I was warned, long before the disease hit Paris. My sister and I were given the option of moving uptown. She was engaged and had no desire to leave until her fiance returned home. I hadn't wanted to leave. They left while I continued my schooling. I was in my last year at a private school and I was determined to finish. I never did finish, as the disease had reached Paris months before they expected it too.

I was forced to flee as my beautiful Paris burned, and le maladie sauvage broke free, It burned through France, leaving the survivors alone and defenceless. I had tried to make it uptown to my sister, but there was no 'uptown' anymore. It had been torn apart, both by le sauvages and the people who were desperate for food and shelter. Even then, I could see the now homeless people hiding in the shadows of the ruins.

I was one of them now, but I refused to cower. I had route somewhere else and with nothing more than the clothes on my back. I started by foot across Europe passing through the countries that at one point I would have seen as respectable or proud. Many times I passed through cities that were completely abandoned.

It was difficult to determine where exactly I was a lot of the time, only relying on the signs that were creaking eerily in the wind, and figuring out what language it was written in.

There were an unfathomable amount of ghost towns that I passed through. Unforgiving sights of people who had either starved to death or had contracted the disease. I felt pangs of horror and would find myself feeling ill and would have to leave. Other times I opted for the more dangerous route through woods, as the smell of the bodies was strong enough to be smelt even from kilometers away from the towns.

I stopped in Poland.

I wasn’t sure what city, but I had no faith that I could pass through Russia as easily as I had the rest of L’Europe. Poland was cold, oui, but because I wasn’t travelling, finding places to take shelter was much easier.
I occasionally noticed people living in the rundown houses. They looked like animals, dirty, unkept and like they would tear me to pieces and eat me as their last meal. I avoided those places, and I never really had any problems with them. Clearly none of them were infected with the disease and were simply hungry.
Hunger pains became my only constant. After the three months that I had travelled, I exhausted my only food supply, now having to try and learn to hunt or scavenge in the depths of ghost towns. During the time I spent in Poland, I had to move towns every couple of days, just to stay ahead of the food shortage. It was the middle of January, or at least what I had thought was January when things stopped working out for me.
It started small, almost unnoticeable, as more and more times I went out there wasn’t any food. I continued to travel, but I realised there wasn’t any food anywhere. It had already begun to run out. For weeks, I slowly starved, unable to find food and eventually becoming so weak that I couldn’t even hunt. I accepted that I was probably going to die. That was when the winter really hit.
It happened overnight, while I was sleeping. I had forced myself to my feet only to find that the ground was covered in snow. Animals would have gone into hibernation now and there was almost no chance to find anything in the snow. I dragged myself into the darkness of my shelter and cried in my sheer desperation. I was angry with myself, angry at the powers above me for abandoning the people who weren’t as powerful, I was angry that it had snowed and that I was hungry. But really I cried because I was scared. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I was so turned around that I didn’t think I could even find my way at this point. I remember falling asleep, and then waking up to warmth.
========================
I didn’t know where exactly I was at first. It was wam, but dark. There weren’t any voices, yet I knew that I wasn’t alone. I moved my arms, then wiggled my toes.
    “You aren’t injured.” A voice sounded out of the dark. I jumped into the air looking wildly around the dark space.
    “Who’s there?” I responded. Waiting again for the voice, but nothing came. I leaned back, was I insane? I knew what I heard, but I had been alone for so long, maybe I was just hearing things. If anything the voice did sound a little like my own internal voice. A soft, yet deep baritone voice. I heard something crack in the darkness, this time I forced myself to stay still. It was too dark to see anyway. My stomach didn’t get the cue though.
    A soft chuckle rose again out of the darkness and I shivered.
    “Do you think starvation is a funny thing mon ami?” I asked, my voice soaking in fear and tainted with sarcasm.
    “Not at all, but you seem to be afraid of me. Why?” The voice asked. I refused to respond. I laid in the darkness, trying to grasp my surroundings. All I could see was darkness. Under me was wet and mossy, the cold of winter was seeping into my bones like an illness. Something moved beside me and then something was set next to my arm.
    “Eat.” The voice commanded.
    “Why? So you can build up my trust?” I scowled into the dark.
    “Because I don’t want to see you die.” Was the response. I gently searched for the food, I ate with my hands, starting with hesitant bites, before gulping it down as quick as I could. I was undignified, I know, but I was so hungry. I waited a few minutes for something to happen. A sudden pain, unreasonable rage, anything. But nothing came. Nothing but darkness and silence.
    “Merci, Mon ami.” I told the stranger in the darkness.
    “Proszę bardzo.” I didn’t recognize the language. I sat in silence even longer. The dragged out pause became awkward. “So your from France?” The voice asked. I nodded before realising that he probably couldn’t see me. “Oui. And you are from here in Poland?” I had to guess, it certainly sounded like it. The voice hummed a confirmation to me and I relaxed.
    “My name is Avril, what is yours?”
    “So trusting now Avril.” The voice sounded cold. I immediately shut up. I had assumed that if he hadn’t killed me yet then I was probably safe. I didn’t know what else to do in the dark space, so I once again closed my eyes. I didn’t expect a response, but the stranger began to move around, after letting out a heavy sigh. I heard the sounds of a match being struck, and the light filled the room.
    It also illuminated my apparent rescuer.
    As awkward as it was, he was actually incredibly handsome, which may have been my lack of human interaction in the last couple of months. He had coal coloured hair and deep, almost black eyes. I wanted to say the darkness was his kin. He was pale and thin, not surprising given the circumstances.
    “Will you introduce yourself?” I asked quietly. He moved closer and studied me, his almost black eyes picking me apart. He probably wasn’t any older than me, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. He reached over me and plucked a candle from beside where I laid. The candle didn’t help light the room any more than the match had, but it would last longer.
    “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.” He finally told me.
    “I do apologize for my brash behavior.” I told him, trying to ease some of the tension. “It has been a long time since I have seen anyone, much less had such a conversation.”
    “This has been exciting hasn’t it?” He responded. There was a pause before he continued. “I haven't seen anyone myself.”
I wanted to move closer, my rescuer seemed to have an aura that pulled me in. I wanted to actually talk to him, and see what he truly looked like.
    “Is it snowing out?” I asked. He chuckled, “Tak, it is.”
    “Tell me about your country. I haven’t ever been to Poland before.” The other smiled.
    “It was lovely here before the plague. It did get cold before, but it didn’t feel like the cold would touch me before. I always felt warm, safe probably. Now I’m cold.” The tone of his voice began to waver.
    “I’m sorry. It must be hard.” I tried to be compassionate, I knew what he was feeling. Before the plague it was like all of France was untouchable, and then it was burning.
    There was a long silence between us. It felt like both of us had questions that we wanted to ask, but couldn’t form the words. I didn’t want to say something that would upset him.
    “You’re probably still hungry, I’ll find you some food.” Then he stood up and began walking away. I turned back to the candle that gave off little light or heat. I realised that the door hadn’t opened, and the expected cold hadn’t swarmed in. Looking back up, I realised that my saviour was still there. He just watched me, before gesturing to a blanket that I hadn’t seen before. “Oh! Thank you.” I heard a small chuckle from him.
    “Stay right there, I’ll be back soon.”