Here are some of the first pages of my novel

All she  saw were  those people barging into her  house completely masked by the cloak that covered their whole body. The first thing Maria  thought of was Abraham, how he would be taken by them. She knew what they were, they were the  group that had hunted them down over the course of a year. Maria sat quietly praying that they wouldn't find her  behind the curtain.

They  chose this house because there is almost no furniture or belongings in it, therefore nobody would even think of hiding here. Maria heard the voices of the men.

“Where are they?” one of the voices asked

“I don’t know man, they were here the last time I followed them.” A deep voice responded 

“Well I don’t know isn’t good enough, listen if you lose them on more time, the Abaddon  will have you in pieces!” the voice threatened

Maria stayed in her hiding  place until she was certain that they had  left. 

She ran to where Abraham was sleeping and looked at him

‘How on earth am I supposed to keep you safe’ Maria thought to herself, 

‘Maybe him becoming a nomader isn’t the worst thing that can happen’

 She  trailed off to the radiation river nearby to get some cattle carcasses for us to eat, gazing  up at the sky while walking and traced out the constellations as it was before dawn, that's when she usually got her meat because only the Aarons are up this early in the morning. As she approached the river she saw that there was a dead fawn up upon the shoreline. She grabbed the small deer by the legs and swung it so it was over her shoulders and started towards her house. 

When she arrived home she put the fawn down on the table and yelled for Abraham

“Abraham, I got fresh meat but we gotta split  it first” she yelled up the stairs waiting for a reply

But there was no answer. Maria scaled up the stairs thinking that he was still asleep except when she got to the top Abraham wasn’t there. His shoes were but he wasn’t, Maria started to panic and her first thought was that he couldn't have gotten far because he didn’t have his shoes with him. She raced down the stairs and out the door looking in every direction frantically. 

‘This can’t be happening' she notioned 

Wet tears started running down her cheeks as she fell to the ground in despair 

‘He couldn't have run away by himself’ she pondered 

But this is what I wanted isn’t it, Oh god I did I’m so so stupid, how could I have thought such a cruel thing he has done nothing but deeds for me her thoughts ran wild and forgot about the first one she had. 

When she got inside Maria wanted to plan about what she was going to do next, Abraham was all she had during and after the apocalypse he taught her how to split deer and cow meat, how to cook, and most importantly how to be a leader. Now he’s gone. I need to find a Pack but most importantly I  need to find Abraham. He can’t be far because he probably just got lost. 

‘Maybe he went down to the nearby shop’ she recalled

So she started to go to the shop that was next to the farmhouses. When she got there Abraham wasn’t in the store; in fact, no one was in the shop, Which was really weird because usually a few Acnoders wandered around well, everywhere.  Then she heard a sharp rattling sound to her right, she whipped her head around as fast as she could, and there she saw a scrawny deer not too much bigger than the one that she fetched from the lake. She was surprised that it hadn’t run off when she got there, as she addressed the deer she realized that it had a chunk of fur missing from its stomach and there were maggots around the wound as if it were already dead.

‘Geez these animals are getting weirder by the day she thought.

Maria decided that before she left she would bandage up the young deer because after all she was in the pharmacy section of the store. So she turned around in search of some antiseptic and some bandages. When she found some she started to walk slowly near the wounded fawn, careful as not to spook it. As she approached the deer it laid down as if it were giving her consent to touch it. She slowly poured the antiseptic into its cap along with some water to dilute it; a trick that she had learned from Abraham.  She put some antiseptic on the gauze and blotted the wound to clean it then she dressed the wound in the leftover gauze. She then gazed down at her wristwatch and saw that it was eight o’clock. She stood up and her stomach growled. 

‘I guess I really should eat something before I go’ Maria thought 

So she walked along the path to the house, when she opened the door to the old building she saw the deer carcass on the table that she left. 

Guess I’m gonna have to prep you all by myself she thought as she walked toward the table she got the large butcher's knife from the drawer and started to skin it. After she got the deer skinned she started to split it so that she wouldn’t get radiation poisoning. When she finally got the deer cooked it was around ten o'clock, and she ate a small portion of it and rationed the rest. 

She started out of the little cabin down to go find some people that maybe could help her find Abraham. As she made her way to the now abandoned strip of stores that she remembered as Tanger Outlets before the apocalypse. She remembered she and her mother used to go back to school shopping there. And that it hit her, she had nobody; if she lost Abraham she would have to struggle to survive on her own. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes as she began grieving for a man who was lost, but not dead yet.

When Maria finally got to Grandfather mountain it was about noonish and if she wanted to find help; this was probably where help was. So she stepped up to the place and tried the handle and found that it was locked, that was a good sign it meant that people were inside so she knocked on the door. A tall woman with a stern look on her face and a pistol in her hand opened the door.

“Listen I told you we are not interested in your little retreat,” she told Maria

“What retreat?” she questioned with a look of puzzlement on her face

“So you're not from the JW retreat?” the tall woman replied 

“No, lost my faith a long time ago” she honestly stated 

“Oh, well then who are you, and what are you doing here?” the latter said while taking the safety off of her pistol. Maria swallowed a lump in her throat and raised her hands up to show that she was no harm to the woman.

“My name is Maria and I am just looking for my friend who got lost, have you seen him?” she stated calmly because now the gun was pointed directly at her. 

“No, we usually don’t get many travelers, heck I was surprised. That you even are here” the woman explained 

“Well then why did you  think that I was someone from a JW retreat?” Maria questioned, but then quickly regretted it as she thought the tall woman would be offended but surprisingly didn’t

“I said travelers honey, not cults tryna recruit” the woman answered with a smug look on her face.  “Oh, well what about nomaders they're always around,” Maria asked loosening up a bit, but not too much as a literal gun was pointed at her head “Nah not much lately, they don’t travel up here usually,” the women asked lowering her gun as if now noticing that Maria wasn’t a threat. Taking that as her cue to leave, she started to walk away. 

‘Guess I’m back to where I started from’ Maria expressed and she went back down the mountain. Maria started to walk through the dense forest weaving around one tree after the other, hoping that maybe she would see Abrahams's worn-out face on the other side. But that didn’t happen, instead, she found a big white church just beyond the tree line. It looked like the one her family used to attend when she was younger. Maria was very happy at this discovery because it looked well maintained, which is a sign that there might be people that maintain it.

Maria approached the tall building and walking around it she saw that it must have been a Jehovah’s Witness Church because in big letters it said  Kingdom of Jehovah’s Witness written in big blue letters. Maria wasn’t amused that the Church of Jehovah stayed up this long.

‘Well I better try anyways’ Maria thought. Her knuckles barely touched the door when it swung open to reveal a sickly-looking man. 

“How can I help you?” the man croaked

“I’m wondering if anybody came through here this morning,” she replied 

“Not here 'cause we don’t usually get people here, not any more people either fear us or join us no in between.” He admitted 

“But why don’t you come in, It's getting quite dark out.” he offered. Maria knew she shouldn't trust him, but she just had this gut feeling telling her to go in. 

“I mean I guess I could stay, my names Maria by the way,” she told

The man furrowed his brows as if he was trying to remember something

“Great, well I’m Maverick and I’ll get you set up” Maverick responded. Maria knew him. Deep down buried away was that name, the name that belonged to her Best friend’s brother, the name that belonged to this stranger that had an uncanny resemblance to Josie.