One of the unknown men approached their group and herded them to the second car. The back panel sat open and Romy took the lead, pulling herself into the vehicle.

The interior was pristine. The seats were black. It was . . . confined. Hoping she hadn’t made the biggest mistake of her life, Romy moved into the farthest seat. She sighed at the reprieve from the beating rain. Not that sitting in her soaked clothing was comfortable, either.

“What is this?” breathed Elara.

Thrym and Phobos stared in awe as they took their seats in the back cabin. “An automobile,” Romy answered calmly.

The armed man snorted. “It’s the best carbon-neutral ranger there is, sweetheart.”

“It’s electric?” Romy asked, surprised.

The man burst out laughing. “Electric?” he scoffed. “I think my great-gran had one of those.”

Phobos hummed in disbelief as the man left, slamming the back door, causing the entire craft to shake almost as much her insides.

“That’s impossible.” He faced Romy, water dripping from his shoulder-length blond hair. “Isn’t it?”

The others waited, staring at her. Out of all of them, she knew the most about Earth. Carbon-neutral economies and technology had held her interest for several years. The carbon-neutral campaign had gained wide popularity in the 2020s. If the campaign had commenced a single decade earlier, maybe Earth could have survived. Romy slowly nodded. A carbon-neutral way of travelling was possible.

But if the vehicle wasn’t electric. . . .

What fooled the world into a false sense of security was the twenty-five-year delay between what they were doing, and the effect it had on Earth.

The humans saw all the pollution, but couldn’t see immediate consequences. It made ignoring the problem too easy. Unfortunately, when it became clear that the end of the world was approaching, all funding was pulled from carbon-neutral and pushed into nanotechnology and The Retreat.

The last available cars had been electric. If research had ground to a halt in 2040 like she was always led to believe, and Earth-dwelling humans had perished by 2060 . . . then how the hell, a century and a half later, was there better technology?

A sick feeling had churned inside her since Atlas barged into the shelter with the other men.

Romy wanted to scream. But she couldn’t because her knot was currently watching her. They only remained calm because they thought she knew what was happening.

Romy had to keep it together.

“It has to be powered from nuclear fusion.” She shrugged as if it were no big deal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Thrym’s face twisted. “Was that around before The Retreat?”

“Yes.” She didn’t add the fact it had only been used in military transportations, such as submarines. Or that nuclear reactors small enough to power a car, while not killing the driver with radiation, had been at least another decade from perfection. Even then it would have had to go through rigorous testing before public use.