He remembered hearing the words. "This deadly disease has spread throughout the world!"  Then changing the channel to "world population down by fifty percent."
   His mind was racing with questions. Where will his family go? What will they do? Will he be the one to avoid the disease? Is this truly the end of the world? All these thoughts swirling in his head like a tornado going a million miles per hour, and he started to feel sick. "Are you alright?" yelled his brother Aaron from the other room. Then everything went black.
   He woke up only to see the color grey. Grey bunks, grey walls, and grey plastic containers. It took him a while to realize where he was. There were muffled voices coming from behind the door on the other side of the tiny room. He moved closer to the door struggling to hear what the voices were saying until it became more clear. There was a pause in the voices followed by "We’re going to be in here for five years!"
   It was a familiar voice and one that would be hard to miss, his moms. Suddenly the lights flickered and the voices stopped just as quickly as they had began. The door handle jiggled and neighbor John came bursting in. He had long black hair and thin round glasses, wearing a black jacket and long grey pants that gave way to a bright pair of white shoes.
   "Andrew?" he whispered gently.
   Andrew responded with a loud "YES!" causing Mr. John to about jump a mile.
   "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," said Andrew.
   Mr. John responding with " Don't worry about it, I just didn't realize you were standing right there, I thought you were still sleeping."
   "Nope, I just woke up a few minutes ago before you walked in," said Andrew.
   "Well follow me, your parents are going to want to see you," he said.
   Slowly Andrew walked down the narrow hallway towards the other end of the structure. Silver cylinder containers lined the hallway going all the way up to the ceiling packed with food, then switching over to other utilities about half way down. There was only two small lights in the hallway, being that energy had to be conserved in every way possible. The hallway opened up into a larger room and the sound of footsteps on a rubber floor filled the room. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his parents quietly whispering about what sounded like the worst case scenario.
   “Mom, Dad,” Andrew said, “what's it like out there, what's left?”
   “Nothing,” his dad responded. With the most serious but yet scared look on his face.
   Andrew stood silent for what seemed like an eternity. What was he to do, how does someone react in a situation like this? Without saying a word he turned around and ran out of the small room, back to the only place he knew, the bed he first woke up in. The bedroom door slammed behind him, sounding like a bomb echoing through the halls of the shelter.
   He just laid on his bed staring at the clock watching the time slowly go by. 7:05..7:06...7:07. His mind couldn't comprehend the fact that there was nothing left out in the world and was a little hesitant to believe his parents about it. Afterall, they have been known to occasionally say things just to attempt to keep Andrew safe, even though it was a flat out lie. They would never even think about letting Andrew out of the shelter to take a peek at what was left of the world. If he was going to get out, he would have to let himself out. Making it difficult being that Andrew had no clue where any of the exits even where. There were only two rooms, the bedroom and the living area. The bedroom was separated into many smaller sections divided by thick white curtains, that strongly resembled shower curtains. Each room contained a bed with a shelf at the front and a small area at the end of the bed for changing and things like that. 
   Andrew had known neighbor John for a long time and if he were crazy enough to build a survival shelter (which actually turned out to be a good thing) he had to be smart enough to know that one exit wouldn't suffice for the whole shelter. Andrew frantically started scanning the ceiling of the room looking for an exit. Looking to the left then switching to the right and seeing nothing that looked promising. That is until a pinhole of light caught Andrew’s eye at the end of the bed right above the curtain.
   He slowly stood up on his bed to further investigate the light above the curtain. The light was coming through a small crack in the seal of the hatch, which looked like a huge metal saucer that was burning hot from the sun beating down on it from above. The hatch was above Andrews bed area but also about half way over his brother’s bed area.
  His brother Aaron was the type of person to rat Andrew out for anything just to get attention from their parents. Getting caught sneaking out of the shelter by him was a guarantee that Andrew’s parents would also find out, which was the last thing he needed especially for a time like this. But there is one thing that will always shut Aaron up, and that is money.
   Andrew quickly sat back down on his bed and pulled out his wallet from his back pocket of his blue jeans. It was a thick faded brown wallet that he got from his grandpa as a gift for his tenth birthday. It was filled with twenty dollar bills that he loaded in his wallet once he heard that the world was going bad. He flipped through counting three hundred dollars, that he was willing to give away. After all what did money mean to Andrew anymore, there was nothing left to spend it on. Luckily Aaron was too young to understand that money meant nothing anymore and would for sure take it if he caught me sneaking out of the shelter.
   Andrew knew the explorations would have to wait until morning when he would have the most light and wouldn't have to worry about dark falling quicker than expected. And once again he began to watch the clock tick by.
Joey VanHeulen
Rough Draft
      Suddenly Andrew frantically woke up to the sound of his brother snoring which sounded exactly like a freight train honking its horn as it rushes down the tracks. It was 5:00 in the morning and the sun would be coming up soon, finally giving Andrew a chance to do what he has been dreaming about. As slowly as possible he started to get out of bed frantically stopping with every creek from the mattress springs, his feet touched the cold rubber floor and he jerked the rest of the way out of bed to quickly get rid of the loud obnoxious sounds from the bed. He stood silent for a few seconds scanning the room with his ears to see if he could pick up on any sign of anyone being awake at the time, but heard nothing.
   Early mornings are always cold so Andrew would have to dress appropriately for the weather. He felt around the shelf at the front of his bed trying to find his black sweat pants and faded blue sweatshirt. No lights were on in the room because of the need to conserve electricity and it would be a death sentence if he were to turn the one on above his bed, for sure everyone would wake up from their deep sleep. He would have to rely on his sense of touch, and sense of touch only to slip into his clothes.
   It was now 5:15 and Andrew was ready to make his departure from the shelter, the light was beginning to shine through the crack in the seal of the exit hatch and Andrew knew it was for sure the right time to make his escape. He grabbed his flashlight off the shelf, and once again scanned the room for the sound of someone being awake. The room was silent so he quickly jumped up on his bed as quietly as possible, reached up, and turned the handle the the right, unlocking the hatch. Hearing the quiet click of the metal bar sliding out of the lock position was just like hearing the sound of freedom. Andrew slowly pushed the metal saucer straight up and then guided it slowly down to the surface of the Earth above. A little of bit of dirt and dust fell back down through the hole in the ceiling, but nothing to be too concerned about. He reached his arms up through the hole and slowly pulled himself up to the surface above, then quietly closed the hatch behind him.
   The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was still a little chilly but not too bad. Andrew looked around and everything still looked the same as before, when everyone was still alive. The only difference being that the only sounds that filled the air was the chirping of birds near by, other than that it was silent.
   Andrew stood amazed at what the world had come to be in such a short amount of time. With no one left in the world everything that was once owned by someone wasn't anymore. Everything was up for the taking. He could do whatever he wanted with whatever he wanted. The excitement and anticipation of all the new things to do that he had never done before filled his mind. What should he do first? How will he hide this from his family? Is there anyone left in the world that didn't catch the disease? Unsure to do in a situation like this, Andrew started in the place he knew best.
   His house was about a quarter mile from neighbor John’s property where the shelter was located. Andrew looked around and noticed his family's car parked in the driveway. He sprinted over to it as fast as he could praying that the spare key would still be taped to the back side of the front bumper. Andrew dropped on his knees and frantically started feeling around for the extra key. He felt a bump right under the drivers side headlight and quickly looked to double check that is was in fact the key. Sure enough, it was.
   “Yes,” Andrew mumbled, knowing that he was probably the first voice that the world had heard in a long time.
   He slid the key in the slot on the door under the handle and turned it left until he heard a small click, then frantically popped the car door open. Andrew put the key in the ignition and the car slowly puttered to life after the fourth try. It was an old car with faded black paint and nothing too special about it. Having the car sitting a while and the fact that it was a piece of junk didn’t help the fact that it didn’t want to start at first. But it would have to do until he became more comfortable with this new unfamiliar world. He didn’t want to take something that wasn’t his families until he was sure that no one else was left to claim their property.
   When Andrew arrived at his house the first thing that he did was go over to the pantry and look for something to eat. Anything in there had to be better than the food that was at the shelter, and was going to try to eat as much at home as possible. Only a few days had gone by so everything that wasn't in the fridge or freezer was still good.
   After his feeding frenzy was over he went down the hall to his room and gathered everything he couldn't live without. Then changed his clothes into something a little more comfortable, went back outside and locked the house door behind him. Just in case anyone was left in the world and wanted to break in for some reason. Andrew got back into the car and once again it slowly puttered back to life. He looked down at the clock on the dash of the car hoping that he didn’t lose track of time. Getting caught sneaking out of the shelter without his parents permission was his biggest fear at the moment. Luckily it was only 6:30, meaning that Andrew had about half an hour to get back into his bed at the shelter before he should be worried about people waking up for the day. He drove back over to neighbor John’s house and parked the car back where he found it , worrying that if he drove too close to the shelter the sound of the car on the surface above would wake up the people sleeping in the shelter. Except this time keeping the key in his pocket so he would know exactly where it was next time he went out of the shelter.
   Andrew slowly walked back to the small hatch at the top of the shelter trying to be as quiet as possible not to wake anyone up. He cracked the hatch open with only enough room to pop his head in to take a quick look around and listen for sounds of anyone being awake. Hearing and seeing nothing he opened the hatch the rest of the way and slid back down into his bed.