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John wasn’t entirely sure where to look for Mike. His mind was too exhausted to formulate a coherent search plan, and he ended up wandering aimlessly for some time.

As he walked down the dark street, he glanced at the windows of the buildings, where tired occupants were one by one blowing out the candles that dimly lit their mostly glassless windows. Because of the darkness, John resigned that he could not check these buildings tonight, and walked on until he eventually came to the corner of Fifth Street.

Too tired to think of much of anything, he absentmindedly turned left up the once-major road which was now, like most of the streets in Sidewood, overgrown and crumbling.

John and Eddie sat in the alley for nearly half an hour before either of them felt the urge to move. John was the one who decided that they should at least try to look for Wendy, Mike and Sierra, despite Eddie’s protests that the other three were dead.

John refused to accept that his wife and children may have been killed. When Eddie refused to come with him to search, John simply walked off alone. Eddie sat defiantly in the alley and watched his father walk off, and finally sensing that there weren’t any other real options, he reluctantly got up, following John at a distance, with John occasionally looking back to make sure he was there.

The courthouse's holding cell was crowded to the point that its occupants couldn't move at all beyond an occasional scratch of the nose.

Initially, John's thoughts centered around his family. Were they alive? Were they in this cell with him? It was crowded enough that they certainly could have been. Unable to move, and thus unable to seek answers , he concentrated on the sound of the chaos to distract himself.

John stood nervously on the sidewalk outside of the bakery, listening for any sign of what might be happening inside. The unnatural silence made him almost afraid to look in. Gradually he peered through the doorway at the room, still dark despite the rising sun outside. The room was empty, but as his eyes adjusted to the light, he found the room littered with human remains.
Fear gripped his body as he searched the building for, if not live bodies, at least corpses of the people who had slept there. Searching under the fallen counter, the decrepit kitchen, and even the old stove, he could find no intact body. Wanting to call for the people he knew, but afraid to arouse their killers, he called in a low voice.

As the light seeping into the old bakery faded, the crowd of occupants gradually drifted to sleep. John and his family had positioned themselves in a corner of the building near the door. As more people fell asleep, the building was overcome by an ominous silence.
John stared into the darkness, picturing the crowd in his mind, and seeing on their faces the false comfort he had given them. He tried to think of what he would say tomorrow when it came time to make good on his words.

John stared after the Courtesan as she slid a pistol into her pocket and turned a corner out of sight. He stood there for a moment, not sure what to make of it. He looked back at the nervous crowd and tried to think of something to say. He wanted to say "This is what happens when you kill people," but thought better of it. He knew they wanted him to say "Let's kill them," but he couldn't. They would have no way of doing it even if he had said that, now that all the guns were gone.

As Edward took their empty water cups from them, John, Wendy, and Sierra stood up to leave. Nobody said anything as the three of them walked down the Pacific Circle toward their house. John was in a daze, not able to stop thinking about Edward’s recollection of the old Sidewood.

John smiled down at Sierra. She was staring at the ground, her body rigid, trying as hard as she could to pretend he wasn’t there. He patted the back of her head gently and started to walk home. When she didn’t follow, he walked back to her, knelt down on the ground and looked up into her eyes until she looked away. “Let’s go,” he commanded as he grabbed his daughter’s hand and led her towards the house.

John was awakened the next morning feeling surprisingly rested. For a moment he almost forgot about Sidewood and The Few. He heard the twins fighting in the next room, and slowly, but uncharacteristically merrily, he made his way over to calm them down.
It’s a shame, he thought, that nobody has the sense to do the same for this town.
John walked into the twins’ room and stood there for a moment, watching silently, ready to take up sides if he needed to, but willing to just mediate if he didn’t. The two boys were arguing, as he had tried not to expect, about The Few and the town and the runs and everything else that John hated about the town.

John, Wendy, and the other parents walked together back to the group of children where they had left them at the corner of fifth street. As the parents, approached, the crowd of seated children stood up, almost as a unit, and scattered towards their parents. One of the twins ran up to John (He could not tell them apart in the dark), and began rambling, speaking of how he wished to join them, and that he would be thirteen in a few months, and that couldn't they just lie about his age and so on, until John held up his hand and said commandingly, "You will never kill," and began to walk forward to claim his two of the three children that had not gravitated to the group of parents.

The event began, as a plump, middle aged man who was presumably the leader stepped up onto the top step of the Hunting Club entryway and began to address the crowd. He spoke in the manner of a businessman trying unsuccessfully to sound personable during a speech, with the same detached friendliness that made the listener feel his feigned sympathy without wanting to continue with a conversation, and a determination in his voice made it clear that there would be no questions.
"You know the drill," he began. "Those of you that were appointed to lead the lines can start immediately. We'll be going to Fifth Street, then to Walnut Boulevard, and ending up on Woodwork Drive. I want no casualties this time around."

With a creak and a sigh, the sign above the building came an inch closer to crashing down on their heads. Below in the street, the men, women, and children of the society of The Few gathered together in what used to be the thriving downtown of Sidewood. John Echson studied the men around him. He and his family were strangers to these men, the former executives and managers of the recently abandoned refinery, yet he felt more at ease with these men than with the rough-and-tumble former laborers of the plant.

This is the first story in a series called "Forever Ending", in which the world is periodically destroyed.