Ten acres of land lay silent under a thin layer of snow; the day earlier it was a cover three inches deep, but with the new day's temperature rising to forty degrees, it had begun to melt. A few patches of straw and dirt had emerged under the white blanket, and elsewhere it was thinning and turning slowly to slush. The ground was still frozen, except for small areas going to cold mud where exposed to hours of direct sunlight.<br/><br/>The farmhouse, twenty miles from the nearest large Missouri town, had not been inhabited for at least a year; it had been owned by an elderly couple, but when the husband died, his widow left to live with her daughter and put the house and land up for sale. No one had purchased it, and the weathered, faded For Sale sign was still in the front yard, a now disconnected phone number barely legible. The livestock were gone, though occasionally a horse's neighing or the moo of a cow could be heard, faintly, from another property along the dirt road.<br/><br/>The kitchen was dim, lit now only by the sunlight; candles and a battery-powered lamp were available for emergency use after dark. Alison had three bags full of cans and boxed food, some that she had brought with her from the dormitory and some she had picked up from a corner store on the way over. Looting had smashed in the store's windows and there wasn't much left, but she was able to fill two grocery bags with beans and canned meat that hadn't yet been picked over, and a few bags of chips that would keep for at least a couple of months.<br/><br/>I hope I'm not the only one awake, she thought. She'd seen two other cars parked in the driveway, so someone else had to be here, but she didn't hear anyone. The silence inside the house and its accompanying loneliness was crushing, and she wanted someone to talk to - anyone. And anything at all to do. There were sights burned into her mind that she didn't want to think about, and keeping busy at something else was the only way to keep them away. She was still waiting to wake up from the surreal nightmare, but no nightmare she'd ever had felt like it lasted for weeks. Maybe the pandemic wasn't real, and only affected one or two states. And the Army cut off communications and they'll be here soon. The complete lack of aircraft in the sky made that an unlikely scenario, but Alison was going to hold on to anything she could for as long as possible.