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.

When Lucy and Lana made their way to the park, there the meetup took place on that early Tuesday morning, and they saw that Mr. Mark and Bradley had already arrived. There were multiple coolers, which meant that the two had taken multiple trips. The amount was more than a luxury for their small community. Lucy had the food containers, and Lana had Mr. Mark's blue jeans that were fixed up. Bradley looked sadder than normal, which is when she remembered that this would have been his late little brother Ben's birthday. He was all alone; the sickness took his whole family, which made Lucy grateful that she still had Lana. A few years ago, before the sickness, Bradley was a vegetarian, but it felt impossible to stay one now, where there was no tofu or mock meat. Mr. Mark told him that if he knew where to find some soybeans, he would have gotten some for him, but none were ever found.

Sofia and her daughter, Sadie, who was a few years older than Lucy and her twin, were already there. They would have to wait since it looked like Sofia was giving Mr. Mark a check-up, and it sounded like his coughing was worse; this escalated the underlying dread that she had been feeling. Sadie was handing Brady clean food containers. Sofia was a doctor before the sickness, so she would trade her medical experience, while Sadie would do little jobs here and there so that she could help out any way she could, which was anything from cleaning to staying with someone while they were sick until or if they got better.

After a few minutes, the mother and daughter pair left with their portion of the meat.

"Here's your jeans," Lana smiled as she handed them out to Mr. Mark.

"Thank you, young lady," Mr. Mark said with a southern twang.

"And here are the containers," Lucy said as she handed them to Bradley, who gave her a small smile.

Mr. Mark was grabbing their portion in different containers. Since the way it worked was that you brought containers and they would hand you different containers full of whatever meat they were able to hunt for. It was cleaner and easier for all of them to do it this way. Every once in a while, they got back one of the original ones that used to belong to their house, and it made Lucy feel like her family was home. But it seemed to be too much trouble to keep them for keeps, so she didn't try, even if she wanted to deep down.

After the exchange took place, Mr. Mark coughed deeply before rubbing his chest.

Worry flashed across Bradley's face before he locked down his expression.

"Mr. Mark, are you okay?" worry seeped through her voice when Lucy asked.

"I'm fine, little lady, now don't you go on worrying about me, I'm as healthy as a horse," Mr. Mark grunted out.

"I won't," she lied, because she couldn't stop being afraid for him.

Lucy and Lana stayed for a bit longer, seeing if anyone else needed anything mended, and they got a few smaller items. The way the trades worked was that if someone needed something, they got it. But the person offering didn't always get a return right away, sometimes it would be a while, like people were sick or hurt all the time, so Sofia didn't always have anything to give, but when they were then her experience was super important.

So, while they weren't getting any returns today, that was okay, because their small community took care of each other.

"Lucy. Lucy, get up." Lana dug her fingernails into her sister's arm, pinching her cheek with her other hand frantically. Lucy's eyes blinked open, the whites of her eyes visible even in the near tangible darkness. There was never any light in the evenings, and usable candles or electric lamps with batteries were hard to come by. Their sight had become easily adjusted to the nights.

Lana gritted her teeth and pulled her sister up by her arm with some effort, eliciting a wince of pain from Lucy. But there was no time to sit around in the dark and complain. They had to leave. "What... what's going on?" Lucy murmured, still groggy from being woken from the depths of her sleep. "Can't explain. Need to go. Now. And stay quiet." Lana whispered angrily, still trying to tug Lucy to her feet. It was hard, her scrawny arms struggling to lift up Lucy's weight. Eventually, Lucy managed to shake herself out of her reverie and stand up without Lana's miserly help.

They both collected what little sentimental possessions they had that would fit in their pockets; a limp doll made of rags and stuffed with cotton, strands of Lucy, Lana and Jack's hairs intertwined, their father's favourite matchbox car, their mother's spatula she used to make brownies on Fridays after school. Things that seemed silly to them before sickness overtook the world. Things that they now cherished as much as each other.

While Lucy tried to shove items into unholy places, Lana peeked outside the front door. Her thin body shook at the sight before her that paraded the streets. It was worse than what she had seen prior to waking up Lucy.

Fire. Flames that licked up the crops the residents of the neighbourhood grew and left ash in their wake. Embers that drifted lazily in the air, landing on wooden front porches and setting them alight. Smoke wafting over the entire deranged scene, and shrieking laughter that sounded to Lana like wolves howling at their prey.

She tried her best to shield the horrors of the outside using her body from her twin. Even though she was only a few minutes older, she still felt a sense of responsibility as an older sister. Lucy noticed what she tried to do and angrily pushed back Lana to survey the vicinity. "I'm not a child, Lana. I can handle-" A gasp tumbled unwillingly from her mouth and cut off her words. She stumbled backward into Lana's arms. "No, no... Why are they back? Why are they back?" She turned to face Lana and repeated the words, her eyes wide with something Lana hadn't seen since they were children and everyone was dying. Pure, unadulterated fear.

Lana looked past Lucy into the blaze. Her twin's face reflected the anxiety she felt within her, but she knew she couldn't allow herself to express it and let Lucy down. She had to be the stoic one, the problem solver. And by God, she was going to get them out of this.