Toby and his father were two of the survivors of what they now called ‘The Last Day’. It was the day an asteroid hit the moon and, subsequently, threw the Earth in to chaos. The tides were the first things to be effected, followed by the tectonic plates, leading to a mass eruption event. All active volcanoes across the globe erupted almost simultaneously. They thought everyone would die and almost everyone did.

Toby’s father had been in the military and managed to access one of their underground vaults; much to his superiors’ displeasure. Toby Sr showed up past their perimeter with twelve brothers, and sisters, in arms, 30 odd civilians and his son. Once the group had made their way in there was nothing the soldier’s superiors could do but watch. In the end it turned out that the superiors would have died within 24 hours of the vault being sealed.

There was a problem with the air filtration system which meant that they needed to fix it stat or they would all be dead by the following sunset. If there even was a sunset anymore. Thankfully, Toby’s father’s best friend, Ryan was a military engineer and another two of the civilians, another father-son duo, were both engineers as well. They got right on the repairs as Toby’s father helped get everyone set up in the large space.

He kept Toby against his side as he delegated to those around him; simply ignoring the superiors who would scoff at him giving them directions. Toby soon fell asleep; his head lolling against his father’s neck.

The next thing Toby knew he woke up in a small cot-like bed curled up in a pile of blankets. He startled at an unexpected noise behind him and turned to find Ryan digging through a rucksack.

“Uncle Ryan,” he said rubbing sleep from him eyes, “what’s going on?”

Ryan turned at the soft sound of his voice. “Hey, bud,” he looked Toby over worriedly, “you’ve been sleeping like the dead for the past ten hours.” Ryan didn’t know much about toddlers but he was sure they didn’t normally sleep for such long intervals.

Toby looked down at the cot and back at Ryan. “Where’s daddy?” he asked.

Ryan looked to the door of the room they were in. Toby hadn’t even noticed the room before.

“He’s just trying to help everyone get settled,” Ryan replied, “and then he’ll be back.” Ryan scrubbed his hand down over his eyes and face. “Even he needs to sleep sometimes, surely.”

Toby giggled. He remembered his mum used to say the same exact thing bu- Toby looked at Ryan with big round eyes. “Where’s mummy?” he asked his voice shaking.

Ryan took one look at him and stepped forward to bring him into a hug. “Your mummy’s at home, Toby,” he said.

“Will we be going home soon?” Toby asked.

Ryan looked like he had aged 10 years in 10 seconds. “Unfortunately not.”

“Will mummy be coming here?”

This time Ryan couldn’t bring himself to answer and he held Toby to his chest. Toby started crying quietly. Ryan wasn’t sure if he’d remembered what had happened or just realised what his mother not being there meant; either way it broke his heart to see Toby like this. He vowed then to help his best friend bring light back into his little boy’s life.