Numbers 2: The Chaos

The knock on the door comes early in the morning, just as it’s getting light.
‘Open up! Open up! We’ve got an Evacuation Order on these flats. Moving out in five minutes. Five minutes everybody!’
You can hear them going down the corridor, knocking on doors, repeating the same instructions over and over. I haven’t been asleep, but Nan nodded off in her chair, and now she jerks awake and curses.
‘Bloody hell, Adam. What time is it?’ Her face looks crumpled and old, too old to go with her purple hair.
‘Half-six, Nan. They’ve come.’
She looks at me, tired and wary.
‘This is it, then,’ she says. ‘Better find your things.’
I look back at her and I think, I’m not going anywhere. Not with you.
We’ve been expecting this.