I stepped through the broken glass of the front door of my store, and flicked on a flashlight. I wasnt sure what I was looking for, but here I was, looking anyway ....

The place was a wreck, whether from looting or an outbreak, I wasn’t sure. Still, I had nothing else to do with myself but try and see what I could find here.

I had managed to sleep through the apocalypse. Now, I had to somehow stay alive until order was restored....

The best I could learn, the outbreak only had affected men. They went bath-salt crazy until their hearts would burst from the exertion.

I managed to miss out on the fun because although I am male, I had been in transition to womanhood, and apparently it had been enough to save me, although I went into a brief coma for a couple of days or so. Even so, I must have had a super-dedicated nurse who kept me going once the power went down. In fact , she had taken me to what I assume was her home, and she was there when I woke up to fill me in on the bare bones of what had happened.

Too bad she went out for supplies and never came back, or I could have thanked her...

Shaking my head clear of the memory, I continued my search of my store, looking for whatever supplies I could find. I decided to check upstairs, remembering all the days I had climbed those stairs to put my stuff away before work.

It was clear there had been an outbreak up here. Things were a mess, and there was blood on some of the walls. Rather ironically, someone had left a bloody handprint on the sign that said how many days since the last injury-accident ...

A quick look through the staff room let me know there wasn”t likely to be anything to salvage here, so I went back downstairs to finish checking out the store proper. I paid special attention to the pharmacy, the canned goods aisle, and just in case, sporting goods for weapons, and I got enough supplies to load up a small backpack before I headed for the broken door.

I heard someone else come in before I could get there, so I dodged behind a shelf and tried to stay out of sight. I hadn’t seen a lot of survivors, but everything I had learned from zombie films told me that just because whoever it was wasn’t infected didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous ...

Unfortunately, I hit the shelf when I tried to hide behind it, and a pile of plastic cups fell off.

I heard a shotgun cock, and decided I better try diplomacy.

“Please dont shoot, I’m not armed.” I shouted.

“Then come out where I can see you.”

I stood up and came around the corner with my hands in the air.

“See, not armed.”

She looked closely at me, and I cursed the fact I hadn’t bothered to shave since I had woken up ...

“Who are you?” she asked of me nervously as she pointed the shotgun at me.

“My name is Dorothy, what’s yours?”

“Chloe. You’re .... a girl?”

“Kinda, yeah. Its ... complicated.”

“I think you better come with me.”

I shrugged, and kept my hands up as I stepped over the broken glass of the door, and out onto the street.

A couple of blocks walking later, I found myself looking at a what I think was once a sorority house. My captor had me kneel down while she knocked on the door in some kind of code, and soon another woman had opened the door and I was ushered in.

There seemed to be about fiveteen to twenty women inside, of varying ages from children to grandmothers. One of the “grandmothers” came up to me, and asked for my name.

“Dorothy.”

She raised an eyebrow, and then said to the others, “All right. Sandra, Jessica, stay here with our ... guest. The rest of you have work to do.”

Slowly, the group cleared out, and I was left with just the older woman, a middle-aged woman, and the young woman who had escorted me here.

“My name is Abigail. Let’s go to the kitchen. Would you like some tea?”

“Sure, its getting pretty cold out there.” I said.

We went into a large communal kitchen, and I sat down while Abigail went to make me some tea. Once we all had our teas, she sighed, and said, “Okay ... Dorothy. Why don’t you tell us your story?”

“I ... am transgender. I was transitioning when all the craziness started. I’m not sure, but I think the hormone treatments I was taking saved me from going nuts like all the guys did. So what about you guys? How come you have power?”

Abigail said, “My husband had a portable generator. And they’re working on the grid, hopefully its back online within days.”

“I wondered if civilization was gonna make a comeback. That mean anybody has hope for a future?”

“Only time can tell. There are sperm banks, so women could become pregnant, and if this ... plague has really passed the children would grow up normally.”

“Sounds good. So what else can I tell you about me so you can pass a verdict?”

Abigail smiled, and said, “Can you pull your weight?”

I smiled back, and said, “I can sure try.”

And so I joined their group, and we survived, thrived, and prepared for a better tomorrow.

Together.