DAY ONE

Every adult is gone. The thought rang through Daria's skull like thunder. And that made her think of something else, "Jane?" She realized why her best friend hadn't talked much since she joined them at Schloss Morgendorffer. That had been almost an hour before.

"Yes?" Replied the raven haired girl, teary eyed and with an obviously fake smile.

"What about-" Daria found her voice wavering, and forced herself to speak, "What about Trent?"

Jane looked at Daria's eyes and sighed, "I don't know." She put her hands on her head and messed her hair, "he left town for the weekend, he said something about trying to get a big gig, but he didn't tell me anything about it."

Daria decided to not think about how Jane was evading the question about Trent's fate. She decided to focus on what was important, the future, survival. She stood up and went for the phone, "Jane, you said that every adult is gone, how do you know?"

Jane didn't seem to enjoy being interrogated, but she answered anyway, she was too tired to bicker. "I went to school as always, well, not as always since you didn't show up. I should've realized something was wrong right then. At school I definitely noticed something odd, a few other kids were at the school doors, which were locked by the way. There were no adults anywhere, I mean NO adults." She pointed outside the window, "it's like a ghost town out there."

"Jodie was there?"

Jane looked down, "I guess so, yes, why do you ask?"

Daria sat down and closed her eyes. "It's been hours since the blackout and we haven't heard anything outside of Lawndale. Is that correct?"

"I guess so."

Daria opened her eyes and glared at the floor, "then that means the city's been placed under quarantine. Or something worse happened." She looked outside the window, the bright yellow sky. "It's the middle of April and it feels like the hottest day in July."

Quinn raised her head a little, not really understanding the last bit. "What?"

"The weather." Daria said, "It feels like July, but it's April."

Jane too, wasn't following Daria's thoughts. "What does that mean?"

Daria suddenly stood up, determination filling the void that the death of her parents had formed, "We need to contact Jodie and other reliable people. This is going to get a lot uglier, fast."

Jane blinked but stood up, "cars don't work."

"Then we walk. Jane, take Quinn, she's right it's not safe leaving her alone."

The redheaded girl blinked, "But, why can't we stay?"

Daria didn't bother to answer Quinn's question and instead dragged the younger girl outside. Jane silently followed them. The auburn haired girl pointed at the sky, "see that? That means it's the end of the world as we know it. Our house isn't safe anymore. Whatever killed mom and dad is the least of our problems right now."

"So, what do we do?"

"The safest place in Lawndale is the High school. We need to secure it before a gang does." She massaged her forehead.

Quinn whispered to Jane, "What's she doing?"

The older girl blinked, "I think she's- no, mmm, I don't know."

"Okay, then it's settled. You two are going to find Jodie and Mack, we will definetly need them," she sighed, "I'm going to wait for you at school."

Jane frowned, "what?" She clearly didn't like the idea of leaving Daria on her own.

Daria pointed in the opposite direction of the school, "It's safe enough right now, but if we wait too long, it's going to be hell. Have you ever read 'The girl who owned a city' or at least watched 'The Road Warrior'?"

"No, but I used to watch 'Jeremiah', at least until the cable guy realized I wasn't supoused to get free Showcase." Jane tried to laugh but it came out somewhat forced, almost like a groan.

"That should be close enough," Daria nodded, "that's the world we live now." She looked back at the red-bricked house, "I hope whatever killed the adults doesn't affect us."

Quinn looked at the older girls with confusion written all over her face, "what are you talking about?"

"The world is over, Quinn, and we have to make due with the leftovers." Daria started walking towards school, the other girls immediately started following her, "we have to play this smart, or we're going to be some pervert's merchandise."

"So, school is the best thing you could came up with?"

Daria stopped walking and turned to glare at Jane, "Li's nature probably turned that place into the safest one in all Lawndale. It's not like it's Cheyenne Mountain or anything like that, but it should be safe enough for what's to come."

"So, you want to gather as many people you can trust."

"That's correct, and I want you two to get Jodie ASAP."

Jane didn't move an inch. "Do you know where Andrea lives?"

"Andrea? That Goth girl? Why do you want to know that?" Quinn frowned, clearly not happy that an unpopular kid, and not her friends was mentioned.

Daria seemed to understand the reason behind the question, "oh, you want to raid the Payday discount store?" She nodded, "I bet Jodie knows where she lives, and if not, we will know soon enough from the permanent records at school."

Getting inside school had been a little too easy for Daria's tastes. The front door wasn't even locked, and that didn't sound right considering what Jane had told her before. But she didn't have time to wonder about that, she had to act fast if she wanted to succeed.

She looked around, the school seemed almost haunted with no one inside, 'I hope Jodie's at her place. Her brother and sister are a lot younger than us, she's probably too busy taking care of them to get anywhere away from her house. '. She walked to the Principal's office, "Being here is the best way to take care of anyone." She tried opening the door but found it closed, "stupid locks," she muttered, and started kicking the door relentlessly.

"Hey, Andy, look what I found!" an older boy shouted down the hall, she looked at his direction and panicked. It was a senior student known for being trouble. His green hair looked almost like mucus.

When Daria prepared to run away, someone else talked, "Hey, if it isn't the Misery Chick!" Another boy, older than the first one, came from the other end of the halfway. She was surrounded.

"Heh," the first boy said, closing in on her, "that's funny."

The one she thought was called Andy smirked, "I remember her, she thinks she's pretty smart." He revealed a long curved knife and started playing with it as he walked to Daria. "You like making fun of people not as clever as you, don't you?"

Daria took a step back, she had never met these boys, but it was obvious they knew about her for one reason or another, "what do you want?"

"Well, if you were your sister, probably a little bit of Snu-Snu," he winked, "but you're not. So I think that penetrating with this," he said as he continued to play with the knife, "will have to be enough."

The auburn haired girl glared and turned to run, she knew that the green-haired boy was by far less dangerous than the one that went by the name of Andy. What she didn't know was that said green-haired boy was already too close for her to evade. He punched her on the stomach and then forced her down. "Heh, heh, this is fun."

Daria glared at the boys, "you can't expect to get away with this."

Andy blinked, "haven't you noticed yet? There's no law out there, no adults, no nothing. We are the Kings of the world now."

Daria raised an eyebrow, "that isn't corny, at all."

"Bitch," the boy kicked her and put the knife by her neck, "I wonder how it would be more fun, just cutting you here or doing it slowly?"

"Heh, just do it man, do it!"

Andy looked up at the younger boy, "don't rush me, if she's here, maybe her sister isn't too far."

"What sister? Do you mean my cousin?"

The older boy took Daria's chin with his free hand and pointed the tip of the kinfe at her right eye, "do you think you're the only smart person in Lawndale? Do you think we're all idiots here? Only that dolt-club, the cheerleaders and most of the Football team think you're cousins." He pressed the knife under her eye, "If you're so smart, why are dead?" He didn't cut her eye off though, he laughed and slowly moved the knife back down to her throat.

Daria closed her eyes, expecting (or maybe hoping for) a killing blow. She heard a single swift, booming noise and then something heavy falling on the floor. Another booming sound, and something equally heavy falling to the floor.

She didn't dare to take a peek at her attackers. Not until what she was sure that what she heard what she actually thought she heard.

"Are you alright?"

She found her eyelids unexpectedly heavy on her eyes. And when she did manage to open her eyes, she was relieved to find Andy bleeding to dead on the floor. She raised her head to take a good look at her savior and blinked, it was a black boy she had never met before, someone new to Lawndale. He wore a shirt that showed off his muscles and military-looking pants, on his back he had a big backpack.

"I said, are you alright?"

She took a quick look at the automatic gun he was holding, it looked like one Melody Powers would use, "who are you?" she halfway muttered, not daring to stand up.

The boy glared at the dead boys on the floor. He looked down at his weapon and sighed, quickly holstering it, "I mean no harm," he helped her up. "So, are you?"

"What?"

"Alright."

"I am as fine as fine can be," Daria replied. "I don't have any parents and I was beaten by an asshole that wanted to chop me up. I'm swell."

He nodded and extended his hand, "I am Kyleton, but my friends call me Vlad."

She raised an eyebrow at that but shook his hand, "Daria." When they let go of each others hands she asked, "Vlad?"

"Long story, it would probably bore you out of your mind," he tried to smile but he didn't quite manage.

"Then, I think I will just call you Kyle."

"Fine by me, you're from around here?"

She eyed his gun a second time, "where did you get that?"

"My family owns Armalin Armaments." He explained, "or at least they used to. I don't know if they're even alive." He sighed and looked around, he smiled as he noticed the Principal's office, "ah, so here it is."

"Armalin Armaments? You really aren't from around here, are you?" she said almost like it didn't matter and then proceeded pick up Andy's knife, "you know what's going on, right?"

Kyle shrugged, "from what I gather, the Sun decided it was a good moment for the human race to be destroyed." He grimaced, "and from what I was told before communication was lost, a deadly virus killed most adults in the area."

Daria nodded and frowned, holding her side, "damn, it hurts." She blinked, as if she had just heard what he said, "wait, how do you know all this?"

"You were trying to get inside, right? Let me help you," Kyle said, "slow down a notch, will you?" He put his hand in his back pocket, from which he took what looked to be a wire, "I knew learning this stuff would come in handy." He bit his lip and started working on the door like a professional thief.

Daria folded her arms, "how do you know all this? You're not from around."

"You're right, I am not," he said just a moment before the door made a 'click' sound and he opened the door. "To tell you the truth, I was here by sheer luck, or bad one, depends on how you see it." He stood up and moved to the side so she could get in the office.

She glared at him, her expression clearly saying she would keep pestering him about him being there. But she also seemed more interested at the moment with something else. She started looking around in the office and quickly found what she was looking for.

"What's that?" Kyle asked, standing by the door.

"Keys," Daria said, pocketing a bunch of them, "I and my friends are moving in here," before the boy could ask why Daria thought it would be a good idea to move in the school, she used one of the keys to open a cabinet on the opposite wall, "now, student's records. This should be useful, for now."

Kyle nodded, and sat in the nearest chair, "ah, you're a smart bird, right?"

She didn't look up from the folder she was reading, "I've been called a brain before, but a 'smart bird', never."

The boy made a mocking face frowned, "you seem rather calm, taking into account that those idiots almost killed you."

That made Daria look up from the folder, "and you don't seem bothered by the fact that you actually killed them."

"I was here, in town, I mean, on a mission," he explained, "the government has known about the Coronal Mass Ejection for almost a day now."

"A CME? That can't be right." She widened her eyes, "Normally, CMEs take hours to reach Earth. Not days. And there's no way a CME could've done this, why did the adults die? That doesn't-"

"The adults didn't die from the CME, at least not directly," Armalin said and sighed, "and this CME took a little more than fifty-one minutes to reach Earth, not hours or days."

"Okay, you're making less sense by the minute, soldier boy."

He growled in an almost animalistic way, "look, you little bitch, I don't care for your attitudde. If we're alive it's because something godlike acted to protect the Earth from the CME, it wasn't much but it gave us almost a day to protect ourselves."

She raised an eyebrow and went back to reading the folder. "That doesn't seem like much."

"No," he said, grim-faced, "no it wasn't." He shook his head, "the Professor is dead and so are all the others at his Institute." He looked down, "someone told me about a virus, it's called the X-5 Bioweapon. The CME let the X-5 loose."

She put the folder down one more time, "so, you're some kind of government agent?"

"No, I am not. I just know a few things, or at least I used to." He paused, "but now that simply doesn't matter. From what I've seen in this town, the X-5 is a lot deadlier than expected. It was said to be capable of killing everyone in five states in over five days."

Daria glared, "I've heard that thing being mentioned before, back when I was at Highland," she closed her eyes, "are you telling me that this, virus, was here, in Lawndale?"

"It used to be, now it's long gone."

"So, this thing, the X-5, it killed my parents, along with all the other adults in Lawndale."

"By now, I think everyone in Maryland over the age of innocence is dead. Tomorrow, all the East Coast will follow. The day after that? Half of the world. In less than a week there will be no adults left, maybe only NORAD and similar installations will be left after that, not much more."

"And you're telling me this, why?"

"I've seen you before, in dreams. You're the only hope left in humanity."

"I think you're trying to get to Luke Skywalker, he's a few light-years that way," she said, pointing at the window.

He didn't take her reply lightly. He stood up, glared at her and stroke the Principal's desk, "damnit! This isn't a game, Daria! We can't just-" he stopped screaming and looked at the door for a moment, they heard footsteps closing by. "Somebody is coming." He made a motion with his hands, "dammit, not working anymore, should have known."

"What, you're trying to use the force?" She joked, but didn't say anything else under his glare.

He pointed his gun at the door, "don't say a word."

"I think she's here," somebody said from the other side and the door suddenly opened. Jane Lane almost jumped back when Armalin fired a warning shot to the ground.

"Who are these people?" He asked Daria, glaring daggers at the newcomers.