The girl didn't dare make a single noise as she slowly took a step into Larkin's Market, her hands clenched with paranoia while she did so. Walking into an area without sand marked onto it as a pathway for her survival was always the most risky thing she could ever do, but she always had to take it in order to be brave and to get some supplies. And, while the backpack on her back weighed down the entirety of her small body a great deal, her footfall was still eerily quiet.

Her amber brown eyes scanned the aisles full of prescriptions, chip bags, and cosmetics that nobody had looted in the days since the incident that had occurred in her small town. After all, it was completely understandable because if you grabbed a candy wrapper or anything that crinkled, you were as good as dead and your corpse would be left to rot in the market.

Alessia then tip-toed over to the aisle full of books, looking through to see which one she wanted to pick out and read. The only good thing that could come out of getting a novel was that she no longer had to spend money on it, but she wasn't really stealing. Then again, stealing didn't really matter since nothing could stop you... well, scratch that. You could still die if you made one single sound. So she made sure to be as careful as possible, her steps extremely quiet.

She ever so delicately put her right hand onto a bookshelf, peering at the titles that seemed rather interesting to her. The softest and most gentle hum left her lips, but she wasn't worried about this since she kept her voice exceedingly low. This was because of one thing that the father of the family she was with had told her very early on after the incident. So, humming ever so quietly she finally focused on the book titled The Great Gatsby and very gently pulled it away from the others, making sure to make the abandoned novels land on the empty portion of the wooden shelf as softly as possible.

She then shifted her backpack to stuff the book into there with her other supplies and canister of water. Afterwards, she slowly walked over to another aisle, making sure to avoid the spare leaves that had been blown into the store by the wind. She could ever so slightly hear frantic footsteps traveling throughout the store, as well as soft breathing, and she began to grow concerned. She wasn't able to find the person that was making the small noises, which made her sigh silently, as she had an idea as to who it could've been.

After grabbing a plastic jar full of gummy bears, she walked over to the aisle full of prescriptions, sharing a smile with Regan as she saw her walking in the opposite direction as her. Seeing the girl that was a year older than her grinning back at her, she then looked to her left and saw Evelyn, the mother of the Abbott family, slowly getting up after giving Marcus a pill to help his misery.

Marcus, who was eleven, had gotten a bad fever and a sore throat a few days prior and sickness had gotten to the point that his stomach was aching as well. So the Abbotts, as well as Alessia, had traveled to town together that afternoon to get him some medicine that would hopefully help. The fifteen-year-old girl was very grateful that Evelyn had a career as a doctor because she had the knowledge of whatever they needed whenever in pain or ill.

In fact, Alessia was thankful that the family had taken her in regardless of the fact that most people in the world had avoided anyone due to the incident. It proved to her that there were still kind survivors around the planet, despite her being a little mistrustful of the Abbotts for a little bit after they had found her. She was the closest with Marcus, but had no romantic feelings for him, since he felt more like the brother she never had. And she needed that familial presence around her more than ever because of what happened on the first day of the life-changing event.

She tip-toed over to Evelyn and tapped her on the shoulder, smiling at the blonde when she turned around. She then took her right hand and put it next to her face, pushing it forward before pointing towards Marcus, then putting the hand next to her chin and pushing it forward once more. Alessia formed a final word by twisting three of her fingers upward, almost as if she were showing off the number but not quite.

"Will he be okay?" she had signed to Evelyn, to which the motherly figure offered the girl a comforting smile as she nodded.

"He will be just fine," the blonde replied. "I found the right medicine for him and he should be okay..."

Alessia nodded with a relieved smile before going to sit next to Marcus, taking the jar of gummy bears she had found and ever so quietly opening it. She then turned her attention back to the younger boy, grinning at him now.

"Do you want a few?" she signed to him as a question, gesturing the plastic jar towards him. Seeing his head bob up and down, she opened it and plucked out a few gummies before handing them to the pre-teen. "I hope they are still good," she added with a silent giggle. Her heart lifted up with reassurance when she saw Marcus give her a thumbs up as though to tell her that they were still edible as he ate the gummies, and she smiled at him before standing up and patting his shoulder.

Alessia soundlessly stepped over to the other aisle just as she saw the Abbotts youngest child, Beau, stepping onto a basket with his tippy toes. She glanced upward and saw a toy rocket that he was reaching toward and she almost wanted to help him but, before she could, she heard the tiniest scuffling as the plastic toy slipped off of the shelf after being accidentally pushed by the four-year-old. She let out a soft gasp before covering her mouth as she watched it fall, since she knew she wouldn't catch it in time.

Twelve feet...

Nine feet...

Five feet...

Three...

Two...

Regan dived to the epoxy floor as fast as she could and caught the rocket when it was half a foot off of the ground. Alessia then covered her face with her hands and sighed quietly into them, her heart picking back up its normal pace as she sank to her knees. "Jesus..." she whispered inaudibly, her body shaking with fright but also immense relaxation.

They were okay. They were just fine....

She then looked up from her hands and saw the older girl let out a silent chuckle of relief. Regan then took her right hand and put her thumb in the middle of her palm before sliding it up to her other fingers, and then taking that hand and flipping it over on top of her left.

"So close..." she had signed.

Alessia nodded with agreement as she stood up, seeing Regan lift Beau off of the basket and gently placing him onto the floor. She walked over to the little boy and patted his back, smiling down at him before walking in the direction of Lee, the father of the Abbott family. She then plopped down next to him, not noticing Lee asking the little boy to go find his mother and, being the snoopy teenager she was, she began looking through the father's supply bag. But Lee didn't mind, growing used to her doing this.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up, seeing Lee looking at her with a smile on his face. "Did you get another book?" he asked her with his hands, to which she nodded with an excited grin, pulling out the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald and handing it to him. She watched the middle-aged man scan his eyes over the title and nod before tentatively giving it back to her.

"That one is amazing," he let her know with a smile. "I'm sure you'll love it."

"I think I will," she replied before putting the book back in her own supply bag and then looking back through Lee's.

She saw a radio wiring harness that Regan took almost immediately after she caught a glimpse of it, but she decided to just dig through Lee's bag a little more. Glancing at something a little bit more colorful, she carefully took it out, seeing that it was a diary decorated with the hues of blue and red. She then tugged at Lee's sleeve to get his attention, and he peered over at her after handing Regan a set of pliers that were meant for her.

"What's this for?" she inquired with an expression of curiosity in her brown eyes, and he sent her the tiniest grin.

"It's for you," he told her. "I thought I should get it for you. But I won't read it, I promise!"

Alessia grinned at the older man that reminded her a lot of her actual father and how he was like... well, before the incident. It made her heart beat with joy that she was with such a caring family.

"Thank you..." she responded politely before taking the diary and stuffing it into her bag along with everything else. Just another thing to add to the things she had in her bedroom in the farmhouse outside of town, and she was satisfied with that very much.

She jumped a little out of startlement when she saw another hand come into her line of vision and touch Lee's shoulder. It made the teenager turn her head around to see Evelyn, who had Marcus beside her and had a look of tiredness in her eyes. "It will be dark soon," she signed to all of them, ending the sentence with her index finger and thumb tapping her chin twice.

Alessia stood up and hoisted her supply bag over her shoulders as she nodded to the mother, yawning slightly. She took a deep breath and stretched her legs just a little before noticing that the family members had frozen in place. She looked throughout the group of four out of confusion before glancing in front of her, and that's when she saw the fifth person. And her heart jumped into her throat and she didn't dare move an inch.

Beau was walking towards them with something clutched in his arms, almost as if he were hiding it from the family but he was doing a horrible job at it. Alessia saw the object obscured by his arms and she almost wanted to scream at him to put it down, but she couldn't do it or certain death would fall upon her and the family. Her eyes were wide with terror as her heart began to beat frantically in her chest, shallow but soft breaths entering and exiting her lungs. Her hands were trembling as she locked eyes with the young boy, giving him a warning expression, silently begging for him to not make noise with the object.

She sighed with immense comfort when she saw Lee reach out with quivering hands and carefully take the toy rocket out of Beau's hands. She glanced around and saw the expressions on Evelyn, Marcus, and Regan's faces relax majorly as she heard Lee removing the batteries and placing them on the store counter. Alessia ran a hand through her curly brown hair as she visibly smiled with relief, her hands easing their shaking, much to her delight.

Alessia then heard Lee whispering something deadly quietly about how the toy rocket would make too much noise. She saw him stand up and she had the instinct to follow him out the door since she normally looked up to him as a source of protection and she obviously couldn't protect herself from what was in the outside world. But, before following him, she turned around and sent Beau a friendly smile before signing something to him.

"I'm sorry, kid," she told him. "But you need to stay safe..."

Little did she know that it was be the last thing she ever truly said to the kid, even if it was in sign language...

She stepped out of the entrance to the store, right behind Evelyn, Marcus, and Lee, making sure to keep herself on the sand to prevent the footsteps echoed from the impact of her bare feet against the ground from being heard by something beyond her knowledge. She could hear birds chirping from above as if it were a normal day, almost as if none of this had ever happened. And God, Alessia wished that were the case, but she knew that would never happen ever again.

The teenage girl felt the cool breeze of wind from the month she assumed to be either September or October flowing through the air. She honestly had no idea, since she didn't keep track on days anymore and it didn't seem to matter to her. She quickly pulled her hair into a messy bun so that way she could feel more of the wind against her skin, but made sure to stay walking forward. Taking her iPod out of the side pocket of her bag, she placed the earbuds into her ears and began to play one of her favorite songs, The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel. She kept the volume at a medium level, therefore it wouldn't blast out of the speakers and make sound.

The sand that had been spread out on the ground by Lee felt good between her toes and it made her be reminded of what it felt like to be at the beach. The smallest smile touched her lips as she sighed softly, stuffing her hands in her jean pockets as the family entered the forest and traveled along the trail. Alessia thought to herself about what it would be like to just scream out into the horizon, even though she knew that she was not supposed to do that. She just wanted to bellow at the top of her lungs and just end her own life so that way she wouldn't have to suffer through the pain of what had happened on day one.

But, even though the sorrow was agonizing for her to deal with, she handled it with a straight face. She tried her best to stay happy, despite how difficult it was and the fact that she cried during most of the days since. The Abbott family at least kept her spirits up and tried to help her stay cheerful and she was very grateful for the fact that they were still alive. She had met Regan one time in school because she was a grade above her, herself having been a sophomore in high school. But the two had never been close until the day Evelyn had discovered her wandering through the streets of New York all by herself and offered for her to stay with them.

And Alessia accepted the offer, although she was a little hesitant at first, being mistrustful of them. She was now very happy with the household of people even if it would never feel the same as it had with her parents and older sister, Jasmine. She missed them deeply, since all three of them had died on the first day of the incident and she had to watch it happen. She briefly remembered having seen Regan and Lee in the same store her family was in and they had guided her and Jasmine out of there when utter chaos erupted inside after a single phone ringing had led to death for a lot of people.

And then Jasmine was ripped away from her seconds later because she had tripped and landed on the ground rather loudly....

Alessia nearly shed a few tears while the family made their way onto the Springtown Truss Bridge, but she held herself back from doing that, wanting to remain as strong as possible for the others. She knew that they would grow concerned the moment they saw her cry, so she didn't want to bother them with her nonsense. She hung her head a little bit as she fought the sting of pure sadness traveling through her heart, and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as a breath left her lips. Her eyes did well up, but she blinked the salty water away, her fingernails digging into the skin of her palms.

She couldn't wait to get back to the Abbott farmhouse and go to her room so she could lose herself in the books she read as well as the music she often listened to. But Regan and Marcus would probably pull her into the living room after the family dinner to play some board games, although she never really minded very much.

Alessia then froze in place once she heard it, since the song Shape of You by Ed Sheeran had ended. Her heart plummeted to her stomach and a gasp left her lips as she slowly turned around to check for the source of the loudest noise known to man, pulling her earbuds out of her ears as she did so.

It sounded as if there were animated beeping sounds and whooshing taking a journey through the air with its sound waves. The girl couldn't believe what she saw at the opposite end of the bridge and she felt her heart stop completely, and she shook her head in a panic, mouthing the word "No" over and over again. She felt the urge to sprint towards the place where the sound was coming from, but Lee had already pushed her back when she ran forward because he was, realistically, much faster than she was.

Beau had apparently snatched the toy rocket and the batteries that went with it, and the little bastard thought it was a good idea to switch on the loud model, despite Evelyn and Lee telling him many, many times to not make a sound. Alessia understood that he wanted a new toy to play with and to use his imagination when it came to role playing with toys, but now was absolutely not the time, ESPECIALLY when it came to making noise.

"What the hell are you doing?!?!" Alessia frantically sighed in Beau's direction, just praying that he could see her. But he wasn't paying her any attention.

That was when she heard the snapping of several tree branches to her right. And she lost all hope...

Even though she saw Lee thirty feet away from the four-year-old child now, she assumed the worst was going to happen and her legs failed her. Alessia crumpled to the ground as her heart shattered completely, the tears finally unleashing themselves from her pained eyes. Losing her parents and sister had already been enough... and now she was about to lose the young little boy that she had grown very protective of.

She had failed little Beau Abbott... and his entire family.

She heard a deafening growling noise.... and then there was complete and utter silence other than the ambient sounds of the forest. Alessia had the courage to look up and she let out what sounded like a loud sob of sorrow but it was actually just decibels above a whisper, grateful that the blaring beeping of the toy rocket was covering her cries. "No..." she whimpered weakly as her forehead hit the sanded ground.

Beau was gone forever....

A/N: so... beau is gone almost immediately. i decided to open this book on Day 89, which i just learned based on some difficult research takes place on september 14th, 2020! Day 1 was June 17th, 2020! and the rest of the first movie takes place on both october 2nd and 3rd of 2021!! ALSO also, regan is seventeen in the two films and marcus is twelve! surprised at regan's age? i was too!

ANYWAYS, what did you guys think of this chapter? was it suspenseful and heartbreaking? what do y'all think of alessia's character? is she cool and likable? what do you think will happen with her later on? let me know!

be looking forward to the second chapter, which will be a small time jump! yes, we will be jumping forward in the year after beau's death so many times! and this story is gonna be freaking depressing, just like the movie!

-denbroughswife