is a 2014 novel written by Virginia Bergin, being written from the perspective of Ruby Morris, and detailing her experience in the apocalypse. A space bacteria has infected the rain, causing slow incurable death to anyone who touches contaminated water. When her remaining rations are low and everyone she knows is dead, Ruby travels across the country to find her father.H₂O provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: Don't tell Ruby about the (highly plausible) possibility her dad is dead. Darius ends up pressing this a few times and gets screamed at.
- Blanket Fort: When the military has Ruby's brother Dan killed, they proceed to make a "dan nest" of lake weeds, making it look as though Dan built one (he's mentioned to love making them) near the lake right before the rain, then got infected.
- Fate Worse than Death: Getting infected causes this. Your skin becomes weak and easily clawed away, and you get a horrible itching everywhere, which can't be relieved by scratching. The process slowly and painfully gores you from the inside, and it is guaranteed to cause death. You can't even be sure of having a proper burial, because touching your body can get someone infected too.
- Grimy Water: Getting even a single drop of water on you causes the bacteria to begin eating you, resulting in mass bleeding and horrible itching, and it's incurable, only ending when you inevitably die from it. The bacterium spreads quickly too, and if a single drop falls in a body of water, the entire body will become contaminated in minutes.
- No Healthcare in the Apocalypse: A plot point in the first book is that Darius needs his glasses and is Blind Without 'Em. In the climax of the second book, this ends up causing him to unintentionally walk into the Big Bad's grasp and allow the latter to do a Hostage for MacGuffin.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Ruby remarks about this after an old man indirectly murders Simon. She hides in her house, constantly makes sure her lights aren't visible to outsiders, keeps checking for other home lights, and states she doesn't know whether finding another human would be scary or relieving.
- Skewed Priorities: Ruby has an obsession with remaining makeup, cleanliness, and lipstick after the apocalypse. Darius even lampshades this.Ruby: You stink.
Darius: Considering everything that's going on, I don't think hygiene is a concern.
