The car swerved as I slammed on the brakes, hoping to avoid smashing into whatever it was in the road. The car finally stopped, and I got out, expecting some inanimate object of some sort. Not a young man around my age.

I pulled my rifle, pointing it at him. "Who the hell are you?" I demanded. I refused to believe this guy was human.

He put his hands up in surrender. "Don't shoot. My name is Jarod."

"Alright. Likely story. What are you?"

"I'm perfectly human. Just like you. Well, I assume you are."

"Human, eh? Not so likely. I've seen humans. Not so around anymore."

He sighed sharply. "Look, I don't know how to prove to you that I'm human, but I honestly am. Is anything else even around anymore? Now listen, there's more of us. Alright? Back at my base, there are others. All human, I swear to you. Let me take you there. I promise I'm not one of those things that took everybody."

He was very convincing. He was either telling the truth, or a good actor. And I had to be honest with myself; I was just relieved to see another person, even if they were a possible alien.

I sighed lightly, lowering my gun. "I'll drive."

I began driving with him in the passenger seat. So far, there weren't that many turns to make. "So, who are you?" I asked.

"I told you. Jarod. Jarod Willet."

"Yeah, that's your name. I mean, who are you? A little backstory behind Jarod Willet."

He sighed, thinking of an answer to that I presumed. "Uh, Jarod Willet. 19 years old, only child, divorced parents. My father could barely afford to keep himself alive while my mother was so rich, she practically had money coming out of her ass. Guess which one I lived with."

I shrugged. "Father?"

"Neither. I went to live with my Aunt Hattie."

"Trick question, you bastard."

He chuckled. "Trust me, I'm good at those. What about you? I don't even know your name yet."

"Wendy Gale. 18, older brother named Aaron, horrible parents that didn't give two shits about me. And, worst of all, no money coming out of anyone's asses."

He grinned at that. "Well, it doesn't really matter now. There's no one left to pay money to."

"For now." I replied sharply.

He gave me a look of confusion. "What do you mean? Uh, turn left here."

I turned left onto a dirt road, not bothering with the signal. What was the point anymore? "I mean, I'm going to find them. Everyone. I'll find a way to bring them back."

He sighed softly. "Wendy, I don't think-"

"You can shut it right now, Willet. I will find them. You'll see. I'll find everybody."

There was momentary silence as we drove along the rather bumpy dirt road, only the sound of the tires on the ground to be heard until Jarod spoke up. "We're here. It's just up ahead."

I saw what he meant. There was a large building at the end of the road, similar to a prison. In fact, that's just what it was. "Is that a prison?" I asked as I parked the car.

"Yeah. It's homey. You'd be surprised." He replied as he got out, closing the door.

I exited the car with him. "Pretty obscure place for a prison."

He grinned. "Clearly you've never been to prison. C'mon, let me introduce you to the others."

He walked up to the door, knocking in some sort of code. Of course they had a secret knock. The door was soon answered by a black man. He smiled at Jarod. "Hey man, you're back-" He noticed me and his smile disappeared. He looked back at Jarod. "Dude, I know you had a thing for picking up chicks before the apocalypse, but this is ridiculous."

I scoffed. "Seriously? This lameass scored on a regular basis?"

Jarod laughed sarcastically while the black man covered his mouth to keep in his laughter. "Domino, let us in, man."

"Alright, alright. It'll be nice having more ladies here anyway. Say, what's your name?" Domino asked me.

"Wendy. Wendy Gale."

"I'm Dominick Huntsman. Everyone calls me Domino."

I was curious about his nickname. "Why do they call you that?"

"'Cause my dad was black, and my mom was white. You know what they say; you go black, you never go back." He chuckled. "Alright, come on in."

We walked in, and I noticed the ceiling was pretty high up. I was thankful for that. I hated small spaces. Although, the decor was pretty drab as well, which I wasn't so thankful for.

"Where's everybody else?" Jarod asked Domino.

"Travis and Siri are on watch, Shane's still doing research, like always, and Hayden's-" Sudden gunfire from outside cut him off, and I grabbed my .45 and cocked it.

They noticed that I did this and were surprised. "-outside working on target practice." Domino finished his sentence.

This made me blush slightly, putting the safety on and putting it away. "Oh. Good to know." I murmured.

Jarod grinned. "It's alright to be a little jumpy. We all were at first. Don't worry, these guys are right as rain."

I suddenly heard a crazed voice yell, "The temperature changes! There are temperature changes!"

"Uh, make that almost all of these guys."

A man rushed out of a room toward us. "Guys, precisely 61 minutes ago, it was a standard 67 degrees Fahrenheit. Until, a minute later, it dropped to exactly 45 degrees. And that lasted for one minute, one minute exactly, before going back to 67." He looked at me. "Who are you?"

"Shane, this is Wendy." Domino replied. "Wendy, meet Shane. Our genius."

I raised an eyebrow at the wild eyed man with very noticeable peach fuzz. "This guy?"

"Trust me, he has better days."

"45 degrees?" Jarod asked Shane. "You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"Why's that important?" I asked.

"The temperature dropped to 45 degrees when everyone was first abducted. And, exactly one minute later, it went back to normal."

And I remembered what I woke up to. An hour ago. "Oh. You don't say."

"I know!" Shane smiled. "Crazy, right?"

"Man, how long's it been since you slept?" Domino asked him.

"Ah, 72 hours. Wait," He paused for a few seconds. "73 hours."

"You should get some rest." Jarod said.

"I'm busy, Jarod!" He snapped.

"Remember what happened last time you stayed up for this long? You went a bit crazy."

"I'll be fine!" He laughed, wringing his hands together.

"Please tell me no one else is like this." I murmured to Jarod.

"Not yet, no."

"Thank god."

"Domino, can you take care of this?" He asked.

"I'll sure as hell try."

"Great. Wendy, I'll take you to the 'bedrooms'."

"Let me guess; prison cells?"

He grinned. "You catch on fast." He lead me down the hallway to a large room filled with prison cells.

"So, which one's mine?" I asked.

"Any one that isn't filled with stuff. Take your pick."

I looked through the cells on the left hand side, taking the third cell. I set my duffle bag down at the foot of the bed, sitting down and letting out a deep sigh. I noticed Jarod was standing at the cell door. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." He replied. "I'm sorry."

I looked down at my hands, unsatisfied with that answer. I just wanted to know what happened to my brother and my friends and my baby girl. What could have possibly been happening? Were they all dead?

"Do you need anything?" Jarod asked me.

"Water, I guess." I murmured.

"Alright. I'll get you some." He was about to walk away until I stopped him.

"Wait!" I quickly stood up as he looked back at me. I slowly approached him, putting my hands on his shoulders. He was real. I still couldn't believe it, but he was.

"What?" He asked in confusion.

I looked into his blue-green eyes. "You're real." I murmured. "How can you be real? I'm so confused."

He sighed softly. "I know. Don't worry, we'll figure it all out eventually."

"Are you sure about that?"

He took my hands and held them in his own. "I'm positive."

I couldn't take his word for it, but what other choice did I have? We were the only people on planet Earth. All we had left was each other's word.