Rebirth in the last days to return your love

FirstDayBack

Lost in memories, Sophie's timer went off, rousing her to take action. Although she wanted to just start hoarding and searching for Robert, Raven and Crow, she did not want to tarnish her parents' legacy in the studio and just decided she would do the shoot today but pass the remaining bookings to others. Sophia was by far no millionaire and knew all the items she could get at the beginning of the apocalypse with the five-finger discount. She still wanted to prepare some much-needed supplies.

Sophia, knowing money would eventually be a waste of paper, did not feel comfortable. Selling her home quickly, possibly stopping someone having life-saving money, she decided to act like nothing was happening, but was going to cause a scene about what was going to happen later today to give her an excuse to travel and visit places to get better supplies.

Sophia was used to having to move quickly to survive, so she found herself ready to leave, and it was still only 06:30. Having missed fresh air and not having to always watch her front and back, she decided to cycle to the studio as it was only 2 miles away.

Again, Sophia knew the importance of fitness for what was ahead and took a mental note to start working out to improve her physique, hence the cycle to work. She was like many of the other survivors, having gained no superpowers, but to survive she claimed she had space, which at the beginning of the apocalypse was a very popular skill. Later, the distrust made space users become worse than normal humans because they were often accused of keeping the good stuff. That did not change until about 3 years into the apocalypse, after the internet was re-established. Detailed accounts could be made and scanners were created that could detect if someone had abilities and what they were, so many space users were uncovered and faced consequences for being secretive.

Cycling along the familiar streets to the studio, Sophia could not help feeling surreal, no chaos, no unidentifiable bodies around, all the buildings fully intact, no mangled groaning bodies running at you, no blasts from other survivors, flowers blooming on the sidewalk neatly uniformed unlike when they mutate and start trying to kill anything that gets between there stems, cars, buses with no additional body armor and clean driving pass on proper lined roads. Inhaling deeply, all Sophia could smell was the flowers blooming, some fresh baked goods at the bakery a few doors down from the studio. Oh, how she missed cakes defiantly getting bulked up on when she started to hoard. "Focus Sophia" admonished herself, unlocking the building. Sophia tried to recall the alarm system that had not been touched in years,

Sophia had truly missed this photo studio over the years, not being able to process photos the way her parents taught her. She loved going into the dark room, using the enlarger and shining the light closely, watching the negative appear on the paper, using the tongs to go between the 3 trays, ensuring the right amount of light was used to not over expose and make the image blurry, the smells from the chemicals and the tongs holding the paper took her back to the first time she visited the dark room and seen her parents magically create images, she hoped that one day she could bring back the techniques her parents taught her. This time she would pack up her studio to preserve it and hope that she could keep the magic alive. She enjoyed the ease of digital, and loved it when at the click of a button she could change an image completely. But she never turned her back on the darkroom. It was her parents' passion. She could not let it go completely.

The ringing of the doorbell brought Sophie out of her musings and, like the last time a large group of rugby players came in to get their phots taken, unlike last time, she asked them if they were still happy with the action shots this afternoon with the rain forecast, knowing that the pictures would turn out fantastic. Unlike the first time, Chloe conveniently forgot to mention the latter part of the shoot and place it in the diary. Sophia was made to look foolish, although the pictures did turn out great, the anxiety that was caused by this added to her mental health being rock bottom and taking all the responsibilities on to try and make up for what she felt were shortcomings. This time she would have the upper hand and use this as an excuse to travel. She apologized and said that her assistant called in sick and her replacement was still on route, but they would still be finished on schedule.

Tired and sore at the end of a long day, Sophia massaged her shoulders confirming she desperately needed to work on her fitness. She called her Aunt and Uncle about what happened at the studio today and was not happy. She had decided to travel for a month or two and might decide to sell when she comes back. She feels that with Chloe being so weak and regularly coming in late and forgetting to book appointments, correctly, she can't keep her employed. If she had not decided to call in help today, the shoot would have run very late and would have received a negative review, costing them all a lot of money as they still took profit from the place. She also told them that she was contacting the tenant from the other apartment and was going to start receiving the rent as she no longer lived with them, and they didn't need it to cover her expenses. She also wanted to inform them they needed to start paying rent. Otherwise, she would contact a lawyer about getting them removed from the properties. She is now 18 and, as the will stated, all the properties are now her responsibility.

She also decided she would visit her parents in the morning then travel for a few weeks to get supplies that she wanted to get in the future. She just wished she knew where Robert was, she did not want to have to wait to find him in the shopping mall where she almost died getting the black blinds.

Getting home, Sophia checked her bank £250,000 for an 18-year-old. That was an astronomical amount, but Sophia would trade that money for her parents' back. Sophia was ment to be going to Uni in August but went on-line and canceled her space. There was no point in starting because she only managed 2 weeks before they were sent home because of the heat.

Sophie got out her notebook and went into space, got some tea from the basement and started writing down the up-coming events and roughly, when they would happen, she then started to make lists of things needed to be made, purchased, fitted before the apocalypse.

Then things to get after for free, who does not like free things.