Those men broke into our home, and dragged me and Martin out into the yard. There, they ... they shot Martin, and left him to die! Then, they dragged ...me back into the trees. They stripped me along the way. I just knew that they were going to ... to ... use me, and then ki ... ki ... kill me. You two saved my life.”I looked at Emily, and she looked back at me. Her gaze was steely, quite the difference from a few days prior. Confident, determined. She turned to our guest. “Lucy? Here, let me help. His sister was married and living in a town about an hour away -- about ten minutes away from the college he’d be attending. He had hopes of living with her and her husband when he started college. Their parents were working drones, as Sandy thought of them. He loved them in his way, but he hoped to find a career that wasn’t as mind-deadening as theirs seemed to have made themSpring, in that part of the country, allowed for open windows, except for when the spring and summer rain freshened. "Excellent timing, ladies," said Contessa, looking at her watch. "Let'sbegin lining up and you'll begin on que with the music. Here, Justina."Justin was handed a full bouquet. He was completely confused as womenbegan hurrying into position behind him, all in pink matching dresses."Mistress Contessa, I'm not ready," a girl from behind said as everyoneturned as she came out of a back room with two workers carrying the backof her dress. "I'm sorry Mistress. This is just too much, and I can't. You have recently learned that your family and friends were not all killed in the earthquakes that resulted from the impact of the comet. Your brother, Tim and two of your friends, Michelle, and Lindsay survived. You've been seeking them out for the past three months and three weeks ago found out that they were all tortured and kept in jail in the heavily fortified Central Prison in the Appalachian Mountains of Vermont. The climate has grown somewhat warmer since the comet hit, but it is still.