​NINE|

Exhausted. That's what Morgan was. The travel back to Perdido Beach was tiring, more so than she had thought it would be. She had thought that it would be easy, but no. Nothing in this new life was easy. Nothing at all.

"We're almost here," Quinn said, waking her from her nap. Her ten minute nap.

"Five more minutes," she groaned. Jake snickered at her, so she shot him a "do that again and you die" look.

"After you get out of the Jeep. We're here, Morgan."

"Fine." She grudgingly got up out of the warm Jeep.

"Morgan-"

"Shut up, Jake."

"Look who's suffering from PMS. I was going to say you have to brush your hair, but never mind, then."

"I don't care, Jake. I'm too tired to care."

"Will you two stop it? We're here." Quinn gestured to the house they were now in front of. "It's Sam's house, along with Astrid, Mary, and John's house. I guess it's more their house than his, but he's always here. He'll be glad to see you.

"Oh, and grab the diapers." Morgan did so, grabbing a few of the packages.

"Okay, let's go."

The trio went up to the door and knocked. "Who is it?" a female voice asked.

"Quinn. Is Sam there? I brought company for him. And diapers for Mary."

Morgan heard footsteps coming towards them. A blonde girl opened the door. It looked as if the girl would be about a year older than Morgan at most. About Sam's age. "Yeah, he's here. Mary's down at the center, though. The littles are keeping her pretty busy."

"Ah, well it's a good thing that we brought her some Prozac, too."

"She'll be happy to hear that, along with the fact about the diapers. Who did you bring? Is that Morgan?"

"Yup. And that's Jake, her-" Quinn started to say the word "boyfriend" but was stopped by the death glare that Morgan was giving him. "Um, her friend."

"Ah, well, hello to both of you."

"We brought some food, too," Jake chimed in. "Can we eat?"

Astrid turned to Morgan. "So he's one of those guys?"

"You have no idea."

"Wait, what?" Quinn and Jake said simultaneously. The girls burst out into laughter.

"Nothing, guys," Morgan said through bursts of laughter.

"Um, Sam! Come here! We have guests!" Astrid called into the house.

"I'm right here. No need to yell," Sam popped out from behind the door. His face, which was much more sullen than Morgan remembered it, lit up when he saw Morgan, Jake, and Quinn at the door. "Morgan! How are you?" He pulled her into a tight hug.

"Hey Sam," she said in a breathless voice. Her face was smushed into his chest. "Sam. Need. Air."

"Oh, sorry." He let her go. "So how are you? I see you brought a friend- Jake, right?"

"Yessir, that would be me!" The two of them shook hands as Morgan and Astrid exchanged a glance.

"I'm surprised that Mel isn't with you. Where is she?"

"Back in Auburn, with Ev and the rest of the kids. We have no idea how big the area is that we are missing adults, but it has to be pretty big."

"Ah. Well, it's good to see you."

Morgan sensed there was something different between them. They had always been very close cousins, but he was acting strange. Very strange, even for Sam. There was something that was bothering him, and there was something strange about Astrid, too. It was stranger than how Mel and Evan acted around each other, how they acted when there was something happening that was unsaid. There was something that was supposed to be obvious but wasn't. Then it hit her. It was so obvious that it wasn't obvious. "Oh god. Are you...?" she turned to Astrid. "Are you...?"

"No!" she said a little too quickly. "Of course not! Not that I'm aware of, at least."

"Did you and he... you know..." Morgan gulped, "have sex?"

"That's a little personal, Morgan," Sam cautioned her.

"I know, but you're acting so strange... You have changed so much... You're so... different! Cautious, like you're watching every word you day, every step you take."

"Why don't you three come in? We need to talk to you about what is happening to you."

"Everything that you know is about to change. Your lives are going to go to hell when you go back. We call this... thing... the FAYZ. The Fallout Alley Youth Zone. We don't really know what caused it, but we can guess. We live near a nuclear power plant, so we're guessing that it has something to do with nuclear energy.

"But you said that you don't live near a nuclear power plant.

"So what caused your FAYZ? We have no clue. There is nothing that points to anything. Nothing. Why should you be having a FAYZ if all you live near is a steel plant, and even then you don't know if the steel plant is included in it? We have no idea. All we know is that your lives are going to go to hell very quickly.

"Even though you live in the center of farm country, there will be issues with food scarcity. You already said that you have quite a few supermarkets in your town. The food will spoil quickly, though. Especially the produce.

"The first things to go will be the sweets, the things your parents don't want you to eat. The things that all kids want to eat all the time. But this isn't what should happen. It's what will happen, but you don't want it to. You have to place a food ration from the beginning, unlike what we did. We used all our food rather quickly, and now all of us are starving. We could have made the food last so much longer, but we didn't. That was our biggest mistake."

"Okay, so food ration equals good?" Jake asked.

"Yes, a food ration is good," Sam confirmed what Jake didn't want to hear. Food being limited was not a good thing to him.

"Okay."

Sensing the disappointment in Jake's voice, Sam replied, "You'll want the ration later. Trust me. Back to what I was saying, the sweets go first, and then it's all down hill from there, because by that time, most of the meat will be spoiling, and the veggies will go before that. Right now, I would kill for being able to eat something as disgusting as a brussel sprout. They would be so good even though they taste so bad. At this point, I would eat anything. We're six months in to this nightmare and many of the kids have died because of starvation.

"The younger kids get more food than the older kids because they deserve to live past the age of ten. They should be able to see their parents and families again. Not that all the kids don't deserve to, but imagine being five and without your mother. Imagine being scared and alone and crying 'Mommy' but knowing that your mom won't come. It has to be one of the scariest things in the world."

Morgan was saddened at that thought. A five-year-old being without their mother. A five year old, for crying out loud.

"Little Pete was six when this all started, but he's autistic. We don't know what's going on in his mind, but I have a feeling that he's scared, even though he doesn't let on. As long as he has his Game Boy, he's fine. He cares about being fed and clothed, but his game keeps him centered. He's possibly the most powerful being in the FAYZ, and what grounds him is his game," Astrid added.

"My... brother, Caine, thinks that he's the most powerful, but he's not. He's seen Petey in action, but still won't admit it."

"Wait wait wait," Morgan said quickly. "Did you say brother?"

"Yes. I said brother. I didn't know until six months ago. He's rude, conceited, and insolent. Aren't you glad that you have another cousin?"

"Sure, Sam. Sure. Is there anything else, or should we go meet the rest of Perdido Beach? Well, for me, it's re-meet, but Jake has to meet them first."

"I think that's all that has to be told, so I suppose we can go meet the rest of Perdido Beach."

"Okay. Let's go."