"Help me! Please!"

She was jolted upward with a start. She had been hallucinating her sister once again. The sister that was stolen from her. The little eight year-old child that was taken from the fallen world only weeks after the weather changed, and that still haunted her. The girl sat on her backpack with her head in her hands as an older boy joined her on the ground. He patted her back as she cried, each tear containing the memory of their beloved sister. Her brother was all she had left, and even he was in worse shape than she.

They had both fled their home town of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to escape the vicious storms that had torn apart their big city.

Remember to stay together.

One of the many things she'd heard her mother say during their evacuation. Yet it seemed it was one of many things she would forget to do. She had left her sister and her mother alone for just one moment. And they had died alone, yet together.

She shook herself away from her brother and stood up. The ground on which they stood was vast and flat, decorated with the fallen homes and shelters of people they once knew. The sun glinted in the distance above the desert sand and dirt, just hiding behind the few trees that still stood. But beyond that were the shadows that came often too close, bringing storms that tear apart entire cities. If she squinted just so, they almost appeared to move, closer and closer.

Her brother nudged her, as if beckoning her to move. She met his icy blue gaze as she spoke,

"You're right. We should probably get going. I don't like the looks of all that."

She didn't have to think twice about where she wanted to go, as anywhere was better than the carcass of their old life. And so they gathered what precious little they had salvaged, and limped away, leaving behind the fragile and shattered life they knew.

As the night followed day and the sun once again hid itself from the sky, the two travelers hiked across the desert and through into the suburbs of a once grand city. There was little to be recognized from the remains of Pittsburgh, and the danger of busy roads now seemed small and immature compared to the death and debris it inevitably brought now. One had to squint heavily to see Heinz Field among the demolished and desolate buildings, it's curved exterior dark and gray as the sky. Factories smoked with no industry, and the grand yellow bridges no longer could hold more than fifty persons.

The girl and her brother stalked across a boardwalk, sparing no more than a glance at the old Benedum. She remembered sitting with her mother during The Phantom of the Opera, and wondering how high she could sing. The car rides were always filled with laughter and singing when they would share the growing excitement of what musical or play they would see next. She saw the enchanting memories of herself standing on that stage with her castmates competing at the Gene Kelly Awards. Now the building only displayed the posters of glorious plays that would no longer show. The Les Miserables poster showed a young Cosette, lost in her fallen world, torn apart by war and poverty. Ravens soared above, collecting garbage that rolled like tumbleweeds across the abandoned streets downtown. She thought she could almost touch one, but the scarcity of human life brings caution to the creatures, and most flew away as she stepped nearer.

She and Kevin took a left turn to continue down the street when the road to their right seemed to suddenly flutter with movement. Both heads whipped to the side in surprise as they crept toward the road, and all went black.