299 Days: The Collapse by Glen Tate

head into Manda’s bedroom. “Manda, I need to go.” He was talking loud enough for Lisa to hear. She needed to hear this.
    “I have asked your mom to come to the cabin,” he said in the artificially calm voice he had been using. “You know all the stuff we have there. She won’t do it. She can’t believe all this is happening. She’s not a bad person, just someone who can’t process all the horrible things that are happening. You guys can always come out and join me. We have plenty of food out there. Take care of your mom and your little brother.”
    Manda was quietly crying. She looked up at her dad and said “Can I come with you?”
    What? Grant wanted Manda and Cole to come so badly, but wouldn’t that be “kidnapping”? Grant felt awful enough “abandoning” his wife, but kidnapping their kids? That was too much.
    “Honey, Mom needs you,” he said as he went over to Manda’s bed and hugged her. “Your brother especially needs you. I would love for you to come with me, but you need to be with them.” He was so tempted to take Manda. And Cole. So tempted. But he couldn’t bring himself to kidnap them. They’d be better off if he did; he just couldn’t do it.
    “Grandma and grandpa will be here and they’ll help you,” Grant said. Lisa’s parents lived in Olympia now. “I don’t want to get the whole family in trouble with the government so I’m…”
    Leaving? He couldn’t say the word. “So I have to go.” Grant wanted to tell Manda things would get better in a few days and that the Collapse would be over. But he knew she was too smart for that. Saying it would just blow his credibility with her.
    By now, Manda was bawling. Grant hugged her, tight, like it was their last hug ever, and whispered in her ear, “Try to get your mom to come out to the cabin. Please try. It’s not your fault if she doesn’t come, but please try. Please.” Grant let go of her and walked out of the room. He felt horrible leaving his daughter this way. “Love you, dear. You’re the best daughter in the world.” He thought that was a better set of last words. He had to go.
    He also needed to say goodbye to Cole. Innocent little Cole who just wanted to be tucked in every night by his dad. That would never happen again. That was the hardest part of all of this. No more tucking Cole.
    Cole was crying because, despite not being able to understand everything he was hearing, he knew that Mom and Dad were really mad at each other. He understood that Dad was going away. He wondered if he had done something wrong to make his Dad leave.
    Grant came into Cole’s room. “Hey, little buddy, I need to go for a while. But I will come back as soon as I can. Or, better yet,” Grant knew Lisa was listening, “you, Sister, and Mom can come see me out at the cabin.” Grant thought he’d take a risk here: “Would you like to come to the cabin, little buddy?”
    “Why don’t you stay here?” Cole asked in between sobs.
    “I need to go,” Grant said. That is all Grant could think to say. He couldn’t say that the police might be after him or that gangs might be coming back or that society was collapsing. “I need to go” was all he could come up with.
    “When are you coming back?” Cole asked, still crying.
    “Soon,” Grant said. “As soon as I can. Actually, I bet you and Mommy and Sister come to see me out at the cabin. Bring your video games and movies. You can play with them out there. It will be fun, just like it always is when you come out there. You can throw rocks in the water like we do. Come out and your Dad will be there, OK?”
    Cole nodded. Grant hugged his little man. God, that felt good. He would miss his son. Forever.
    Grant walked out of Cole’s room, and knew he couldn’t leave without saying something to Lisa. He owed her that.
    He went into their room—now, Grant, thought “her” room—and said, “You can come out any time you want. Just call me and I’ll come get you. No matter how