All the time of the world

“We have all the time in the world,” Jamie grinned. “No worries.”

Allie rolled her eyes, then turned to watch the ash settle on the car. “You mean, all the time that this world has left, right?”

The sun had turned red days ago, not long after the ash had started falling from the sky, choking the air and whatever plants had been left to harvest. Somehow, the giant volcanic eruption, bigger than Krakatoa, Vesuvius and Mt St Helens combined, had exploded without any warning from the scientific community. If they were to be believed, it had caught them completely off guard. The immediate tragedy had been the Pacific islander nation that had been wiped from existence. The amount of ash in the sky from the explosion would have caused enough problems, but it didn’t stop. It just kept coming, blocking out the sun, choking anything living. The so-called “experts” were predicting less than a week before the ash would make the air too thick for even the healthiest lungs to breathe. They refused to estimate how long the current supplies of food and clean water would last.

Allie thought back to the disaster movie about the end of the world that she’d watched in high school. That was about some kind of nuclear disaster, not a volcano, but the sense of inevitability was the same as what she was feeling right now. She’d given up watching the news. It was all speculation, scientific mumbo-jumbo, and people ranging from complete “what’s the point” apathy through to “nothing’s going to matter in a week” stupid and crazy behaviour.

She turned back to Jamie, who was still grinning ridiculously at her. He always did think his own jokes were funnier than they really were. “Come on. I’d rather get this done before I stop being able to breathe.”

Jamie put the key in the ignition and started driving. Technically, they’d all been asked not to drive unless they had to, but Jamie and Allie had decided that their one little car was going to do precisely zip about the situation, so they were going to drive anyway. They drove towards the mountains, seeing few other cars moving. Most people were probably staying at home. Jamie wove around a few cars left in the middle of the road, the owners likely driving them until they ran out of fuel, then abandoning them. Why refuel when the world would likely end before you could use it all, especially if you weren’t meant to be driving in the first place?

The car made it halfway up the mountain before it, too, ran out of fuel. The engine sputtered, jolting forward in what felt like a final, desperate attempt to reach the summit before it died completely. Jamie engaged the brake as the car started to roll back down the mountain, then attempted to restart the engine. Nothing. He turned to Allie and wiggled his eyebrows. “I guess we’re hoofing it from here.”

Allie just shrugged. “At least we’re close.” She pointed a little further up the road, where the sign for the turnoff was barely visible through the ash. Taking a deep breath in the relatively clean air inside the car, she pushed the door open and wandered towards the sign. She brushed the ash off, revealing the green background and white LOOKOUT hidden beneath.

Jamie watched Allie clearing the sign with a little amusement and a lot of affection. The sign would probably be covered again in less than a minute, but she cared anyway. That was why he was up here, with her on this mountain, instead of sitting at home watching some dumb show that he would forget five minutes after it was finished. He would have succumbed to inertia. She still cared, still tried to fix things, to help. He opened the boot of the car, pulling out the picnic basket and large, flat bag that he had hidden there.

Allie jumped as he slammed the boot shut, turning to face him. Her eyes lit up as she noticed the items he was carrying. Jamie moved towards her, his smile a beacon in his ash-stained face. She took the basket from him and set it on a stump, her hands moving to undo the latch. “What’s in here?”

Jamie put his hand on the top of the basket, smiling even wider. “It’s a surprise for when we get there. We have plenty of time, don’t worry.”

Allie looked at him, putting on the pleading face that had allowed her to get her own way plenty of times. Jamie chuckled. “Not this time, sweetheart. There’s a reason, I promise. And you don’t get to find out what’s in this bag either.”

Ali’s face changed to her mock-pouty face before she burst out laughing. It ended with a cough, as she caught a mouthful of ash. Jamie took her hand and they started along the trail. They picked their way along, helping each other through the places where the ash had gathered deeper, watching to make sure they didn’t lose their way along the trail that had disappeared completely at times.

Finally, after losing the trail briefly, they broke through the last gum trees and bushes to find a cliff ahead of them. Allie moved towards the bench to wipe off the ash, but Jamie stopped her. “Now you get to find out what’s in the bag.”

He unzipped the bag, pulling the cover off a pop-up beach shelter. He placed it as close to the cliff edge as he dared, unzipped the door and bowed, gesturing to the shelter. “My lady.”

Allie snorted and entered the shelter, pushing the picnic basket into the shelter ahead of her. Jamie followed, zipping the gauze door shut behind them. Allie looked at him and smiled. “Clever,” she said. “Keeping the ash off while still being able to look at the view. Nice. So when do I find out what’s in the basket?”

Jamie turned the basket and flipped the lid so that it landed away from them. “Right now.”

Allie peered into the basket to discover a complete roast chicken dinner with Red Rooster packaging. She looked up at Jamie in confusion. “How in the world did you manage to score this? I would have thought that they would have sold out days ago.”

“They did. But, lucky for you, I didn’t think to check the freezer in the garage until yesterday. I had a bunch of stuff for a roast chicken dinner in there. Plus, a mate of mine is – or was, I guess – the manager at the Red Rooster down the road. I called him up and asked if he’d do me a favour. Funny, he had nothing else to do, so he agreed to cook it all up for me the way that Red Rooster does it, just so you could have your favourite meal one last time.”

Allie stared at him, mouth open. She leaned over and kissed him, then settled back and started organising the food. “I love that you managed to pull this off. But if you hadn’t –” she shrugged as some of the ash began to filter through the shelter. “It wouldn’t have been the end of the world.”