• Today's December 21, 2012. I just turned nineteen years old since yesterday. Needless to say, civilization was long since it collapsed and I'm finding myself walking down snowy, empty roads. Luckily for me, I'm not alone---I'm with three friends so far: Donniqua Williams, Anthony Martinez, and the same mysterious redhead I once met before, the one who calls herself Alexandria. Everything was going really awful so far, especially for me.

    "Damn," I said, "all this snow we have. It seems that it's growing worse every second. I can merely see something in the distance."

    "Well, that harsh blizzard and the mysterious pandemic that began since the beginning of December 2010 are the causes," Alexandria replied. "I'm glad it's not any of us."

    "Don't forget war," Anthony added. "Everyone just gone crazy worldwide for no reason and all the fighting broke out. I hate winter assaults these days!"

    "Is there anyone else left besides us?" Donniqua questioned.

    Me, Alex, and Anthony looked at her for a moment. Then, we all shook our heads, denying the fact that we've seen anyone else. Alexandria said, "I doubt it. I'm pretty sure everyone else vanished and died but us. We just need to keep moving and find some nearby shelter."

    "But there has to be others," Donniqua said bitterly.

    Alexandria wanted to add more to that, but Anthony cuts her off, saying, "We'll worry about that later. Let's just keep moving!" So there we were, the four of us trying to locate shelter. Even so, it feels as if the temperature was dropping even further than it was much earlier, but it couldn't go as low as approximately 30 degrees or so---at least that's what I was thinking. But anyway, we were continuing to walk down the empty, snowy roads as usual. It's been nearly a couple of hours and we were all growing tired---VERY tired, I would say. After some time, we noticed a familiar building in the distance. Anthony suspects that it was a weapon shop with no one running it.

    "Is that a weapon shop?" he said.

    We looked ahead. "I can't see that far," I replied. "I hate snowy fogs!"

    "Well, we can't just stand here!" Anthony exclaimed. "Come on!"

    And thus we ran quickly to find the distant building. Anthony was right after all; it WAS a weapon shop. And no one was running the store, or so we all saw.

    "How long has this place been empty?" Donniqua began.

    "Probably since what happened a couple years before," Alexandria said. "I hate to leave behind a lot of things seen already."

    In next to no time at all, we were grabbing all the weapons and ammunition we could find in the store. It didn't take long before we were all locked and loaded with whatever we can arm ourselves with. And the second we step out of the store, Alex and Donniqua have spotted something yellow in the distance.

    "Is that an abandoned school bus?" Donniqua said.

    "I think I see it," Alex added.

    Anthony and I looked VERY carefully. None of us had binoculars, but we were able to approach VERY carefully. Lo and behold, it WAS an abandoned school bus covered in massive snow. I wonder how long has THAT been there since what happened two years earlier?

    "I wonder if it still works?" I said to the others.

    "I'm gonna try," said Anthony. And with that, he stepped inside the abandoned school bus first. Nothing inside, or so we've seen. And Anthony noticed the key in one of the seats, so he tried to start up the engine.

    The second the engine started up, we we're all surprised---VERY surprised.

    "Sounds like it still works after these previous years," Alexandria retorted.

    "Get in!" Anthony told us. With that, Donniqua, Alex, and I went inside the school bus. Anthony, sitting in the driver's seat, was ready for action.

    "Are you sure you know how to drive this bus?" Donniqua asked him in concern.

    "Come on," Anthony responded. "If I can drive a car, then I can also drive a bus. It shouldn't be THAT hard. Besides, I've got this!"

    Before I knew it, he was setting the brake on drive and seconds later, we were slowly taking off. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. These past two years since the whole incident began and yet, this bus STILL becomes operational for use. I was surprised, yet satisfied---so were Alex and Donniqua.

    Then, Donniqua began to ask me, "Hey, when is your birthday? Is it somewhere around this month? I can barely remember since we've last seen each other during our elementary school graduation."

    "It was yesterday," I told her.

    "Yesterday?" Donniqua felt dumbfounded.

    "Are you serious?" Alexandria felt the same as Donniqua.

    "Well, it would have been if none of this happened," I sourly answered. "And it's not our fault, anyway. But don't worry about it right now, this is a total situation for all four of us to deal with and if I were you guys, I'd worry about that later."

    There was a brief pause for a moment as Anthony was driving the bus. Alex then said, "Sorry if it was your birthday yesterday. You don't deserve all this bitter emptiness all around us, even in the outside."

    I made a half-smile. "You're right," I responded. "After all, I'm now nineteen years of age. If only we saw all of our friends and families again."

    "I wanted to see all of my friends again," Alexandria said. "It's been so long since they've all vanished. I hope they're OK."

    Donniqua said nothing herself... at least for a couple minutes. Then, she added, "How will we get back with our normal lives?"

    "I don't think it's possible," Alex answered. "If we fail to restore everything, then we all have no choice but to start over in a new place where we can build population for ourselves. It'll take ages, but it's worth it if we ever want to rebuild civilization again."

    "You said it," I told her. Donniqua also nodded.

    All of a sudden, we heard a blowout. That startled us briefly as we all sat up and looked ahead. Anthony was slowing the bus down, believing that the engine died out all of a sudden.

    "What the hell was that?" I asked, wondering.

    When the bus came to a stop, Anthony parked the bus and switched its engine off. He turned around and said, "I wonder if the engine blew out?"

    "Probably it was one of the tires," Alex suggested. "We'll have to take a look outside." And with that, the four of us stepped outside to investigate. Anthony Martinez went on the other side of the bus to check for flat tires while Don, Alex, and myself inspected the right side. There WAS a tire blown out in the side we were in.

    "Tire's blown out on our side," I called out to Anthony.

    "None blown here," Anthony called back, making his way to the other side with the rest of us. He then took a look at the flat tire and added, "Dammit! I should have seen that!"

    "It's alright," Donniqua said. "It's just this thick, snowy fog that makes everything too difficult to see."

    "Great, now what?" I added. "We can't be stuck here in the middle of nowhere."

    Alexandria noticed a distant town ahead of where we were. She said, "There's a town somewhere over there."

    We all looked. We thought it was abandoned, even though we were too far away to see.

    "Looks like a town, alright," I said. "So what do you all think?"

    "Let's just go and see if anyone's still there," Alex suggested. "It's our only chance of survival and hopefully liberating any survivors we can find. It may be a risk, but at least we have all our weapons loaded."

    We all looked at her for a moment. "I'm way ahead of you, Alex," I said, arming myself with a shotgun.

    "I hate to do this, but I guess we have no other choice, so I'm gonna stick with your idea," Anthony replied.

    "I hope we stick together," Donniqua added.

    "Alright," Alex began. "This is a risk we're all going to take. We stay together as a group and we try to find any kinds of shelter we can come across. No holding back."

    We all nodded. "This is it, then," I said. And with that, the four of us began marching to the distant town that Alex spotted. We were holding our weapons in this snowy weather, lest we come across any kinds of danger along the way. We were risking our lives, but we were hoping to find any survivors as well as shelter--that is, if we can keep our survival methods on their feet.

    And the four of us continued our way, anticipating any possible danger that awaits...