(song: "Can't Do Anything" - Jesse Rutherford)

"Tell me something about you that I don't already know," Serena requests gently.

     "What?" My brain isn't able to fully register her words. I'm still feeling the shock and anxiety of our ordeal with the five men. What if they had caught us? What would they have done? God, it's horrible to think about.

     "Tell me something about you that I don't already know," she repeats.

     I glance in her direction to see if maybe she's gone crazy. She looks frightened, but she's forcing herself to pretend to be calm. I think she is trying to distract us.

     I rummage through my brain for any information I can toss out.

     "My grandmother was the person I respected most in my family. She seemed so wise and like she had everything figured out. My mother had me when she was eighteen so for the beginning of my life, my grandmother was more like a parent to me. My parents had their wild, young lifestyles and road trips. They calmed down and became responsible people when I was around ten before my grandmother got sick."

     "I saw her picture in your house, she looked nice," Serena says.

     I find myself smiling as I think of Grams. "She was, but damn, she was tough too. Everyone was scared to not listen to my Grams. We had a family history of being these tough, pioneering people in Fullerton. I never felt like I lived up to that."

     Serena mirrors my expression and tucks her hair behind both of her ears. "Well, if my opinion matters, you're the toughest guy I know."

     "Your opinion is the only opinion that matters to me," I say in all seriousness.

     She goes silent for a minute. Her hands rub at her knees and she clears her throat to continue with trying to distract both of us. "If the meteors didn't hit, what do you think we'd be doing right now?"

     I think about it, but not for too long. I know the answer. "I'd be listening to Kaylee talk about all the guys at school who want to be with her and you'd be watching Peter act like an idiot around his cool friend."

     Serena scoffs. "God, boys are stupid. Kaylee mentioned other guys around you because she's insecure. She thought making you jealous would force you to show her how much you love her."

     "I wondered why I couldn't say those three words to Kaylee, but it's because I don't have those feelings for her." It all seems so clear now in hindsight. Why was it so hard to realize this three months ago?

     "I wish you would have figured that out before you asked her to be your girlfriend," she mumbles and looks out the window.

     "I wish it wouldn't have taken the end of the world for me to realize I was dating the wrong girl."

     "Logan . . . "

     Serena's voice sounds tired like she's sick of having to explain herself.

     "It's okay Serena. I know what you're going to say, that we're not supposed to talk about it."

     She nods. "Let's change the subject. What are we going to do about the gas? We're almost out. Do we risk siphoning another car?"

     I consider that option and suck a breath of air through my teeth. "Maybe, but not one out in the open along the main highway. We need to find cars in secluded areas."

     "Then we risk the cars being near their homes where they might have guns like that cow farmer," she reminds me.

     "The alternative is we run out of gas and walk to Texas on foot," I say as if that'd even be a consideration. "We have to try again. One more time."

     Serena curls her fingers up and scratches at her knees a few times. She always looks like she's fighting back words or secrets she isn't ready to share with me yet. Sometimes I feel like I know her so well and other times she can feel like a complete mystery to me.

     "Logan, back there with those guys . . . thanks for not leaving me behind. I know you could have been faster without me."

     "Leaving you behind is never an option."

"What do you think of that house?" I ask Serena.

     According to the map, we're close to "the four corners". That's a location in Utah where you can stand and literally be in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico all at the same time. There was only barren emptiness for miles until now.

     The two of us can see a grayish-blue home with wine-red wooden framing. With our backpacks on, we lay flat against a clay-filled ledge that gives us a better visual advantage. They have a small garden, several sheds, two trucks, and a van. It's clear that these people are self-sufficient, they are not just surviving, but thriving surrounded by hard rock clay, dirt, and crumbled earth.

     Serena shakes her head with disapproval. "Looks like a family. We can't take their gas from them, Logan."

     "I'm not taking all of it. We just need enough to get us through half of New Mexico, they have enough food and supplies to be fine."

     "That doesn't make it right for us to steal their gas!" she says irritably. "What if the meteors come here and they need to leave?"

     "Then it's a good thing we're not taking all their gas," I stress.

     Serena still doesn't look satisfied with my answer. I admire her morals and I'd share the same feelings as her if this were not a life or death situation. As far as I'm concerned, we're the priority and we need still have a long way to go. So far the meteors from the sky aren't bigger than the size of a mattress, but what if ones the size of houses—like my father mentioned—start falling? Then cities could be destroyed instead of just damaged buildings, cracked pavement, and abandoned cars.

     "It's our only option, Serena."

     "There is another option," she says in a matter-of-fact way.

     "What?"

     "We could ask for the gas."

     I laugh at first thinking that she's joking, but her face stays serious. "Are you serious? Do you really want us to ask them and potentially get us killed? My dad said not to trust anyone."

     Serena points to the swing set behind the small garden. There are several children's toys and a small inflatable pool. "They have kids, little ones. They just want to keep them safe."

     "I want to keep you safe."

     "I want to keep you from making the same mistakes my father made," she says and turns to look at me with her mesmerizing gaze. "He felt the ends justified the means. As long as my mother and I were safe and happy, that he'd do anything, even if it was illegal. It changed him, and it changed my family. Be better than them, Logan."

     I groan loudly and hang my head. I know I'm going to follow her request before I even say the words. "Fine. Let's go ask them."

     There are so many ways that this could go badly. I don't hear any children and I don't see any movement from the family. No lights in their windows, or tending to the garden. It's a red flag for me, but I want to follow Serena's request. We walk towards the bright-red front door and stand together to accept whatever fate lies behind it.

     She knocks on the door frame and rings the bell.

     Nothing happens.

     She knocks again.

     We can hear shuffling and whispers.

     "Hello? Is anyone home? We're in need of some gas!" Serena calls to them through the window.

     The door slowly opens to reveal a tall man that looks of Native American descent. He is dressed simply in a long-sleeve shirt and jeans. His face is weathered from years of being out under the sun. He looks between the two of us and I try to resist the urge to grab Serena and run.

     "You can come out of hiding, they didn't try to steal from us," the man calls out over our shoulders.

     We can hear the sounds of guns disarming and soon two teenagers, a boy, and a girl, come out from hiding around the back of the garden shed. I look at Serena and we both have to be thinking the same thing. If we had tried to steal from them things would have turned out very differently.

     The father smiles at both of us and gestures past him to a dining table filled with food where two little boys and their mother anxiously wait to eat.

     "Are you two hungry?" he asks.

     The two teenagers casually push past us to go into the house for dinner.

     "Um . . . yeah. Yeah, we could eat—I mean—if you want us to eat?" I stumble over my words. How close was I to getting shot?

     The father smiles and holds the door wide open for us. My dad told me to not trust anyone and in many ways he was right, but because I chose to trust Serena, we're both being invited in for dinner instead of potentially wounded.

     Serena's compassion saved my life.