The Outside:

Themes: Hi-Lo, Dystopia, disaster, survival, relationships. Cecilia has always been secure in her world. A high school cheerleader, she is pretty and popular. And she dates Ryan, one of the cutest boys in her school. She leads a charmed and pampered life. Clearly everyone forgot the warnings buried deep in the quatrains of Nostradamus-- the end of days. When the world they know is destroyed, will their struggle to survive destroy their love? This new normal-- this new life-- is cruel and unpredictable and tests both of them in ways that they've never imagined. But it's not the end, only the beginning, but the beginning of what? In the end, we agreed that we would be heading north toward LoDo: the Lower Downtown Historic District. Cecilia and I had arrived at the shelter from the south, so I had no idea what to expect in LoDo. But by traveling this way, we would pass by some of the richer suburbs, like Cherry Hills Village. The weather had been pretty good, but it was still the middle of the winter on the Front Range.