“Oh yeah!” Her face lit up. “He should be in the kitchen.” I turned to leave but she followed me. “I'll help you look. It's getting late and there are a few people I have to find.”
                          

                          
Lela lead me through the destroyed dining room and into the kitchen. The table had been pulled away from the wall and sat in the centre of the room. Clustered around it were the guys I considered my closest friends. They were all awake, sipping coffee from plastic cups.
                          

                          
“Good morning, guys?” I asked, walking up behind Dustin.
                          

                          
“Hey Nance,” he muttered, not raising his head from his hand.
                          

                          
“Do you know what time it is?” I didn't like how I sounded. Nagy wasn't my thing, but then again neither was death. “We can't be late. You know that.”
                          

                          
“Yeah.” Dustin agreed with me, but did not make a move to get up.
                          

                          
A chair squeaked as it was pushed away from the table. Someone was getting to their feet. Looking up, I realized I'd been wrong in my original assessment. There was one girl at the table, and I'd never seen her before in my life. She had tan skin and long, brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. She couldn't be sixteen. She looked older than my sister; probably somewhere in her twenties. What was she doing hanging out with high school kids? This was not her marking.
                          

                          
“Alright guys, this has been fun, but I've got to get a move on.” Her voice was alert, showing no signs of the previous nights drinking.
                          

                          
She turned to leave, but the whole thing was just too odd to leave alone.
                          

                          
“Who are you?” The question came out a little more accusing than I'd intended.
                          

                          
Much to my surprise, it was Lela who answered. “This is Sarah. She's one of my brother's friends.”
                          

                          
“Oh... okay.” I didn't really know what to say.
                          

                          
The two girls headed for the door, but right before they turned the corner, out of my sight line, Sarah stopped to wave. “Bye Nance, it was nice to finally meet you.”
                          

                          
A couple of seconds passed before I snapped out of my trance. “Well, that was strange.”
                          

                          
Lela's brother's name was Alec. He was cocky, with the kind of magnetic personality that left you in constant awe of him. He was somewhere in his mid to late twenties, and undeniable attractive. I still remembered being an elementary school student going to Lela's house, back when we still ran in the same circles. Alec had been in high school then, and he'd always left an impression. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen him picking up Lela from school for a while now.
                          

                          
By the time I'd managed to pry Dustin away from his coffee, and force him to take a shower, the house was empty. The few people hanging around were older or younger than us. Either overflowing with fear for their futures, or repressing memories from their past.
                          

                          
“Come on!” I yelled, already in the passenger seat of his mother's car.