The silence was what brought Astrid and Walter out of sleep. The unusual storm had lasted for hours. Once they were out of the tent, they were surprised to find that the brownish debris that consisted of the storm was slowly dissolving into the earth as if it all had been nothing.

Astrid pressed a finger against some brown stuff before the earth dissolved it. "Ow!" She jumped back. Her finger suddenly felt like it was on fire. She quickly poured some water from her thermos over it and waited for the feeling to numb. "God, it's so itchy. What's that stuff supposed to be?"

"You must be careful to not inhale it," said Walter. "It only irritates the skin but if enough enters the human body, it turns the body to ash."

"Well it just keeps getting better and better here. Doesn't it?"

"How could you say such a thing?" said Walter. "This is a most terrible place to be in…especially for my poor boy."

"Sarcasm, Walter. I was using sarcasm."

Walter ignored her and pulled out the map and a little GPS remote. At first he seemed a little excited, but then as he tried to think, his smile turned into a frown.

Astrid had just finished taken down the tent and packing up. "What's wrong now?"

"It's just…this location. I know it was VERY important for me to search this area…but I don't remember why…or exactly where…but it's significant. I know it is."

After staring at the map for a very long time, Walter finally caved. He crumpled the map and threw it down in frustration. And then he started to cry.

"Walter?"

He wiped the tears from his eyes and then said, "Perhaps you were right all along, Aspen. A foolish man like me…cannot even remember how to find my own son. It was luck that I found him here the first time."

Astrid sighed and then got out Walter's bag. "Walter…where's your notebook at?"

He sniffed. "Small pocket, with the Fruit Roll-Ups."

Once the notebook was found, Astrid flipped through the pages until she got to a page listing coordinates. The coordinates had been written by Walter years ago when he was making preparations to come to this world to find Peter. Walter must've long forgotten all about these notes.

She brought the notebook over and showed it to Walter. "Here we are, Walter. Now let's see what coordinates we are closest to and start from there."

Once they had found the nearest location on the map, Astrid entered the numbers into the little GPS remote. "This says we got about 5 miles but knowing where we are…it might take a little longer to get there."

"Do you," asked Walter. "Do you think that Peter will be there?"

Astrid scratched her head. "Hopefully we'll find some answers."

"Then gimme the remote," said Walter. "I'd like to lead."

"Only if you don't drop it again."

Walter gave his Scouts honor.

~*~*~*~

Olivia was waking up to searing pain, unable to so much as move her neck around. She felt a little more comfortable though now that the storm had passed and it was safe for her to be back in the upstairs loft.

She shifted her eyes to the right. Peter was sitting in a chair looking out a window, but he wasn't doing guard duty like he normally would. In fact, he wasn't concentrating much on anything.

"Hey," she whispered.

Peter turned around. She gave a weak smile surprised that he was able to hear her. But as Peter got closer to her she could see that his face was a mess…so swollen and so pink.

Olivia breathed out, "where are the kids?"

It was so hard for Peter to speak, let alone look at her right now. "They're downstairs…taking their naps."

"Do you have paper and something to write with?"

Peter immediately knew why she wanted those things. She was intending to write goodbye letters to the children. He shook his head and turned his sights away from her. "Don't. Don't be like that."

Olivia then tried to cough but it came out in the most awful hacks, like that a very old person would make. They were long and torturous and Peter knew there was nothing he had that would help. He had spent so much time 'out there' nabbing every drug or pill that would've been remotely helpful to Olivia.

He hadn't found any for almost a whole year.

That was enough for him. Peter turned away. He had to get the hell outta here.

"Peter?"

The voice stopped him before he could take the first step down. "Yeah…what?"

Peter kept his back to her but that didn't stop Olivia from smiling. "Who would've thought we'd do a decent job as parents?"

Peter was quietly laughing to himself. "Yeah…almost as good as Walter." He finally left Olivia and went downstairs. This was the last time he wanted to see her…in this way. In just a few hours time, her flesh had become bony-looking again, and the image was too traumatizing for his mind to bear. He wished that his children wouldn't have to see her like that either. But he didn't want to deprive them of what little time they had left with her.

In the living room, Robbie had been awake and waiting. "Dad?"

Peter tried to greet his son with a smile that was too hard to conjure. "Hey there, little man…"

Robbie asked, "Can we go see mom?"

It was a heart wrenching decision, but he knew that Robbie was a smart child, fully aware that his mother was likely not going to recover from this new illness. And all Robbie wanted now was to see her one last time.

"Okay," said Peter. He picked up Anna and led Robbie up the stairs. But he stopped before he reached the top. He handed Anna off to Robbie and said "I'm gonna be outside for a bit. Take your little sister and go on without me, okay?"

Robbie was surprised by his father's sudden reaction as he quickly turned away and disappeared out the front door. He guided Anna up the stairs until the arrived at the loft and then walk over to the bed. Robbie helped Anna onto the bed first and then he crawled in after.

The surprise appearance of her children at her bedside overwhelmed Olivia with all the joy she had left to share. Tears were slowly forming from her eyes in a vain attempt to reach out and greet them. "Oh…my babies."

Robbie and Anna quickly nestled themselves into their respective places in Olivia's arms. Painful as it was to move, she couldn't resist turning to give each child a kiss on the forehead.

~*~*~*~

They weren't getting really far. By now they must've traveled about a mile, mile and a half.

Eventually the duo encountered another forest of scorched trees as well as some tall hills about two miles ahead. "Look ahead, Walter," said Astrid pointing to the hills. "There could be a valley in there…and maybe some water if we're lucky."

"Wonderful," said Walter. "I could use a whiz."

"I meant for drinking…not for peeing."

"Oh…then I suppose we should stop so I may do my business."

"Fine," said Astrid. "Do I have to help you with the zipper again?"

"We shall see," said Walter. He walked over to a nearby crevice while Astrid turned around and kept her eyes on the valley.

But the sight was slowly changing before her eyes. It seemed as though the hills were slowly shrinking. The earth in those hills was slowly crumbling inward.

"Walter? Walter! Come quick!"

Walter quickly but cautiously zippered himself back up, looking surprised that he was successful. Then he ran over to Astrid and looked at the hills. They were slowly sinking and crumbling.

"The ground's not even moving," said Astrid. "And it's not even raining. What does that mean?"

Walter seemed to be shaking uncontrollably from fear. "It means, we are running out of time… This universe is slowly but surely disappearing. The weakened destroyed areas like this…are the most vulnerable, and will be consumed…followed by the rest of this world."

"How long do we have?"

He shook his head. As much as a relief it was that his and Astrid's world would remain the one intact, he still had a strange connection to this world through Peter and Olivia. He didn't want to believe for one second that he let them down, but now the odds were truly against him. "I do not know."

"Then Walter," Astrid said. "We'll go as far as we can, but if we don't find anything then…"

"…it's over. I know."

Walter quickly went on ahead of Astrid in the direction of the slowly disappearing hills.

~*~*~*~

"I tremble at the least thing now. I don't feel so sure of my hold as I used to."

"Let's not talk any more about such things," said the first leaf.

The other replied, "No, we'll let be. But---what else shall we talk about?" She was silent, but went on after a little while. "Which of us will go first?"

"There's still plenty of time to worry about that," the other leaf assured her. "Let's remember how wonderful it was when the sun came out and shone so warmly that we thought we'd burst with life. Do you remember? And the morning dew, and the mild and splendid nights…"

"Now the nights are dreadful," the second leaf complained, "and there is no end to them."

"We shouldn't complain," said the first leaf gently. "We've outlived many others…"

Olivia stopped reading when she heard sniffling. She closed the book and turned herself over to Robbie's side, wincing in pain as she did.

"Robbie?"

He kept wiping his eyes. "I don't want you to go."

She replied sadly, "I can't stop it. I wish I could."

"But whatta we do? Whatta we gonna do?"

"You do what you always do," Olivia assured him. "You listen to your father and do what he says no matter what…and you'll take care of Anna." She smiled. "You can do that. I know you can."

She suddenly felt something strange tickle her cheek and when she turned, she saw Anna brushing her cheek with the purple flower. And then something unexpected happened. For one brief second, Anna's blue eyes were looking straight into Olivia's…for the first time ever. It was a blank stare as if Anna didn't know what to think or feel but soon she turned away. Olivia on the other hand, she was so happy that she was able to make eye contact with her daughter at least once before this all came to an end.

And now, Anna was stretching the flower out to her.

"For me?"

She took the flower from Anna's hand and even though the lovely smell was fading fast, the memories it brought was seeping into her…the games she and Rachel used to play in the backyard, the park outings she used to take Ella on…even the short time that she and Peter were living here in this house all those years ago. For the past six years, Olivia couldn't sort out her dreams from her memories.

Perhaps if she died now, she could wake up back in her apartment in Boston and forget all about the nightmares or that she was even connected to this hell of a reality.

A shift in the bed and Olivia felt Robbie getting out. "Robbie…" Her voice was fading with worry. "Where are you going?"

"I…," he said. "I wanna get dad…so he can be here, too."

Olivia smiled as she watched her boy disappear down the steps. She let herself sink into the pillow. Anna leaned over and was messing with her mother's long fading blonde strands taking a bunch into her small mouth to chew.

"Hurry…hurry back," she whispered closing her eyes.

~*~*~*~

Robbie stepped outside seeing nothing but the dead landscape outside, accompanied by the usual fog. He wanted to be careful this time around, not stray away from home like he did. But he needed his dad here. With his mother dying, he was feeling very alone right now and very scared.

"Dad?"

He heard nothing and jogged further out.

"Daddy, where are you?"

He stopped to listen. In the midst of all the deadly silence, Robbie could hear an unusually soft noise…

Unaware, just around the other side of the house some feet away, Peter was sitting on the ground trying to get his act together. He had been out here taking his anger out on anything he could find but it was hard considering that there was nothing left but a few charred trees and rotten skulls to crush.

His senses were so closed up. He failed to hear Robbie calling for him.

Meanwhile, Robbie kept moving forward, hoping that his dad would appear eventually.

"Da---"

Robbie fell and found himself being pulled down. He screamed as he reached out in a vain attempt to fight against the sudden sinking of the ground beneath him. Miraculously, he dragged himself up and was standing again. Instinct kicking in now, Robbie started running. Every step he took, the earth beneath it was sinking but he kept on moving…knowing that he was getting farther and farther away from the safety of home.

The sinking of the earth was getting much slower and Robbie wasn't even aware.

He couldn't see where he was going. If he had, he would've realized he was passing a crumbling hill where the dead earth was falling off and rolling down in masses.

And one giant mass was heading straight towards Robbie...