I woke to Mira licking my face enthusiastically, waiting for me to feed her breakfast.

With a short laugh I gently pushed her away with one hand while the other lifted the blankets off me.

With a jolt I realized that the sticky note was still in my hand. I put it in the pillow cover for now and rubbed my eyes to get a good view of my surroundings.

From the window, the rising sun greeted me with a warm light. The chill of the morning air combined with a warm source created fog on the glass.

I thought it was really nice and welcoming, and I guess Mira thought so too because she started howling at the window.

I stood up and stretched to ease my muscles. Today was a break day, which meant that I could either relax or go to town.

I went to the kitchen and opened a small door in the corner that revealed the pantry.

It wasn't much, but I was running a bit low on coffee. And I just can't live without coffee.

Yep, that decided it, we're going back to the small town.

Next to the pantry was another door where I stored the dog food for Mira. We were also running kind of low on that.

I grabbed a bag of kibble for Mira and a jar that held some coffee grains from the pantry.

The top cabinet held the dog bowl so I had to reach up and get that too. This was one of the few times that my 5'8 height came in useful.

I poured a good amount of food in the bowl and set it down near the front door. Mira rushed over in less than a second and started devouring her breakfast.

A chuckle escaped my lips as she intentionally tipped the bowl over to grab the pieces she liked better first. Which of course was the lamb meat.

I grabbed a pot from the top cabinet and then filled it with water from the sink faucet.

Before everything went to hell, people would have thought that this was gross and that I would die of radiation.

Thing is though, those few animals and humans that survived the after effects actually developed some kind of immunity to the radiation.

Which was a pretty good deal.

I myself went through lots of burns, fevers, headaches, and many other horrible sicknesses before I was able to declare myself fully inmune.

Mira also went through it, but not as severely as my family.

Out of all the family that had traveled to Mexico with me, none of them survived. I still had hopes of finding my cousins from my mom's side, since everyone from my dad's side perished.

My mom's brothers had escaped to somewhere else, but to where I don't know. They took my favorite cousin with them too. Who was more than likely dead. Just like everyone else that I cared for.

I took myself out of those thoughts and went outside to put the pot to boil on a small fire.

When I went back inside, Mira had already finished her food, so I took the dog bowl and put it back in the cabinet.

We both went outside for the pot of hot water, and my furry companion patiently waited as I made my daily cup of coffee.

I used a small spoon and placed some coffee grains in a teacup. Me being addicted to super sweet stuff, I added three spoonfuls of sugar into the the mix. Finally, I poured the hot water in the cup and stirred with the same spoon I had used earlier.

I leaned over to smell the delicious coffee and sighed as the wonderful scent hit me. Perfect start to my morning.

Back in the world that we used to live in six years ago, I would always add milk to my coffee. Now I couldn't, since I didn't have any cows, and of course all the milk spoiled long ago.

I took sip and hummed with pleasure as the caffeine took hold of my system and made me more alert. In a few minutes, the cup of coffee was gone and now sat empty in the sink.

Thank goodness the water hadn't been to hot, otherwise I would have had to wait much longer to enjoy my breakfast. If that was even considered breakfast.

I went back to my room with Mira at my heels and quickly changed to an outfit that would work for the all day trip.

I rummaged through one of my drawers until I found my favorite top. It was an orange, baggy tee-shirt that I could never seem to get rid off.

I placed it on the bed and went to my closet. It was the tiniest closet you could think of. My jeans are the only clothes I hang there, so I don't really care. Dresses and nice shirts aren't really appropriate for the post apocalyptic world.

A dark pair catches my attention so I grab those and a heavy, winter jacket. The nuclear bombs fired from all over the world created something several scientists called a 'nuclear winter'. Which made the temperature all around the world decrease.

I changed quickly and grabbed my old, school backpack that was lying around in the corner.

It was empty so I went back to the kitchen to see what few things I could put there.

Two water bottles and a large bag of dried berries would do. The trip on foot took about three hours, and I wasn't about to risk dying on the road from dehydration.

I set the ready-to-go backpack on the table and headed outside to feed the few chickens that I had.

It was extremely rare to find a group of the same species of animals now a days. It was pure luck that my grandparents from my dad's side had a small chicken coop.

But boy was I glad that no bomb had ever come close enough to destroy the main town. I would have been dead long ago if that had happened.

The chickens cluttered around my feet as I tossed some corn kernels at them.

I didn't have a corn farm, but my skeleton neighbor on the other mountain sure did. Or at least, he used to, the kernels I was feeding the chickens were actually the last ones.

Corn can only grow if it's cared for and protected by humans.

Mr. Skeleton had two whole fields of corn. Which lasted for a good six years without human care. Kind of eye popping if you ask me. Considering the only farming I did on it was bring buckets of water when rain was scarce.

But after six years, of course it's now pretty much gone.

Another reason why I had to go into town.

I lifted the bag of corn upside down by the corners and wiggled it so the last few pieces could come falling down.

As I was about to walk away, the only rooster that lived here came up to the clucking chickens and chased them all off.

I glared at him while he very slowly ducked his neck down and started eating the last kernels. He never took his eyes away from me.

The rooster was plain evil, thus his name. Clucky.

I left the coop and went back to my cabin.

Mira was already waiting near the entrance when I entered. I grabbed my backpack from the table and opened the door to let her go outside.

She ran off to a tree before doing her business and coming back.

Mira barked joyfully, and that marked the start of our small journey.