Reggie shook his head and muttered under his breath as he scanned the warehouse area. Vita knew that scowl and could understand how splitting up the scavenging teams and then filling the missing spots with random people from the gardening, kitchen, medical teams would agitate her boss.

Mischa's forehead wrinkled as she looked down at the card. "We're looking for electrical tape, insulation and any small handheld device with previous messaging and wifi connectivity." She looked at Vita. "You guys don't even have power. What good is this?"

"We don't ask," Vita said. She wished that she'd been partnered with Gunnar instead -- less questions -- but he was off receiving his 'survival' training. As if he hadn't made it through months on his own. Probably just the jealousy talking, she'd rather be learning to fight too.

"Listen," Mischa said softly, "I've been meaning to talk to you about what happened after the disaster."

Vita cringed. "Now? We're about to head into a possibly hostile zone. It's not really the time for a heart to heart."

Mischa clammed up and Vita finished checking her supplies. She smiled as she ran her hand over the knife pouch. Throw in a waterproof bag for collection, water bottle, clothing thick enough to avoid being easily cut by debris and she was ready to go. Mischa had a t-shirt so Vita went digging and found at least something with long sleeves. At least with a thinning population, there were no shortages of clothing.

"Won't it be hot?"

"You'd rather be hot than cut up or sunburnt," Vita said.

Mischa threw on the shirt, and they stood with the others in the group. Matt was missing too. Figures she'd be one of the few from the team who didn't get to go on the mission to Vegas.

Reggie motioned for them to all come closer as he reviewed his stock 'dangers of the ruins' talk to scare the half a dozen newbies. A wake-up call, he had deemed it when Vita had questioned his methods before. He must have caught the unimpressed look on her face because he shook his head and smiled.

"And for those of you used to tuning me out already, watch your buddy's back. We want the same number going in and out, incomplete teams will face consequences not to mention your own crippling guilt. You have your assigned areas and supplies to find. If you can't find them before sundown, don't worry, just make your way back here. Understood?"

"Yes," half the room chorused.

Reggie let out a snort of a laugh. "Understood?" he repeated.

"Yes," they chorused a little louder.

He clapped his hands together. "Good, now let's get out there."

Vita led Mischa down the path she'd grown accustomed to walking every other day now. They passed the skeletons of large warehouses where they'd been able to scrounge up a fair bit of metal and construction stock that Mr. M had been quite excited about. The cars had been left on the road to make the road less passable for others and to serve as shelter should man or nature come after them.

They followed Reggie's advice, the Boy Scout approach: 'touch only what you need and leave the rest the fuck alone.' Reggie's troupe may have been a bit more colourful than those in her neighbourhood.

Vita, Mischa and another group crossed the parking lot, past the semi-trucks that once contained crates of food. Mr. M couldn't have picked a better location next to a grocery giants' supply house. Mischa took the whole scene in with wide eyes that also kept darting from side to side.

"You don't have to be worried yet. We know most people around here and try to keep out of each other's way," Vita reassured.

Mischa's eyes never stilled. "Are there many more?"

"Not anymore. Small storms take some of them," she said thinking back to her former colleague Matt's apprehension on her first mission.

They kept moving through the debris for the next hour into what Matt had identified on the map as a possible conflict zone. They'd only ever encountered one older woman there who looked two days past her expiry date, but the men had been clear not to write off the threat.

Vita stopped Mischa and they crouched behind a concrete wall whose remains reached their belly buttons. Graffiti produced a face dripping red from its mouth. Vita examined the reaches of the paint and kept it to herself that it was likely done since the last time the scavenging team was here. She tried to soothe her mind by blaming the image on Reggie's scare tactics.

Vita checked on Mischa, but her friend's eyes simply moved about the landscape, taking it in. No reason to get her nervous just yet. Cold fingers gripped her arm suddenly and Mischa pointed over to the West. Two men clad in green uniforms, sporting clean shaved faces made Mischa's grip even tighter. She must have known something that she wasn't telling Vita. The men checked small handheld devices and then spoke into a radio.

A roll of thunder caused the men to stop suddenly. The innocent morning clouds had darkened, and the obscurity increased by the second. Gusts of wind lifted torn pieces of drywall and insulation. A current of black smoke wafted over from a sudden burst of flames as tall as a house.

"Let's go!" One of the men hollered, and he headed in the direction of a jeep the colour of the uniforms.

The other stayed in place. "Are you sure it'll burn clean through?"

The retreating man turned around and shouted. "If we don't clear this storm, we'll be in the next pile. Just tell HQ it's done and we'll get the hell out of here."

The engine roared. The second man went running and the vehicle took off slowly. Where did they get the fuel and the supplies to run that thing? Radio communication too?

"Vita, look," Mischa said with a gulp.

Something had tumbled out of the large pile and rolled toward them. Once the jeep was at a safe distance and the wind blowing the flames in the opposite direction, they drew closer. Vita recognized the shape, as she'd seen plenty of casualties in the ditches and on the streets. She hated that she also knew that this death was fresh. Little bloat or bodily fluids, all in one piece. He had a hole in his chest caked with red and black blood.

"Do people get shot much around here?" Mischa's voice was low and took a while to decipher over the winds' howls.

Vita shook her head. "Cut, shanked, knocked out. Bullets are pretty rare and valuable."

"That's what I was afraid of."

"What aren't you telling me?"

Vita's nose wrinkled, and they took a few steps back from the large pile. An acrid stench filled the air, like burnt hair in garbage stew. She didn't need to look closer to know when the other bodies had ceased living. The more curious question was: how and why did a fresh corpse end up here?

"We should get back," Mischa said. Her gaze surveyed all 360 degrees of the area.

The flames leapt closer to the girls as the winds whipped their hair all about. The far-off funnel cloud confirmed Vita's fears. She used the slowly fading daylight to look over Matt's map for possible shelter. Found it: furniture store with basement a quarter-mile away.

"Mischa, I found-" but Mischa was no longer at her side. Her friend stood closer to the flames and knelt down near the fallen corpse. Vita ran closer. "What are you doing? Do you have a death wish?"

Mischa pushed herself off her hands and knees. With a straight face, she walked up to Vita and placed a smooth, hard object in her palm. Vita's eyes were drawn to its cracked screen, very much like the one she would routinely drop at school. How long had it been since communication was as simple as a few buttons? The winds howled a response.

"We'll look at this later," Vita said.

"Wait." Mischa snatched the device back on and with a few clicks and touches, the screen lit up.

How in the hell? Power grids failed months ago.

She walked over to the man and snapped a couple of pictures. Then she turned off the phone, removed the battery and slid both into her pocket.

"What did you find?" Mischa asked.

It took Vita a few slow blinks before she could rewind to the current issue: the storm. She showed Mischa the route, pointed out the obvious funnel cloud that she had missed, and the two took off running. Rain droplets chimed like pin drops and increased in frequency on the streets coated with wet sand. They rounded Vita's least favourite corner with the obscene graffiti and the rotting pile of...

She stopped dead in her tracks. Where were they?

Bodies didn't just get up and walk away, and the crew knew better than to risk contaminating themselves with whatever lingering diseases there might be. Mischa's footsteps paused and they clacked louder in Vita's direction.

The winds tore leaves from the trees and branches from the trunks that still stood.

"Vita, come on." Mischa grabbed her by the arm. "What's so important you're going to risk your life now?"

"Those bodies..." Vita shook her head. "They were the ones they burnt."

"What bodies?"

"The tornado and earthquake victims. There was a group of the ones who didn't make it that used to be here." Vita gestured to the puddle of bodily fluids that would be washed away soon.

"Okay, the bodies were cleaned up. I don't see it as a bad thing," Mischa said quickly.

"It's really bad, Mischa."

Lightning lit up the sky. Thunder cracked three seconds later.

"You can tell me all about it from that basement. Let's go!"

Without waiting for an answer, Mischa grabbed Vita's arm and pulled her down the alleyway. Crimson, sandalwood, and charcoal hues ran down the pavement, opposite their direction. Wash away the evidence, traces of existence. Her throat grew tight. Whatever was out there wanted the victims purged from the record. How many lives would go down outside history because there was no one to remember them?

Mischa found the door waited there for Vita to come inside. The walls were still mostly standing, the roof had sustained the majority of the damage during earlier storms along with the windows. Mischa was digging away through wood and material debris. It took Vita a moment to get back on the same page.

They're just bodies that got cleaned up. Calm yourself. Gunnar was right; the expedition was no place for a girl like you.

She and Mischa found the metal hatch as the walls began to shake. A coordinated pull got it open without compromising the rusting hinges. Vita did a quick scan before they closed it tight and slid the locks into place. A tall cylindrical object sat on the table. She took a chance with one of her matches and lit it off the stone steps. With haste, she reached the table before the flames licked her fingertips. Soon the candle illuminated a small room with a few empty water jugs and food wrappers.

"Hello?" Vita called out, replacing the match with her knife. "If anyone is in here, we're just seeking shelter during the storm. No hostile intentions."

Mischa grabbed the candleholder and walked around the large storeroom. Some old beds and tables were still around here, which was fair. Who had the energy or resources to move them anymore? Maybe Mr. M planned to in the future.

"So was this what it was like when I disappeared?" Mischa asked.

"Not really, only facing a storm and having a shelter a quarter-mile away would be a gift."

Mischa came closer with a furrowed brow. "What happened, Vita? Seriously, no one will talk about it."

Vita shrugged and sat down on one of the beds "There isn't much to talk about."

Mischa grimaced. "That's bull. Rob is missing. Gunnar abandoned you two at one point, and now he's always at your side. What gives?"

Vita let out a low laugh. "Are you jealous or something? I'll trade places with you in a flash."

"If it's the only way to find out what's going on with my best friend, then absolutely. We used to be able to talk about anything." Mischa's eyes pleaded with Vita's, but the feeling was different than it was months ago.

"We used do a lot of things like to go to school, watch TV, have living families."

Mischa's eyes shot down to the candle. Shit, her mother.

Vita slowed down her breathing. "I'm sorry Misch-"

"I'm not stupid. I know things aren't the same, but I still care about you and how you're doing." She sat down next to Vita on the bed. "Quite frankly, if I'm jealous of anyone it's Gunnar because he's the one who is privy to your secrets."

Vita gripped her thighs tightly. "He knows because he was there! When other groups came after us, he fought them off. When Rob was too damn high to get us any food, Gunnar'd find it for us," she defended.

Pain flashed across Mischa's features momentarily but she masked it. "And Rob is..." The question loomed in the air like the nearby tornado.

"Gone." The sudden absence of howling calmed her insecurities.

Mischa sighed. "We've been friends how long and that's all you'll give me?"

"What do you want to hear?" Vita narrowed her eyes. "That we stole and fought people just to get enough to eat at the end of the day?"

"I'm sorry, Vita."

"That Gunnar thought I was a spineless whore for the few weeks he actually stuck around?" The words tumbled faster than her tears.

Mischa placed her hand on Vita's trembling shoulder.

"Or that he was right. That the only skills I could perform in my sickly state served to get Rob off, and half the time they didn't even work."

Mischa stroked Vita's hair and rubbed her back as her sobs echoed off the walls. "Hey, it's over now. Gunnar would never think that about you. I've seen the way he looks at you."

"He told me he did," Vita muttered.

"I've never seen him as upset as I did when I kind of called him out for leaving you. He's hardly talked to me since," Mischa said softly.

Vita looked up and wiped away a few tears. "When did you do that?"

"The morning before we met you in the warehouse."

Vita raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make sense. He didn't think anything of me before we met up again."

Mischa smiled. "Maybe he's too shy to admit it."

"Then he wouldn't say it. He wouldn't lie about it. Did you accuse him of abandoning me?"

"Of course, that's what he did!"

Vita wrung her hands together as she felt her stomach drop. She couldn't imagine how much it would sting to be called out after everything he'd done to find Mischa. "You could not have picked worse words. He's already torn up about leaving his sister to be with you that night."

Mischa's face fell. "Oh shit."

"Oh shit is right. Weren't you two supposed to be friends?"

She folded her arms in front of her chest. "I had my own issues to deal with. I was escaping from an organization hell-bent on forcing motherhood on us. Can you imagine having a kid in these circumstances, at our age?"

Vita's mouth went dry. But Mischa didn't notice the lack of reply judging by the words tumbling out of her mouth. "And they'd kill people for no reason in the 'medical ward'. Yet they wanted to start some sick repopulation scheme some kind of fresh start mentality. It's horrific. The last thing the world needs is children at a time like this."

Vita's limbs felt like led. "You're right."

"That's why I went after the phone and to get the photo. I want to know if anyone recognizes him, because if they do, the colony is really close to finding us and they sure as hell don't play fair. Those are the types of people Mr. M wants his group to go after. You're lucky Gunnar stepped in before you volunteered."

Mischa kept talking, but all that stuck in Vita's mind was the dangers of her pregnancy getting noticed. Armies were after children? What if she got taken hostage? What if they stole her baby? Did she want them to?

No, definitely not.

The winds returned to efface the eerie silence. Vita would fight for that child and protect it as much as Cynthia guarded Winston. She was strong and that baby would be raised by the right people, the ones who didn't want to destroy what was left of the world.