As the World Falls Down

by Katy Nicholas

  She turned up less than ten minutes later, with her boyfriend, in his transit van. She slid out of the vehicle before it had even stopped moving, throwing her arms around me the second she reached the alley.

  “What the hell happened?”

  I couldn’t bring myself to tell Lizzie the truth. “He—he hit me.”

  She hissed through gritted teeth. “Again?”

  Unable to look her in the eye, I just turned away and nodded.

  Lizzie took me back to her place and asked her parents if I could stay with them for a few weeks. She’d told them Andrew had kicked me out of the flat—it was another one of those stories that fell off the tongue easier than the truth.

  Her parents didn’t seem too surprised, having already heard all about Andrew from Lizzie.

  That night, he called my phone a couple of times but didn’t come looking for me, although he knew where Lizzie lived.

  He clearly expected that, like my mother, I’d come back, and we’d carry on as if nothing had ever happened. But I’d never forget. As much as I tried to scrub and scour him away, Andrew lingered constantly in the back of my mind.

  I knew then that I needed to be as far away from him as possible, so I took up Rebecca’s offer to live with her. She picked me up a few days after my eighteenth birthday but didn't ask what Andrew had done to make me run away, not that I’d tell her the truth either.

  Saying goodbye to Lizzie was hard, but she promised to visit me soon.

  Once I got settled into my aunt’s little cottage, I felt an enormous sense of relief, enough to convince me I’d made the right decision to leave it all behind.

  I thought I’d never have to see Andrew again, but I was wrong. There’d be one last time.

  Chapter Five

  After…

  That night, my sleep was sound and dreamless. I heard Nate get up a little after dawn, but I lingered in bed awhile longer. Wrapped comfortably in a soft quilt, I dozed until the smell of fried eggs wafted into my room. I dressed quickly and used the bathroom before following my nose.

  In the kitchen, Nate was busy making a banquet for breakfast: eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, and potato hash. My stomach growled longingly in response.

  “Smells amazing,” I said, announcing my arrival as I didn’t think he’d heard me come in.

  He flipped an egg. “Sleep well?”

  I nodded. “Very well.” I actually couldn’t remember the last time I’d had such a decent night’s sleep.

  He smiled broadly. For the first time, there was no tinge of sadness behind it. He looked much better today too. A healthy pinkish tone had returned to his cheeks, and his eyes were brighter. He really was incredibly attractive, and the thought instantly made me blush.

  “You need a hand?”

  He shook his head. “No, go sit outside, and I’ll bring it out when it’s ready.”

  “Outside?”

  “You’ll see,” Nate grinned.

  I did as instructed.

  On the beach, he’d set up a small plastic table and chairs, and a parasol. An assortment of condiments and a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice had already been placed on the table. I poured myself a small glass and sat down, feeling the heat of the rising sun on my back. It would be another hot day.

  It wasn’t long before Nate appeared with our breakfast.

  “I could get used to this,” I told him as I started eating.

  He chuckled. “Sometimes it’s nice to pretend the world didn’t end, right?”

  Right here, right now, it was very easy to pretend.

  Something had changed in him since yesterday, as if the dark cloud hanging over his head had lifted a little. The conversation flowed effortlessly, and it was almost like a bubble had formed around us that the outside world couldn’t penetrate. It’d been only Rebecca and me for so long that sitting next to Nate felt surreal, and almost like the apocalypse had never happened. Almost.

  After finishing breakfast, we sat back and basked in the heat, watching the tide go out as the sun climbed the cloudless sky.

  “Can I show you something?” Nate asked suddenly.

  I cocked my head and frowned. “What?”

  “It’s about an hour’s walk from here,” he replied.

  The thought of more walking didn’t exactly fill me with joy, but I was intrigued. Before we set off, Nate grabbed several bottles of water from a shelf inside one of the outbuildings and dropped them into a small backpack.

  We ended up walking to the other side of the cove, where the sand was littered with large boulders. Thankfully, the beach here was partly shaded by the cliffs above. We chatted as we walked, Nate doing most of the talking this time. He told me how his parents had sold their big house in London so he could study to be a doctor without accumulating a mass of student debt. His parents, meanwhile, had purchased the land at ‘Siren Bay’ so they could finally follow their dream of living self-sufficient by the sea, renting caravans to holidaymakers for an income.

  The talk was light at first, but eventually, the subject of the apocalypse inevitably resurfaced.

  “I’d been working in a hospital in Bristol when people started getting sick. It was chaos,” he said. “I got infected about six weeks after the outbreak, but I survived. I knew it was unusual. We’d admitted thousands of people with the virus and only one person survived. No one else made it.”

  He clenched his jaw and cast his glance toward the ocean. “The army burned all the bodies in a park nearby.”

  After his last revelation, the mood changed to a more somber one.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence.

  The beach slowly became rockier the further we went, and I had to find sandy patches to step onto to avoid sharp stones. When a sharp pebble dug into my heel, I uttered a few mild curse words, lamenting my choice to go without shoes.

  Nate finally slowed and stopped when we reached a sea-groin. The walk made me a little breathless, and I panted rapidly until my pulse steadied, downing an entire bottle of water as soon as Nate handed it to me. After making sure I was suitably refreshed, he bent down to a cluster of boulders and motioned for me to come over. Dodging a crab carcass, I knelt beside him.

  The stones were covered in hundreds of iridescent spirals. He brushed some moss from one of the larger spirals and took my hand, guiding it over the surface of the structure. I felt a little crackle of static once more as his skin touched mine—odd since there were no looming storm clouds to blame this time.

  My fingers traced around the features of the helicoid. “What are they?”

  Nate released my hand. “Ammonites.”

  I examined the swirls, astonished by the spectral color show each one displayed.

  “Beautiful,” I said, under my breath, quite fixated on the rocks.

  “They’ve been here for about sixty-five-million years,” he added, his expression dejected. “I come here to remind myself that life was here before us, and it’ll be here again after.”

  “We’re not done for yet, Nate.” Given the bleakness of our current situation, it was all I could think of to say. And I did truly believe it.

  Nate gave me a smile and a spark reignited in his dark eyes. “I hope you’re right.”

  I sighed. “So do I.”

  For the rest of the day, we explored the coastline. Nate lit a fire late afternoon and cooked up a shoal of sprats he’d discovered trapped in a rock pool. They didn’t look particularly appetizing, but they were palatable. It often surprised me what hunger motivated me to eat nowadays that I wouldn’t have touched pre-apocalypse.

  As the sun began to set, we started back to the cabin. I walked in the sea, my sore feet soothed by the cool water. Nate rolled up the hem of his jeans and did the same.

  The motion of the tide made it difficult to walk in a straight line, and I unintentionally waded in deeper as we ambled along. Losing sight of the bottom, my foot caught on a clump of seaweed that hooked itself around my right ankle and caused me to stumble for
ward. I swore as Nate lunged to catch me, but he missed, and my body ended up completely submerged. As I lifted my head out of the water, coughing and spluttering, I noticed the bemused smirk on Nate’s face and shot him a fierce glare.

  He simply laughed. “Are you okay?”

  I shivered. “No. It’s bloody freezing!”

  He snorted, biting back the smile on his lips as he lifted me out the water, leaving him soaked to the waist.

  My teeth chattered. “Thanks.”

  Once back inside the cabin, I hurried to the bathroom to remove my wet clothes and dry off. Wrapping a towel around my body, I peeked my head out of the door.

  “Um, Nate?”

  He’d gone straight to his room to change.

  “Yeh?” he replied from the other side of his bedroom door.

  “I don’t have any clean clothes left. Do you have something I could borrow?”

  There was a pause before he answered me. “Sure.”

  I heard him opening and closing a few drawers before his bedroom door opened and he handed me one of his t-shirts.

  “We can do some laundry tomorrow,” he said and then headed back down the hall to the kitchen.

  As I pulled the t-shirt on over my head and smoothed it down, I realized just how short it was. While baggy on me, the seam barely reached my mid-thighs. Nervously yanking on the back hem, I shuffled reluctantly down the hall and into the kitchen.

  “Don’t you have anything of your mum’s?”

  “Not anymore—” Nate stopped abruptly when he saw me. After gawking for a few seconds, he quickly dodged behind one of the kitchen counters.

  “Wine?” he stammered, reaching up into one of the cupboards.

  I made sure the t-shirt was tucked in firmly under my thighs as I slid onto one of the stools. “Everything all right?”

  He shifted uncomfortably. “Yes. It’s just been a really long time since a beautiful woman has worn one of my t-shirts.”

  My cheeks grew hot, and I let out a nervous laugh. “Beautiful? It has been a long time.”

  His expression grew serious. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

  “No, it’s fine,” I muttered, swallowing down my embarrassment with a painful gulp. “Thank you.”

  No one had ever told me I was beautiful before—except for Lizzie, but that didn’t count—and it gave me a little buzz to hear Nate say it.

  He poured us both a large glass of red wine without so much as a glance in my direction. After quickly downing his, and then one more, he finally looked at me. “Do you mind if we play a game?”

  “What game?”

  “Monopoly,” he grinned. “It’s no fun on your own.”

  Inwardly, I groaned. My aunt and I played board games most nights to stave off the tedium of the apocalypse. It’d soon become more of a chore rather than an enjoyable pastime. However, since Nate hadn’t been afforded such opportunities, it was only right I indulge him. Plus, the idea of a new opponent to crush with my superior skills filled me with a rush of maniacal glee.

  “Sure. But you should know, I show no mercy.”

  Nate narrowed his eyes and set his jaw. “Neither do I.”

  He set up the game on the table in the sitting room, and we played it for several hours before he conceded he was losing.

  “You should’ve bought Mayfair when you had the chance,” I snickered, feeling a little lightheaded from consuming my third—maybe fourth—glass of wine rather too quickly. I took the last of his cash with a villainous squeal of laughter.

  He grunted in mock anger when I waved the paper money under his nose in a show of taunting smugness.

  “I used to be better at this,” he said. “My mum used to make us play this game every bloody Christmas. I hated it, but I always won.”

  “Then why did you want to play?” I asked him, slurring my words.

  He shrugged. “I missed it. Isn’t that stupid?”

  “No. Not at all,” I replied, throwing my dice haphazardly across the table. They rolled over the board and dropped onto the floor.

  “Oops.” I briefly forgot how short the t-shirt was as I leaned over to retrieve the dice. Thankfully, when I sat back upright, I saw Nate had averted his eyes. After lobbing the dice again, my index finger pushed the little pewter ship on six spaces.

  “You know what I miss? I miss being able to look up pointless crap on the internet,” I muttered as the room began to spin. “Your turn.”

  Nate chuckled at me. He threw the dice and then hissed when it landed on one of my properties. “Guess I’d better strip my assets, then.”

  “Promises, promises,” I teased, instantly wishing I hadn’t said it. What the hell was I thinking?

  Nate raised his eyebrows and hid a smirk, but he didn’t respond. When I reached out for my wine glass again, he moved it away to the end of the table and gave me a wry smile. “I think you’ve had enough to drink.”

  I waved a finger at him. “Don’t tell me what to do!”

  He shook his head, holding his hands up. “Just a suggestion, is all.”

  As I leaned to retrieve my drink, I yawned and slumped back, dizzily. “Okay, you’re right. I should go to bed.”

  “Agreed.”

  Awkwardly, I clamored to my feet but immediately swayed unsteadily as the room spun away from me. Nate stood quickly and propped me up against his hip. As he half-carried, half-dragged me down the hall to my room, I giggled uncontrollably.

  “I think I’ve had a little bit too much to drink, Nate.”

  “No, shit.”

  When he finally managed to maneuver me over to the bed, he plonked me down at the foot end and then pushed me onto my back. When his hands went around my waist, a surge of panic twisted in my chest.

  No.

  I flinched and kicked out, my heel slamming hard into his shin. “Get off of me!”

  He quickly released me and stepped back. I scrabbled backward until my head cracked against the wooden bedstead, leaving me dazed.

  “Halley!” Nate moved toward me again, his hands going straight to the throbbing bump just above my ear. “Stay still,” he barked after I flinched again. His fingertips brushed gently over the bruised area, and then he looked closely into each one of my eyes. “You’ll be okay. I think.”

  Before I could respond, he quickly lifted my legs and pulled the quilt out from beneath my rump. He then covered my body with it, gently tucking the edges in under the mattress.

  I blinked wildly until my vision cleared enough to see the distressed expression on his face. I’d massively misjudged his intentions.

  “S—sorry,” I mumbled. “I thought you were going to—”

  He cut me off. “I would never do that.” His tone was more hurt than angry. “Goodnight, Halley.”

  With that, he left the room, firmly closing the door behind him.

  ****

  Early the next morning, I awoke to hear Nate clanking pans about in the kitchen. Mortified by my behavior, I considered hiding in my room, but eventually plucked up the courage to face him. Slinking down the hall, I stopped and lingered gingerly in the kitchen doorway.

  He turned to me and smiled. “Morning. How’s your head?”

  “Fine. How’s your leg?” I asked, gesturing to where I’d kicked him.

  He faked a limp as he crossed the kitchen to fry some eggs. “Fine.”

  I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “I’m really sorry. I made such an idiot of myself when you were only trying to help.”

  He shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking straight, either. You don’t have to apologize, Halley. You barely know me—your reaction was understandable.”

  Now I felt even worse. This was Andrew’s fault and nothing to do with Nate.

  I shook my head. “I know you’d never take advantage like that.”

  He shot me a stern look as he flipped an egg onto a plate already loaded with fried tomatoes and courgette slices sprinkled with herbs. My nose detected the aromatic scent of Thyme an
d Basil as it wafted over to me.

  “I wouldn’t,” he said, handing me my breakfast. “You’re safe, I promise.”

  Exhaling heavily, I smiled and thanked him for the food. It did seem like he genuinely wasn’t bothered about me assaulting him, but it didn’t stop me feeling guilty.

  Having fallen behind on a list of mounting chores, he ate quickly and then headed out back after giving me a bucket of soapy water to wash my dirty clothes in. I offered to do his laundry too, but he declined, saying he’d do it later. When everything was clean and hung out to dry, I joined him in the garden to see if I could do anything to help.

  “You can feed the chickens if you want.”

  Happy to assist, I poured fresh food into their feeders and refilled their water dispensers. It didn’t take very long though, and I was soon twiddling my thumbs, unable to do much else wearing only a t-shirt. As soon as I had a pair of shorts dry enough to wear, I set about giving the coup and enclosure a good wash down and spruce—something I’d often done for my aunt’s chickens at home. As I scrubbed the concrete section of their run, I spoke to them, asking the curious hens to move whenever they ventured too close and got in the way. Nate chuckled at me from time to time as he busied himself in the vegetable garden, pulling up potatoes and carrots from their rooted spots in the dirt.

  I felt quite at home here in this little surreal pocket of heaven by the sea. But, what about Rebecca? I’d have to go home soon. What then? Why couldn’t she have just come with me as I’d asked? She chose to stay behind. So why did I feel so guilty? It wasn’t like I was going to stay here forever, although I easily could: hot showers, electricity, the beach. And Nate. There was nowhere else I wanted to be right now, and I certainly didn’t want to think about leaving.

  “We have a few chickens at home,” I told him. “I called them Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney.”

  He laughed.

  “I felt bad when we ate Khloe,” I snickered.

  He wiped at the sweat running down his face and then came to lean on the chicken enclosure. “Why didn’t your aunt come with you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. She tried looking for people, to begin with, but it got harder to go further from home when the car stopped running.”