Author's Note: Thanks for your reviews. I never really expected to get so many!! Much love to all.

()

Chapter 8:

June 30- Alone Again

Josephine tried to follow Davey, but he had a good head start and he was just too damn fast. Josephine couldn't keep up for long and soon she lost him within all the cubicles.

"Davey!" she called out to the stifling air. "Davey, come back!" She was almost on the verge of tears. The tough, stubborn, cold Josephine Kenndler was about to cry... again. She found herself doing that a lot lately. "...Please don't leave me here..." she whispered to herself and all the dead bodies around her.

()

Josephine, knowing full well that Davey was probably long gone, trudged out of the building. Something inside told her that she was alone again. And that thought terrified her more than anything else.

She stood there on the sidewalk and just stared out into nothing. But the sudden sparatic skwaking she heard from above her pulled her out of her daze.

She slowly looked up to see a crow sitting on a telephone line. It just stared at her, looked down on her. It almost seemed to mock her and the disheveled state she was in.

She stood there and stared at it. And her eyes held every negative human emotion possible: anger, hatred, fear, frustration, despair, confusion. The list goes on and on.

"FUCK YOU!" she screamed at the bird. It flew away as her distressed voice echoed and ricocheted off of buildings and the dead.

She collapsed to the ground and sat there for a moment. Davey was no where in sight. "Davey!" Josephine called out one last time. But there was no answer but a distant gun shot.

She knew, deep in her heart, that Davey was gone and she was never going to find him.

()

Josephine trudged around for hours after that. As she got farther from the city, to the outskirts, she noticed that there were far more cars and traffic was blocked up for miles. Everyone had been trying to get out of the city at the same time. But now she heard far less gun shots now that she was away from Cleveland.

It was around 9 p.m. and the sun was just setting over the horizon. She had to find somewhere to stay for the night. She stood in the middle of some unknown street (on top of all the cars, of course) and looked around for a place to stay. The closest place was a convenient store.

She wasn't about to walk into any ol' home. Do you have any idea how bad it must've smelled? And Josephine wasn't about it deal with dead bodies. No way.

She walked right on inside the convenient store, through the broken door. There was shattered glass all around the ground by the door, which she assumed was caused by looters and rioters, who, of course, were now dead. Much of the food that once stocked the shelves was now gone.

As the sun went farther and farther down, the shdaows grew and became more menacing.

Josephine was getting tired, too. She had to sleep. Even if it meant seeing that damned cornfield again.

She went into a back room, which she supposed was for the employees only, but it's not like she cared anymore.

She found a nice corner and dropped her bags. It was getting darker she she quickly whipped out a water bottle and some bread. That was her dinner. Things like that have been her dinner lately.

One by one the crickets came out and began their chirping. Josephine nestled down inbetween her bags and fell asleep.

()

The next thing Josephine knew, she was sitting in an office. An office that seemed eerily familiar. An office that belonged to a certain Mrs. Nancy Andrews.

Josephine looked around, confused afraid. How did she get there? And why was she even there to begin with?

Around her sat everyone: Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Pegman, Mr. Dougly, Jack, Wendy, Hector. Everyone she had known from her therapy. They all sat there, looking at her, smiling. Their smiles were sad and melancholy, but it was like they all knew something that Josephine didn't. It was like they all finally 'got it', but she never did.

Behind their smiles was a secret. A secret of Biblical proportions.

Before Josephine even got a chance to say anything she heard something. It sounded like someone walking, someone walking towards the office, but it was too far away for Jospehine to be sure.

Josephine turned around just as a shadow reached the door. Josephine got the sudden urge that she should stop whoever it was from coming into the room. She felt that she had to protect herself from whoever was on the other side of that door.

Josephine jumped up and just before she reached the door the doorknob turned...

()

Josephine woke up in a cold sweat. Whatever it was that was in her dream, it was bad and it shouldn't have been there.

She was glad she woke up when she did.

But then she remembered how everyone was sitting there, just staring at her with their despairing smiles. That dream was very different from the ones she had in the past. There was no cornfield. There was no singing. There was no Mother Abigail. But then again, Josephine had abandoned Mother Abigail and her cause. She had also abandoned the 'dark man' and his cause.

She was just trying to survive.

Josephine slowly closed her eyes. No need to dwell on any of that. She fell asleep again and this time it was dreamless.

She would need her beauty sleep if she was to survive the end of the world. But getting sleep would be the least of her problems.

She had so much ahead of her.

()

Author's Note: Ok, a little shorter than the others, but otherwise good in my words. I have a few things planned for our little Joey. But what I really want to do is introduce her to characters from the actual book like Stu, Nick, or Fran. Anywho, things will get more exciting, really. Anywho, please review.