Maci Cambel was a spoiled child. Maci's parents had sent her to live with her extremely religious Aunt Katherine – or Kat as Maci called her –her Uncle William – Maci had many rude names for him – and their two year old daughter Olivia. Maci had moved from Los Angeles to almost nonexistent Perdido Beach. No it was worse than that. They lived outside of town, in a maze of back roads.

Maci wasn't bothered by religion. She was bothered by the fact that William was convinced that the government was going to take away his rights. Maci didn't listen enough to find out just how paranoid he was. One day she was on the computer taking her cyber school classes when the internet stopped working. It had happened many times before, the house had a faulty router and William was waiting until it was one hundred percent done for to buy a new one. Maci called for him to fix it, but he didn't answer. She had gone in search of William, but both he and Kat were gone. Their cars were in the driveway, dinner was still in the oven, Olivia was watching one of her educational DVDs, but they were just gone.

It had been eight months. Eight months without TV, phone, or internet. Eight months without an actual conversation. Eight months of Maci and Livy. The food that had been in the fridge and cupboards had run out fast. Maci had expected the worst until she discovered her uncle's crazy paranoid stash of dried solider meals in the basement. There had to be enough for two years. It was the first time that she was happy about her strange relatives. The house itself used solar electricity and used water from the creek.

There was no need for Maci to leave, none at all. There was a reason though.

Maci had caught herself having a conversation with her reflection. She had accepted the fact that she tried to speak to Livy about things she obviously could not understand. But this, she needed social interaction; she needed people to talk to. Up until this time, she had been afraid to leave because she had no clue how to get to town. But being lost was totally better than going insane.

Maci had worked on the car for an entire day. She was no expert, but William's [I]Cars for Dummies [/I] helped. After she put Livy to bed that night, she packed their clothes up and put them by the door. Then she made a list of everything she'd need. Her iPod and charger, Livy's Mr. Teddy, stuff that they used daily. As she was thinking she thought about food. What if all the adults everywhere had disappeared? No kid wanted to pick vegetables or go hunting or ship food out. She added food to the list.

Once Maci had gathered everything on her list and had it by the door she went upstairs to get ready for bed. She could feel the weight of the day on her shoulders, it was hard to be a mom at fourteen, but something just didn't feel right. What if there were no more adults? Kids would be…kids would be kids! There would be no order, only chaos. Did she really want to take Livy into something like that? Maci let out an audible laugh. Oh how things have changed. Eight months ago she wouldn't have cared what happened to Livy, but now it felt like she was her own baby.

Maci's laugh turned into a sigh, if things go badly, she'll just have to take Livy back home.

[&&&]

Maci's driving was indescribably awful. Livy, who was buckled into her car seat behind the passenger's seat only clapped to Maci's jerky driving. [I]It could be worse [/I]she told herself, [I]she could be crying[/I]. The maze of windy back roads seemed like they'd never end, but somehow she found a sign for the highway and followed its directions.

She followed the highway and found Perdido Beach. The small town looked as if it had seen much, much better days. Livy had stopped clapping.