When I started college in Seattle, I expected that I would change. What I didn’t expect was that I would change into someone starving, filthy, and prone to sleeping tangled in blackberry bushes to protect myself from predators of the animal and human variety. No one knows why the lights went out. One minute there was Instagram and ice cream and the next, nothing. Black. Darkness absolute. There was power rumored in the east, settlements with wind energy that were still thriving amidst the chaos. I fled the west coast with a small group, chasing a sliver of hope. That hope was quickly snuffed out, leaving me all alone in the world. Until I wasn’t alone. They found me deep in the forest. I ran and they gave chase. Death was on my heel when I landed at the feet of an unwilling savior. With a cabin, a farm, and a lifetime of survival skills, Joshua was the perfect companion for the apocalypse. If only he wanted companionship. It’s hard to earn his trust and even harder to keep it. At a glance, he seems to be nothing more than an off-kilter backwoods prepper with a grudge against humanity. The longer I look, the more I begin to see the man behind the harsh words and unkempt beard. As reluctant as he is to keep me, Joshua just might need me. After all, no one survives the end of the world alone.