In the aftermath, after the official announcement had been made, the panic had escalated quickly.

Initially, the city had been a hive of fearful activity, people buying up stocks of bottled water, canned foods and survival gear. Then it got worse. People began to pack up and leave en masse. The highways were clogged, violence erupted. And naturally, more people became infected. In a rush to maintain some order, martial law was declared. But even that did not stop the panic from rising further. Within days looting had occurred. Shops and offices raided and then left to burn. Corpses, mostly those of the infected, although many were unfortunate victims – wrong place, wrong time

Those left in the city were left with little choice but to buckle down, armour up and try to wait it out. But that was when they still had hope that this would be a temporary upheaval.

No such misconception existed now.

TWO MONTHS AGO

The pair sat down on the carpeted floor, the sofa, like most other furniture had been used up either as boarding, barricades or stripped to wrap and burn the three people – where they really still people? – that his father had killed since the beginning of this all.

"Welcome to ABC World News. I'm David Muir." the news anchor spoke from the fuzzy,emergency broadcast channel.

"Look at that!" Adam Stevens exclaimed, shaking his head, "the whole fucking world has gone to hell and that bastard looks fresh out the barber shop."

Connor sat with his father in their darkened living room, holding a half eaten can of creamed corn in his hands. It was cold, and boring. But proper cooking and full meals, like many other aspects of life, were a thing of the past now.

In the last two weeks Adam had worked tirelessly from dawn until dusk to fortify his home. The windows had been first painted over black, and then boarded up securely. The doors had been fitted with multiple dead bolts. And yet, it still did not seem like enough.

On the television, David Muir continued, "... it has been 21 days since the first reports of the virus and the enforcement of martial law nationwide."

Has it really been only 21 days? Connor thought to himself. It had seemed like months to him since the proverbial shit had hit the fan. He recalled the day he, like all of America, had been told that the world as it had been was coming to an end.

It had been a pleasant day. He had spent it all with Jude at the fair where they had gone on countless rides. Connor's particular favourites were the roller-coaster and the 'Tunnel of Horror' where Jude had gripped his hand, or held onto his arm. He would hold on too, of course, enjoying the contact between them.

As the sun had begun to set, both boys' phones had gone off almost at the exact same time.

"It's my dad." Connor said sliding the unlock bar.

"And Mama." Jude replied.

"Man that is weird!" Connor had joked. "You think they are together?"

"Stay away from strangers and get home now!" the bigger boy read aloud from his screen.

Jude's brow furrowed as he read his message, "Hey bud, Mom is on her way to pick you up outside the Java Hut. Go there right now and don't talk to anyone."

"You think something's up?" Connor asked him.

"I don't know. It's weird they both say kinda the same thing."

"Yea. And how can we stay away from people? They know we are at the fair right?"

"This is freaking me out a little." Jude said, reaching for Connor's hand.

The sandy haired boy obliged and pulled his boyfriend closer, wrapping an arm around him. "We better get you to the Java Hut before your mom gets there. Don't want you getting grounded now do we, Judicorn?"

"Haha, very funny," Jude said, smacking Connor across the shoulder playfully.

When Stef had arrived, she insisted on taking Connor home herself. All she would say was, "The buses are not safe anymore."

When they stopped outside Connors house, he had given Jude a quick kiss on the lips and hopped out the car, his father already waiting at the end of the drive.

"Thanks, Stef." he said as Connor closed the car door.

"Good luck, Adam." Jude heard his mom reply cryptically. "Stay safe."

When they had stepped inside Connor was shocked to see that his father had unpacked and loaded every gun in the house, keeping them within easy reach on the foyer table. It wasn't until his father had sat him down and told him about the virus, a mutated genetic bacteria which had leaked after a laboratory fire in Manhattan and spread undetected across the country for weeks, that Connor realised he might never see Jude again.

Each day since then had been drawn out with fear and uncertainty. As his father worked, Connor would help in an effort to take his mind off of the thoughts that had been plaguing him for the past 9 days. That's how long it had been since the power lines had gone down and mobile communications had failed, that's how long it had been since he had last been in contact with Jude.

"We are crossing now to a live emergency broadcast by the Acting-President from a bunker in the Appalachian Mountains." David Muir informed viewers, the television image went dark as the power, supplied by a generator, faltered.

When the image returned, father and son were greeted by the grim face of Hilary Clinton.

"My fellow Americans, good evening." She began. "This emergency broadcast is being beamed to as many radio and television satellites as we have been able to recover and program."

Connor watched her speak, this was the first real update he, or anyone in the country, had received in near 2 weeks. Ordinarily, that would not have been a very long time. But when you considered that in a mere 14 days, they had used up almost all the food in the house, and the water in the geyser was now a weak trickle from the faucet, two weeks seemed an awful long time.

"... and the national guard, the navy – all our operable branches of armed forces - are doing their best to seek out survivors across the country and to humanely destroy the infected..."

Beside him, Adam let out a humourless laugh, "Listen to her! Humanely destroy the infected. What does that even mean? These idiots are sitting safe in the mountains somewhere with real food and hot showers! I bet they've never even seen a skin-sack up close."

"Ssssshhhhh! Dad!" Connor said, not only because he wanted to hear the broadcast, but because he did not want to think about the 'skin-sacks' so soon after having firsthand experience with one. His mind had worked overtime to block out the memory of the yellowed, blood covered zombie-like creature that had come staggering toward them as they had worked on the side of the house a few days ago. Before the virus, their neighbour had not been so disfigured and bloodthirsty.

"...as we speak, the SDC has teams working around the clock to find a vaccine, and we dare to hope, a cure." President Clinton said, before the generator faltered and gave out.

Adam stood abruptly, "Vaccine my ass!"

"You never know, Dad." Connor said, "maybe they get lucky and find a cure for..."

"A cure?!" the older man said, looking incredulous, "They have a cure, son. They have quite a few I imagine, buried in bunkers all over the country. They're called nuclear bombs!"

Not wanting to hear anymore of his father's negativity and doomsday vitriol, Connor took his flashlight and left the room, heading up stairs to his bedroom. It no longer had a door - that too had been used in making the house more secure. Turning the torch off, he flopped down onto the bed and stared into the pitch dark.

I hope you are okay, Jude. Wherever you are. "I miss you so much." He said to the empty room. After the power had gone down, he had tried everything to conserve his battery life, using his iPhone only 5 minutes a day to look at pictures of the boy, or listen to his voicemail, just to hear his boyfriend's voice. When the phone had run out of power for good, he had made sure to keep it in his pocket every day. All his pictures, chats and videos with Jude were contained on the device. It was precious to him.

Now, as he lay there, he relied on his memory to keep him alive. He imagined the moments he most fondly remembered. Kissing him in his bedroom, holding his hand on the rocks at the beach, dancing with him at the LGBT Prom that Cole had organised. All these memories were still new, only a few short months worth. But they were memories from a world and a life that Connor was terrified to think he would never get back.

As he drifted off to sleep, which would not last long, he wished desperately that he could have been with Jude.