In the bathroom I flipped on the lightswitch and winced at the sudden brightness the lights gave. When my eyes adjusted I took a long look at myself in the mirror. For some reason I thought that I would look different. I had just had my first real kiss, and with Trevor.

For some reason I felt like it was a surprise. For years I have known deep down that Trevor and I would be linked in more than our friendship, but now that it had moved a step up it felt like I was hit with a hammer. I had just kissed Trevor, and he wanted to kiss me. It wasn’t a playful little peck on the cheek like we have been doing since our childhood, but a full on Earth moving kiss.

There was no more guessing about our feelings and what we wanted from each other. We just erased that line. It was now out in the open like a trail marker where we stood with each other. That realization is what I was looking for in the mirror. My eyes did look brighter, and my cheeks pinker, but I still looked the same. Fiery red hair that hid the tops of my hazel eyes. I brushed it away from my face with my same as always ivory colored skin. My mother often called me a valkyrie after the Norse angels. She said whenever I was out in the sun it looked like fire and angels came with me.

After checking my face I hurriedly splashed some cold water on it quickly braided my long hair, and dressed. After one last look in the mirror I grabbed my clothes and headed back to mine and Trevor’s room. I lightly knocked on the door and he told me to come in. I came in while he was pulling his shirt down over his chest and I blushed again.

“Why are you blushing? It’s not like you have never seen me with a shirt off,” he asked in an amused tone.

“That’s true, but it’s not like I’ve ever been as close to you like I was a few minutes ago either,” I answered putting my clothes away in my side of the closet.

“That is true, but I think I have you beat on the blushing scale,” he said moving behind me.

“How do you think?” I asked.

“Everytime you look at me, or walk into a room I blush,” he said sending chills down my spine. I turned to face him and plant a soft kiss on his lips.

“That’s enough flattery for now Mr. Connors, no matter how nice it may be,” I said pulling away from him and walking out into the hallway. I heard the door close behind me and quickly he followed. We both went down the stairs and as quietly as we could we navigated the semi dark living room trying not to wake up Max. Trevor banged his shin on a coffee table and I heard a curse slip out in the quiet whisper. Once we navigated our way through we were in the kitchen. He closed the door and I flipped on the lights. We both waited for our eyes to adjust.

“So what are we going to make?” I asked walking over to the pantry.

“Well we should probably start with some of the more perishable food first. What do we have that sounds like it can be a decent breakfast?” he answered.

“Hmm why don’t we make some powdered eggs with some dehydrated pork?” I said looking back at him.

“As long as you don’t add any salt, and there is plenty of powdered milk and juice, it should be fine,” he said his face pinching at the names of the selection.

“Well for the moment we don’t have a huge amount of proper food. Everything is either powdered, jerked, or freeze dried. None of which is super appealing for long term use, but it is all that was at the Depot,” I answered taking the boxes out of the pantry and setting them on the counter.

“I know. I just really don’t like powdered eggs. Do we at least have coffee?” he asked.

“Of course we have coffee. This is me we are talking about here,” I answered pulling a silver tin of ground coffee out of a cabinet.

He smiled and took it from me. He filled a pot he took from the wall, and set it to boil on the tiny electric stove in the corner. “Maybe later on today we could all go out and go hunting? We saw plenty of game on the way here, and it isn’t like none of us know how to hunt, or have a shortage of weapons,” I said pouring the egg powder into a bowl with water and stirring them.

“Maybe that is a good idea. Winter is coming soon, and when that happens we need to have all of the nonperishable powder food poisoning to live off of,” he said with a smile putting the coffee grounds into the boiling water.

“We have plenty of stuff here to can and jerk lots of meat and any berries and plants we find. Sasha and Meagan are good at finding edible plants,” I said dumping the egg powder mix onto the top of the little stove. They popped a sizzled with the aroma of slightly burned rubber. Both Trevor and I turned up our faces with the bitter smell.

With the eggs and coffee smell it wasn’t long before the rest of the crew was awake and filling one after the other into the kitchen. “We don’t have school, or anything else important to do. Why are we all up so early?” Meagan asked pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Trevor and I had an early start, so we decided to make breakfast,” I answered filling plated with eggs and jerky.

“We have eggs?” Justin asked.

“Dude, they are powdered. That’s why they are tan,”Aaron answered taking a bite. He made a bit of a face, but kept the comment to himself.

“At least there is coffee,” Sasha said taking a hesitant bite. Everyone sat around silently eating their breakfast. If they thought it was gross, or it didn’t taste good no one said a word. When everyone was close to finished I popped my idea.

“So since he only have a certain amount of the food from the Depot I thought it would be best is we went out hunting and scavenging for food we hand can and save. It is nearing the end of September and everything will start dying soon, and all the animals will move into secluded known areas for the winter. If we do this then we won’t need to leave the cabin as much and risk the trek down,” I said looking at their tired faces.

“Why does it matter if we get food for winter? Do you really think we are going to have to stay here that long?” Sasha asked in a bit of a scared tone.

“I don’t know what is going to happen. Personally I don’t know what has happened. We haven’t heard, or seen anything since it has happened,” I answered.

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people looking for us,” she said back.

“For all we know they might think we are dead, and have stopped looking. If anything we should have stayed at the school,” Meagan interjected.

“We wouldn’t have been safe at the school,” I replied.

“You don’t know that,” Justin said now entering the conversation.

“There were dead people everywhere, and not to mention Mrs. Waters,” I said trying to hold my ground.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t safe. If anything we are now in danger because we are up on a cliff in an old cabin,” Aaron said. I didn’t have an answer. All at once all my friends had turned on me and I didn’t know what to do.

“You all saw what I saw,” Trevor said before I could speak, “There were explosions, destruction, and death our entire way here. There was not one living soul besides us. Out of everyone we know we survived,”.

“Yes but that doesn’t mean there aren't others around the country,” Justin said.

“That could be true Justin, but take this into thought. Every single one of us should be dead. If it wasn’t for Sophiene’s quick thinking we would all be dead. If it wasn’t for here we would all still be in the school surrounded by our dead classmates, and teachers. Think of this and think of what she is saying. Do you really want to take the chance of you being wrong and we all die?” he said looking at them all. All around the table I could see the realization hitting them.

I looked at Trevor and mouthed a silent “Thank you”.

“Alright what do we do?” Aaron asked looking at me.

“All of us of the cocktail mix of people who know a thing or two about surviving. Aaron and Sasha your parents are soldiers. Both of you know how to use weapons and are great at coming up with plans. Justin and Meagan your parents are professional game hunters. You both have dozens of trophies in hunting. My parents were both world class survivalists. They have taught me, Max, and Trevor everything we know. All of us together are capable of one heck of a scavenging team,” I said standing up and listing everything out for them.

“Great so now everyone go get ready. Pack a pack. We are going to go out in an hour,” Trevor said getting up and drinking his last sip of coffee. Everyone did get up, but there were a few groans along the way.

“Soph, what do I do?”Max asked.

“Max, I want you to stay near the cliff and cabin. We need someone here to work the lift, plus you are the best at finding the dry wood. I know there are tons of pines around, and pine cones makes the best tinder,”I said laying a hand on his shoulder.

“Alright,” he said not looking too pleased to be left out of the hunting party.