We spent half of the night reminiscing on memories. Breelyn and I would talk about cheerleading, Emma and Breelyn, and Phoebe would talk about the times they would work at McDonald's together. Malachi used to be with them, too. I was glad all of them could come with me. I had so many friends, too many to choose from, but this group was the one I loved most. My best friend, Sophie, was out somewhere. I haven't seen her since the start of the end. Her family packed up and left town, taking her boyfriend with them. Saying goodbye to her was hard, but she was happy. She was excited to see what the world would bring her and her boyfriend. That was what she cared about most, them being together, and I was happy for them. I would never see her again, but it was the same situation with Malachi. Even if I never saw them again, I was happy that they were alive. There was a lot of loss here, especially for Phoebe. She had lost everyone. The constant fear that you're going to lose your family, though, that was gone for her. She didn't have to worry all the time anymore, and she got closure. It was terrible, but trying to see the bright side was the only thing I could do.

  Breelyn and Emma fell asleep in the back when we made it halfway. It was going to be a two-hour drive with no stops. The sun was down, so I had Phoebe grab the flashlight as I pulled off on the highway. There was one car every thirty minutes in the opposite lane, if any at all. I reached back and shook them awake.

  "You guys got your guns?" Breelyn rubbed her eyes. She heard my question but hadn't processed it yet. She always slept so deeply.

  "Yeah, why?" Emma grabbed hers from the door. Breelyn yawned. She nodded her head. "Is it time for gas?"

  "Yes. Are you guys ready?" I waited for Breelyn to grab her weapon and tell me she was ready before we all opened the doors. There were no cars that we could see on the endless stretch of highway, but that's not what we were afraid of. There were a lot of homeless people and people who had moved to live in little patches of forests along the highway, but we were in the dead center of nowhere, so that didn't scare us either. It was the animals. The wild animals had gone crazy. Even birds went nuts sometimes.

  Phoebe held the flashlight and shone it around us while Emma stood next to her, ready to fire at anything that came out of the way. Breelyn held up a second light for me as I took gas cans and topped off the truck. It was fairly quick, probably around a three-minute routine, but it was terrifying to be alone on the highway like this. I strapped the gas back in, and we all got back into the truck and took off again.

  Everyone was awake after that. We stared at the highway, the radio off, while we made small talk and spoke about the past. It wasn't interesting to talk about anything that was happening now. We didn't want to talk about everything ending, but we didn't want to talk about farming and labor either. Emma would say a few things about her dog, and I'd bring up funny stories about the chickens, but that was about it. Everything else was school stories, or the crazy things we used to do and somehow walked away from.

  We passed by a couple of deer standing on the side of the highway. They would stare at us, some of them kicking up on their hind legs. It was terrifying to see a deer trying to stand like us humans. I hated it. It was unnatural. They were the first to get infected, then the birds. It made hunting a lot harder to do because of their change in patterns. Not only this, but eating a deer that was infected didn't seem safe to do. Eventually, it was proven safe, infected or not, but some people refused. My mom and I have been living off the deer, and we've been fine. We would use the dehydrator and put their meat into it to make jerky.

  I dimmed my brights down as we made it into the town of Macon. I had taken a large shortcut to avoid going through the big city, but Macon was unavoidable. We had to use it to travel from Highway 63 onto 32. It was dark outside, so a small number of people would be walking around. To our luck, we were safe. The only person we saw was an old man sitting on the porch, a gun in his hand. I had seen so many guns in the past year. Nobody had phones anymore; none of them worked. It's like weapons have replaced phones.

  We crept onto the interchange and switched highways with ease. I knew we would follow this road for probably thirty more minutes, then we would be on a very long, straight road that probably hadn't been paved over in thirty years. I told them stories about my cousin Jacob and the things I used to do while I was up there. I remembered all of the Instagram posts I had with all of us, and when I went up to Greenwood, I would get pictures with Jacob and post them. Some of his friends followed me on Instagram and Snapchat. I hadn't spoken to them for a long time either. I started to think about my grandma and if she was still up there. Jacob lived with her instead of his mom and his half sister. I hoped she was, because he hated that house his mom loved. He and Grandma were very, very close. All I could do was hope.

  We took it slowly when we turned onto the back road. It stretched on for twenty minutes, and that's when the corners got confusing for me. Breelyn got out a flashlight as Emma laid out a map across the back seat between them. Phoebe turned around, staring at the millions of lines connecting each town. "We need a magnifying glass for this thing, Gosh," Breelyn shook her head. "How the hell do we read this thing?" Emma took out a pencil and got super close to the map, shading the map as she went below the flashlight.

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Move the light, I can't see anything," She looked back up.

  "Well, no shit you can't see anything, your nose is touching the paper?" Emma grabbed the light from her and got super close to the paper again. She looked awkward as she stretched her arm far away from her to make the glare a little better. I don't know whose stupid idea it was to add a plastic coating over a map. The flashlight made it impossible to see from the reflection, but the dark made it impossible to see too. She made a noise of triumph, making all of us laugh as she marked the road.

  "Okay, you'll pass a turn on your right, but don't take it, go straight," As Emma spoke, I passed the right turn she was talking about. I nodded, letting her know I was listening. "You'll take the next right turn and then..." She looked back down at the map. "Then a left immediately after, then a straight, and it'll reach the dot you put on there." I was glad I had marked the map before I left. I knew the coordinates; I had written them down before the internet had completely cut off. I had the coordinates of my brothers and my dad, and each of my friends. I didn't necessarily need the coordinates of my dad and one of my brothers; I knew how to get to their houses. The other two brothers, Gunner and Conner, I knew what town they were in, so all I needed was the route. Greenwood, though, was labeled as an "unincorporated community" online and wasn't even on the map. I was a little paranoid when everything started hitting the fan at the beginning of the end, but it turned out to be in my favor. Conner was always super into the survival stuff, too. His whole life, he spoke about how the world was going to end soon, and everything was going to go wrong. He was part of the reason why I knew how to survive. My dad and Barrett taught me how to shoot guns, but Conner taught me how to throw knives, and Gunner taught me how to shoot a bow. Some of Conner's conspiracies were a little crazy, though.

  I slowed down a bit as I recognized the final road. Ten minutes long. A long, flat road. Then we would be in Greenwood. My stomach started to turn. What if Jacob wasn't here? What if something had happened to him? I couldn't control it. If he was dead, he was dead this whole time. Knowing would give me closure; that's the mindset the counselor told me to have. I took a deep breath in and held it, then released it. I felt a little better.

  We made it two minutes in when a large, blinding light flashed onto us. I slammed on the brakes, the wheels locking and skidding. The truck turned to the side and finally came to a stop. It all happened too quickly. I could still hear all of us screaming. "Everyone okay?" I yelled. I didn't have a reason to yell, but I couldn't help it. They replied, also yelling back to me. Everyone was okay. The light was still illuminating the car. I cursed under my breath, grabbing my gun and hoping everyone else knew to do the same. I tried to look ahead, but I couldn't tell where the light was coming from. It was pitch black, my weak headlights barely showing the road ahead of me, then everything turned white.

  "What the hell is that?" Emma was ducked below the window. Breelyn was doing the same as her. Phoebe tried holding up a blanket to block the light.

  "Is it like a spotlight?" I could hear Breelyn's muffled voice as she bent over to grab her weapon."I think so," It was starting to hurt my head. I wanted to grab the wheel and move us back into line with the road, but I couldn't see a thing. "What am I supposed to do?" I yelled. There was no reply from anyone. The light slowly started to move to the side, still illuminating the ground around us but allowing us to see the tall tower it was coming from. I put the car in drive and slowly crept forward. I told everyone to be on guard, and they were ready.

  The closer I got to the tower I started to see a fence that stretched for miles into the darkness. It went across the road in front of us, forcing me to stop. A few men dressed in desert army-wear stood in a circle around the car, aiming their weapons at us. We had collected our IDs on the side of my door before we left, just in case Breelyn's step-dad was right. I took my hat off and let my hair down to look a little more like my ID. I slowly opened my door and stuck a foot out, then another. I heard the sounds of their grip tightening on their weapons. "I'm armed!" I yelled. I was holding my gun by the tip and held it straight up in the air.

  "Drop your weapon!" I couldn't help but jump. I hadn't heard someone yell that loud since the high school auditorium. My shaky hand put my gun on the ground, and I stepped all the way out of the vehicle.

  "There are three other girls in the car," I tried to speak loud enough for them to hear. I wanted to sound brave, to sound loud and clear, but I sounded scared. I was scared. My voice was shaking as badly as my hands and knees. "We're trying to get through to Greenwood. My cousin lives there, Jacob Frost," I tried to swallow the knot in my throat. "I have a star symbol on my windshield!" One of the men in the front shifted to the side a bit.

  "Sir, she's telling the truth, sir!"

  "I'm going to grab all of our IDs from the door, alright?"

  "With ease!" The man yelled at me. I couldn't make out any of their faces. They were either standing in complete darkness or illuminated by the bright spotlight. I slowly reached for the door, staring ahead at them as I did so. Phoebe tried saying something, but I shushed her and grabbed the cards. I held them out in front of me for the man to grab. He stared at them, pulling out a penlight, while I felt all of the guns aimed at me. I was terrified. "All of them out of the car, now!" He yelled, clutching the cards in his hands. I went to tell them, but they heard him yelling. The car doors slowly opened, and I heard each weapon being set down on the old pavement. There was a very long pause, then each weapon was lowered around us. I felt immediate relief and finally brought my hands down to my sides. They had been up in the air the whole time."Drive your truck through and follow me when you get onto the other side," The man was standing in front of me now, his voice was much calmer. He looked to be a middle-aged man, maybe around his forties. I sighed with relief. "We will detain your weapons. You'll receive your weapons back if you pass screening." I turned around to get in the truck, but a few of his soldiers were searching the car, taking our knives and the rest of our weapons out. We climbed back inside and shut the door. I clutched the steering wheel, rubbing the faint tears out of my eyes. I heard each one of my friends release a sigh after clipping on their seatbelts.

  "Holy shit," I whispered. "Oh my gosh," I felt the tears welling in my eyes again. I hadn't been this scared in a long time."Amelita, we need to keep driving. Lock in," Phoebe gripped the side of the door. Emma was in the back and brought her knees up to her chest. She clutched Breelyn's hand as her life depended on it. If I could, I would curl up somewhere dark and just disappear, but I had to keep driving. I saw some sparks form as the gates slid across the pavement. The man was waiting on the other side for me. It was time to drive.