Heyy heyy heyy! Hope you like my story! Please PLEASE review Sorry if I don't update in a long time I don't enjoy staring at my computer for a long time… But I would REALLY like to thank SenseandCommon for the basic idea of writing this story!

You can check out her story My Four Best Friends and read that! Thanks, and remember…REVIEW

Hi, I'm Redd Lockwood. I'm 13 years old and I live in Perdido Beach, California. The FAYZ. "My" house is on Pacific Boulevard and I live, well, by myself. My actual house that I lived in before the FAYZ was on Sherman and was burned down when Zil and his Idiot Crew wasted the precious gas by starting a pointless fire. But most of them are dead now so whatever. I had a brother who was almost 15 but one of those SUV sized bugs ate him. I don't really like to talk about that.

Anyway, I don't really play a big part in the FAYZ. I'm not Sam or Edilio or Astrid or even Jack. But I'm not dead yet, so that's something. I live in a little one story that only has a few broken windows. It's close to the Plaza when I need something, but far enough away that the big ugly battles usually don't get to close to me.

I haven't ever gotten into any big trouble, so life has been easier on me. Ever since the power went off. It made me really see how much humans rely on energy. I had been really "green" before the FAYZ, always recycling, reducing energy use, etc etc. Now that doesn't really matter.

I eat what I can and get by, I guess. I had a cat but I have no idea what happened to it. I've made a few friends since the beginning of the FAYZ. Not many, but some. My old friends are kind of stupid. They aren't any help during the troubles of the FAYZ. They probably live together on the other side of town. Maybe they transferred over to Coates. Maybe they're dead. I don't know.

I have a crush on Sam. A pretty big one. I've only met him in person once. It was like meeting a celebrity. I guess he kind of is one here. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I work for Quinn now. I'm on his fishing crew. I don't live in that big fishing crew house though, I wouldn't really like living with a bunch of guys. That would be really awkward.

It was a little before dawn. I needed to get to the marina. I walked out of my house and onto the empty streets. Everyone was still asleep. Probably having nightmares. I kept walking straight on Pacific to get to the marina. On the way, I passed Grant Street. Someone was walking down the street, towards me. I realized they were probably just walking back to where they came from. Anyhow, I reached into my belt for my knife. I cursed quietly. It was still in my room. Nobody walked the streets of the FAYZ without a weapon, that was a bad mistake. I just kept walking. Running, almost.

"Hey, Redd. Wait up."

What the heck? Who was that? Still, she stopped walking and waited. Barely anybody knew my name. And the person didn't look familiar. Wait…was that…?

"Sorry if I scared you. It's just me, Sam."

It was Sam. Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow. Breathe, breathe, breathe. "Hey Sam. What's up?" I hope that came out smoother than it felt.

"I was just wondering if you would give Quinn a message for me."

Oh.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Just tell him I need him to come to the town hall as soon as possible. We're having, like, a meeting. I think. That's what Albert told me. You can come too." Sam said.

Oh! "Kay, I'll tell him. What are you doing? It's barely dawn." I asked him.

"Just making the rounds for the day. I do this all the time. Checking out everything, making sure there's no dead bodies laying around." He forced a smile.

I wanted to kiss him. He was right there. That would be the stupidest thing that I could ever do. Astrid would have my head. "Okay, well I better get goin'. Quinn's waiting for me." I don't want to go.

"Bye, see you later I guess." He replied.

"Bye." I love you.

Sam walked off; probably back to Astrid's house. I sighed. That was fun! I kept walking until I got to the marina. Sitting on the dock was only one person. It was Quinn. Usually they were all here by the time I arrived.

"Where is everyone?" I wondered aloud.

Quinn jumped and turned. Seeing it was me he relaxed. "They went to Ralph's to get food for the day." I sat next to him, our legs hanging off the dock and skimming the salty blue water. "Did you get here okay? Any trouble?" Quinn usually asked this question in the morning.

"Yeah, I ran into Sam actually." I replied. Quinn turned his head to look back out over the ocean.

"Did he say anything? Did he look bad? I'm worried about him." Quinn was a really caring person. He was always asking if you were okay. He genuinely did look worried about Sam.

"He looked as fine as all of us. But hey, he gave me a message for you." I said. "He said to tell you that there's a meeting in the town hall and to go after we finished fishing. I'm coming too. Something that Albert wants to talk about."

Quinn snorted. He didn't like Albert. "Well, at least you're coming with me. I hate meetings. Nobody asks for my opinion. I shouldn't even go." He muttered.

"Of course you're going. If you don't Sam will think I didn't do my job."

Quinn raised his eyebrows and looked at me. "Does Redd have a little crush on Sammy boy?" he mocked.

I shoved him. "No!" I lied. I'm not a very good liar though. My cheeks turned cherry red. Oh, cherries. Never mind, tomato red. Quinn grinned. "Well who doesn't? In my defense, it's not that unusual." I looked away.

Just on time, the rest of the crew showed up. I jumped up. Quinn laughed. "Let's go! We're a little late."

Frog loaded the food into the boat that Quinn would be in. Frog was a nice guy. He was really skinny and tall before the FAYZ, and since the FAYZ made everybody skinnier, he was like, a twig. Everybody called him frog because he loves frogs.

A blonde named Shell climbed into the boat first. "Alright come on, let's go!" I climbed into the lead boat, one that sat three. They used three boats in all. The one that I was in, that sat three and then two others that sat four. So there were eleven fishers for the entire Perdido Beach. I fish with Quinn and Penelope.

Everybody climbed in their boats with the fishing gear to last them for the day. Quinn reached over to untie the ropes from the dock, and we were off. Penelope was a talker. She always talked. We were lucky to get a few moments of silence. She was short with cropped red hair and freckles.

"I wonder if we'll catch anything big today. Like another shark. That would be good because Albert didn't even pick up the last shark we caught so we need to catch another one." And the nonstop chatter started. Penelope was facing the opposite direction of Quinn and I, and Quinn's eyes widened and he hid a smile. Penelope had always annoyed Quinn but he put up with it.

"We have to dock early today, at least I do. Got to go to the town hall for Sam. I mean Albert. But you guys can keep fishing after we leave." Quinn yelled to the crew. Various people nodded. I re-gripped my paddle. After gas had gotten so low, we had to start using paddles to row ourselves. It wasn't fun, but it was our only option. Once we got out far enough, Quinn handed Penelope a net and me a rod. Everyone hated using the nets and when Penelope complained, Quinn turned around and snickered.

I shoved him and muttered, "You're so mean," sarcastically.

He smiled. "I know."

I cast my line into the water after baiting it and watched the little bobber bob in the ripples. This was the best time of day for fishing. When the sun rose, it warmed the top of the water and fish went deeper. After about 5 minutes, I felt a tug and watched my bobber go under water about 2 inches. Not a very big fish. Anyhow, I started tugging and reeling in my catch. I lifted it into the boat. It was probably about a foot across and weighed maybe 8 pounds.

"Can I switch now?" Penelope whined from the other side.

Quinn laughed. "Yeah, here you use the rod I'll do the nets." I was relieved that he didn't make me do them. He reached over and switched out the two.