Chapter 2: The World Was Quiet.
City B, September 10th? Year 0 of the Great Collapse
The world was quiet.
The room was dark and hushed, the air heavy with the quiet that had settled over Zara and Leo's lives.
She moved carefully, her footsteps soft as she checked the boards over the windows, hands tracing over each crack and nail to make sure nothing had shifted in the night.
A faint draft brushed her fingers, and Zara pressed her palm against it, feeling the cool whisper of the outside world seeping in. A small shiver travelled up her spine, but she ignored it, pressing the wood more firmly into place.
This had become Zara's new routine, her dawn ritual. The boards had to hold; they were all that separated Zara and Leo from what prowled out there.
It had been months since Zara had seen daylight, felt the sun on her skin, or breathed anything other than the stale air in their house.
Months since the world ended and Zara lost her beloved. She could still see the last look on his face, a fierce kind of love mixed with terror, just before he shoved Zara and Leo into the safety of the ditch.
For some strange reason, the mist hadn't entered, only floated along the paved grounds around it in a straight line.
Zara hadn't been able to reach him in time. She still had nightmares.
The small sounds of Leo mumbling to himself as he played drifted from the corner of the room. Zara looked around the small room that had become their world, her gaze drifting over the walls she'd fortified, the boarded windows, the bags and supplies Damon had insisted they stockpile "just in case."