Zac, Zara and Zombies

Part 5

Minna

“Bring me home a fresh ‘roo,” I murmured around kisses. “And some zamia nuts, so I can soak them for tomorrow.”

Anuar had one hand up my shirt and the other on my bum. Kissing him goodbye in the morning was always a challenge. If I wasn’t careful, he’d have me back in bed in a flash and we’d both be late for work. But if we went for the kitchen table…he lifted my bottom so I was perched on the edge of it…

“MUM!” Zac howled.

“Dad!” Zara whined.

Ah. Late for school, too.

My husband of ten years picked up his helmet as I buttoned my shirt up again and slid off the table. He winked at me. “Be good at school, kids!”

I watched him pedal off on his bike to the farm he supervised. We had a better house and more to eat than most, but we worked hard for what we had. It was little enough, after all. All you need is love, I thought to myself, and...

I felt the blush burn my cheeks, but I tried to cool it to talk to my kids. “Are you both ready? We’ll be leaving in five minutes and if you’re not ready you can walk to school. A government car is a privilege.”

Zara gave an exasperated sigh. I itched to slap her for it. “We know, Mum. We only have our shitty little solar car because you have some big important government job and you’re not popping out kids like every other Mum at school.”

Zac sniggered. “Yeah, Mr Regel said you’re a frigid bitch because you’ve only had us. His wife just had her tenth and he says he’s really tired trying to make number eleven.”

Did I know as much about sex at ten? I wondered, frowning. My rapid heart rate told me I was far from frigid, but my ten-year-old son didn’t need to know that. Perhaps that was because I was ten before the moon moved. Before repopulation was so important.

I wished I could help replenish the population, but the twins had been born by Caesarean section, when we still had the equipment and the medication to do it properly. Now, all births were natural and pain relief was a faint memory. The doctors said it was too dangerous for me to have a natural birth after my twins, so I would have no more.

I'm lucky to have my two and my husband, I reminded myself. Many people had lost far more than me. Anuar had watched his whole family die. He was my comfort when I saw that the wave had washed away my family’s house and everything I knew, leaving bare salted ground in its path. The twins had come two years later and with them permission to marry.

How the world had changed. Once, the governments of the day had debated on the rights of gay couples to marry and adopt children.

Now, if you had two children, either adopted or born, between a couple, THEN you were permitted to marry and not before. It didn’t matter if you were gay or straight or sixteen – so many adopted parents were needed for orphans that it didn’t matter any more. All that mattered was that you cared for children who could help rebuild what the waves took.

Some people said the end of the world was nigh. I was pretty sure it was, but Anuar, I and so many others were doing our damnedest to stave off the end of the world, or at least our part in it. Every day we lived, we won.