survivors of the storm

the rich princess

I wake up to the sound of humming and soft laughter. I roll over towards where Kate slept, surprised to find her sitting in Graysons lap.

She has a pad of paper and a pen, giggling at something Grayson said. When she sees that I'm awake she cheerfully says,

"Good Morning! I'm drawing pictures," she thrusts the paper at me, letting me see it fully. It has a messily drawn house with flowers on it, and to the side written in loopy handwriting is Kate's name in big block letters.

I glance up at Grayson, assuming he drew it. I look back down at Kate.

"Wow Kate, it looks good." I say with a smile. She smiles back and takes the paper back. I check the time of my watch, seeing it's 8:07.

"We should probably get going," I say. I want to make it back to the hospital sometime today, and it's a pretty long walk with a 6 year old.

"Okay, I'll wake Jax up." Grayson says, lifting Kate out of his lap. I grab my toothbrush and head to the bathroom. I quickly brush my teeth and use my fingers to comb through my hair. I splash water on my face and wash my hands.

I walk back out to the bedroom and see Jax half awake swatting at Grayson, who's trying to drag him out of bed. When Grayson doesn't have any luck he looks over at me and shrugs.

"I never knew he slept this hard." He says. I laugh a little and walk over so I'm standing beside Jax.

"WAKE UP!" I yell. Sure enough he jolts out of bed and almost falls over. He looks like he just got thrown into another dimension, looking around with a confused look on his face.

"Good morning," I say, grinning.

"Morning." He says grumpily. I look up when I hear Grayson trying to stifle his laughter, which only makes me laugh more. By the time me and Grayson are over laughing, Jax is up and ready to go.

I grab my toothbrush and put it in the inner pocket of my flannel. It's not the cleanest I know, but I don't know when I'll find another clean toothbrush anytime soon.

We gather the scarce things we have and head out the door. Before we shut the door Kate runs over and puts one of her drawings on our bed. When I look down at her she just shrugs and says,

"Someone might be lonely." I smile at her and take her hand. We leave the motel area and are on the road again.

While we walk we tell each other about our past lives. Our lives before the storm. Jax tells us he wanted, wants, to be an engineer. Kate modestly tells us that she is going to marry someone famous and be a princess. None of us have the heart to tell her that that's not how it works.

We've probably been walking for an hour or more when I get a bad feeling. We've gone too long without running into trouble. I'm extra alert, my eyes darting around at every little noise. I notice the boy's are looking around too, on edge.

"It's not just me that thinks something really bad is about to happen right?" I ask.

"No, definitely not just you." Grayson answers. We walk for a little while more, then stop to rest our legs and make a plan to find food.

"We could look in abandoned houses," Jax suggests. I agree and start to walk off to a nearby apartment complex.

"Woah, woah, woah. Are you trying to get yourself kidnapped?" Grayson asks. I turn back around confused.

"Huh?"

"You're just going off on your own? There could be scavengers around." I never really thought of that, I was only thinking that I was hungry.