[h2][center][color=a187be]The Oakwood Ranch[/color][/center][/h2]
Anna rolled over in her bed, staring into darkness. She has been trying to fall asleep for the past three hours, but wasn’t very successful. Thousands of thoughts kept swirling in her head, most of them questions to which she had no answers. What is going to happen to the world? She was worried, even though she spent a lot of time preparing for something like this, she felt utterly unprepared and powerless. 

So far it was going well - there was still some feeling of law and order left in the society. But what will happen when the stores run out of goods? When people decide it is easier to loot and destroy than to grow and build? Who is going to protect her family then?

She sighed and jumped out of bed. She did know that getting old would mean not being able to sleep through the night, but she thought it would wait at least until her fifties. Quick glance on the clock on the wall revealed that it was shortly after 3 AM. Anna grabbed a warm coat from the closet and went downstairs as quietly as she could, careful not to wake up little Alex sleeping in the next room with Ethan and Rachel.

The night sky looked almost the same as usual, the only sign of change was rapid decrease of plane position signal lights. The air traffic in the area was never huge, but still it was an immutable part of the view, and Anna caught herself missing it. This is what life is going to be now, she thought. Piece by piece things will be disappearing and we will be left with nothing but melancholy, remembering [i]‘the good ol’ times’[/i]? [color=a187be]“Way to lift your spirit,”[/color] she grinned at her reflection on the water surface in the well.

She was about to head back inside when her ears caught a sound of quiet music. She headed over to the southeastern corner of the wall to track the source. The music was coming from a small radio, tied to a ladder to the guard tower.

[color=f26522]“Out for a night stroll?”[/color] George smiled down on her.

Anna shook her head. [color=a187be]“Do you never sleep?”[/color]

[color=f26522]“Not if I can help it,”[/color] he grinned, but then his tone got serious. [color=f26522]“The truth is, I can’t really sleep every since it all started.”[/color] Well he could sleep, but it was better to stay awake than to face all those nightmares.

[color=a187be]“Yea, me neither,”[/color] Anna said, nodding. [color=a187be]“It’s funny when you think about it. We spent so much time preparing, we should sleep well with the thought that we have done all we could have. And still, all I can think about is all the ways of how it could get worse.”[/color] She paused for a second, listening to the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDd3s02Y66o]music[/url]. [color=a187be]“Wow, I haven’t heard this one in ages. Didn’t take you for such romantic soul.”[/color]

George shrugged and swiftly climbed down from the tower. [color=f26522]“I’m not,”[/color] he said, his hand reached out towards her. [color=f26522]“Shall we dance?”[/color] he winked at her.

[color=a187be]“Very funny. I’m in my pyjamas and winter coat and we are going to dance in my farmyard,”[/color] she frowned at him.

[color=f26522]“Mhm, exactly. You have a strange way of pointing out the obvious things,”[/color] he grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her closer. They didn’t really dance, just rocked from side to side, hugging each other.

[color=a187be]“I’ve missed this,”[/color] Anna whispered with her eyes closed.

[color=f26522]“You were the one to call it off.”[/color]

[color=a187be]“Who is pointing out the obvious things now? It became clear that it was just about sex for you.”[/color]

[color=f26522]“Aren’t we a bit old for all the romance and dating?”[/color] He raised his eyebrow.

[color=a187be]“Well thank you very much, you know how to flatter a woman,”[/color] Anna said, teasing him. “[color=a187be]You just want me because you are afraid and alone.”[/color]

His eyebrow went even higher. [color=f26522]“And you aren’t?”[/color]

[color=a187be]“Of course I am. Things are more complicated for me. I have to take care of my family and…”[/color]

He interrupted her. [color=f26522]“I will help you with that. That’s why I am here. I know you think I’m just a grumpy weird madman, but I can be a nice guy when I want to.”[/color]

He tried to kiss her but she leaned away a bit, studying his face. She had some doubts about that, but what the hell. The world might be ending soon.

[i]Some time later…[/i]

Anna stretched and blown a straw of hay off her face. [color=a187be]“It’s scratchy.”[/color]

[color=f26522]“It’s a haystack, it isn’t actually designed to be comfortable,”[/color] he grinned at her.

[color=a187be]“Oh, shut up,”[/color] she rolled her eyes and turned over to the radio to turn the volume up a bit.

[b]"Hello America!"[/b] a loud voice interrupted the music and Anna looked at George with surprise, [b]"My name's Three Dawg!"[/b]

[color=f26522]“Oh it’s this lunatic again. I’ve heard him a couple of times in the evening. So far he hasn’t offered any news, not even talking about advice. But the music isn’t that bad.”[/color]

Anna looked around to find the top of her pyjamas, only to see it lying in the middle of the barn. She walked over to pick it up, wondering how it even got there in the first place and trying to avoid the accusing look from Gale, a brown horse lying in the stall closets to them. Apparently he didn’t like being woken up in the middle of the night by some humans rolling around in the hay.

[color=a187be]“Hey, do you…”[/color]

[color=f26522]“Ssh,”[/color] George interrupted her, pointing at the radio. Some other voice was coming from it. [color=f26522]“This Ginga Ninja sounds like a reasonable guy,”[/color] George said when the radio went silent.

[color=a187be]“Yea, can we respond to this?”[/color]

George frowned. [color=a187be]“We can. But the question is, should we?”[/color]

Anna stopped to think about it. [color=f26522]“Well I guess it can’t hurt to talk to people. If we don’t give out any specific details about where we are or what we have, we should be safe.”[/color]

[color=f26522]“All right, you are the boss.”[/color] He walked outside of the barn and headed towards the shed, Anna jumping on one foot trying to put a shoe on the other one. He took some electronic device off one shelf and tweaked with it for a while. [color=f26522]“Here, just press this button and speak into this.”[/color]

Anna took a deep breath. [color=a187be]“Hello everyone, this is Grandma Betty speaking from western Colorado.”[/color] George chuckled and she gave him an angry look. [color=a187be]"We have a relatively safe place here and we would like to have friendly relations with other groups, so that we can help each other survive this. We can even accommodate a few people here, provided we like them and they are willing to do some work. I would like to wish everyone good luck and never forget that we are all human beings.”[/color]

[color=f26522]“Such moralizing, grandma,”[/color] George grinned at her when she released the button. [color=f26522]“You think you will fix the world by telling people to behave?”[/color]

[color=a187be]“Well someone has to try.”[/color] She yawned and looked outside. The eastern horizon was getting brighter, but there was still time to catch some sleep before the morning duties on the ranch. Or some other things, she thought and winced at George.