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[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn staggered into the Downtown area of the town she had stumbled on in the late remains of the sun from the day. She looked around, her head almost spinning from the buildings around her, and she collapsed onto a nearby bench. Her blue jeans were ripped in various places, especially around the knees, and were covered in grass and dirt stains. Her shirt was even worse off. One of the sleeves was completely gone and the other was barely hanging on by a thread. The body of her shirt was tattered and filthy. Through rips in her clothes, fresh pink and red-ish scratches and cuts were visible and she seemed to wince every time she moved her left leg, sometimes dragging it behind her, sometimes gingerly putting minimal weight on it.

As she sat on the bench she looked at the parked cars, the soft shapes of bodies barely visible in the darkness, she was reminded of her twin. Shivering slightly, the heat from the day fading out, she curled up into a ball on the bench and let silent tears fall in mourning for her brother. She felt so alone right then, so venerable. It was dark, she was cold, she was hurt, and she was crying. She felt unsafe.

[Bryan Heaton]

Under another nearby bench there was a ragged green blanket with a lump under it. At first glance, one would assume it was just another dead body someone had covered. Then the blanket moved. Under it sat a six year old boy, hiding from the darkness that was quickly coming. if one would get a good look at the boy, they would see he was clearly fending for himself. His sweatshirt was filthy, covered in mud, peanut butter, and whatever else he had managed to get into by himself. His pants, nearly too big for him, had a knee torn open from falling. Little blue(well, once blue) velcro shoes covered his feet, the velcro undone. His face was filthy, his hands were filthy, and his once blonde hair was brown. However, filthy as he was, he was in better shape then the girl as the only place that was bloody was the knee he had fell on.

The boys name was Bryan, and he firmly believed he could escape the dark by hiding under the blanket. Under the blanket, he also had his trusty stuffed frog. Laying flat on his belly, he peered out under the blanket, and saw the darkness hadn't totally set in yet. He wanted food, and he was sick of the peanut butter he had brought. But, it looked like peanut butter was going to be his meal for the night again. He crawled out from under the bench, the blanket still draped over him. He was sure the sun would go away as soon as he was completely uncovered. He crawled over to his wagon, and allowed an arm to root around for the peanut butter and bread. He found it, and the hand disappeared back inside the blanket. He had no idea another human was around him. He didn't like looking at human figures anymore- they were empty, just like his Mommy, Daddy and sister.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn, still in a shivering ball, saw something out of the corner of her eye moving. At first she thought it was a ghost, for whatever it was was draped and looked like the classic grade school interpretation of a ghost. She turned her head to watch the figure, a mixture of fear and curiosity overtaking her. She was about to get up and move to another bench, possibly across the street, and was preparing herself for the pain that was sure to nip at her in her leg when she saw an arm poke out from under the covering and, looking closely and squinting her eyes in the darkness, saw it was the hand of a smaller child.

Deciding to investigate this child further, Jaydn slowly, painfully, stood up and limped over to the blanket that was sitting on the bench. She sat down next to who she assumed was a boy because of the style of shoes and the boy-ish colors of both his shoes and blanket. Hoping she was right, she put her hand on the presumed shoulder of the boy and asked "Is it warmer under there?" in a friendly, sweet voice. She didn't want to startle him and hoped she hadn't.

[Bryan Heaton]

Bryan paused when the hand touched his shoulder. One hand was clutching a sticky, peanut butter covered piece of bread. The other clutched the stuffed frog. He was considering how to answer this question, wanting to make sure the answer was completely right to please the person. Then he remembered he was surrounded by empty bodies, and empty bodies didn't speak. Or did they? He frowned, wondering how to respond to this. If his mother had been nearby, he would have screamed, and waited for her to come get him. But she wasn't, and screaming wouldn't work.

Bryan decided to be brave, and see what was talking to him. He sat the stuffed frog beside him on the bench, and used his hand to lift part of the blanket off. He stared at the person for a second, before determining that it was not empty. It was breathing- empty people didn't breath. He also determined that it was a girl. He finally answered her question, as he was sure the girl was alive. "It can be warm, if you don't get near the holes. But the holes are near my feet, so I don't get cold. But, if I turn the blanket the other way, the holes are near my head. And then its cold" He said, making sure to firmly explain his answer like his teacher liked. Pleased by his answer, he looked at the girl. "Can I have a lollipop now?" He always got lollipops at school when he pleased the teacher. He was forgetting to be shy- he hadn't spoken to a human for quite awhile. As much as he loved his frog, it didn't talk back.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn smiled a large, toothy smile. It was the first smile from her since... she didn't even want to think about it. She wiped the tearstains from her face and said to the little boy, "Of course you can have a lollipop, if we can find a store that has them." She immediately began looking around for a grocery store of a mini mart sort of establishment. There, down the street a few blocks was a gas station, several cars parked outside looking abandoned, almost in ruins but still probably containing a mini mart on its property.

This little boy was so cute, she was amazed. sure, she had seen little children in her life, heck she grew up with one, her younger brother Jakob, but she hadn't seen one in so long she assumed they had all died, their little bodies unable to stand up to the disease. This little boy, however, seemed perfectly capable of fending for himself. He was obviously independent, even if only the slightest bit, because he had been able to survive on his own for this long. How long that was, exactly, Jadyn wasn't sure, but she was sure it had to be decently long because of the state of his blanket, clothes, and stuffed frog. "Do you want to walk down there," She pointed towards the gas station, "And see if they have any lollipops?" She didn't exactly want to walk, her leg needed time to just rest, but she felt attached enough to this little boy to walk a block or two for him.

[Bryan Heaton]

Bryan narrowed his forehead in thought, wondering if the usual rule about not going with strangers still applied in this world with empty bodies. He also thought about the rule of if he was alone and needed help, find an older person. He tilted his head, thinking about how the two really didn't make sense. They were saying if he needed help, find a stranger, but strangers were suppose to be bad too. He determined whoever made these rules clearly didn't think right, and neither one of them mattered anymore anyways.

"Okay, we can go there" Bryan said, done thinking about the two confusing rules. "but, once we get there, we have to stay. See the sun going under the land? That means dark is coming, and dark can get us. I always hide from the dark" he said, finally taking off the blanket. He could still see- darkness wasn't here yet. He placed the blanket and frog in his wagon, and shoved the rest of the bread still cluthed in his hand in his mouth. "I've hide from darkness before, in houses with unlocked doors. At home, I never had to hide. I had a nightlight." he said, offering her the sticky hand.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn listened intently to the boy as he explained to her that the sun going away meant dark and dark meant they had to hide. Jadyn smiled a bit at this, glad for a bit of normalcy, a child worrying about his fear of the dark instead of about the dead bodies. "Okay, but what if when we get there it's locked and scary? When where do we go?" She pondered the thought herself. Where would they go? The little boy was smart in saying it wasn't safe to be outside in the dark, especially now, even if his reasons were different.

Deciding he could talk about this as they walked, Jaydn got up again, her leg protesting even more this time because it was so sore. She needed to let it rest and hoped that at the gas station there were bags of ice still cold. She needed to ice it, badly. The fact that there was no electricity made finding something icy to numb the pain in her leg made it all the more painful. She was still unsure what was wrong with it. All she knew was that it hurt badly and that ice fixed it.

Finally standing up, though barely because of the pain, she took the hand he offered her. Sure, it was sticky, but it was something to hold onto. the little boy was smart in taking the things that mattered the most to him so he would still have something to hold. Jadyn hadn't been thinking clearly when she left her home. She was so distressed from her brother that she had forgotten to bring something, anything, to keep her warm and something to hold onto. It was childish, yes, and she was sixteen but she still needed something to hold. Often her and her brother would hold onto each other when they were afraid. That didn't happen any more, obviously, and Jaydn needed something there. She hoped this little boy would stay with her. She needed him as much as she assumed he needed her.

[Bryan Heaton]

Bryan looked around, trying to decide what to do if the door was locked. After a minute or two, he pointed to a building with sliding doors. Without electricity, the doors had no way to slide. Or lock. "We still should try the gas station. It has lots and lots of useful things. Sometimes, Daddy lets me get real candy at gas stations. Mommy doesn't like it. She only lets me have lollipops and lifesavers." He informed Jadyn. He had forgotten that his parents were gone, something that still happened often.
Bryan frowned when he noticed Jadyn limping. "You should take vitamins and drink milk and eat your green veggies" He said, clearly repeating something he had heard before. "They make you grow up big and strong." He recited.
As the two walked, Bryan thought of something else. "My blanket may not keep me, you, and my frog that warm.We need to find more blankets tomorrow, when the sun wakes up. And, you need a new shirt." The last part was said with a wrinkled nose. His shirt was ripped, but her shirt was missing a whole sleeve. He didn't say it in a rude way though.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn smiled when he mentioned getting real candy. Little kids were so focused on the "important" things in life, weren't they? She loved his simplicity. He was clearly intelligent, however. He knew what had really important items.

When he made a point of telling her to take her vitamins and eat her veggies, Jadyn chuckled a bit. "You bet I will, now that you reminded me to." He was the cutest little boy she had ever seen and the fact that he was still alive made things even better. She decided she would “adopt" him as her own, look out for him, care for him, and everything else. He was, after all, the only thing she would have. She looked down at her shirt upon the mention of her needing a new one. "We'll go and find me one tomorrow, okay?" She winked at him. As they got to the gas station, she pried the door open, not having to try hard, and stepped inside. There was a cashier slumped over the check-out desk, thoroughly dead. Jadyn swallowed and tried to ignore it. "So," She turned to Bryan, "What candy do you want?"

[Bryan Heaton]

Bryan considered his options, walking to the aisle where he knew the candy was. He left his frog and blanket in the wagom- the first time in days that he hadn't been clinging to one or the other. The aisle was free of bodies- Bryan had miss the cashier one, by some weird chance of luck. It would have brought up questions Bryan had about what was happening- awkward, hard to explain ones. When he reached the aisle, he tiled his head from side to side. He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted- he had been expecting a lollipop, not a choice. Finally, he decided on a KitKat.

"Do we have to pay?" Bryan asked Jadyn. He knew it was wrong to steal- it made people mad. But, Bryan knew enough about what was happening that he knew there wasn't too many people around. Handing Jadyn the wrapper to open, he remembered he left his wagon and valuables near the door, and quickly retrieved them. Getting a good look out the window, he noticed just how dark it was outside(it was just as dark inside, of course, but the boy didn't realize it). He whimpered, then quickly raced back to Jadyn, in the safe aisle where he couldn't see the window.

"Why does it have to get dark?" Bryan asked Jadyn, wrapping himself in the green blanket. He was on the verge of hiding, just like he had been doing when Jadyn first spotted him. His eyes were starting to show signs of sleep,something probably both of them needed.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn frowned. She didn't know how to explain to Bryan why they didn't have to pay or why it got dark without either scaring him or getting confusing to the little boy. Her solution was "No, we don't have to pay, there's no one working here anyway." No one alive, anyway she thought to herself. She decided to try and ignore the question about darkness and instead went to the front of the store, grabbed the boy's wagon, and pulled it into the aisle where the candy was.

She sat down on the floor and leaned against the edge of a set of shelves. She was tired and the boy looked the same way she felt. "You look tired," she said to him, stating the blatant obvious, "Why don't we settle in for the night?” She opened up his kit Kat and handed it to him. "There, you have something to eat." She smiled at him before reaching up to the shelf above her and grabbing a Butterfinger.

[Bryan Heaton]

"Not tired" Bryan said, followed by a large yawn. The boy slumped down to the floor, snuggled up inside his blanket. "Are we going to eat real food tomorrow?" He asked Jadyn, eating his candy. Chocolate was quickly added to the mess on his hands- the kitkat was cold, and his hand was warm, causing it to melt. After eating, he wiped the mess on his sweatshirt. He would need a new shirt the next day too- little boys weren't the cleanest thing on the planet.

Reaching into the wagon, Bryan pulled out his frog. His eyelids were practically shut. He crawled over to where Jadyn was seated on the floor, and laid down next to her. He snuggled up into the blanket, hugging the frog close. "You don't know my name yet" He mumbled. "Its Bry-" Before he could get the last syllable out, he fell into a deep sleep.

[Jadyn Bennington]

Jadyn was about to reply to the little boy's questions when he fell asleep. He was so peaceful and reminded Jaydn of her younger brother, Jakob. For a brief, happy moment, Jadyn forgot about the plague, her family, and the loss of her brother and was simply focused on the little boy, she only knew the first syllable of his name but she assumed it was Bryan, who was fast asleep on the floor in front of her. He had asked about real food. Jadyn pondered this thought for a moment and realized she had nowhere to cook. "Real food" would have to consist of what fruits and vegetables were still slightly fresh from the supermarket. The meat would have all gone bad by then, the frozen food, far from frozen, all dairy was out of the question, and anything processed with preservatives was simply nasty. Bryan had asked for real food, real food he was going to get, even if it wasn't totally fresh.

Yawning, Jadyn realized how tired she was. It had been a long, painful day and all of the extra energy she needed to use to drag her leg made her more tired, quicker. She needed to find a living doctor who could attempt to fix her or find something to simply ease the pain. She made a mental note to find a drugstore. Even a pair of crutches would do. She just needed to get off of her leg and give it a chance to heal properly, whatever the problem was.

She curled up into a ball on the cold floor and tried to gather as much warmth as she could from her torn and practically useless shirt. Shivering, she slowly, painfully, cried herself to sleep, as she had many nights before. The moments before sleep were left to the memory of her brother who's death she still had not gotten over. He was, after all, her twin, her other half, without him, life was hard.

[Bryan Heaton]

Next Morning

When Bryan awoke, it was already after 9. Of course, he didn't know that. He usually slept late, at least for a small child. Picking himself off the floor, he put his blanket and frog in the wagon. He had no use for them in the daylight. He ran up to the store window, perring out. He didn't get a good look around yesterday- it was dark, and he was hiding. The dead bodies were more clear in the daylight. He wasn't afraid of them, as there wasn't blood. He just viewed them as empty, not understanding the full concept of death.

The girl he met last night was still sleeping. Bryan glanced over his shoulder before slowly exiting the store. He wanted to explore, and thought he would be back before she awoke. His Mommy always said teenagers slept late. He was use to doing what he wanted when he wanted anyways.

Once outside, Bryan skipped down the sidewalk, perring into windows until he found one of interest. It was a overpriced bookstore, targeted for travlers. The door was propped open, probably the owners last work before he or she left the world. Once inside, he noticed a display of children books not far from the door. Plopping down on the floor, he picking one with a picture of a owl on it, and flipped it open. He started reading, mouthing the words he knew and sounding out ones he didn't know outloud.