Winter came early this year. I'm even shaking as I write this. I hope it's legible to read later.

What's happened so far? Still fighting Academia, Heartland is still a wasteland. Still kind of tired. And hungry, but that's normal. Cold is normal too. Probably should go find a pile of blankets to sleep under tonight if it's already this cold now, in the middle of the day.

Please tell me that I'm hallucinating and starting to see snow falling from the sky…

Nope, it's real snow all right. It felt cold and wet when it landed on my nose.

But, back to business. Still fighting against Academia. Check. Heartland is still a wasteland. Check. Still hungry and tired. And cold. Double check.

Oh yeah. We also…

How do I even explain this?

Well, we've finally found a way to fight back against Academia again, to be able to play on their level. We can summon monsters that we can actually touch now. It still feels so weird, being able to touch and interact with our monsters. Something we wouldn't have ever dreamed of doing before, having grown up with the AR system before, seeing the holograms through it and seeing them interacting with the world around them, but never the Duelist themselves.

Shun was the first to try it, summoning his Raidraptors-Vanishing Lanius as a test. And, when it was summoned, we could all feel the rush of the wind as it flapped its wings, even felt it's metallic body when I reached out to touch it, much to Shun's dismay. He had started to warn me that it might be dangerous, only to be proven wrong a few tense moments later when Vanishing Lanius started to preen both of our heads, much to the utter amusement of everyone else. It's beak in my hair felt real too.

Touching Vanishing Lanius and it touching me… it felt so amazing. There are times now that I wondered what it would be like to fly with it, but, unfortunately, we haven't gotten that chance yet.

You see… In order to get a working model of a Duel Disk that could stand up against Academia…

We had to steal it.

Well, not technically stole it.

In a sense.

It was more…

Sneaking into another Resistance's camp and borrowing it for a while.

Only not really returning it after we had modified it to figure out how it works enough so that we could copy it.

Totally didn't steal it. Nope. See?

My heart still beats so fast, thinking about that mission. It could have gone wrong in so many different ways, it wasn't even funny. I shivered involuntarily just now, so you know. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.

At first, we were just going on a scouting mission, to gather information and be done with it. We had never intended to steal anything that valuable from someone else that was fighting Academia, just like us..

But… the chance was there. And it was one of the newer members that took the chance. Yuuto and I didn't want to risk all of us being exposed, warned and told him off numerous times, but he took the chance anyway. He was heavily reprimanded for it later, but still…. That move, though it had given us a leg up in the fight against Academia…

It still felt wrong.

I've never been comfortable with stealing things from people, even now. Especially now. I've gotten used to it, given that its necessary to surviving in this hell… but still…

I don't think it ever will sit right with me.

Writing more today. Still cold and I have some free time today. Guess I should write some more about what happened after the first few days of the invasion.

Academia soldiers had finally retreated from our school, moving onto their next mission. Shun, Yuuto, and I finally escaped out of the school's kitchen. I only walked when it was absolutely, surely safe. Any sign of danger and I would go onto the back of one or the other, whichever one was closer. And all three of us certainly stayed closer than we ever had before. If times had been different, it would have felt like old times; Yuuto walking with me to my house, his old smile shining brightly; Shun tagging along, giving Yuuto dirty looks for walking too close to me with his bright smile; sometimes there would be a stop or two along the way where Shun and Yuuto would duel when one or the other was tired of the other not responding/getting on his nerves for too long.

Now, though the three of us are walking down the same, familiar road we've taken at least a million times before, it felt so different from before. None of us were really talking, just silently walking. No friendly conversations, no smiling or laughing, not even a snide comment from Shun about Yuuto walking too close to me.

Just… silence. Deafening, disquieted silence.

We walked along the familiar road, the smell of ash in the air and no lights were on inside of any of the buildings. The Obots had stopped working too, just sitting lifeless in the streets and on the sidewalks. I think all of us jumped when one tried to wake up again, it's robotic voice skipping and repeating its 'Trash!' and 'Cleaning!' chant until it died out completely with little sparks exploding from it. I remember clinging to Shun's shirt sleeve a little bit more after that.

That dying Obot was the last thing we would see for a while in our wanderings. Every building, every street we passed was all empty save for the occasional destroyed Obot or a card laying on the ground. Like the three of us walking, it was deathly silent in Heartland City. No cars passing by, no people, no music, no lights, no nothing save for piles of rubble and random fires scattered about.

It was the same when we arrived at the Transit station. No people, cards scattered about, rubble and ash was everywhere, and no sign of a moving train anywhere. So much for our plan of going to the police by transit. The only way we could travel now was on foot, a task that was getting harder the longer we looked at the desolate Heartland. Not to mention that all of us hadn't eaten yet since we left the school's kitchen. If it were a normal day, we would have been at my house by now, munching on cookies my mom made for all of us.

Now, wandering the silent streets of Heartland, we can't even find a single place that isn't destroyed that, before, would have went to if we were hungry. No burger places, no ice cream parlors, no bakerys, no pastry shops, not even a grocery store.

When we couldn't stand it anymore, we found the closest place we could find: a sandwich shop. Shun and Yuuto pushed the door in with their combined strength. When we went inside, even calling out to see if anyone was still inside, all we were left with was silence. No other customers, no Obots operating the cash registers or the food prep. Again, it was just the three of us, alone in the shop. We all looked at each other, trying to figure what to do. We were all hungry, but we didn't want to just bust back behind the counter and grab what we wanted. It wasn't right, and felt beyond rude.

But, soon, hunger got the better of us and we stepped carefully around the counter and the Obots, opening up the refrigerator and looked amongst the bread racks for something, anything, to eat. What we could find, we ate immediately.

We stayed in the back for a while, not really wanting to go back into the dining area, trying to figure out what our next move would be. It was going to be dark soon and who knew what kind of condition our homes were in. We certainly couldn't stay inside this sandwich shop forever. We needed to find our parents, the rest of our families, to make sure they were safe too. Yuuto was quiet about wanting to see if his family was okay, insisting more that we should check on my parents first. We lived closer to here than he did, he explained. Not to mention that all of us were tired of walking. We could rest easier in our house and recuperate there. I remembered feeling that I was worried, about Yuuto not being as adamant about finding his family than me and Shun were in finding ours. He reassured me though, that after we had rested at my house, we could go and find his family in the morning. That maybe he could call them from my house to see if they were okay. Phone calls from a residence had to still be working, right? I remember still feeling concerned, but let the matter be.

When we were on the road again, we were still silent as we walked down the abandoned streets,

quietly hoping for some sign of life, any sign. My feet were sore from so much walking we had done that day. I don't think I had ever walked that much up to that point in my life. I would get used to it later, of course, but… those first few weeks would be an eye opening experience.

When we finally reached the house, the neighborhood thoroughly trashed, we burst through the door, not even bothering to take our shoes off, something that we would have been scolded about the moment we walked in the door. We tried calling out for Mom, searching every single room, but she wasn't there. We even tried the backyard, but we still couldn't find her. We didn't lose hope, however, since we couldn't find any cards lying about on the floor, the only cards we could find were the extras Shun and I kept in our rooms that weren't apart of our main decks. We even went through those cards to be doubly sure, but we couldn't find one that had our mom's picture on it.

What we did find out at the house was that the electricity was out too, just like in town. There wasn't any running water either. No electricity meant no heat either. The phone wasn't working either, as we found out, so Yuuto couldn't call his parents either. He still insisted that we stay at our house for now, though. We shouldn't be wandering around at night anyway, in case those guys that had attacked our schools and the town were still around. Shun and I looked at each other, still suspicious, but let the matter drop again. We were all friends, after all. If Yuuto wanted to tell us something, he would do so.

So, instead we reconvened in Shun's room, finding some of Mom's scented candles and placed them around the room for light. Shun scrunched up his nose at the overwhelming smell in his room, but stayed quiet about it. He might not have liked Mom's scented candles before, but it did help us to see.

I decided to stay with the two of them in there, since I didn't want to be by myself in my room. Yuuto started to ask me something, but Shun jumped in instead, claiming that everyone should stay in his room. He then gave this suspicious look to Yuuto, just like he used to. Yuuto looked incredibly surprised at the outburst. The scene was just too funny, I couldn't help but laugh quietly, the other two soon joining. We needed that laugh, I think. It had been a long day, and that small sense of familiarity, something that used to be so ordinary before, it helped to ease our worries, if only a little bit.

However, even if I was going to sleep in my brother's room, I still insisted that I change into my PJs. Like I really wanted to sleep in my school uniform. Come to think of it, I probably had ruined my uniform by that point, with dust and debris, and the blood from Yuuto's hand when he had been carrying me before we met up with Shun.

I remember wanting so badly to take a shower then, to try and forget all the bad things that had happened recently, but finding out there was no running water in the house, let alone electricity to heat it, I was sorely disappointed when I went to the shower and remembered about the no running water. Instead, I had to make due with bottles of water from the fridge (which were still cold, by the way) and soap to wash what I could of the dust. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed by a bath since then.

I dug around in my closet afterwards, finding a warm pair to wear since there wasn't any heat in the house, and who knew when was going to be turned on again. I also tore the blankets off of my bed and grabbed my favorite pillow and dragged all of it to my brother's room, where it seems they had the same idea, having already pulled the blankets and pillows from my parent's bed for Yuuto. He was also now sporting a pair of my brother's pjs, said pjs just a bit too big on him. He didn't seem to mind, though. He even seemed minutely excited about having what was essentially a sleepover, the circumstances notwithstanding. For all the times he came over and stayed for hours, he'd never slept over before. It would be a first for all of us.

My nest of blankets was closest to Shun's bed, at his insistence. At first, he wanted me to sleep on his bed, but I outright refused that.

Cut me some slack! I was eleven at the time, and it was my brother's bed! There are just some things you just don't do.

Instead, I built blanket nests with Yuuto on the floor, his smile finally starting to return a little bit. I remember feeling glad that Yuuto was starting to feel better. He had me worried for a little while.

Shun went around his room blowing out the candles, stepping over the two of us into his own bed as we got comfortable in our nests. Saying goodnight to my brother, he only responded with 'good night, brats' and turned over in his bed. It wasn't exactly comfortable sleeping on the floor, but Yuuto didn't seem to mind. It was hard to tell what expression he had in the dark, but he seemed happy when he responded to my 'goodnight' to him.

My memory's fuzzy, but, I think, sometime during the night, I woke from a nightmare crying and someone was there to quiet me. I don't even remember if it was Shun or Yuuto. Maybe it was both. I do remember the feeling, feeling so safe and warm in someone's arms when all I wanted to do was cry, wanting to see Mom and Dad again. I think that I fell asleep like that, someone holding me and gently rubbing my hair, telling me that thing's will be okay again, that we can get through this, to not worry, and quietly shushing me.

The quiet didn't last for long, however. When the sun was barely even up in the sky, there was a loud noise from downstairs, startling all of us awake. Shun had somehow ended up on the floor with us, and Yuuto was a lot closer than I remembered him being last night. I was about to question both of them when that loud noise from downstairs happened again, silencing all of us. It didn't sound like Mom or Dad coming in. The voices were quite loud, boastful, as if they were quite proud about breaking into someone's house. All we needed to hear was 'Xyz scum' before we knew it was those soldiers again, and we knew we had to get out of there immediately. There wasn't even time to gather or change clothes, or even get supplies. They were quickly moving around the house, probably looking for survivors to card. As quietly as we could, we opened up Shun's bedroom window, climbed out onto the tree and climbed down to the street, trying to stay as quiet as we possibly could.

We heard more voices outside, effectively making us all feel like we were trapped. There was nowhere for us to go. We only got as far as the street, to Mom's car still sitting on the sidewalk. We were very lucky that Mom had a bad habit of leaving the doors unlocked, as well as a spare set of keys under her visor.

Now, I know what you're thinking. How on Earth can two 11 year olds and a 13 year old drive a car?

Not very well, I can tell you that much.

I don't think there was a thing we didn't hit before we finally figured it out. Mom was going to kill us for practically destroying her car. Though, to be fair, we were running for our lives and scared out of our minds trying to get away, so I think she'll be a tiny bit forgiving.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

After a while of crashing into things, we finally found some open road and drove as fast as we could away. I like to think the soldiers were too stunned to even think of carding us from the car, all three of us screaming at each other trying everything we could to make the car go where we wanted it to.

Well, what did you expect with three panicking kids in a big machine that none of them knew how to operate?

That car ride, though we didn't know where we were going, let us take in more and more of the destroyed Heartland that much more quickly. It was a harsh reminder that our home was being destroyed, and we were helpless to stop it. We were just three scared little kids, on our own. No parents, no teachers, no police, no other kids either. Just the three of us then.

It wouldn't be the first time it was just the three of us. Though I do love and care about our comrades, Shun, Yuuto, and I have been together for so long… I don't know think I'll be able to handle it if I were to lose either of them. We've been together for so long… How long would I survive if something happened to either of them? Could they move on without me?

It's scary to think about sometimes...