All the news reports had stated that the nanobots were too small to feel or see; part of the terror they wielded was that their threat was invisible, like a horror movie monster that was never revealed on screen.

I didn't see them coming, but I felt them, a slight thickening of the atmosphere. The sunny sky seemed to dim, but it was still bright sunshine all around me. Then, a low vibration in the air, like a silent speaker cranked to maximum volume. No sound, more of a feeling.

A shiver ripped through me, and I watched as the electronic sign on the other side of the carpark advertising half-price AusPuss brand cat food at the Pet Me Superstore blinked off. The traffic lights at the carpark exit flashed yellow three times, then nothing. Several cars collided in the intersection, not fast, but enough to emit a crunching noise that echoed towards me.

One by one, each of the fluorescent shopfront signs flipped off, and people in the carpark shrieked in fear as they realised this was actually happening; it wasn't fake news or a global prank. Some vehicles shuddered to a halt, mostly the late model ones. A man jumped out of his Tesla and kicked its tyres before howling in despair.

I looked down at my phone just in time to see its screen fade to black for the last time. It didn't feel like running out of battery; it felt like watching a friend die. My trembling fingers slid the phone into my pocket, unwilling to just toss it aside after all the time we'd spent together.

All around me, the terrified behaviour of people had escalated, but other than the blackened traffic lights, everything else looked normal. Electricity outside during the day time didn't seem like such a different world. A few hours from now when night fell, it would be a different story.

Hot and sudden tears fell down my cheeks as hunger slapped me fiercely. I wanted a final normal meal, something hot and fatty and familiar. I had no idea what my next meal would even look like, but it probably wouldn't be microwaved.

I wept for the world. And for myself, but since I was part of the world too, I figured that was okay.

Simon ambled back over, a carton of vodka beneath each arm. "You should see it – thought I'd have to punch on to get this lot, but the place cleared out when all those idiots realised they would have to walk home because their precious cars are shot to-"

"Shut up, Simon," I said, not softening the edges of my tone. "The world just ended. Have a little respect."

"The world didn't end. People will keep eating and screwing and shitting and drinking-"

"People are dying, right now." My tears fell faster. I'd never allowed myself to cry in front of my team before, but this was unstoppable, as if the nanobots had broken my emotional tap. "Hospitals will be filled with people dying horribly right now because machines stopped breathing for them, or their pacemaker failed, or the lights went out in the middle of surgery. There will be car accidents that people didn't survive, ships lost at sea filled with people who can't make it back to shore."

Raging at the injustice of it all, I threw my wrath in his direction. "The world just changed forever, and there will be people who starve or drown or bleed out or be killed by other people or kill themselves. Take a goddamn moment and acknowledge it."

He stood over me for a moment, then lowered both of his boxes to the ground and squatted in front of me. "Love, I know all that," he said in a tone so gentle, I didn't recognise his voice for a moment. "But the world won't end. People will keep going. Yep, some of them will die, and that's how it's always been. But not us, not today."

"I just want to take a second." I couldn't hold his stare; my eyes dropped to the open boxes he'd brought, where a bag of pork rinds caught my attention.

With greedy hands, I yanked the package free and ripped it open. I ate the entire bag of salty crunchiness, watching people cry and yell and run, the world indifferent but very much changed.

In the two hours before Nev and Bailey arrived, I snacked and cried while Simon made a few more trips in and out of the bottle shop. Every few minutes, a thought would grip me: I should ask Google that. I wonder if anyone Tweeted about this. I'll call and see. Each time I'd reach for my phone, then remember and berate myself, filled with a new appreciation of what having a phantom limb must feel like.

"OMG we found youse- you guys!" Nev's voice rang over the carpark. She and Bailey crossed towards us, each of them toting two large bags each.

"We went past our apartments and grabbed some stuff," explained Bailey. They dumped a bag at my feet. "That one's worth its weight in gold. Probably more, right now."

Greedily, I dug through the reams of printed paper. It was like the friendly ghost of the internet had come to visit – Google maps screenshots, webpage printouts, PDFs of vital information. "Great job, thanks," I said, rezipping it carefully.

"Our clothes wasn't the only important thing we collected!" Nev shimmied and dug into the fake Louis Vuitton tote on her shoulder. A tiny puff ball appeared and began to yap delightedly.

Groan... I'd kind of hoped we wouldn't have time to collect Bella on our way out of the city; the last thing we needed was a pointless waste of resources – plus I could pretty much guarantee that it would get lost at some stage and require all six of us wandering around a remote bush location yelling 'Here puppy!' like idiots while the damn thing had probably been carried off by an eagle.

Nev nuzzled the dog, oblivious to my lack of enthusiasm. Bailey caught my withering stare, and they grinned at me. "Here, boss, this bag is yours."

They tossed the second bag at me, and I smiled in gratitude. "Awesome, I've been waiting to get changed... Wait..."

I'd expected to find the bag filled with my jeans, track pants, long pyjamas, my everyday underwear. "Guys. What the hell is this?"

"It's your stuff," said Nev, carefully tucking Bella away in the tote.

"Yes, but where's all the stuff I normally wear?" It was as if they'd raided my wardrobe for the clothing I used the least. A sports bra that was way too tight for my current cup size, but I'd kept just in case. My skinny jeans that cut me in half when I wore them. A pair of Lululemon tights I'd bought before realising that even their patented butt-lift material couldn't help me. A lacy nightie my mum had been guilted into buying at an underwear party and sent to me that was still in its plastic packaging. And five thongs.

"Are you kidding me?" My teeth clanked shut in frustration and I hissed through them, "I can't wear any of this!"

As I waved a thong at Nev, her face clouded with confusion. "Why? What's wrong with thongs?"

Nothing, except I look like a pillow with an elastic band around it. Of course Nev wouldn't see a problem with any of her choices; as a size six, she could wear anything. Clothing shopping for a body my size was fraught with difficulty; too tight, too short, too shapeless, too colourful... People her size could wear a belted garbage bag and it would still look fashionable.

Instead, I said, "I don't wear thongs, Nev."

"Then why do you have thongs?"

That was a longer, much sadder story, and rake of her words pulled at the sore skin of everything I'd been trying to heal.

Fury was safer to feel than sorrow, and I let the anger pulse though me. I wanted a direction to send it. A honking VW Kombi van trundled across the carpark towards us and presented the perfect target for my ire. "Who's this clown?"

Bailey laughed. "I believe that's your clown."

Sure enough, Rueben's head poked out the driver's window. "Hey! I found you!"

I wouldn't have said my heart leaped when I saw Rueben, but it definitely rumbled in approval. Over the last few hours I'd been thinking about the group dynamics, and I felt that Rueben would be a good addition. He was quietly authoritative and logical, and god knows we needed more of that.

Everyone rushed forwards. "Cool wheels," said Bailey. They grinned in approval, and asked, "Where's your Audi?"

Rueben twisted the key and the Kombi shuddered to a halt. "The Audi is back at my apartment. This used to belong to my dad. No electrics, so we're still running for now. Sorry it took us a while to get here - the roads were pretty blocked, lots of accidents."

I'd been lurking at the back of the group, but I craned my neck as the passenger door opened. Right. The girlfriend. I wanted to see this Mischa for myself, work out what kind of princess we were stuck with.

She was not what I'd expected. The various surprised noises of my team confirmed they'd been picturing someone different too.

I'd been right about the blonde hair, although it was ringlets and I'd imagined gentle waves. She was slender, very short. No high heels or botox or boob jobs to be seen, which should have been a relief, and yet the sight of this girl filled me with dread.

Because she wasn't a woman, not his girlfriend. She was a child – a literal primary school-aged kid.

"Guys," said Rueben, pulling her to his side, "I'd like you to meet Mischa. My daughter."

"Hi." Her massive blue eyes absorbed us, then she tugged on Rueben's sleeve. "Daddy, can I go in the back now?"

"Sure, sweetheart." He watched her scoot off on rainbow coloured crocs and pull open the big doors at the rear of the van. "She's eight," he said to us. "Her mum's not around; it's just the two of us."

"She's sooo pretty," said Nev, sighing theatrically. I had a feeling that she would get along just fine with someone else just as obsessed with hair braiding and She-Ra and glitter polish as she was.

"Look, I know I didn't mention that Mish is my kid, but I hope it's okay." He didn't meet my eyes, but instead gestured around as if he was addressing a large group of shareholders. "We bike ride every weekend, she's tough and she'd well behaved."

"Um..." I wasn't sure what I was going to say next, but Rueben jumped in again.

"Also I called ahead to an Airbnb in Corrimal – I booked us a house on the beach, which is on our way out of town. It'll be dark in a few hours so not a great time to start a big ride, but we can chuck all the stuff into the Kombi and sort it out when we get there. We'll all be safe, get a decent night's sleep, then jump on the bikes tomorrow."

My team looked over at me, and I could feel their waves of pressure to take the offer of the van and the house. "Well, I'd have to be a total bitch to leave a man and his daughter by the side of the road to fend for themselves," I said tightly. "And this was definitely your best choice, springing this on me and trying to smooth it over with bribery." I was going to curb my sarcasm, but my mouth had other plans.

Nev, oblivious, said, "Great! All sorted."

"If we've got a van, I reckon I can fit an extra case of grog in," said Simon, ambling back towards the bottle shop.

Bailey eyebrow-shrugged at me. "I'll start loading."

Rueben and I were left alone. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I told you, I'm not great in a crisis. I just want her to be safe, and I think this - your plan, you guys – that's my best shot at doing that."

"It's fine." It wasn't, but the sun was already starting to slide lower and I was smart enough to realise the van and the house were a good idea. I wasn't so petty to put myself or the others in danger just because I was pissed off.

I wasn't sure why I was so angry though. Normally I could trace the source of my frustration to something logical; PMS, self-pity, ruined expectations, etc. But none of that applied here. Our lives for the foreseeable future were already a shit-show; having a kid along for the ride didn't make anything worse at this stage.

Trust. That was why. I'd known Rueben for all of an hour and I'd trusted that he spoke with integrity, then he'd deliberately misled me. It wasn't the first time I'd automatically assumed someone must be honest because I liked the way they looked.

Plus I'd spent time with my stupid brother's kids; they were all demanding brats with short attention spans. I already had enough crazy to deal with, between the alcoholic, a non-binary person with clinical depression, and Nev's obsession with her appearance. Oh, and the dog.

Feeling tired down to my bones, and hungry, always hungry, I gave Rueben a tight smile. "Let's just get this rust bucket loaded. It's time to get on the road."