Adam was barely seven years old when he met the love of his life. He remembered that day like it was yesterday, but that wasn't saying much. He remembered everything like it was yesterday.

"Match up with your reading buddies, everyone!" His first-grade teacher, Mrs. Weatherby, called out from her spot at the front of the classroom.

Even now, Adam could recall the color of her dress. The shapes above the classroom door, and even the equation on the dry-erase board.

He also remembered how everyone at his table scooped their bags up and bolted to the other side of the room.

It wasn't just the kids at his table though. Every kid in the room avoided him fully. Nobody ever wanted to be the reading buddy of Adam Trex.

Maybe it was because the books he read had more than two hundred pages in them. Maybe because he knew words that even the teacher had to look up sometimes. Or maybe they just thought he was odd. It didn't matter why to him. Knowing the cause wouldn't change the effect.

Little Adam scooped up his book and wandered over to the desk in front of the teacher. He pretended not to notice the other children skirting the edge of the classroom, as far out of his path as possible. They acted as if he was going to spring out any second, like a Jack-in-the-box, and whoever he touched would be stuck with him for the next hour.

But Adam was aware of the agenda. Since there was an odd number of children in the class, he would be paired with Mrs. Weatherby. An arrangement that neither of them were very fond of.

Mrs. Weatherby was a wonderful teacher, really... for regular students. She adored children and was incredibly patient. But she never knew where to go with a child who could already beat her in a game of chess, as well as inform her of every pair of shoes she'd worn since the day they met.

She knew as little as everyone else in class about how to get along with Adam. And it showed every time they had a one-on-one conversation.

So it was to both of their surprise, when a girl Adam had never seen before, plopped down in the seat across from him.

"Hi," she smiled, her big green eyes sparkling, as she stuck a hand out towards Adam. "I'm new here,"

How did I miss that? Adam wondered.

"I can tell," he muttered, confused. "Who are you?"

"That's not very polite," the new girl rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to shake my hand,"

She was bossy. Something he wasn't sure how to respond to. So Adam shook her hand awkwardly, and repeated himself: "Who are you?"

"I'm Emily James," she smiled. It was almost as if she hadn't just been scolding him, seconds earlier. "And you?"

"Adam Trex," he hesitated. "What are you-"

"Looks like we're a team, Adam," Emily interrupted. She reached down into her backpack, and drew out a pencil, along with her splatter-painted notebook.

"A what?"

"A team," Emily replied, confused. "You know... some people who work together, especially to do something hard, that you can't do by yourself,"

"I do everything by myself," he informed her.

"Well," she thought a moment. "Partners. We'll be partners, then,"

"I would suggest a substitute," Adam replied, glancing at the book he'd brought along. Not for the first time in his life, he wished he was stupid.

"A what?" Emily rose her eyebrows.

"Substitute. Replacement..." He thought for a second, of how to explain this to a simpler mind. "Someone else," he finished, lamely.

"You... You don't like me?" Emily sniffed, her lower lip quivered slightly, and her eyes bore into Adam's soul most uncomfortably.

"N-no!" Adam shook his head vigorously. "I-I mean yes! I mean, I like you! It's just that, eventually, the appreciation won't be mutual,"

Emily stared blankly at him, and he opened his mouth to explain. But this time she waved him off hurriedly. Instead, the girl dove into her book bag and retrieved a dusty old dictionary.

"Appreciation... Mutual..." Emily mumbled as she leafed through the fragile pages of the book. Finally, when she came up for air, the girl wore a smile. "Don't worry, Adam. I'm not going anywhere,"

Adam merely raised an eyebrow. How much do you want to bet?

"What book are we reading?" Emily asked. She set her dictionary down but made sure it was well within reach.

"A Coal Miner's Bride: the Diary of Anetka Kaminska by Susan Campbell Bartoletti," Adam replied, gesturing at it.

Emily's eyes widened as she surveyed the book from across the table. "I thought that was a dictionary..." she breathed. The mere title contained more words than any book she'd read up to that point.

"Emily!" Mrs. Weatherby jogged over, as soon as she'd spotted where the new girl had decided to sit. "You don't have to stay here, honey. Nancy and Morgan would be happy to add you to their group,"

Emily glanced over her shoulder at Nancy and Morgan, who were energetically waving their arms in her direction. She looked back at Adam and glanced at his book. Then she gave a weak smile and wandered over to the other girls' table.

"I thought so," Adam sighed, deflated. For some reason, part of him hoped that Emily was telling the truth. Maybe she wasn't going anywhere.

But no. It was always just a matter of time.

"Why can't I be dumb, like everyone else?" He wanted to know, staring up at Mrs. Weatherby, fighting the tears welling up behind his eyes.

She opened her mouth a few times, then decided that she didn't know how to respond to that. Instead, she instructed him to start reading and wandered off.

Adam didn't see Emily again until recess, where he sat up against the side of the school, still reading.

Emily snuck up on him from around the corner of the building, making him jump when she hopped out and shot him a question.

"What do you like to do?" She wanted to know. Adam glanced at his assailant and turned silently back to his story. Just seeing her made him feel unusually hurt and betrayed.

"Why won't you talk to me?" Emily asked, sitting down in front of him.

"What's the point?" Adam asked, turning his head further away from her until he was almost nose to nose-with the wall behind him. "You're about to leave again anyway. Anything I say now will be ultimately insignificant a matter of seconds after you're gone,"

Emily snatched up her bag, prepared to leaf through the dictionary a few more times, but Adam slapped his hand over the pages and snapped: "It means you won't care,"

"Oh,"

"Emily!" Nancy popped out from around the corner, making Adam jump once again. Nancy saw him and whispered in Emily's direction: "Come play hide and seek,"

"You realize I can hear you, right? I'm closer than she is,"

Emily started to hop up, then froze mid-crouch. She lowered herself down again and looked back at Adam. "Come play hide and seek," she offered.

"Don't bring him," Nancy screamed. "He's a boy,"

Emily looked at Adam, then back to Nancy. "No thanks. I'll stay here,"

Nancy grimaced. "Ew. A boy lover," Then she tossed her hair and sprinted off back to her group of friends.

Immediately after the girl's back was turned, Emily's face fell. She glanced back at Adam, then stared at the ground and poked the dirt. "See? I'm still here," she whispered.

For a moment, all Adam could think to do was watch her over the top of his book. This was new territory for him. Emotions, and the like. They weren't as simple as they seemed in the books.

Emily looked shattered. He hadn't wanted to make her upset. And he knew he was being selfish. But now he just wanted her to smile again. Her smile was nice.

Maybe there was a way.

Adam dug into his backpack and reluctantly pulled out a small jar of several unique buttons, with maybe forty inside. And he carefully passed it to her.

"Here," he muttered shyly. "I want to show you something,"

She shrugged, barely able to take her gaze off the other girls playing tag at the far end of the playground.

"I'll look away," he demonstrated by covering his face and turning his head to face the brick. "And when I do, you take out one button from the jar, any button you want, and put it in your pocket. Then put the lid back on and shake it up, okay?"

Confused, but with peaked curiosity, Emily did as she was told. Then she handed the jar back to Adam.

Here goes nothing. He took a deep breath... and picked it up, scanning the buttons.

"You picked a purple button. It has six holes, and it's square," Adam informed her. For the first time since he'd shown his father his gift, Adam was nervous. What if he'd done it wrong? Miscounted. Misplaced it. What if the button was actually still in the jar, but he rushed and just hadn't seen it?

All of his worries vanished when Emily's jaw dropped far enough to touch the grass. "How did you do that?" She demanded.

"I memorized them," Adam explained simply. "I can do a lot of things. My Dad doesn't like it when I show people. He says it makes me a circus freak,"

"I like it," Emily grinned, utterly astounded. "You're smart,"

Adam stared at Emily for a second, then it was his turn to ask a question. "Why didn't you go with Nancy?"

"Because I didn't need to," Emily shrugged. "You just want to be understood, Adam. I know that. Understanding things is the only thing I'm good at," she admitted sheepishly. Then she scooted over to the wall beside Adam and smiled at him. "I'm going to be an innovator. I'm going to like Adam Trex before liking Adam Trex was cool. Like a bumper sticker,"

Adam smiled back. "An innovator, huh?"

He stuck out his hand. Emily smirked and forked over the dictionary.

***

When Adam came to, he was lying at an awkward angle on Mr. Harrison's mattress, a stiff spring pressed firmly against his left hip.

The bedroom door was open, and Whynn was nowhere to be seen. But she was somewhere to be heard. And that somewhere was the kitchen. She and Layla sounded like two dog toy squeakers in a boxing match.

All Adam's body wanted to do, was lay down and rest. All his heart wanted to do, was sit back and die. But his conscience wouldn't let him do either. His conscience felt like he wasn't quite ready to give up yet.

That's the only reason Adam was able to force himself off of the bedding and onto the ground. The only reason he was able to ignore his aches and pains, and set off back down the stairs to extinguish another war, before it got them all killed.

"-times do I have to say that I can't charge it?" Layla was demanding, when Adam stumbled into the room.

He took one glance around and almost turned to go back upstairs.

All the lights were out, and snow was falling outside. Whynn was sitting cross-legged on the table, with the most haughty, annoyed expression he'd ever seen. Layla was holding her phone and the cord, waving them in her face. Griffin was attempting to blend into the corner by the door, next to Terrence, who was trying to decide how to break them all up. And as for Eric, he looked about ready to tear Layla apart if she took one more step in Eysjah's direction.

The only decent thing about the situation was that they had managed to build a fire in the stove during his absence, and nobody was burning in it... yet.

" 'Morning Sleeping Beauty," Eric grumbled, the first to notice his presence.

"How long was I out for?" Adam asked, still attempting to process the mayhem he'd walked into.

"Can't s-say," Griffin fidgeted. He barely peaked his head out of the corner to address Adam. "Nobody here has a watch. Maybe a c-couple of hours,"

"Long enough to miss the power going out," Layla hissed, giving Whynn the side eye.

"It wasn't her fault-" Terrence began, but was quickly silenced.

"You can't keep blaming me for everything," Whynn snapped, defending herself.

"Everything goes wrong every time you enter the equation!" Layla retorted. She waved her hands in Whynn's face again, the cord swinging dangerously close to her eye. "It's your aura. You welcome bad luck,"

"Aura?" Whynn laughed incredulously. "Luck? That's your argument?"

"It was pretty s-strange timing," Griffin pointed out.

Eric lunged forwards and shoved him deeper into the corner. "Why don't you keep your useless mouth shut, huh?"

"Hey, come on!" Terrence wobbled forwards but was once more cut off when Layla whirled around and threw Eric back against the counter.

"Don't touch him!" Layla hissed, jabbing her finger, hard, into Eric's ribs.

"Let's all just sit down, and have a bite to eat," Terrence insisted.

"Oh, I see!" Eric swatted Layla's hands away aggressively. Both of them decided to ignore their friend. "As long as he's your mindless slave, you protect him. Because he's too weak to do it himself,"

"Griffin agrees with me because he knows I'm right!"

"He agrees because you think for him!"

"Okay guys, that's enough," Terrence planted himself firmly between the two and gently pushed them to each side. "We're all stuck the way we are, with the people we're stuck with. And I know we're all going a little bit stir crazy, but if we start taking it out on each other, none of us are making it out of here alive,"

Layla, finding no argument with what Terrence was saying, rolled her eyes and went to sit beside Griffin.

Eric shrugged Terrence off and went to sit next to Whynn.

Whynn gave Eric an uncomfortable look, and slid off of the table, making her way to stand slightly behind Terrence.

Terrence patted her reassuringly, causing Eric to bite his lip.

Adam sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth and blew it back out. "I wish you were here," he whispered, softly enough that he could barely even hear himself. Then he sat down by the window and turned his attention to the problem at hand.

"The power is out," he mumbled. "No communication. Nobody's around for miles. Surrounded from the outside. Everyone hates each other. And we've got... maybe a week of food left," Adam rubbed his face.

As much as he hated to admit it, he knew there was only one way this all ended: Death. And from the looks of things, sooner rather than later.

It was just a matter of how they all went out. And when.

"No," Eric spat at the table.

"Great, he's talking to the furniture," Whynn sighed, laying her head on Terrence's shoulder. "Who's next?"

"No," Eric stood up suddenly and started going through his jacket. "I have a father to find, and it's not about to end like this. What does everyone have?"

"It's over E-Eric," Griffin shivered, leaning against Layla's side. "C-cut it out,"

"It doesn't have to be!" Eric denied hysterically. He emptied his pockets onto the table.

"Eric that's enough!" Layla snapped.

"I've got gum, a screw, a broken phone. Here's a gun, a notebook, and a pen. A cigarette lighter USB port-"

Whynn's head shot up off of Terrence's shoulder. "Cigarette lighter USB port?" She echoed, dumbfounded.

"Yeah great," Layla rolled her eyes. Now if we only had a car. That'd be awesome. If we had a car, we wouldn't need to call for help,"

"But we don't have a car," Eysjah grinned. "Or electricity!"

"Why are you smiling?" Terrence asked, a smile tug on his own lips, at the sight of her.

"She's delirious. Does anyone else want to shoot her? Because I call dibs," Layla reached for Eric's gun, but Eric snagged it first and thrust it into his belt.

"You don't want to shoot me," Whynn smirked. "Because I can charge that phone,"

Adam looked up at her. "How? Even I can't think of a way out of here. I've tried everything,"

"You haven't tried this," Whynn took the USB port out of Eric's hand and grinned at it.

Everyone in the room cocked their heads to observe the device as if Whynn was seeing it as a different object than they were. Five minds of completely different capabilities, and still nobody was following.

"You think that can help?" Terrence whispered. The hope in his voice was hard to ignore.

"Excuse me, but last I checked we still don't have electricity," Layla sighed sarcastically, gesturing to the powerless lights above their heads.

"I don't need electricity. All I need are needle nose pliers, a butter knife, a nine-volt battery, a hammer, a nail, electrical tape, and a little container. Preferably a metal one," Whynn informed them confidently.

"I have a screw!" Eric exclaimed, picking it up off of the table. He cradled it in two hands like an injured baby bird, careful not to lose it on the floor.

"Don't start you guys!" Layla cried. "She's full of it,"

"And if sh-she's not?" Griffin mumbled, glancing into his best friend's eyes. "At this point, what o-other chances do w-w-we have?"

Layla stared back at her fidgety friend for a minute. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she nodded slowly. Then she glanced at Whynn. "What all do you need us to find?"

"The pliers, battery, and tape, I have in my bag," Whynn told them excitedly, as she retrieved the supplies from her bag of broken equipment. "I'll use this screw as a nail-"

Terrence pulled a meat tenderizer out from the drawer beside the fridge. "Here's a hammer,"

"Butter knives are by the sink," Adam leaped out of his seat and yanked one out. Then he set it down on the table next to Whynn.

"What about the c-container?" Griffin asked.

Whynn and Adam caught each other's eye. "Mints," they both said.

"Top drawer of the bedside table in the master bedroom," Adam informed him. "There's a little box of mints,"

"Why are you t-telling me?" Griffin asked "I'm n-not getting them,"

Eric bit his lip and cleared his throat, but otherwise didn't react.

Layla rose her hand instead. "I'll get them,"

Whynn first took apart the plastic housing of the car charger using a pair of pliers and extracted the internal hardware: the USB port that was attached to a circuit board.

She heated the knife in the fire from the stove. Then, carefully and securely, soldered some spare wires to the charger.

Taking the meat tenderizer and screw, she carefully punched holes in the side of the mint tin, widening it with a pair of needle nose pliers until she had enough space for the USB port to poke through.

Finally, Whynn taped everything down with electrical tape, attached the wires to the battery, and turned back to the group.

She pushed her glasses further up on her nose and took a deep breath. "Well... let's plug it in, and see what we've got,"