Chapter 35

***POV:Cole***

We all gather around the large outdoor dining tables that my family has set up, with a fabulous spread put on by my mom and Imogen as usual. All of our closest neighbors, the Sanderson family and their remaining crew, the Thomas family, and the Hernandez family and remaining crew, were here. All in all, we were almost 40 all gathered together.

We have gathered with everyone like this at least once a month once the dust settled on the end of the world. It helped us all to maintain outside contact, to trade, and just overall check on each other. One small step in maintaining a modicum of sanity and normalness amidst all the crazy.

Amara sat across from me, although not by choice. With everyone gathered it really was like a small party, and everyone had selected their seats long before we had joined the table. Food started being passed around, chatter going in all sorts of different directions.

Mr. Hernandez pulled out a piece of paper and was showing it to my father, and