Alone

Running water also stops, so Maddie uses the bottled water in her mom’s house for drinking. She does not want to waste good water flushing toilets, so she uses boxed wine instead, pouring it into the bowl like her father once did with water.

Maddie and George eat perishable food until it perishes and then carry the garbage to the dumpster. After that, with no refrigerator, normal stove, or oven, they must use a camp stove and bottled water to cook nonperishable foods such as canned goods, pasta, and oatmeal. After finishing the food in her mother’s house, Maddie takes canned goods from neighbors with unlocked doors. She leaves notes thanking them.

Maddie contemplates why her parents have not come back for her yet. Ideally, they are in different shelters, unable to contact each other. If that is the case, it could be a very long time before they return. However, she fears her entire family could also be dead. She drags her things outside to rock herself to sleep in a hammock under the stars.

The weather warms up for summer, so Maddie and George start spending more time in the basement, which is cooler. Maddie takes solar-powered lights off neighbors’ lawns and charges them each day for use at night. She reads the many books in the house, sometimes aloud to George. Now that she is sure no one else is left in town, she leaves only to find needed supplies in case rescue arrives while she is gone.

The bottled water is almost gone, so Maddie uses water from the nearby lake to wash laundry.

Maddie visits more neighbors’ houses to find more bottled water, and she also finds nonperishable food, batteries, and a hand-cranked radio. Many houses have dead pets, which smell awful, so Maddie works quickly.

As Maddie fiddles with the radio, music comes through. She switches the station until she hears people laughing and discussing a baseball game that recently took place in some other part of the United States that has not been evacuated. She listens to some advertisements and traffic updates too, reflecting on how close yet far away the voices feel. She takes the radio and leaves a thank you note.

While scavenging one house, Maddie sees a photograph on the refrigerator and realizes she knows the people who live there. The photograph is of an old classmate of Maddie’s who died a few years ago in a rockslide. Maddie finds the girl’s bedroom untouched. She wonders if ghosts haunt people or places, and she reflects on how she is now like a ghost haunting her town.

Maddie rides to her friend Emma’s house and finds the door unlocked. She smells Emma’s perfume and pillow for comfort and wonders if Emma ever thinks about her or misses her too.

Maddie starts going through Emma’s mom’s stuff and finds a file marked “divorce,” which she then wishes she had not found. Maddie always perceived Emma’s parents as happily married and her family as perfect. The emotional turmoil makes Maddie wish for her own mother.

Maddie loses her composure as she rides her bike home.

Maddie has nightmares about her deceased classmate as well as her family being in danger.

Maddie cannot decide which is worse: nightmares or reality.

Maddie goes through her own mom’s stuff and finds nothing of interest about her parents’ divorce. The only new thing she learns is that her mom and Paul used in vitro fertilization to conceive baby Trevor, which only makes her miss Trevor.

Maddie finds old family photographs in a shoebox, including some from back when her parents were married and before she had stepsiblings, stepparents, and half-siblings. She dislikes terms like “broken home” and “broken family” to describe divorce because she does not feel like her family is broken, it’s merely bigger than it used to be, which she considers a good thing. She hopes her deceased classmate’s family is also okay.

Maddie takes several photographs of her parents to study further. She then imagines them learning of her absence and plotting to rescue her.

As far as Maddie has observed, the “imminent threat” either does not exist or has not arrived yet. Everything still seems normal, except for the power being out and all the people being gone.

As time passes, Maddie’s loneliness grows. She starts talking and singing aloud to no one in particular. She looks at her face in the mirror because it reminds her of her parents’ faces.

Maddie reads one of her mom’s adventure-romance books in her mom’s bed and imagines herself as the protagonist, teaming up with another character to survive despite the odds. She falls asleep comforted.

After 126 days, it is September 28, Maddie’s 13th birthday. She puts on her mother’s fancy dress, shoes, makeup, and jewelry, pretending to be a movie star. She reflects that sometimes she still acts childish even though she is a teenager, but this is okay because nobody else is around to judge or even observe her.

Maddie wonders if her parents realize it is her birthday. They probably do, if they know what day it is. Maddie is startled on realizing that a coyote has come into the backyard. George chases it off, but Maddie remains shaken and unable to laugh the event off. The coyote was thin, which means it is hungry.

Maddie takes off all her mother’s fancy clothing and puts on more practical attire for her post-apocalyptic situation. She then kneels and attempts to pray to any deity that might be listening for her parents to find her.

Maddie decides she is done being a child and has to be an adult now—there is no one to rely on but herself. She cuts her hair short because it is too hard to keep clean and out of the way with no running water.

Maddie decides she can no longer stay put all the time because, most likely, no one is coming anytime soon. She starts venturing further out into town in search of better or different supplies. Winter will be coming soon, so she has to prepare; Colorado gets very cold, and she has no electric heat.

Garbage is strewn about town, suggesting former pets or wild animals have been looting abandoned houses, dumpsters, and businesses for food. Maddie gets some dog food, bottled water, and food from a supermarket. She no longer leaves thank you notes when she takes supplies because even if people ever come back, they probably won’t care or notice what she took.

Maddie uses a shopping cart to make several trips to the supermarket. This takes a week, but she stocks up enough food and water to last through the winter; she knows it will become much harder to go to the store and push a shopping cart once there is snow. It usually snows before Halloween, so winter will be coming soon and last for months.

Maddie has no idea how she and George will survive the winter without heat at her mom’s house.

Maddie remembers that her dad has an old wood stove at his house that does not require electricity. She decides she and George should move there for winter.

Maddie considers making several trips on foot with the shopping cart to move all necessary belongings from her mom’s house to her dad’s house. However, this would be a long and difficult task, and driving would be much faster. She recalls getting in trouble before, but this doesn’t seem important anymore.

Maddie figures out how to use the gas and brake pedals and practices driving around the block several times until she is comfortable enough to try main roads. The task is easier because nobody else is on the roads. There’s only one third of a tank of gas, so she goes home to pack the minivan up.

Maddie used to swap houses weekly because of her parents’ custody agreement, but this feels different. The houses are empty and therefore less homelike.

Maddie doesn’t know how to build a fire, and she can’t look it up online. She remembers that before the internet, people used to do their research at libraries.

Maddie breaks a window to get into the library. At first, she doesn’t know where to find the information she needs because “fire” is not one of the library categories. However, she locates the camping section and finds a book with chapters about building fires and putting them out. She takes it home, along with several books from Teen Fiction.

Maddie uses the van to collect firewood but worries about running out of gas. She doesn’t know how to get more. Therefore, she decides not to drive beyond town. She remembers the Little House on the Prairie series and doesn’t want to perish in the cold if she gets lost or stranded with no gas.

Maddie uses the crank radio sometimes and picks up signals from other states. However, she learns nothing new about the evacuation or imminent threat.

Wild and formerly domesticated animals continue to fight each other over food in the town. They also prey on each other.

During a blizzard, Maddie is thankful for George, shelter, and hot cocoa.

Throughout winter, Maddie can’t go out much, so she draws, plays cards, and reads all the library books she borrowed.

Maddie reasons that even if rescue comes one day, it will probably not be during winter because it’s difficult to reach this area of Colorado on snowy roads.

There’s not much daylight, which leads Maddie and George to sleep a lot. Maddie reads through her dad’s and Jennifer’s books on random topics. The winter is making Maddie even lonelier.

Maddie takes more library books and a craft kit from the store and wraps them for herself. She wraps a bone for George, and they open presents together. Maddie cooks them a canned-food version of Christmas dinner, and they sing carols.

Maddie uses sunflower seeds to gradually earn a squirrel’s trust. Eventually, he eats out of her hand.

Maddie passes time by learning to play the ukulele like her dad.

Maddie cuts out photographs of people from old magazines and creates collages of different “families.” She attaches them to the chandelier, which moves around with drafts. She imagines the families are all going about their lives but not interacting with each other because their strings don’t cross.

Maddie lets George outside and notices flowers blooming through the melting snow, which makes her feel hopeful.