6:00 pm - continued Stacie had made it only a couple of feet with one of the black bags when her neighbor’s door opened and he stepped out. Dressed casually in jeans and a plain shirt under a gray hoodie, he glanced up at the noise Stacie was making and met her eyes, a bewildered … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 56

6:00 pm She had just enough time to have dinner before she had to go pick up her two best friends, girls who had been by her side for most of her life, girls she knew like the back of her hand and knew her like the back of theirs’, girls who had always been … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 55

5:00 pm - continued The admiral in charge of the cruise ship they had commandeered stood at the railing. His arms were crossed and he was dressed in full dress uniform, decorated to the hilt. He and his wife and two teenage children were standing together in the last hour of the afternoon, staring at … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 54

5:00 pm - continued It wasn’t long before Callie and Abigail heard stampeding footsteps echoing throughout the house, a sound Callie had sorely missed over the years. It was mere moments before Evan, Cooper, and Jenna trooped into the kitchen. “Smells good!” Evan announced as he went over to his wife and gave her a … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 53

5:00 pm She hummed quietly to herself in the quiet, still house as the stovetop sizzled and the smell of cooking food wafted up and hung in the air. She breathed in deeply, enjoying cooking the last meal she would ever cook. She was thrilled that her son was home, that she would get to … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 52

4:00 pm - continued Calliope looked up at her sister, her eyes wide and full of understanding, if a little bewildered at her sister’s sudden emotion. “But we have to die, Val. We all have to die. That’s our fate.” Valentine pressed her trembling lips together into a firm line and tried to keep herself … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 51

4:00 pm - continued A knock at her door jerked her from her thoughts and she sat bolt upright, eyes wide and startled. The tears that had begun to form in her eyes dried and her nose ceased its tell-tale tingling. “Sorry, Val,” a soft voice said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” Calliope was … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 50

4:00 pm She called it her “lost hour.” For the past year, her first and only year of college, it had been the one hour of the day where she didn’t quite know what to do with herself. She was always done with classes by four in the afternoon and had never taken an evening … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 49

3:00 pm - continued “Jenna, honey, are you okay?” her mother called from the kitchen. “Yeah,” Jenna called back. “I’m coming, Mom.” Though she knew her mother was expecting her, she had one more thing to do. Earlier, she had been talking to her aunt and they had made alternate plans for the night just … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 48

3:00 pm - continued “Come on, honey,” Callie said as Jenna lifted her head and wiped her nose on her bed sheet, her sweater now too damp to dry her face. “Let me get you a snack, like I used to when you were a little girl coming home from school.” “Sandwich cookies with milk?” … Continue reading No Tomorrow, Part 47