks and had left his mobile on the kitchen table. Unreachable for now.

“Take care of yourself and my grandsons,” Liz said.

“I will. You take care of Dad. I’m sure you’ll hear from Lucy soon. Try Jess if you haven’t by lunch time. I think I have her number here somewhere.”

“Good idea, yes, I’ll do that. Keep in touch please, darling.”

“I will. Love you, Mum.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Oh, wait, I think I heard Dad, hold on.” Claire could hear her mother walk out and call out her father’s name. She heard her dad’s rumbled reply.

“Okay, sweetheart. Here’s your father.” Liz must be worried. She didn’t usually use quite so many pet names.

“Hi, Dad.”

“Hello, Clairebear.” Claire slightly relaxed as the deep, familiar voice of her father filled her ears. She lay back on the bed.

“I’m scared, Dad.” He was one of the few people that she felt comfortable admitting that to.

“I know, we all are. It’s a bit of a shock, for most people.” Claire frowned at the light hanging above the bed.

“Most people? What do you mean?”

“Well, I just. Well, that is to say…”

“Spit it out, Dad. What do you know?”

“Well now. Your mother doesn’t approve, and I don’t want you to go telling her this, I’ve already tried.”

“I won’t. Go on.”

“Well, the thing is, I’ve been seeing a fair bit of old Jim lately.”

“Jim? Jim who?” The only Jim that Claire could think of was Tom’s uncle, and unless her father had been sneaking off to Canada and not bothering to see her, which she did not find at all likely — then she didn’t think he meant Uncle Jim.

“Old Jim Schmidt. From down the road?”

“Oh. That crazy old teacher?”

“Now, Claire, that’s not a very nice thing to say about the man.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“He may have a few, hmmm, stranger ideas, but he’s a very smart man. He was helping me out with some fencing a while back, that’s how we got to talking.”

“Okay…” Claire wondered when her father would get to the point.

“Anyway. He’s known about this asteroid, this Cecelia one to be precise, not just any old asteroid, the sky is falling claptrap like some have been spouting—”

“But how?” Claire interrupted. “How did he know? It wasn’t until those NASA people came forward…”

“No, well actually, Claire, people have known. The right people just weren’t listening. I’ve been listening — Jim pointed me in the right direction, and showed me enough proof too.”

“Hang on, Dad. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I know you all think old Jim is a few stubbies short of six-pack, and I don’t want you thinking that of your old man as well.”

“But, Dad.” Claire scrunched up her fists. “I could have come home…”

Her father was silent for a few moments.

“You wouldn’t have believed me,” he said sadly.

“Then why didn’t you come here? I haven’t seen you in almost two years!”

“I sent your mother.” Claire thought back to the rather sudden visit from her mother four months ago.

“But…”

“I’m sorry, Claire. You’re angry with me now.”

“No, Dad. I’m not angry,” Claire sighed and realised she wasn’t. “I’m just tired, and sad, and scared, and I’m worried about Tom. I’m worried about you and Mum and Lucy, and I can’t help any of you.”

“Knowing that you’re safe helps me.”

“It’s getting scary out there, Dad,” Claire said in a small voice.

“Well, that’s really what I wanted to talk to you about, sweetheart.”

“What?”

“You having somewhere safe to go to sit this out.”

“You mean wait to die?” Claire half sobbed, half laughed.

“No. Well, I hope not.”

“What? What do you mean?” Claire asked.

“I haven’t told your mother this yet. I’m waiting for the right time.” Claire had to press the phone harder into her ear to hear him, his voice had gone so quiet.

“Speak up, Dad. I can barely hear you.”

“Sorry, love. I think there’s a chance — maybe even a good chance that we might survive this.”

“What? How?” Claire stared unblinkingly at the radio. She didn’t even know why they had one, they barely ever turned it on.

“According to Jim, and from what I’ve been reading, we have a chance to survive, as long as we’re prepared.”

“Dad… this is…”

“I know, I know. I know that they’re saying this is going to be catastrophic, and no doubt it will be. The earth will not be the same. A lot of people are going to die. But… Claire? Are you there?”

“Yes, Dad. I’m here,” Claire said quietly.

“Well, like I was saying,” she could hear her father cough to clear his throat. “Like I was saying, it all depends on how prepared we are, and where it hits. Obviously if it lands on top of us, we’re goners, but if it lands far away, then… then maybe there is some hope.”

“Hope…”

“Claire?”

“Sorry, Dad. What should I do?” Claire reached out and touched the framed photograph of her, Tom, Noah and Tristan that sat by her bed, next to the one of her parents and sister.

Bill sighed in relief. “Well, you need to get out of the city for starters.”

“Yeah, Lisa and I have been talking about that — we’re planning on going to Lisa and Tom’s uncle’s place. He’s got a dozen or so acres a few hours away. It’s in a pretty remote area.”

“Good, good. What kind of supplies does he have? Does he have a bunker?”

“A bunker? I have no idea. Probably not. And I don’t know what kind of supplies he has either, I haven’t actually talked to him. Lisa was the one who called him.”

“Well, I’m converting the old bomb shelter.”

Claire thought back to the old cobwebby bomb shelter than her grandfather had built during the war, despite the chances of rural Victoria being bombed being slim to almost non-existent. They’d converted it to a bushfire shelter of sorts, but had only had to use it once over the years, during a particularly dry and hot summer when the fires had gotten a bit too close for comfort. For the most part, it was just an abandoned, dusty refuge for countless generations of spiders and had been a great hiding spot when the cousins came to visit.

“Isn’t it a bit small? You could be down there for months or years.”

“I’ve extended it. There are two small bedrooms, a big storage room and the original part will be the living room.”

Claire felt her eyebrows raise involuntarily. He really had thought this out.

“Wow. And Mum and Lucy haven’t noticed any of this?” Claire said, incredulously. You couldn’t normally get much past Liz Black.

“Well, Lucy hasn’t been coming home much lately, and your mum doesn’t go out that side of the house very often.”

Claire pictured the farm in her mind and supposed that was probably true enough. Her mother spent most of her free time in the vegetable garden, which was on the other side of the house.

“So… what if he doesn’t have a bunker? They’re not exactly the most common household feature.”

“Well, you’ll need somewhere that’s protected. There could be massive fires when it hits. You need somewhere to sit those out.”

“It’s the middle of winter here, Dad. Uncle Jim’s place will be covered in snow.”

“Snow can melt,” was all her father replied.

Claire sighed, but she couldn’t help the small fire of determination that had started to burn in her. Perhaps this wasn’t a death sentence after all. Perhaps her sons would reach their next birthdays, maybe they would see another summer.

“What else?”

“Supplies to rebuild. You’ll need a lot of seeds to regrow crops after the long winter clears. Jim reckons we’ll have a nuclear-type winter for at least a few years. That means not much sunlight will get through, and nothing much will grow and—”

“Yeah, Dad. I know what a nuclear winter is.”

“Okay, that’s good. That’s good. Just think about what you’d need if you were trapped underground for years. Lots of non-perishables. Facilities. Fuel. I’ll email you through a list if you’d like,” he said.

“Okay, yeah, thanks. That’d be good. I’ll see what I can do, Dad,” Claire said. “You really should tell Mum about the bunker,” she added.

Bill sighed. “I know. And I will. I’m just waiting for the right time.”

“What are you afraid of, Dad?”

“I don’t know. She’s convinced we’re all going to die. She’s not going to believe anything that came from Jim Schmidt. She’ll tell me to stop wasting time.”

“Well then, don’t tell her the information came from Jim Schmidt. Tell her you found out some other way.”

“But I don’t have concrete proof. You know your mother…” Bill stopped and sighed again. “I will tell her.”

“Don’t leave it too late, Papa Bear.”

“I won’t,” he promised.

“I should get back down to the boys. Can we video chat with you both later? I want to see you.”

“Yes, of course. That’s a good idea. I’ll get your mother to set up the computer.”

“Good. Okay. I’ll talk to you later, hopefully I’ll have some news about Tom.”

“All right then. Be careful. I love you.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

Claire hung up and sat on the bed, trying to process everything her father had said. Could they really survive?

_____

Mind reeling, Claire went back downstairs to Lisa and the boys. Noah was setting up the tea set that his Nanna had given him for Christmas. She picked Tristan up again and cuddled him. He squirmed. Lisa shot her an inquiring glance.

“I talked to Mum and Dad,” she said. “Mum’s worried about Lucy. She hasn’t heard from her yet.”

“Did you tell Lucy to get out of the city?” Lisa took the proffered plastic tea cup from Noah and pretended to take a sip.

“Yeah. I sent her an email yesterday when we were talking about it, but I haven’t heard back from her, and neither has Mum.”

Lisa frowned but said, “I’m sure she’ll be fine. She probably just hasn’t thought to check her email yet.”

Claire snorted. “No, I don’t suppose checking your email is all that high on most people’s list of things to do when you find out the world is ending.”

“Might end,” Lisa corrected.

“Right, might end. Have you been talking to my father or something?”

“Huh?” Lisa looked puzzled.

“Nothing. Dad just…” Claire let out a sigh and accepted Noah’s plate and explanation that there was cake on it. Yummy, invisible cake. Claire’s favourite. “Do you know much about asteroids?”

“Not really,” Lisa said. “Just that there’s one heading our way that’s a bit bigger and deadlier than usual.”

“I need to find out some specifics about this one. Dad’s got this crack-pot old neighbour who’s convinced him that with proper preparation we might survive.”

“Really?” A flash of something that might have been relief crossed Lisa’s face. “How?”

“I’m not entirely sure. He thinks it will be bad and a lot of people will die, but he seems to think if we take proper precautions and survive the actual blast, then we might have a chance of surviving the aftermath.” Claire held out her small tea cup for Noah to pour his ‘tea’ into. She tried to keep her voice even so as not to alarm the kids.

“And how are we meant to do that?” Lisa asked evenly while Noah poured his imaginary tea into her cup.

Claire shrugged. “Dad’s been renovating the old bomb shelter in the backyard.”

“Really? But we only found out yesterday,” Lisa said with a frown.

“Apparently there have been rumours about this asteroid for a while. Lost in the sea of the other crackpot end of the world theories floating around. One of Dad’s mates told him about it and showed him enough proof for him to believe it.”

“What! Wow. Um. I don’t know what to say. Why didn’t he tell you?” Lisa blinked rapidly.

“Good question. I’m a little bit mad at him actually. He said he didn’t think we’d believe him.”

“That’s fu—” Claire shot Lisa a look and inclined her head towards Noah. “Sorry, stuffed up.”

“I know,” Claire sighed and cuddled Tristan closer. “He asked me if your Uncle Jim has a bunker.”

Lisa snorted. “If he does, I’ve never found it.”

Claire rubbed her forehead with her spare hand. That was a problem for another day.

“What should we pack?” Claire asked, looking around the home she’d been building for the past few years. If they left, would they ever get a chance to return? And what would they be returning to?

Lisa made a face. “They never teach you how to pack for the apocalypse, do they? Just clothes I guess, and whatever you can’t live without. Photos of your family, toys for the kids. We should probably bring some pillows and duvets, but Uncle Jim’s got plenty of spare bedrooms. Oh, and all the food we bought, of course.”

“Dad’s sending me a bunch of info to read, but he mentioned we’d need stuff to rebuild if we make it through the next six months or year or however long. Seeds and supplies and stuff.”

Lisa nodded, and then shook her head. “This is so unbelievable. I think I need more time to process everything. Yesterday morning I was helping Molly pick out her subjects for next year. She wants to be a writer like you, you know.”

“Does she?” Claire was briefly pleasantly surprised and then didn’t know how to feel.

“Mmm.” Lisa leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes. “How are we going to get through the next couple of months?”

Claire studied her sons for a few moments. “One hour at a time.”

^{CHAPTER FIVE}

Tom

TOM stared out from his hotel room over the Burrard Inlet. He couldn’t even see the North Shore mountains today. Thick, dark clouds hung heavy, blocking his view. There was a cruise ship in the dock. He couldn’t tell if it was the same one as yesterday or not. Tom wondered idly about the people out on cruises. There must the thousands of them. Tens of thousands. What would they do? Could you even get internet access out on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific? Tom wasn’t sure; he’d never been on a cruise.

His thoughts drifted to people away from home. Kids doing a gap year. Newlyweds on their honeymoon. High school and college students on exchange in foreign countries. People on their regular, normal holidays in Mexico or Florida or wherever they went. Even just people on business trips, like him.

Stranded. What would they do?

Tom sighed and turned his back on the view. He finished packing his carry-on bag and pulled on his coat. It was too warm in the hotel to wear his scarf and toque, so he just held them. He glanced around the room, checking that he hadn’t forgotten anything. Hopefully he wouldn’t be back.

He shut the door firmly behind him, strode up to Mike’s door and knocked. Mike answered after a moment, looking a lot more dishevelled than he had yesterday morning.

“Hey, man. I’m almost ready, give me a sec.” Well, some things hadn’t changed.

_____

“Do we check out, or what?” Mike asked as they walked into the lobby. A few people from work were hovering around, but none that Tom was close to. Tom shrugged.

“Tom, Mike. There you are,” a voice called from behind them. It was Fred, their boss.

“Hi, Fred,” they both said at the same time.

“I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to talk to you yet. I’m afraid we’ve decided to cancel the conference.” He paused and looked meaningfully at the two men.

“Yes, we thought that might happen,” Tom said eventually after a quick glance at Mike who was looking at Fred like he’d grown a second head.

“Yes, yes. Terrible news. Yes. Hmmm. Half of the delegates have left already. I’m afraid we won’t be able to do your demonstration this afternoon, Mike. I know you put a lot of effort and hard work into it and you must be disappointed. I wanted to thank you for it.”

“Er… Thank you, sir?” Mike said after a moment.

Fred held out his hand and Mike shook it. Tom’s turn was next. Fred clasped Tom’s hand in a tight grip and pulled him in close.

“I have it on good authority that they’re going to nip this in the bud. Blow it to smithereens. We’re going to be fine,” Fred said with a confident grin.

“Sir?”

“I have connections. My son-in-law’s cousin works at NASA. He assures me that everything is going to be just fine. But I understand that people want to be with their loved ones right now until we get the all clear.”

“That’s… good news,” Tom said uncertainly.

“Yes. It is. I wish they’d hurry up and announce it so we could get back to business. This is going to hurt the bottom line. The conference will have to be written off. Such a shame. Janice and her team put so much effort into it.” Fred paused and looked morosely over the crowd. “I’m giving everyone two weeks paid vacation. This little problem should be solved by then.” Fred nodded firmly.

“That’s, uh, very generous of you,” Tom said. Fred laughed.

“Oh, no,” Fred chuckled. “It’s coming out of your annual leave balance. We can’t afford to lose this much business.”

“Right,” Tom said. He saw Mike shake his head slightly out of the corner of his eye.

“Well, I’d best let you two check out, and yes you do have to check out. I don’t want them charging me for people who aren’t here!”

“Goodbye, Fred,” Mike and Tom both said.

“I’ll see you in two weeks. Maybe sooner if it gets sorted out tonight.”

“Yes. Looking forward to it,” Tom said.

They all shook hands again.

“Looking forward to it?” Mike smirked and shook his head. “The man’s mad. This isn’t all just going to blow over in a few days.”

“Are you sure?” Tom asked. He hoped like hell it would blow over in a few days.

“Well… not one hundred per cent sure, but if I was a betting man — and I am — I wouldn’t be putting any bets on us having our usual Monday morning briefing in two weeks time.”

“It feels strange to wish for a Monday briefing…” Tom mused.

They checked out of the hotel and waved goodbye to some of their colleagues. It was too soon for formal goodbyes, and Tom had never been any good at them anyway, not that he was particularly close to any of these people. He wasn’t even entirely sure if the man with the messy black hair and glasses was named Aaron or Andrew. He’d been meaning to find out, but now it was too late.

“Hey, Mike, what’s his name?” Tom jerked his head towards Aaron or Andrew.

“Who? Harry Potter over there?”

Tom tried not to laugh. “Yeah, him. Is it Aaron or Andrew?”

Mike stared at the man who was too busy looking at his cell phone to notice.

“You know what? I don’t actually know. I always just called him Harry in my head. I thought it was something like Jim?”

“Nah, I don’t think so, I would remember it if it were Jim.” Tom’s favourite uncle’s name was Jim.

Mike shrugged again. “What’s it matter? He’s not in our department. You’re probably never going to see him again.”

“I don’t know. I don’t suppose it does. I just always intended to find out, that’s all.”

“If it matters so much to you, why don’t you go over there and ask him?” Mike said, practical as usual.

“That wouldn’t be awkward at all.”

“It’s Lucas,” a voice said from behind them. Tom and Mike both whipped around. The pretty young woman who had driven him to his grandparents house the night before was standing there, looking bemused.

“Emma!” Mike brushed his fingers through his hair. “We were, uh…”

“It’s all right. It’s a big company. But his name isn’t Aaron or Andrew. It’s Lucas.”

Tom frowned in the direction of Lucas. He wondered where he’d gotten Aaron or Andrew from.

“A guy called Aaron Andrews used to work for us. He sort of looked a bit like Lucas,” Emma helpfully added.

“Oh,” was all Tom managed.

“How were your grandparents?”

Tom was relieved at the change of topic. “They were… good.” He almost mentioned that they were in denial about everything, but it didn’t seem relevant. “Thanks again for taking me. I really appreciate it.”

“It’s okay. You’d do the same for us if we were stranded in Toronto, right?”

“Sure we would,” Mike said quickly. Tom wondered briefly if he actually would have — he would have been in too much of a rush to get home to Claire and his sons to think about anyone else if the news had broken a few days ago when he was in Toronto. He honestly wasn’t sure if he would have spared a thought for any visiting business colleagues, and it made him feel a bit ashamed.

“Are you leaving now?” She glanced down at their bags.

“Yeah, we’re heading out to the airport to try and get on a flight out east,” Mike said.

“Do you know if the SkyTrain is still running?” Tom asked.

“I think so, I haven’t heard anything about it being shut. I can give you a ride out there if you want though. Don’t take a taxi, they’re ripping people off like crazy.” That didn’t take long, Tom thought.

“No, it’s okay,” Tom said before Mike got a chance to accept. “Don’t waste your time, we’ll be all right.”

“But just in case the sky train stops working or isn’t working, could I have your number?” Mike said quickly.

“Dude, end of the world and you’re still trying to pick up chicks,” Tom wasn’t sure whether to laugh or shake his head. He did both. They walked down the street toward Waterfront Station. Tom couldn’t tell if there were more people out than usual or not. People were bundled up and in a hurry.

“Like Fred says, it could all blow over. Then I’d regret not getting her number. I’d have to wait a whole year until next conference.”

“Or you could, you know, email her or something?” Tom dodged a homeless man with his hand out.

“Do not rationalise this, Tommy-boy.”

Tom stopped and went back to give the homeless man a $20 bill. The man looked bewildered and muttered a thank you.

“What did you do that for?” Mike asked when he re-joined him. “He’s probably just gonna spend it on drink or crack.”

Tom shrugged. “It felt like the right thing to do.”

The train station was crowded, as it usually would be at that time of day, however the usual business people were nowhere to be seen. Tom felt like he stood out in his suit, but he hadn’t brought any other clothes seeing as he was here for a conference. The two men wove through the crowd; some purposeful, others milling about.

“Do we still need to buy train tickets?” Mike muttered to Tom.

Tom looked around.

“Dunno. Probably.”

“Well… nope. Not doing it. I’m going to live on the wild side. Do you really think ticket inspectors are going to be out in force on a day like today? I don’t think so. And if they are, I’m just going to laugh at them.”

Tom shrugged, and then thought what the hell.

The escalator was broken, so they walked down the stairs. The platform was crowded with people, most sitting on or standing by suitcases. They didn’t have to wait long for a train to YVR. Almost everyone on the platform crammed onto the train. Tom liked sitting up the very front, where the drivers would be on a normal train. He remembered Claire’s amazement when she’d realised the SkyTrains were all automated and didn’t have a driver. They’d only been dating for a few weeks when they’d been standing on a platform on their way to a concert. They’d been running late, he remembered. Claire had been impatient, waiting for the train to pull in. When it finally did, she’d gasped.

“Why is there a child driving the train?” she’d blurted out. Tom had looked at her, puzzled, and then laughed. He still remembered the scowl she’d shot him. He pulled her onto the carriage and led her to the front of the train where a small child sat, smiling at his grandparents.

“But where’s the driver?”

“It’s all automated. Didn’t you know?”

“Well, obviously not. That’s really… cool!”

After that, she’d always tried to sit at the front of the SkyTrain.

There was no chance of him getting there this morning though. They were lucky to even get a seat. For such a crowded train, it was eerily quiet.

Mike and Tom barely exchanged a word on the ride out to the airport. There was a mad rush to the terminal once the train pulled into the last stop. Tom and Mike were buffeted by the crowd as they made their way inside the terminal. Wordlessly, they joined the long queue, snaking its way around the terminal, to speak to one of the two attendants at the Air Canada help desk.

“Well, this is a bit nuts,” Mike said needlessly. Tom just grunted. He was feeling impatient. He just wanted to get home to his wife and kids. There was a commotion up near the front of the line when a man and woman tried to butt in.

“We all have families waiting for us, buddy. What makes you so special? Go to the back of the line.” Tom heard a burly man say. He couldn’t hear the reply, but the couple stayed resolutely where they were. More and more people around them turned to stare. An old woman started yelling at them. Mike guffawed as she called them rude, selfish and inconsiderate and threatened to beat them with her handbag if they didn’t respect the line. Tom didn’t feel any pity for the couple as they eventually slunk to the back of the line, red-faced and seething. They were all in the same boat after all.

Tom kept glancing at his watch. He hated standing in slow-moving lines at the best of times, but today was almost agony. He started looking through all of the photos on his phone to pass the time. So many of his boys. There was one of Claire sleeping. She’d probably hit him if she knew he’d taken it, but he hadn’t been able to resist. She’d looked too beautiful and peaceful.

The line inched forward, slowly but surely. Tom tried to hold his impatience at bay.

Eventually they made it to the front of the line. Tom had been watching with growing concern as more and more people left the desk in tears or anger. The attendant looked slightly wary when she called Mike and Tom over.

“How can I help you today?”

“We were hoping that we could change our flight. We’re meant to leave in 4 days, but we’d like to go as soon as possible,” Mike said and handed over their information.

“I’m afraid all of our flights to Toronto today are completely full,” the attendant said after looking at her computer for a couple of minutes. Tom groaned.

“How about Ottawa?” They could get home easily enough from Ottawa. The attendant tapped her keyboard.

“Full too, I’m sorry.”

“Montreal?” The attendant shook her head. Tom felt like banging his head against the desk.

“Have you got any flights to anywhere remotely near Toronto?” Tom asked stiffly. Mike put what he supposed was a reassuring hand on Tom’s arm. Or maybe he was afraid that Tom might hit something out of sheer frustration.

The attendant stared hard at her computer as she tapped away at the keyboard.

“I have one seat on a flight tonight to Calgary,” she said eventually.

“Calgary! That’s not close!”

“I’m really sorry, but we really are maxed out, everyone’s trying to get home and over half the staff haven’t turned up!”

Tom groaned. “I need to get back home to my wife and kids.”

“I understand that, sir.”

“Do you know if any of the other airlines have any space?” Mike asked, a lot more nicely than Tom felt he was capable of.

“I don’t know, I’m really sorry, I am. WestJet’s just cancelled half their flights. I don’t know about the others. The earliest flight to Toronto I can get you on is Friday morning.”

“That’s the day we’re meant to be leaving anyway!” Tom burst out.

“Okay. We’ll take it.” Mike said quickly. He elbowed Tom when Tom started to protest, and then dragged Tom away from the desk once the attendant had confirmed their new flights.

“What are we going to do now? We can’t wait all week! I need to get back to my family now.” Tom almost howled. He supposed they could drive back, but that would take almost as long as waiting for their flight on Friday. Or longer, given the winter snow storms out there at this time of year. And they didn’t have a car.

“Well, I figure we have two options,” Mike said quietly.

Tom looked at Mike expectantly. “And they are?” he asked after Mike didn’t say anything straight away.

“Well… we could hang around here on the off chance the flight still runs and all the pilots haven’t decide they’ve got better things to do than fly all over the country and the airport shuts down… or, we could rent a plane.”

“Rent a plane? I dunno what Fred gave you in your last performance revue, but I sure as hell can’t afford a private jet.”

“No, not a private jet. Just a small plane. I can fly it.”

“You?” Tom said dubiously. “I didn’t know you could fly.”

“Well, I only just got my licence a few months ago. Mom bought me lessons for my birthday last year.”

“I didn’t know about this…”

“You don’t know everything about me, buddy. Look, do you want to get home or not?” Mike said, impatiently.

“Well, yes,” Tom said. “But I want to get home alive.”

“Hey, I’m a good flyer.”

“How long have you been flying for again?” Tom asked.

Mike looked sheepish. “A couple of months…”

Tom took a deep breath. “Well, we may as well give it a go. What’s our other option? Driving all the way back? That’d take until Friday or Saturday anyway. I don’t think we’re going to get on a flight out of here at this rate.”

“I have to agree with you there,” Mike said, looking around.

The two men left the terminal. It was getting more and more crowded by the minute, but more and more flights were flashing up as Cancelled on the flight information board.

“We should have come last night,” Tom said, looking around.

“You’re probably right there,” Mike said brusquely. “But it is what it is.”

They passed by a young woman sitting on her backpack, crying. She had a South African flag sewn onto her pack. Tom glanced up at the departures board. He couldn’t see any flights to Johannesburg. He shuddered. At least he was still on the same land mass as his family. He didn’t know what he’d do if Claire and the boys had been in Australia at the moment; him being on the other side of the country was bad enough. He hovered for a moment, wanting to somehow help the distraught South African girl, but he couldn’t think of anything useful. Tom rubbed his face, turned his back on her and followed Mike out of the busy terminal.

“Where are we going to rent a plane from?” Tom asked while dodging a determined looking old man with an almost out of control baggage cart.

Mike was looking down, studying his phone.

“There are a couple of places out in Abbotsford that look promising. Does the train go out there?” Mike asked, heading towards the SkyTrain terminal.

Tom shook his head. “Maybe we could ask Emma or one of her friends. Do you think they’d help us again?”

“Yeah, good idea. She said they would. At the worst, we pay an exorbitant rate for a taxi.” Mike shrugged. “Either way, we’ll get out of here and get home.”

The platform heading back into the city was a lot less crowded than the one heading to the airport had been. Mike called Emma while they waited for the next train.

Tom studied the people around them while Mike quickly spoke to her.

There was a small family, a couple with two kids. Two boys. The woman even looked superficially like Claire with her shoulder-length fair hair and slim build, and the boys were about the same age as Noah and Tristan. He wondered where they’d come from and where they were going. Were they coming home, or were they stuck here like him? Tom watched them wistfully. The man looked impatient, and the wife looked worried. The two boys were happily talking to each other in their own form of baby talk — Tom had no idea what they were saying, but that didn’t stop them. Tom wondered what his boys were doing at that exact moment.

He continued watching the two little boys until he noticed the woman glaring at him. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it mustn’t have worked because she ushered her little family away down to the other end of the platform. Tom sighed and turned his attention back to Mike, who had just hung up his phone.

“She said she’ll do it. She’s got an uncle or something out in Abbotsford anyway, so she said not to worry about making her go out of her way or anything.”

“That’s good.”

The train pulled into the platform and disgorged it’s frantic passengers. Tom stood back as they raced and pushed each other to the exit.

The train was mostly empty on the ride back to Downtown Vancouver. Tom stared out the window, and watched the North Shore mountains get gradually closer.

“What would you do if you were stuck on the other side of the world?” Tom asked after they passed a handful of stations in silence.

“I honestly don’t know,” Mike said. “Try and get back, I guess.”

“But what if you couldn’t? Like that South African girl?”

“What South African girl?”

Tom told him about the girl in the terminal.

“Oh. That sucks for her.”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s not like you can kayak to South Africa from here or anything. There’s got to be millions of people away from home and their families at the moment.”

“Like your wife?”

“Yeah, like Claire. Sort of. Well, she has her family here. I’m her family, my family is her family now.”

“But her parents, and doesn’t she have a little sister?”

“Yeah. Lucy.”

“You wouldn’t let me meet her when she was visiting.”

“For good reason…”

Mike snorted. “I would have taken good care of her.”

Tom rolled his eyes. “Sure you would have, buddy.”

“I’m a gentleman.”

“Uh huh.”

“Anyway. It’s got to be hard being away from part of your family, if not all of it, that’s just what I was getting at.”

Tom sighed and rubbed his head. He could feel a headache coming on.

“I know. I’m worried about her. I hope the internet stays up so she can video chat with them, at least.”

“When’s the last time she saw them?” Mike asked.

“A few months ago. Her mother came to visit. She hasn’t seen her dad since we went over there for a holiday when Noah was one. And you remember when her sister came.”

Mike nodded. Tom was silent for a few minutes.

“We were thinking about moving over there for a few years.”

“Really? You never told me that.” Mike sounded surprised.

“No, we were just thinking about it. Just starting to look into all the paperwork and practicalities. She’s got her Canadian citizenship now, so we thought it might be a good idea for me to get my Aussie, so then we don’t have to worry about visas again and the boys could experience growing up in their mother’s country for a few years…”

Claire had been so excited when Tom had finally consented to the idea. She desperately wanted the boys to experience the kind of carefree childhood she’d had in rural Australia, and she wanted them to know her parents and sister as more than just infrequent visitors and those people they had to talk to on the computer.

Tom thought it was only fair that he spend some extended time in her country — she’d spent the majority of the last eight years in Canada after all. She’d only planned to come for a year in the beginning, but she’d stayed because of him. Now he felt guilty that they hadn’t done it sooner. He’d always thought there would be more time.

Maybe there would still be a chance. Maybe his grandparents were right. Maybe Fred’s son-in-law’s cousin was right. Even if it did hit, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

It was only once they pulled into Waterfront station that Tom thought to ask Mike where they were meeting Emma.

“Um, Commercial Drive. We can walk there, right?”

Tom shook his head and almost laughed.

“You really don’t know this city very well, do you?”

Mike looked a bit bewildered. “Nope! This is only the third time I’ve been here, so excuse my lack of geographical knowledge if you’ll be so kind.”

“Yeah, whatever. We have to get another train. Follow me.” They walked up the broken escalators and wove through the crowd to get to the Millennium/Expo Line platform.

“It’s just a few stops along here, shouldn’t take too long to get to.”

Tom was momentarily grateful that the trains were still running, although he supposed with no physical drivers, they could probably function on less staff if they needed to. He briefly wondered what he’d do if he worked in an essential industry like health care, or the police force or in a fire hall. Would he still go to work? He honestly wasn’t sure.

How long could society keep functioning? It had been less than a day and things were already starting to unravel.

The people on the train were subdued. Tom had thought there would be more panicking. Maybe all the panicky people drove cars…

Mike followed Tom when they got off at Commercial Drive station.

“Where exactly are we meeting her? The Drive is kind of long…” Tom belatedly asked, turning to Mike.

“Um. She said there’s a Safeway nearby? She’ll be in the parking lot.”

“Oh, good. I know where that is.”

“Good man. Lead the way.”

_____

Emma waved at them from in front of her car. The parking lot was crowded, but that wasn’t anything unusual from what Tom remembered.

“Hi, again. I was hoping I wouldn’t see you two again! Oh, sorry, that came out wrong.” Emma blushed.

“No, it’s okay. I know what you mean. I was hoping I wouldn’t see you again either,” Tom said with a faint smile.

“Well, I was hoping that I’d see you again, Emma, but under different circumstances,” Mike said with a wink.

Tom resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Mike would probably still be hitting on girls right up until the asteroid landed on top of him.

“What happened? Mike didn’t really say on the phone,” Emma asked. They climbed into the small car. Tom let Mike have the front seat, and immediately regretted his generosity as his knees felt like they were closer to his ears than was proper.

“Couldn’t get on a flight. They were all either full or cancelled.”

“You couldn’t get on one to a nearby city?” she asked, glancing back at him in the rear view mirror. Tom shook his head.

“The closest she said she could get us was Calgary.”

“What! That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think things would fall apart this quickly,” Tom said. He looked out the window as they pulled out of the parking lot. Some people were hurrying about, determined looking, while others wandered about aimlessly, looking lost. Tom idly wondered what would happen to the drug trade. Was that one thing that would keep going? Asteroid or no asteroid, people were still addicted. And perhaps people would want or need an escape, now more than ever. Or try things they’d never done before.

“But maybe you could have caught a flight closer to Toronto from Calgary?” Emma wondered.

That hadn’t occurred to Tom at the time. Mike humphed, and Tom supposed it hadn’t occurred to him either. Well, too late now.

“Well…” Mike said, eventually. “We had a better idea.”

“You mentioned Abbotsford,” Emma turned and said to Mike. “Are you going to try and catch a flight out of there? I didn’t think you could fly to Toronto from Abbotsford. Sorry to break it to you, but I don’t know that you’ll get much further than Calgary from there either.”

“We had an even better idea than that,” Mike said.

“Oh?” Emma inquired when Mike didn’t say anything else.

“I’m going to fly us home,” Mike said with not a small amount of fanfare. Tom wondered if Mike had only gotten his pilot’s licence to impress women. He wouldn’t put it past him.

“Oh, really! You can fly?” Mike nodded. “That’s awesome,” Emma said. Tom thought he could detect a faint smirk on his friend’s face.

“Yeah, I can fly,” Mike said without a hint of modesty.

“What size plane?” Emma asked.

“Just the small ones. Nothing too big,” Mike said with a shade more modesty.

“How far will one of those small ones get you? Not all the way to Toronto, surely?” Emma asked as she wove in and out of the traffic.

“No, not all the way. We’ll have to stop and refuel a few times. Hopefully that won’t be a problem.”

“Well, good luck with that!”

They continued driving, the traffic gradually thinning out as they got further up the Fraser Valley. It was an overcast, gloomy day, but Tom still tried to savour the views. Who knew if he’d ever see B.C. again.

“There’s an airfield where we might be able to rent a plane,” Mike said, looking at his phone.

Tom’s stomach dropped. What if they couldn’t rent a plane? Tom reassured himself. If worse came to worse, they could hire a rental car. It would take a lot longer, but he would still make it home.

Emma followed Mike’s directions and they pulled up at a small office at the airfield.

“Do you want to come in?” Tom asked Emma before he got out of the car.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ve got a couple of calls to make, I’ll just wait here. Let me know when you’re successful. We don’t want you two stranded again.”

“Thanks, Emma. You’re a lifesaver. Seriously.”

“Hey, no problem.”

Tom stretched, feeling relieved at getting out of the tiny car. He followed Mike into the dingy little office. At least he tried to. Mike rattled the door. It was locked. Tom peered inside the dingy little office. It was empty.

“Look,” Tom said, pointing to a small sign on the wall by the door.

OPENING HOURS:

Summer — 8–6

Winter — 10–3

Tom looked at his watch. They were within opening hours. But of course, who would turn up to work at an airfield on a day like today?

“What do we do now?” Mike looked around. “Hey, there’s an emergency number.”

“Call it,” Tom said.

Mike carefully entered the number in to his phone.

“Hello?” Tom listened carefully to the conversation, but he could only hear one side of it.

“Hi, my name is Mike and I’m interesting in renting one of your planes.”

Tom thought he could hear laughter coming from the phone. That wasn’t a good sign.

“Yes, I’m serious. Deadly serious. I need to get somewhere, urgently.”

Mike was silent for a minute, looking up at the sky.

“We can pay that.”

Silence again.

“As soon as this asteroid bullshit is sorted out, I’ll return it.”

More silence. Mike frowned at the ground.

“Look, it’s not like you’re going to need it, you have others, surely.”

Mike whistled. “That’s a lot, buddy.”

Mike listened a moment longer. He held his hand over the speaker and turned to Tom.

“The old codger wants ten thousand dollars.”

Tom felt his eyebrows disappear into his hair.

“How much?” Tom asked, wondering if he’d heard right.

“Ten grand. Dire circumstances, can’t guarantee we’ll bring it back today etcetera etcetera.”

“Does he take credit card?” Tom asked bleakly. Ten grand. That was five each. Getting to his family was surely worth that much.

“Do you accept Visa?” Mike asked the phone.

A grin broke out over his face and he hung up.

“He’ll meet us here in twenty minutes. And yes, he will accept credit.” Mike shook his head and laughed.

“My Visa bill is one of the reasons I’m beginning to actually want this space rock to hit…”

^{CHAPTER SIX}

Claire

LISA and Claire set themselves up with a picnic on the living room floor with a selection of the expensive cheeses and dips and tropical fruits they’d bought the night before.

“We should stock up again before we leave,” Claire said around a mouthful of delectable brie.

“Yes. Definitely.”

She tried to give Noah a cracker with a smudge of what Claire considered to be delicious blue cheese, but he took one sniff and turned his nose up at it.

Claire jumped and grabbed for her phone eagerly when it rang.

“Tom!” Lisa straightened up and watched her intently. Even Noah looked at her curiously.

“Hey.” Tom’s voice came through quietly. She pressed the phone closer to her ear.

“How are you? What’s going on?” She’d hoped he’d be on a plane by now, if not home already. “Where are you?”

“I’m sorry, my love. I’m still in Vancouver.” Claire’s heart dropped. She sat down slowly on the couch and reached for a cushion. Lisa motioned to ask what was going on. Claire ignored her.

“Vancouver?” Claire echoed. Lisa frowned at her.

“Yeah, but we have a plan,” he said quickly.

“What happened? Why aren’t you on a plane?”

“It’s crazy out here, Claire. We couldn’t get on a flight. They’re cancelling them left right and centre. The earliest they could put us on was Friday and that wasn’t guaranteed. We tried other airlines too, and flying into a different airport too, but no go.”

Claire shook her head slightly at Lisa. She didn’t know what to say.

“How… what are you going to do?” She needed him back. She couldn’t face this alone.

“Well,” he paused as if working up the courage to say the next part. “This is going to sound a bit crazy, but Mike’s got his pilot licence. We’re going to try and get a small plane and fly back ourselves,” he said in a rush.

“What? For real?”

“Yeah.” There was silence on the other end of the line.

“That’s… I mean… um. How long has Mike been a pilot for?” She was staring at Lisa when she said the last part, who looked more than mildly alarmed.

There was a silent pause before Tom eventually said, “a couple of months.” Claire’s stomach flipped over.

“What! A couple of months! No, Tom. That’s insane. I want you back as soon as possible, but I want to back alive! Can’t you… I don’t know, hire someone with a bit more experience to fly it for you?”

“Honey, it will be okay. I promise.” Tom sounded like he barely believed that himself.

“You can’t promise that,” Claire said more harshly than she’d intended.

“I know, but I’m trying and it’s either this or a road trip.”

“A road trip would be safer,” Claire muttered.

“At this time of year? No, not really. And it would take ages. I need to be back with my family.’

Claire took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know. I’m just worried sick about you.”

“It’s okay. I understand. I’m trying my best to get back to you as soon as possible. How is everything there?”

“It’s…” Claire was about to say ‘not great’ but she didn’t want Tom to helplessly worry. “It’s fine. There’s been a bit of trouble Downtown apparently, but we’re fine here. Lisa’s here at the moment. She talked to your Uncle Jim. When you get back, we’re all going to go up there for a while to sit things out and see how they turn out.”

“Ah. Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Tom said. “I’ll keep in touch and let you know when we’re leaving. We should be back sometime tomorrow or the day after. Probably the day after.”

Claire took a deep breath. She didn’t like this new plan. “Okay. Stay safe. I love you.”

“I love you too, Claire. Give the boys a big hug and kiss from me and tell them I’ll be there to do it in person soon.”

Claire really didn’t know what to think of this new fly-it-yourselves plan. She’d met Mike a handful of times, and he seemed like a nice enough guy. Perhaps a bit emotionally immature when it came to women, and he still lived in his mother’s basement and seemed to survive solely on pizza and take-away butter chicken (according to Tom), but he was a nice guy. She just wasn’t sure that being a nice guy qualified him to fly her husband and the father of her children safely home. She crossed her fingers, toes and wondered if there was anything else she should cross. It was a pity she didn’t believe in any gods. Now would be a great time to pray.

“What did he say?” Lisa asked impatiently while Claire just stared at her phone. Claire shook her head slowly and repeated what Tom had told her.

“Crazy men.” Lisa rolled her eyes. “Oh well. At least they’ll be home tomorrow.”

“As long as they don’t—” she glanced at Noah who was busy now giving a tea party to a host of teddy bears. “C-R-A-S-H,” she spelled out.

“Don’t think like that,” Lisa said softly.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to stop worrying until he’s home,” Claire admitted.

“Understandable,” Lisa nodded.

The two women sat in silence for a while, just watching the two boys play.

“How are you meant to react when you find out the world’s going to end?” Claire said eventually. She’d read a few apocalyptic novels over the years, and seen a couple of the asteroid movies, but they always seemed to be populated by determined survivalists with insane hunting skills, or they actually worked at the space agency or something productive, and had something to focus on; Claire didn’t have any of that. She could probably chop a chook’s head off if she had to, if it was for her kids survival, but she hadn’t fired a gun since she was fourteen and out rabbit shooting with her father. She’d cried when she’d shot her first rabbit. Bill hadn’t taken her out again.

“I don’t think there’s really a manual or etiquette for this kind of thing,” Lisa said after swallowing her mouthful of cheese.

“Hypothetically we’ve always known the world would end one day. The sun will expand and swallow the planet in billions of years. This planet has a time limit. It’s just…”

“A billion years is a long time, yeah,” Lisa agreed.

“It’s not just a long time, it’s inconceivable to most of us. A million years is an impossibly long time. Just think how different Earth was only a million years ago? How different our society was even a thousand years ago, only a hundred years ago.”

“Hell, it’s changed a lot in the past thirty years as well,” Lisa said.

“You’re right,” Claire said. “What more could we have achieved, given the chance?”

“I would hope that we’d have figured out a way to protect ourselves from asteroids,” Lisa said dryly.

“You never know… there’s still time.”

_____

Lisa stayed for another hour before leaving to pick up Molly and pack. She wanted to be ready to leave as soon as Tom returned.

Claire decided it was time to learn more about this asteroid heading their way. She fed the boys and ensconced them in the living room in front of the telly. Before having children she’d always sworn never to use television as a babysitter, but of course the reality was different.

Noah picked his favourite DVD. He’d already seen the movie five times in the past few weeks, but Claire was just grateful he didn’t insist on watching it every single day like her sister Lucy had when she was four or five. Their dad had finally ‘accidentally’ taped over the damn thing. Lucy had been inconsolable, but at least they weren’t subjected to any more Pete’s Dragon showings.

Claire set herself up at the little table in the corner of the room to do her research and soon got lost in a winding series of websites and forums, some more credible than others. It all seemed to depend on how big the asteroid was, what it was made of (there were differing reports on both of those key points and Claire wasn’t sure who or what to believe), and where it landed. If the asteroid landed on top of them, or even relatively near them then obviously they’d be toast. One article she read even stated that if the asteroid struck the opposite side of the planet, then it could cause volcanic eruptions on this side. Great. If it struck the ocean, then it would cause a mega-tsunami. Debris would fill the atmosphere causing catastrophic changes to the biosphere. A horrific firestorm. Civilisation ending catastrophe.

Claire’s head spun. What could survive, if anything? Could her father possibly be right? How deep, exactly, would a bunker have to be to survive the impact? Was it even survivable? Claire wondered how big the space rock would have to be to utterly destroy the planet. Would the cockroaches inherit the earth? Would some strange intelligent species, millions of years into the future be studying the mass extinction event of the humans, just like her species studied the dinosaurs?

Claire ground her teeth in frustration. So many bogus websites were popping up, and she didn’t know what to believe any more. Some people were saying everyone was doomed and should prepare to meet their maker, others were saying it could be survivable and others again were down-playing the whole thing, or outright calling it a massive hoax.

Most governments were keeping quiet on actual real detail, as were the space agencies. Claire hoped it was because they were diverting all their energy and attention to stopping the damn asteroid. News channels were calling in any ‘expert’ they could find to shed light on the matter.

Claire could feel a massive headache coming on, so she carefully closed the laptop.

_____

After feeding the boys their dinner and bathing them (a job that was much easier with Tom around), Claire sent her mother a quick message. Skype?

Before long, she was looking at her parents on the other side of the world. Noah excitedly waved at his grandparents, and Tristan tried to poke the screen. They spent a good half hour chatting to and watching the boys, and listening to Noah regale them with a story that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but seemed to include Claire, a dragon, a whale, and a castle on the moon. They didn’t talk about the asteroid, and for a few short minutes Claire let herself forget and just enjoyed listening to Tristan gurgle out the odd word and Noah’s epic story, and watch her parents dote on her kids.

_____

After putting Noah and Tristan to bed, Claire wandered the house. This was the first house that they’d owned. Claire had been filled with glee when she’d banged the first hook in the wall. A week after they’d moved in, they’d picked up Lancelot from the SPCA. It had seemed unnatural to Claire to not have a pet, but a string of landlords had been adamant on their no pets policies. She ran her fingers along the wall. They’d spent weeks picking out this colour, this precise shade of blue. She drifted into the kitchen. The renovation plans were sitting on the desk in the study. Slowly, they’d been making this house their own. For what?

Claire turned her mind to what she’d take with them. She pulled a large storage tub out of the garage and wandered around the house, picking up and examining items. So many photographs. Her and Tom in front of the Eiffel Tower. Lucy and her in the bathtub when they were around Noah and Tristan’s ages. Wedding photographs. Baby photographs. Claire picked up a small framed photo of herself with her university friends. She wondered where they all were now. She still kept in touch with Shelley and Holly, but she hadn’t spoken to Jemma or Casey in years. She wondered why. There hadn’t been anything in particular, no falling out or nasty words. Just a slow drifting apart. She put the photo down, and told herself she’d email Jemma and Casey before it was too late.

Claire studied the shelves. So many trinkets, memorabilia collected over a lifetime. She didn’t think Tom would mind if they didn’t take his Under 17’s hockey trophy with them. Claire sighed and put the box down. She didn’t know what to take. What to save, what would comfort them in the coming months? She decided to wait for Tom to come back. They could do this together.

_____

Claire lingered over her desk. Her journal peaked out from under a pile of papers. She used to be a prolific diarist, recording every day and every thought. Since having the kids though, she’d not written nearly as much as she wanted too. Sometimes she’d sit down and write the date, and then just stare at an empty page, too exhausted to actually transfer her thoughts onto paper. She picked up the notebook and flicked it open to the last entry and smiled softly. She’d written about Tristan’s first word. Not mummy or daddy, but Noah. Although, coming from Tristan it sounded more like ‘no-ha’.

Claire sat down at the desk and found a pen. She wrote the date at the top of a new page.

An extremely strange few days. I don’t think I’ve processed it yet. Not properly. Maybe this will help. We’ve been told an asteroid is coming. A big, civilisation crushing asteroid. There’s still time for someone to figure something out and banish the rock before it does any damage, but what if it doesn’t?

I always felt like I was being cheated, in a way. I’ve always loved history and finding out about what happened in our past, and intensely curious about our future. I thought it was unfair that I couldn’t read a book and find out, or stick around past my natural lifetime and see for myself. I remember when I was a little kid, just beginning to grasp the concept of time. If I could find out about the past, why couldn’t I find out about the future? This was around the same time that I realised I would never grow up to be a 6ft tall, dark haired, olive skinned Brazilian model and would be stuck with my pale freckly skin and short body forever. The harshness of reality.

Now there might not be anything to find out. I don’t know how I feel. Scared. Terrified, really. Hopeful that we’ll somehow survive. Pissed off that it’s happening in our lifetime. Angry that my sons… I have no idea what kind of future my boys will face, if they’ll face one at all.

I wish this was all just happening in a book and that I could flick to the end, reassure myself that it’s all going to work out. But I can’t.

Claire put the pen down and rubbed her hand. She didn’t handwrite much anymore. Gone were the days when she could write pages upon pages without even a tingle. She read over her entry and let out a deep sigh. She closed her eyes and lent back in the chair, taking deep breaths. One hour at a time, she thought.

^{CHAPTER SEVEN}

Tom

TOM closed his eyes and held on. The initial exhilaration of flight had quickly worn off.

Once the old man had turned up, it had been a surprisingly quick and simple transaction to get on their way. The man was more interested in the money than checking that Mike could actually fly. Tom had started to wonder if he even owned the planes, or was just an office worker making an opportunistic quick buck. He found that he didn’t care, as long as they got the plane and got out of there. He just wanted to get home. Mike had tried to bargain him down, but the old man wouldn’t budge. He knew they were desperate.

They said goodbye to Emma again, hopefully this time for the last time. Well, hopefully he’d be seeing her again at next year’s conference, but for now, he’d just go with hopefully not seeing her again in the next few days. She’d given them both a hug and a kiss on the cheek and wished them good luck. Tom felt touched. She’d helped them so much, and yet she barely knew them.

Mike had mapped out their intended route. The plane could only go so far before it needed refuelling. It was over four thousand kilometres from Vancouver to Toronto. Even though it was quicker to fly over the United States, Mike wasn’t sure what kind of reception they’d receive from the American authorities. Neither of them had their passports with them, and they didn’t have clearance to enter United States airspace, and he said he wasn’t sure what the procedure was to get it anyway.

“I dunno about you, but I don’t really fancy being shot down by a fighter jet. I think we’d be better off sticking to Canada,” Mike had said. Tom agreed, although he didn’t really think they’d get shot down, but Mike said it should only add a few hours to their trip to go the “long way”. They’d have to stop at least three times to refuel before they reached the Toronto area, Mike had estimated. They should be home this time tomorrow give or take a few hours, depending on how much sleep they wanted to get when they landed for the night. That sounded a lot better than the four or five days it would take them to drive, but not as good as the 3 or 4 hours it would take on a commercial flight. The old man had said they could take any plane they wanted. Mike had picked out one of the Cessna 152s.

“Why don’t we take one of those bigger ones? Won’t they go further?” Tom had asked, looking over the field of planes.

Mike shook his head. “Nah. This one’s got long range fuel tanks. It’ll go further than those Cherokees. Trust me, buddy.”

Tom didn’t have the faintest idea about flying or airplanes, so he stood back and let Mike do the negotiating, talking and planning.

“Have you ever flown this far before?” Tom had asked, dubiously looking over the map.

Mike shook his head and added a little sheepishly, “I’ve never left Ontario.”

Tom had closed his eyes and rubbed his face. What other choice did they have?

_____

Now that they were airborne he was second-guessing whether they really needed to get home that quickly. Surely a car would be safer. Tom hadn’t realised he’d spoken out loud until Mike replied.

“Actually, the chances of you dying in an air crash are minuscule compared to dying in a car crash.”

“Yeah, but isn’t that for commercial airlines? They’re not counting yahoos who only just got their pilot’s licence a few months ago,” Tom grumbled.

Mike shrugged. “You wanna get home or not? There’s a nice field down there I could drop you off in, buddy.”

Tom wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “It’s okay. I just didn’t realise how… small… this thing would be.”

“It’s great, isn’t it?”

Tom didn’t reply, just sent a text message to Claire telling her he loved her and then held on tighter.

_____

The mild fear eventually turned to exhilaration and then to boredom. The scenery rushing past below them was stunning, but apparently Tom’s brain could only take so much breathtaking West Coast scenery before he started to crave something else. The temperate rainforest around the Lower Mainland had soon turned into high mountains covered in snow (and thankfully no blizzards or storms) that dazzled Tom and made him wish for sunglasses. Soon enough though, they’d left the Coastal Mountains behind them and the sparser grass plains opened up into the Okanagan desert. He looked down on Lake Okanagan as they flew over and remembered a family holiday they’d taken there when he was a kid, before his dad had died. He must have been only seven or eight. After some late night tales from his Uncle Sam, Tom had been convinced he’d be eaten by Ogopogo if he so much as stepped foot in the lake. Lisa had laughed at him and kept trying to pull him into the water. He’d screamed and screamed until their father had come running, and then made Uncle Sam explain (rather grudgingly) that the Ogopogo was just a story and not real, sort of like the Loch Ness Monster.

Going over the Rockies was amazing. They were much closer than they would have been on a commercial flight.

“What a view!” Mike exclaimed. “You don’t get this every day!”

_____

Their first landing was straight forward and uneventful. Tom remembered reading somewhere that landing and take-off were the most dangerous times in a flight and he’d had to remind himself to breath as the ground came closer and closer. Mike had told him to relax, but that didn’t stop Tom from noticing the relieved exhale and a slump into his seat from Mike when they’d successfully landed. It was a small airfield somewhere in rural Alberta. Unlike the airfield in Vancouver, this one wasn’t deserted. Mike had radioed for permission to land. Tom had half expected to hear only static in answer, but lo and behold, someone had actually answered. They’d been given the green light to land, and a young man with black curls peaking out from under his bright red toque had even come out to meet them once the plane had come to a neat stop.

“Hi there, I’m Russell.” Tom glanced him over. He guessed he was in his early twenties.

“Hey. I’m Mike, and this is Tom.” Mike helped Tom climb down from the plane. It felt good to stretch his legs.

“What can I do you for today, gentlemen?”

“Well, we just need to refuel. We’re heading back to Toronto.”

Russell whistled. “In this? Where have you come from?”

“Vancouver,” Tom said.

Russell whistled again. “That’s quite the journey! Well, at least you’re not heading to Newfoundland or England or something crazy like that.”

Tom wasn’t quite sure he’d classify Newfoundland and England in the same category; at least Newfoundland was in the same country as they were. The Atlantic stood in the way of them and merry old England.

Russell continued to chatter at them good-naturedly. He wasn’t overly concerned about the asteroid.

“I’m sure they’ll figure something out, they always do at the last minute, don’t they?”

Tom bit his tongue. Was it cruel or kind to point out that ‘they’ were actors following a script?

“I wish I was that cheery and optimistic,” Mike said once they were airborne again. “What’s he think, Bruce Willis is going to come and save the day?”

After a few more hours in the sky, Tom was starting to wish for an in-flight entertainment system. He must have dozed off at some point; he jerked awake when the plane suddenly jolted.

“Ah, shit.”

Tom glanced wide eyed over at Mike. He was concentrating fiercely, his tongue sticking out of his mouth in the same way he did when confronted with a particularly difficult piece of coding.

Tom held on tighter as the plane shuddered. It was a lot darker than before Tom had fallen asleep; the steel grey clouds almost completely blocked out the sunlight.

“Can we get above it?” Tom shouted.

Mike shook his head, distracted.

“Too high. This little thing won’t take it. We’ll have to land. Or fly it out… no, I think we’ll have to land, this is too violent. Keep your eyes peeled for a good landing spot.”

Tom looked frantically out the windows, but was hampered by the snow and ice now splattering against the glass. He felt like his teeth were about to rattle right out of his head. He glanced down at his hands; his knuckles were the whitest he’d ever seen them. Images of Claire, Noah and Tristan started flashing before his eyes.

“There, I think I see something. Hold on, we’ll be fine in a jiffy.”

Tom was not reassured. He started praying in his head.

Dear God, Lord, whoever, please, please, please let us survive this. I can’t go like this, I need to get home to my family, please, please. If we get out of this alive, I promise I’ll be grateful for every second of my remaining existence.

It felt like they were in a giant washing machine. Eyes now firmly closed, images of his parents, his sister and his niece soon joined his wife and sons in flashing through his mind’s eye. I just want to see them again, he thought fervently. Please just let me see them again.

“Hold on!” Mike yelled.

Tom opened his eyes, briefly. The ground was rushing up to them far too quickly. He closed his eyes again and held on tight.

^{CHAPTER EIGHT}

Claire

CLAIRE slept poorly the second night after the news broke. There had been no more messages from Tom after they’d taken off the second time. She kept telling herself that there was a reasonable explanation, like they’d landed somewhere with no service or landlines, and that they hadn’t gone down in a fiery crash over the Rockies, but her dreams had been filled with doubt and fear. She’d been running and searching, but she could never find him.

She gave up attempting to sleep just before 6:00 a.m.

Claire eventually had to limit herself to checking the news online only once an hour. The hope that there might be some new, positive development about the asteroid, and the fear that there would be news about a light plane crash were all too alluring. She’d obsessively refreshed the major and not-so-major news sites in succession, one after another, for two hours. Her pot of tea cooled beside her, forgotten. Social media was strangely quiet. All of the posts about food, babies, and great nights out that usually flooded her feeds had stopped. Only Tristan’s cries pulled her out of the spiral.

Later in the morning, when Claire checked the news before making the boys’ lunch, news articles about a possible refuge from the asteroid lit up the news sphere. Curious, she clicked on one.

THE LUCKY MILLION

The government of the United States of America is expected to announce that it will be holding a lottery for qualified citizens to win a place in what they are dubbing ‘Sanctuary’.

According to a source close to the project, Sanctuary is a series of underground bunkers in undisclosed locations that the government has developed and maintained in the hope of surviving an impact event, such as the predicted upcoming collision between Earth and the asteroid commonly known as Cecelia.

“We’ve had them for a while,” the source who wished to remain anonymous stated. “Most of the bunkers have been there for years, it’s only in the past few months that operations have ramped up to get them habitable and sustainable.” The Sanctuary is reportedly deep underground, and is speculated to have initially been built during the Cold War in the anticipation of nuclear attack.

“If the impact zone is not in North America, then the Sanctuary could theoretically keep a large population alive for a number of years until the surface is habitable again,” Professor Graham Potter of the University of Westfield stated.

There are reportedly one million places available in Sanctuary. To qualify for an entry in the lottery, according to the source, you must be an American citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. There will be some spaces open to highly specialised citizens over fifty years of age, however the majority of the winners are aimed to be of reproductive age. Dependants aged seventeen years and under of lottery winners will also reportedly be allowed in.

There will be two categories of entries. Six hundred thousand places will be reserved for people with identified desired skills, qualifications and/or occupations. A comprehensive list will be released with the official announcement, but presumably will include occupations and skills that will be useful in rebuilding American society such as healthcare professionals, tradesmen, farmers, engineers, and other knowledgeable people.

The remaining four hundred thousand places will be open to anyone who fits the initial age and citizenship requirements, but does not necessarily meet the skill requirements.

The source reports that citizens with a criminal record will be ineligible for the lottery. Permanent and temporary residents will also be excluded. Americans currently overseas may enter, as long as they get back to American soil before the lottery closes.

What effect would news of the lottery and the existence of Sanctuary have on the American population? It could give them hope, for a little while at least. As long as they were in the target age range. And then what? Despair when they didn’t get in? A million places sounded like a lot at first, but that didn’t even cover the population of some of the smaller cities. Still, a one in three hundred chance was far better odds than the normal lottery. Did the Canadian government have any similar top secret bunkers that they would open to the public? She’d just have to wait and see. She doubted the Australian government had anything like that, but would be happy to be surprised. How many people would have old bunkers, like her parents did, in their backyards? And would they be deep enough when it came to it? A lot of North American homes had basements, or semi-basements. Would that be deep enough? Claire groaned and put her head down on her keyboard. Too many unknowns. But she could feel the despair edging away, and hope blossoming in its place. The spark that her father had started was growing. It was one thing for her dad and crazy old man Schmidt to think they might survive, but it was something else all together for the American Government to think so as well.

_____

Lisa and Molly came over about an hour after the news of Sanctuary broke. Claire was close to her sister-in-law; they’d always gotten along well, and for that she was grateful. One of her old mates from back in Australia hated his brother-in-law. But as close as they were, they didn’t usually see each other quite this often.

“What do you make of this whole American Sanctuary lottery thing?” Claire asked Lisa after she settled Noah and Tristan in the living room with Molly, and poured them both a fresh cup of herbal tea, along with a plate of crackers and one of the nice camemberts she’d picked up the other day. She figured she’d start rationing the cheeses after they left the city and it was evident they couldn’t get any more.

Lisa shrugged and blew on the hot liquid. “What difference does it make for us? It’s not like we can go and enter, not unless you’ve been hiding a third citizenship behind your back.”

Claire shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything about the Canadians having anything similar, have you?”

It was Lisa’s turn to shake her head. “We’re on our own for now.”

“It’s curious though.” Claire paused, knife over the cheese.

“What do you mean?” Lisa prodded.

“It must mean they — and they actually have experts around, not just an old ex-science teacher who probably smoked a bit too much dope over the years — they think that there will be something left afterward that’s worth sticking around for.

Lisa reached out to take the cheese knife off Claire. “Hmm. Maybe. Or maybe it’s just typical human instinct to try to survive, odds be damned.”

“Perhaps,” Claire conceded. “I wonder how big the bunkers are?”

“Pretty big, I imagine. Deeper that anything we can scrounge up at Uncle Jim’s, or your dad’s got in his backyard.” Lisa cut a generous hunk of camembert and spread it on her cracker.

“Can you imagine being stuck underground with a million people for… how long? There isn’t any consensus on how long the surface is going to be uninhabitable,” Claire said, frustration creeping into her voice. She glared at the fridge, as if it could answer her questions. Most of the scenarios that Claire had been able to find dealt with much smaller asteroids than the one that was currently on its way and had been written before the news of Cecilia broke. The newer entries were all over the place. One year. Ten years. One hundred years. What was it?

The two women sat in silence for a few minutes and concentrated on the cheese in front of them.

“I’ve been thinking,” Claire started after the cheese was almost gone. “We’ve got a few scenarios facing us, the way I figure.”

“And they are?” Lisa took a sip of tea.

“Firstly,” Claire held her index finger. “Total annihilation. The earth becomes completely uninhabitable.”

“I don’t like that one much. Second?”

“Partial annihilation. We go the way of the dinosaurs and the cockroaches inherit the earth and some other life form eventually evolves and debates over what caused the extinction of those hairless apes all those millions of years ago.

“Third, it’s bad, but some people survive. Nothing is the same for a long time, but humans are still around. We’re pretty adaptable. We’d rebound eventually.

“Fourth, it’s disastrous for whoever it lands on, and makes for a miserable few years for the rest of us with low crop yields and famine and whatnot, but we bounce back a lot quicker than number three.

“Fifth, the geniuses figure something out. I don’t know what. Somehow divert it off course, blow it up, whatever. Problem averted.

“Sixth, they’re wrong and it’s not actually going to hit us and is all a big beat up for some unknown purpose, like your grandparent’s think.”

Claire stopped. “Am I leaving anything out?”

Lisa looked torn between being stunned and impressed.

“Let’s cross our fingers and toes for options five or six then. Can we vote?”

Claire let out a small laugh that sounded slightly wrong to her ears.

Lisa glanced up at the clock on the wall for perhaps the sixth time that hour.

“I wish you’d get that damn clock fixed,” she sighed. “Where is that brother of mine? He should be home by now.”

Claire checked her phone again, but it was stubbornly silent.

“I’m getting really worried about him. I haven’t heard from him since yesterday afternoon. What if something’s gone wrong? I can’t face this without him.”

“Don’t panic just yet. He’s probably just being an idiot male and let his phone run out of power or something.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m going to go back home again and check on Max,” Lisa said, referring to her dog. “Call me as soon as Tom turns up.”

Claire agreed, and got up to see them off.

After Lisa and Molly left, she sat with the boys and got out a notepad and pen. When Noah saw what she was doing, he wanted some as well, so she found some scrap paper and art supplies for them both. Noah started crying when Tristan tried to eat the crayon he was using. Claire sighed, and gave Noah a new crayon, and Tristan a cookie, but neither was good enough for either boy. She felt guilty that she was frustrated. The boys eventually came to some sort of crayon-cookie truce that was beyond Claire’s understanding, and she was able to get back to her own notepad.

When people found out they only had a limited time left on Earth, they often made bucket lists. Hers would have to be different though. She wouldn’t be able to do anything that relied on society actually functioning normally. No hang-gliding or seeing the auroras or trekking to Machu Picchu or riding a gondola through Venice. She’d always assumed there’d be more time.

Just small, simple, achievable things. Claire didn’t feel like there was much point in finishing her novel. No one would ever read it now. She tapped her pen on the notebook spirals, thinking.

Make the most of every day — stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Don’t get cranky with Noah or Tristan. Or Tom.

Only eat delicious food.

Don’t put things off until ‘tomorrow’.

Claire kept looking at her watch and checking her phone. She tapped her watch again. The hands were moving excruciatingly slowly, and she kept thinking it had stopped working. Her phone remained stubbornly silent and text message free. Tom should have been back by now. Even with a head wind and extra stops, he should be back. But she hadn’t heard anything from him, and at first when she’d tried to call, it rang out, but now it was going straight to voicemail.

She paced up and down the hallway, looking in on the boys. She’d managed to put them down for a nap earlier, but now she wished they’d wake up so she’d have something to distract her.

^{CHAPTER NINE}

Tom

TOM groaned. He patted his head, his legs, his arms. He suspected he was still alive.

“Tom? Are you okay? Tom?”

He opened his eyes briefly and groaned again. What had happened?

“Tom? Buddy, talk to me.”

“I’m okay,” he eventually managed, resting his head back against the seat. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. Sorry, buddy. That was a bit rougher than I intended.”

“No shit.”

“That storm… fuck. I can’t believe we made it okay.”

Tom didn’t say anything for a while, just sat there with his eyes closed, assessing his body, and listening to the snow fall against the window.

“Where are we?”

“I’m not… I think somewhere in southern Saskatchewan? Maybe. We might have crossed the border, it was getting pretty hard to see up there.”

“Well, shit. We could be miles from anywhere.”

“Yeah… I’m really sorry, Tom.”

Tom opened his eyes again and glanced over at Mike.

“You’re bleeding.”

Mike felt his forehead gingerly. “Yeah, I must have hit my head on something. It doesn’t hurt.”

“We might be in shock.”

Tom realised he was shivering. He looked over his shoulder. The whole back of the plane was gone.

“Well, shit.”

Mike leaned back and closed his eyes. “Yeah. Like I said, I can’t believe we’re okay.”

“How are we going to get home?” Claire and his sons flashed before his eyes. Waiting and waiting for him.

“We’ll figure something out,” Mike said eventually. “Come on, let’s get out of this plane. It’s freezing.”

Tom’s legs felt like jelly when he jumped down to the ground. He sunk into the snow. He could feel the cold seeping into his shoes, and wished he had his snow boots.

“We need to find some shelter!” Tom called out. Mike slogged his way around from the other side of the plane, carrying his bag.

“Did you see anything when we were coming down?” Tom asked.

“I’m not sure. There might have been a barn that way,” he said, pointing. “Or it might have been that way.” Mike pointed in the opposite direction. Tom swallowed a scream. The snow started swirling around them. There must have been a lull in the storm, Tom thought.

“Hold my arm, I don’t want to lose you,” Tom said, reaching out for Mike.

“Which way?” Mike looked around, helplessly. The snow made it hard to see very far, and the light was quickly fading. Tom stamped his feet to try to keep the blood flowing. He pulled his scarf up over his mouth and nose and blinked rapidly to keep the snow out of his eyes, wishing uselessly for some goggles.

Tom had no idea which way to go. He looked wildly around them again, but all he could see was snow. It was starting to gust around them, and the cold air was biting. They needed to find shelter, and soon.

“This way is as good as any,” he said after a moment, and the two men started plodding through the snow. It was slow going, they kept sinking up to their knees or higher in the drifts.

Tom quickly lost track of time and distance. Everything was white and moving. They soon lost sight of the plane. Tom didn’t know which way to go, and fervently hoped that he wasn’t leading them to their deaths.

“What’s that?” Mike yelled over the wind. Tom looked to where his friend was pointing. He glimpsed a flash of red before the snow started falling even heavier.

“Let’s check it out,” Tom said. They slowly made their way to where they thought they’d seen the object.

Tom didn’t know what they would do if it turned out to be nothing useful. Perhaps they could make a snow shelter and wait out the storm and hopefully not freeze to death. He tried to remember back to his boy scout days. They’d done something like that on one of the camps.

“It’s a barn!” Mike whooped with joy. “We’re not going to freeze to death!”

They’d reached the side of a bright red barn. They pushed their way through the snow and tried to find the entrance. They had to backtrack when they turned the corner and discovered the back of the barn.

Tom’s feet felt like ice-blocks by the time the pushed their way to the front of the barn. There was a small man-sized door next to the larger doors. Tom yanked it open, and they fell over each other to get inside. Mike slammed the door shut behind them, blocking out the snow and wind.

It was warmer inside the barn, but dark. Mike fished out his phone and used it as a flash light. That made Tom feel around for his phone.

“Shit, Mike. I can’t find my phone.” He patted all his pockets desperately.

“Hang on, I’ll call it.” Tom waited impatiently to hear it ring or feel it vibrate. Nothing.

“It must still be in the plane.” He cursed again.

“Well, we can go back and get it when the storm lifts and there’s some daylight. You can text Claire from my phone if you want to.”

“Thanks. Lets get comfortable first.”

Mike held his phone up, and they looked around. Tom could hear the shuffling and grunting of animals. He could see a horse in a stall to their left.

“I wonder if we can find any blankets in here?” Tom took a few steps into the barn.

“You know, if there’s a barn, there’s probably a farmhouse nearby.”

“I don’t want to go out into that snow again, not right now. I feel like I’m almost frozen solid,” Tom said quickly.

“Yeah, okay. Fair enough. We can check it out in the morning.”

They found an empty stall in between a horse and two cows. It didn’t smell the best in there, but it was dry, and warmer than outside. Tom scrounged around and found a couple of old blankets that smelt like horse. They’d have to do. They settled themselves into the stall, and sat closely together under the blankets and straw, sharing body warmth. Tom took off his soaked shoes and tried to rub some warmth back into his feet.

“You don’t happen to have any food do you?” Tom asked morosely after his stomach grumbled.

Mike fished around his pack by the light of phone. He pulled out a granola bar and a squashed chocolate bar.

“Split them?”

Tom nodded. “Yeah.” Half a granola bar and half a chocolate bar wasn’t his idea of a meal, but it would have to do. After breaking the two bars in half, Mike handed his phone over to Tom, along with his share of the food.

“Here, call Claire if you’d like.”

“Thanks, buddy.” He took the phone and stared at the numbers. He started tapping and then stopped.

“I don’t know her number,” he said bleakly.

“Huh?”

“I… I don’t know her number. I can’t remember the last four numbers. I never have to dial it! I just press her name, and it calls her! I don’t know her number!” He slapped his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes. “I’m a terrible husband. How can I not know my own wife’s cell phone number?”

“Hey, calm down. I think I’ve got your landline number in there.”

Tom shook his head desolately. “We cancelled it a few months ago. Figured we didn’t need it and it was a waste of money.”

“Oh. Hey! I know, duh. Facebook her. You can log me out.”

“Oh!” Tom exclaimed and slapped his forehead again. “Why didn’t I think of that?” He picked up the phone again and then groaned. “No data out here.”

Mike put a consoling arm around his shoulders. “It’s okay, buddy. We’ll go back to the plane and find your phone in the morning.”

“Yeah. I guess we can’t do much else.”

The two men huddled down together, trying to keep warm. It was definitely better than being outside in the snow, but after a few hours, Tom would have given his right foot for a warm, comfortable bed in a room with a fireplace — preferably cuddled up to his wife instead of Mike.

_____

Tom blinked, slowly coming awake. A dog was growling somewhere. He didn’t know where he was at first, but then it all came rushing back. The plane, the crash landing, finding the barn. He opened his eyes properly, and nudged Mike. A large dog that looked sort of like a German Shepherd was standing stiffly at the entrance to the stall they’d occupied. His hackles were up and he was growling softly at them. Tom jumped when the dog barked.

An older man, bundled up against the cold, strode over and stood above them, looking down at them curiously.

“Well, hello there!” The man put his hand reassuringly on the dog’s head. The dog sat down by his master’s side and stopped growling, but didn’t take his eyes off the two strangers.

Tom brushed the sleep out of his eyes and tried to stand up. His left foot was a bit numb though. He winced as he felt pins and needles shoot through his foot as the limb came alive again.

“Uh, hi. Good morning,” Tom stuttered. He pulled himself up and tried to brush the straw off him. He couldn’t do much about the horse smell. He didn’t quite know what to say.

“And what are you two doing in my barn, may I ask?” The farmer asked somewhat blandly, after Tom just stood there dumbly.

Mike had woken up and sat blinking up at the old man, looking slightly confused. Tom nudged him again and he slowly stood up as well.

“Um, good morning, sir. We’re terribly sorry to trespass, but you see, we got stuck out in that storm and we found your lovely barn and thought it looked a bit warmer than outside. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Nasty weather we had last night. That wouldn’t happen to be your plane out in my field would it?”

“It would indeed,” Mike replied.

“Well, then. Why don’t you come into the house. It’s nice and warm in there, and you can tell me your story.”

Tom shuddered as he pulled his wet shoes and socks back on. The old man eyed him.

“You’re not really dressed for these parts.”

“No, I’m afraid I’m not,” Tom said.

Tom and Mike followed the farmer out of the barn. The sky was overcast, but it had stopped snowing. The landscape was white as far as Tom could see. He glanced around, looking for the wreckage of the plane. He couldn’t see it anywhere.

The dog led the way to the farmhouse, slowly wagging its tail. The farmer walked calmly along, barely sinking into the snow. Mike and Tom struggled along behind him. Tom’s feet and legs were soon freezing cold again. He could feel the warmth leeching out of him. The house wasn’t too far away from the barn. Tom was surprised they hadn’t noticed it the night before. Apart from the barn, the house and a collection of sheds, there were no other buildings in sight. Tom shuddered, thankful once again that they’d managed to stumble across the barn. He had no doubt it had saved them.

He was shivering badly by the time they reached the house. The farmer held open the back door and let them in.

“Take off those wet shoes, you can put them by the fire to dry.”

The house was warm and toasty. It smelt delicious too.

“Cora!” the farmer called out. “We’ve got some visitors!”

An older woman, with steel grey hair tied up in a messy bun and a floral apron came out of what Tom supposed was the kitchen. She looked them up and down and then gestured for them to come into the kitchen. It was a warm and cozy room, with an old-fashioned wood stove burning merrily away.

“Well, sit down then,” the farmer said when Tom and Mike hovered by the door, looking uncertainly around. Tom pulled out an old wooden chair near the stove and sat gingerly down. Cora smiled at him.

“I suppose I didn’t introduce myself yet. I’m Frank, and this is my sister Cora.” Cora nodded at them. “And that there is Fritz,” Frank said, pointing to the dog who was now making himself comfortable by the fire.

“Nice to meet you all, I’m Tom.”

“And I’m Mike.”

“And what events led to you sleeping in my barn?” Frank asked. Cora did something with her hands and Frank nodded. Mike started talking while Cora got out plates, mugs, and cutlery and arranged them around the table. Tom thanked her quietly when she placed some in front of him.

“You… you know about the asteroid, don’t you?” Mike started. Frank gave a curt nod.

“Yes. Very disconcerting news. Go on.”

“Well, we — Tom and me, were in Vancouver for a conference, for work.”

“We’re from Toronto,” Tom added. Cora started fussing over the stove and banging pots and pans around. Tom could barely concentrate on Mike’s words as the smell of bacon soon filled the air. His stomach growled in anticipation.

“Yeah. Anyway, after the news broke, we wanted to get back to our families — Tom’s got a wife and two little boys, and my mother needs help. We tried to change our flights and get an earlier one back east, but flights were being cancelled left right and centre, and the ones that were running were full. The stand-by list was insanely long. Everyone was trying to get back home — wherever home is — before it’s too late. They said they couldn’t get us on a flight until Friday and we were worried that we’d be waiting for nothing, and it would be cancelled by then as well. We figured we could either drive, or fly back. And it just so happens that I have my pilot’s licence. Just smaller planes, nothing big.”

At this point Mike trailed off, distracted by Cora piling their plates high with bacon, eggs, sausages, and fresh bread. Tom thanked her again and got stuck into eating the delicious breakfast. He told himself to slow down, but his body was crying out for more. Last night’s inadequate dinner had left him famished.

Frank let them eat in silence for a few minutes, and then asked, “and then what happened? I take it you got a plane and ended up crashing in my field.”

“Essentially, yes,” Mike continued after a long sip of steaming hot coffee. He’d gone a bit red. Tom wasn’t sure if it was because he was warming up after being out in the cold, or because he was embarrassed about crashing the plane. “We hired a plane from a place near Vancouver. The first part of the flight went according to plan. We made it across B.C., and across the Rockies. We landed just fine near Lethbridge and refuelled. I thought we’d be able to make it to Estevan before nightfall, but we hit a storm… and well, you saw the damage.”

Frank leaned back in his chair and scratched his beard.

“You almost made it. We’re about an hour’s drive from Estevan here.”

“Oh,” was all Mike managed.

Tom watched Cora. She was listening intently to them speak, and then pulled Frank’s jacket to get his attention. She made some shapes with her hands again, and Tom realised she was using sign language.

Frank shook his head at her. “No, it didn’t look like it.”

He looked up to both Tom and Mike staring at him. “Cora’s mute. She asked if your plane was salvageable. I said it didn’t look like it. Tail’s in one field, front part’s in another. I was expecting to find cold bodies in there, I don’t mind telling you!”

“Me too,” Tom muttered.

“So what are you going to do now?” Frank asked.

Tom and Mike looked at each other. Mike shrugged. Tom put his knife and fork down and rubbed his face.

“We don’t know,” he said.

“You’ve got a young family back home, do you, Tom?” Frank asked.

Tom nodded. “Yeah. My wife, Claire, and our two little boys. Noah’s three years old, and Tristan’s one.”

Cora gestured to Frank again. Frank signed back to her. Tom watched, fascinated as they went back and forth.

“If you’re sure,” Frank eventually said out loud. He turned back to Tom and Mike.

“Cora — we — would like to help you boys get home. As much as we can, anyway.”

“You don’t have to,” Tom started. Frank held up his hands.

“Cora is insisting. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past sixty-two years, is that I should do what my older sister says. She’s usually right.” Frank looked at Cora fondly.

“Thank you, then.”

“Now, we don’t have a spare plane or anything like that, but we do have an old truck that works perfectly fine, and we can spare you some food and more appropriate clothing to get you on your way.”

“That’s extremely generous of you both,” Mike said. Tom nodded in agreement.

“We can pay you,” Tom started. Frank and Cora both shook their heads.

“No, Cora won’t hear of it. Not at this time, not with, well, you know.” He pointed upwards.

“Thank you, then.”

“No time like the present, old pop used to say! Have you finished?” Frank nodded to their plates.

“Yes,” Tom cleaned up the last of the bacon. “It was very good, thank you very much. I needed a nice hot meal after last night.” He smiled at Cora.

“I bet you did. All righty then, come upstairs, we’ll find you some spare clothes. Mike, you’re about my size give or take.” He looked Tom up and down. “I reckon some of Tobias’ old stuff should fit him, don’t you think, Cora?” Cora nodded.

Mike and Tom followed Frank through to the living room and upstairs while Frank explained that Tobias was their baby brother.

“He’s off somewhere in the South Pacific, got a calling to be a missionary, you see. Got a post card from somewhere called Tuvalu a few months back. He was in Africa before that. We haven’t seen him in years. Just get the odd post card or letter showing up every now and then. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind in the slightest, lending some clothes to some young men in need.”

_____

Within a short amount of time, Mike had been furnished with a proper winter coat, gloves, boots and fresh socks.

“Toby’s stuff is somewhere around here,” Frank muttered. “Hang on, I’ll be back in a minute.” He left them sitting in a spare bedroom. The bedspreads reminded Tom of his great-grandmother’s house. Frank came back after a few minutes, holding a musty old coat and some boots that also wouldn’t look out of place in his great-grandmother’s house. He held them out to Tom.

“It’s not as pretty as this other one, I’m afraid but it will have to do. I don’t think Toby’s updated his wardrobe since the sixties…” Frank said, and scratched his beard again, and the shrugged. “Oh well, it will keep you warm, even if you’re not winning any fashion shows.”

Tom took the proffered clothing. “I never was very fashionable.”

“Just as well then!”

Frank left them alone to change.

“Can you believe our luck? I feel like someone must be watching over us,” Mike said quietly.

“I dunno, if someone was watching over us, wouldn’t we have not crashed and made it back to Toronto?”

Mike shrugged. “Be a sceptic if you want, my friend. I’m just saying it could have been a lot worse. We might have frozen to death last night. Or Frank might have turned out to be a cranky old bastard who set Fritz onto us instead of inviting us in for breakfast and helping us get on our way again!”

“Yeah, we’ve been lucky, I admit. Now let’s hope the luck holds out and we get home in one piece.”

_____

After they’d dressed, Frank took them out to one of the sheds where an older, blue truck was sitting.

“She’s a good girl,” Frank said, patting the bonnet. “Very reliable, never had her break down on us once.”

“Thanks again, Frank. I don’t know what we’d do without you,” Tom said as Frank handed over the keys.

Frank shook his head. “No need, no need. Live your life in a way that you’d also like to be treated. Cora’s always saying stuff like that. We hope you both get home to your families.”

With a jolt Tom remembered his phone.

“Sorry, Frank. I think I left my cell phone on the plane. Could you please show me where the wreck is? I need to let my wife know we’re okay.”

Frank nodded and whistled to Fritz, who’d started snuffling around the tires. They followed Frank back out into the snow. It was much better walking around with snow boots instead of his business shoes. It didn’t take them too long to reach the wreckage. Tom winced when he saw it, and marvelled again at getting out relatively unscathed. The night’s snow storm had piled snow up against, inside and on top of the plane. Tom didn’t know where to start looking.

“Mike, can you call my phone again? Maybe we’ll be able to hear it.”

Mike obligingly pulled his phone out of his pocket. Tom waited. Nothing.

“Sorry, bud. It’s going straight to voicemail. Battery must be dead… or the phone got wrecked.”

Tom cursed under his breath. He shovelled some snow away with his gloves, but it was no use. There was no sign of the phone.

“Hey, I have an idea,” Mike said, when Tom was about to give up.

“What?”

“I’ll call my sister and get her to go over to your house. She can tell Claire what’s going on, and she can get Claire’s number and give it to us.”

Tom felt like hugging him.

“You’re smarter than you look, Mikey-boy.”

_____

Frank led them back to the house, so Mike could call his sister. It wasn’t as frigid as Tom knew Saskatchewan could get, but minus seventeen still wasn’t that pleasant to be out in.

Tom wrote down his address so Mike could repeat it to his sister. He called her and spoke for a few minutes, catching her up on everything that had happened, and then explaining about Claire.

“Thanks, Trisha. You’re the best. I’ll keep in touch.” He hung up. “She’ll go over there shortly.”

“Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. Claire will be worried.”

“No problem. Shall we hit the road?”

They went back out to the kitchen where Frank was drinking a mug of coffee and Cora was packing up a bag of food.

“Thanks again for everything, both of you,” Tom said. “But we’d better hit the road. We’ve got a long way to go.”

“Which way are you planning on going?”

“We don’t have our passports, so we’ve got to stick to this side of the border.”

Frank nodded. “You could always give it a try. Maybe the border guards forgot to turn up to work after all this bad news we’ve been having.”

“You never know,” Mike said.

“Well, if you do want to cross the border, the nearest one is at Patrol. Just drive to Estevan and you’ll see the signs. Turn left when you get to the end of the driveway. There’s a sign a few miles along that will point you in the right direction to Estevan. Can’t miss it.”

Mike and Tom both nodded.

Frank and Cora walked them both out. Cora handed Tom the bag full of food.

“I really don’t know how to thank you enough.”

Cora waved the thanks away and then said something with her hands.

“Cora says to take care and come back and visit if things work out,” Frank translated.

“We will,” Mike promised. “You two take care as well.”

The two men approached the vehicle. “Who wants to drive?” Tom asked.

“You can,” Mike said. “If we crash again, I don’t want both of them to be my fault.”

“We can take turns.”

They climbed into the truck. Tom adjusted the mirrors and seat and started the engine. It took a little while to warm up. They waved goodbye to Frank and Vera. Fritz chased the truck down the driveway.

“Nice people,” Mike commented.

“Yeah. Real nice. I hope we get a chance to repay them someday.”

Mike sighed. “Yeah, that would be nice.” He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Tom drove on.

_____

They reached the small town of Estevan after about an hour. The sky was beginning to clear up, and the landscape was a dazzling white.

“Should we try the border?” Tom asked, idling at a crossroads. One way led to the border, the other to the Trans-Canadian highway.

Mike looked down at his phone. It seemed to have data reception here.

“Well, according to this, it’ll be 10 hours quicker if we go that way.” He pointed to the way the border was.

“America it is.”

It only took them fifteen minutes to reach the blink-and-you-miss it border town of Portal. Tom was half expecting there to be no line up, but there was. More than two dozen cars snaked their way along the road.

“What do you reckon?”

“I kind of thought there’d be no one here,” Mike said, echoing Tom’s thoughts. “Maybe we should have picked an even smaller crossing.”

Tom pulled the truck over and they watched the crossing for a few minutes. Each car was held at the guard station for a couple of minutes or longer, while the guard presumably checked their travel documents and asked them the usual questions. “Well, it looks like they’re still checking passports. Damn it. I wish you could still get through with just your driver’s licence.”

“Do you think we could talk our way through?” Mike asked in a voice that made it clear he didn’t think so.

Tom sighed. “I doubt it. Not yet, anyway. Not if they’re still guarding the borders.” As they watched, a small green car was ushered out of the line-up. The two armed guards watched calmly as the driver turned around and headed back to Canada. Tom stared at the driver as the car approached them. The driver still had her window down, despite the freezing temperatures, and Tom saw the middle-aged woman wiping her eyes and hit her steering wheel before she passed.

“What should we do then? Try the next one? I don’t even know why they’re bothering. Surely they can’t all be manned?” Mike said.

Tom tapped the steering wheel and bit the inside of his cheek.

“We’re wasting time. Let’s try the next small crossing. If that doesn’t work, we’ll stick to the Canadian side. At this rate we’ll waste more time trying to get into the States than we’d save by cutting through the place.”

Mike studied his phone for a couple of moments. “According to this, Northgate is pretty quiet. Let’s try it.”

“All right. How do I get there?” Tom turned the truck around and followed Mike’s directions.

“… And if we just stay on this road it should get us to the next crossing in 20 or 30 minutes. Less if you go faster.”

“It’s a dirt track. Are you sure?”

“Positive, city boy.”

True to Mike’s words, they arrived at the next crossing twenty-five minutes later. There were no other cars lined up and Tom let himself hope for a second, but it was quickly dashed as a middle-aged border security officer stepped out of his booth at the last minute.

Tom wound down his window and tried to smile reassuringly at the officer.

“Passports, licence and registration,” the man said curtly, holding out his hand. He looked bored.

Tom fumbled with his wallet and handed over his driver’s licence. The officer gestured impatiently for the rest of the requested documentation.

“Uh, sir, we are Canadian citizens, but we don’t have our passports on us at the moment.”

“Then turn your vehicle around and stop wasting my time!” the guard all but snarled. “No passports, no entry!”

“But, sir. We got caught out. We were in Vancouver when the news broke, and we’re just trying to get back to our families in Toronto. We’re not terrorists or illegal aliens or anything. We just want to get home, and this is the quickest way.”

“No passport, no entry,” the guard repeated, looking over their car.

“Considering the circumstances, can’t you make an exception?” Mike tried.

“What circumstances? What on God’s earth gives you the right to disregard American immigration laws, hmmm?”

“Well, the asteroid for starters. There isn’t going to BE any American immigration laws in a few months!” Mike said hotly.

“Pah!” The guard waved his hand dismissively. “NASA will blow that thing right out of the sky. I suggest you turn around now, before I have to arrest you for attempting to enter illegally.”

“Let’s just go,” Mike said quietly. “It’s not worth it, he’s not going to let us in.”

“Thank you for your help,” Tom said sarcastically and started to wind his window up. The guard glared down at him.

“And don’t you go thinking just because this is a small, out of the way crossing that I will not take my responsibilities seriously! We are under strict instructions to maintain our nation’s sovereignty. No exceptions! Just because some people didn’t turn up to work in those big fancy city airports doesn’t mean Joe Tucker is going to abandon his post!”

Tom clutched the steering wheel tightly and swore under his breath as he pulled out of the line and drove back the way they’d come.

“What a prick. Hey, man, it’s not a big deal. We’ll just stick to this side of the border. It’ll take a bit longer, but we’ll still get home,” Mike said and patted Tom’s shoulder.

“Just our luck to pick one with a man who takes his job seriously, even in the face of worldwide annihilation… the Trans-Canada it is, then.”

^{CHAPTER TEN}

Claire

THE doorbell rang. Claire put Tristan in his cot and told Noah to stay in their room. She wasn’t expecting anyone. The stairs creaked as Claire cautiously went downstairs and looked through the peep hole. A blonde woman around her own age was standing there, with her arms crossed and beanie pulled low on her head. Claire couldn’t see her eyes. She didn’t look too threatening.

Claire opened the door, slowly.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Are you Claire?”

Claire nodded, frowning slightly.

“I’m Trisha, Mike Wright’s sister.”

“Oh!” Claire’s pulse started racing. She felt light-headed and clutched the door frame. “What’s happened? Are they all right? Did their plane crash?”

“Well, yes, actually.”

“Oh my god.” Claire slumped to the floor without realising it.

“No! It’s okay! They’re okay. Sorry, I should have said that first.” Trisha bent down and rubbed Claire’s arm.

“They’re… they’re alive? They’re okay?”

Trisha nodded and helped her stand up. “Can I come in?”

“Yes, of course. Sorry.” Claire stood aside and let her visitor into the hallway. Trisha kicked off her wet boots and followed Claire down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?” Claire asked.

“Some tea would be great, thanks.” Claire flicked the kettle on and pulled out two mugs.

“So, what’s happened? I haven’t heard anything from Tom. I’ve tried calling, but his phone just goes straight to voicemail.”

“Mike called me a few hours ago. You knew they had a crazy idea to fly back?” Trisha asked, shaking her head slightly.

Claire nodded. “Yeah, Tom told me. The last time I heard from him, he said they’d landed and refuelled in Alberta somewhere. He was going to call when they landed for the night, but he never did.”

She’d spent a sleepless night, tossing and turning and checking her phone in case she hadn’t heard it go off even though she had the thing set on the loudest setting.

“They hit a storm. Apparently they crash landed in southern Saskatchewan. They’re both fine, just a bit bruised and shaken up. They spent the night in a barn they stumbled across. The farmer found them this morning.”

“Wow,” was all Claire could manage.

“They seem to have gotten lucky,” Trisha went on.

“Lucky?” Claire raised her eyebrows. How was crash-landing lucky?

“Yeah. Finding the barn in a snow-storm was a godsend, they probably would have frozen to death otherwise, and the farmer who found them this morning sounds like a pretty nice guy. He took them in and fed them breakfast, and he’s giving them a truck to drive back in.”

“Wow, that’s amazing. So, I take it the plane is out of action?”

“Yes, thankfully. I don’t know what my brother was thinking! He only got his licence a few weeks ago! Flying back across the country… mad man.” Trisha shook her head again.

“I just want them home. Safely.”

“Yes, of course. Me too. Tom’s phone got lost in the crash. Or destroyed. They’re not sure which. Anyway, that’s why I’m here really. Apparently Tom can’t remember your phone number, otherwise he would have just used Mike’s phone.”

Claire rolled her eyes. “Typical.”

Trisha pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and slid it over to Claire.

“There’s Mike’s number. I don’t know what their battery situation is, but you can contact your husband again.”

“Thank you so much, you have no idea how worried I’ve been.”

Trisha smiled grimly. “Oh, I think I have an idea. Anyway, I’ve also written my number beneath it in case you need it for some reason.”

“Thanks, wait I’ll give you mine as well.”

Trisha fished her phone out of her bag and handed it over to Claire. She tapped her number in and handed the phone back.

“Well, thanks for the tea, but I’d better get going. My husband’s looking after the kids, which is always a recipe for disaster.”

“Thank you for coming over, I really appreciate it.”

“Not a problem.”

Claire stood up and walked Trisha to the door.

“Hey, good luck with everything, yeah?”

“Yeah… you too. Take care.”

Claire watched the other woman walk carefully down the driveway and get into her little red hatchback. She shut the door firmly, leaned heavily against the closed door, and took a deep breath. For a moment there she’d thought Tom was dead. She shuddered. But it was okay. He was okay. He’d be okay.

She called Lisa and told her the news. Lisa sighed and called her brother an idiot.

“Come over then, if he’s not going to be coming home tonight. I found a bottle of red wine that looks expensive.”

“Okay, I’ll be over in an hour or so.”

_____

Claire started to pack up the boys. Noah was a bit teary — he really needed a nap. And his father. Her phone dinged. New email. Claire snatched the phone up. It was from her sister, Lucy. Finally. Apparently not even the end of the world could turn Lucy Black into a prompt correspondent.

Hey Claire,

I’m home at the farm. Took a while to get home, but we got here eventually. Everything is the same as normal, which feels a bit weird. Shouldn’t things have changed? But the sun is still shining, the cows are standing around the paddock, the horses want apples and the dogs are as crazy as usual.

Hope you and my nephews are safe and okay. Mum said Tom was in Vancouver when the news broke. Hope he’s home with you now and you can take your own advice. I’ve given up on reading the news. All the looting is too depressing.

Miss you.

Lots of love, Lucy.

Claire decided to call her so she wouldn’t have to wait another week for a reply.

“Hey, Lucy.”

“Hi, Claire. How are you?” Her sister’s voice came through clearly. Claire still marvelled at the fact that she could talk to her sister on the other side of the world as easily as she could talk to her sister-in-law a few streets away.

“Oh, you know. Fantastic.”

“Mmm, yeah, sorry. Silly question,” Lucy said quietly.

“Never mind. You’re at Mum and Dad’s?”

“Yeah. I got here yesterday afternoon. I ran out of petrol at Little River and Dad had to come pick me up.”

“Oh. Lucky you’ve got Dad there…”

“Yeah. Although I haven’t seen much of him since we got home. Is Tom back yet? Mum said he was in Vancouver when the news broke?”

“No, he’s not back yet… long story. But he should be back soon. Then we’ll go to his uncle’s place. He’s got a bit of a farm a few hours away, we should be safe there to sit this out.”

“Yeah…” Lucy trailed off, and Claire wondered what her little sister was thinking. “Two months…” Lucy finally sighed out.

“Two months,” Claire echoed.

“Surely, I mean, two months is a long time, right? Not in the grand scheme of things, I know, but it’s not an insignificant amount of time. Surely they’ll be able to figure this out and stop it?”

“I don’t know, Luce. They have sixty days, give or take. Apparently they’ve been working on it for six months and haven’t been able to divert it. I hope they do come up with something though.”

“Yeah. Of course. I’m sure everyone does.” Lucy let out another sigh. “Things were just starting to look up for me, too.”

Claire closed her eyes tightly. “I’m sorry, Lucy.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault! Steve— I think I told you about him, didn’t I?”

“The motorcycle guy?”

“Yeah, him. He told me he loved me before I left Melbourne. When we were saying goodbye.”

“Oh, Lucy. Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. I said it back to him. I think I do. I think I could. And now I’ll probably never see him again! It’s not fair, Claire!”

“I know it’s not fair, Luce. But there’s not much we can do about it.”

Claire wondered if Bill had told them about his bunker plan yet. Lucy didn’t mention it.

She could hear Lucy taking a deep breath. “What are we going to do for the next two months?”

Claire bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment.

“Just keep hoping they figure something out and some mystery person saves the world?”

Claire didn’t say anything.

“I feel so useless,” Lucy said quietly. “But I’ve been thinking. I don’t want to waste time being bitter or angry or anything. I mean, I am angry in an abstract way. This still hasn’t really sunk in,” Lucy paused.

“I know what you mean. It doesn’t feel real, does it?”

“Nope,” Lucy said. “If it turns out that there’s nothing to be done, then I don’t want my last moments on Earth wasted being bitter. I want to enjoy them.”

“That’s very wise of you,” Claire said. She was impressed. She hadn’t been sure how her little sister would cope with the impending demise of civilisation. Claire wouldn’t blame her for being an angry, screaming, swearing mess.

“I mean, yeah, it fucking sucks and I wish to high hell it wasn’t happening… but like you said, it is what it is, and there isn’t anything I can do about it.”

Now it was Claire’s turn to sigh. “You’re taking this better than I am.”

Lucy snorted. “I dunno, Claire. I’d probably be different if I had kids. I wish you guys were here with us.”

“Me too,” Claire closed her eyes again and imagined herself sitting around the old kitchen table with her sister and parents, Tom at her side and Noah and Tristan playing at their feet. She blinked. It wasn’t going to happen so she shouldn’t waste energy wishing for the impossible.

“I guess we just take each day as it comes, eh?” Lucy said after a few moments of silence.

“Yep. And prepare as best we can.”

“Sorry, Claire. I’ve got to go. Let us know when Tom gets home. Keep in touch. Love you.”

“Love you too, little sister. Give Mum and Dad a big hug from me. We can Skype soon, and you can see the boys.”

“That’d be good. Bye.”

They hung up and Claire sat staring at the picture of her sister and parents. Would she ever see them again in the flesh?

_____

Claire got the boys ready and packed an overnight bag for them. She remembered to feed the cat before she left the house, and gave him a big scratch and cuddle.

_____

“I’m so proud of how well Molly’s taking all of this,” Lisa said quietly, looking over at where her daughter was playing with Noah and Tristan.

“Yeah, she’s been amazing,” Claire murmured, sipping the wine. It was good. She decided to stay the night.

The two women made a fruit salad out of the perishable tropical fruits they’d bought the first night, to go with the decadent creamy pasta. Mangos, pineapple, melon, strawberries, nectarine. Claire savoured every bite, and winced at the pieces of fruit that ended up on the floor curtesy of Tristan. The little dog, Max, didn’t seem impressed with the fruit. He was much more interested in the dropped bits of pasta. Maybe they should have gotten a dog after all, Claire thought, watching Max lick up every last drop of sauce. It would have saved her a lot of cleaning over the past couple of years. Lancelot just wasn’t up to the task.

_____

After she put the two boys to bed in the spare room, and told Noah a story about a sleeping dragon, Lisa poured her another glass of wine and they sat in front of the fireplace. It wasn’t a real fire, just a gas replica, but the flickering light still reminded Claire of a childhood of sitting in front of the wood heater, fighting with her sister, the cat and various dogs for the prime position. Not too close to be burned, not too far to be chilly. Although the cats always seemed to have a higher tolerance for the heat. More than a few times, they’d moved a comatose cat back, worried they were going to overheat, or catch fire. Claire blinked. Was it normal to think about other things? Should she be worrying about the asteroid twenty-four seven? She thought she might go mad if the asteroid was all she could think about.

“Do you ever wonder…” Lisa trailed off, staring into the flames.

“Wonder what?” Claire prompted.

“Maybe this is a good thing.”

Claire frowned, taken aback.

“A good thing? How could this possibly be a good thing?”

“Not for us, obviously. But for the planet. For nature.”

“But a lot of animals are going to die, too.”

“It’s like the planet’s being reset,” Lisa said almost dreamily. “There’s too many of us. We’re a plague. All our insatiable greed. It’s too much. Perhaps this will give nature a fighting chance. Bring us back down to a manageable level, if we survive at all. Let something else have a turn. The mammals inherited the Earth after the dinosaurs were wiped out. Whose turn is it now?”

“I don’t know. The insects? The fungi?” Claire said dryly.

Lisa chuckled. “The great civilisation of the fungi.”

“On that note,” Claire drained her glass. “I think I might go to bed.”

_____

Claire stopped in her tracks. She could hear quiet sobbing. She paused and looked around. It seemed to be coming from behind the bookcase. Claire padded quietly over and peeked around the corner. Molly was curled up in a small ball, her head tucked into her knees, shoulders trembling.

“Oh, honey.” Claire swept down and gathered her niece into her arms. Molly tried to struggle free.

“I’m sorry, Auntie Claire.” She wiped her eyes and sniffed. “I thought everyone had gone to bed.”

“Don’t be sorry, Molly. You’re allowed to be upset.”

“I want to be strong for Mom,” Molly sniffed.

“Sweetie, your mother is an adult, and more importantly she’s your mother. It’s her job to be strong for you, not the other way around.”

“I know, I just don’t want to disappoint her. I heard her saying to you before about how good and strong I’ve been and how relieved she was that I’m not falling to pieces.”

Claire frowned. Molly shouldn’t have heard that. She’d need to have a quiet word with Lisa.

“You won’t disappoint her, sweetheart. I promise.”

“I’m just so scared,” Molly sobbed and this time she reached for Claire. Claire gathered her up and sat there, rubbing the young girl’s back the same way that her own mother had rubbed hers when Claire had been upset as a teenager. “It’s not fair. I haven’t even had my first kiss!”

“Oh, Molly… I know it’s not fair.”

“I know I shouldn’t complain, I mean at least I got thirteen years. Noah and Tristan… They’re so young.”

Claire felt tears prick her eyes, but she gritted her teeth and blinked them away.

“Yes, they are. And so are you. You’re right. It isn’t fair. Even if we do survive this, the world isn’t going to be the same.”

“Do you really think we could survive?” Molly asked in a small voice.

“I honestly don’t know, but if there’s a chance we can, we have to take it, right?”

“Right.”

_____

Claire went back to her own house the next morning to wait for Tom, in the vain hope that he might come home today.

^{CHAPTER ELEVEN}

Tom

THANKFULLY the heating in the truck worked. They stopped for a break when they crossed into Manitoba and inspected the food package that Cora had given them. Tom pulled sandwiches, fruit, muffins and a couple of chocolate bars out of the bag. They divided up the food between the two of them. Mike ate most of his at once.

“What? I’m hungry,” he said defensively.

Tom shrugged. “Just so long as you know I’m not sharing when you get hungry again in a couple of hours.” He ate his sandwich but left the fruit, muffins and chocolate bar for later.

After half an hour of uneventful driving, Tom spotted a car broken down by the side of the highway. He slowed down. The hood was up and a man was studying the engine.

“Should we stop?” Mike asked uncertainly. Tom thought back to all the people who had been helpful and kind to them over the past two days.

“I think we should. We might be able to help. And if not, we can give them a ride to the nearest town. I wouldn’t want to be stuck out here in this weather.”

Tom pulled up in front of the broken down car. He grabbed his coat and scarf and got out of the truck. Mike followed him. The snow crunched under his newly acquired boots, and Tom mentally thanked Frank and Cora again. There were two men, one in his early twenties, and the other looked to be in his fifties. The older one was peering over the engine, while the younger one leaned on the side of the truck, smoking a cigarette, watching them approach with a suspicious expression.

“Hi,” Tom said when they got close enough. “Need a hand?”

The older man looked up in surprise. The younger man glared at them and flicked his cigarette butt out onto the snow. Tom frowned.

“Ah! Yeah, I dunno what’s wrong with the damn thing. Just stopped going,” the older man said. Tom came closer and looked down at the engine. The younger man didn’t say anything, but kept watching them with narrowed eyes.

“I’m Tom, by the way, and this is my friend Mike.” The older man and Mike nodded to each other.

“Jack’s the name, thanks for stopping. No one else has.”

Tom looked expectantly at the younger man, but he just grunted and pulled out another cigarette. The older man narrowed his eyes at him.

“He of little words goes by Sampson,” Jack said eventually.

Tom inclined his head. “I might be able to help, want me to have a look?”

“By all means.” Jack stepped back and gestured for Tom to come forward. It was an older truck, similar to the one that Uncle Jim had on the farm. Tom had spent countless days over summer holidays helping his uncle ‘tinker’.

“Woah! What are you doing?” Tom looked up at Mike’s panicked cry. Mike was standing with his arms stretched out. Tom’s eye’s slid to where Mike was looking, and then widened in disbelief. Sampson was holding a shotgun, and pointing it right at them.

“Put your hands up!” he demanded while advancing slightly.

“Sam, what are you doing?”

“Stay out of it, old man. I’m getting us out of here,” Sampson said calmly. “Give us your keys and I won’t shoot you.”

“There’s no need, really. I’m pretty sure I can fix this,” Tom said quietly. “It’s just—”

“Shut up and give me your damn keys. I don’t believe you.” Sampson held the gun steadily pointed at Tom. He gestured for Mike to stand next to Tom.

Jack sighed and shook his head. Mike stumbled over to Tom.

“Well?”

Tom sighed. “The keys are still in the truck,” he said after a long minute. He glanced apologetically at Mike. Sampson narrowed his eyes at Tom.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Tom closed his eyes briefly. “Go and check.”

Sampson’s eyes got even narrower. “Pop, go and see if the keys are where he says.” Jack sighed again. Tom could have sworn the old man looked disappointed, but he did what the younger man said.

“They’re here,” Jack called out once he reached their truck. Tom gritted his teeth.

“Well drive it down here then!” Sampson called out. “Do I have to think of everything?” he muttered. The old man climbed into Frank’s truck and it roared to life. He carefully drove it towards the site of the hold-up.

“You piece of shit,” Mike spat. “We stopped to help you, and this is the thanks we get?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“What gives you the right—”

“This does,” Sampson snarled and waved the gun.

Tom felt slightly detached, like he was watching a movie. He’d never had a gun pointed at him before. He felt slightly mesmerised by it.

“Look,” Tom tried to stay calm. “We’re just on our way back to our families. I have a wife, her name is Claire, and two little boys. Noah and Tristan. I just want to get home to them.”

“I don’t care. If you say you can fix it, take than hunk o’ junk… it’s nothing personal, I just need to get somewhere. With the world about to end, I don’t really give a flying fuck about anyone else. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that bullshit. Nothing personal.”

The old man reached them. Sampson kept his gun trained on Mike and Tom as he walked around to the passenger side.

Jack wound down the window. “I’m really sorry about all this,” he said. “Sam… Sam is…”

“Just shut up and drive, Pop.”

Jack smiled apologetically at them before driving off.

“BASTARDS!” Mike howled. Tom surprised himself by making a rude gesture at the retreating truck.

“What do we do now?” Mike asked. They were miles from the nearest town, and no other traffic had gone past since they’d stopped to help. They should have kept on driving. Tom swore under his breath.

“Well, we either fix this thing, or we wait out here and hope someone else comes along before we freeze to death.”

Mike continued to swear and the names he called Sampson became more and more inventive.

“Can you fix it?” Mike asked after he ran out of names to call Sampson.

“I think so. I hope so.”

“Damn it. I left my phone in the truck.” Mike felt his pockets. “And, yep. The piece of paper I wrote down the spare numbers on is also, you guessed it, in the truck.” He cursed again.

Tom closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They had no way of contacting their families now. He hadn’t even had a chance to speak to Claire yet.

_____

“Okay, try it now,” Tom instructed half an hour later. Mike turned the key and let out a whoop when the engine started.

“You’re a fucking grade-A legend! Get in, let’s get out of here.”

Tom grinned and jumped into the truck. He tucked his hands under his armpits to warm them up.

“I dunno about you,” Tom said after they’d been driving for a few minutes. “But this has been the craziest forty-eight hours of my life. Find out an asteroid is heading our way, crash land a plane, take refuge in a barn, get taken in by a friendly farmer and his sister, then get car-jacked and abandoned somewhere in Manitoba. What’s next? Alien abduction?”

“Let’s hope not,” Mike said. “I don’t really want to be probed.”

Tom snorted. “Yeah, me either. What would you prefer? Alien invasion, or the asteroid?”

“Alien invasion, of course.” Mike only thought about it for a few seconds.

“How come?”

“They’d be something concrete to fight. It’s a bit hard to fight a bit of space rock. I dunno about you, but I’m feeling pretty helpless and I don’t like it.”

Tom nodded.

“How about you? Space rock or aliens?”

“Aliens too, I guess. Although why they’d want to invade this measly little planet I wouldn’t know.”

“Do you think there are aliens out there?” Mike asked.

Tom shrugged. “Probably. Whether they’re intelligent life forms is another matter. I mean, if you think about it, how long have we been around? If aliens had visited Earth even forty thousand years ago, all they would have found would have been primitive stone age cultures. Go back a million years and what? I don’t know. If they’d visited seventy million years ago, all they would have met would have been dinosaurs.” Tom paused for a moment, thinking. “Who knows, maybe we’re the first.”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked, glancing briefly at Tom before returning his eyes to the road.

“Well, think about it. Someone has to be first. When the first farmers settled down in the Near East, and everyone else, every other human on the planet was still a hunter gatherer, they were the only ones and they set the world on its current path. Think about how much better off the planet would be if we’d stuck to hunting and gathering.”

“Hey, I like the comforts of technology and modern medicine, thanks very much. Besides, human technology not advancing past spears and arrows and living peacefully with nature wouldn’t change the fact that we’d still be wiped out by an asteroid in two months. We just wouldn’t know about it,” Mike said.

“That’s true. But, yeah, back to my point — what if we, at this very moment, are the most advanced civilisation in the entire universe. What if we’re the Egyptians of the universe?”

“Well then, we’re about to take a giant step back. I don’t think we’re going to be space travelling any time soon, that is, if anyone is still alive to carry on the human race in six months time,” Mike said.

“I just had a thought — what will happen to the astronauts on the International Space Station?” Tom glanced up at the sky and wondered what they could possibly be going through. Would they even want to come back? How long could they live for up there?

“Being stranded in space makes being stranded on the other side of the country look pretty tame,” Mike said. Tom agreed.

They were silent for a few moments, then Mike asked “would you rather find out about the asteroid one year, one week, or one day before it strikes?”

Tom stared out the window at the passing snowy plains and thought for a few minutes before answering. “I’m gonna go with one week.”

“Reasons?”

“Well, a year’s too long. Look at how quickly things have fallen apart already; it’s barely been two days. Imagine a year of this. More people would probably die in the chaos before the asteroid even struck. The food supply in the major cities is surprisingly fragile. Millions would starve… millions probably will starve over the next couple of months now that I think about it. How many people have enough food in their house to last them two months? I know we don’t. The food in the supermarkets will only last so long until it runs out if no-one replenishes it. I’m not sure how many delivery drivers are going to turn up to work over the next few weeks, and at this time of year most of Canada’s fresh produce is imported from overseas… we’ve already seen how messed up air travel is. As soon as we get back to Toronto we need to make sure we stock up on enough food to get us through the next few months.” Tom sighed and rubbed his head. He was so used to just being able to nip down to the supermarket or visit the local farmer’s market whenever he needed to get food. All they grew themselves were a few potted herbs in the kitchen window and a couple of tomato plants on the patio in summer. His mom had a vegetable garden that she tended in the warmer months, but it was more of a hobby than anything she could actually live on, besides it was buried under a layer of snow at the moment. He had no idea how much food they had in the house. Not more than a week’s worth, surely. Hopefully Claire had stockpiled a lot of food. He wasn’t sure what the situation would be like when they finally got back to Toronto. Would it all be plundered by then?

“Speaking of food, I’m hungry. I’ll stop at the next gas station and see what they’ve got,” Mike said.

Tom narrowed his eyes at the thought of the food Cora had packed them that he’d saved — in the truck with that scumbag.

The next gas station didn’t come along for another half an hour. Tom was surprised at how quiet the road was. There was only one car parked by the side of the gas station. They pulled up and Tom filled the tank while Mike went inside to get some food. He came back laden with chips, candy and energy drinks.

“Healthy,” Tom commented dryly.

Mike quirked his eyebrows. “Not really a top priority anymore Tommy-boy.”

“Fair enough.” He eyed the energy drink. He hadn’t drunk one since his college days, when he would stay up all night finishing a paper that was due yesterday. “I suppose they’ll come in handy. D’you think we could just drive straight through?”

“Yeah. I’m over this. I just want to get home before something else crazy happens,” Mike said.

“Good. Okay. Well you have a nap and I’ll drive for the next few hours, then we’ll swap.”

“All right. I think we should steer clear of the bigger cities… That piece of shit Sampson has got me paranoid,” Mike said.

Tom nodded. “Yeah, I agree. It won’t be one of my lifelong regrets not to see Winnipeg one last time…”

Mike snorted. “I think my first girlfriend lives in Winnipeg now.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Married with a couple of kids. Huh. My ten year high school reunion is later this year. Well. Was going to be. At least I’ll have a good excuse not to show up…”

Tom was silent. Somehow he kept forgetting about the asteroid, just for a few moments here and there. Then it came rushing back and he wondered how he could think of anything else. Days, weeks, months. That’s all he could count his time in now.

_____

In spite of their intention to drive through the night, the wind picked up, blowing the snow around so thickly that they could barely see. Mike slowly, carefully, drove onwards.

“Wait, is that a motel?” Tom had glimpsed a neon sign briefly through the snow. Mike drove closer and a lull in the wind displayed a cheap motel in front of them.

“Should we stop for the night?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll get very far in this, do you?”

Mike shook his head.

Tom pulled his scarf up, gloves on and made sure his coat was done up tightly before opening the truck door. They hurried over to the lobby and tumbled through the door. It was sweltering inside, and Tom quickly took his outer layers off before he started to overheat.

The reception was empty. Tom rang the bell and waited. Mike looked around.

“Hello?” he called out after a few minutes of no response.

A slight, young, Asian woman peeked around the door.

“Hello,” Tom said again. “Can we get a room?”

“Hi,” she said and came out properly. Her name badge said Eiko. Tom thought she looked nervous.

“We’d like a room, please, or two if you have them.”

“Certainly.” She sat down at the desk and turned on the computer. Mike sidled up to the counter as well and smiled down at her. Eiko glanced up and then quickly looked away again. Tom noticed that she was jiggling her leg.

“Is everything all right?” he asked.

“Yes, yes. Of course. I just… the computer is just being a bit slow.”

“Oh okay. I’m kind of surprised you’re even open,” Tom said in what he hoped was a friendly manner.

“But we’re sure glad you are!” Mike interjected. “Saved us from a very cold night in our truck by the side of the road.”

Eiko nodded and seemed to give up on the computer. She fished two pairs of keys out from under the desk and handed them over.

“How long are you planning on staying for?”

“Just the night. As long as the wind lets up by morning. You can barely see a thing out there at the moment,” Mike said. “Then we’ll hit the road again. We’re headed to Toronto.”

“Is your kitchen open?” Tom asked. The chips and candy hadn’t exactly satisfied him and his stomach had been gurgling for the past two hours.

Eiko hesitated, then nodded. “The menu is in your room, just call through your order once you’ve decided. You’ll be in rooms 109 and 111, they’re just up the hallway there to your left.”

“Thank you.”

Mike followed Tom into the first room. It was a classic cheap motel room, with a generic painting of a sailboat on one wall and a red daisy on the other. Tom wondered where they even got those bedspreads. Was there a special motel-only shop that sold the hideous things?

“We’re not sharing,” Tom said. “I want the bed to myself.” He sat down on the edge of the bed. It creaked.

“Trust me buddy, so do I. It’s a bit eerie here isn’t it?”

“A little bit, I guess. Kind of reminds me of the motel in Psycho.”

Mike laughed at that. “Well, I don’t think we have to worry about Eiko stabbing us in the shower.”

“No, but she seemed nervous about something.”

“The asteroid? Her impending doom?” There, he’d done it again. Forgotten why he was in a motel in Manitoba in the first place.

“Oh. Right. Yeah, of course.” What was wrong with him?

He picked up the menu from the bedside table. He thought he’d give the fish a skip.

“The burger should be safe, shouldn’t it?” he mused out loud.

Mike shrugged. “Probably.” He grabbed the menu out of Tom’s hands and glanced over it.

“Not exactly much choice is there? I think you picked right.”

Mike strode over to the phone and dialled the room service number.

“Hello, can we please get two of the classic burgers to room 109? Thanks. Oh, and do you have any beer? No? That’s a pity, oh well… okay, thank you.”

Tom found the remote a flicked on the television. Most of the channels were showing old movies or re-runs of sitcoms. There was one panel show, with three self-proclaimed experts, discussing the asteroid. Tom watched for a few minutes. They all seemed to have vastly different attitudes, much like the people Tom had met over the past few days. One of the panellists firmly believed that the governments or space agencies would figure “something” out in time, and all would be saved and everything would go back to normal. The middle panellist mentioned God and retribution and total annihilation a lot. The third panellist spoke about survival… as long as you won some lottery that the American government was going to hold. Or if you happened to live in a bunker.

Tom’s stomach rumbled again. He glanced down at his watch.

“What time did we order?”

“A while ago,” was Mike’s reply. He gave up on the panellists and started flicking channels. They’d delved into arguing over who was right, when none of them could actually know.

Eventually there was a knock at the door. A female voice called out “room service”. Mike leaped off the bed and threw the door open. The same girl from reception, Eiko, was standing there with a tray. Mike stood back and let her in. Tom watched greedily as she placed the tray carefully down on the little table. Eiko stood back and hesitated, glancing nervously between the two men.

“Was there anything else?” Tom asked.

“I… um… no. Enjoy your meal,” she said hurriedly and rushed out of the room. Tom raised his eyebrows at Mike who lifted his arms up in a shrug.

Before Tom could take a bite of the slightly sad looking burger, there was another knock at the door. This time Tom got up to answer it.

It was Eiko again. She took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but did you say that you’re driving back to Toronto? I mean earlier, when you checked in?”

Tom nodded. “Yeah. We’re trying to get back there. My wife and kids are waiting for me.” The mention of wife and kids seemed to settle her somewhat.

“Would it be possible… I mean, my family is near Toronto, and I want to get back to them, but my friend — I guess he wasn’t much of a friend, really — he took my car and I don’t think he’s coming back. I don’t really know anyone in Winnipeg, I’ve only been here for a month and… and I don’t know what else to do…” she trailed off.

Tom and Mike looked at each other. Mike nodded.

“Sure, there’s room in the truck. You can drive?”

Eiko nodded.

“Great, well then we can take turns driving. We could be there in two days.”

Eiko visibly slumped with relief. Tom gestured to a seat.

“Sit down if you’d like. Tell us your story while we eat.”

“It’s not much of a story, really. Like I said, I’ve only been here a month. I just started at the University of Manitoba.”

“What do you study?”

“Finance and entomology.”

“What’s entomology?” Mike asked with a puzzled frown.

“The study of insects.”

“That’s an interesting mix,” Tom commented.

Eiko gave a shy smile. “The finance is for my dad, the insects are for me.”

“Ah, I see.”

“I just started working here, part-time, a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, when the news about the asteroid broke, most of the guests left. And then most of the staff left. My friend — he worked in the kitchen — he asked if he could borrow my car to go and visit his family and make sure they were okay. After he left, the cook told me his family all live in the Yukon. I don’t think he’s coming back… the manager didn’t turn up for her shift this afternoon, and now I’m the only one here. I didn’t know what to do. Then you guys showed up.”

“Well, we’re happy for you to come with us,” Tom said. “Where does your family live?”

“They’re in Barrie. My parents and little brother,” Eiko said. “He’s only fourteen,” she added sadly.

“We’ll get you home to them.”

“Thanks, they’ve been so worried.”

“We’ll leave first thing in the morning, be ready.”

“Thank you, both of you.”

Eiko left them to eat their burgers and promised to see them first thing in the morning. Tom felt strangely lost without his phone. He twiddled his thumbs, while Mike flicked through the channels, wondering what Claire and the boys were doing right now. He smacked himself on the head.

“They have internet here,” he said out loud.

“What?”

“I can message Claire. Hang on, I’ll be back in a bit.”

He couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to realise. He left Mike in the room and stepped out into the hallway, wondering where Eiko would be. He strode down to the reception area but it was empty, and the computer was password protected when he checked. He tapped his fingers on the desk, and then did a loop around the motel. He paused when he heard singing from one of the rooms.

Eiko, red-faced, answered the door when he knocked.

“Sorry to bother you, I just wanted to know if your internet is still working here. I lost my phone yesterday and I haven’t been able to contact my wife to let her know I’m okay.”

Eiko led him back down to reception and into a side-office. She typed in the password and left him in peace.

He checked to see if Claire was online, but there was no little green circle next to her name. He quickly wrote an email and sent it.

Claire,

Just a quick note to let you know I’m okay. We’re at a motel near Winnipeg for the night due to bad weather. We’re going to try and drive through, and get home as soon as possible. It’s been an insane couple of days and I can’t wait to tell you about it in person. I hope Mike’s sister was able to come over and let you know what happened with the plane. Don’t blame Mike, I don’t think it was his fault. Much.

We don’t have Mike’s phone anymore. Long story.

If you haven’t already, it would be a good idea to stock up on a tonne of food.

We’re planning on leaving here early in the morning. I’ll check my email again before I go, let me know how you are.

Much love, Tom.

P.S. Give the boys a big hug from me and tell them I’ll see them soon.

Email sent, Tom went back to the room and said goodnight to Mike. He was tired, and hadn’t slept properly since they found out about the asteroid. He comforted himself with the thought that the next time he slept in a bed, it would be his own, and his wife would be next to him.

^{CHAPTER TWELVE}

Claire

CLAIRE conducted her routine check of the news websites and social media as soon as she woke up. She wasn’t sure if she was imagining it or not, but the internet seemed slower. The news was still dire, once the pages finally loaded. The planet had not got a reprieve yet. She opened her email and gasped when she saw one from Tom. He’d sent it last night. She let out a small sigh of relief. He’d be home soon. She opened a map of Canada up in another browser to see how far he still had to come. It still looked like an awfully long way between Winnipeg and Toronto.

There was also a long email from her father, with a list of suggested items to survive the apocalypse. Claire scanned it. There were the things she’d already thought of like food, water, and power supplies, but others that hadn’t even occurred to her. Medical and hygiene supplies. She hadn’t even thought about tampons or pads when she and Lisa had gone shopping the other night. Gardening and maintenance tools. A satellite phone. Her focus had been on surviving the next few weeks, now her father was having her prepare for the next few years.

She rang Lisa and told her about the list.

“Where should we go?” Claire asked, looking out the window. It was a clear, cold day. Claire was glad it wasn’t snowing again.

“That little shopping complex by Dundas Street has one of those gardening/hardware chains — I can’t remember which one, and there’s a Shoppers Drug Mart there too. We should be able to get most stuff between those shops. Oh, and there’s that nursery across the street. They’d have tonnes of seeds, and I bet no one’s looted them yet!”

“Yeah. Onion seeds. I bet it’s the top of everyone’s list,” Claire half laughed. She wouldn’t be laughing if they actually survived and ended up eating onions grown from said onion seeds.

“Okay. Let’s go. Can Molly babysit again? I feel bad we keep dumping the boys on her.”

“Yah, she’s fine. I’d rather her stay home and be safe, than risk something nasty happen,” Lisa said.

“Okay. Yeah. Good point. Remind me to get her something special in case I forget.” Claire didn’t think she’d forget. Molly’s trembling shoulders and muffled sobs were too clear of a memory.

“It’d probably be easier if I just dropped Molly off at your place, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. See you soon. Bring lots of bags.”

_____

Lisa and Molly arrived not long after. Claire gave Molly a quick hug and told her to help herself to anything in the fridge or cupboard.

“There might even be some Tim Tams on the top shelf in the pantry. Don’t show Noah!” Claire winked and Molly brightened slightly.

She might not have been able to get any of her Canadian family to appreciate vegemite, but they all loved Tim Tams.

“We shouldn’t be too long, Molly. Call me if there are any problems. Lock the door after we leave,” Lisa told her daughter and gave her a quick hug and peck on the cheek. Claire gave Noah and Tristan each a quick kiss and told them she’d be back soon and to be good for Molly. Noah grinned happily up at his cousin. Tristan was too intent on ripping out the insides of his stuffed bear to pay any attention. Claire hovered for a second, wondering if she should take it off him, but stopped herself. He was having fun, and she didn’t know how much longer he had to have that chance.

Molly and Noah followed them back up the hallway and Claire heard the lock tumble into place as they closed the door behind them.

“Have you heard from Tom today?” Lisa asked as they climbed into Claire’s car.

“Yeah, I got an email from him. Well, he sent it last night. They were at a motel in Winnipeg. Or near Winnipeg. Something happened to Mike’s phone so they’re out of reach again, but they’re taking turns driving and should be back tomorrow.”

“Ah. Good. I guess. I was hoping he’d be back by now.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Me too,” Claire said as she reversed her car down the driveway. She looked both ways down the street. It was empty. She caught a glimpse of her next-door neighbour’s curtain’s twitching.

“What are all of the people who don’t have convenient country relatives going to do?” Claire wondered. She thought of her neighbour, Winnie. She was an older lady whose only son lived in Ottawa. Not exactly an escape. She didn’t know if they had other relatives.

Lisa shrugged. “I don’t know. Bunker down. If they’re smart, they’ll do what we did and stock up on enough food to last until this is over, one way or another.”

Claire bit her lip. “And before you even think about it, no we can’t help anyone else,” Lisa said, turning in her seat to look at Claire. Claire shook her head.

“I wasn’t thinking that. I was just feeling bad for my neighbour.”

“I know it would be nice to help other people, but we need to put our kids first, our family first. It might sound harsh, but it’s the truth, Claire.”

Claire sighed. “I know, you’re right. Maybe we can check on her before we go though.”

Lisa paused, and then nodded. “I’m sure she’d appreciate it. Just don’t go giving her all our food…”

_____

The two women arrived at the shopping complex. There were a few cars scattered around, but no movement. A memory of the last time she’d been here flashed through Claire’s mind. It had been a bright summer day, and the parking lot had been almost overflowing. They’d had to circle a couple of times before finding a place to park. Families, young couples, older couples, and tradesmen all purposefully going about their business. There had been a cheery group of older men and ladies running a hot dog sale, raising money for the local hospital. Tom had bought one. They’d bundled the boys into one of those overlarge shopping carts, and picked out some shrubs and a couple of fruit trees for the backyard. The future had seemed bright. It all seemed rather desolate now. The gloomy winter’s day didn’t help, nor did the garbage blowing across the mostly empty parking lot. Claire buried her hands deep in her coat pockets and snuggled down into her thick woollen scarf in an attempt to avoid some of the bitterly cold wind. The snow from the other day hadn’t been properly cleared, and Claire stayed close to Lisa’s side as they trudged through the slippery mess to the doors.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the automatic doors didn’t open. Lisa leaned up to the tinted glass doors and peered in.

“I don’t see anyone,” she muttered. Claire tried prying the doors open, but they didn’t budge.

“What do we do?” Claire asked nervously. Lisa looked around and pointed. Claire turned to where she was pointing. A tall wire fence was between them and the gardening area.

“I think… if we can manage to get over there, we might have a better chance of getting in with no one disturbing us,” Lisa said. “Look, if we pull those crates over there, we can climb up on them, and then climb down that racking on the other side,” Lisa pointed to a spot where a large shelf full of large ceramic pots reached almost to the top of the fence.

Claire looked between the crates and the fence rather dubiously, and then shrugged.

“May as well have a go.” She trudged over to the crates, and the two women started piling them up against the fence. Once they’d piled up what they thought was enough crates, Claire started to climb. She took her gloves off to get a better grip and flinched. The metal was bitingly cold. It was fairly easy to get over the fence in the end. Perhaps she’d missed her calling in life… to be a thief.

“That was too easy,” Claire proclaimed once they were both down safely on the other side, and her hands were safely back in their warm gloves.

“Speak for yourself,” Lisa muttered, rubbing her arm. “I think I pulled something.”

Claire winced in sympathy.

“All right. What do we need?” Lisa asked.

Claire pulled out the list she’d printed off and handed it to Lisa. She scanned the piece of paper and then looked around.

“I think most of the stuff we want will be inside,” Claire said, after walking around the outdoor area for a couple of minutes.

They approached the doors. Like the outside doors, these were locked. Claire glanced at Lisa, but she was sizing up two nearby statues.

“I have a sneaking suspicion we won’t have a raging need for ornamental pots or sculptures,” Claire said dryly.

Lisa snorted, and then bent over and picked up the larger statue. With a grunt, she threw the naked fairy at the glass door. Claire jumped back when the glass shattered and started falling down on the concrete floor. It was startlingly loud. Claire looked around nervously, wondering if anyone was close enough to hear.

Lisa grinned at Claire, slightly maniacally.

“I’ve always wondered what that would be like,” she said, and reached in through the broken glass and unlocked the doors. Claire helped her push them open.

It was eerily strange, standing in the large, deserted warehouse. Flashes of that busy summer day imposed themselves over what Claire was seeing now.

She let out a deep breath and strode over to where some shopping carts were haphazardly piled. She wondered if anyone had been here since the news broke.

Lisa and Claire bent over the list. They wandered the aisles, plucking what they thought they needed from the shelves.

“I’m surprised that no one else has been here,” Claire said, after they’d shopped in silence for a few minutes. She stopped in front of the seed display, trying to decide what exactly they would need in case they actually survived the next few months. They ended up taking nearly all the seeds.

“It’s not like they take up a lot of room,” Claire reasoned. “And they should keep all right.”

Gradually they crossed the items that Bill had recommended off the list.

“What now?” Claire asked once they’d got everything they’d come for.

“Let’s go.”

“It still feels a bit wrong, doesn’t it? Stealing all this stuff…”

Lisa huffed. “We will return it if the asteroid is diverted, I promise.” Claire nodded, and looked once more around the warehouse. She wished desperately for a moment that it was lively and full of people going about their weekend business. And that she had no need for a diesel generator or a lifetime’s worth of seeds, spades, and grow lights.

Claire started heading back the way they came, wondering how they were going to get all of their loot over the fence.

“Oi, Claire. Let’s go out the front door, shall we?”

Claire obediently turned the cart around and followed Lisa, shaking her head. She liked to think of herself as an intelligent person, but sometimes common sense wasn’t her strong point.

Lisa let them towards the emergency exit, and peeked out before opening the door wide and gesturing for Claire to follow her.

They loaded up the car as quickly as possible. For a moment Claire wondered how they would get all of this, and all of the food they’d stockpiled up to Uncle Jim’s. She shook her head. That was a problem for another day. One that Tom could help with.

Claire examined the list again. They still needed to stock up on medical supplies. What she had at home wasn’t enough.

There was a drug store on the other side of the complex. They carefully drove the car closer and stopped, engine idling. Unlike the hardware store, the drugstore had not escaped unscathed. Broken shards of glass littered the pavement, from the smashed front doors and windows. A discarded box of make-up sat lonely out the front.

“What do you think?” Claire asked quietly.

Lisa bit her lip. “Let’s go. Just be careful, all right?”

Claire nodded and climbed out of the car.

The two women peered cautiously in through the broken doors. It was dark inside the shop, with the only light coming from the doors and a few small windows, high up in the walls. Claire rummaged through her bag for the flashlight. She flicked it on and let it shine over the aisles. Someone had knocked over the candy display stand, and the packets had rolled all over the place.

They paused and listened. Claire couldn’t hear anyone. She glanced at Lisa, who nodded. Claire stuck close to Lisa’s side.

They quickly and furtively grabbed what they needed. Bandages. Ointments and antiseptics. More tampons than Claire could ever imagine using. Painkillers, aspirin, vitamins, Claire went down the list, grabbing as much as she could carry. Antihistamines, iodine, a couple of thermometers. She wondered what they’d do once they run out in the future. Well, that was something they’d have to figure out later, if they survived. Lisa paused in front of the perfume display.

“Molly’s been bugging me to buy her some perfume, but I told her she wasn’t old enough yet.” Lisa grabbed a couple of the bottles. “I think this was the one she wanted.” She put the boxes of perfume in the bag with the rest of their loot. On a whim, Claire snatched a couple of books she’d been meaning to buy off the shelves on the way out as well.

They lugged their haul outside and jammed it in the car. They’d need to get a trailer or something for the drive out of the city, Claire realised.

_____

Claire started to drive towards home. Both women were silent. Lisa stared out the window, while Claire concentrated on the road in front of her. It was starting to get icy and slippery. There was something up ahead. Claire squinted and then gasped. She slammed on the breaks and swore when the car started to skid, but they came to a stop. The small blue vehicle wrapped around the tree was almost unrecognisable as a car. The wreckage was smoking slightly, but there was no movement.

“Oh shit.” Lisa followed Claire out of the car. “Is there anyone?”

Claire stumbled towards the wreck, pulling out her phone to call 911. There was a woman in the driver’s seat. Her eyes were closed. Claire blinked rapidly and felt her breakfast almost come back up. A young child had been sitting in the passenger seat. His dead eyes stared out at Claire.

“Oh, god.” Claire stopped and bent down, trying to keep down a sob that was trying to escape. She felt her sister-in-law’s firm hand on her back, briefly, before Lisa stepped over towards the wreck and reached in to the woman.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

Claire glanced back up at the scene. Lisa had reached in and was feeling for a pulse.

“Call 911, Claire. Quick. She’s got a faint pulse.”

“What about…” she gestured helplessly at the child. Lisa just shook her head.

“Your phone, Claire.” Claire looked down. Her phone was still in her hand. Breathing fast, and hand slightly shaky, she dialled 911 and pressed the phone to her ear. The phone made a strange beeping noise. Claire looked back at the phone to make sure she’d dialled the right number. She had.

“What’s the matter?” Lisa demanded.

“There’s… I think there’s a busy signal?”

“What? How can 911 be busy?” Lisa shook her head in disbelief, and then turned back to the woman who moaned softly. “Try again!”

Hands shaking even harder, Claire redialled. It was no use. There was no answer. They were on their own. Claire shook her head helplessly at Lisa.

Cursing, Lisa turned back to the woman. She’d worked as a nurse, years ago, Claire belatedly remembered.

“Can you help her?” Claire asked quietly. She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from the boy. He looked like he was only about six or seven. She wanted to close his eyes.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Lisa muttered, checking the woman over. She didn’t look good. Half of her face was covered in blood and there was a scary looking dark patch on her shirt. “Stay with me, please.”

Claire watched helplessly, gloved hands grasping her cheeks. The woman was stuck in the car, it looked like her legs were crushed. They’d need the jaws-of-life to get her out. Where was the fire department? Where were the ambulances?

Claire lost track of time. She didn’t know how long they’d been there, hours, minutes, when Lisa rocked back and stood up.

“She’s dead. She died. I couldn’t do anything. Where is everyone? Why didn’t anyone help?”

Claire stared at the woman. Who was she? Where was she going? She looked around, hoping in vain for some normalcy, to hear a siren, for a police car, or the fire brigade to turn up and to take over.

Claire took a shaky breath. “Can you see her wallet? We should… we should let her family know.”

Lisa nodded. “Right. Yes.” She peered through the shattered back window and pulled out a large black handbag. Lisa opened it and pulled out the dead woman’s wallet and flicked it open.

“Naomi Collins. Shit. She’s from Halifax…”

They both turned to stare at the wreck. Claire quickly looked away again. She’d never seen a dead body before in person, let alone a dead child.

“We can’t… her family won’t know…”

Claire reached over and led Lisa back to the car. It felt extremely wrong to just leave the dead woman and child, but Claire didn’t know what else to do. That was someone’s wife, someone’s son, someone’s sister. Someone out there was waiting for her to come home and she never would.

Claire blinked away her tears and started the car. Claire glanced over at Lisa, but she just stared numbly out the window at the wreck.

“That could be us. No one would help us.”

“Don’t think like that,” Claire said. She forced her overactive imagination away from an image of Tom and Mike in a similar situation. Truck wrapped around a tree, staring sightlessly out. No one to help them, no one to tell her what had happened to him.

Claire drove slowly back home. Lisa had pulled herself back together by the time she pulled into the driveway.

“Don’t tell Molly about that,” she said before they got out of the car.

“I won’t.”

“She doesn’t need to know how shit everything’s gone.”

Claire just nodded. She wished she didn’t know.

The kids were all sitting quietly in the lounge room watching a movie when they walked in. Claire poured herself and Lisa a hot cup of tea.

Lisa sat tapping her fingers on the table. “I’ve got to take Molly over to Elodie’s place soon.” Elodie was Guilliame’s sister. “Her grandparents will be there, they want to see Molly before we go.”

“What are they doing?”

Lisa shook her head. “They don’t want to leave. They’re going to stick it out here. Elodie thinks it will all work out soon, but… yeah. Not for me.”

“Did you offer for them to come with us?” Claire asked. She didn’t even know how big Guilliame’s family was.

“I did mention it, but they declined.”

Lisa drained her tea, and called out to Molly. Molly started to complain about missing the end of the movie, and then caught herself. They bundled up and left, Molly turning to give Claire a quiet wave on her way out.

_____

Claire snuggled up on the couch, taking Molly’s place in between the two boys. She held them tightly, the image of the dead little boy still too fresh in her mind. He would haunt her dreams, she knew.

She put the boys down for a nap after the movie finished and took her laptop into their room. She sat watching them sleep for a while, and then started typing out an email to her old friend Lee. He’d always been her go-to person when she had problems or issues when she was younger.

I really don’t know what to think. Logically, I know this is ‘A Thing’, and it’s happening. Emotionally, I can’t even begin to process it. What in our thirty-odd years of life has prepared us for dealing with anything even remotely like this? Nothing.

Death of loved ones and acquaintances happens, and it’s horribly painful. I still remember so clearly getting the news that my friend Priya had been killed in a car crash when we were at uni. It was devastating, but… one of the things about grief is that ’life goes on’, and you’ve got to deal with it one day at a time, and eventually the good moments start to outweigh the dark moments. Life goes on isn’t really a comfort right now, because no one knows if it actually will.

I saw Death today. Lisa — Tom’s sister — and I were out driving and came across a car accident. There were two people in the car. One was a little boy, he only looked like he was about six years old. He was already gone. I couldn’t stop staring at him, but I didn’t want to look at him either. His mother died while we were there. We couldn’t do anything. It was horrible.

I’m sorry to dump this on you.

How are you holding up? Or is that a stupid question? I don’t know how I am. I’ve been flipping between scared out of my wits, depressed that my kids will never grow up, determined to survive, and apathetic about it all. The apathy doesn’t last long. One look at Noah or Tristan shakes that pretty quickly.

There still seems to be some hope that the powers that be will figure something out and save the planet. Is it a futile hope? I guess only time will tell.

My dad has this theory we could survive it. That maybe it won’t be as bad as they’re saying it will be. I don’t really know what to think. I’m an anthropology major, not a scientist.

He’s building a shelter in the backyard. The naive part of me hopes he’s right, the cynical part of me thinks it’s a futile endeavour, and the practical part of me wants to prepare just in case. So that’s what I’m going to do.

If I don’t have something concrete to work on, something to focus on, I’m not sure I could survive the next two months. Just sitting around, waiting to die is not something that appeals to me. I doubt it appeals to anyone. What are you going to do?

Dad reckons that we’ll need supplies to wait out the long winter and then more supplies to rebuild once the surface is habitable again. I’m honestly not sure if this is just his way of coping, or if there actually is a chance, but I guess I’m more like my father than I like to admit. Ever since he told me about it, I can’t let it go. I need to give my kids and my husband (and myself) the best possible chance of surviving.

If it doesn’t work and is all just a waste of time and we die anyway, then it won’t matter. I won’t be around to know any differently. But in case Dad’s right, and we do survive, then I don’t want to be starving to death a month or year later.

Oh, Lee. As usual you get stuck with my rambling and sorting my thoughts out. You should charge for counselling services ;)

Please write back, I want to know how you are and what you’re planning.

Miss you tonnes. Wish we could have this talk in person.

Hopefully this is all an over-reaction, and I’ll be seeing you on my next trip home and I can buy you that beer I owe you.

Lots of love, Claire xox

The phone rang again. It was Lisa. She sounded panicky. She said she’d just come home from Elodie’s house and found an intruder in her home. A man had been riffling through her kitchen cupboards. She’d scared him off, but it had rattled her.

“Can I come over? I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

“Yes, of course,” Claire said, and then went and made sure all her doors and windows were locked.

_____

Lisa arrived twenty minutes later, with Max in tow. The little dog charged up the hallway. Claire heard a hiss and a yip, and then glimpsed a ginger streak race up the stairs. Poor Lancelot.

They sat down at the kitchen table and Claire made a pot of green tea. Lisa looked at Claire awkwardly over the table.

“I’m sorry, but I need to think of Molly. I know you want to wait for Tom, but I really think we should get out of here. It’s not safe anymore. We need to leave. Today. Now.”

Claire bit her lip and swirled her tea, as if that could give her answers.

“You should go then, we’ll catch up.”

“Claire, I think you and the boys should come with me. We can leave a message for Tom. He can follow on, he’ll know where to find us.” Lisa looked at Claire intently. Claire looked down into her cup.

“I don’t know…” she mumbled. “I wish Tom were here. I wish he hadn’t lost his damn phone and I could talk to him.” She realised she was biting her lip again and tried to stop. They were already raw enough.

“Come with me,” Lisa said again. “It’s not safe here anymore. If they can break into my house, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them from breaking in here. I got lucky — the guy only seemed interested in food, but what if he was more sinister? What if he was after something else? We need to leave.”

Claire rubbed her eyes. This never-ending headache just wouldn’t go away. She could go now, leave the city behind and flee to the perceived safety of the family farm. It’s what she’d do if she were in Australia.

Claire shook her head. “No, I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m waiting for Tom. I have to.”

“Claire…”

“I’m not going to change my mind,” Claire said firmly. “I’ll be careful though, I promise.”

Lisa took a deep breath and let out a sigh. “Yeah, I can see that. All right then.”

“We’ll follow as soon as Tom gets home. He should be back soon.”

“What…” Lisa paused and looked up at the roof with a big swallow. “What if he doesn’t come back?”

“I’ll give him a few more days. They should be halfway across Ontario by now. If he doesn’t turn up then… then we’ll leave. I’ll pack the boys up and come to you.”

Lisa stared intently at her. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

Claire snorted. “I probably won’t even leave the house. We have everything we need here, for now.”

Lisa nodded. She left quickly after that. Claire followed her into the living room and watched while Lisa gave both the boys a hug and a kiss.

Claire walked her to the door. They hugged.

“Be careful,” Lisa said, gripping Claire by the shoulders.

“Yeah, you too. We’ll see you soon.”

^{CHAPTER THIRTEEN}

Tom

DESPITE the insanity and drama of the first forty-eight hours of their quest to get home, the last section was relatively drama free. The weather stayed clear, with no fresh snowfall and calm winds.

As promised, Eiko was waiting for them early the next morning. She didn’t have much with her, just a suitcase and a box full of food she’d raided from the kitchen.

The three of them took turns driving, with the previous driver resting in the back seat and they made good time. Tom half-listened to Mike and Eiko chatting when it was his turn for a nap.

“What made you choose Manitoba? There are plenty of good schools in Ontario, closer to your family,” Mike asked.

“Exactly,” Eiko said. “I wanted to get away from my family.”

“Oh. Can I ask why?” Mike sounded puzzled. He still lived with his mother after all, Tom reminded himself.

“I love them, but my parents are really strict, and I just wanted some space… they didn’t want me to go of course. They wanted me to stay at home and go to Toronto or Trent or York. It’s kind of funny though, I worked so hard to get away and now all I want to do is be with them.”

“Yeah. Funny how that works. As soon as shit starts to hit the fan — excuse my language — then you really start to figure out what’s important, and what’s not,” Mike said after a moment.

“What’s important to you?” Eiko asked, somewhat shyly.

Tom opened one eye and glanced at the back of Mike’s head. He shrugged slightly.

“Family. My mom, and my sister and her kids. I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend or anything. I just want to be with them, and keep them safe.”

“How many nieces and nephews do you have?”

“Two,” Mike said. “Hannah and Dylan. They’re great kids. Most of the time.”

“How old are they?”

“Umm. Let me think. Hannah just started school this year, I guess that would make her five or so. Dylan’s two years younger. He’s about the same age as Tom’s eldest kid. Three or so.”

“Do you spend a lot of time together?”

“Not as much as I should have.” Mike let out a big sigh.

“I’m sorry about all of the questions,” Eiko said quietly.

“No, no. It’s okay. I like talking with you. We’ve got a lot of driving ahead of us. Anything to pass the time is good,” Mike said.

“It feels a bit weird though, doesn’t it? I mean, we might all only have limited time left. It feels wrong somehow to be wishing even a minute of it away.”

“Yeah. You’re right. It’s a hard habit to break.”

Tom dozed off and dreamt of running. Running and running, running from something large, dark and reeking of fear, but never reaching a destination.

He woke with a jolt and sat up.

“That’s another one,” he heard Mike say.

“Another what?” Tom asked.

“Another closed gas station. That’s the third one. The tank’s getting pretty low, we need to find somewhere to fill up soon.”

The truck was virtually running on fumes by the time they saw the next gas station.

“There had better be some gas here or we’re screwed,” Mike muttered. They were in luck. There was no one inside, but the pump still worked.

_____

They drove on through the day and into night, stopping only for toilet breaks and to fill up the tank when they got a chance. Tom got more impatient the closer to home they got and found it difficult to sleep when it was his turn. The energy drinks Mike had bought the previous day came in handy when he had to drive again. He cracked the can open and grimaced as he drank it, but after a little while he could feel his body responding to the caffeine and whatever other chemicals were in the drink.

The sunrise was a stunning, shifting shade of pink and orange that turned the white landscape into a colourful, icy wonderland. Tom tried to savour the sight, taking mental pictures and memorising the shades of colour and the way the light hit the snowy ground. He told himself he wouldn’t miss anymore sunrises. For the next two months, he vowed, weather permitting, he would be up and outside, witnessing the Earth’s beauty while he still could. Two months. Sixty sunrises. It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.

_____

A few hours later they came to the outskirts of the Greater Toronto Area. Tom breathed a sigh of relief. He’d be home soon.

^{CHAPTER FOURTEEN}

Claire

CLAIRE studied the map of Canada, wondering where exactly Tom was at this minute. She traced the Trans-Canada Highway in between Winnipeg and Toronto with her fingertip. Over two thousand kilometres. So much room for something to go wrong. She checked her email and phone, but there were no new messages from him. As she was staring morosely at the screen, a new email popped up. She smiled faintly. Lee had replied.

Hey Claire,

Thanks for the email. I honestly don’t know what to think about it all, either. It’s crazy, and you’re right. Nothing prepares you for something like this. At least it’s not zombies?

I’m gonna go bush for a while, so you might not hear from me again until it all passes. Or the alternative. Ellie and I are going to this place we found a few years ago, up in the mountains. It’s always been deserted — I don’t know if anyone else even knows about it — it’s pretty hard to get to, and we only found it by chance.

We decided we just want to get away from it all. Things are starting to fall apart in Melbourne. It’s not crazy yet, but it’s well on the way. A lot of supermarkets are almost out of food, and the power and internet keep dropping in and out. I’m not even sure if I’ll get to send this, it’s been out for the past hour. Well, if you’re reading this, obviously it came back on. Neither of us are close to our families, so it’s not really an issue. I called my mother yesterday. She’s happy to stay put in her house with my step-dad. He’s a bit of a hoarder — they have so much tinned food that he buys on special, they could probably feed the whole block for a year and still have some left over, so I’m not too worried about them.

I don’t even know where my sister is. Last I heard from her was a Facebook message about four months ago — she was in Sao Paulo with some new Brazilian fling. Who knows where she is now. I hope she’s okay and staying out of trouble, but knowing her that’s not likely. Anyway, not my problem anymore.

So if you don’t hear from me again, my friend, it has been an honour to know you and be your email buddy/counsellor/voice of reason. Stay safe.

My tent awaits.

Your friend, Lee.

Claire blinked rapidly, wondering if she’d ever hear from him again. She re-read the email and then glanced up at the lights. They hadn’t had any power outages yet, not that she’d noticed. How much longer would that last? With that in mind, Claire went out and found the spare torch — it had been pushed to the back of the laundry cupboard, and rounded up all of the candles she could find. She took a moment to be grateful that Lucy was out of Melbourne and back at the farm. She knew they’d be fine on the farm if the power went out. They were used to it and had a back-up generator. She didn’t want to think about when the internet stopped working completely.

The ding of her phone made Claire jump. She reached for it eagerly, hoping for some news from Tom. She couldn’t help but feel disappointed when she saw it was her friend Hannah.

Play date? I need to do something normal with the girls. XX

Sure, Claire typed back. Come over here if you want. Have plenty of yummy food.

Hannah had two girls, roughly the same ages as Noah and Tristan. They’d joked more than once about a double wedding in the future — Noah and Olive, Tristan and Hazel.

Claire busied herself cleaning up the kitchen, doing the breakfast dishes and setting out some snacks. Noah wanted to help. She gave him the tupperware to dry. Tristan was more intent on taking everything out of the cupboards than helping.

Noah raced to the door when the doorbell rang. Tristan ignored it and continued to bang two saucepans together. Claire was tempted to take them off him, but from prior experience she knew it would just end in tears, and at the moment she’d much rather hear his happy gurgling even if it was tempered with insufferable clanging.

She followed Noah down the hallway, wiping her hands on her jeans. He’d grown. He could almost reach the handle now. Claire reached him and unlocked the door. Hannah and the two girls stood bundled on the doorstep.

She gave Hannah a hug and then bent down to say hello to Olive and Hazel. Olive smiled shyly up at her, but Hazel was gazing intently at Noah. Noah grabbed her hand and led her up the hallway, asking the little girl if she wanted to see his teapot. Olive gurgled a reply that Claire couldn’t understand. Claire stifled a laugh, and wished she’d videotaped the exchange.

Claire and Hannah followed the children down the hallway into the lounge room.

“Tea? Coffee?” Claire asked over her shoulder and walked into the kitchen.

“Tea please. Green, if you’ve got it.”

“Sure do. I’ve got some beautiful Japanese green tea leaves I picked up on our last trip to Tokyo. I’ve been saving them.”

Claire flicked the kettle on, thinking about that Tokyo trip. It had been a quick visit, before Tristan had been born. Tom had attended a conference there, and she’d tagged along for the experience. It had been a wrench leaving Noah behind, but his grandmother had taken good care of him, and she had to admit it was lovely having a week with just the two of them again. She jumped and turned around when she heard Hannah clear her throat behind her.

“How are you holding up?” Hannah asked quietly.

“I don’t know.” Claire spooned the fragrant leaves into her favourite little red teapot. “I honestly don’t know, Han. Sometimes I’m fine, sometimes I feel like sitting in the middle of the floor and bawling my eyes out.” Claire turned back to the kettle and poured the steaming water into the waiting teapot. “How about you?” Claire asked belatedly.

Hannah sighed heavily. “A bit the same as you. Are you still planning to leave?”

Claire nodded. “As soon as Tom gets back.”

“Where is he now?”

“On his way. I don’t know exactly where.” Claire let her head drop and let out a sigh. “I had an email from him the night before last, but I haven’t heard from him since then. He lost his phone.”

Hannah reached out and touched Claire’s arm. “I’m sure he’ll be all right?”

“Are you?” Claire asked more harshly than she intended. Hannah took a step back and frowned slightly.

“Sorry,” Claire muttered. “It’s just… I saw a woman die yesterday. Her son was already dead. She’d crashed the car. No one helped. No ambulance, no police. Just me and Lisa. We couldn’t do anything.”

“Oh my god. That’s horrible.”

Claire closed her eyes and wiped her face. The dead little boy staring at her, imploring her for help kept flashing through her mind. Sometimes he looked like Noah, other times like Tristan, and sometimes he wasn’t a little boy at all, but her husband.

“Yeah.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. We had to leave them there. I tried calling 911, but they didn’t answer. We didn’t know what else to do. I can’t help but think of whoever was waiting for them to come home. They won’t know. We looked at her licence, but it had a Halifax address. I’d have gone around if it had been local…”

“It sounds like you did all you could,” Hannah said.

“I suppose so,” Claire said quietly. “It doesn’t feel like enough though. And I’m worried sick that something’s going to happen to Tom and there’ll be no one to help him.”

Hannah didn’t say anything, just stared at Claire with sad eyes.

“Anyway,” Claire said after a moment. “I thought you would have left by now. You’re still leaving the city, right?”

Hannah nodded. “We’re leaving tonight. Jimmy’s packing up the van now. We’ve been trying to talk Jim’s father into coming with us, but he won’t leave his house.”

“Oh. What are you going to do?”

Hannah shrugged. “What can you do? He’s a grown man, he can make his own choices. We’ve tried. Who knows, maybe he’s right, and it’s all just a big hullabaloo over nothing and we’ll all be left looking foolish.”

Claire raised an eyebrow. “Right…”

“Hey, I hope the man’s right. But in the meantime, I want my children to be safe. And it’s not safe here anymore.”

Claire nodded. “Lisa’s left already. Someone broke into her house yesterday afternoon. It freaked her out.”

“Shit. I don’t blame her. She’s alone isn’t she?”

Claire nodded again. “Yeah. Just her and her daughter, and her dog is a tiny thing and not exactly frightening. Not like yours.”

Hannah smiled faintly, no doubt thinking about her giant German Shepherd. He was one of the friendliest dogs Claire had ever met, but he did look rather intimidating if you didn’t know him, and his bark was deep, booming and terrifying.

“We don’t get door-knockers anymore. Even the Jehovah’s Witnesses stay away since we got Felix.”

Claire smirked. “I should get one, I had five last week.”

Hannah started to laugh, and then stopped, looking confused. Claire shook her head.

“Anyway.” Claire rubbed her eyes. “Sorry. Sometimes… it’s so strange. I can’t stop thinking about it, and then I forget for a minute.”

Hannah nodded. “I know what you mean.”

They walked back into the living room with their mugs. The kids were all behaving themselves. Tristan had decided to stop smashing pots together and was now showing Hazel his toys. Noah was explaining his tea party rules to a confused looking Olive.

The two women stood watching the children play for a few peaceful minutes, sipping their tea.

“Mel and her family went down to the States yesterday,” Hannah said.

Claire glanced over in surprise. “Why?”

“The lottery thing they’ve got going. Mel’s husband is a Yank. They thought they should give it a shot.”

Claire blinked. “Yeah, I don’t blame them.” She’d probably do the same thing if she had the right passport.

“Maybe Canada should build it’s own bunker,” Hannah said. “Somewhere up in the mountains.”

“That’s what my dad’s doing,” Claire stated.

“Really? How big?”

Claire shrugged. “Not very, I don’t think. There’s an old bomb shelter that my great-grandfather built back in the day. Dad said he’s extended it, but I think it’s only big enough for him, Mum and my sister.”

“Wow. That’s… but what if it works?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. What if the asteroid does end up colliding with us. If we aren’t all killed immediately, if these bunkers work… well, with a million people, the Americans will be all right. They’ll be able to rebuild and repopulate. But what about your sister? Will there be anyone else for her, or will they just be alone?”

Claire shuddered, wondering what kind of life her little sister faced if they survived, then shook her head.

“They need to get through the next few months first. I’ll save worrying about Lucy’s middle-age and dotage on the other side of the asteroid.”

“Sorry, yeah I was just thinking out loud…”

“It’s okay. I’m starting to wonder how many of us are even going to be left to face the asteroid, let alone the aftermath.”

“There’s still time for them to fix this, Claire.”

“Right.” Claire tried to smile. “It’s always at the last minute in the movies too,” she said.

They were silent for a few minutes, both watching the children playing through the open door.

“Do you think it will hurt?” Hannah said after a while.

“What?” Claire looked back at her.

“Dying,” Hannah murmured.

Claire blinked. What would it feel like to have an asteroid land on you? That would probably be quick. You would barely have time to know what was going on. But what if it was something else, like a fire-storm, or suffocating, or drowning in a tsunami, or starving to death weeks later, or… Claire closed her eyes and took a deep breath and forced herself to stop thinking about it.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

^{CHAPTER FIFTEEN}

Tom

EIKO’S parents were ecstatic to see her. They rushed outside as soon as they saw Eiko get out of the truck, not even bothering to put on coats or boots, and enveloped her in a jumble of arms and exclamations. Tom watched as Eiko surrendered to the fuss being made over her, a small smile playing around her lips. Her mother didn’t let go of her arm as she turned to Tom and Mike standing awkwardly by the truck.

“Are you going to introduce us to your friends, Eiko-chan?”

“Yes, of course. Mom, Dad, this is Mike and Tom. They were kind enough to drive me home.”

Eiko’s father stepped towards them with his hand outstretched and shook Tom’s hand enthusiastically, and then Mike’s.

“I can’t thank you enough for bringing our daughter home to us. Please come in, out of this cold, so we can thank you properly.”

Tom noticed they’d started to shiver, but he shook his head.

“No, thank you though,” Tom said, inadequately.

“We would,” Mike interrupted quickly. “But we’re desperate to see our own families. We’ve come a long way, all the way from Vancouver, and it’s been a crazy bunch of days. Tom here’s pretty impatient to see his wife and little boys, you understand?”

“Of course, of course, we understand. You must go to your families. We can’t thank you enough for bringing our daughter safely home.”

“It was nothing, Eiko was good company,” Mike said and smiled at Eiko. Eiko’s father narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Thank you, both. I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t come along,” Eiko said. She pulled free of her mother’s arms and came over to hug each of them.

“Take care of yourself,” Tom said into the top of her head. She stood back and looked up at him. “And you too.”

With another round of thank yous and waves, Eiko and her family retreated back inside to the warmth.

Mike and Tom climbed back into the truck, Mike in the driver’s seat. They looked at each other.

“Don’t worry buddy, I won’t make you wait any longer,” Mike said with a slight grin.

Tom slumped back into his seat in relief.

“Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it.” Tom closed his eyes for a moment. Less than an hour and he’d be home.

Mike started the car and they pulled out onto the road. The road between Barrie and Toronto was fairly quiet; a lot quieter than Tom had expected considering how close to a major city they were getting.

“What are you going to do when we get there?” Mike asked.

Tom opened one eye. “Give Claire and the boys a giant hug. And have a shower.”

Mike snorted.

“I meant after that.”

Tom opened his other eye and looked over at his friend. Mike was frowning out at the road.

“I’m not sure. Lisa and Claire mentioned going to my uncle’s place to lay low for a while.”

Mike nodded.

“What if they don’t fix it? Smash it, whatever?”

Tom let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t want to think about it right now.”

“Sorry, yeah. It’s just…”

“I know, buddy. I know.”

_____

They drove onward. The roads remained clear, until they passed the wrecks of two cars. It looked like one of them had rear-ended the other. Tom peered at the cars. They’d been abandoned. There was no one inside. They steadily drew closer to Toronto. Tom was half glad, half annoyed that Mike was the one driving. Mike was sticking to the speed limit. He didn’t know if he’d have the patience to.

“Can you stop that?” Mike asked with forced joviality. Tom froze, not sure what Mike wanted.

“You keep drilling the door with your fingers. It’s driving me nuts,” Mike said with a quick glance at Tom.

“Oh…” Tom sat on his hands. His foot started jiggling. “Sorry, I’m just.” He shook his head. “We’re so close. I’m impatient.”

“It’s okay. Shit, look at that,” Mike exclaimed.

The windows and doors of the Shopper’s Drug Mart, a Canadian Tire store, and a half-dozen smaller variety stores had all been smashed in. Debris littered the parking lot.

“What’s been going on here?” Tom breathed.

“People must be getting desperate,” Mike said, glancing in the rear view mirror at the carnage.

“Can you go faster?”

Tom hadn’t heard from Claire. He’d just been assuming that she was okay, that she and the boys were safe at home. What if home wasn’t safe anymore?

His feelings of worry and apprehension only grew when they drove past a burnt-out house. It looked recent. Smoke was drifting from another fire a kilometre or more away.

“How can everything have gone to shit so quickly?” Tom demanded. “What’s wrong with people?”

Mike had nothing to say.

They turned a corner and a man tried to wave them down.

“Don’t stop. Just keep driving,” Tom urged, the memory of Sampson still fresh in his mind.

_____

Tom was slightly reassured by the veneer of normalcy in his neighbourhood. They drove through the streets, and everything still looked the same. The same, apart from the lack of people. Normally there’d be kids running around, parents ferrying them between clubs and classes, people going for jogs, the postman doing his rounds. There was none of that. He saw only a handful of people, darting furtively back to their houses, or to their vehicles.

“Turn right up here,” Tom said at long last. Home. He was home. Mike carefully pulled the truck up in front of the familiar house. Tom glimpsed both his and Claire’s cars in the garage. Good, she’d waited for him.

He wanted to rush out of the truck, but he paused, hand on seatbelt, and turned to Mike.

“Well, we’ve been through a lot the past couple of days,” Tom started.

“Oh go on, get out. I know you want to,” Mike cut him off with a punch to the arm.

Tom looked at his friend. “Thank you. I couldn’t have got back here without you.”

“Yeah, same. Don’t go getting all sappy on me now, Buchanan.”

“Never, Fitzgerald.”

“You take care now,” Mike nodded.

“Yeah. You too.”

“Fingers crossed, I’ll see you back at work in two weeks like Fred thinks.”

“Yeah. Fingers crossed…” Tom echoed.

“Go and put that wife of yours out of her misery.” Mike pushed at Tom.

“You don’t want to come in?”

Mike shook his head. “Nah, I wouldn’t want to spoil the reunion for you. Besides, Mom and Trisha will be waiting for me.”

Tom nodded and leaned over to give his friend a quick hug before he could protest.

“See you later.”

^{CHAPTER SIXTEEN}

Claire

“CLAIRE!”

She knew that voice. The bottle smashed onto the floor. The cat streaked out of the room. Claire cursed under her breath, and then quickly stepped over the mess. Tristan started crying.

“Tom? Tom! I’m in here!”

Heart racing, Claire rushed out of the kitchen. Her husband was striding up the hallway, staring at her intently. Before she could even begin to process his appearance, he enveloped her in his arms. She buried her face in his chest, and then he lifted her up so that they were face to face. He kissed her, hard at first, and then with a lingering softness.

“Oh god, Claire. I missed you so much.”

“Thank goodness you’re finally home.”

“You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been through the past few days…”

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy home!” Noah came hurtling out of the kitchen and charged down the hallway. Tristan was still crying in the kitchen. Tom untangled himself from Claire, and knelt down to meet Noah.

“Hey, buddy.” Claire felt like her heart would burst as she watched Tom gather Noah up in his arms and stand up. He smiled at her over Noah’s head. He was back, finally. Back where he belonged.

“Come into the kitchen, the boys were just having their dinner.” Tom and Noah followed Claire back into the kitchen. Tristan stopped crying as soon as he saw Tom.

“Dada!” He held his arms out expectantly. “Dada! Up!”

Tom was soon seated at the table with Noah on one knee, and Tristan on the other. Claire wished there was room on there for her too. She finished serving up the boys’ dinner. Tristan managed to drop half of his mashed potato on the floor, and somehow smear the rest of it over Tom’s face and chest. Noah actually ate all of his food without having to be prodded, but Claire noticed that he never took his eyes off his father. She could barely keep her eyes off him either. Claire studied her husband. He looked more rugged than usual. His dark hair was unkempt, and his face was scruffy as if he hadn’t shaved for a week, which Claire supposed he hadn’t. She kind of liked it.

“Thanks for that, Tristan. How did you know I was hungry?” Tom said after Tristan pushed a handful of mash into Tom’s open mouth. Noah giggled and Claire laughed.

After the boys finished eating (she supposed Tristan had gotten at least some of his food in his mouth), they took the boys upstairs.

Tom kept touching her, and made sure at least some part of his body was in contact with Claire’s while they bathed the boys.

“This is much easier with you here, I gotta admit.” Claire smiled at her husband and reached out to squeeze his leg. She washed some stray mashed potato from behind Tristan’s ears, while Tom shampooed Noah’s hair.

“Close your eyes, buddy.” Tom poured a jug of water over Noah who giggled and then spluttered when some of the soap got in his mouth. “And close your mouth! You’re not meant to eat it,” Tom laughed.

_____

Tom finished helping her bathe them, and then showered himself. Claire was tempted to get in the shower with him, but she stayed with Noah and Tristan and read them a bedtime story, all three of them cuddled into the armchair. Tom soon came into the room, towelling his hair dry and in clean clothes. He paused at the doorway, smiling down at Claire. She wished there was room for all four of them on the comfortable old chair.

Noah insisted that Tom read him a story as well. Tom lay on Noah’s bed with him, and Claire stayed in the armchair with Tristan. She listened to his deep voice and felt safer than she had since finding out about the asteroid. Claire rested her cheek on Tristan’s dark curls and he soon fell asleep. After Tom finished reading the story, Claire carefully stood up and tucked Tristan into his cot. Tom came over and placed his hand on her back. They stood there together, looking down at their youngest son.

“I’m so glad you’re home,” Claire said after a few minutes. She reached out to caress Tom’s cheek. It was prickly.

“Me too.”

“What happened out there?” Claire asked. Tom pulled her in close and kissed the top of her head. He didn’t say anything, but bent over gently running his fingers through Tristan’s soft curls, before leaning in to kiss the sleeping baby on his forehead.

“I missed you all so much,” Tom said. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it back a few times.”

“What happened?” Claire repeated.

Tom took a deep breath and reached out for her hand.

“Let’s talk downstairs.”

Claire watched Tom tuck Noah in, and then followed him downstairs.

She found him in the kitchen, looking in the pantry.

“Good, you got food,” he said without turning to her. Claire padded over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Lisa and I did the first night we found out. There’s more in the garage. Apparently your Uncle Jim has a big stockpile as well, so we should definitely be okay on the food front until… you know.”

Tom pulled her in tighter to him.

“And we’ve got a bunch of supplies for… after… if there is an after,” Claire continued.

“After?” Tom echoed.

“Dad’s got this idea in his head that we could survive, if we’re prepared.” She looked up at her husband. He looked puzzled. “That is, if the asteroid doesn’t land too close to us. Or on top of us. I don’t think anyone would be surviving that,” she added.

“But I thought if it hit, then that’s it. We’re toast. Has something happened? I’ve been out of the loop a bit…”

Claire sighed and led her husband over to the table. She could feel his eyes on her as she rummaged around the kitchen. His face lit up when she pulled two bottles of his favourite craft beer out of the fridge. She’d made sure to grab some before they ran out.

“Are you hungry?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Famished. We’ve been living off gas station food for the past two days.” Claire grimaced and poured them each a glass of beer, and then quickly put together a platter of cheese, dips and chips, and rustled around in the fridge until she found the gourmet salami she knew she’d stashed in there somewhere. She put the platter on the table in front of Tom.

“I’ve got a roast ready to go too, but it won’t be ready for a couple of hours. Sorry, I didn’t know what time you’d be getting back.”

“No, no this is great. Thanks, honey.”

The cat emerged from whatever hidey-hole he’d been in and wound himself around her legs, meowing for attention. Tom leaned over and scooped the cat up. The meowing changed to purring as Tom stroked the fluffy creature.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Claire started after she sat down at the table again. Tom reached out for some cheese and salami. “No one does. But after talking to Dad, I think it would be best if we prepared for all possibilities.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Tom nodded.

“Who knows, maybe it will all be sorted when we wake up in the morning and everything can go back to normal,” Claire said, sounding more positive than she felt. Tom smiled at her.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“So, what happened to you? I’ve been so worried.” She reached out and touched his hand lightly. He turned his hand over and squeezed her hand. With his other hand, he reached out for his glass of beer and took a deep swig.

“I don’t really know where to start. Getting out of Vancouver…”

“I kind of know what happened then,” Claire interrupted. “You still had your phone. What happened after you took off?”

“Right. Yeah. Well, so we rented the plane. It wasn’t really Mike’s fault that we crashed. We hit some pretty bad weather. The crash was scary, but… but it was kind of weird because I didn’t really know what was going on, I was asleep for half of it. It was more of a crash landing than a fall-out-of-the-sky and plummet to your death type thing.”

They both picked at the platter of food while Tom continued to tell her what had happened on the long journey home.

“I’m so glad you met Frank and Cora!”

“They saved our lives,” Tom agreed. “If we survive the next few months, I want to go back and make sure they’re okay and thank them again.”

Claire nodded. “Definitely.”

She rolled her eyes at Tom’s description of the vigilant border guard, and gasped and shook her head when he told her about the car-jacking. A shiver ran down her spine, thinking about how close he’d come to never coming home again. Claire told him about the woman and child in the car wreck.

“Oh, honey. That’s horrible.” Tom held her for a few minutes.

“How’s Lisa? I haven’t talked to her since the day we found out.” Tom asked.

“She’s already at your Uncle Jim’s.”

“She didn’t wait?” Tom frowned.

“It’s okay. I told her to go. Her house was broken into, she didn’t feel safe here anymore. She wanted us to go with her, but I wanted to wait for you. When do you want to go?”

Tom looked around. Claire followed his gaze.

“If we go, will we ever come back?”

“I don’t know,” Claire replied. They’d both thought this was the house they’d raise their children in. Tom stood up and held his hand out to Claire. She reached out. Together they walked around the quiet house, checked in on the sleeping boys, and started discussing what they should take with them. They decided to leave for Uncle Jim’s as early as possible in the morning, savouring one more night in their house.

^{CHAPTER SEVENTEEN}

Tom

“WHAT would be on your bucket list?” Claire asked, curled up in his arms. The fire crackled in front of them. The remains of the roast dinner sat forgotten for now on the side table.

“My bucket list?” Tom stalled.

“Yeah. You know, if it was just us with the death sentence and not the entire planet.”

“Well…”

“I can’t decide on mine,” Claire went on. “Everything that used to be on it seems a bit trivial now.”

“Well, what did you used to have on it?”

“Oh, the usual cliched kinda stuff. Write a book. Jump out of a plane—”

“I never knew you wanted to go sky-diving,” Tom interrupted.

“What? Really? Oh. There you go, still learning stuff about each other,” Claire said and leaned up to kiss him.

“What else was on your pre-asteroid bucket list?” Tom asked.

“Let’s see. I wanted to go to Antarctica. You knew that one.” Tom nodded. “And, I wanted to own my own tropical island. Live in the south of France for a year. And also I wanted a pet pig.”

“A pet pig?” Tom half laughed.

“Yeah. I would call it Ferdinand. Or maybe Napoleon. Napoleon the pig.”

“Mmm, I bet he would have been tasty.” Claire hit him.

“No, note that I said ‘pet pig’. No eating Napoleon! I grew up with Dad butchering enough of my pigs. It was my job to feed them, and I was terrible at it. I always fell in love with them and was so upset when they’d turn into bacon. Dad never got it. Neither did Mum, really. They always thought the whole vegetarian thing was a phase.”

“You eat meat sometimes,” Tom said, thinking back to a particularly nice steak dinner they’d had for his birthday last year.

“Like once every two years or so. I admit it, I’m weak. Enough of that, what about your bucket list?”

Tom shrugged. “I dunno. I got the girl I wanted.” He kissed the top of her head. “We got married. Had a couple of kids. Bought a house.”

“That’s very domestic of you, Thomas.” Claire entwined her fingers through his.

“What can I say, I’m a domesticated man.”

Claire laughed softly. He’d always loved her laugh.

“When I was coming back to you, when I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get to see you and the boys again…” Claire squeezed his fingers. “I had a lot of time to think. You, Noah and Tristan are what’s important to me. And Mom and Lisa and Molly, and Uncle Jim. Family. I just want to spend every last moment with you. I don’t care about jumping out of planes or seeing the pyramids or anything like that. I just want to be surrounded by the people I love.”

“Me too. I love you, Tom,” Claire said quietly. Tom looked down at her. Tears were running down her cheeks. He reached up and wiped them away with his thumb.

“What are we going to do for the next two months?” Claire half-sobbed.

Tom was silent for a minute, thinking. His eyes caught on a picture of Noah, Tristan and Molly that was taken a few months ago at Molly’s thirteenth birthday dinner. He hadn’t spared much thought for his niece, other than general concern. Poor kid. She was old enough to know what was going on. At least his boys were too young to be scared.

“We’ll make these months count. Every single day. If it is the… the…” he faltered, finding it hard to say, somehow, here in his own home with his sleeping sons upstairs. He cleared his throat. “If it is the end, then I want it do be the best two months of the kids lives. Molly too. And you.”

Claire smiled wanly at him. He held her tighter.

_____

Tom barely slept once they finally went to bed, and by the way Claire was tossing and turning next to him, he didn’t think she did either.

_____

“I’ll call Mum and Dad. You can say hi to them,” Claire said to him while she was pulling on her jeans and a bright red sweater after obviously giving up on sleep. It was still dark outside. Tom nodded and stayed in bed under the warm duvet. Claire came back with her laptop and climbed back on the bed with him. She opened Skype and tried to call.

“Shit. It’s not working.”

Tom looked more closely at the computer.

“Try and load another page,” he suggested.

Biting her lip, Claire attempted to open up a news website, but the connection timed out. Again, and again she tried different websites but none of them loaded. Frowning, she reached for her cell phone. Tom held his breath as she dialled her family back in Australia, praying that she would get through.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Claire threw the phone away from her.

“Hey, hey, deep breaths.” Tom reached out and rubbed her back. She was starting to hyperventilate.

“What if I can’t, what if it won’t work? Tom? What if I can’t speak to them again?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions just yet, baby.” He wrapped her up in his arms, and she crumpled against him. “We’ll try again before we leave. The ‘net might just be down temporarily.”

“But the phone wasn’t working either,” she said, high-pitched.

“It’s okay, you’ll speak to them again,” Tom said.

“You don’t know that,” Claire whispered.

_____

They lingered over breakfast. Tom made his family french toast. Noah gobbled his up, while Tristan made a mess of his, but Claire just picked at hers. She looked on the verge of tears a few times. Tom wanted to cheer her up, but couldn’t think how.

_____

Noah trailed after them as they went around the house, piling everything they wanted to take in the hallway. It was hard to know what they’d need or want in 4 or 5 weeks, or even 4 or 5 months, when Tom let himself hope that they’d still be alive in 4 or 5 months. Tom started packing up the car and trailer that Claire had borrowed from their elderly neighbour, first with all of the supplies that Claire had bought, and then with more sentimental items from around the house.

It took about ten minutes to get Lancelot into the cat carrier. Scratched and frustrated, Tom was almost tempted to give up and leave the damn cat here to fend for himself, but the look on Claire’s face stopped him from saying it out loud.

_____

At last they were all packed. There were more things that they’d both like to take, but they were out of room. Together, they did a final walk around their house. Tom held Noah on his hip, Claire carried Tristan, and they clung to each other’s spare hand.

_____

Claire tried once more to contact her family, but the internet was still down and she couldn’t get through on the phone. Tom watched her carefully. She took a deep breath and collected herself.

“Uncle Jim’s still got a landline. That might work,” he said to her, trying to be reassuring. She smiled at him and nodded.

“Yeah. That might work,” she echoed.

“Are you ready?” Tom asked.

“No,” Claire sighed, looking around. “But let’s go.”

He kissed her on the forehead.

_____

They somehow managed to buckle the boys into the car, in amongst the pillows, blankets, and supplies. Claire bit back a sob as he started reversing out of the driveway. He reached over and squeezed her hand.

Tom glanced back in the rearview mirror at the end of the street for a last glimpse of his house, wondering if he’d ever be back. He changed his focus to Tristan and Noah in the back seat, and then glanced over at Claire. They were what was important, not a house. Home could be anywhere, as long as they were together. He just needed to keep them safe, and get through the next two months, and hopefully see the other side.

^{ACKNOWLEDGMENTS}

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my partner Keenan, and my family. Extra big thanks to Linda, Robin and Katie for your eyes and expertise.

^{BOOKS BY R.M. ALLINSON}

The Last Days Series:

1. THE LAST DAY ON EARTH

2. THE LONG ROAD HOME

^{ABOUT THE AUTHOR}

If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review.

R.M. Allinson is an Australian author. She grew up in a teeny tiny town called Noorat (which is no longer even officially a town as of the 2011 census) in rural Victoria. After back-packing around Europe and North America in her early twenties, she somewhat accidentally ended up living in Vancouver, Canada for almost 4 years.

She’s currently calls Melbourne, Australia home. She lives there with her Canadian partner and their cat, Gertrude. When not locked away in her study writing, you can usually find her pottering away in the garden.

Get in touch!

@Nosnilla

rmallinsonauthor

www.rmallinson.com

rmallinson.author@gmail.com

Copyright

The Long Road Home

Copyright © 2015 by R.M. Allinson

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Created with Vellum