Boom. That's how it all started. I heard a crash, a loud crash, and light streaked the sky. Then it hit. The zig-zag stitch in the night quilt crashed into my house with a deafening roar. Fire burst up around me like it was having a party. An arson party. I jumped out the window, broken from impact, and hit the gray solid pavement. I jumped back up, my skinned knees burning, and ran, ran forever. That's what it felt like. Pain. Burning pain. Fire. Flaming madness. I sat in the green grass, wet from the rain, and cried. Bawled my eyes out. My knees weren't the only thing that was hurt. I knew, no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, my family was dead. Ashes, left in the house. As my knees burned, and bled, my thoughts drove grooves in my head. Burned pictures. Focused on the only answer. The thought- the thought I couldn't bear swam in my head. Starve. Dehydrate. Strangle myself. I wouldn't. For them. I would try, try to play this game. But I had to find a home. I stared at the sun, letting hopeful thoughts fill my head. I will start tomorrow. Everything would be fine. Everything is certainly not fine. I wake, tongue dried to leather and stomach growling. A creature inside me claws at my stomach, growling for food. I get up, weak from starvation. I grip my stomach and drag myself slowly across the horizon. It's been almost 2 hours since I started my ‘adventure’. I haven't seen any single human beings around. Almost like they all disappeared. Then I saw smoke. Gray billowing smoke coughed into the sky. I smiled. Then I ran, ran like a cheetah catching her prey. A log cabin came into view. There I would be able to eat and drink and… I opened the door. It creaked loudly, and as I stepped in the light flickered. On a chair, a white, pale white figure sat… oh no. A skeleton, tiny bits of skin and blood still plastered to the bones, sat on a ripped-up sofa chair. I screamed. My heart racing, I ran out of the cabin crying. It all happened again. The burning thoughts, the burning heart, the bawling. It all came back. It started over. Except there wasn't hope left, and hope was the only thing that mattered. I had run, ran far away from the broken-down cabin, and collapsed in the fresh grass. When I woke up a creature sat by me. Brown fur bunched up. I threw a rock at it. A sound squeaked out of it and it jumped, flipping backward, and before I knew it, I had fur in the face. Stinging pain. The rabbit's back legs kicked me in the face, causing my nose to bleed. As I felt the red liquid sink into my mouth, I ran. Ran again, and never would stop running. My eyes closed, and I passed out. I wake up, my eyes are bloodshot. Then I feel a slithering on my legs. A long and quiet hissing sound hints at the animal. I jump up, then scream. But I'm frozen in place. The snake has brown scales and black spots. It flattened its head and hissed, louder than before. It curls around my legs. It doesn't harm me. It just curls around me, like a hug. I put him on my shoulder and smiled. I knew I had found my home. I would survive.