The high-pitched squawking is engraved in her mind. The ear-piercing screeching won’t stop following her around. The security that most used to feel has vanished. People hide in the shadows, frozen in fear, unable to step outside. Bzzz…Bzzz…her mind goes blank and suddenly it's dead silent. The vibrations of her alarm send a shiver down her body as the hairs on her arms perk up. She forces her crusted-over eyes open, to see a blur, that she wipes away with the palms of her hands. Gradually, she sits up and hobbles to the closet to get dressed. She swings the doors of the closet open to find a single rack with solid color white clothes, all the exact same.

While her morning routine seems quite normal, the rest of her day will not be. It's 2048, she lives in a small town in America, named Tunstown. That has a whopping population of 63 people that is posted up in the middle of town on a flip board. It looks like the average American town, with buildings lining each side of the streets, and thin sidewalks tracing the edge of the road, and that thick green grass everyone imagines. However, this town isn’t like that. The cars hover, the roads lead to nowhere, and blood hungry hawks circle the air, waiting to strike. A walk in the neighborhood, a visit to a friend's house down the street, or a bike to the convenience store, have all become risks. Risks that decide life or death.  

The number flips to 62.

It’s Monday, marking the beginning of the school week. Her school supplies are scattered everywhere. She darts around the house trying to organize everything she needs for her day neatly in her bag. Her mom has the different meats and cheeses spread across the kitchen counter, throwing together a quick lunch. The smell of bacon and pancakes hits the air, and she grabs a plate of the fresh breakfast to-go. She approaches the front door with full hands, unable to stretch her thumb out far enough to the touch pad that unlocks the door. Her mom opened it for her, and she was finally on her way out.

The number flips to 61.

She along with other kids dash through the streets in an attempt to catch the hoverail before it takes off for the local highschool. She luckily makes it, but others do not. The ones that don’t make it have to walk just over a mile, by themselves. While it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, the hawks are circling in the sky right above. 

The number flips to 60

Ringgg…Ringgg… the final school bell chimes but no kids are let out. The front doors continue to stay locked as her and the other kids pack in the corner. The lights are turned off and the window shades are drawn shut. The speakers that tell the morning announcements crackle on. Faint words come from the muffled speakers, however, no one can understand what was said and the reason remains unknown. After about five minutes a loud screeching squawk echoes through the school. And after about ten minutes the lights flicker on. Her as well as other students thinking it's a drill, get up off the ground and grab their belongings.  The school doors are unlocked and the kids trample out. Crowding in the hoverail and mobbing the streets as they make the trek home. Once she returns home, she slides her shoes off and dives onto the couch next to her mom.

The number flips to 59, Then to 58. And then to 57.

The day ends and she is off to sleep. A few days pass in the week. She awakens and starts her morning routine, which is the exact same as the days before. She attends school and gets on the hoverail that would take her into the center of town. She and a friend decided to head into the town before returning home. They stroll through town shopping, laughing, eating, just as any teenagers would do. Once they are finished, they head back to the hoverail to travel home. Her friend gets aboard, but before she took a step in, she looked up at the sky in the distance. Hawks were circling in the sky about a mile away. She gets in and the doors begin to shut, before they close all the way, she hears a screeching squawk. The same noise from days earlier at the school. The hoverail begins to move, and she clears her mind, ignoring it.

The number flips to 56. Then flips again to 55. 

She arrives home to her mom scrubbing dishes in the kitchen. She unloads her bags, peels off her shoes, and heads upstairs. The next day dawns and she gets herself ready for the day. It’s finally the weekend, and the sun is shining bright. Every weekend she visits her friend, and this weekend was no different. She sets out, walking on the pavement, with grass on both sides of her. The one challenging part was all the houses in this town looked very similar so finding her friend’s house was always a little difficult. She managed to get it right every time though. 

Today, she confidently strutted up the driveway of what she thought was the right house. She knocked four times like she always does. The door handle jiggles as the person on the inside tries to open it. The door slid open slowly, but standing in the doorway was not her friend. Her face drops as she realizes she made an honest mistake. She quickly turns and placing one foot in front of the other, on the verge of running, tries to leave the property. This is when she looks to the sky to see the same hawks circling above. Except this time it was over top of her. The screeching squawk blows through her ears, as a hawk is diving down full speed. With no time to run, in one split second, frozen in place. The bird pierces a hole directly through her chest. She drops to the ground, and a pool of blood forms around her. 

The number flips to 54. 

Her mom sits at home to relax and turns on the TV. The channel is fixed on the news, showing the horrors of the world. She flips to the section focusing on Tunstown. Eventually, the screen flashes to a scene of a nearby death. Her mom was familiar with the street name that the death occurred on, since she knew her daughter's friend lived on it. The camera zooms in on the recent tragedy. Her mom watches to find it was an innocent little girl that was killed. One who did nothing wrong, except knock on the wrong house door, With a closer look she realized it was her, it was her daughter.