It happened so fast, and no one saw it coming. Lucy Booth and her twin sister Lana were all that was left of their family, and Lucy remembered what happened like it was yesterday. First, it was the sickness that many of them got; her baby brother Jack went first. She still can picture the look on her parents' faces when they went to wake him up, but couldn't. The heavy, suffocating silence of the house was easy to remember; it was burned into her memory. Soon, it was the news with reports of the sickness that was killing many. Then there were the calls from family and friends about more deaths, and then her parents went to sleep and never woke up. The only thing she remembered from the sickness was that Lana and they had the worst headaches of their lives. She never noticed anything off about Jack, but it would have been hard for him to tell, as he couldn't talk. Then her mom had a light cough, and her dad had pain in his chest. She and Lana were all that was left after that. The sickness seems to affect everyone differently, and there didn't seem to be any way to see it coming.

Then, within weeks, there was no more news, no more electricity, and 90% of the human population was gone. Lucy and Lana, at the time, were only 12; they could barely take care of themselves, let alone each other. Now at 16, both girls were thin and awkward from the lack of food. Both Lucy and her chopped their black coiled hair into something very short and easy to manage, because they didn't have the time or products to upkeep their hair, and true be told, Lucy was too tired to try. Some of the neighborhood remained, but not many people. But they would meet twice a week to offer goods or see what others had to give.

Both Lucy and Lana knew how to sew and do basic repairs, so they started going to the empty houses and getting some of the bedding and clothes for not only themselves to use, but also for patching up clothes. So, they were always able to offer repairs, which was helpful when a band of men came into their town and stole a lot and threatened them a lot. They even stole from the wedding dress shop. The men set a fire to the shop after they left, and the smell of ash lingered in the air for over a week. There are still bullet holes that Bradley, who was a teen at the time and now 20, went around and filled in the holes with some caulk. She had never seen those men come back, but if she did, the truth was that if they did, Lucy would probably not remember what they looked like; she was not good with faces, and she had never seen them up close, so she just prayed they didn't come back.

So, it was pertinent that they were able to fix their own clothes and belongings. Right now, they were hand sewing Mr. Mark's jean pants and hoping that they would be done by tomorrow's meet-up at the park. But her fingers were aching and cramping from the thick fabric, and she was ignoring the growls that were coming from her stomach. Luckily, because there were two of them, she could switch soon. He was the one who taught them how to grow their own food inside and outside of their home, and get clean water. He taught everyone who came to the meetup how to. Mr. Mark was the oldest of them, and that scared her. He was looking smaller than normal, and coughing more than before, and while that could have been his late habit of smoking catching up to him, it could also be worse.

Lucy was doing her best to put it out of her mind and worry about it tomorrow.