Introduction

Note from the author

At this point, the story splits into two – one storyline is the original ending of the story as I wrote it in my head back in February 2021. But after I wrote it, I got to wondering about a number of open issues from Larissa’s story in my head, and I decided to fill in the gaps. Well, one thing lead to another, and ‘filling in the gaps’ turned into 450,000 words. It’s the same story, just in considerably more detail, but I enjoyed telling it. Originally, I wasn’t going to post it – it was just for me. But I enjoyed writing it, so why not post it?

So the following chapter is ‘part 2: Brief’ – the original ending, 12000 words. Then there’s the fleshed out version, Larissa’s story, part 2, in full. You can read the next chapter, which is the short version, or skip straight over it and dive into Larissa’s life.

Another note from the author

I plotted out this story in Feb 2020 and wrote most of it in the first half of the year. I totally anticipated that Australia would continue to hold the coronavirus off, and plotted accordingly. Maybe we’d continue to have short lockdowns. Well, I never imagined that a single politician could deliberately wreck Australia’s plan, but she did, and we ended up back in full lockdown for months. Well, and Delta was a factor too. So much for my story ... but I just didn’t have the energy to rewrite it. I’ve sat on it for a six months wondering what to do, and finally decided to just go ahead and post it. So for those of you familiar with Australian conditions, assume that the story takes place in a slightly different timeline where we didn’t lose the plot with the Delta variant.

Otherwise this is as realistic as I can make it. Well, realistic about Australia. With regard to Larissa and her friends ... I was writing it for myself, and there’s some things I wrote for fun rather than realism. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to decide for yourself which bits of the story are which.