What Little Remains (The Fallout Trilogy Book 1) by Gabriella Wise Page A

I’m not stupid. We have
backpacks with blankets, food, matches, and extra clothing in case something
happens. It’s best to be cautions.
    I look out the door and see people heading towards the
bunker. I lead the way to the house closest to our escape route. Nicole and I
walk like we normally would, laughing like something is funny. Just like
always, around lunch hour, the guards change shifts. The second shift guards
are a few seconds late because they retrieve their weapons.
    The two guards watching the south gate walk towards the
bunker, boredom in their step. Once they are out of sight, Nicole and I walk
for the gate, like everything is normal.
    I glance around, not seeing anyone. Hope tickles my stomach,
and I almost can’t believe our good luck. I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to
jinx it. My heart is pounding with excitement and my hands tingle with the
thrill of getting away from this place.
    We walk out of the gate, our route mapped out. I’ve seen
Jack’s map enough to know the area. We’re going a couple miles west of here to
a small clearing that Jack found. It’d be good for growing, but we couldn’t
maintain or watch it without separating people, and Ricky didn’t want to chance
that.
    It is far enough off the road that scavengers shouldn’t be
an issue. The knife attached to my ankle is a constant reminder that I still
need to be on guard.
    My ears are straining, waiting to hear Daren’s booming voice
yelling at me for being stupid. Twenty minutes pass before I crack a smile and
elbow Nicole playfully in the side.
    “We did it,” I say and then throw my hands up in the air.
“WE DID IT!”
    I laugh, a huge weight lifts from my chest, and I can
breathe for the first time in a long time.
    “This is wonderful,” I say, watching the sunlight and
shadows move against me as I walk through the trees. Seven months in the same
enclosed area is enough to drive anyone nuts.
    I used to think my hometown, Appleheart, Virginia, was
small. The population was less than two thousand. We had one grade school, one
high school, and two churches: one Baptist and one Catholic. Everyone knew
everyone and was always in other people’s business. When I was twelve and got
my first bra, the whole town knew about it before I even got home. I was
mortified until it happened to all of my other friends.
    It was like that with everything. Every big moment in my
life was celebrated with almost everyone in the town.
    Appleheart was so small we didn’t have any of the chain
stores or supermarkets. Most of the produce was grown right there in town, and
the meat was from a town over. We got our main groceries from Aunt Lucie’s
Everything You Need Grocery Store. If the store didn’t have it, she would order
it with no added cost for shipping.
    For shopping, we had to drive almost two hours to the next
big city.
    I knew I wanted to get out when I was fifteen. I wanted
something more than a small-town life. I wanted a fresh start where no one knew
what guy I had a crush on or what my bra size was. Then October 1 happened, and
all of that changed.
    The world came crashing down. Or more like the ground under
our feet started crashing together. I don’t know what happened or what caused
it to happen. I watched the news as massive earthquakes brought down cities.
Tsunamis, hurricanes, lightning storms, and flash floods brutalized different
parts of the world. We lost our television signal within hours after the
destruction started and have no idea how many people were lost. The devastation
was so sudden, violent, and intense that no one really had a chance to protect themselves .
    Cellphones stopped working. Landlines didn’t work.
Appleheart got hit with a tornado and after that we felt tremors from an
earthquake. Things settled, but the survivors were waiting for the other shoe
to drop.
    The other shoe never dropped.   Ricky and I started to rebuild in Fort
Lee, making it into a new home for us. The differences between this old