A/N: Since it's been so long since I wrote the previous two stories in this series, I should clarify that unless you've read them, this one will make almost no sense, especially at the beginning :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Chapter One

The first day of the end of the world wasn't obvious. In fact, it turned out to be an excellent excuse for Garth Barclay to get out of talking to Ethan's teacher about the teenager's "behavioral problems."

I should've made Helen do this. She's got better instincts for this kind of thing.

It didn't help that the teacher was clearly suspicious of Garth's ability to do anything in relation to his wards, and he didn't blame her. He knew it looked strange, two siblings in their mere mid-twenties looking after two teenage twins and an eleven-year-old. Well, that's what happens with both sets of parents die in a freak car accident after the oldest cousin gets knifed to death by a drug addict and his one adult sibling decides to bail.

The normal discomfort of the situation was amplified by the teacher's...Ms. Ainsley? Ms. Amscram?...constant judgmental glares. So it was a relief when the ground began to shake and the power flickered off. It came back on a few seconds later, only to go off and stay off when another round of relatively tame but jarring earthquakes occurred.

It soon became clear that everyone should just say to hell with Friday's after-school appointments and go home, so Ms. Whatever-Her-Name told Garth he could leave and take the twins with him. Despite the earthquakes, he sighed with relief as he escaped out into the hall where the teenagers were waiting. "Come on, boys, time to go."

Ethan pocketed his phone with a huff, while Evan stifled a yawn. Due to what seemed to be a family-wide epidemic of strange dreams, none of them had been sleeping properly for weeks. Ethan practically lived on caffeine already, so he managed, but Evan was visibly struggling more each day.

Still, he was the responsible twin, so when they got in the car, Garth tossed his cellphone to him. "If there's somehow service, call Helen. She's probably at that animal shelter on a Friday." His sister did legal research from home and volunteered at a variety of places when she had the time. Lately, she'd been focusing on one particular animal shelter. Garth had a feeling that there was more to it than the animals.

As Evan made the call, he noted the dark shadows under the boy's eyes. Well, I probably don't look much better. Just last night, he'd had a dream where he killed his own father.

Dreams of either of his parents dying weren't exactly uncommon, but stabbing his dad with a sword?I've never even held a sword. Hopefully Evan isn't dreaming that about Uncle Harold.

"Helen's on break with Hal," Evan said as he hung up. "And you've got a message from Heidi's teacher...She needs to be picked up."

"We're on our way. Just hope there's no more earthquakes."

There weren't any more that day, but when the power did come back on, nothing seemed to work correctly except the radio. With the kids in the next room arguing over a board game, Garth kept the radio on low while making dinner. What he heard made him deeply uneasy.

"No current explanation...Most electronics malfunctioning...This phenomenon has been reported worldwide...Earthquakes worldwide, focused in strange areas...growing unrest..."

He called Helen. The connection was bad, but it worked just enough. "Come home. Things are really weird, and I need you here."

She came back looking disgruntled, but forced a smile for the kids. Heidi and Ethan seemed to buy it. Evan clearly did not.

That night, Garth jolted awake from a dream in which he and his sister were fleeing through dark streets as a giant bell clanged in the background.

"Evan, eat something," Helen prodded the next morning.

"Not hungry," he mumbled.

She sat down next to him at the kitchen table, exchanging a look with Garth. "Bad dreams?" she questioned gently.

"Yeah." The fifteen-year-old shifted in his seat. "I..." His eyes slid over to the doorway to the living room, where Ethan was grumbling at his homework.

Garth followed his gaze. "Something happened to Ethan in your dream?"

"Yeah...um...He...It hurt me. Like a hole being ripped into my chest." He shove his chair back and left the room.

Frowning, Garth turned back to the pan he'd been scrubbing, experiencing a wave of deja vu. Just a week ago, he'd awoken feeling something similar...only to realize that awakening itself was just a dream. "Helen, something's off about all these dreams we've been having. Even Heidi's getting them."

"Yeah, they're weird." She started drying clean dishes, her brow furrowed. "Just last night, I had a dream about running through these streets in the dark. You were there..."

"...and the streets were all stone." They both stopped and stared at each other. Garth continued, "You were wearing this long dress, and I think I had a cloak on. And in the background..."

"...a loud bell was ringing," she finished. Then she chuckled. "We've done this before. When we were little, we'd have similar dreams or know what the other was thinking...Perks of being twins, right?"

"Yeah, but not for years. And the dreams were never that similar."

"I guess." Brushing her short blonde hair out of her eyes, she put down the dishtowel and wandered of with the excuse of "checking on the other kids."

I guess there's enough to be worried about in the world right now without musing over strange dreams.

By Monday, a few of the quakes were forceful enough to topple furniture. A terrible moment occurred during which Garth was sure Heidi had been pinned under her falling chest of drawers. He all but collapsed with relief when found her hiding under her bed instead.

The voices on the portable wind-up radio said that most of the epicenters of the earthquakes seemed to be under major urban centers, which, according to all experts shouldn't have been possible. Looting and rioting started, and even though they lived in a quiet neighborhood, it wasn't like they had a state-of-the-art security system. Garth began discretely fortifying the windows, stockpiling food, and rationing what they already had.

People still tried to go to work, to function as best as they could. Schools were closed. Helen still insisted on taking the car to her volunteering locations despite damaged roads. Garth had never been happier to have a job he could walk to. And cousins just old enough to take care of themselves.

"You think they'll ever figure out what's going on?" asked boyish Eddie, one of the other mechanics at the repair shop. "All the experts and such?"

Tensing as he felt another tiny earthquake ripple through the earth under their feet, Garth replied, "I don't know. I hope so." I don't want to imagine what will happen if they don't.

He went home that evening to find Heidi crying while the twins shouted at each other over something trivial like who wore whose shirt that day. He'd just managed to calm everyone down when the worst earthquake yet hit. The street and their house were only cracked a little, but about a mile away, an entire block of flats collapsed.

Tuesday, another earthquake prompted the owner of the shop to close it down. "We'll return to work when things have settled," he told the assembled employees. But there was no confidence in his words, and as everyone went their separate ways, Garth had a feeling that he wouldn't be seeing any of them again for a long time. If ever.

Wednesday started off quiet. Garth tried to keep the kids distracted with card games until around noon, when everything started shaking again. Heidi clutched at him and wouldn't let go as long as it lasted. The twins handled it better, but barely.

We're all barely holding it together..

After it finally stopped, half an hour later, he turned on the radio to hear that the latest round of earthquakes had severely damaged about a dozen major cities worldwide. The death toll had climbed into the hundreds of thousands. In the middle of the report, Helen called from the animal shelter. He could hardly hear her. "We need to get out of town, before everyone else starts trying to leave. Hal has a cottage way out in the countryside, an old family house. It's isolated, has a functional well...or it did, last he checked...I think I can get the car to our house and out..."

"We'll be ready when you get here."

While the kids were packing their bags and bickering, Garth went through his parents' things for the first time since they'd died four years ago. Assuming that the twins and Heidi would bring any mementos from Uncle Harold and Aunt Ava, he decided to take some photo albums, his mother's giant book on edible and medicinal herbs, and his father's small yet surprisingly functional dagger collection. He threw all the food he could find into the boot of the car when Helen pulled up, gave his motorcycle a longing look, and locked the house. For all the good it'll do.

The radio was choked with static as as they drove southwest, towards the distant hills.