"It will all be over soon." the voice said as I awoke from my dream. I was overcome with despair at the realisation that I was still in this cabin. I got up and pulled my jacket around me tightly. I glanced out the window and saw a hint of white. I stopped, realising what I had seen. I turned around and ran towards the window. Snow. The last thing I needed was snow. 

I ran down the stairs, tripping on the last step. I needed to wakeup, I had things to do. I brushed myself off and walked over to the fireplace. Three blocks of wood left. "This is my life now," I muttered. I walked into the kitchen and went through the pantry. No food. We were running out of the essentials. I knew we would get snowed in. Every winter we have been snowed in. Every day it snows. I walked upstairs and went into the second bedroom. Lily was still asleep. I had met Lily five years ago when this all started. She was only ten. I can't forget it.

You see, five and a half years ago something bad happened. I remember asking my mum what was wrong. I was only twelve, and whatever it was, she didn't want me knowing. Everything was fine for a while and then it happened. The outbreak. People started getting sick and losing their minds. I don't want to sound too cliche but it reminded me of a zombie apocalypse movie I had watched. My family fled towards the woods on the side of the mountain but we got separated and I've never seen them again.

I travelled for days looking for food or shelter and that's when I met Lily. I had crossed a small bridge and heard a child crying. When I saw her I planned to leave but she begged me to help her so I did and we later found an abandoned cabin which we live in now. 

There was a tiny town nearby and we went there to steal food and other items. That's when we learned about the power outages. All the sick people who were attacking the cities were causing so much damage that power was out all over the country meaning we had no service. We also met a lady there who worked at the daycare before the outbreak. She had about ten kids with her. Every week she would update us on the outbreak. I felt bad for her. Every few months we would turn up and there would be one less child with her. Without proper food and water, no one was going to survive. One graze or cut could mean death.

That's when we took in the twins. We had gone down to get an update and found she had passed. By then Cora and Kaiden were the only kids left. Lily wanted to leave them but we ended up taking them back to the cabin. Now the five of us live in a cabin on a mountain with no power, no service and we are living off river water and canned food. Not the greatest scenario.

I sat down next to Lily and grabbed her shoulders. "Can't you leave me to sleep Hannah?" she begged. "No. It's snowing and we are not taking any chances of getting snowed in and starving to death. Now get up, we're going." I stated. I went downstairs to find the twins sitting on the couch. "We are going out. Lock the doors and don't leave," I said as Lily joined me at the door, "and don't let any strangers in."

Lily and I walked through the snow. We never spoke. It was a subtle agreement. We weren't doing this because we are friends, it was because we wanted to survive. The town was only ten minutes away so it was pretty easy to get to. We arrived and walked over to the supermarket. I assisted Lily as she climbed through the broken window. Once we got our trolley in we walked through the isles. We only took what we needed. I grabbed the bottles of alcohol and put them in the cart. They were very useful as a disinfectant for cuts and grazes. After grabbing as much canned food as we needed we left the store. After about thirty minutes we had gone through all the stores. We had gotten over 50 cans of food, books, coffee filters and many other items.

As we started our walk home I knew I had to talk to Lily. "So...how are you?" I asked. I knew the answer. "We don't have to talk," she replied. I stopped walking, causing her to turn and face me. "Look, I'm just a little over all of this. Can't we just find a way to travel down to the city.?" Lily asked, "We heard on the radio that the outbreak has been partially contained. At least we can try to find out if any adults we know survived. Please?" she begged. I knew what she was talking about but it was dangerous. "Go back to the cabin and cut some trees down for wood. Enough for a few months." I replied. Lily nodded and headed towards the cabin.

I turned and walked back through the town. I knew that everything she said was true but I wasn't taking any chances. Police would take anyone under 18 without parents or guardians to homes underground where they would be 'safe'. Only one person could help me. Joe. Joe lived in a little cottage on the outskirts of the town. He was an old fat man who looked like Old McDonald. A true farmer. He made it clear not to talk to him unless it was an emergency. Probably just wanted us to stay away from him. I knocked on the door. The door opened and there he was. "Whatcha want kid, better be good," he yelled. 

I explained the problem. He nodded every once in a while. "The only way 'round this is if ya birth certificate got destroyed. All four of ya's, so you little lady can re-register as family. That's all I got." he stated, "now out ya go" he said as he pushed me out the door. I started walking. He was right. All documents were destroyed in the attacks and most digital copies got deleted when the electricity stopped working. If I re-registered, the government would give us money and get us food if need to be. The little town was close to being empty. I needed to go to the city before the snow hit any harder.

I ran back to the cabin. Lily was putting the logs of wood next to the fireplace. She turned and looked at me. "Did you think about it?" she asked. I relayed everything to her and waited for her reaction. "So what's the plan?" she asked. "We get the old truck behind the house and fill it up with the emergency fuel and go to the city," I stated. 

Time Skip

We had gone down and found that none of us had living relatives in the city so I took the liberty of re-registering us meaning we would be siblings. While there we were given a new radio and lots of donations to help us survive in the cabin. Turned out they had found a potential cure and had, at the very least found a way to contain the outbreak. With that everything was going to go somewhat back to normal. 

We got out of the car and went into the cabin. It had snowed while we were gone. I wasn't surprised, it snowed most of the year except for a few weeks in summer. I sat the twins on the couch. I didn't love being stuck in a cabin with no power but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. I turned towards Lily as she walked through the door. "Hey Hannah, why did you pick the middle name Snow for us and why is our last name Resort?" Lily asked. "Because the name of this cabin is Snow Resort. I took the name plaque off when we first came here to use it to make a lock for the door." I said. I smiled. I knew we were never going to get our full life back but I kinda like our Snow Resort and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Diary Entry #1829

Hannah S. Resort

16/12/2037