Without warning

* * * *

16 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

‘I don’t want you going out there again, Kip. You look sick.’

Barb looked worse than him, he thought, but it wouldn’t be worth his life to point that out, of course. Her eyes stared at him from within dark hollows. She’d had little more than an hour or two of sleep a night for the last week. The old bathrobe clutched nervously just below her throat was dirty and her dark hair lank and greasy. Nobody had been allowed to run water for three days now, because of the contamination. They were living on what they had stored in pots and bottles and the old clawfoot tub upstairs in the half-renovated bathroom. Kipper needed to get into work to see if he could change that today.

‘Barb, I’m not sick. I’m fine. They’ve been checking us every day. Army doctors, guys who specialise in chemical war and stuff – we’re fine. We got those bio suits, but we don’t even need them anymore.’

Unfortunately, she would not be dissuaded. ‘Kip, you have a family to look after…’

‘And I am looking after them,’ he countered, with some irritation. ‘I am the guy who can turn on your taps again. I am the guy who makes sure the power is there when you flick the switch. Me – nobody else. It’s my job, Barb. I have to go.’

He wondered why she was so much worse this morning? The pollutant storms were clearing out. The toxic soup he’d had to brave on Tuesday to get into the city had been truly scary. The army had sent some sort of pressure-sealed armoured vehicle for him, something they were going to fight Saddam or the old Russians with, and all of the troops were suited up in NBC gear.

‘This is insane, James.’

Uh-oh. He knew he was in trouble when she called him that.

‘We should be thinking about getting out of here,’ Barb continued. ‘Not hanging around. Deb and Steve flew out for New Zealand yesterday. They’re not coming back. They’re too smart. But your martyr complex is going to see us die here. Isn’t it?’

He controlled the anger that threatened to flare up between them, reminding himself that Barb had nothing to do but sit in the house, like the rest of the city, staring out of the windows at toxic rain. She must’ve been going batshit by now. And, he remembered at that very moment, she was also premenstrual.

‘Okay,’ he said, as calmly as he could without shading over into anything that might be mistaken for a patronising tone. ‘Deb was born in New Zealand, so they could do that. They got out on a government charter. There aren’t any other flights leaving, because no airlines will fly in here anymore. So leaving isn’t an option. Yet.’

‘But it’s got to be, Kip. We can’t feed ourselves. We’ll starve soon.’

‘We won’t,’ he said. ‘I’ve got all those freeze-dried camping rations down in the basement. The ones you gave me all that grief over when I bought them cheap, remember? We’ve got at least two months’ worth.’

She shook her head and her eyes hardened. ‘That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it. The city is starving. They’re going to have to evacuate people before long. You know that, James. You must have been talking about it at council.’

He tried to speak but she rode in over him.

‘And when it happens, we’re going, mister. All of us. To New Zealand or Tasmania or fucking Bora Bora. Anywhere but here.’

‘D-a-a-a-d-d-y!’

Suzie, who appeared at the kitchen door to complain that Bear in the Big Blue House wasn’t on, saved him any further escalation. None of her shows were on. Jo-Jo’s Circus, Little Einsteins, The Wiggles, they had all disappeared off the screen days ago. And every day she grew more upset with their absence. The only TV and radio now available carried Emergency Broadcast System updates, warnings about dangerous acid levels in the rain, information on food and gas rationing, handy hints for post-apocalypse homeowners about fortifying their neighbourhoods and establishing citizens’ watch committees, and pleas for information on ‘saboteurs and subversives’ in the so-called Resistance. None of which impressed the hell out of a little girl who was bored and terrified in about equal measure.

‘I want my shows back, Daddy,’ she said. ‘Can’t you make the army men put them on?’

‘Can’t you watch a video, sweetheart? How about one of the movies I brought back?’

‘I’ve watched them all a million times,’ she complained, in a rising whine. ‘It’s not fair.’

He looked to Barb for help, but she wasn’t giving him an inch. She simply folded her arms and raised one eyebrow. Very much aware that she’d be dealing with this all day, Kip didn’t dare find fault with that response.

‘Tell you what, princess,’ he said as he dropped down to her level on one knee. ‘I’ve got to get to work, but I promise I will bring home some new videos, ones you haven’t seen yet. Okay?’

‘Can you get Piglet’s Big Movie?’ she asked, suddenly brightening.

‘Sure,’ he replied, without thinking. ‘Piglet’s Big Movie. No problemo.’

He felt, rather than saw, Barb tense up beside him.

‘You run along and get dressed for Mommy, now. And no playing outside yet. Maybe tomorrow.’

‘But D-a-a-a-a-d-d-y…’

‘Maybe tomorrow. No promises.’

As she scampered away he rose to his feet again with a feeling of trepidation.