It all started really dramatically. Just all at once the city’s lights went out and anybody who was in the dark at that moment disappeared. My brother and I were playing with flash lights lucky enough for us, and we had no idea what was going on until we saw our dad disappeared in the dark.

My brother Charles and I have been on our own scavenging for food, lights, and batteries for about 2 ½ years now. We’re held up in an old rustic looking bar just outside the city that has two generators in the basement. It’s a small bar separated into two parts, a long hallway connecting the two. Charles and I got back from our daily scavenge and the days have been becoming shorter, first by an hour then two and then three and so on and so on. There is about 2-3 hours of daylight left in the day. Charles and I were in the far room when we realized we forgot to top off the generators as the lights went out. We heard a death rattling scream from the other room and scrambled for the exit. As we were running our flashlights began dieing so we quickly ran for a dim street light off in the distance.

“You ok?” Charles responded in a worried voice.
“Yeah, but I’m out of breath,” David said in a shaky tone.
“Good, now let’s try and get some sleep until the sun comes back up; it’s going to be a long night.”

It was about 4:00 PM when the sun finally peeked over the horizon.
“David let’s get the siphon from the old shop and get some gas for the generators.”
”Sounds good but we should replace our batteries for the flashlights first.” I had forgotten all about that; if I were to have gotten taken from my brother I don’t think he would make it very far. The old shop was just down the street past the gas station, it was this big old metal container that held big trucks and a couple of tractors.

We got to the shop without a hitch besides me falling on my face, of course.
“David, how much food do we have in the cellar?” Charles said trying to strike a conversation.
“Not enough, we need to go deeper within the city if we want more food”, David responded in a serious voice.
“No!, You know what will happen if we get lost in there. We need to find a map of the city and modify it to what destruction had happened to it during the accident.”Charles said annoyed.
“We’ll never find one if we don’t try.”David responded.
“Ok, let’s not get into a fight at the end of the world. Let’s get the siphon and get out.”Charles said trying to sooth the situation.
“Alright, Charles.”David said.

We got the siphon and got the gas for the generator and had our flash lights on while we filled the generator. “Do you know who got in last night Charles?” David asked in a frightened voice.
“No clue, but it shows that we need to remember to lock the doors and window so we don’t have an accident again.”
We weren’t the only ones to make it, most of the other people we’ve seen have been shooting people on sight for some water and a couple of double A batteries. Yeah, I never would've guessed that between life and death would've been a pair of batteries. David and I went on the rest of the day with our normal duties and in the end it was just another day gone by.