"So, what do we do now?" Emily asked her her father. It was daylight and they were out in the yard, and her husband wasn't home, and she didn't have to work, all things considering.

Maverick sighed. "We need to go to Yuma."

Emily nodded, understanding that reasoning. It was the sunniest place on earth, or at least the sunniest place in America at least, so she doubted many vampires would be there. Her father also owned properties there, so it did make a lot of sense. Not to mention, Yuma was also home to a military base, which would provide protection for whatever humans could make it there.

"Okay, then how are we going to do this?" She didn't bother to ask about or mention her mother. She knew she had been bitten and she did complete her change, and it drove a wedge between her parents, not that things were already good between them to start with. Her husband Frankie had also fallen to the epidemic, her brother-in-law, Ed, told her that when he dropped his daughter Alannah off with her yesterday. He gave her to Emily because he feared that Frankie might try to change him, and he didn't want his 6-year-old to be around that kind of danger.

Maverick sighed again. "I just went grocery shopping before this outbreak broke out, and I'm going to pack those, since we need to get all that we can take. But we need to go now, while it's still early in the day and go get some more supplies." He said. "Thomas told me that no one is working at the Walmart or Sam's across the street there, so we'll have to loot."

She raised a brow. "Loot?" She asked. "Isn't that illegal?"

Maverick snorted a bit. "Darling, we're in the middle of an apocalypse, there are no laws right now." He said. "We need to go now and get what we need and get packed tonight and leave at first light, before those vamps get themselves organized." He told me. "Jonah can watch the kids."

Her younger brother was only 10, but was the third eldest child in the family, and he was actually quite mature for his age. "Okay." Emily nodded with a shrug. "Give me 5 minutes." She then went back next door to her house and got her two-year-old daughter, Belle, her five-month-old, Marlie and her niece and took them to her dad's house. Then she and Maverick walked over to the Walmart and Sam's Club that were side-by-side. They went to the carts and Maverick got some zipties out of his pocket and zipped tied two large Sam's Club carts together and told Emily to take it, before doing two more.

"Should make it easier." He shrugged at her questioning look. They went in and there were a few other humans here, not many, apparently, they had the same idea they had. And just as Maverick said, no one was working.

He glanced over to his daughter. "Let's just to make this as quick as we can and get the hell out of here."

"Agreed." She nodded, going to the side closest to them, which was the health and beauty. "This is really weird." She murmured, following her father, figuring it was best that they stayed together. They would start on this end and make their way around.

Emily took just about all the bottles of her favorite brands of shampoo, as well as for Alannah and Belle, feminine products, bubble bath, body wash, the whole nine yards. Maverick had to get his dogs some food and Emily had to get them for her dog, and the cats. As well as Belle's hamster and Alannah's rabbit.

"So, toys?" Maverick asked. "And clothes?"

She was going to say no, that they had plenty, but that wasn't true, Alannah didn't have a lot of toys, her father had only packed her two weeks' worth of clothes and her favorite toys only. "Uhm, we're just going to have to throw and go." She told him.

They went by the toys, and she went down the girl's toy aisle, and just literally threw stuff in the buggy. She knew that Alannah like Monster High, Ever After High, Bratz, Legos, Shopkins, and Frozen, just to name a few, so she got whatever she saw on those. Belle was obsessed with barbie and baby alive to name a couple. They probably spent no more than 15 minutes in this section, before moving onto clothes, she didn't get much here, at least not for her girls, because she knew that they had clothes already, but Alannah, she didn't have much at all.

They then headed to the baby stuff, so she could get as many diapers and wipes as she could, as well as baby formula, toys, etc, most of what she grabbed, she didn't get too good a look.

They went by school supplies and the food section before they left Walmart and quickly went to Sam's Club and got everything they could there and back home. Emily pushed the two buggies into her garage, where she would get the stuff packed tonight before going to get the girls and brought them back home. She put them all down for a nap (though she had Alannah laying on the couch with a movie) while she got everything put in storage containers in the trailer. She also made go bags with snacks and such for Belle and Alannah and for her siblings, as it would be around a 26-hour drive to Yuma from here in Nashville.

She put all the cold stuff (not many) into some large coolers and put them into the trailer as well. Once all of that was done, she worked on packing their stuff. She got out her suitcases and threw her clothes and her uniforms into them and just zipped them. She packed all the stuff that couldn't be replaced such as pictures (except for duplicates that she left for Frankie) and Belle's personalized baby stuff and then the girl's clothes and toys that they already had and put them in too, before she was satisfied with what she had packed.

After feeding the girls supper, and it got dark, they each got baths before she put them all in her bed for the night. She laid in bed with a lamp on and a piece of paper and a pen as she thought about what to write to Frankie.

Frankie,

I know you'll hate me for what I am about to do, but I had to leave. You know that I would refuse to make the change. I made a promise to keep these kids safe, I made a duty to my country when I enlisted, and I intend to keep that oath. You need to understand the choice I made. The choice of leaving you was the hardest one that I've ever had to make, because you're my husband and I love you, but I had my family to think about, our daughters to think of. And your niece to think about. I can't let anything happen to them, I don't want this life for our children. I owe them that much. I will be safe, we will be safe. Please don't worry, and always remember, I do love you.

Love you Always,

Emily

She finished the letter and folded it up into an envelope and wrote his name on it. She placed it on the nightstand and looked over to the girls. She had only been 20 when she had Belle, and Frankie was 22 and was also in the army, which is where she had met him actually, she had decided to enlist when she was 16 and graduated high school. She sighed and turned off the lamp and fell asleep before the alarm woke her up at 6 that next morning.

Maverick and Emily had decided to leave at dawn that morning. She made sure to dress the girls warmly that morning, as it was a bit cold in January. She placed Alannah's booster seat in the front seat of her jeep and got her settled in with her go bag, pillow and blanket, as well as her favorite stuffed animal and she did the same with Belle in the back seat before getting Marlie in. She jogged across the yard and handed her dad the go bags for her siblings before coming back to the jeep. She put one of the cat's carriers in between the car seats in the back and the other on the floor between the seats.

She put the rabbit cage on the floorboard at Belle's feet and the hamster on the other side. She got the dog settled in his bed in the back of the jeep. She waited until Maverick was ready and followed him.

They drove pretty fast, and they were able to drive nearly at 90 mph since there wasn't anyone else on the road. Halfway into the drive, she got a phone call. The caller ID on the car showed up as Ed.

"So I am going to assume that Frankie got my note?"

"Yes, he did. I'm with him now." He gave a sigh. "He changed me."

Emily's face fell. While she wasn't that surprised, a part of her had hoped that he wouldn't be because of Alannah's sake. She deserved to have her father in her life, as she didn't have her mother, as she had died in a car accident when Alannah was 3 months old. She had had Alannah in the car, and the baby had survived, and Ed had been raising her on his own.

"I had to check in." He said. "I have to know that Alannah is okay, that you're all safe."

"Yeah, we're on the run, and she's safe. I didn't want to leave, but I am going to protect these kids at all costs. Alannah is here if you want to speak to her."

"Alannah."

"Hi daddy!" She kicked her legs against the seat where she was sitting beside me in her booster seat.

"Are you okay? Are you behaving?"

"Yes daddy."

"Listen, Alannah, daddy has to stay away for a while, so I need you to be on your best behavior for aunt Emmy, do you understand?"

"Yes daddy." She looked like she wanted to cry right there on the spot.

"I love you."

"I love you too daddy."

"You said Frankie was there?" Emily asked. "I need to speak to him."

"Yes, he is." Ed said. "I'll get him." He said. "Good luck and thanks for taking my daughter."

"That's not a problem." The he handed the phone over to his brother.

"Emily?" Frankie's voice came over the phone.

"I'm here, look, you know I was never going to make the change."

"I know, I read your note, and I know you." He told her. "But that's not what I was going to ask you." He said. "I just wanted to make sure that everyone was really alright."

"Yes, we're perfectly fine. Like I told your brother, I have all of them including Alannah and we're on the run." Emily sighed. "I made a duty, to the country, and I'm not going to turn my back on it."

"I should let you go. Please be safe, for my sake Em. I love you."

"I love you too." She told him before they hung up. She then tossed the phone out the window.

Because they were driving so fast, at almost a 100 mph, they were able to get there within 18 hours, and didn't stop, not even once until they reached Yuma. They made it to the city line, where they saw that soldiers were working into the night were putting in a wall and some fences and they stopped Maverick and Emily stopped behind him. A solider came to her window and she rolled it down.

"ID please." He said, after a moment of shining the light in, studying them to make sure that they were still human. She reached into the console and got out her military ID and handed it over to him to inspect.

"Okay Lieutenant Dalton, here you are." He said, handing her back her ID. "Everything is in order, you may come in, but once you do, you cannot leave." He said. "It's not safe."

"Is everything safe and secure here?"

"Yes lieutenant." He said. "Everything is, and we're in the process of adding extra security measures." He glanced back. "General Kane, I know will want to see you, he'll probably stop by tomorrow." He rubbed the back of his head. "You're still lucky to be human, even the president has fallen under the epidemic." He said.

Emily nodded. "So has most of my unit. Some of them should probably be coming here shortly.

"Alright, you're free to go, and I'm sure that General Kane will be in touch soon." He said, before stepping back.

Emily then followed her father to his place and while he pulled in the drive, she stopped in front. He came to her window and handed her a key. "It's house 3496, just down the way here, a couple blocks down." Maverick had two houses in the same housing development and was giving her the other one. "You can do what you want with it. I'm going to get the kids settled in and I'll check in in the morning."

"Okay, thanks dad." She told him before driving that way. It didn't take her long to find the house and she pulled into the driveway and under the carport (the garage was on the other side) and opened the side door before going to get the girls into the house.