​A story of a young woman's journey through a life changing disaster. Sheltered and shy her whole life, she is suddenly faced not only with her own horrific challenges, but finds herself taking care of another person's life as well. Excerpt:As Claire peeked out of the door, a wisp of wind sent an old crumbled piece of paper by, startling her. It was within her reach, but she receded back into the doorway, suddenly bereft of the courage she had just a moment ago. She had felt such a strong, confident urge to go out of the door and walk away just seconds before, but the sound of that paper immediately made her mind think it was Joe, coming back early. The panic had filled her with adrenaline, and she suddenly felt weak from it. That urgent need had turned into paralyzing fear. 'It wasn't Joe, he can't be back yet. Calm down!', she encouraged herself. Words were one thing, but making her feet cross that threshold was another thing entirely. Another voice, this one inside her head, began 'It's OK Claire, you can try again tomorrow! Let's go back downstairs!'. She hated that voice, but it was the one that often brought her comfort. Claire had a two minute argument with herself before she stepped back from the door, closed it, and turned back to the stairs, back to that....place. She would never call it home.It was her hell. She reached the stair, looked back to the door to make sure she hadn't left or dropped anything that Joe would see, and then started down toward her room. She was absolutely forbidden from coming upstairs. The last time she had, having peeked out of the door that time as well, Joe had known it from a hair tie she had dropped right by the door by accident. He had beaten her so badly that she cried all that night, and her body had ached for a week. Claire had become more brave since that day two weeks prior, but not by much. But two months with Joe was to her an eternity, and the burning desire she had to escape and see what was left of the world outside was growing every day. She went down the stairs to the one room where she was allowed to go, to look outside the window, and stared at the bridge again. She could be halfway to it by now, she told herself, with no small amount of regret. 'Tomorrow, for sure, tomorrow'. She had felt the coolness of the wind when she had opened the door, and knew the cold weather wouldn't be far away. She did not want to be traveling when the snow came.Claire could not stand to stare at the bridge any longer that day. To her it was everything, and nothing, since she couldn't bring out the courage in herself to do it. The world beyond it was uncertain, they had not seen a living soul since the wandering girl, Alyssa, over a month before. She didn't want to think about Alyssa either. For the time being, Claire needed to put away the things she had thrown into a travel bag, before Joe would come back and find it. She had been hiding some items that she would need for her escape a little at a time, in one of the many rooms in the old paper mill that was currently her home, food and water mostly, and fussed over it each day when Joe went out 'hunting'. She didn't have any personal belongings anymore, Joe had taken all of her things, but she had managed to hide one item, a picture of her boyfriend. She had grabbed it from on top of the TV at her apartment on the way out the day of the event. Joe didn't know she had it, and thankfully she had been able to hide it. It was the only thing she had left from her old life, and she prayed and hoped that she would find her boyfriend again. That he had made it through like she had.