They had been traveling for exactly 6 months and 16 days before they found the town. Plagued with blisters on their feet and malnutrition slowly taking over their bodies, that was more than 6 months of walking for hours in the scorching sun, eating nothing more nuts and the occasional non-poisonous mushroom, and sleeping on the cold, dirt ground. And even though James had been learning to hunt, and Amy and Oliver had perfected the art of makeshift bed making, they were burning hot, hungry, miserable, and absolutely exhausted.

So when they stumbled upon the small, abandoned, and completely destroyed (but hey, at least it was still there) town, they were understandably relieved. 

“I vote we all take one house, camp in it together for the night, and then scout for any food and supplies tomorrow. It’s getting dark, and it’s dangerous to be wandering around late at night,” Lana said as the 8 of them walked through the streets. Ever the reasonable one, the 30 year old ex-councilwoman had become the undisputed leader of their little group. In another life, one where the world hadn’t gone to h--- in less than a day and people weren’t left to fight for the very survival of their species, she could have been Mayor, or Governor, or maybe even President.

The group had stumbled upon each other by mere coincidence, and maybe if one still believed in such things, fate. Trapped on the collapsing G.W Bridge as they evacuated New York for D.C, NYU students Amy and Oliver had pulled 23-year-old, wannabe stock broker, James, into their car as his fell into the Hudson River. Once they had made it to the other side, they met 17-year-old Madeline stranded on the highway, her car out of gas and her family in Connecticut. She had been on her way to visit her grandparents in New York. That left Jessica, Finn, and their 4-year-old son Ethan, who had graciously offered to share their RV in exchange for supplies once it got scarce. Lana came two days later, campaign posters in the front seat of her broken down convertible and a knife her back pocket. She didn’t have a group, their RV was out of gas, their food had been stolen, and they needed a leader. It was settled. She was staying.

Flash-forward to the present and Lana has them camped out in an old colonial house, in a small abandoned town, in a world that’s barely hanging on a thread. Jessica, Finn, and Ethan sharing the pullout couch, James and Madeline keeping guard by the door, and the rest of them sleeping on a hardwood floor that feels like heaven compared to the ground.

Madeline poked James in the shoulder.
“Do you think we’re going to be okay?”
He looked at the group fast asleep behind them and smiled.
“Yeah, we’ll be just fine.”

The following morning they hopped from store to store, house to house, looking for anything of value, from clothes to food to razors. It had almost become second nature to them by now, finding miscellaneous items that might seem useless to average person but could assure their survival in the long run.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2, anyone?” Madeline said as they examined the shelves at the local convenient store, holding up the DVD in her hand and smiling. James smirked.
“Yer a wizard Maddie,” he said, attempting (and failing) to adopt a British accent. Madeline gasped and pressed her hand to her chest in mock shock.
“I’m a what?”
Before James could reply, Jessica took the DVD out of Madeline’s hand and placed back on the shelf.
“No DVD player, no electricity, no TV,” she said, ticking the problems off on her fingers.  Amy poked her head between them.
“We could use it as weapon. Somehow. Those things can be deadly,” she said. Jessica shrugged, recognizing defeat.
“Eh, why not. Take it.”
Madeline, James, and Amy high-fived, and Ethan waltzed over holding a rubber duck in his hand, Finn trailing behind him.
“Mommy, I want it,” he said. He paused, and then added, “please.” Jessica crouched down next to him and looked at the duck in his hand. The four-year-old had a disappointing lack of toys, even for the end of the world.
“Yeah?” she said, smiling.
He nodded. She took it from his hand and put it in the shopping cart they had found in the front of the store. Before they left, they put a couple of quarters they had found on the counter, just in case.
Later that day, the group met Lana and Oliver back at the house.
“How did things go?” Lana inquired, looking through the shopping cart. When she got to the DVD, she held it up and raised her eyebrows.
“Really?”
“It’s a weapon,” James piped up. They put the canned foods in the cabinets and the clothes in the draws, leaving the other necessities on the counter tops. It’s better, they’ve learned over time, to keep things close by, in case they have to make a hasty exit.

That night, after Ethan had gone to bed with his rubber duck tight against his chest, Lana pulled out a pencil and pad and the adults got to work.
“We have food and supplies. And Oliver and I didn’t find anyone here while were looking through the houses. I don’t see a possible threat here,” Lana said, writing down the pros of staying on her pad.
“There’s always a threat,” Madeline said, slumping back against the couch. “Whether it’s the people or the weather or the lack of the supplies, there’s always something. But I’m tired of running. And I like the color scheme of this house. I wouldn’t mind staying, for now. I don’t think we’ll be able to do much better.”
“All in favor of staying?”  Lana asked, looking up from her pad.
Everyone raised their hand.
“Good,” she said, setting the pad down. “Then I guess we’ll stay here. For now.”
She looked out the window behind her, at the small, broken down houses and the cracked streets and saw something more. She saw possibility, and the life she could have had, if things had gone a little bit differently.
“And who knows,” she said, “maybe we could build something here.”