Jackson was already an extremely antisocial person. So the people that brought him here asking him his name was anxiety-triggering as it was. The whole "disease" thing and the events he'd witnessed about ten minutes earlier didn't help, either. When the strangers asked, Jacqui was the first to answer.

"I'm Jacqui!" Jacqui introduced to the strangers. "This is my brother, Jackson! He's the best brother in the world!"

Well, that's a lot of credit but okay... Jackson couldn't help but think as he shyly waved at the people with a nervous smile.

The woman, the one that had asked them if they were alright earlier, smiled at Jacqui. "Hello, then, Jacqui and Jackson. My name is Melinda. This is Joshua-" she pointed to the man that had brought them in- "And there's one more of us - Sammy. You two try to stay out of his way, he's not the... friendliest person out there."

"Why?" Jacqui asked.

"He's just not," Melinda sighed. "Teenage hormones, I guess."

Jacqui still looked confused, but didn't push it any further. Jackson gave her small hand a light squeeze, finding comfort in his sibling's presence. It was stupid, really, a five-year-old making him feel so much better in whatever the heck was happening, but he didn't care. If she got hurt, Jackson didn't know what he'd do - she was the only one besides his parents that ever paid him any mind.

Luckily they didn't run into this "Sammy" for the hour they were getting settled into the house. Joshua was almost always at a radio in the kitchen. He kept trying to reach out to other possible survivors of the virus's purge, only to be met with static. It made Jackson wonder how the chaos came so fast and left him in the dust of a now ruined world.

The chaos of the short time since his parents' deaths crashing like a tidal wave onto him, he made his way to the room Melinda allowed him to stay in. Well, it was Jacqui's, but he insisted that he stay in the same room. He didn't trust simply the walls of a house to stop a virus from killing her.

Nor did he expect to stop it himself, but at least he would know what was happening.

Jackson grabbed a few blankets from the closet and laid them on the ground as a pallet, as well as snatching one of the extra pillows from the bed. Jacqui sat on that bed, swinging her legs in a carefree manner as she scribbled with a cerulean crayon across the white surface of a paper she'd gotten from Melinda. She seemed oblivious to the world's state of death, in her own world as she drew.

"Whatcha drawing?" Jackson asked, a tired drag to his voice as he pulled himself onto the bed and looked over Jacqui's shoulder. It was a strange drawing, one of what looked like... an eye?

"I don't know," Jacqui shrugged. "Everyone has eyes, so I wanted to draw one!"

The reason behind the drawing eased Jackson's tension. His mother had been telling someone - or something - to stop watching her, which he associated with eyes. So in his mind, this disease used eyes in some way. She's not infected. Thank god.

"That looks good," Jackson smiled as he gave the affirmation, patting Jacqui on the back.

Jacqui grinned happily at him before she returned to the drawing.

Jackson watched her for a moment more before standing back up and kneeling on the floor, rolling onto his pallet and pulling the covers over himself. "I'm gonna sleep for a bit, okay? Wake me up if something important happens, and don't leave the room unless Melinda or Joshua asks you to. You got that?"

"Why?" Jacqui asked, looking up from the drawing.

"I just don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm not gonna get hurt, silly!"

"Well-" Jackson sighed. "Just wanna double-make sure, okay?"

Jacqui made a pouting face, but replied with a drawn-out, "Okaaaaaaaay."

Jackson nodded, and laid his head against the soft pillow, closing his eyes and calming his thoughts until he dipped into sleep.

<O>

He awoke in the very room he fell asleep in. Jacqui was gone, as was the bed and the door. And his pallet, too - he was laying on the carpet.

Jackson shut up from the floor, looking around the room and shrieking in surprise as he made eye contact with... an eye. An eye in the wall, black pupil dilated to fill most of its sclera until there was merely two small, triangular white corners on either side of the black circle.

"I don't suggest you look at it. It's sensitive."

He whipped around, surprised at the calm, almost feminine voice. Out of the corner of his vision the eye closed, disappearing as if it was never there. Odd, but Jackson didn't question it as he fully turned to meet the voice's catalyst.

The voice seemed to have come from... a glowing light. A pale blue light stood before him, a small orb with a shining aura shaped like a six-pointed star around it. The aura was translucent, barely visible but very noticeable as it pulsed with the light's small movements. Jackson found himself staring in awe at the light as a warm feeling of what seemed to be security flooded his limbs.

"Who... what are you?" He asked.

"I have no name, nor do I belong to any kind of being," the light said, it's aura pulsing brightly with each word. "I simply came to meet you personally and... 'introduce' myself."

"So you... know me?"

"Of course," the light nodded in a way. "I've been with you all along. I am your guide, your guardian. I come to protect you and to lead you to where you must go."

Jackson tilted his head. "So, like... a guardian angel?"

The light contemplated that for a second before replying, "In a way, yes, like a guardian angel. But don't mistake me for any angel - as I said, I belong to no species."

Jackson nodded. "Okay. Then... where did you come from?"

"Your own headspace," it replied simply. "That's what processes sight, isn't it?"

"I guess that's true," Jackson shrugged. Suddenly another eye appeared to his left, opening and blinking as if part of the wall and staring at him in a strange, almost curious manner. But at the same time... accusing. Again he turned to look at it. "What's with the eyes?"

"Oh, they follow me around," the light responded casually. "They do no harm, but don't like people staring. Makes them subconscious about themselves."

"They have... thoughts?" The very idea of something like an eye having thoughts or a sentience made his skin crawl.

"Don't we all?"

"Well, eyes aren't typically a single-standing being."

"That's only because the eyes YOU know are not single-standing beings," the light explained. "It seems like a lot when it's all you know. When you expand, there are many more possibilities visible."

"That... makes sense, actually," Jackson said.

If the light could smile, Jackson felt it would have been. "It does."

The star-light flickered, slightly turning side to side as if shaking its head. "I must leave you now, one of the humans calls you. I bid you well - we will meet again when you need guidance."

Before Jackson could ask the light another word, it and the room became engulfed in darkness. Eyes began popping up from the walls all around, blinking awake as they locked their gaze with Jackson.

The last thing he remembered from the dream was the creepy-crawly feeling that suddenly rushed under his skin as the eyes all simultaneously turned their focus to him.

<O>

"Hey- Jackson, was it?"

Jackson slowly awoke from his slumber, his vision coming into focus as he met the eyes of Joshua at the door. Jacqui was next to him, waiting for Jackson to awake. Slowly, he managed a groggy reply of,

"What do you need?"

"We made some dinner," Joshua said with his thumb pointed in the direction of the kitchen. "Not much, since we're trying to ration, but it makes a decent meal."

Jackson realized at the mention of food that he was starving - he'd had nothing since breakfast because he'd gotten out of school before lunch. What time is it, even? He found a clock on the wall over the window, and, shockingly, realized it was 5 pm.

How long was I even sleeping? He shrugged the odd feeling that the day had disappeared off and pushed his covers away, standing and following Joshua down the hall with Jacqui's hand in his own.

Melinda was laying out some varieties of lunch meats from the fridge as an older teenager with shaggy blonde hair and dark brown eyes sat at the table, feet propped up on the surface and chair tilted backwards. It looked like he had some kind of tattoo on his left hand, but Jackson couldn't make out what it was. Jackson remembered Melinda mentioning someone named Sammy - this was probably him.

Sammy caught Jackson's eye as he had walked in. "So this is the new pipsqueak?"

Jackson already didn't like this guy. He nudged Jacqui behind him protectively.

"Sammy, what'd I tell you about hostility?" Melinda scoffed from her place by the fridge. "Those kids've been through enough already."

"How do we know what they've been through?" Sammy said, looking at Melinda. "Joshua just brought 'em in without warning. They could be spies for those things for all we know."

"If you're referring to the virus as those 'things,' I feel like that's a bit ridiculous," Melinda almost laughed with the remark. "It's a virus. I don't think it has eyes in the first place."

"Who knows? Maybe it's a new one that has them."

Melinda tossed a sandwich onto the table. "Shut your hole and eat, blondie. You're not the tough-guy high schooler here, you're just another survivor of this like all of us. Deal with it."

Sammy rolled his eyes, grabbing his sandwich as he took a bite.

Jackson walked a good ten-foot radius around the teenager as he walked to the kitchen to retrieve a sandwich for him and Jacqui. Jacqui ran up to Melinda, looking up at her and asking innocently,

"Can I have macking cheese?"

Probably didn't get to finish hers earlier, Jackson thought sadly.

Melinda laughed. "No, sweetie, sorry. Just sandwiches. The macaroni should last longer than the lunch meat, so we're saving it. Want a sandwich?"

Jacqui puffed her cheeks in a pouting huff of frustration, but nodded. Melinda put a piece of ham and cheese on a slice of bread, topping it with another slice as she handed the sandwich to Jacqui. As if it were the best food she'd ever been given, Jacqui snatched it excitedly and immediately started devouring it.

Melinda laughed at the child's enthusiasm before turning to Jackson. "I assume you want one?"

"Yeah," Jackson nodded. As Melinda turned back to make one, he noticed Joshua enter the kitchen. Without paying anyone any mind, he walked to the black radio sat on the corner and turned the knob on.

"Hello? Is anyone there? Hello?" He spoke to the box while holding down on a button. He let it off, and was given the reply of static.

He tried again. "Hello? Hello? Does anyone hear me, hello?"

Nothing but static.

Melinda saw Joshua's attempts and sat down the package of bologna she held before walking over to him.

"You can try again later," Melinda said with a sad tone to her voice. "Just eat something, then you can try to get a hold of someone."

Joshua sighed. "I'm just afraid that... we're the last ones left, you know? It hasn't been that long, but... you saw the streets, everyone was just..."

He couldn't seem to finish the sentence, silence the only thing escaping his mouth. Melinda gave him a small nod after a few seconds, and turned back around, finishing Jackson's sandwich as she began to make one for Joshua.

Jackson looked at Joshua with sad pity before turning away to find Jacqui.

<O>

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