• Taylor closed her eyes as the seriousness of the situation hit her friend. "It happened around three days ago." Tasha answered as she went back to the fire. " Are there any more survivors you know of?" Taylor asked her friend. "There's a boy who always sat next to you when you wouldn't wake. He always was looking at a picture of his family. He won't let anyone near him but you for some reason." Tasha gestured to a boy looking rather crumpled and broken with dark brown hair, a blue t-shirt, and torn jeans. And almost as if on cue, he looked up at her and then back down at the picture in his hands.
    Then it hit Taylor. She had seen this boy every so often pass by her house on a bike. "Jason?" She whispered as she leaned down next to him. In response, he smiled at her and then stood up; taller than you would think at first glance, he walked off, leaving her behind thinking about him.

    After a few minutes, Taylor walked back to the fire and her best friend and it began to sink in that this was how they were going to live. Her, Tasha, and Jason the only known survivors.
    "Dinner is served." Tasha yelled and grabbed some makeshift bowls made of curved rock and served for three, even though Jason was nowhere to be seen. "He comes back once we go to sleep," Tasha answered Taylor's curious glance at the bowl. "If you want water, the stream is that way, and if you want some flavor, I had some of these in my pocket," Tasha pulled water flavoring tablets out of her black coat. "Pop 'em in your mouth and put them under your tongue then drink." She advised Taylor.
    After their 'meal,' the girls headed back to a strange carved rock formation in the side of a very small hill that lead steeply downward to a den-like area.
    Tasha had made three beds out of soft moss, leaves, and a strange variation of colorful feathers from the birds she had hunted. Tasha fell asleep instantly, but Taylor lay awake listening to the stream and the birds coo-ing and purring. True to Tasha's word, Jason came back several minutes after Tasha and Taylor had gone to 'sleep' and he brought in two bowls of the 'dinner' and ate one himself, but put the other bowl up on a high ledge, muttering something about, "Bears and wildcats" coming to eat them all and this would distract them while we can run. After he settled down to sleep, Taylor listened to their even breath and settled into a restless daze-sort-of sleep.