"Jeez sis, languge…" Al said, a smug grin on his face. This was quickly followed by Giovanni, sitting against the door with droopy, uninterested eyes.

"Yeah sis, language." He said, a tired tone to his voice. "You can't be saying rude words live 'butts' when there are children present…"

"Hey, don't call me a damn kid!" Alistair snapped back, glaring at Joe. "I'm already twelve years old, ya dumb lump of superfluous fleshy waste!"

"Wait, seriously?" Joe asked. "I thought you were at least a teenager…"

"Oh, you son of a b-"

[i]"ANYWAY…"[/i] Joe loudly interrupted the boy. "I always liked dogs. I'd never [i]own[/i] one of the little monsters, but when someone else is doing all the work, they're alright."

He paused while the girl, who's name was apparently [i]Na[/i] of all things, explained that, through some crazy leap of logic, [i]he[/i] was the one in the wrong. Not that he didn't already know that they were probably the original owners, but damn it, it had looked uninhabited at the time, and it was such a nice house! How could he have passed it up?

He [i]almost[/i] began to say something in response, but then she asked him why he didn't take Nino to a hospital, his mind suddenly went blank.

"A hospital." He said dumbly, staring at her in an 'are-you-serious' kind of way. "With everything that's going on, you still think I'd even [i]consider[/i] going to a hospital? Any hospital that isn't filled with plague victims, not to mention most of 'em that [i]are[/i], are goddamn hellholes now. I said before, didn't I? Society is collapsing, and it's started with all the places that kept it up to begin with! Hospitals, gone. Police stations, gone. Fire stations, gone. All the fancy restaurants, shopping centres, airports, docks, and train stations, all gone."

"What?" Al asked, his eyes slowly widening. "What did you just say?"

"Yeah, weird right? No idea why people'd go for the [i]fire stations[/i]… I mean, I get police stations, because how are you gonna spread anarchy with the police in the way, but fire stations just seem kind of like overk-"

"Oh my god, you're a fucking [i]idiot[/i]." Alistair said, sighing into his hand. "The [i]airport[/i]. The fucking [i]AIRPORT[/i]! You said something happened at the airport!"

They were still there.

Mum and dad were still there.

They said they'd wait there until they could figure out which flight would be best to take, which places might be safest to travel to, and then come and get them as soon as they came to a decision.

After a moment, Giovanni's eyes widened too. He knew that look. He'd seen those eyes quite a bit over the first two weeks back in italy.

"Um, yeah…" He said slowly, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Nino and I walked past an airport yesterday. It… It was bad…"

He looked as if he was planning to say more, but eventually just looked at the pair, the expression on his face saying more than words ever could.

"I'm sorry." He said finally.