Nothing could have prepared her for what came... nothing. And she did the best she could, under the circumstances. Thank God for the veterans, they were the hero's in this story. And thank God for the Cuba. Ha, the little Cuban who most people shunned when he first came to PG and then in the end, saved us all.
It was his idea to have the ration cards... this is what they did in Cuba in the 1990's.. each resident got a card that listed their rations and as they were handed their food rations, the amounts were manually entered. It was a challenging system, everyone complained about not being able to use computers any longer. We had to conserve the computer time to essential documents only. The cards were be marked off manually, but it took a lot of time. Everything did these days.
Lisa looked up quickly, she heard something.. some sound that wasn't right. She was much more attune to sounds now then she ever remembered before. It was a sense that returned quickly after the raids began. You always know when somethings wrong, the hairs on your arms and neck bristle. Always, and they bristled now... her guard was downstairs. No one would be up here.. she crossed over to the window to look out on the dark street, there was no moon... so it was very dark. The downtown fire burn on Lighthouse for the Watch to stay warm .. she could just make out the shape of one Watcher.
He or she, Lisa couldn't;t tell from this distance, was rubbing their hands over the flames.
She picked up her candle and held it high in the room to illuminate the office. Nothing moved, she was alone.

By now, she guessed it was close to ten.. she turned back to her desk to put the ration cards in their box, and stopped short with a yelp. “Oh, it's you” you gave me such a start. What are you doing? I didn't hear you come in. I thought you were on Watch tonight”.
Lisa held her candle higher to lite up his face, “Yes, I'm on Watch, but I had to come and see you, privately”
“Huh,” Lisa replied, “Well, I'd prefer if we talked in the morning.. I'm done here now, I'm heading home”.
“yes, I know, I'm your escort this evening... I've taken over for Jason. I'll be taking you home.”
“Oh, great” replied Lisa with a faint half hearted smile, not knowing what to do with this change of plans.. “Let me just put these in the box here”. “Excuse me...”
But that was the last word she uttered, as the hand came round her back and over her mouth. She felt the knife slice into her skin just under her jaw.. she tried to resist, .... they'd been giving the women self defense training, to protect themselves.. but she had never felt comfortable fighting.. and now she was going to die, she was over powered and the knife had drawn itself across her throat, and she felt her warm blood flood out of her body down the front of her jacket and her scream was replaced with a sudden desire to sleep, and she slid back into her killers arms and thought, ahhh... my daughter will get my rations now... maybe she'll get stronger.