Jenny led me into the smaller of the two bedrooms. It must have been the girl's room at one time. The walls were an off shade of pink that looked like it had faded over the years and the furniture was a dirty white. There was a sheet on the bed and a musky smelling comforter that had particles from the ceiling all over it. I shook out the bedding and figured it was better than nothing. I rummaged through the old chest of drawers, only finding a few items, some of which would fit me, but not Jenny. We stood there for a while before crawling into the bed. I had closed my eyes for a second when Jenny started talking.

"So what do you think?" Jenny asked.

"About the room? Uh its beautiful, Buckingham Palace comes to mind." Jenny laughed and rolled her eyes at me.

"I'm sure it is, compared to the places you have been sleeping," I couldn't argue with that logic. "But I was talking about my brother and my Dad. Do you like them?"

"Jenny, I have spent two hours with them, you all seem great, but it's a little early for opinions." I didn't really have an excuse, I knew I wasn't being very kind, but I was tired and bad at socializing.

"Okay," She didn't seem very upset by my reply, "But Dad wants to stay here for awhile, and I really hope that you will stay too." Half of me wanted to be on my own living by my rules, but the other half yearned for a family. And because I didn't have much of an answer I just said, "As long as it makes sense for me to stay…" My answer seemed to satisfy her.

"Good. I like you and I've been lonely without Lisa."

"Your sister."

"Yeah… we were close."

"What happened?" I wondered out loud, She closed her eyes for a moment, "If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine."

"No it's ok. I was just thinking…" She lay quietly for a moment longer. "We had been hiding for awhile down in California, We had a place up north that the souls hadn't gotten too yet. We didn't even know…" She shook her head sadly, "Our neighbors started acting different and Dad got freaked out, but we thought he was just overreacting. We must have been the last ones left in the area, because they started watching us… Lisa had been invited to a birthday party one weekend, Dad didn't want to let her go, but he felt bad. When she came back she was changed, her eyes reflected in the light." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "She brought seekers with her, but by this time we knew what had happened and we ran, Dad was trying to get Lisa to go with us. He didn't realize she was already gone…" She finished the story with a whisper.

"I'm so sorry, Jenny, I really am. How old was she?"

" She was fifteen and she was so smart. I miss her everyday."

I lay there thinking about what she said. She had a life, and she had friends, maybe a boyfriend even. I wasn't leaving much behind, but she had lost so much. I would have hugged her, but I wasn't much for physical contact. So I gently touched her shoulder and said goodnight. I fell asleep and dreamed of green hills and blue skies, where aliens were things of movies and happiness was attainable.

The next day I woke up with my knees hugging my chest on the very edge of the bed. I sat up slowly and looked at the culprit for my discomfort. Jenny was sleeping almost horizontally sprawled across the bed snoring lightly. I glared at her, but wound up smiling a second later. I carefully got up from the bed and took some of the clothes that were inside the drawers. Then I tiptoed over to the boy's room, which was down the hall towards the stairs. Gordy was asleep in a position that mirrored his sisters exactly. His snores were much louder, though. I looked in the room to find that Sam was nowhere to be found.

Before making my way downstairs, I stopped in the restroom to put on the clean clothes; a pair of white shorts that stopped just above my knee and a yellow v-necked shirt. The items were a tad to small, but they were preferable to the stinky clothes I had on. I checked the watch I had jacked from a house a few weeks back. It was 6am, I wasn't sure what time these people would wake up and I wanted some time to myself.

I walked downstairs and into the living room. I almost started laughing but my hands flew up to my mouth before the giggle could escape. Sam was sleeping on the couch, legs hanging off the end with a sheet covering the lower half of his body. His bare chest was thick and muscular. In the light I noticed red flecks in his beard. Ad I stood there watching him I realized that this man was beautiful. This thought had me swiftly turning around and walking away from him.

I walked out on the front porch looking at the property around me. The town in the morning light didn't look so old as I thought it was, but it did have me curious as to what actually happened here. I walked down the road towards the cluster of shops we walked by the night before. I quickly found the store I needed, a clothing and shoe shop.

The building was ancient, but the clothes were not that bad, except for the fact that almost everything had been chewed up, either by rats or moths. There were a few untouched items. Among them were some dusty boxes that had various logos on them. After a few boxes of women's pumps, I found, to my joy, a pair of wrapped tennis shoes.

As I was going through the rest of the boxes, a firm hand gripped my shoulder sending a panicking shriek from my mouth.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I turned around to face an angry, half naked Sam.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"It looks like you're trying to take all the good stuff." His words had me narrowing my eyes.

"Um excuse me? I was looking for shoes because Jenny has been running around barefoot. Not that I have to explain myself to YOU." I was not happy.

"Yeah. Right. Look if you plan on scavenging and taking off tell me now."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I was pissed now. "First of all, if I was going to sneak off I would have done it in the middle of the night. I'm not stupid enough to wait for daytime."

"You might be off schedule." Smart-ass.

"Look, dude, I'm only going to say this once, I wasn't sneaking off. If I wanted to leave I would go. I would say goodbye first and I would not just take whatever I wanted. I understand you don't know me, but I am a fair person, you can believe me or not I couldn't care less." We glared at each other for a moment. I couldn't fight him, he was almost 6'2 and he was a strong guy, but I was fast so if fists were thrown running would be my best defense. Thankfully it wouldn't come to that, his glare turned into a half smile.

"Okay, sweetie, today I believe you." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Gee thanks!" I cried with false enthusiasm. "And by the way, if you value your life you will not call me sweetie." I gave him my nicest smile. "Now if you will excuse me." I turned to leave, but he caught my wrist softly and tugged me back.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I know I can be a jerk, but I only have my family, and if something or somebody hurt them…" he shook his head, "I don't know what I would do, but please don't leave because of me." He seemed sincere.

"I'm just fine where I am for now," I told him. "I'm not going to leave." His stare and touch were making me uncomfortable so I pulled my hand away and looked at his chest, which made things worse. The lower I dropped my eyes the more red my face got. So I turned my face back towards him.

"I'm starving so what do you think about some breakfast?" He asked politely.

"Sounds great." I mumbled, and we both walked out in silence.