Sunday 14th October 2029 – 1.11pm

Erica hadn't been able to breathe in that room, and left a minute after Connor. She wondered how many of them had seen what she had – how much Connor cared about... Something distracted her.

She was in the corridor on the edge of military space. Standing at the checkpoint, arguing furiously with the security guy, was Neil.

"Okay, you can't let me in. Can you go get her? She needs -" he cut off the end of his sentence as he saw Erica approach. There was a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She knew exactly what he was going to say; "Your mother." She also knew exactly what he didn't say. Her mother was dead.

She nodded. It had been inevitable. She'd even wanted it, in a sick sort of way. It was probably better.

So it was with a remarkably cool head that she entered the mart a minute later. Most of the population of the camp lined the walk between the door and Collette's bed. Nobody said anything – they all knew loss well enough to know that there were no words that could possibly help.

Arms reached out as she passed. Some grabbed her hands, others stroked her arms, most just patted her gently. They were letting her know that they were there, they shared her grief.

Collette lay spread-eagled, eyes wide open. Erica'd heard so often people say that dead people looked just like they were asleep. Collette dream's had been so violent of late, that now she looked anything but. Her corpse reminded Erica, more than anything, of Alison's, probably still abandoned on the floor of the farmhouse.

There was no-one else. Collette had been her family. Neil was good, he was a friend, but Erica was alone now, and she was keenly aware of it.

Saturday 31st August 1996 – 0.25am

It was late. Markus was still a bit hungover, and his arm hurt like hell. He was beginning to think it needed to be looked at.

He was still too wired to sleep. Patton, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly fine. He would have expected someone of her age to be asleep or over-tired or whining by now. Something. But she just kept her eyes on the road ahead, and kept checking the mirrors to see what was behind.

The driver chatted away, mostly to himself, because neither Markus or Patton were listening. Markus suspected that the driver had been alone for a long time.

The truck was one of the huge international ones, but the cab was tiny. There were only two seats, including the driver's, so Patton was relegated to a sort of bunk that ran across behind them. The roof sloped above her head, and she either had to crouch or turn her head to the side if she wanted to sit up straight, but it didn't seem to bother her too much.

Markus was nodding off when she poked him hard in the ribs. He jolted awake and she communicated silently with her eyes. Clearly she didn't want the driver to know.

She widened them alarmingly, then glanced pointedly towards the mirror, then back at Markus, then back to the mirror. He stared behind them, searching for what she'd seen. There was nothing, and he micro-shrugged at her.

Patton's eyes were frantically telling him to have another look. This time he saw. A puce volvo. Shit. They were being followed.

For the next few hours, it was all that Markus could do not to watch the car. Reflecting on it, it was really very considerate of whoever was after him to drive a car so noticeably ugly.

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 1.47pm

Erica had sat alone in the mart for the last half hour, while the people around her slowly got on with their business of being alive.

At half past one, the loosely termed lunch break was over and people began to leave. Children went to their classrooms. Erica wondered what the point was. The few who were too sick or old to fight went to the field Erica wondered how many of them would live to eat the food that was grown. And the rest went to training.

Training was the only thing that made sense to Erica now. She wanted to get up and join them. She wanted to learn how to fight. She wanted to kill something. But her mother had just died, so she sat, alone, by her bedside.

To be honest, Erica was bored. This thing next to her wasn't her mother. She wasn't the woman who'd kissed her on the head, or made her laugh at her nightmares. She wasn't the woman Erica had looked after for the last few months. Erica's mother just wasn't. Not any-more

Erica leapt up. She couldn't sit here any-more She ran out of the room and into the corridor. She gasped for breath, but not from the run. She wandered the halls for a while, thinking about nothing. She found herself near the training rooms and slipped inside.

She realized that she hadn't put down her camera from earlier, just switched it off. The world was further away and easier to deal with through a camera lens, so she switched it back on.

The ass-hole instructor – who's name she'd completely forgotten and didn't care about anyway – was demonstrating military hand signals. She turned her camera on his audience. It looked like the ones, twos, threes and fours.

Some were mimicking passionately, latching on to any small bit of information that could possibly keep them alive. Others listened half-heartedly, but there was a good portion of the group who were whispering and laughing down the back. Few people cared any more – about anything.

The people who were talking noticed the camera, straightened up and started pretending to pay attention. This hadn't been Erica's intention at all, and she wanted to shout out "but no! I'm one of you!"

She didn't, and moved on instead. But it had made her realize, for the first time, that the act of filming something changed what was happening. She didn't know what to do with that information, so she stored it away in the back of her mind somewhere for later.

Joan had the rest of the new recruits off in another room. She was standing to the side while a medic droned on about battlefield first aid. If it was possible, the five, sixes, sevens and eights were paying less attention than the ones, twos, threes and fours had.

Joan spotted the camera, and it seemed to inspire her to action. She pushed aside the medic and said; "You're on the battlefield."

Everyone looked confused.

"There are people screaming and dying all around. There's so much going on that you can't see or hear straight. You've lost contact with your squad leader and everyone else is gone." Her audience was captivated.

"You're almost out of ammo. This big-ass terminator comes up out of nowhere, and blows the guy next to you away."

Pause.

"You kill it right back, but then you turn around and the guy next to you isn't dead. Blood is pumping out of a gaping hole in his chest." Erica saw where this was going and smiled to herself.

"Do you want to be the hero who knows how and where to put the pressure to save that guy's life, or do you want to be the idiot who stands by, hands hanging, while he bleeds out at your feet?"

Joan stepped back and nodded at the medic, who continued, with a much more attentive audience and a grateful smile on his face.

Saturday 31st August 1996 – 7.43am

The truck slowing down woke Markus. He looked around. Patton was stretched out behind them, but as the truck stopped, she started awake.

"Where are we?" Markus asked the driver.

"Outside Charlotte. I'm heading through to the other side, need to top up the gas."

"We'll get out here," Patton decided for the both of them. She'd seen something else, Markus knew, but he wasn't sure what. He realized all of a sudden that they'd both been sleeping and had lost track of the volvo. Shit.

It didn't pull in straight after them, however. And then Markus saw what Patton had. There was a city bus idling outside the gas station. The doors closed, and it was about ready to pull away, but the driver spotted them coming and let them on.

"Nearly left without you there."

"Yeah, thanks. You're a lifesaver."

Markus wished he could tell the driver that this was literally true. He fished around the bottom of his pocket for some change and between the two of them, they just about cobbled together enough for the fare.

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 5.24pm

Most of them were still eating dinner in the corner of the mart reserved for such things when the call came down.

There wasn't much furniture over here. A couple of tables, a few more chairs. These were reserved for those who really needed them – the old, the sick. So, Erica and Neil were sitting on the floor with a group of their friends. They were laughing and joking like it was any other day. Actually, they were laughing and joking even more than that. They were trying to distract Erica from what was coming.

When a small child ran in and pulled on Mr. Sansom's shirt, nobody even noticed. He whispered in Mr. Sansom's ear and ran off to spread the word further. Mr. Sansom stood up. He was one of the oldest on the base, but still lively and more fit than many thirty years younger. His age commanded respect, but his personality and manner commanded even more, so everyone stopped to listen as he began to speak. He didn't say much.

"They're here."

Erica had never heard more exciting words in her life. Like everyone else, she jumped up and followed him out of the room. Unlike everyone else, she stopped at her bed to get her camera. This was not going to be something to be missed. The crowd was moving slowly, like all crowds do, and Erica danced impatiently.

Word had been spreading of the troops' arrival all day. There had never been this many new people arriving at once before. There were very few people in the civilian part of the camp that Erica hadn't known since birth. And these new people were angels, here to save them.

At least, that was the generally accepted story. Erica herself didn't have quite that much faith. She'd seen too much about people over the last few days to put her faith in anyone so absolutely. Still, their arrival was hope. For everyone.

It took quite a while for the entire camp, nearly a thousand of them, to climb the many levels of narrow winding stairs. Erica hadn't known they were this far below ground. None of them had been to this part of the camp before.

They found themselves in a vast, poorly lit room. Everyone was quiet, waiting. A moment later there was a chink of light and a thunderous grinding noise. Both grew and grew, until it seemed like the wall in front of them was peeling back and coming apart.

They couldn't see much outside, the light was blinding, but Erica was almost sure she caught a distant glimpse of blue before the doors began to close again.

Someone had found the light switch inside, and as the doors shut, the lights flickered on. Across the room, with a wide gap between them, stood a group of people.

Erica didn't know what she'd been expecting, but it wasn't this. Everyone seemed to be thinking the same, and there was a moment while they all reassessed The group looked smaller than she'd thought they'd be. The number one hundred and twenty two sprung into mind. She thought she'd heard it earlier. But there were fewer than that.

Two or three were being supported by others, and one other collapsed. A giant on the end put down what seemed to be a body. And then it occurred to her. They had come to join the fight, but they'd had to get here first.

Sunday 14th October 2029 – 5.42pm

After the disappointment that was supposed to have been their salvation, everyone was in the mood for a good funeral.

Erica was changing beside her bed in the mart. Some of the older ones clung to the idea of privacy and went to the bathroom stalls to change their clothes, but Erica and the younger ones had never known any different. They'd all seen each other naked enough times for it to not matter any-more anyway. Very few things mattered any-more

She put on her best (and only) dress. Well, it wasn't even really her dress, it was one of the ones that had been passed around the mart so often that nobody was entirely sure who it had belonged to originally. Erica absent-mindedly wondered if they were dead. It was a nice dress though, and was usually reserved for weddings and funerals.

Neil came up. He didn't say anything, but he flopped down on her mother's half-made bed and stared at the distant concrete ceiling. He'd lost someone close to him too, but at that moment, Erica did not give a single fuck. And she was pissed. That was her mother's bed.

She slapped him across the face.

He was completely stunned for a moment, then reached out with his leg and kicked her, hard. And then he started to laugh. Erica thought he'd gone nuts. Well, more nuts. And then she joined in.

He sat up, and she plonked down beside him. He put his arm around her and through the giggles, he managed to get out "I only wanted to borrow some toothpaste."

Erica had been starting to regain her composure, but at this she completely lost it. "Didn't you hear?"

He shook his head.

"We're out."

He didn't get it for a moment, but then it clicked. We wasn't just Erica. It wasn't just the people nearby, or just the people in the mart. It wasn't even just the people in this camp. We was the entire human race.

The entire human race was out of toothpaste.

As far as Erica and Neil were concerned this was the funniest thing that had ever happened.

"Oh god," Neil gasped, "maybe it really is the end."