Hey guys, sorry for the short chapter but I felt like updating today :)

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"Chloe, wake up."

I growled at whoever decided to wake me up and babbled something along the lines of 'Go away I'm sleeping'. The person laughed.

"Chloe, we've stopped. There's other people here. You should meet them."

I shrugged them off again and curled tighter into a ball.

"Snnnnoooowwww!" From that I knew it was Carl. 'Snow' was his childhood nickname for me, short for 'Snow White', since I dyed my hair black when I was 16. My hair was back to red, now, like my mom's, but the name just stuck. "I have s'mores, Chloe!"

"Huhwhats'moreswhere?" Carl laughed when I immediately sat up at the mention of my favorite food and I frowned at him. "No fair."

"Come on, there's some people out here you should say hi to."

"People?"

He led me out of the car and I had to let my eyes adjust to the pitch black of he night. We were on a highway, headed to Atlanta, and the traffic looked just about dead stopped. I sighed as I noticed I was still in a dress from that party earlier. What a night.

Carl led me around to a car nearby, where Lori was talking to a thin woman with short grey hair, a girl about Carl's age latched on to her side.

"Chloe! Feeling any better?"

I smiled at Lori and nodded, "A little."

Lori turned to the grey-haired woman. "Carol, this is Chloe, Shane's daughter. Chloe, this is Carol, and her daughter Sophia."

"My husband, Ed, is over with your father." Carol informed me.

I conjured up a smile and nodded to the pair. Sophia smiled at Carl,

"Is this your friend?" She asked, "The one with the tattoos?"

I raised an eyebrow at Carl and he laughed, "Yep, this is her."

"I like your dress." Sophia said. I sighed. I was still wearing it. We weren't able to stop by my house to get any clothes, and Lori was way too thin for me to borrow any of her clothes. The dress was black and silver with red roses embroidered into the top half, the bottom frilling out in several layers. I felt like a princess, and very out of place in the dark aura of the night.

"Thanks." I said. I turned to Carl, "So, 'the one with the tattoos'?"

"We were talking about our favorite TV shows and movies earlier. She said she liked Hello Kitty so I told her about your tattoo."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. I swept my hair away from my neck and leaned down so the girl could see the small tattoo of Hello Kitty's face that I had behind my left ear. She laughed,

"That is so cool!"

Carl beamed, "Snow, show her the one on your wrist." He turned to Sophia, smiling, "It's got my name on it."

I showed her and both Carl and my smiles faded when we realized who else's names were on the tattoo. I'd forgotten, again, why we were on the highway. I'd put images of the past day in the back of my mind hoping to forget them. But once again, my tattoo reminded me. This was going to be harder than I thought. I had to fight back tears as the tattoo triggered memories and they started flooding back to me.

Carl, Sophia, and I were playing checkers in the back of Carol and Ed's car when we heard the helicopters. I shivered and Carl smiled nervously at me.

"Are we gonna go soon?" Sophia asked her mom.

"I don't know, sweety, I hope so."

"I'm hungry." Carl mumbled.

"Yeah, me, too, kid." I agreed.

"We all are." Lori said. I sighed and tried to ignore the rumbling in my stomach. I turned back to moderating the kids' checkers game. Carl was winning.

"You know, why don't I get them something to eat?" Carol spoke up with the voice of a nightingale. "Ed's got all this survival stuff, we've got enough MREs to feed a small army."

"I'd sure appreciate it," Lori said.

"No trouble." Carol called as she walked around to the front of the car. I smiled to myself at the thought of food. I hadn't eaten in a while and it didn't seem as though I was going to get a chance to stop by McDonalds if I got hungry.

Lori came back and ruined my good mood. Not only were we not getting fed, but the radios had stopped getting signals. Not even emergency broadcasts about the refugee center in the city. Her and my dad were going to go up the road a bit to find someone who knew what was going on, so I had to keep an eye on Carl in the meantime. I nodded as she left and she mouthed a "Thankyou, Chloe".

"Your guys' dad's nice." Sophia said quietly. Carl shuddered.

"We're not related," I told her, "Lori's Carl's mom. Shane's my dad. Our families are good friends."

"My dad's dead." Carl said flatly. So is my mom, I wanted to say, but didn't have the courage to say the words aloud. I wrapped an arm around Carl and he curled into me so I rested my chin on his head. Suddenly a loud noise that reminded me of thunder echoed overhead. But there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. It was going to be another long night.