Amelia

"Ready?" Matt asked as I came down the stairs.

I nodded, tightening my backpack straps over my shoulders, "Did you get all the canned food in the cabinets?"

He turned to the kitchen door just as Emma came in, "I think I found them all." She nodded and smiled softly.

"We'll stop for gas on the way." Matt locked their door as we made our way to their SUV.

Emma and Matt sat in the front seats, Elmer and Linda sat in the middle, and I sat in the back with all the food and melee weapons.

It was already snowing when we left, which would definitely delay our arrival to Tobyhanna. Honestly, I just needed out of their house. It was nice, I shook my head unconsciously, but too much happened there.

The sky was white and the scenery was gorgeous out here, but I still couldn't relax. My mind kept replaying Chloe. She spoke, and she knew her name. I glanced at the textbooks in my lap. This probably wasn't the 'reading material' Matt meant when he said to bring some along, but it was interesting to me, and it'd do.

I spent the next hour skimming through the pages and trying to find if there's a disease that causes something similar or what kind of brain malfunction this could be.

"I can't get through to him." Emma sighed from the front.

"Maybe he's traveling right now." Matt rubbed his wife's shoulders with one hand.

"Let's hope so."

"We're stuck." Matt sighed, running a large hand over his hair. I glanced towards the front window. We were stuck behind a huge truck. Probably traffic.

"You like to study a lot?" Elmer shifted in his seat to look at me.

"Yeah, I guess I do." I shrugged. Emma turned around from the front seat with a smile, and I returned it..

"What're you studying for? You can't be expecting to take an exam in the middle of this." Matt chuckled from the front of the car, his eyes peeked through the rearview mirror.

"Honestly? It just gives me a break from everything that's happened," I paused, "and I can try to find out what made Chloe like that."

"You're not gonna find that in a book." Elmer shook his head.

"I can try to find out what went on in her brain, I just won't know what caused it. She spoke to me when I told her to stop, she couldn't have gone completely insane." I retorted.

Everyone in the car turned around, "She spoke to you?" Matt cut in again.

I nodded, "I told her to stop. I told her who I am, and all she said was 'I'm hungry.'" The car was silent, Matt's gaze drifted slowly from the rearview mirror to the road.

After a few more moment of silence, Emma spoke, "What're you studying?"

"Psychology."

"Well, that should come in handy with the brain then." She nodded.

*

"We're here."

My eyes rolled around under my eyelids, I blinked a few times, adjusting my vision.

Outside the windows of the van, an extensive amount of trees surrounded us, and up ahead was a large gate with several guards. In the distance I could see tons of cars parked and a large facility.

"What's your business?" The man at the gate asked, as he looked inside the SUV.

"I'm here with Tristan-"

"They're with me!" A guy around my age came out to speak to the guard. After a few words were spoken, Tristan leaned on the car, "Good to see you, Matt, Emma." He smiled, "I'll meet you all inside." He patted the car as Matt pulled in past the gate.

The sun was setting already when we got out. The sky was a mix of dark swirls with orange hues from the sun. The snowfall was much lighter now, but still present. I could feel myself relax along with everyone else in the van. It was isolated here, protected.

"It's good to see you guys. Is this everyone?" Tristan came up to us smiling, his warm breath fogging in the cool air.

Matt nodded, "Tristan, this is Amelia. Amelia, this is Tristan." I nodded once as did Tristan, before Matt introduced Elmer and his wife as well.

"Why don't we go inside?" Tristan suggested.

"Alright. We have some weapons, and canned food. Should we bring that in now?" Matt asked.

"We can bring that in later on, you'll be staying near me in the barracks. For now, let me show you around."

As we made it to the front of the building, an older man came out to greet us under the canopy, "It's an honor to have you here. Please come in." He signaled us inside. "My name is Frank, I'm the deputy commander here at our army depot."

We all went around saying our names as he shook our hands.

After Frank's tour, Tristan led us to the townhouses we were given. It was homey, nothing too extravagant, but functional. We transferred all of our belongings to the villa, and I took a much needed shower, for both time to think and reflect. When I came downstairs, our group was gathered around the table where I had left them, Matt still filling Tristan in on everything.

"So, what do you think? Is this something we can survive here?" Matt sounded nervous. I gave everyone a nod as I entered the room.

"New York City has twenty-four hours tops. It's too crowded and too busy. Even if we give it a month to reach upstate New York, there's no way to know what sort of restrictions there'll be on the safe communities. They might not even let us in if we've been out here too long. No one knows what spreads this." Tristan's shoulders were tight, and his face tense as he thought.

"Where would we go?" Emma asked quietly.

Tristan turned to her in silence before speaking, "Montana and Nevada are the safest bet- lowest population density per square mile."

"We haven't been able to reach Ryan yet," Emma gulped, "I'm not sure he even know we're up here yet."

"I'll try calling him, too." Tristan squeezed Emma's shoulder to comfort her.

"Amelia," Matt spoke, everyone turning their eyes to me, "Ryan mentioned that your family isn't here. Have you heard anything from them?"

"They're in Belgium right now. My sister said they closed all their borders, ports, and their airspace." I glanced over our group. Elmer's brows furrowed, and Tristan ran a hand over his hair.

"When they said it was global, I didn't think it was this serious. If Europe is already closing its borders, I'm expecting the U.S. to do the same, if they haven't already," Tristan muttered, "If we really want to get to Montana- we need to leave as soon as possible."

"When's the last time you spoke with your family?" Emma leaned towards me to ask.

"Last night," I whispered, recalling Kayla's worried state, "I'm going to call them again. I didn't get a chance to speak with my parents yet." Emma nodded as I led myself back to the room I was staying in, and dialed Kayla.

The ringing stopped, "Hey, what's goin-" Sounds of muffled yelling and people calling for help rang through from Kayla's side.

Almost as if she didn't hear me answer, she called my name into the line, "Mel?"

"What's going on, Kayla?" I could feel my brows furrow as I strained to make out what was all the racket on her side, "What's all that yelling?"

"There's- there's some people yelling for help." She sniffled, "The embassy locked the doors. No one goes in and no one goes out. But-" She paused, taking another sniffle, "but they sound hurt, Mel. They're begging to be let inside, they're starving."

"Kay, Let's take some deep breaths." I took a few with her over the line, desperately needing them myself, "How are you doing? Are you okay? Is it safe where you are?"

There was some shuffling before I could hear her voice muffling into the phone, "We're safe for now. But- but what if something happens? We're all stuck in here and there's no way out. I'm scared, Mel."

I took a deep breath, anxiety rolling over me. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't help her- especially not being thousands of miles away, and I had no idea what to say that would calm her without lying. It broke my heart that she was calling me scared and I couldn't do anything about it.

"Are mom and dad with you?"

"Yeah, they're right here-" I heard my parents calling something over the line at the same time.

"Hold on, they're- they're saying something," She whispered into the phone. I could hear doors opening and slamming on the other side. "I think it's the military. They're saying that they're gonna move us out of here."

"Are they saying where they're going to-" Static cut through the line. "Hello? Hello?" I pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at it. No service. I ran downstairs, in time to catch our group around the television in the living room.

The sound of sirens rang through the television, before the news anchor frantically looked around him and back into the monitor. "Please remain calm and stay indoo-" The no signal screen appeared on the television. Bars of color turned everyone to look at each other.