All the natural disasters took place over a month. After that, people became uncivilized.

Stores were looted, buildings were burnt, and streetlights were broken. People hunted each other for food or water. Every city in Earth had become like that. It wasn't safe anywhere. Luckily, my mom and I found an abandoned part of New York where we could make our new home. It wasn't much, just had two very small bedrooms, a bathroom, a little kitchen, and a living room. That was where my mother had given birth to my baby brother Eric. He was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. He had black hair, and silvery/grey eyes that reminded me of the moon.

"Do you want to play, 'I Spy'?" he asked me awakening me from my memories.

"Sure baby bro," I replied ruffling his hair.

"You start!" he said cheerfully.

"I spy with my little eyes, something that is grey," I said. Eric started looking around the room, I watched him amused as he tried to find something grey.

"The couch?" he asked.

"Nope, try again," I told him.

"The window pane?" he asked.

"Wrong again little man!" I said shaking my head. I watched as he began to look around the room puzzled, nothing else in the room was grey.

"I give up!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. "What's grey?"

"Your eyes," I told him. He scrunched up his face to think about this, then his eyes went wide.

"Hey! No fair! I can't see my eyes! You cheated Meredith!" he yelled at me. I laughed, there's nothing more funny than a seven year old yelling at you for cheating at 'I Spy'. I was soon cut off by the sound of someone banging on the door.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Who's that?" Eric asked, as he ran behind me scared. It was unusual to have visitors because everyone you knew was either dead, dying, or lost. My mom walked into the living room nervous.

"Who could that be?" she asked. Shaking my head I peeked through the curtains of the window. Standing in front of our door was a man, and behind him stood at least half a dozen men and women who held empty sacks. I could also make out that each of them had at least one pocket knife hidden in their belts.

"What do they want?" I asked my mom.

"They're robbers." she replied. "They want anything and everything they can get their hands on. They aren't afraid to use those knives of theirs either. Help me push the couch in front of the door Meredith," she said very seriously. I walked over to it with my mom and we both pushed it so that the doorway was blocked.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

They were getting impatient.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Follow me," my mom told us. I grabbed Eric's hand and led him towards the kitchen. He was too young to be experiencing this.

"Where do we go?" I asked my mom terrified.

"We escape through the backdoor. But first we have to grab some food and water." she replied motioning me to pack some food. I grabbed a box of granola bars, a half empty pack of beef jerky and a couple of water bottles while my mom packed some fruits and vegetables.

"Oh no! I forgot the tent!" my mom exclaimed. "Wait here, I'll go and get it."

"No, that's okay. I'll get it mom," I reassured her and entered the house. "Where are you tent?" I looked in the closet, no tent. Then I looked in the two bedrooms, no tent. Finally I looked in the living room and found the tent in the corner. I ran to grab it, I was petrified. The robbers were done knocking, they had started to break the door down at this point. I rushed outside, we were beginning to run out of time.

"Did you get it?" mom asked me. I could only nod. "What happened in there?"

"They're breaking in," I replied.

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"Good thing I took scouts, right mom?" I asked her as I built a fire, but no reply.

After I got the tent we all ran until we could barely feel our legs. We had to get away as far as possible from the robbers. We set up camp in a forest and shared the rations.

"Why did they break in?" Eric asked.

"They broke in because they wanted our food little man. But they won't find much huh?" I laughed pointing at the food we managed to save, unfortunately that didn't help him. I sighed, "Don't worry about them. Your'e safe with me around," I told him pretending to show off my invisible muscles. Then finally he laughed.

"You don't have any muscles!" he said.

"Oh yeah? I have enough to tickle you!" I said. Eric stood up and ran joyfully. I started to chase him when I remembered mom.

"Mom?" I asked.

"Huh?" she said.

"When do we get to go back?" I asked.

"Maybe a week or two," she replied. "For now we're going to have to stay here, it's safe." I nodded and continued chasing Eric. Finally after thirty tiring minutes he decided to stop running and sleep.

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I was the first to wake up so I decided to make some breakfast. I started a fire, it was pretty cold outside.

It would've been helpful if we brought more plates I thought as I put some berries on a plate.

"What's for breakfast?" mom asked me as she crawled out of the tent followed by a sleepy Eric.

"Berries," I replied holding up the plate. "Bon appétit" I added sarcastically. The berries were divided into three sections, leaving the biggest for Eric. "So, maybe we could explore the forest after breakfast?" I asked.

"Maybe," mom replied. "If you promise to stay together and not get lost,".

"Done!" Eric replied happily. He looked up at the towering trees joyfully.

"Are you done?" I asked him.

"Yes!" he said as he jumped up and held my hand. "Let's go!"

Fifteen minutes into the walk we heard mom screaming, "Eric, Meredith, come back!"

"What's wrong with mom?" Eric asked.

"I don't know baby bro, let's go!" I told him. When we got back to camp site mom had packed all of our belongings up.

"What're you doing?" I asked surprised.

"They're coming!" she whispered.

"The robbers?" I asked puzzled.

"Yes, now pack up the tent Meredith. We should keep moving," she said. So I packed up our tent and we walked deeper into the forest.

"Are we ever going back to our house?" Eric asked mom.

"I don't know honey," she admitted. This made his eyes watery. That house was where Eric had grown up.

"Hey don't worry little man! We'll find another place to stay!" I said, but it didn't cheer him up. For hours we walked quietly through the forest only taking a break once. Suddenly the forest ended and there was a clearing. I could see houses in the distance. Maybe this was where we could make our new home I thought.

"What was that?" Eric asked. What was he talking about? Then I heard the rustling, someone or something had followed us.......

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Who or what do you think is following them? If you think you know comment below and if you did enjoy this chapter please vote. I will be updating the story about every week. Thanks for reading!

-chihiro_07