It was towards the end of the summer when we welcomed two new people to the farmhouse.

    It was towards the afternoon, a little later than lunch time. I'd been outside all morning since sunrise checking traps and snares, collecting game. I had caught four squirrels and three rabbits, and I was taking them to the barn to be skinned and gutted.
    I walked into the barn and sat the belt of animals on the table we used for butchering, when I heard something topple over in one of the stalls. I tensed up and took my rifle from across my shoulder and readied it, holding it up to my shoulder. I slowly walked from stall to stall, checking each one.
   I came to the last one, and just as I turned the corner to check for the noise, I was tackled to the ground. 
   My gun flew from my hand, and I was defenseless as my hands were pinned down. I looked up at the person who had tackled me, and discovered it was a boy who had to be around my age. He had darker skin and dark hair, with dark caramel colored eyes. His eyes were frantic, his forehead beaded with sweat. He turned to look behind him, back at the stall.
   "Run Rome, run!" He shouted. A teenaged girl ran out from behind him and sprinted out of the barn.
    When the boy turned back around to look at me, I head butted him, causing him to fall backwards. I shook my head and stood up, grabbing my gun. I aimed it at him, and then randomly aimed it outside at the ground, letting a shot fire off. Almost immediately, Oliver was outside. I yelled for him to chase the girl, and he did.
    "Get up," I snarled at the boy. His eyes were still wide with fear as he stumbled to stand up. I pointed at the house. "We're going to walk to the house. So help me god if you try to run, do not think for a second that I will not shoot you."
   His eyes grew larger and he gulped, but obliged. We walked to the house with his hands above his head, and I took him into the kitchen. There, Robert and Natalie were preparing supper, and Emily and Tyler were playing on the floor. When Robert and Natalie looked up and saw me with the boy, they asked for the kids to go upstairs. They nodded and gathered their things, quickly going up. I nudged the boy in the back as Robert pulled out a chair for him to sit in. Moments later, Oliver came in with the girl who had tears running down her face. She had the same skin tone as her brother and the same hair color, I knew they had to be siblings.
    Robert stepped out from the kitchen island, Natalie continuing to calmly cook lunch. I took the gun off from them, but kept it in my hands. Robert leaned against the kitchen island and crossed his arms, staring at them. The girl bowed her head as tears continued to trickle down her cheeks, and the boy had a strong face on despite his scared eyes.
    "They were in the barn in one of the stalls," I told Robert. He nodded. 
    "I'm sorry sir, my sister and I were just looking for a place to stay for the night. We've been on the run from the Stars for a long time, it's not safe for us to be out in the open," The boy said. Robert held a curious look to his face.
    "The Stars?" He asked. The boy nodded, but his face was surprised.
    "Haven't you guys been to the northern section of the city?" He asked. We all shook our heads. "We call them the Stars because that's their symbol. It's a star with a bunch of circles around it, I don't know. The symbol is all over the north city. They're military or something though. They have tanks and flying ships and stuff. They killed our parents, they know Rome and I are alive still, so they're trying to find us."
    The information swirled around in my head. I hadn't been to the northern part of the city, but I knew the symbol he was talking about. I'd seen it before the bombs. It was in the alley ways in the sketchier parts of the city. There was always the symbol and the words Homo perdit, fortis reditus  written with it. It was Latin, but I never knew what for.
    "What's your name?" Robert asked the boy.
    "Jasper," The boy answered.
    "Did you have anybody else in your group besides your parents?"
    "We have a town. When the Stars came to our town, they took in some of our people and told them that they would be safe. My family, and anybody who resisted..." His voice drifted off and his eyes looked empty. Rome grabbed his hand. 
    Robert looked at Natalie. After a few seconds of looking at each other, Natalie nodded. Robert turned to the kids. "Well it's a good thing you came when you did. Lunch is ready. I'll have one of our others set you guys up a spot in the study," He told the kids. Both of them looked shocked. Robert walked over and the boy stood up. They shook hands and Robert pulled him into a hug. I was the only one  close enough to hear what he whispered to Jasper. "If you so much as lay a finger on anyone in this  house, I'll kill you myself."
   When they pulled apart the boy continued smiling and just gave Robert a firm nod. Robert turned around and told Oliver and I to give them the tour. Just as we were about to walk out the door, Robert caught me by the arm. He leaned down to my ear. "You watch those kids," He whispered. "If they try to take anything or touch anybody, do not hesitate to kill them."
   He pulled away and I nodded at them. Oliver and I motioned for them to follow us. Oliver and I stood on either side of the two siblings, myself beside Rome, and Oliver beside Jasper. It was quiet at first, but Oliver quickly broke the silence.
   He made small talk at first, talking about things that had been going around the farm. And then he started asking questions about them. It turned out that Jasper was the son of an engineer, and his dad had taught him everything he knew after the bombs. Their mother was a nurse who made clothes in her free time, and she passed all of those skills onto Rome. Oliver and I looked at each other, and we had come to a mutual unspoken consensus: these kids could be useful.
    I began asking them about the town. I asked them about what resources they had, if they ever did any trades or anything of the sort. Jasper began telling us about how some of the women had learned to make soap and other hygienic supplies, and how they had a few milk cows that they had been making butter, cream, cheese, and getting fresh milk from. I asked if he knew if the cows were still there. He said he didn't know for sure but he didn't think that the soldiers took anything from the town.
   He also began talking about other animals that the town had. Chickens, pigs, rabbits, even horses. Oliver and I looked at each other, and we knew we had to get access to all of those resources.
    It turned out that Rome and Jasper were twins, same age. They'd had an older brother, but he was one of the casualties from the bombs. When the twins talked about them, their eyes grew dark and their voices shrunk down to small whispers. I felt for them. I knew what it was like.

    The twins ended up being a large help. Jasper and Carl worked together a lot to make new things for the house or upgrade things we already had. Rome was 2 years older than Bailey, but they hit it off really well. I would find the two of them in the study making clothes together, talking and laughing. The house was more full and harder to feed, but my little sister was happy. That's all that mattered to me. 
    But the twins weren't the only newcomers. It was around that time that the Collectors started coming. We first saw them in the city, on one of our runs. I had stayed home that day, but it was Oliver, Jasper, Robert, and Amy who had went out. They were looking for medicine, because Rome had tripped and fell on a previous run, cutting her wrist on a piece of metal. It got infected, so the crew went to the city to find her medicine.
    They said they were in the city when the first Collector flew overhead. They said it was shaped like a flat bottomed dome, with two long metal arms on its sides, each equipped with a claw. It also had a large green circle in the middle of its body. They ducked when they first saw it, as they saw the Stars symbol imprinted onto its side. They said they had ducked just in time as two men stumbled out of a building. The Collector saw them and scanned them with the green light, which then turned red. It flew overtop of the men, who looked at it confusedly. Then its flat bottom opened up and a large claw came down, scooping up one of the men, swallowing it inside. The other man spotted our group of people and tried to run for us, but the Collector gabbed him with one of its long arms, and the other claw came from its middle and shoved him in with his friend. Robert said after it had the two men, its light turned green again and it flew off north, past where Jasper said he'd seen the symbols.
    That was four months ago. Now we know when the Collectors are coming to do their rounds around the farmhouse. Every 2 weeks, noontime. We would count down the days, and then come noontime, we would all hide inside the house, in the living room. We'd shut all the windows and all of the blinds and sit together, huddled, weapons in hand. That way, if the Collectors ever found their way in, we could at least try to fight them off.
    It was different having a new threat. Before, it was just worrying about if we had enough food or medical supplies, and worrying about any hostile Scavengers. But then the Collectors came, and we had to fear metal spheres in the sky that snatched up your loved ones and took them away. If they didn't die immediately once inside the Collector. 
    It was early Autumn when we lost Amy to one of the Collectors. And I will never forget that day, because it was supposed to be my birthday.
    We were all gathered in the kitchen. It was the one day we'd all forgotten about the Collectors, how stupid we were to have not kept track and known that that was the day they'd make their sweep. How naïve we were to think we'd never lose anybody to them. Things were so good. I should've known it was about to go south.
    We were all inside, beginning my birthday celebrations. Bailey was in the process of decorating my cake, Carl mixing drinks. Oh Carl... how I felt for him. And his kids. Emily and Ethan were never the same. Nobody could expect them to.
    I was sitting at the kitchen island, talking to Bailey. Robert and Natalie were at the kitchen table, sitting back and laughing. We'd found some old birthday party decorations and hung them up around the kitchen. The sun was bright that day, gleaming in through the windows beside the counter and the side doors behind the kitchen table that lead to the back deck. Nothing could have been more perfect.
   Amy had been outside, looking in the car. She said she was searching for my birthday present which she had found in the city in the days previous to the Collectors attack. And then we heard the screams. Everybody looked at each other, eyes wide.
    "Amy..." Carl said, barely able to get out the word. Robert stood up and placed a hand on his chest.
    "I'm going to go look for her. Everybody else, go hide in the living room. Natalie, Enid, go grab the guns from the basement," Robert instructed. We all nodded and everybody moved, quickly but silently.
    Natalie and I crept downstairs to the basement. We didn't know what the threat was, all we could hear was Amy's screams. When we got to the basement, I rushed to the window and looked outside. My heart shot to my throat at what I saw.
    Two Collectors were chasing Amy around the yard. Her face was sweating and her round cheeks were flushed. Amy wasn't large by any stretch, but she had some extra weight on her which made it harder for her to run in dire situations. Such as running from metal death machines. 
    Tears sprung to my eyes and a sob escaped my throat as I watched her trip. One of the Collectors took the opportunity to scoop her up by her foot. She screamed and cried as it sucked her up inside, the latch shutting. I fell backwards to the floor, my breaths coming in and out too quick. Tears were coming down my face and my chest felt like it was going to explode. She went out to get my present, I thought to myself. In my mind, she died because of me.
    That day was hell. That's the only way to describe it. I knew the pain of losing my own loved one, but it was almost just as bad watching somebody else go through the pain of losing theirs. I watched as Emily and Ethan clung to their father crying, while he held them and sobbed to themselves. I watch Natalie and mom cry because they had lost a very good friend of theirs. I watched Tyler and Oliver sit back and watch the chaos unfold, and watched as Oliver got madder and madder at the Collectors, at the Stars. I watched Bailey cry because her teacher was gone, the woman who was teaching Bailey everything she knew about nursing and medicine. Bailey was her apprentice. My sweet little Bailey. 
    And I cried. I cried because Amy was gone. I cried because everybody else was crying. I cried because I felt like it was my fault. I cried because I knew I'd have to watch Amy's family go through the same thing my family went through. I cried because Amy was like an aunt to me and I wouldn't be able to go to her for advice. 
    That night, I  burned my birthday decorations in the fire. I didn't care that I was 16. I didn't touch my birthday cake, I felt too sick to my stomach to even think to eat it. I could hear Carl talking to his kids in their room through the walls as I laid in bed with Bailey and mom. I felt the tears start to well up in my eyes as I listened, so I slipped out of bed, threw on a pair of jeans, and went outside.
    I sat on the porch staring out on the lawn. Bear had come with me, laying at my feet. I sat hunched over with my elbows on my knees, shaking one leg, unable to sit completely still. I stared up at the sky, now a dark color of navy blue, stars sprinkled all over like holes poked in the veil letting light through. It was a full moon, glowing bright and big. The night sky was beautiful. I liked to believe that it was a tribute to Amy.
    When the front door opened, I looked to see who it was. To my surprise, it was mom. She came out with a large cardigan wrapped around her a knit one that Rome had made with thick grey wool. She smiled at me and slowly shut the door, as to make sure she didn't make any loud noises. She came over and sat next to me, still in her pajamas.
    "I know you blame yourself," She said, her voice quiet, delicate. It was rare even on good days that she spoke a lot. I looked away from her and looked back to the sky, fiddling with my hands.
    "How could I have forgotten that it was Collector day?" I whispered, tears welling up in my eyes. I could feel her own sad eyes burning into my back, her eyes bright blue, the same color as William's were.
    "How could I  forget? How could Robert forget? How could Carl  forget?" She asked. I looked at her again. Her face was sympathetic and sad. "We all forgot honey, it's not all on you."
    "But if I had just remembered, not been selfish and I hadn't gotten wrapped up in my birthday, I could've remembered. It's my own selfish fault that she's gone," I said, my voice breaking. I could feel the tears starting to trickle down my cheeks. "Everybody who's gone is gone because of me."
    And I let go. I started sobbing so hard my body was shaking. It was a flashback to that day I killed the deer in the meadow. I collapsed into mom, my head in her lap. She hushed me and ran her fingers through my hair, her hands delicate and her voice gentle. It was the first time in a long time she seemed like a mother. 
   "Baby girl, we all blame ourselves. And you've been through so much, and you've been so strong. Maybe it's time you step down from your duties and just take a break from everything. You're only sixte-" She said, but I cut her off. I sat up and looked at her in disbelief.
    "Is that what you call what you've been doing? While you've been shutting yourself down and shutting everyone else out, leaving your family defenseless, you call that taking a break?" I asked incredulously. She stared at me for a moment and the sadness in her eyes grew into guilt. "You left us! You have been nothing but a ghost since dad died! We have needed you, mom! But you, you were just too selfish to get up and get over yourself. I understand that you were sad and you were grieving, but it was not fair for you to abandon Bailey and I like you did. You are a despicable woman," I spat. I stood up and called for Bear. I didn't want to be anything like her.
    

   The next day, against Robert's advisory, I put together a group of people to come with me to Jasper's old town to get the animals. Robert said it was too soon and that none of us were thinking straight and we just needed to some time to think about the previous day and to grieve. Which only inspired me to want me to go to the town even more. I was sick of people telling me what I needed to do.
    I took Oliver, Jasper, Rome, Natalie, and Bailey. I never took Bailey out on runs, but I wanted to get her out of the house to get her away from all the grieving people. She cared too much about others and her helping everybody else would only drain herself. 
    We took the SUV and the Lambert's truck. It took an hour to get to the town, but Jasper was right. They hadn't taken anything. When we pulled in, we made a plan. Rome would take Natalie and Bailey to find mundane supplies like soap, fabric, food, etc. and Jasper would take Oliver and I to the animals.
   We moved quickly, not wanting to waste time. At first, there were almost no signs that anything had gone south. To call it a town was a bit of a stretch. The walls were made of a bunch of different materials, logs from fallen over trees; cars, which Jasper explained had been broken so they go used for the walls; scrap metal, from runs that they had went on to the city; and other items that weren't really recognizable. The wall looked bad but it was strong.
    Inside the walls weren't buildings, but trailers, RV's, small log cabins which I assumed had been made post-bombs, and one single house. Jasper explained that's where their mayor lived, as well as where the medicine station was. The mayor's house sat further back. In between the trailers and cabins, and the mayor's house was the animal pens.
   There was a coop full of chickens, all of which looked skinny. There was a small pen of four pigs,  and Jasper took us to the barn. Inside the barn were four horses and two cows. I wasn't sure how we were going to get all the animals home, but I knew we would make it work.
   We started with the chickens. We found cardboard boxes and plastic crates to put them in. We put as many as we could in transportation boxes, and let the other ones go free so they could have a shot at living. We were able to take six chickens. Jasper pointed out that we would be able to incubate eggs, considering one of the chickens was a rooster. It turned out that Jasper's father wasn't only an engineer, but a farmer as well. He proudly told us about how his father was the head farmer of the town as well as the head engineer. He talked about how his father was the one who bred the animals and cared for them, and how he was the reason the people of the town had food. It was nice to see his eyes so lit up when everyone else's were dark.
   We decided to put the chickens in the back of the SUV, box on box. They fit perfectly, and we got to work on the pigs. We knew we needed the trailers for the horses and the cows, so we couldn't put them in there. With Jasper's smart mind, we found a way to put them on the back of the truck. It took him a short while, but he managed to lay out tarp on the bed of the back of the truck, lay out hay so the pigs wouldn't slip, and he found a way to drill and secure metal fencing into the sides of the truck and on the tailgate to build up the walls so the pigs wouldn't fall out. It took all three of us to lift one pig, but we finally managed to. 
   By the time we had done that, the girls were back with the supplies. Each of them carried a box, and we put them in the back seats of the SUV. They'd found all sorts of useful things, and they were the ones who started loading up bags of chicken feed and horse grain into the back seats of the SUV as well. It was going to be a tight trip for the passengers on the way home, but we knew we could make it work.
    Oliver and Jasper hooked the vehicles to the animal trailers, and backed them up to the mouth of the barn. While they did that, I went inside to check out the animals.
   Four horses, each of them unique. I knew a fair bit about horses; we'd had them on the farm for years, but we got rid of them after a while once it got too expensive to keep them. But the barn still smelled like I remembered it, and my eyes lit up like a little girl's when I saw the huge creatures standing in their stalls.
    The first one, whose stall was labelled "Crimson", was a chestnut colored thoroughbred mare. Her eyes were large and gentle looking, her nose and forehead all white. I grabbed a mint from a box beside her stall, and held it out on a flat hand. She gobbled it up, her lips flapping against my hand. I smiled, her whiskers tickling my palm. I gave her nose a pat, and I moved to the horse across the hall. 
    He was a grey appaloosa, his stall reading "Titus". He was a large stallion, legs and chest all muscle. He was some kind of a work horse. I grabbed a mint for him as well, rubbing him up and down the nose. I giggled as he whinnied, finishing with a snort. 
   The horse beside him was another mare, "Mable". She was a palomino, her body a warm golden color, her mane and tail almost white. She whinnied as I walked up to her, making me smile. She nuzzled her head into mine, and I fed her a mint. I spent some time patting  her, until I heard a snort behind me.
   I turned around, my breath catching in my throat. The horse was tall and muscular, a buckskin stallion. His body was pure white, like freshly fallen snow. His mane and tail, though, were jet black. The black coated his legs too, as well as his nose. His stall didn't have a name.
   "We had just rescued him the day the soldiers came," Jasper said at the end of the stall. I didn't even look at him. I fed the huge stallion a peppermint, rubbing his nose. "We found him on a farm a couple miles out. He'd been out in the field so he wasn't starving, but he was severely dehydrated. I'm surprised he's still kicking."
    I continued to pat the horse's nose, working my way down to pat his neck. "He's beautiful," I said, my eyes scanning up and down his body. Jasper nodded and crossed his arms, staring at all four of the horses.
    "He is. He doesn't have a name, though," He said. I looked at him, and his eyes lit up as he got an idea. "Why don't you name him?"
    I thought about it for a second. I looked at the horse again, and noticed a black diamond marking on his forehead. I chewed on the inside of my mouth as I thought about a name.
    "Cain," I decided. Jasper nodded.
    "Cain it is, then," He smiled. I smiled back. His face then went to a serious look. "So as it turns out, we only have enough trailer space for the cows and two horses. So either we leave two horses behind, or..."
    "We ride them," I cut him off. He nodded. "My sister and I used to have horses, we can ride."
    Jasper's eyes lit up. "Sweet. Let's get saddled up and move out."

      We got the animals loaded up, and we packed a box of grooming tools, oats, and treats for the horses. We also grabbed all tools for the cattle, and saddled up Cain and Mable. Bailey and I laughed, realizing it sounded like "Cain and Able" from the bible. It wasn't an intentional thing, but it ended up being quite funny.
    I mounted up onto Cain, and we all pulled out. We had to travel slower on the way home, with the pigs on the back of the truck and each vehicle containing animals. It felt nice being back on a horse again; it was something I hadn't done for years. Our last horse was a white and brown paint horse dad named Scout. Scout was dad's horse, a trusty old stallion that never so much as snapped at somebody. He was always gentle with Bailey and I. He was a good horse, it was hard when we had to give him away. It made dad upset, but he got over it. Like he always did.
    Bailey and I rode side by side. We were following the trailers, lagging behind a fair amount. The horses were just lazily walking. Occasionally we'd break into a canter to catch up with the trailers so we wouldn't get too far behind, but we remained at a pretty even pace the entire trip.
    "We found some really nice fabric, we'll be able to make some warm clothes for the fall and winter," Bailey told me excitedly. I smiled at her.
    "Warm clothes for the winter are always a good thing if you ask me," I said jokingly. She laughed. 
    "We found some magenta colored wool, Amy will love it-" She caught herself and her face sunk. "I mean, she would have loved it."
    Her head dropped and tears welled up in her eyes. I reached my hand out to her and she looked up, taking it. "It's gonna be okay Bee," I told her, putting on my brave face. On the inside, my chest felt like there was a hydraulic press crushing it and my eyes threatened to spill tears at any moment. But Bailey looked at me, saw my brave face, and nodded. She believed in me. I always knew that I could count on her to believe in me.
    "Do you think the Collectors will take everybody?" She asked quietly. She released my hand and started fiddling with the leather of the reign. I looked at the road ahead of us, the sky starting to change colors to the evening. It had ben getting darker earlier and earlier at that time.
    "No," I answered. I looked back at her with strong eyes. "I won't let that happen. I promise."
    She nodded. I knew she believed me, and I felt bad. I was bad at keeping promises.

    When we got the animals to the farm, not everything seemed so bad. Ethan and Emily seemed to forget about the previous day's events as they got to pat the horses. When I got there, mom had been sitting on the deck, waiting there with Bear. Her and I stared at each other from far off. I knew I probably should apologize, but a part of me believed I had nothing to apologize for.
   We cleaned out the stalls that the animals would be staying in and turned them in. Jasper made a makeshift pen for the pigs out of the fencing from the truck, just until the next day when we'd be able to make them a real pen. We put all of the chickens in the loft of the barn, in the back half. We put a heating lamp up there, as well as a chicken feeder and a watering box. We blocked off half of the loft, so the other half could be used as storage or for whatever else needed to be put up there.
    We had just enough stalls for the animals. We had eight stalls, but one of them we used as storage for all of the tools and tack for the horses, and the other one was the entrance for the bunker. It was nightfall by the time we got indoors, and mom and Robert had dinner ready for us. Rabbit meat stew, made with fresh meat from yesterday's kill and vegetables mom helped the kids pick from the garden.
    Carl didn't come downstairs for dinner, and nobody tried to make him. Robert told him that dinner was ready, but left the choice to him if he wanted to come down or not. As we ate around the table, I looked around at everyone. Everyone was sad, but they weren't without hope. We had new people, Jasper and Rome. We had new animals, which meant new resources. Sure, we had a new threat as well, but I knew it meant that not all newcomers were bad.