Smalls led Jo into the clearing and woke his friends. “Jo has returned,”he whispered to them. Emma shot up and looked at Jo. “JO your back and you're ok,”Heather said happily. 

Something twisted in Small’s stomach but he stuffed it down.

“Where are the others,”Emma said?”They’re fine though it was a long journey to get here. “Where did you go? How are you still alive? We thought you were dead. Why didn’t you come back?

They all started asking questions at once and Jo was overwhelmed. “Let him speak,”Smalls said. Jo looked at Smalls and smiled.”I have one big story to tell, don't I,”Jo said smiling.

Jo’s smile was warm and cheerful.

“Well I’ll begin the day we left. We were going around the forest exploring and searching for any type of food when Me and Cole decided to try to find some food in the stores. We traveled through deserted neighborhoods and streets. It was getting dark when far off in the distance we saw a small grey line that led up to the sky. 

“Smoke,”Emma said. “Yes it was smoke. We followed it. We were already about a day's journey away from you and it took me and Cole and a kid that I learned was Perkinson. We traveled for a day and a half and we were lucky that whoever had a fire kept it going. 

When we made it to the smoke it was a big building with fences around it. Cole and I were hesitant to go near it but before we even took a step we heard someone yell. They told us to stop or we would be killed. Me and Cole froze and Perkinson looked sick with fear he was white as snow. We stood there and turned around looking for the person but a gun shot told us not to move. We just stood there until we heard a twig snap.

“Oh no who was it? How did you escape,”Emma asked.

“When we turned to look at who it was, a big man walked out. He had a gun and he looked at us with confusion.”You're too young to be one of them soldiers, what you doin in them parts of the woods? He smiled at us. Why don’t ye come with me inside. Me and Cole looked at each other and realized we might be killed if we refused so we followed him. He led us into the building and inside it was…Jo paused trying to think of words to describe it. There was music and many people. They were eating food and had lots of water to go around. They had children and adults.”Were any of our parents there,”Heather asked with a glint of hope in her eyes.”No sadly not but I looked at every single face twice to be sure of it. But let me tell you Smalls it was unlike any place we have seen since our family’s disappearance and after a few days of being there the man who said his name was Jole told us he would help us learn to fight and defend ourselves. They are building a resistance to fight back and find the missing family’s. Smalls! They want you to come with me. They want you to join the fight!