"Maeve, wake up!"

Her body was shaken by a frantic Ellie, who looked more scared than anything she'd ever seen her be. The first thing to come to mind was Joel, and maybe the possible thought that he...passed during the night. But relief filled her when she looked over at him and saw him still breathing - pale, but breathing.

"They fucking tracked us, Maeve."

Her heart leaped, leaving an awful feeling. "Fuck."

"We gotta lead them away from Joel and TJ before they find us."

The adrenaline rushed through her body almost immediately, scorching her veins. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet, packing her bag, and grabbing TJ's bow. She noticed it was colder than yesterday, but it wasn't snowing anymore.

"C'mon!" Ellie carefully guided Callus and Wren around the guys and Maeve gently raised the garage door, as carefully as she could so it wouldn't make a sound and attract attention to them.

Once outside, Maeve lowered the door. Her muscles burned as she crouched. With the snow falling yesterday, their tracks had been covered up. She hoped their hostile stalkers got lost. She hurried over to Wren and grabbed her saddle to pull herself up. She waited for Ellie to mount Callus before guiding Wren toward the left, opposite of where the men were.

"Are you sure they're even here?" An annoyed voice grunted out.

Far, yet close enough from them, two or three men wandered. They had guns.

"Cal," the other man said. "There's horse tracks down the fucking street. They're here."

The girls continued to attempt sneaking past with the horses, hoping with everything they had not to be spotted. But then, out of nowhere, a man appeared and grabbed Ellie, trying to yank her off Callus.

"Hey! I got them! Get your asses over--" Ellie's knife plunged into his throat.

It was too late to silence the man. His yell alerted the men on the road. They raised their guns and aimed at them.

"What're you waiting for?! Shoot them!"

"But David said--"

"FUCK DAVID! SHOOT THEM NOW!"

"Go, go go!" Maeve yelled, and they kicked the horses into a full gallop, rushing down the snow-covered street, where there were plenty of men searching the houses for them. Immediately, yelling and gunshots pierced the air.

They were everywhere. There wasn't a part of the road where there wasn't someone yelling or shooting at them. She kept her body close to Wren's mane, keeping herself low to avoid being shot. Her mind meshed the voices and bangs of the firearms together. Her heart pounded with increasing fear.

What did these guys want?

Just as they were about to reach a wooden arch leading out of the vacation village, one of the men stood atop a broken-down U-Haul, yelling out to shoot the horses. In a blur, the sisters and the horses were falling down a small cliff, down to the bank, narrowly missing boulders sticking out from the side of the cliff. The horses weren't so lucky.

"Ugh..." Maeve groaned in the snow. Her heart sank seeing Wren's bleeding body. The saddle was broken and hanging off her side. "No!" She shot up, and despite the wave of vertigo that overtook her, she scampered to the silver mare. "Oh my God, Wren! No, no, no! FUCK!"

"Maeve, we gotta go!" Ellie grunted, peeling herself from the snow.

"But--"

"C'mon!" Ellie grabbed her and they ran for the cabin nearby.

"They're running for the cabins!"

Wren... Maeve grimaced. Her anger boiled. They killed Wren. How dare they?! They entered the cabin through the master bedroom; it was dirty with a messy bed. Arrows stuck in the door frame. She hurried to pluck from the frame and grabbed her bow. She had a moral code, that she'd never kill another person, but she could gaslight herself into believing it was self-defense and not murder. Whoever these guys were, they were connected to David and Adam.

"Ready for a fight, Mae?" Ellie sneaked down the hall, also grabbing out her bow.

"Fuck these assholes," Maeve answered with venom. Unsure of their motives, at least David and Adam's motives - she didn't want to know what they wanted - but she'd be damned before she found out.

"Psst! One in the road, two behind the cabin over there!" Ellie whispered after they slipped through the living room and onto the porch.

"I see them." Maeve narrowed her eyes, notching an arrow on the quiver. "The ones behind the cabin first," she said, glancing at Ellie. "We take them both, yeah?"

"Kay."

They drew their arrows back, aiming them at the mindless, unaware men about to come around the cabin. The second they had the angle, the arrows were released and silently zipped through the winter air and the arrows pierced the men's necks. Though the shots were sloppy, they managed to pierce their trachea's, which made it almost impossible for them to yell out and alert the others.

"Nice and quiet," Maeve felt sick to her stomach, but she told herself they didn't have a choice. Because it was either those guys or them. And she didn't choose the men.

They sneaked around the cabin, through neighboring cabins, finding anything they could to help them in combat. It was clear those guys wouldn't stop until they killed the sisters. She didn't want and wouldn't choose death. Those fuckers had another thing coming if they thought they could kill them so easily.

They were arrogant, she glowered as more appeared near the outdoor bathrooms.

Ellie cursed under her breath, eyeing the numbers. "What do we do?"

"We find a way past them...uh..." Maeve peeked around the wall they hid behind. How they managed to stay undetected baffled her, but she wasn't going to complain. "There. The nature trails. See it?"

Ellie peeked, squinting at what she was talking about. "You think it's our way out?"

"More like our way around."

"But it's over water. I can't swim."

"You'll be okay," Maeve assured her, "You have me to catch you if you fall." She gripped her bow again, prepping another arrow. "The guy by that boat over there, and the one up there, pacing by the sign. We take them out, and then we make a break for the trail."

Ellie didn't make objections. Maeve expected her to, but her sister was just as desperate as she was. This was a matter of life and death.

Bows were aimed, and the arrows were loosed, striking their targets down, silently. Time ticked eerily fast as the girl precariously took for the nature trail. It was half-demolished, and if they were careful enough, they could shimmy around the broken boards. It was easily a better route than to sneak around the area and cause more attention to themselves. That would've ensured their graves.

They continued around the cliff-side path, following the path to a grand lodge with a part of the roof collapsed.

"Cover the grounds! Make sure they're not hiding around here!" A deep voice shouted out.

Several men spread out, searching and patrolling, searching for them. And they didn't have enough arrows for them all. How many were there? She counted at least ten. Yep, not enough arrows to take them all out.

"Ellie, how many bullets do you have?" Maeve crouched beside her sister as they hid behind a short concrete wall.

"Not enough."

Maeve's forehead creased. "This is gonna be a lot harder."

"Should we sneak around them?" Ellie suggested.

Maeve peered at her. Ellie was small and agile enough to slip past those guys. She, on the other hand, might not be as lucky. It was better than leaving bodies for them to find and alert more men.

Ellie spoke before she could reject the idea "The both of us can go around and enter the lodge through the hole in the roof."

"Fine," she finally said and Ellie was ready to sneak away, but she caught her by the sleeve. "Please be careful."

"I will. You be careful, too." And her sister disappeared in the dead foliage and snow.

Her heart hammered. It would be different if either TJ or Joel were with her. The men lurking were several times their size and could easily overpower them if caught. She worried for Ellie so much.

With a deep breath, she collected herself and caught sight of her potential route. One man on the docks, another pacing around the front of the grill and bar area. All are armed with either shotguns or pistols. Her mouth dried, how would she get around them? Maybe the docks weren't a good idea. She looked for another potential route. If she could sneak around the building, maybe there'd be a window or something she could crawl through. That option seemed safest, but the guy loitering in the promising path was beefed, and his coat made him look bigger.

Fucking...just go already! She urged herself to creep toward the large man, his eyes watching the path before him. She'd have to improvise a bit. Uh...uh...aha! She snatched a fist-sized rock hiding beneath a lump of snow, her fingers hurt from the increasingly decreasing temperatures. This had better work, she prayed. Biting her lip, she threw the rock opposite where the guy was watching.

"The fuck was that?" To her anticipation, he spun around alerted by the rock. It gave her a window to jump through, metaphorically speaking. She hurried to the side of the lodge, sneaking in a hunched form.

She heard them yell out, to find whatever made the sound. Her eyes frantically zipped about, searching for a window to slip into. She didn't want to die by these assholes. "Fuck yes!" She cheered quietly, finding a window that seemed to be broken...and there was another set of smaller footprints. It had to be Ellie's.

Lowering herself to the snow, she slid feet-first through the window and dropped into a cleaning supply closet. The floor was hard and a rustic red. Her eyes wandered to the footprints leading out of the closet. Surely, it was Ellie.

"Ellie?" She whispered out, looking around the booths and bar. "Ellie?"

It was too silent. Creepy.

"Looking for your sister?"

Her soul left her body and she gave herself whiplash, spinning around with her bow aimed. In front of her, somehow was Adam. He smugly smirked. It was the kind of smirk that made her skin crawl.

"Where is she?" Maeve demanded, pulling the arrow back on the quiver.

"Safe. For now," Adam seemed satisfied by her fear and anger. "But that depends on you and her."

"What the fuck does that mean, you psycho?!"

He made an unamused face. "What are you? Ten? What's with the name-calling?" He feigned his hurt. "That was completely uncalled for."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Where's my sister? What'd you do with her?"

"Kind of ballsy for a girl in a lodge that's surrounded by my guys, who I may add, are quite armed, and pissed - no? Damn, I was right about you. Feisty."

"Get the fuck out of my way. I'll shoot you." She threatened.

"You're not going to shoot me." His smirk broadened, unfazed by her threat.

"Want to fucking try me?!" She pulled the arrow back to indicate she would shoot him.

"Do that, you won't get out of here alive." He tried again, still smirking. "Put that down and you can walk away unharmed."

"Fuck you." She spat and fired the arrow.

He dodged the arrow; it sunk into the wall behind him, and he lunged at her. Her bow was seized, ultimately torn, and tossed from her hold as if she weren't gripping it tightly.

"Should've put the bow down." He got close to her face.

"Fucking let go of me!" She head-butted him, forcing herself to ignore the immediate pain in her face, and as he stumbled back in shock, she ran past him and further into the lodge.

"That's okay!" He called out, his voice echoing throughout the building. It reminded her of the horror movies she used to watch. "I like a girl who can fight! Makes the prize all the more fun to break!"

She grimaced and hurried around rows and rows of tables and booths. She had to find Ellie and get the hell out of there. This guy was too crazy for her to handle by herself. Not watching where she was going, she tripped over a short trash bin, causing her to fall onto the ground. A pained gasp left her as she collided with the hard floor.

"Augh...ow..." she groaned in pain, rolling onto her back sluggishly and glaring at the bin that tripped her. "Stupid fucking thing."

"Found you."

Maeve had no time to react as a body climbed on top of her. Large cold hands snatched her wrists as she struggled. Adam stared down at her.

"GET OFF ME!" She tried kicking him.

"Give in," he urged in a sultry tone, tightening his grip on her arms. "This can all be over if you just give in."

"Go fuck yourself!" She yanked her arms but his iron grip refused her freedom.

His icy eyes glowered at her, displeased by her words. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Her wrists were abandoned and her throat was seized. He was choking her, cutting off her airway. She gasped out, clawing at his arms. The pain began to pressurize through her flesh and trachea. She tried to get free. His strength was beyond hers.

"Shh...shh...everything's alright now," he cooed softly. "Everything is going to be alright."

And slowly, as he choked her into unconsciousness, the darkness closed in on her. The fear flared in her chest.

No, no! Please no!

Everything went black.