I turned to Lou and said, "It is hot."

Lou scowled. "What the hell am I supposed to do about it?"

"Well, if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be in the middle of a hot desert dying of thirst."

"If it wasn't for me, we'd already be dead. Get that through your thick skull, Arnie."

The man with the hood was still silent. He had joined us without a word, and we had let him. There were very few of us remaining, and Lou was convinced that we had the best chance of survival if we stuck together. We needed everybody, no matter how....weird

The hood-man was weird, all right. No doubt about it.

If bad got to worse, at least we could eat him to survive. I would be lying if I said that the thought of cannibalism had not crossed my mind. There were seven of us at the moment, and Lou figured we had just about enough food and water to survive another day.

Gabe was convinced we were heading in the right direction.

"We have to go for the mountains. That's our best shot." he kept saying. "Keep going for the mountains."

None of us wanted to admit that if Gabe happened to be wrong, which I knew from experience that he sometimes was, we would all die a horrible death.

Sometimes, at night, when the hot desert became freezing cold, I wondered if it wouldn't have been better if we'd been killed by whatever it was that killed everyone else.

The seven of us trudged forward, having no idea of what lay ahead of us...

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Author guidance for This story

Ok, so 'something' has happened and humans are now an endangered species. That 'something' will be referred to as 'Shadow' until we find out more about it.

I'm writing in first person with Arnold. You can change the first person you'd like to use, but just mention it either in the chapter title or in the chapter itself.

Arnold Stensen: A seventeen-year old, short but well-built. He is more of a follower than a leader. He is a bit lazy, but can handle himself in crisis situations.

Gabe Anderson: Arnold's best friend. He is tall and well-built. He is very good with directions.

Lou Anderson: Gabe's elder brother. He was his school's student body president, well-respected and admired by all. He likes to lead the pack.

updated Apr 2 '10 by Anonymous