"Where would those men have taken them? Who were those men?" Mike's voice was grim.

Venti replied, "Look, I know as much as you guys do. All I know is that they had guns and were looking for supplies." Mike's fists slammed onto the steering wheel in frustration, and the car honked loudly. His face was red and strained.

"Well, how the hell are we supposed to find them when we don't know where they're at?!" He yelled. I jumped. Trevor gave me a worried glance.

"Daddy..." Raven was at a loss for words. I couldn't blame her. I'd never seen Mike so angry, either. He was always so calm and collected.

Venti piped up, "I think I heard them talking about some sort of warehouse."

Mike growled lowly, "Why didn't you tell us that before then?"

"I just now remembered," Venti said. I glared at her. I didn't trust her one bit. Something about her just made me want to open the door and throw her out. But I didn't.

"Anything else you remember?" Mike asked.

Venti said, "Yeah. They were in a truck. I think it was a deep red color, but it was super dark. I couldn't see anything but the brake lights."

"Why would they take our people? My wife? My best friend?" He asked, a bit more calmly now, although his voice still shook with anger.

"I don't know. Maybe for information. You're a cop, an official, I assume, since you're wearing that uniform. Maybe they figured they could get information out of you by holding them for ransom or information out of them about the current situation," Venti shrugged. I wondered how she could be so causal in this situation.

"This tells us nothing. I'll stop at every warehouse type building from here to..." Mike paused.

I turned to Trevor, "We should look for a parked truck in those warehouses and just search for as long as we can."

Trevor nodded, and spoke louder so Mike could hear, "Let's just look as long as we can and see which one has a truck parked by it."

"The truck might be parked in the back like they were at the Sheriff's Office," I reminded them. Mike nodded and remained silent. The car rumbled for about twenty minutes. I couldn't see out of the windows very well, but I could make out the shape of some buildings. Houses, apartment buildings, and even small office buildings. We slowly turned and pulled into the gravel parking lot of a large concrete building that sat beside some sort of tall work building. I could hear the gravel crunching beneath our tires.

"I don't see a truck," Trevor said.

"You kids stay here. I'll go check the back," Mike said, and opened the door and stepped out. He closed the door, and I heard the lock click. The headlights dimmed, and the rest of us in the car were left in silent darkness. We waited anxiously. I tapped my foot impatiently. I shivered. My hoodie wasn't doing much against the cold anymore. We would need to find more clothes. Jackets, food, water. Supplies. What would we do after this? If Trevor's house wasn't safe, and the sheriff's office obviously wasn't safe, then where would we stay at? After what seemed like forever, Mike returned to the car and hopped back into the driver's seat. The headlights turned back on, blinding me for a moment.

"Did you see any?" Trevor asked. Mike shook his head solemnly, and began to back out of the drive. I sighed. I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed. We were searching for a needle in a haystack at midnight, without the light of the moon. Wait. Without the light of the moon? Well, that made sense, since the moon reflected off of the sun. But the stars? Shouldn't we be able to see them? Was it cloudy out? I doubted anyone in the car knew the answer. Either that, or they thought I was dumb for not knowing the answer. As the quiet drive progressed, I began to realize how thankful I was for the heat in the car. It was chilly, even with the heat up all the way. I could only imagine what outside felt like now. No doubt it was getting colder by the minute. The car rumbled into another parking lot. This one was black concrete, and the building looked similar to a dentist's office, with glass doors and a sharp roof. I wondered what made this one a warehouse. Mike stopped the car.

"I'll be back in a minute," He said, and got out of the vehicle. The lights went off once again. I took a deep breath. I hadn't been focusing on it, but I was so incredibly worried about Susie and my father. It was like a constant weight in the pit of my stomach. Again, I thought of how Trevor must be feeling.

"Is this even a warehouse?" I thought aloud. Mostly to get my mind off of worrying about my father, and also to end the god-awful awkward silence. Maybe it wasn't awkward to the others, but it was certainly awkward to me.

Trevor responded, "Yeah. Mom used to work here. They package stickers and stamps and ink pens and things. It's more of a small business, so they don't need a big warehouse. The building itself isn't a warehouse, but they use it as one." For some reason, the fact that his mom used to work there, and now was possibly being held hostage there, was very funny to me. In a badly ironic way. Longer than ten minutes must've passed. Although, with the eternal darkness thing, I wasn't very good at times. But it was a while. Finally, I could hear footsteps slap against the concrete. I could hear voices and yelling. My heart thudded. Was it my dad? Was it Susie? Was Mike alright? I sat up in my seat and tried to see out the window. Raven screamed as something thudded against the side of the car. I was really worried, now. Was it a person? Who was it? I chewed on my mouth in fear.

The driver's door unlocked and swung open. It was Mike, red-faced (well, I've described his face as red twice now, but it was actually hard to tell with his dark skin. I guess I more or less imagined his face as red) and panting.

Trevor's voice cracked, "What happened? Where's Mom?"

"Raven, get in the backseat. Don't get out of the car. Climb into the backseat." Mike demanded, huffing with every word. Raven nodded frantically, and climbed over the middle console into the backseat. I clicked off my seatbelt and scooted closer to Trevor to make room for her. The passenger door opened, and I let out a sort of sob. I immediately covered my mouth with my hands. That was embarrassing. My father didn't look at me. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Either way, nothing could quench the joy I felt in my gut to know he was alive and well. Even better, a third door opened, and Susie somehow managed to sit beside us in the back seat. Trevor gasped at that, and helped her in. I was thankful that we were all very thin. Even then, we were squished almost painfully, our shoulders pressed against one another.

Mike pressed on the gas, the lights went on, and the car shot out of the parking lot and sped down the road. It didn't take long for me to notice the silhouette of a truck behind us. My palms began to sweat.

Trevor was the first to speak, "What happened?" I was shocked into silence. Not that silence for me was abnormal. Mike was too focused on driving to answer, so my father responded instead.

"There were a couple of 'em. They tied us up," he held up his hand, and I could tell his wrist was red and swollen, even in the dim light. He continued, "They thought we had food. They knew that you would come to save us. Well, that's what I figure. They kept asking us where the food was." Silence fell after that. I worried. If those people were looking for food already, then would we, too, be looking for food? Kidnapping, killing, just for a meal? I hadn't realized there would be food shortages. I hadn't even thought about it. But it made sense. Without the sun, the crops would die. I'm sure that people panicked once the lights went out, and purchased as much food as possible, leaving the stores empty. Fresh food would've rot within days after the power went out. I assumed the power had gone out everywhere, and again, I wondered why. Had the power gone out everywhere? What if we were the only city without it? Or state?

Without thinking, I said, "Turn on the radio." I don't know why none of us had thought of that sooner. My dad turned the dials, and we heard loud static. He flipped through the stations. Static after static after- I jumped at a voice. It was a bit messy, but I could make out what the man was saying.

"...dead. There have been power outages across the country, and there have been reported, but not confirmed, cases of frostbite. The temperatures have been dropping dramatically-" The man's voice cut and the radio turned to static again. We all collectively groaned in frustration. I found that funny. My question about the power outages had been answered. I had several other questions, but I praised myself silently for having thought of the radio. One question had been answered, and that gave me temporary peace. But it raised many other questions. Was it world-wide? Of course it is, I thought. The sun didn't belong to only one country. It felt weird, having gone through so much in only two days. I felt exhausted and sore and cold and hungry. I wanted to sleep. Everything that happened this morning (should I even call it morning?) felt like it had happened a month ago. I let out a sigh, and leaned my head on Trevor's shoulder. I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep until I woke up. I awoke to the car stopping. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who'd fallen asleep, because Trevor looked awfully drowsy as well.

"Where are we?" Trevor's words were slightly slurred.

Mike huffed, "Home."

"Where would that be?" Raven asked. "A new home? Our old one?" Her voice was high-pitched, and I could tell she was scared.

"Our house." Mike said plainly.

Raven stammered, "But- but you said that it wasn't safe! The riots..."

My dad turned back to glare at us, "We have guns. Our house is the best chance any of us will have." I wondered if me and my father would be living with them now. My home was a little apartment. We didn't have much, and we wouldn't be able to survive there. Survive. Are we already using that word?

Venti butted in, her voice worried, "What about my mom?!" I figured she had fallen asleep, too.

"You can search for her. We don't know you and we have no obligation to help you." Mike glared at her through the rear-view mirror in the darkness.

She whined, "You said you would help me!" Her worried voice sounded strange to me. From what I'd seen, she had been very calm in all situations. She must've been very worried about her mother.

Mike shot back, "I didn't say that. My son did."

"Dad, I promised I would help her." Trevor growled.

We all jumped, and a few of us yelped, as something thudded loudly against one of the windows. It was a person, I could tell.

My dad said, "Mike, I told you, the riots will still be here. Your house isn't safe. We need to get back on the road!" Isn't that the opposite of what he had been saying before? Hypocrite, I thought. 

Mike groaned, "Gas. There's gas in the garage. Get that, and we will leave again. For good this time."

"Where to?" Raven piped up.

"Joseph gets to decide that." Mike grumbled. My dad got out of the car and clicked on a flashlight. There was a group of men in the front yard. One of them had hit the window. They exchanged conversation, but their words were muffled. I watched as my father opened the door to the garage with a key, and disappeared into the building. The men out front sprayed a large red X on the front of the house.

"Isn't that's illegal?!" Raven said angrily.

"It's chaos." Mike said. "Don't worry honey; I'll help get us all out of here and to someplace safe." Raven responded with silence. My father reappeared, holding two red gas containers. He put them in the back of the car, and hopped back into the passenger seat. I wondered what the point of all this was. Why didn't we grab them to begin with? Why did we return?

"Let's go." My dad said. Mike pulled out of the driveway, and again, we began to rumble down the road. To where? I didn't know.