I'm jolted awake by the truck starting to move choppily. Carson pulls over as it comes to a full stop.

"Out of gas," Carson mutters. I shake everyone awake, pack up my bag, and hop out of the back.

"Um... Carson? Where exactly are we?" I ask. We're in the middle of a forest on a small dirt road.

"Somewhere North of Seattle."

"Gee, that's helpful," Destiny mutters. "So, we're gonna, like, keep going on this road or something?"

I shrug. We don't really have any other choice. "Alright, guys, we're gonna be walking thirty miles a day until we get to Canada. We have about a hundred miles left to get there. Once we get there, don't imagine that they won't be experiencing this sickness, too." I continue down the road, and they follow me.

Darkness falls while we're still walking. The road thins out until it's just a small trail, and then it disappears altogether. "Let's stop here," I say as we get to a stream. I take a lighter out of my bag, preparing to boil (and therefore purify) the stream water. The trees seem as if they're closing in on us.

"Guys, I was able to charge Eli's radio," Mai says, taking the radio out of her bag. She turns it on, letting it play. It takes a while to get warmed up, but it finally does.

"People of the world," a faint voice says. As Mai turns it up, I recognize the voice as the voice of the British Prime Minister. "I am very sorry to bring this news." Everyone stops what they are doing and sits around the radio. "Yet I'm afraid that I must. All of Asia has been quarantined, alongside Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, Central America, Australia and Oceania, and The United States of America. Western Europe is the only location on which a quarantine has not yet been places, besides central Canada. The rest of the world cannot have access to the only part of the world that has not been taken over.

"Today is a terrible day. The quarantine of The United States of America not only signals the fall of the United States, but also of the rest of the world."

The broadcast ends, and we all sit in silence.

"That's it, then? The rest of the world won't help us?" Maggie asks. I look up, and I see that they're all looking to me. "What do we do now? Europe is on its knees, and we can't really go to Canada anymore. They're basically quarantined too, and they won't even let us in! I'll bet they would shoot us on sight if we even tried."

"I don't know," I say.

I look at them, one by one. Clara has her arm around Carson, who's sitting next to me, his head in his hands. Ci and Jack are next to each other, both of them hanging their heads. Kenan and Quinn are just staring blankly at the radio. Mai is holding my hand, her eyes closed as if she's praying. Maggie and Rohan sit there, slumped over, as if they're submitting to the world. Mitch is crying silently in Sam's arms. Destiny and Rebecca sit frozen, shaking with fear and disbelief. I can't believe that it's happening, either. It seems so wrong. The fall of Earth.

"So, that's all?" Sam mutters, his eyes in a blank stare. He turns his eyes to me. "We'll never see our families again? Our friends? Our homes? Our soccer teams, the cash registers at the grocery store right by our houses? We'll never see the space needle, or the pride parades ever again? We're just gonna die? We're just gonna become mindless zombies?"

I feel like I have to be the optimistic voice here, but I feel like I can't do it. I just want to be back at home. It's been over a year since I was last there. I just want to see my mom one last time.

"Let's get some sleep," I say. "In the morning, someone needs to come with me to supplies for a fire and food."

Everyone lays down to sleep on the cold, rock-hard forest floor. Mai settles down next to me. I stare up at the sky, watching the moon. No matter what, that'll still be here. At least no matter what I lose, I can still see the moon shining bright up in the sky, guarding my dreams every night. The moon is what's kept me sane for the past year. Every night when I can't fall asleep, I just watch it, and I suddenly feel comforted, like I'm back at home as a small child, watching the world spin outside of my window. I would go outside and sit on our patch of lawn before going back to the couch and falling asleep. No matter what, I always fell asleep watching the moon.

"You awake?" Mai asks me. A couple of hours must've passed already.

"Yup," I say.

We both lay there in silence for a second. "I grew up with two moms," she says. "Well, kind of. One of them was a girl, but the other never really cared about their gender. I always just called them mom, for simplicity's sake. My biological dad was a redhead, hence the hair." She pauses, sighing. "My real name was Avery, but for some reason, I hated it. I went with my middle name, Mai." She sits up. "I miss my brother, Micah. He always helped me do everything I wanted to when I was about to give up. I wouldn't be half of the person that I am now without him."

"I wouldn't know. I never had a sibling."

She pulls her blanket around her. "Yeah. What were you gonna do?"

"I wanted to work at NASA." I sigh. "I knew it would never happen, but... space is just so fascinating. I have the grades and the knowledge, I just would never be able to get the kind of money I would need to go to a college to prepare for it."

"Same. But... for me, money isn't the issue, it's my family. My mom wants me to become a doctor or a lawyer. She says she couldn't stand the idea of me being on another planet for years on end... or my body being lost forever in space..." We sit there in silence for a bit. "Do you have a plan?"

"No," I say. "But I'm sure I'll think of one." This is a lie. I'm not sure what we can do. There's no place on Earth that's safe where we can go...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun begins to rise, and I wake up. A small spot of light falls onto me, escaping the cover of the trees.

I get up, walking over to the stream. I walk down it for about half a mile until I find a giant blackberry bush. It's September, so the ripe ones are pretty sparse. Most of them are rotten.

Suddenly, I feel a sharp pain in my back. It's as if someone is stabbing me. I cry out realizing that I haven't done anything for my burn (besides Carson's soap and water) in my hurry to get out of Seattle. It must be seriously infected.

I shove the berries into the pocket of my sweatshirt, stumbling back toward camp. The short walk, which is nothing compared with the kinds of distances that I cover every day, takes all of my energy.

I collapse onto the ground as soon as I arrive at camp. Mai rushes over. Carson comes as well, turning me over. I see him run back to his backpack in the commotion. Everything seems so far away...

A couple of minutes later, I wake up. I feel like my back just went through a meat shredder. I must've passed out. I find that my chest and stomach are wrapped in cloth that also goes around to my back. I have a jacket on over it. "You okay?" Mai asks me. I nod. "Rohan had a lighter in his backpack, so we're boiling the streamwater right now. Hopefully it'll taste okay." She heaves a sigh. "They want to go back to Seattle."

"That's a terrible idea," I wheeze, coughing as I realize how dry my throat is.

"I know, that's what I'm saying. But they want to see their families, and they're saying that we could get supplies."

"Was being chased away by a hoard of zombies not convincing enough for them to stay away?"

"Eli, c'mon. Isn't there anyone in Seattle that you care about?"

"Not that cares about me back."

"What about your parents?"

"I never met my dad and my mom kicked me out of my house because I'm gay." I feel like punching a tree, even though I have no energy. "You do realize that they're all most likely dead? That if we go back, we'll most likely join them?"

She gulps. "Yes. We did a vote, and it was unanimous. Everyone wants to go back."

I pause. "Alright then," I say. I raise my voice so everyone can hear. "We're heading back to Seattle on the same road that we left on. Remember, stay off of the road, but keep it in sight."

I start to pack up my stuff in silence. Everyone else starts to talk about how excited they are to see their families. I know that this is a terrible idea, but I can't exactly stop them.

We start to walk back along the side of the trail. It turns back into a dirt road, then a concrete road, then a highway. I turn around, making sure that the road is deserted and that everyone is here. I count everyone including myself, getting fourteen.

I stop as I hear a noise in the distance. I jump back, signaling for everyone to be quiet and hide. Mai gets their attention and has them hide in a bush. I peek back out. Yep, it's a light blue, broken-down truck. The back is a giant wooden frame, also painted the same shade of light blue. The hood isn't fully down over the engine. I leap back, going into the bush as well.

They screech past, the engine making clunking noises as they round the bend of the road. Gulping, I peek out to see if they're gone. All I see is the road and a faint cloud of smoke from the engine of the truck.

"We got really lucky," I say to the others as I climb out of the bush. They do as I do, brushing off leaves and twigs. "You guys sure that you want to keep going to Seattle?"

They look at each other. "Yes," Jack pipes up.

"Wait! Maybe Eli is right. Maybe we should turn around. There are only gonna be more of these encounters as we get closer to the city..." Carson starts. I glance at Mai. She looks slightly uncomfortable, as if she has no idea what to think.

"Look, I wanna help my family," Kenan says.

"You heard! The entire country is quarantined! And it's not even just the country, it's the entire world! There's no way that Seattle isn't completely infected. And if they are alive, they would have the good sense to not return until this quarantine is lifted and there's a cure for this disease. And only about a eighteenth of the world lives in Western Europe, the only place not quarantined! We're outnumbered one to seventeen, guys. There's no way that this is the right decision," Maggie exclaims.

"What are you talking about?? Guys, it was just a truck. They're just sick people. Have you ever thought about how silly we're acting?? These people aren't zombies. This isn't the zombie apocalypse," Jack yells, exasperated.

Jack starts walking again, and people begin to follow him. "Oh, so you're just gonna lead us into their territory? C'mon, Quinn? Mitch? Rohan?" Carson jumps forward to try to stop them.

"Carson, 'their territory' is my home. There've been quarantines before. It's silly to think that we ran away," Quinn sighs.

"But you've seen what happens to them! They go crazy! They try to kill us-"

"Sorry, but I need to see my sisters again," Mitch says.

"We need to get home. Even if you are right, Carson, we still need the supplies. I still want to see if my family and friends are okay," Rohan mutters.

"Oh, c'mon. Rebecca, you were almost chased down and killed by them! They were firing weapons at us! They burnt down the entire city!"

"We need to go back to the city," Rebecca says. She flips her blonde ponytail, adjusts her backpack strap, and follows Jack. Destiny, Ci, Clara, and Sam follow them. Maggie, Mai, Carson and I have no choice but to follow him as well.