Avril

The lamp on my bedside table rattled then fell to the ground and shattered into a million little pieces. Yet another aftershock. Causing me to wake up.

"Where are we?" I asked while in a hangover like state of sleepiness.

"A hotel" Alyss replied sitting up in her makeshift bed of assorted blankets and pillows. "You know since that's where we were when we fell asleep."

I dragged myself out of bed and over to the sliding door between the rooms I shared with Alyss and Serena and the room where Mira, Nicolette, and Ella were.

"Get the hell up!" I heard Mira yell at Nicolette and Ella who were both still in their beds. I heard them groan and Mira bark some more orders.

Serena sighed and pulled herself out of her bed complaining the entire time. She walked up next to me and slid the door open with a thud.

"SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!" Then she slammed the door shut and stomped back to her bed.

I rolled my eyes and looked over at Alyss who was frowning. She stood up and made like she was going to wake up Serena again.

I shook my head.

"Never wake up the sleeping monster; she will bite your head off." I whispered to her.

"Well we need to go." Alyss ignored my warning and sauntered up to Serena's bed, and yanked the covers out from under her. She was rolled off the bed and hit the floor with a thump. No effect. Serena was still asleep. Alyss grabbed a glass of water off the nightstand and dumped it on top of Serena, who woke up immediately and screamed at Alyss. Alyss promptly proceeded to dump another cup of water on her.

"I will keep pouring water on you until you get up and get ready to go." She said in a calm voice which was somehow heard above Serena's yelling.

Mira, Nicolette and Ella slid the door open and walked in with their stuff. Mira caught sight of Serena and doubled over laughing at her. Serena looked like a wet dog with her long sleep matted hair hanging in her face, completely dripping wet.

Serena growled at her then got up from her little puddle of water and glared at Alyss.

"Fine. Give me a minute to change clothes since these…" she gave Alyss a look that would have made a pro wrestler crumple. Alyss barely reacted. "Are ruined." She finished then she stomped to the bathroom to clean herself up.

"If only I had a camera." Mira had finally stopped laughing enough to talk again, "That would have been perfect blackmail material."

Alyss gave a little cough of disapproval but said nothing, Ella just smiled.

Serena emerged from the bathroom in new clothing and with freshly brushed hair in a ponytail. She of course started barking orders right away.

"Alyss I want you and Mira to go to the women's restroom and grab as much toilet paper and other things…as you can." Seeing Alyss' look of embarrassment she added "Yes you know exactly what I mean. When you're done you can raid the first and second floor rooms." Then she handed Mira a screwdriver. "So you don't have to pay. Ella and Nicolette, I want you guys to raid the kitchens and lobby for anything that might be of use. Then you guys can search the third floor rooms. Avril and I will take the top two floors. NOW MOVE! I want to get out of this hell hole as soon as possible."

"Serena, this isn't a hell hole and don't use that language?" Alyss calmly replied, though obviously irritated.

Serena glared at her then grabbed her bags and me, headed for the fourth floor.

An hour later we had collected about twenty cans of food, some bathroom supplies, and a few more blankets and pillows.

We all met in the parking lot with our small loot. Now all we needed was a car, preferably a van of some sort, or two cars with good gas mileage. Serena was obviously anxious to get out of California. We had barely made it out of San Francisco much less to the Nevada border. She hoped to be there by nightfall.

"LOOK A CAR!" Nicolette screamed excitedly pointing at a silver Honda Odyssey.

"Avril checks it out." Serena said pointing at me.

"Why me?" I asked

"Because I had water dumped on me so you can go check out the car." she replied tossing me a gun.

Catching it, I sighed. Serena's logic was completely stupid sometimes.

I ran up to the car with one of the guns and peeked in the window making sure no one was sleeping in it. There was a man in it. He looked to be about thirty-five. I jumped back from the car and crouched down hoping he hadn't seen me. No reaction. I peeked up over the edge of the window a little bit more to look inside again. He hadn't moved. Was he even breathing?

Mira picked up a pebble from the gravel parking lot and chucked at the car window.

"He's dead" she announced after waiting a few seconds.

"Okay, let's go find another car then." Alyss said obviously wanting to get away from this one.

"Nah, no point. Plus this way it's not really stealing." Serena replied calmly. "I really just want to get out of here before someone notices our sic carts of food." She explained.

Alyss sighed.

"Fine, but I refuse to help with moving the body."

"Done already" Mira called from the passenger seat of the van. "I moved him out into the bushes already. It looks like he committed suicide by leaving his car on while he was in it, so someone might want to go grab some more gas from another car."

"On it." Ella replied dashing off towards the hotel door.

"Where are you going!" yelled Alyss.

"Inside I saw a can of gas in the kitchen." She yelled back, and then disappeared through the front door of the hotel.

A few minutes later we were on the road with a car full of supplies and the windows rolled down to get rid of the dead guy smell. Ella hadn't needed to hotwire the car because the man's keys were still in it.

A two hour drive later and we were right on the Nevada border, and out of gas. Again. Serena and Mira walked a little ways down the road and spotted a gas station.

"We'll take Ella there with us and hotwire a new car, get some gas and come back for you three. Just stay here and watch the car." Serena told us then she grabbed a shopping cart, emptied it into another cart and started riding it down the road with Ella and Mira.

It was just Alyss and I now. Awkward much? We sat down on the side of the road leaning against the car. Boy was I glad to be getting rid of the disgusting thing. I had a feeling it was haunted by the dead guy who had been in it.

"So, um what happened to your parents?" she asked in an obvious attempt to start a conversation.

"We're not sure. They were in London when the big earthquake started so I assume they're still there and probably won't be getting back any time soon, if ever. Serena reckons they're dead based on the reports of the flooding there. "I replied wiping some tears out of my eyes. " They were on another business trip. So we were being watched by our new tutor. She was killed immediately during the earthquake, crushed by a book case and some rubble."

"Oh. I'm sorry" Alyss said looking sympathetic. "I think my family is probably dead they were both downtown at work during the earthquake."

"Mine too." Nicolette added. I jumped. I had all but forgotten Nicolette was still here with us.

"I think we're all in the same boat here." Alyss replied.

I looked up, suddenly hearing an approaching car. Alyss did the same.

"Should we hide?" I asked griping the gun Serena had left behind tighter.

"No. Let's wait and see what happens." She replied standing up and watching as the car pulled over behind us. I stood up next to her and watched as a man and his young daughter got out of the car and walked up to us. The daughter looked very ill, and her father looked exhausted and sad.

"Hi." He said, staggering up to us. "Please do you have any food or water? My daughter is very sick and she needs help. "

"Well we really shouldn't …" I replied unsure what to do. Alyss looked just as troubled as I did; Nicolette was already edging towards the car.

"Please. I'll do anything, give you anything. I just can't lose my little girl; I've lost too much already." He pleaded with us.

I nodded to Alyss and she went to the back of the van and dug through it for some food and water with the help of Nicolette.

"It's fine." I assured the man, "We don't need any payment."

Alyss handed him a twelve pack of soup cans and a gallon of water. She had also grabbed a few pills of aspirin which she handed him.

"I hope these will help too." She said.

The man thanked us over and over and instantly put his daughter back into his car helping her to drink some of the water and take the aspirin. As he started his car again and began to drive, off the others pulled up in a grey SUV. Serena jumped out of the passenger seat and slammed the door. She looked murderous. She walked up to me fuming, Mira right behind her.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!" She screeched at Alyss and I. "WE NEED THAT FUCKING FOOD AND THE WATER ESPECIALLY! WE ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE FUCKING MOJAVI DESERT AND YOU JUST GIVE OUR GOD DAMN WATER AWAY! WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU THINKING?"

"What did you want us to do? Let the poor girl die?" Alyss asked bravely. She hadn't even bothered to make a remark about Serena's colorful language.

"YES!" Serena and Mira yelled in unison. Then they left to go help finish loading up the car. Alyss and I looked at each other dumbfounded. It had just been a simple act of kindness. We walked over to help load up but they were already done.

"Just get in the car!" Mira barked at us, so we climbed in reluctantly.

Mira took the wheel and Serena sat in the passenger seat. Alyss, and Ella each sat in their own seat and Nicolette and I shared a seat.

The next few hours were a living hell. No one said a word, and every single attempt Alyss made to start a conversation was crushed by Serena and Mira silence. The only talking done was an hour and a half lecture from Serena about how important every last can of food was and how Alyss and I were such idiots. I stared out the window for another hour after that until the car suddenly shook and skidded off the road into a side ditch, a wheel blown out in another aftershock.