The End.

5

That night, Calum and I had talked the whole night. Like his older sister, he was easy to talk to, and I needed a friend. The next morning, he gave me his number so we could text until the next stopping point, and everyone packed up their things to leave. The next three stopping points were pretty much the same; Calum and I snuck off to talk all night, and then I slept the entire next day while we were on the road. He didn't really have much in common with me, but there was no one else I could really talk to other than Alison, and her and I were about as much alike as the ocean and a rock.

It took us about a week and a half to get to Virginia, with all of the stopping. But I think it was worth it since a lot has happened in the last couple of days. We've been listening to the radio, and we read the news on our phones until we had absolutely no service. We thought that we were just in a dead spot, but we later heard on the news that many phone towers were shot down by rebels, and not to expect to have service again for a while. America was in a depression worse than The Great Depression. Worst of all, people were angry. Businesses were closing because they no longer had any business. Even schools had low attendance. I guess people were starting to realize how serious everything was.

"This just in! Russia has fallen!" The newscaster boomed.

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Two hours later, we were in the middle of nowhere. There were trees everywhere, the radio stopped working, and my butt hurt from sitting so long.
My legs ached to be stretched, not to mention I have to pee worse than I ever have before. I guess it wasn't the smartest thing for me to accept Kyle's dare for me to chug two bottles of water.

Calum and I haven't talked in four days, since everyone had to get here at a different time, going a different way. We aren't supposed to draw attention to ourselves. Plus, my dad being a security officer, he knew that to stay isolated, we can't let anyone follow us here or think that we could be hiding somewhere while the entire country, because they might think we're involved in the fall of the country. That's pretty far out, but I also thought that there would never be another depression, I was wrong.

"We're almost here, so get ready to be auhhmayzedd." My dad said, in his funniest voice. I could tell that he was proud of getting to protect his family, and since he takes pride in everything he does, he's also proud that he saw all of this coming.

When we pulled up to a cleared area that led to a ginormous mountain/cave system, I started to wonder if we would be staying in the cave. I'm not claustrophobic, I never have been, but the thought of staying inside a cave for more than a few months drives me insane.

My dad stopped the truck right in front of the cave, and in a few quick steps, he stepped out, walked inside the cave, and from what it looked like, he was typing in a code and leaving a handprint to tell who it was. This kind of security was about as serious as the locks and codes at The White House, from what my dad has told me anyways. Then, he fast walked back out to the truck, hopped in, and drove straight into the cave, pulling into what looked like a large garage that already had five or six cars parked neatly side by side.

After getting out and exploring a little bit, my dad appeared to lock the doors back and we left our things in the car to go explore 'The Vault' as my dad called it. We had to walk through this dimly lit hallway to get inside, and when we got there, the whole thing reminded me of all of those episodes of 'Doomsday Preppers' when they had underground bunkers filled with survival equipment. The hallway opened out into a cafeteria with huge boxes with what looked like those meals given out in the military, but there were also shelves stacked full of canned food, and other preserved items. I hope my dad lets me organize them for him, because when I'm stressed or nervous I tend to organize more, and I'm sure that my family is getting tired of me organizing their suitcases while they sleep.

"Well if it isn't Tom Nelson! I knew you'd get here soon enough!" A mans voice echoed through the room.

"Sam! Yep, it was a long ride but, we're here! Heard anything from the Martins or the Hood's?"

"Katie and Marcus are still a few days away. They had to pick up his parents and you know how it is traveling with little ones. Joy and David got here the day before yesterday, and me and the wife got here last week. It's been pretty lonely with just us, but people are starting to get here. Anyways I won't keep y'all for long, go on in and look around. Dinner's at seven."

We said our thank you's and continued to look around. We then walked down a flight or two of stairs to find the water purification system, the power room, and a large and a large unorganized storage room that I would love to get my hands on.

"So you like, helped put this together?" Alison asked.
"Yeah, well no one is really going to 'run' the place but we all pitched in to help build this place and get supplies, but we will still have to go on runs and things."

The next place we went was the weapons room. My dad had to put in a really long code again, and the entire room was stacked full of ammo, guns, knives, targets, and all of the other things that come win having weapons. It was sort of overwhelming, even though I had used guns in ranges before and I'd gone hunting a few times with my father, I didn't know the names of guns. Kyle did though, my mom even joked by telling him to close his mouth or he'd draw flies.

When we made our way to the living quarters, there were seven different compartments. We only toured our own compartment, but this was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There was a 'living room' complete with a small bookshelf, space heater, and a couch with a small recliner. The room led to two different sides of the room, we had the left side. It had three small rooms with just enough space. One was for my parents with a bed and a set of drawers, Kyle's room just had a twin sized bed and dresser, and Alison and I shared a room with a bunk bed and a dresser. Luckily, we can wear each other's clothes since we are around the same size, even though I'm seventeen and she's fifteen, we're what some just call tiny, but I've never minded it. Other than the fact that our styles are completely different, it's kind of cool to think that we can share clothes.

"Top bunk!" Ali claimed.
"Fine. Whatever." I stuck out my toungue.
"Let's just go get our things and get settled in. I'm hungry."
"Of course you are Ali."

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{an}

Alison is played by Anna Jacoby-Heron!! (She plays Taylor in Finding Carter)

Teaser; Carlum gets caught sneaking around? (((;