Mass Extinction Event: The Complete Fourth Series (Days 54 to 61) by Amy Cross

Henry laughs. “And he said I'm an idiot!”
    “I was just pointing out that she can't see the truth,” Henry continues. “It's so easy to fool her.”
    “That's enough from both of you,” my father says. “Lizzie, it's time to wake up.”
    “What do you mean?” I ask with a frown. Glancing toward the window, I realize I can hear a strange kind of whooshing sound.
    “Lizzie,” my father continues, “wake up, we're here.” He pauses for a moment, as if he's waiting for me to say or do something. “Lizzie,” he says again, with his voice suddenly sounding much closer and slightly rougher, “check out the view. We're here. We've reached Boston.”
    Blinking a couple of times, I suddenly realize that everything around me is starting to shimmer, as if light is breaking through cracks in the walls. A moment later, I turn my head and see that my father is sitting right next to me in the helicopter. Figuring that I must have been dreaming, I sit bolt upright as the noise from the spinning rotor fills my ears, and finally I look out the window and see that night has fallen, with just a few lights burning in the darkness below.
    “Where are we?” I ask, still feeling as if I'm half-asleep. “What... I don't...”
    “Where do you think we are? Boston.”
    Feeling the helicopter lurch for a moment, I realize that we're starting to descend.
    “Where?” I ask, still looking for all the lights that should mark the city. It takes a moment before I remember that everything has changed, and finally I realize that the only lights come from a few fires that are burning on rooftops, one of which we're slowly heading toward. It almost feels as if we're slowly descending into one of the layers of hell.
    “I thought it was better to let you sleep,” my father continues, leaning closer so I can hear him properly above the sound of the rotor. “You must still be exhausted after everything that's happened and, well, there's not going to be much time to rest over the next few days either. Things are going to be pretty full-on.” He puts a hand on my shoulder. “Welcome back to civilization, Lizzie, or at least to the best approximation we can manage. I know it's not perfect right now, but we're making real progress every day. Soon, we'll be back at the stage where we can focus on moving forward, instead of just fighting to survive, and that's what sets us apart from common animals.”
    I watch as we get closer and closer to a small bonfire on one of the rooftops, and finally the helicopter lands with a gentle bump. As the blades start to wind down, I spot movement near the bonfire, and I tense for a moment before realizing that maybe I don't need to be quite so scared anymore. More than a month after I walked out of New York, I'm back in a major city, and it's almost as if the real world is slowly coming back to life.
    “There are no more of those creatures, are there?” I ask, turning to my father. “They're all gone, right?”
    “Maybe not all of them,” he replies, “but I can guarantee that there are none in this city. We've secured the perimeter and nothing gets in or out without special clearance. It makes life difficult sometimes, but we figure the best approach is to batten down the hatches and focus on survival. Charity can come later.”
    With the blades coming to a halt now, a couple of figures hurry toward the helicopter and one of them slides the door open.
    “Charles!” my father says, taking off his headset. “I want you to meet my daughter, Elizabeth Marter!”
    “Welcome to Boston,” the guy says, grinning as he reaches out to shake my hand.
    “Charles is in charge of accommodation,” my father explains, taking my headset away. “Among other things, anyway. It's his job to ensure that everyone has somewhere safe, warm and dry to sleep.”
    “In other words,” Charles continues, unbuckling my straps and then reaching up to help me down, “I fix leaks and kill rats. It's not exactly glamorous