Flowers. Such beautiful things, yet so delicate. They can easily be ripped to shreds if not in the right hands. Hana Isuzu was careful with them. For she had felt as if they were her soul. She worked with them, weaving them into a crown of flowers. The last thing she would ever make of flowers.

"Hana?" Her mother called from the other room.

"Yes mother?" She called back, carefully placing down her flower creation next to her phone. She walked over to her mothers room and slid the door. "What is it you need?"

"Can you go have Shinzaburo to get us more flowers?" She asked, not looking up, and focusing on the flowers. Hana nods and leaves, and goes off find Shizanburo in the garden, planting more flowers.

She clears her throat and says, "Shinzaburo? Mother wants more flowers, do you have the time to get them?"

He gets up from his kneeling position and wipes the sweat of his brow. "Yes M'lady, right away!" and he ran to the shed. Hana waited patiently outside. They're house was pretty isolated, on the outside of the city.

It had been a few months into the outbreak, and their mother could not stand being in the city, so she sold a lot of her art, enough for a small country side house, on the outskirts of the now broken New York City.

The outline was faint, but it was ugly. Smoke rose continuously, and she could always here gunshots, or grenades going off from their quiet home.

Shinzaburo comes running back out, and hands Hana the flowers, "Here you go m'lady!"

Hana thanks him, and walks back inside. She didn't notice the troopers in blue calmly walk out from the shed. The sound of a muffled pistol shot, and the sound of his skull cracking would be the only thing Shinzanburo would ever hear.

She walked inside, and gave the flowers ot her mother. Her mother took them, and continued to work with them. Hana turned around, and began to close the door, when a small gray object flew through her window.

"What was tha-" She manages to make out before the object explodes, her eyes growing big as she sees the shape of the object. With a loud bang, shrapnel flies everywhere, entering her arm. Hana yelps in pain, and clutches her shoulder, her dress torn by the sharp pieces of shrapnel.

"Mother?!" She screams, and looks over. A sick feeling washes over her as her heart pounds, and her shoulder bleeding. Her mother was lying on the ground. "Mother!" She screamed, her emotions swelling. Her vision was blurry, and her her ears were ringing.

Hana ran over, and despite her pain, she flipped her mother over to face her, and she screamed in horror, and stumbled back. Her eyes darted back and forth. The front of her mother was blown away, her skinned burned, bleeding furiously, and very unrecognizable.

The wall behind her was chipped and bloody. Splinters everywhere, and blood splatters on the wall. There were also a couple fairly large holes on each of the four walls.

Sounds of shouts came from outside, and a couple of gunshots rang out.

Hana screamed again, and she forced herself up, and ran out the back. Her heart pounding, and light headed, the forest was just in her reach when the gunfire started. Bullets whizzed past her hair, hitting the trees in front, but she didn't stop running.

The burn and pain on her arm got worse and worse as she ran, and she grabbed it, biting her lip to stop herself from screaming.

"Get her! Don't let her escape!" A voice called out, harsh and gruff. Noises of tactical best being ripped open, the harsh sound of run reloading and firing again pounded in Hana's ears. Fear had taken hold of her, and she ran.

For hours, she ran through the forest, the men still on her tail. "Don't let her escape! Mrs. Nishizumi won't be happy if she does!"

Hana's heart stopped, and she went cold. "Nishizumi? As in Miho? What are her men doing trying to kill her?" She thought to herself. She felt betrayed, even though a small part of her told her that it couldn't have been Miho. Her emotions began to swell, and the urge to turn back and fight the soldiers grew.

After what seemed to be almost an eternity, something happened. It was quick, three bright flashes, and three new dead bodies crumpled to the ground. A figure stepped out of the shadows that concealed her, and two other behind her followed.

They ran to the bodies, and began to take some essentials, but they did not notice a girls running for her life through the forest. The leader threw up to fingers, and pointed in Hana's direction, after hearing branches snap. On her wrist, a gray watch with an orange outline glowed faintly.

Hana didn't notice either and continued running into the forest, until she reached the riverside. She was out of the city by at least 20 miles within 5 hours, and she was exhausted. She fell to her knees, and slepts

Hana woke up, it was still dark out, but the sun was rising over the horizon. She forced herself up. The forest was farther than she thought. Her cloths were covered with dirt, and her hair was a mess. She wouldn't survive out here she needed to get back to the city, maybe someone could help her.

Her arm was limp at her side, but she could move it. It was bloody, and it ached. She got up, and heard the birds chirping. "How can they be so cheerful with this going on?" She thinks to herself.

There was a thumping in her head with every step. Thought raced into her head as she walked slowly in the forest.

"What did he mean by Mrs. Nishizumi?" She thought. It couldn't have been her friend trying to kill her. "It couldn't have been Miho, she would never do that!" Doubts filled her thoughts as hours passed. She passed by the dead men. The reek of the bodies already rotting disgusted her, and she almost vomited.

"No wonder where they went." She muttered holding her nose. She would have continued on if it wasn't for the fact that New York City was the deadliest place to be without some form of self defense.

She did notice however, they had been interacted with, and many things were missing, but thankfully not any limbs. Flies buzzed around the three corpses.

She carefully, still holding her breath, flipped over the man, and got a good look at him. He was early 40's and a big build. His vest, was stained with blood, a hole in his neck. "Disgusting."

She hesitatingly looked at the pistol holster on his vest and silently debated if she should take it or not. She decided to go with it and grabbed at the fire arm. She also looked around for anything else of use.

As she slowly held it, it felt weird in her hands. The weapon had such a different feeling, the texture the size, no where near flowers. It felt as if it didn't belong there, in her hands, but it would have to do. Hana didn't know how to use it, how to reload it, or even if the safety was on. She would have to pray it was.

The other men also had the same pistol, but she didn't want to go near them. The smell had infiltrated her nose, and her eyes watered. A fly landed on her, and she brushed it off.

She looked once again, and took a flashlight, and a magazine. Carefully she grabbed them, trying not to stain her hands with the stench. She silently thanked her mother for allowing her to live another day, and got up.

Venturing further into the forest, towards the city again, her senses grew dull. She grew tired again and she hadn't eaten in hours, and her energy was dwindling. Noises were faint, and her arm wasn't helping in anyway. The pistol was stashed in her hand, and in the other was the flashlight and the magazines.

"Just a bit further, once you get to an open field you can rest." She kept repeating to what seems liked almost half a day, she broke out of the forest, back to her old home. Even though there had been a grenade explosion, it seemed intact.

She entered through, and saw most rooms had been ransacked. Her house had spray paint everywhere, of the horrid logo. She slowly and carefully walked around the hallways and rooms. And her mother was still lying there. Her arm burned as she walked forward and bent down.

She knelt at her mother side, and wept. Through her tears, she swore, she would avenge her mother. As she slowly calmed herself down she stood up, and walked into the kitchen. She was starving, and there was some supplies left from the ransack.

After making herself a meal, she sat at a broken kitchen table, and began to eat, the gun at her side. She contemplated her next choices. She was without a mother, without a phone, without friends.

Hana finished her meal a little while later, and walked to her mothers room. She bent down, and picked up her mothers corpse, and carried her outside, and walked into a field, one filled with flowers.

"This is where mother would have wanted to been." She thinks to herself, and places her mother down gently. She picks up a pink flower, and places it in her mothers hands. Even with the grenade taking out most of her features, Hana remembered her face. She kneeled by her mother, and prayed.

She prayed for her safety, and for her mother to be in good hands. She prayed for everyone she lost, she prayed for her friends, and their families, wishing them peace and tranquility in these desperate times.

Her eyes twinkled with tears as she got up from her kneeling position. She looked at her mother one last time, peacefully lying there. She couldn't leave her mother like this. Hana went through the fields, picking as many flowers as she could.

With quick and steady hands, she weaved a wreath of colorful flowers, and deemed it on her mothers head. "This is what she would have wanted me to do." Hana thought. As she walked away from the field, a burning rage began to boil inside of her as she looked at the destroyed city. Smoke, sirens and gunshots rise from the city.

Her spirit was filled with anger, anger towards the faction that killed her mother, the anger towards the government for getting them stranded here, and the annoyance that had built up over the years. She knew what she would do, but she didn't know how.

All she did know, was she was heading into the burning hell that we know as New York City,