I told her a quick rundown of our story. When I got to the part about The Storm, she couldn't quite believe it at first, but then realization filled her eyes and she said that it made perfect sense.

When I told her about Jessica, tears actually welled up in her eyes and she went over to Aaron, "You poor thing, I can't even imagine what you're going through on top of all this..."

Her body seemed to tense up when we talked about the house we found and our encounter with the sadist. I didn't go into the gritty details.

When I told her that this was the first house we had seen since the one we had been holed up in, and how the rest of the houses up until this one were only a foundation, her eyes widened and she began to shake a little.

"...So, that's what we heard..." she muttered.

"What do you mean?" Jared asked.

"Well, this week... up until yesterday, I heard a bunch of loud noises, almost like construction or something, coming from the distance. It always started around eight or nine in the morning, and went on until five... and it got closer and closer every day. I didn't hear it yesterday, or today. Not even thirty minutes ago, Emma wanted to go outside and see what was happening since the noises stopped," she put her hands over her face, "I told her it was stupid... I told her she shouldn't do it... I tried to stop her, but she got mad and she went anyway. She was in a mindless daze... I almost think she just wanted to die... and... that thing got her..." she put her hands down again and sighed with sorrow, "I just can't bear to see people like that, I wanted to help her... and I failed. I won't let it happen again. You guys aren't dying while I'm still around, you hear?"

Jared smirked slightly, "I don't plan on it any time soon."

"As long as I've got my dad, I'll make it through anything," Aaron said proudly.

I nodded and smiled, "Sounds like a plan, I figure the more people we have grouped together, the better. We've got to gather as many people as we can and band together. It's the only way the country will have any hope of making it through this mess."

It really did feel good to meet another living person.

"So... did you see anything else?" Jared asked curiously.

She nodded, "I guess I should tell you guys about how I ended up here, and what I've seen..."

She got up and opened one of the boxes, taking out a can of meat for each of us, "Here, have something to eat while I talk."

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She had been working in Crestland when she heard the news of the storm suddenly appearing in Arborline. She listened to the radio as she was working, hearing strange rumours similar to what I had heard, and whispers of the involvement of the military.

After her work, rumours had spread about the nuclear bomb going off, and she decided to leave Crestland and head to her parent's house near Arborline to make sure they were okay. She tried to call them with her cellphone, but she didn't have any service. As soon as she went outside, she saw pitch black clouds rolling in from the direction of Arborline. Right as she started to drive, the rain started falling.

"Then..." she said, trembling, "All hell broke loose. I heard an incredibly loud rumbling noise that shook the entire city. It sounded like a massive thunderclap, or something, but it was coming from everywhere. The ground was shaking for like a whole minute, and the car was shaking so much that it couldn't even move. All the people outside on the sidewalks were thrown to the ground, and every time they tried to get up they'd just fall down again. When the shaking stopped, I regained my bearings but..." she shuddered as she remembered, "I saw... hundreds of things climbing down the skyscrapers. I can't even begin to describe them, they were all so terrifying... worse than anything I've ever seen. They... They dropped down onto the streets below and... they went after the people and they..." she gulped, "Everything after that is a blur. I just kept driving and driving until I ran out of gas near this house. The entire time I was driving out of the city, there were these noises that sounded like something was tearing through the earth, and my God.. I can only barely remember seeing these horrifying shapes and things reaching out to me, trying to grab onto me, as I was driving out of Crestland... I don't even know how I got out of there alive to be honest."

She took a deep breath, "There is another thing though that I remember... just a single moment of clarity in all that terror... I remember catching something in the rear-view mirror once. It looked like... a human shape, cloaked in something, coming down from this hole in the clouds. I don't know if it even happened or if I just imagined it..."

She blinked hard, "Anyway, when I ran out of gas, I ran from house to house trying to find another living human being. Almost all of the houses were empty, and the ones that weren't... just had corpses in them. After I gathered as much food as I could, I holed myself up here in the attic, and I've been here ever since with nothing but the radio to keep me company."

From the way she described it, it almost seemed like Crestland had been even worse off than Arborline. Then again, Aaron and I had only gone through the city after the storm had already started. Who knows how crazy it had been when the storm first hit... and considering the carnage we had seen on our way in... yeah, it was probably just as bad.

Jared scratched his head, "Wow... that's pretty crazy... this whole thing is fucking insane, isn't it? I'd just think I was dreaming if I was all alone... Did you ever end up hearing anything on the radio?" Jared asked, "We haven't had any luck."

She shook her head, "The only thing I ever managed to hear was... goats... on the radio the other day."

"We heard the same thing..."

"God..." Sarah sighed, "What is even going on? Don't tell me it's like this everywhere..."

"I don't know," I said, "I'm sure there has to be a safe place, somewhere," I took in a breath, "Well... we actually know of one, there's..." I started but was interrupted by a sudden click from the radio and to our surprise we actually heard a man speaking.