“It’s almost like a mini apocalypse.” Kevin dumped one of his five gallon buckets into the water barrel, then picked up the other bucket, pausing to continue. “I have to admit, this isn’t where I expected to be.”

Eric grit his teeth as the weight of his buckets dug into his hand. “Look, will you just finish so I can empty these?”

“Think about it,” Kevin replied, side-stepping and completely missing the pained expression on his friend’s face. “Three days ago, we arbitrarily decide to stay with the Fox’s for the week. Next thing we know, earthquake shakes the whole east coast, cell service is down, power goes out, and we’ve lost all methods of contact with people we know.”

“Yeah, Kate keeps reading the last few texts she got from her friends before the network blacked out. She’s going to use up the battery.”

A call echoed across the yard from the nearby woods, where David motioned from a distance.

“On top of that,” Eric muttered, “there’s a hurricane coming.”

Off to the east, thunder rumbled darkly.