"Was it really all gone?" Kathy asked.

It shouldn't have mattered. Even if it wasn't, the alternative was 'filled with the dead.' Still, something in her heart twisted knowing that the places she'd played and grown up in were gone for good.

Her elementary and middle schools. The Y she'd taken gymnastics in. The bakery just down the street from her house that she'd stop and get pastries at. The jjimjilbong that around the corner.