I crept among the shadows in the darkness with my brother, Zal. Debris was scattered everywhere; the remnants of vacant buildings strewn in every direction, rotting bodies decaying in the street, and dust clouds kept billowing up from the collapsed highways and rubble. 

      It was literally the end of the world. It was the year 2022 and almost all of humanity ceased to exist. 

      Almost. 

      There were still a group of people still living. Strangers until now, when we needed each other most. Somehow, we survived the multiple severe earthquakes here in Philadelphia. The strongest that we ever had in recorded history. Half of New Jersey was under water due to the tsunamis. All of the buildings and skyscrapers fell. All of the roads, houses, schools, everything; it's just dust now. 

      If you walk down one of the cracked streets here in the heart of Philadelphia, or what's left of a street, you can maybe make out what used to have been a building or someplace important to society. 

      The world is gray now. We can't grow food anymore. The dust clouds that rise up cover the widespread sky and block the sun. It's cold. Atleast forty to fifty degrees during the day. It drops down close to freezing at night. 

      Right now it's just Zal, my mother, and I. We don't know where dad is. The day that everything happened was the day my dad and his business associates went on a business trip to another factory. My dad said the factory was in a small place called Pottstown which is at least an hour away. We don't know if he's alive or dead, where he is, and how he's doing. It's horrible thinking about it if you don't know. Sometimes, in the small shelter my brother and I made, we would hear mom cry in her sleep saying my dad's name. My brother and I learned to try not to think about him. Which is a very difficult thing to do. 

      Some of the people in our group of twenty are religious. They said this "apocalypse" happened for a reason. That we were all condemned for our horrible human nature and sin. Well they're right. On top of the earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and any other natural disaster you could think of, not only were we in a war, but World War III was taking place slowly in the middle east. Nuclear missles and bombs of all sorts were being fired. More suicide bombers fired in New York and in other big cities across the nation. The United States was under attack. But then, this happened. Catastrophic storms and disasters took place across the globe. Cities were uprooted. National monuments destroyed. Humanity faded to dust. 

      As far as we know, the small group of us are the only survivors. We had no way of knowing if anyone else in the country, or even the state, was still alive. Technology is no more. Our cell phones don't work. Neither do televisions or any other source of electricity. We don't know what's happening in other countries. Right now, it's just us. 

      And that leads us to what my brother and I are doing. Zal is seventeen. Only a year older than me. We are the oldest among the kids and it was our job to try to find food or any survivors among the wreck. We are all afraid of running out of food since we can't possibly plant anything anymore and all of the cattle and animals are slowly dying because of this. We are so afraid we don't even bring up the fact that we could die by starvation. And that will become a battle in itself. Eventually sooner or later it will become a battle of survival. Kill or be killed. Sometimes if we're lucky, one of us will find a box or something that contains food. We have to immediately bring it back and it will be split among us. It doesn't go far; there's twenty of us after all. It's better than nothing and it's common that at least someone goes hungry for the day. 

      Today my brother and I are really lucky. We looted ten collapsed buildings and stuffed a sack full of cereal boxes, moldy but still edible cheese, a few cookie packages, and stomped juice boxes. The adults should be pleased. We haven't brought this much back in a while. It's always dangerous going into a collapsed building. My mother doesn't especially like that the other adults voted to give this certain job to us, but she was outnumbered. After all, we were all she had. 

      It was night time as we left the broken homes. It was sad that we were taking things that belonged to someone else. This whole situation has been traumatic for everyone. How could it not? The little children wake up and the first thing they see are deceased bodies littering the ground everywhere around them. This was soon and startingly becoming a reality, even for them. 

      We got back to our shelters and a small fire was lit. A certain warmth in the darkness. My mother's head shot up as she anticipated our arrival. Everyone looked hungrily at us as they waited for their meal. Soon, everyone had a small peice of the food Zal and I brought back. 

      I sat down next to my friend Jeniere, and watched her pick at the food. I felt strange ever since this happened. I've lived in a middle class family since I was born. And now? Now I've finally felt my first taste of homelessness. It's a very different feeling. A feeling I can't explain unless you actually experience it. 

      "I've been thinking a lot about this," Jeniere said as she picked at her food. "And I think this is a new beginning for us." 

      I stared at her with my mouth gaping open. How could she, of all people say that? Both of her parents died in her house as it collapsed on them. They got her out just in time. She was an only child so she was not lucky enough to have a brother or sister to be with. She was orphaned but my mother treated her just as her own. 

   "What are you saying? This isn't a beginning, this is the end!" I exclaimed. 

   "With every end, there is a beginning." she turned to me. "It's like Noah's Ark. God destroyed the world with forty days of rain, but saved Noah and his family. Maybe that's what's happening with us. Maybe there's a reason we were saved but everyone else died."

   I contemplated that for a few minutes. I wasn't religious; none of my family was, but maybe she was right in a way. Then again, in the end we might all die. Save us? Ha. The world was crumbling right in front of our eyes. A new beginning? More like the end.