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‘Surely that should have been –’
    â€˜No,’ said Montag. ‘You’re not. And you’re not nine weeks pregnant either.’
    â€˜But you told me –’
    â€˜Samara, my estimates were based on normal rates of prenatal growth. But that’s not what’s happening here. Your baby is developing at remarkable speed. Somewhere between two and three times as fast as a normal pregnancy. You may actually have been carrying this child for as few as six weeks.’
    â€˜Six weeks …’ Mum repeated.
    Which means she didn’t get pregnant until after we got here, I realised.
    â€˜You’re serious,’ said Dad, shaking his head at the doc. ‘You’re actually – How? How is this happening?’
    â€˜I’m doing all I can to find out,’ said Montag. ‘But this situation is completely unprecedented.’
    The room went quiet again.
    Mum’s hands moved to her stomach, like she was trying to shield the baby from what the doc was telling her. Or maybe she was just searching for something solid and real in the middle of all of this insanity.
    â€˜What now?’ said Dad eventually.
    â€˜Well,’ said Montag, ‘based on the current rate of growth, I’d say you’ve got no more than nine weeks before your baby reaches full term, which would put your due date somewhere in the vicinity of –’ He broke off, eyes flickering in my direction for just a fraction of a second. ‘– somewhere in the vicinity of August 13.’
    Mum and Dad just nodded, completely missing the weight of what Montag had just said.
    August 13.
    Day Zero.
    This baby was going to arrive just in time for the end of the world.

Chapter 6

    M ONDAY , J UNE 15
59 DAYS
    I found Luke on the way into school the next day and filled him in on my impossible weekend. He listened to the whole thing without interrupting, although that may have been because he was too weirded out to speak.
    After ten minutes of talking, I looked up to find myself standing at the bike racks outside the front office. I’d hardly even noticed where I’d been walking. We chained up our bikes and wandered out to the quad.
    Luke leant back against the wall of the industrial arts block. ‘Jordan, this is … insane. If you told all this to Peter, he’d say you were –’
    â€˜Yeah,’ I said. ‘That’s why I’m talking to you about it.’
    Luke pursed his lips and my heart sank. If he didn’t buy it either …
    â€˜Not that I don’t believe you,’ he said quickly, catching the look on my face. ‘I mean, after everything else that’s happened here … But this is –’
    â€˜Ridiculous,’ I finished. ‘Even for us. Yeah. I know.’
    Luke craned his neck, staring out behind me.
    â€˜What are you doing?’ I asked.
    â€˜Nothing. I just – If Peter sees us hanging out like this …’
    I rolled my eyes, sick of tiptoeing around Peter’s stupid suspicions. ‘Let him see,’ I said. ‘It’s not like we’re even doing anything.’
    â€˜Yeah, I know. I just don’t want him to –’
    â€˜Don’t want me to what? ’ snapped a voice from around the corner.
    Luke flinched, face turning red.
    Peter wheeled around the side of the building. I got the feeling he’d been waiting back there for a while now, choosing his moment to strike.
    â€˜Nothing,’ said Luke again. ‘I didn’t mean –’
    â€˜No, come on mate,’ said Peter, storming over. ‘Tell me. What’s gonna happen if I see you guys together? Huh? What am I going to do?’
    â€˜Well, I was going to say react badly,’ said Luke, recovering himself a bit, ‘but since you’re being so calm about it all, I guess I was –’
    He broke off as Peter took hold of his shirt.
    â€˜Oi!’ I said. ‘Pete, c’mon.’
    But I