Rosie didn’t like driving unlit desert roads after dark and, while Harry offered to take her to the hospital, they decided it was best to stick together until morning. Rather than spend the night alone, Rosie stayed in Charlie and Harry’s spare bedroom.

Charlie sat by Ed’s bedside until he fell asleep. Harry was frazzled and crashed straight away, but Charlie wasn’t so lucky, staring at the ceiling, wide eyed and hearing everything at once: a police drone buzzing the house, the air-con, Harry’s rattling chest and the tick of the vintage Mickey Mouse alarm clock he’d bought for her nineteenth birthday.

Money was Charlie’s big worry. Many businesses had gone bust after Killer-T. The ones that survived had cut back on advertising, so Harry only earned a fraction of what he used to from Vegas Local. Modding work paid well, but the risks of a long prison sentence or a shakedown were real.

They’d been doing OK the past few months, but Charlie had promised money to Juno, their cars were on their last legs, there were medical bills, expensive jobs that needed doing on the house and now they’d agreed to pay for private security patrols in case the zombies came back.

Charlie and Harry had made a plan: become self-sufficient in food and energy, build a healthy financial nest egg, then quit the risky modding business. But that dream seemed further off than ever.

64 CARDBOARD THE PIG

‘Boys and their toys,’ Rosie smiled.

It was just after 8 a.m. She was behind the wheel of Vern’s big Jeep as Charlie climbed in the passenger seat. Harry, Ed and a few neighbours from up the hill stood on a patch of relatively flat land inspecting a pair of security drones, and testing out the walkie-talkies they’d been given by just-arrived security guards, with a thuggish air and machine guns slung across their chests.

‘I hope these creepy guards aren’t around for too long,’ Charlie said, buckling her safety belt as Rosie drove off.

‘They can’t be,’ Rosie said. ‘Unless they start accepting payment in green beans and milk.’

Down by the gate, the cops were loading their drones on to a trailer. As the Jeep reached the highway, they saw a phone-company crew repairing the cables, and Rosie lowered her window and introduced herself to a third security guard, who had waves of curly red hair coming out the back of her combat helmet.

Vern had spent the night at Clover Medical Center in North Vegas. The hospital operated permanent quarantine and only allowed one visitor for short-stay patients. While Rosie took a chemical shower and garbed up like an astronaut, Charlie told her to give Vern her love and grabbed a taxi off the hospital rank.

The coffee shop below Charlie’s office was super busy, with most tables in use and a dozen cars queuing at the drive-thru window.