I own nothing except what you don't reconize

Prolgue

"Evan, get Ava into the hide-a-way hole" Ava's father, Max, told her brother as he handed her a backpack full of water and non-perishable foods. Max rushed his daughter up the

stairs towards the master bedroom, his nineteen year old son following closely behind her to make sure she was securely locked away. Ava made it to the closet in her parents

bed room and climbed into the hide-a-way ,looking out at her brother .Evan looked back at his thirteen year old sister, who had tears rolling down her pale face ,"It's okay,

Sweetie, Dad and I will come get you out real soon, try to keep quiet okay?" he ran a hand over her long brown hair and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead, He quietly

picked up the board to lock Ava safely into the hide-a-way . "Keep quiet. Don't come out of here unless dad or I come and get you." Ava nodded her head slightly to let Evan know she understood.

She closed her eyes tightly as he closed the opening of her hiding spot. when she opened her eyes again it was pitch black all around her. She was terrified of the dark, of those

creepy looking things that looked like large green spiders, terrified because those things were killing adults and taking kids. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep. Her

mind kept drifting into the worst thoughts possible. What if those things killed daddy and Evan? What about her other brothers Chance and Ryan? Chance was working at the

hospital today. He had picked up an extra shift to help her dad out with her new cheerleading outfit cost .Ryan had gone to the mall to pick up some things that her dad hadn't

had time to get. Ava chided herself for thinking the worst. She wasn't sure how long she sat there in the dark before she fell asleep.

Ava was startled out of her sleep by the sounds of footsteps in her parents' bedroom. Terrified she sat as still and quiet as she possibly could .She heard the footsteps get closer

to the closet. Shaking, she gripped her backpack closer to her chest. She heard the closet door open and the hide-a-way door was being pulled away. As the door was pulled

away, Ava couldn't make out much except a figure crouched in front of the hole; she noticed it was dark in the room as well as her hiding place. The figure crouched lower, and

she heard a whispered "Ava? Sweetie?"

Ava sprung out of the hiding spot as soon as she heard her name. She flung her arms around her rescuer. She began to sob into the shoulder of this stranger who knew her

name and how to find her. She felt the man wrap his arms around her tightly holding her closer to his body. "Dad, I found her, she was right where he told us she would be" the

man called out to someone else. She felt the man rising from the floor, and instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist. She was carried out of the closet into the bedroom,

too scared to look up from the shoulder her face had been hiding in; she was trying to stop crying.

"It's okay, sweetie, you're safe now," the man told her as he sat down on her parent's bed. He kept running one of his hands up and down her back while the other hand held her

head against his shoulder as she sobbed out her fear and relief. She cried for at least ten to fifteen minutes and the man kept telling it was okay that she was safe. Her tears

weren't completely gone but she wasn't sobbing anymore, she lifted her head up and looked at the man who had rescued her, it was then that she realized the man was really a

teen, probably sixteen or seventeen with dark hair and dark eyes. "How did you find me?" was the first question out of her mouth. The teen looked up above her head at

someone behind her, turning her head Ava saw a tall man with a beard , the man spoke for the teen, "Ava, my name is Tom Mason, and this my son Hal, we were out looking for

food, when we came across your brother , he had been shot…" Before he could finish his sentence Ava had begun to sob again,

"AVA, listen to me. Evan is okay. That's right sweetie, it's okay, He was shot but we had the rest of our group take him to our camp. He was very persistent that we come find

you." Ava looked at this man as he wiped her tears away from her face. She could tell this man was definitely a father by the soothing voice and touch .Ava realized that she was

still in Hal's lap. Quickly she got up and looked at Tom "Where's my Daddy?"

She noticed the change in the man demeanor as he knelt down in front of her. He took her hands in his as he said "Your Dad didn't make it." Ava felt her tears fall as Tom held

her close and picked her up "Come on, Sweetheart, why don't we get you to your big brother?"