*Three brief entries in different perspectives of the three siblings (#1 oldest sister, age 18; #2 brother, age 13; #3 youngest sister, age 5) about to continue their adventure into the wilderness of a world they have fallen into.

#1 June 30 (I think)

Dear Diary,

I sometimes wonder if I made the wrong decision. As the oldest, I should have been more responsible, right? It felt like I was follo...

White wings ride sunset skies

Breaking vorpal winds on high

Gliding far and free....

It was my first day of training in the art of sparring. There was so much to learn, not just in form, but how to thoroughly incapacitate my opponent.

“Your moves are flimsy,” Sensei roared. To demonstrate this remark, his wooden staff connected to my ankles and sent me crashing to the floor, knocking the wind out of my lungs.

As I coughed, the butt end of a staff entered my vision.

“And therefor...

Darkness blotting out the sun,

The line of life and death undone,

Blind were we to our destiny

To forget our fate, our mortality.

It seems so pointless to live and let lie

When the world as we know it is preparing to die.

How foolish, how small, how very naive,

The Devil must think us so easy to deceive.

Oh Lord, we beseech and plea to thee

To guide the tethered most humbly,

To face the end by ...

She stared at me. And stared. Then…

“Are you…?” she began, then swallowed and tried again.

I waited, heart pounding fast. I wish she would just say it, to spare me from having to confess, but even just saying the name I had given myself in this day and age sounded ridiculous. Unreal. Even for her, who was a bigger nerd than I was with this sort of thing.

I didn’t PLAN on any of this happening. I ...