Stacey's POV

"Oh no, Kiwi! I can't believe myself!" Odd banged the back of his head into the wall. A little too hard, I think, cause he had to rub the back of his head. I looked around at the others, their eyes went wide. They obviously knew what he was talking about. I didn't.

"Kiwi?" I asked.

"His dog." Aelita said.

"I left him at school! He has enough food and water in there for weeks, but still...How could I be so careless! My little diggity dog..." Odd sighed, like he was imagining his dog dead or suffering on his dorm room floor. No, no, I wasn't about to let him just give up. I wasn't about to let anyone here just give up. That was something my dad taught me...It was almost funny...for all the talk he had, all the preparation he made for the apocalypse...When it actually came, he died within the first 48 hours. My siblings too. If I had been with them at the time, I probably would have died too.

"Let's go get him! Kadic is pretty much in tact. Plus, he survived Xana for two years, or something like that."

Jeremie started to close his laptop, but I held up my hands to stop him.

"Odd and I will go, you two continue your research." I said.

"Are you sure?" Aelita asked. "If both of you are gone..."

"Then you go to one of the camps and do what you've been doing." I said. "Besides, do you really have that little confidence in us?"

"Well, it's not that, it's just..." Aelita started.

"I'm not sure getting Kiwi is worth the risk." Jeremie finished. The energy of the room dropped. I knew what he meant. Nobody wanted this group to get any smaller...It was the question of risk over reward...and the value of an animal's life in a situation like this. Still, the look on Odd's face when Jeremie said that...it broke my heart. We were getting Kiwi.

"Animals raise morale, which is a more precious commodity now than you might guess. We're getting Kiwi. Come on, Odd." I took his hand and pulled him toward the door.

"She's just as stubborn as he is..." Jeremie mumbled under his breath. I ignored him and took Odd outside.

It was pretty much just how I always imagined it, the apocalypse. I didn't expect the robots. Usually, when you thought of the apocalypse, it was zombies, caused by an illness. I always thought there would be a zombie virus or biohazard of some sort...or if not, radiation from a nuclear bomb, aliens...then robots. Robots were sort of low on the list of ways I thought the world would end...but it was there.

Still, the fact that it all stemmed from a single girl, a girl my age...She was a genuine supervillain...did that make us genuine superheros? Well, we would only be superheros if we actually did anything about it, if we actually managed to stop her...We were already down three members, if you counted Taelia. I think they counted Taelia now that she was dead. That was how things tended to work. A lot of the problems of the past were forgotten when someone died. The dead were appreciated for what they did more than the living were appreciated for what they were doing. It was messed up when you thought about it.

But right now we were alive. Odd had his nail gun, I took the safety off for him so he could shoot it into the air, and I had a machete and a gun I found at home...what was left of it. I didn't know what kind of gun it was, I was never really into guns like my dad.

"Thanks for standing up for Kiwi." Odd said.

"No problem." I winked. "Let's go." I pulled out my machete and started a fast, purposed walk.

We knew to go through the forest as much as we could to get where we were going. The robots...monsters were what Odd and the others called them, the robots didn't really go through the forest. My guess they were focusing on places where more people would be...cities, the like. Morgan was more interested in destruction and chaos than anything else, or at least that was what it looked like.

The less organized a place was, the less likely robots were to be there. I really didn't want to run into those guys...Both Odd and I had weapons we could use to destroy those things, but every time we engaged one, there was a chance we would not make it out alive, and every time we took one down, we widdled down our ammo. Resources were limited. They were always limited but...now the need for everything, food, fuel, ammo, medical supplies...now it was all much more urgent.

Also, if we ran into one of those things and gave it a chance to get away, it could let Morgan know where we were...

There were fewer robots in sparsely populated areas, but they were still there. We ran into a few Kankrelats. Those were the relatively small and slow that looked like potatoes on legs. They also had a huge windup on their lasers so it was pretty easy to dodge. I sliced them up good with my machete. No use wasting ammo on a couple of Kankrelats.

So, we made it to Kadic with relative ease. The school was just as I left it the last time. I had some survival skills. It turned out to be pretty valuable that my dad was a loon. Loved him, though, and I always would. As I understood things, Morgan did all of this because humanity took her home, her father, and all she cared about. Well now she did the exact same goddamn thing to me! And if she didn't think I was gonna take vengeance back on her, she was wrong.

But the damage was already done.

Like I was saying, because I knew some things about apocalypse scenarios, I went around to some of the little camps around Paris and educated them on what I knew. How to get clean water, make food last, advice on how to handle things psychologically, how to shoot a gun. That sort of thing. I liked to think I was helping at least a little. Kadic had one of these camps, the students and staff that still survived were in the gym. Jim was surprisingly good at fighting monsters, it was like he'd done it before. When I found it, I told Jeremie and the others there was a camp we could go to. Jer said that it wouldn't be a good idea to go with them because Morgan was more specifically after him and his friends. If he went to Kadic, it would endanger everyone there...I could respect that.

So we got to the boy's dormitory hall. Odd went in to get Kiwi, and I stayed to stand guard. He was at a dead end. I needed to defend him so he could get away if something happened. And then Emily showed up. Apparently Emily had been a student at Kadic Academy with Odd and the others, but the only time I saw her was on the TV with Morgan. What in the world was she doing here? Did she...did she know that we were going to show up here? Or had she been waiting here for us? To take down Odd? I was not going to let that happen.

Odd poked his head out of the door, he had something held in his hands. I was guessing that was Kiwi, mostly because it was barking. Odd locked eyes with Emily, and then they both started to run. Odd was in trouble. I ran after the both of them. We ran into the streets. Emily was catching up to him...I took a shortcut and went around to get in front of her and tackled her to the ground, letting Odd get away. I felt triumphant. I made a peace sign at her as a sort of "in your face" thing. She pushed me off of her, onto the street. I was able to roll back, get back up, and sprinted to catch up with Odd.

"You got the dog?" I asked.

"Yeah. Is Emily still coming?" Odd asked. I looked back.

"Nope." I smiled. It looked like we outran her. We made our way back to the bunker. I knocked on the door, out of breath. Aelita answered.

"Welcome back." She attempted to give me a smile in return. Our group didn't feel much like smiling, lately...but now we had a dog. Odd and I walked in, and Odd put Kiwi down. He was an ugly little sort of angular dog. Grayish, with short fur. He immediately started exploring the new surroundings, and he licked Odd's face. The dog obviously missed his master a lot, the time he was left in the room.

We all gathered around and pet Kiwi. He was soft, and warm. We took turns holding him. He absolutely loved the attention. We fed him some stuff in the bunker that was safe for a dog to eat. It was a moment of joy for all of us...A dog, an innocent, happy dog to help us cope with this harsh reality. As I pet Kiwi...I could feel myself relax some.

But, uh...there was still work to do. None of us could just sit here and play with a dog. Still, it would help immensely to have him around!

"How's the research going?" I asked, looking up at Jeremie.

"Good." Jeremie blinked, as if he just remembered he was supposed to be doing research in the first place. "There's this place, Rengrade. It seems pretty good. There's a campus for the company in Paris. They make weapons, they probably have food. If anyone's going to be able to mass produce emp weapons, it's them."

"Yes, but do they have the technology? Can they build it faster, stronger, better than ever before?" Odd asked, putting on a voice like from Terminator. At least I think that reference was from Terminator?

"They should...But that's why we need to get Taelia's gun ASAP. Reproducing is faster than engineering." Jeremie said.

"I'll do the best I can." I said, getting up. "I'm gonna go on a food run..." I said.

I was the one they trusted to go out in the field. I was the one that was exposed to the most danger. I was willing to do it. I wanted to help as much as possible. I wasn't that good at survival stuff. I...said I was...but everything I learned...it was all just theoretical. It wasn't like I actually had experience with this stuff...I just pretended I was good at all of this...

I got my machete and gun and went out again into the wild.

This time I ran into more robots. In order to get supplies I had to go into the city, and the cities where were the robots reigned. Burn marks everywhere...I found a couple of first aid kits, a couple of food cans...Nothing much exciting. Nothing to write home about. If I had a home to write back to.

I guessed my home was with the others, now. You had to make your home somewhere.

So I went back to the base. I knocked on the door and Aelita answered again. Odd called to me from the back.

"Hey, Stacey! Thanks for the burgers!"

What? Burgers...? I didn't...

"Odd! Don't eat that!" I rushed over to him. Odd had a burger in his hand...about to eat it, when Kiwi ran over and grabbed it right out of his hand, swallowing it down. I gasped. Kiwi seized up, made a horrible noise, and fell down, twitching. It would be a few more minutes before he actually died...but it wasn't like we had anything to cure him.

"...My little...diggity dog...? Buddy?" Odd shook him, but there was no response. Kiwi was all but gone.

"That was meant for you." I said, realizing what was going on here. We were found somehow...and someone knew when I would be out and planted poisoned food. Jeremie seemed to get what I was talking about.

"Check your body for anything suspicious." Jeremie said. I did, and I came up with a little chip thing clinging onto the side of my shirt. I grimaced at it. I couldn't believe I got caught with such a basic trick...

"We need to get out of here." Aelita said.

"But...Kiwi..." Odd was heartbroken, his voice barely above a whisper.

"You can take Kiwi with you. We'll bury him somewhere." I put my hand on his shoulder. "But we're in danger here..." But...where would we go?

"I...I don't think this was Morgan..." Odd mumbled.

"What do you mean? Who else would do this?!" I asked.

"No I mean...It's Morgan who gave the order...but she wouldn't need a tracking device, not like that."

"Then who is it?" Jeremie asked.

"...Emily?" Aelita mused. Odd nodded.

"And I'd be willing to bet she's still watching us to see if I die or not. So let's capture her and use her as leverage." Odd said, his voice uncharacteristically serious.

So we devised a plan, picked a spot in the city to lead her. We decided I would come up behind her and choke her until the lack of oxygen knocked her out, then tie her up or something and drag her off to some secure place. Morgan obviously liked Emily or at least valued her, otherwise she wouldn't keep Emily around in the first place.

We ran, and she chased, just as planned, and we cornered her, but when I went up behind and choked her...I felt a searing heat in my gut. What...what the hell? I had been...shot. Emily was gone. Where did she go? Odd's hand...he was helping me get to my feet.

"That glow..." Jeremie said. "We have to get to Rengrade, now."

This is just Stacey's side of the last chapter.

Hope y'all have an awesome day.