“I think I’ve just met the happiest person in the world!” My teenage daughter piped as she burst through the door.

“Oh, who?” I said, trying to cut carrots and keep my youngest from sticking out his hand into the cutting board.

“The new girl, Carrie,” Billy said brightly, plopping her backpack onto the kitchen countertop, “She bopped around all day, hugging people, laughing, talking to anyone who ...

Lightning crashed across the sky as Kyle tried to focus on his book report. Thumps from the kitchen as his sister practiced her ballet. Scratches as his cats ran around the house like cars on a race car track. Crashing and cursing as his mother dropped the chicken pot pie she was making. A sigh as he realized that it would not be a calm, easy, quiet night....

As Lynn laid, sprawled, on the ground staring up at the dark blue sky, she wondered about the past events that lead up to this.

She was six when the plague broke out. She remembered hiding around a corner as the news blared, “WARNING, WARNING, IF YOU SPOT ANYONE WITH THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS....” She remembered her mother piling her into the car and the long drive into the mountains.

She was fifteen...