• Although she said that...I couldn't tune it correctly. Many days transpired working thoroughly trying to connect every notch perfectly, but every time I listened to it to check, well, you can guess that I was knocked out cold.
    There were a few times that her and my feedbeck gave me bad iterations, and every day seemed the world around us kept getting worse. The supplies Felicia'd stocked beforehand were starting to dwindle, and the coffee stash as well, despite my sadness.
    Outside the people seemed to stretch thin, there was less noise and house invading attempts than before. Of course, there was no way to know what the world was now, since if we heard that music through device we could be stuck forever in a loop.
    "We should give it a try, Felix..." I mumbled outloud to her once, looking at a tv.
    She walked up to me with a puzzled face, then looked at where I was looking.
    "Oh...no no no no nuuuooohh..." that came with a head shake and cute expression.
    "Cute.." I whispered, looking at her, but she heard it anyways and blushed.
    "Even if you sugar coat me, there's no way we're turning something on...I don't even know if there's electricity"
    We had been laying low the best as possible, and that mean not turning on the lights. The appliances were disconnected, so you can imagine our diet of canned & cooked food.
    "Why not? There's two of us..."
    "Yeah, but we'd both be knocked out cold and there'd be no way to turn it off."
    "But if one of us watches and the other has their hands on the breaker? I mean, both could see, but only one would listen and cut power if there's no response."
    She scratched her head with a frustrated expression.
    "ALRIGHT...we'll do it, but ONLY through the tv and for less than a minute. We don't know if they'll be able to search for us."
    She looked at me as if she wanted to kill me; love and hatred in her eyes.
    So, we prepared for the worst. I placed the best iteration in two portable drives aside from Jaydens computer, one in Felicia's hands. We grabbed clothes that were fairly clean, stacked 4 days worth of food, and checked outside before our little experiment.
    "Felix, check the back yard, see if there's somewhere we can head safely, or at least enough to get through."
    "Oooh, I like that of you" and spanked my butt with a cheeky expression, leaving me speechless for a moment.
    "Umm, yeah, I'll check the front..."
    What can I say? It was still awkward for me since, from my perspective, I've only known the girl for a bit more than two weeks.
    Anyways, the front of the house was clear, and the door opened smoothly. I slowly wormed my way through the neglected grass, long enough now to pass my body upwards. I closed in on a bush that kind of looked like a tree now, and had a peek only raising my head.
    Brutal silence from bith sides, even from the houses neigbouring ours.
    Back inside Felicia told me there was a possible route past the back fence to a pond with some trees and high brush that could mask our escape. She also said that the other houses seemed abandoned.
    "OK then, we're set...who watches the screen?"
    She looked at me.
    "You want ME to do it? F-no...your idea."
    I shrugged.
    "The breaker is by the front door, the tv not in sight. If I don't show up in 30 seconds, kill it."
    She nodded, and lifted the switches.
    I sat and turned on the tv and hastily turned down the volume enough for only me to hear.
    The first channel was offline with that color banded screen and tone. I hit the 'search channels' in the menu and waited, giving a heads up to Felicia and waited.
    Then, it hooked onto a signal.
    "Wait, why is it turned off?"
    "I told you this might happen...you didn't answer me."
    My heart slumped.
    "Then...now what?" Turning my head, I looked up to her.
    "I guess we'll-"
    She twitched her head, then looked to the windows. Suddenly she jolted forward and I her her open the front door.
    "Odd..!"
    "What's strange?"
    "No, numbnut, you! COME!"
    I stood up and started walking, but midway I heard it, the rumble of engines.
    Felicia slammed the door and ran up to me.
    "Let's go."
    We scrambled as quick as possible. Even though we had prepared, it didn't seem good enough at that moment.
    We ran out the back door and heard the rumble louder and louder by the seconds. Felicia led the way, jumping like a gazelle over the fence, and the next; I could barely keep up.
    I didn't say a word, I knew at the very least that words exhaust you faster when running.
    We jumped and jumped fences. I don't know how far we ran. Felicia stopped in the back yard of a house with an open back door, and ran in without even second-thinking it.
    I followed her and suddenly was looking down the barrel of a shotgun, and froze in the spot.
    "Who're you t'o folks runnin' int'o ma nany's bung'lo?" A man's voice came out.
    I was so out of breath, my heart racing kept me from fainting...but I couldn't answer.
    "Out wit' et" and he cocked the weapon.
    "We're running....escaping...from someone...we don't...know who..." Felicia spoke, between breaths, still agitated.
    "whaddya mean...?" He said, shifting his aim to her.
    "We tried...turning on...the tv...and then...we heard...a loud...rumble..."
    "thas' bullshet lady, we ain't heard nutin' here!" he said, leaning towards her.
    "Earl Ray Jenkins! Put that thing down!" I heard the shout of a lady from another room.
    "But nany...!"
    "You put that thing down boy, or there be no supper for you later!"
    Only then I took a look at the man, whom lowered the shotgun, mumbling. He was your slightly hillbilly boy, not older than I, dressed like a cityboy, but barefoot.
    "I'm sorry younguns" the leady said, coming closer.
    She was a lovely lady for her age, with a sweet and caring aura.
    "No, no, we're sorry" I blurted "We shouldn't have ran in without asking."
    "Yes, we're very sorry ma'am, we thought there was nobody." Felicia said.
    "Oh, that's fine. We don't see people nowadays, so it's good to see there are people out there. Come on, come in."
    Earl was sitting in the living room, giving us a sore eye.
    "Don't mind him...he's been aching to use that stick for a while now."
    "Ma'am..." I started, but cut off.
    "Don't call me ma'am, I'm Agnes, Agnes Orville."
    "Oh, okay Agnes. She's Felicia, my girlfriend, and I'm Oddyr."
    Both stopped to look at me like a weird bug, and talked at the same time, though with a slightly different tone.
    "What do you mean, Odd?"