The Key To It All

 Dark grey smoke covered the town in thick blanket. A lone girl stumbled through the deserted streets, hand covering her mouth as she tried her best not to inhale a lot of the tendrils of smoke that would lead to her hacking and attracting unwanted attention.  Her surroundings were quiet and quite eerie to be honest, with only the crackling of fires within the ruins of buildings and the low whistling of the wind, wafting stray litter in a calm manner. The smoke danced it's way around and ashes settled on the ground like a thick carpet. Sabrina Keys looked around, eyes darting to every nook and cranny that she could see through the thick smog, trying to stay alert of her surroundings. If she was trying to avoid a surprise attack in this apocalyptic town, she was doing a terrible job considering that she was walking out in the open. 'Water.'  Her mind repeated like a religious ch

"So, dad, when are you going to help me with my science project? I gave you my 'blueprints'." said 9 year old Sabrina while jumping excitedly. Michael Keys, sat in front of her, cross-legged on the couch, while sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. "Don't worry sweetie, we'll start soon after I finish this paper and my coffee. You have quite an interesting and advanced way of thinking with your plans-" "Blue prints," she interrupted, "-yes, blueprints. Sorry," he smiled. She returned it, "You're forgiven." "Well, as much as I admire your eagerness to build complex machinery at such a young age, shouldn't we settle for something more simple? I think your teachers should be impressed with a solar system model, but it's up to you." She frowned, "No I want to build a drone. Solar systems are boring. I want to make it interesting. You're not an engineer and scientist for nothing." She smirked knowing that she

"The name's Cody Davis, by the way," the young boy said. He pointed at the girl, "That's Riley Briggs-" he pointed to the other boy, "-and that's... Archer."Archer grit his teeth, "Why are you telling her this? She can't be trusted." Riley looked at him, then at Cody and then back at Archer, "I think she's okay." Sabrina smiled. "But... I don't trust you completely just yet."Sabrina frowned, then smiled again, "I guess that's completely understandable."They all stared at her, waiting."Ahem... Your name is?", Archer asked quite rudely, arms still folded while he proceeded to lean against the wall.Sabrina bit her lip and contemplated telling them her real name, but she couldn't risk it. She didn't trust them just yet. They could be working for Vision."My name's Lia," she lied."Now that the formalities are over, you can get out of here," Archer

"This is- I can't even- How? What???" Sabrina stammered. The other's smirked at her reaction, feeling like those cool dudes from action movies. Archer and Cody shared a little fist bump."How did you guys even find this place? Why does this even exist?" Sabrina was beyond shook at this point. Maybe the universe was feeling a little sorry for her."We knew a lot of people, and it so happens that we were great friends with the owner of this place. We used to hang out a lot. He trusted us enough to show us this place," she said while gesturing to their surroundings."I won't lie, I thought he was crazy, but he was right. That old man saved our sorry butts a lot," Archer said chuckling sadly."Is he..?", Sabrina asked nervously."Yeah. He was old. Cancer. We used to visit him when he was really sick and couldn't make it to manage this place. But before he went, he told us the code to open this place up. We used

Sabrina left Archer to himself and went to the main area in the bunker. She glanced towards the pile in the corner and noticed that Cody was absent. Huh. He must have left to help Riley. The girl made her way to the couch and closed her eyes. She just wanted to rest for a little bit even though she didn't do much. That dream really rattled her, so her sleep wasn't all that peaceful. Pushing memories to the depths of her mind she relaxed and shuffled into a more comfortable position. Fire. She tried clearing her head. Screams. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to concentrate harder in order to banish the visions from her mind. Her brother's angry face, her father's tears and her mother's panic. But they always managed to creep their way back in. Her eyes shot open and