" Let's go!" Alex made sure to wear baggy clothes to conceal her body a bit better. Her body was just starting to show, but knowing the other nosey woman in her community someone was bound to notice especially since of all days she was getting nauseous. She could not let this affect her. One wrong move and she along with four other people would be dead.

All of the people in her group didn't think anything of it since all wore dark clothing to start off the scouting. It was the perfect camouflage for the desolate wasteland they call home. All buildings crumbled to pieces, streets no longer existing, footprint shaped holes present everywhere that destroyed the concrete and stone buildings.

Nothing was left standing.

The most leftover were crumpled building parts that would fall on top of the humans if touched just the right way. Their only shelter if the Zin decide to come back to this town. Luckily this town had been destroyed and patrolled multiple times already. The Zin would send out their own patrols back in the day to make sure all humans were taken care of, basically have a second sweep of things. These moments of patrols were the worst moments for the humans, well besides doomsday itself. Constantly in hiding, going weeks without a sufficient amount of food or supplies. During this time a lot of the surviving population diminished. They didn't even need to be captured or killed at the hand of a Zin. Hunger and the elements took care of the job for them.

The patrols stopped about five months ago, but one can not be too careful.

"Samantha...go check out that old convenience store. Maybe there's some cans left behind or at least some bandages. Phil go into the aligning apartment buildings, maybe we can get lucky." the male took off following Alexandria's instructions. "Wait! Phil. Make sure you don't go to the 13th or 14th floor. We're not sure if they are stable or not." the older male gave a nod taking off as she instructed. "The rest of you come help me scour the streets for anything left behind."

The three humans looked along the streets for anything that was left behind. Alex took the opportunity to break a few car windows with a stick she found on the ground. Rummaging through two vehicles already she could just tell. She could tell and just had this feeling that they were not going to find anything. The current vehicle she's looking through had tossed aside wrappers, broken glass pieces, even ripped up seat material from animals getting ahold of the items and having their fun. Shaking her head she kicked the door in frustration. Nothing. If they keep coming up so short on items then the group would have to move. Do you know how dangerous it is to move 15 people into a completely new town, walking across the land you have no idea of the condition, with little food, and not knowing if the Zin took interest in a specific quadrant? For all, she knows they could accidentally wander into a Zin infested area. Scouting can only do so much.

"You find anything?"

"No, I'm sorry."

Irritation flooded her even more. There had to be something left behind even if it was a wild animal that they could kill for the group. It's not ideal, but it's food.

Wandering over to another vehicle, breaking the window once more, more out of frustration this time, she scrounged for anything useful. Tossing aside trash after trash she finally found something. There was something stuffed under the seat, which Alex struggled to pull it out. She struggled not to tear it out from the seat since it wasn't releasing her prize, but she risked breaking it. With one last jerk, a red gas container was just hidden from view. With a stumble backward she finally claimed it. This was definitely not food, but they weren't coming back empty-handed anymore.

Walking over to show one of her companions her prize, she felt it.

The ground vibrating just shooting jerks through her body. With every step, she was about thrown off balance. The cars shuffled around from their places. Even looking up she noticed the unsteady graveled building swaying from side to side.

She really doubted everyone could hear her voice over all this commotion, but that was also a good thing. If her fellow comrades could not hear her what was the likely hood these Zin would hear them either? "Hide! Drop what you have and follow!" taking off towards a building that looked pretty sturdy because of the many pillars present just to hold up the outside structure. It wasn't moving. It wasn't crumbling. The worst they would have to worry about is one of the Zin stepping on something by accident.

Making sure the door was closed behind her and her comrades, she slunk to the windows putting down any blinds that were still present. With the windows that were wide open, she gestured for Samantha to help her move any furniture they could find, even if it was broken. They just needed something to cover the openings.

"I'm telling you Das there is no one here anymore. We've swept this town how many times? And not one human has been found. We need to just go onto the next settlement." Alex could hear one of their booming voices all around them. They had to be close. 'Just, please don't step on the building' she internally prayed.

She slowly approached the window to peek out around a blind that was just hanging on by one hinge. The other side was broken into pieces not even useable to hang something. Using her hand she slowly slid it to the side to subdue her curiosity. Off in the distance there were two figures, though she couldn't make out any exact features or even clothing. With the time of day mixed in with the floating dust from their steps, everything was easily concealed. What she could tell was they were two younger figures. From their voice pitches and words used she figured at the oldest, they were the mid-twenties maybe even as young as eighteen. Something she had noticed is that, the younger the Zin, the more accumulated to human culture they are. The older the Zin, the more they're stuck in their ways. The younger generation used the human's vocabulary, traditions, even cultures. They honestly seemed like one of them if it wasn't for the size...and the killing of humans without mercy. One Zin had a gentler facade to him. That didn't mean he was going to give them mercy but seemed the youngest of the two and to himself, since he has only replied to the other Zin instead of directing the conversation at hand.

Alex watched as the two wandered around mindlessly. It was likely they were assigned to patrol the area, and knowing young adults they didn't take it all too seriously. With luck, they would just keep walking after getting bored with this area.

Her eyes wandered across the expanse of the land trying to take in the surroundings of the building, trying to scout out the perfect way to escape without being noticed. It didn't help that she knew she was going to be here for a time so why not get herself comfortable and occupy her eyes. Out of boredom her eyes lazily grazed across the land meeting the apartment building. Her eyes went wide quickly with realization. Quickly she turned her body around and went from person to person. She had to make sure every single person was accounted for. Over and over she recounted. She had to be wrong. There had to be five people in total...why was she only counting four including herself. Such a small number but she had to make sure. Quickly allowing the blind to slide back into place she crawled over to her fellow scouts. "Where is Phil?" looking from one person to the next her voice started to get shaky. This could not be happening. "Has anyone seen Phil?" she asked a bit louder and to everyone at once. Each person scowered the room with their eyes instead of moving around making noise. Each person whispered to themselves the exact same question. "Have you seen Phil?"

Alex knew exactly where he was...she just feared if he was still there. Jumping up onto her feet, she ran to the window and jerked back the blinds with no care. If they were seen by the Zin, who cared at this point. She had to know.

Watching helplessly from the window she could only repeat one word to herself over and over as if this one word could stop her nerves from exploding from her body. This simple one-word phrase was No. "No. No. No." to be exact. Maybe if she said it out loud this scene would stop playing out, because this could not be possibly happening. Not now. Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her.

"Liam I'm telling you I can smell those creatures around here someplace. They have to be here. This thing never lies to me. They're either hiding or just recently left." the one speaking, who she assumed was named Das, leaned up against the apartment building like it was some decoration or wall causing her breath to hitch in her throat. She couldn't take it anymore. Butterflies and the feeling of a roller coaster slid through her causing her to want to throw up. Maybe if she did this feeling of helplessness would end. She couldn't grasp this reality since her eyes were playing out something she did not want to believe was real.

The Zin jumped back from the apartment building as it began to slide out of place. He stumbled away a bit, startled, having not expected the building to suddenly move. How could he not know it was going to move!

The top floors started to crumble, watching as they became dust...falling into non-existence. A hole opened on the side as the floor fell through...at least, she told Phil to remain off the top two floors.

Screaming could be heard from behind her. Whirling around she had to stumble back a few steps. Her comrades were either taking off outside or frozen in fear.

Where did this third Zin come from? With her distraction of a lost comrade she never noticed the third Zin approaching closer and closer eventually ripping off the roof of the house they currently reside in. Rubble fell from the sky as the giant humanoid tossed the pieces to the side. Without hesitation, the older male reached down grabbing her fellow scouts. She was helpless. She could stay and fight, but she knew she couldn't do that. No proper weapons were brought on these scouting missions and she had to think about herself for once. It pained her so much as she watched as her friends were scooped up like candy never to be seen again. She didn't even want to see what they were doing with the humans. She had to force her body to take a few steps back since every nerve in her body told her to run forward. She was the leader. She couldn't just let them be disposed of. Internally her mind went back and forth between running away for safety and running forward to help her comrades. She had to do something...but she couldn't. Placing one hand on her stomach she made a decision. She couldn't risk it.

She kept watching as Samatha started to struggle in the giant's hands. She was always a fighter but now was not the time. Hitting her capture and swearing the girl would not let up. In that girl's mind, it was death or freedom...nothing else. The Zin must have gotten bored with that philosophy though. The more she struggled the tighter the Zin applied pressure and the wider his smirk became. Alex watched as her friend very slowly stopped moving. She went from a desperate kitten trying to get a break from his grip, yelling and clawing for her freedom to completely motionless. Her legs went limp in the creature's hand as her head slunk to the side.

Of course, when the human was no longer moving she was no longer useful. She watched as the Zin just tossed her limp body over his shoulder like some used tissue. Useless, emotionless, nothing in that creature's mind registered Samantha was of any use to him or used to be living.

This was her point of snapping. She couldn't allow that to happen to herself. No matter what. Taking off towards one of the windows with only a blind she jumped out, landing face-first in the ground. She had to take a few moments to look over her own body even with all the chaos around her. Lifting up her shirt she inspected herself over a few times. She knew she would never tell if the child was hurt, but she just had to mentally reassure herself that it was ok by looking several times then grazing her hand over it as if she could feel something.

Finally, her curiosity was settled, she took off towards the direction the other two Zin were located. If she could just avoid them and see if Phil was alright that would be a win for her.

All around her she had to block out the voices and screams. The odd part was she didn't really notice the two younger Zin doing anything or even present. The one taking her scouting party was an older Zin with short greyish hair. She wanted to so badly close her eyes and ears to block out all the actions around her. Flashes of the others just keep appearing to yell at her for abandoning her fellow humans. She couldn't allow herself to succumb to this eternal torment of abandonment. She had to protect someone else in this situation. She had no choice. Why didn't she listen to Aaron?

Rubble started to fall all around her as she traveled further and further from the others. Looking up her worst fear came to pass. The apartment building she was so concerned about started to crumble and fall to the ground. Phil was not making it out of that mess.

Stumbling and dodging, she tried to avoid as much of the falling glass and concrete as possible. Every piece either seemed to fall in her path to slow her down even more or land mere inches from the spot she used to be standing in causing her to run even faster. This had to be hell.

One piece of stone concrete fell right in front of her smashing itself into the ground, exploding into chunks that were larger than her fist. One, in particular, chipped off hitting her right on the head causing her to stumble.

She had to getaway. She just had to. Wobbling from side to side, she clung onto her head where the piece smashed into her. Her vision was getting blurrier and more out of focus with every step until her body collapsed onto the ground. Only pure will power was screaming at her to continue even if it was to crawl away.

The reality is willpower isn't always enough to get you someplace. Her head screamed for her to continue, but her body collided with the ground as everything became blurry. She could just make out the apartment completely falling to the ground around her, not one piece was safe or standing. Everything was destroyed. Everything. Voices and screams vibrated in her ears and echoed in her head until they were suddenly cut off. There was only one meaning to that and she didn't want to think about it.

Darkness surrounded her body, and honestly, she couldn't tell if it was because of her losing consciousness or if she was next to be taken. The darkness engulfed her vision right before her body felt as light as a feather, and she closed her eyes completely, shutting out the hell all around her.

Yes, it's a two-parter. It took me several days to write these chapters because I had so many ideas. Hope this works for you guys because some of you were so excited about this book!!! I hope you still are!!! So what do you think happened to Alex? What about her companions? Or even better what happened to those younger Zin? Did they destroy everything? Please let me know in the comments what you think. Let me know if you want this continued!!!! Don't forget to vote and follow for more!