There was a cold atmosphere this evening among the Castaluccio household. Even though most of their neighbors had since left or well, been infected... they tried to remain a sort of normality whilst at home. Carla was helping her mother prepare the dinner, and seeing as there wasn't much in the way of food, they had to grow and prepare most things themselves. Her mother muttered something under her breath, but Carla couldn't quite work it out what it was. The house was cold, and that's how it was, now that the fall had begun there was going to be a lack of heating throughout the winter. It had been that way since the Iron Fence went up. Bringing her thoughts back to the kitchen where they were preparing a vegetable stew, the highlight of what they had for dinner most nights. It was quick and gave them as much vitamins as they were going to get these days.<br/>They were lucky, none of them had contracted the virus, that had taken so many lives. Carla never forgot that, they were luckier than most.<br/>"This town's really gone to hell" Frankie mentioned as he looked out of the window and saw the infected milling about, most of their windows were boarded up to prevent any deteriorated from breaking through the glass during the night, and for the most it managed to do it's job. There was always one of them on guard, their father was taking shift tonight and was going to be sleeping until dinner was prepared so he'd be awake through the night. It wasn't the best way to live, but it kept them from becoming zombie food.<br/>Frankie took a deep breath, and brushed his hair one more time before heading into the kitchen.<br/>"Ma' how long is dinner going to be?" He questioned, he was pretty hungry but wouldn't ever disrespect his mother or sister by pointing that out. His mother just looked at him as though to say, it'll be ready when it's ready, and to not mention the idea again. Carla just rolled her eyes.<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>Daisy had been working all day, even though there was infected people wandering around, and sometimes you had to scarper from a deteriorated, most days she was able to get to work and back without much incident. Even though for most the virus meant they had no jobs, the one thing people still wanted was someone cleaning their house. You didn't get paid in money though, there wasn't much need for it, it was more of a trade and exchange system now. The one upside to working for the elite and posh, meant Daisy was a lot better off than some of the others. She would usually ask for food, or linen that she could trade in the market for clothes or other basic items. The one thing she disliked about where she worked, was crossing through the valley of ashes, it was a dark and depressing place. So named, because beforehand, all the ashes from the coal being used in the main city was dumped there and now that most didn't work there, it had become a dumping ground for the dead. The smell alone was enough to make anyone sick. Of course Daisy never went outside without her mask on, which was a simple piece of material that helped filter some of the toxic air out and what she thanked for not having contracted the virus that had sent New York into a wasteland for the most part. The rich stayed virus free because they could afford cleaners, even beforehand and well... didn't really mix with the lower classes.<br/>Daisy got back into her small little apartment, some time after 7, and apart from a few who had tried to coax her into going with them, she'd managed to get there without incident, which she was always thankful for.