Author: admin

“Rowan,” he says calmly, and his tone warns of a blow. “I won’t make decisions motivated by your trauma. You’re not their mother.” I turn away, embarrassed. But he pulls me back. “Sorry,” he is saying. “I didn’t mean for that to hurt.” “I don’t want them to be mine,” I tell him. “They can’t…

“Off what?” Alex sits up, shields his eyes, follows Raff’s pointed finger to the fuel tanks in the distance. “No.” Raff nods. “I heard talk about it, a few years back.” “When did this happen?” “I dunno. Before I came here.” “Why?” “I have no idea.” Alex stares at the big round barrels, at the…

Later, once they’ve finished another monotonous day underground, Raff waits outside in the Zodiac for Alex to stuff things into an overnight bag. Naija is teasing him mercilessly and laughing that booming belly laugh of hers and Tom is ignoring the whole thing. But as Alex goes to leave, he says, “I don’t like the…

just begun, but I have a system: we carry rubbish and debris in buckets to the skip and then we sift through the remaining ash and charcoal with our sifting trays, and we will work our way thoroughly through one section at a time. “My trophies,” Hank says now, holding up a scorched and melted…

It is the storm again. The churn of the sea dragging me under. My body battered. My lungs exploding. I am tumbled head over tail and have no sense of up or down, it takes an eternity for me to grasp any stillness, any hint of calm among the maelstrom, enough to right myself and…

“Okay. Cool.” He scratches the back of his neck. “I really do need to get off this island.” “We all do.” “I keep getting this feeling like Dad wants to stay. Even after they come to get the seeds. He hasn’t said so, but…” “What’s there to stay for?” Raff doesn’t answer but he doesn’t…

“And Dad?” “What about him?” I know he’s trying to piss me off, to push me away, that the intimacy of the last few minutes is more than he knows how to handle-I’m aware of this but it’s still working because I think he’s hit upon a genuine nerve. “You’re not planning on seducing him?”…

He barrels into me and I hold him against me. His long white hair gets in my face and I absentmindedly start plaiting it for him. “What did you and Rowan do in the base yesterday?” I ask him. “Looked for a chemical.” “What chemical?” “Can’t remember.” The kid can remember the entire encyclopedia of…

“This wall here?” Raff repeats, pointing at the eastern wall of the seed vault. “That wall.” “But that’d cave in the whole place.” “Yes.” “You told this to Dad and he didn’t care?” “He’s hoping the ship will arrive before that happens.” “But you don’t think so.” “I dunno.” I stretch my aching legs as…

I wait around the back of the big building until I hear him walk away, then I wait a little longer to be safe-I have to roll open the door once more and I know he can hear the scrape of metal from quite a distance. I duck under a small gap and close it…