"You're okay!" Maeve almost cried relief tears seeing Ellie after David killed another clicker. She seemed okay but a bit shaken, other than that, she looked unscathed. She brandished the rifle she took from David, hurrying toward them.

"Barely," Ellie responded breathlessly and checked the rifle's chamber. "There's a lot of them."

"No shit, kid," Adam chimed. "Infected like to travel."

"I fucking know that!"

"ENOUGH!" David boomed, silencing Ellie and Adam from arguing further. "We don't have time to be against each other."

Maeve agreed. There was no telling how many more of the infected there were. Time was against them, and this mill was like a maze of mazes. Every which way, there were only corridors but no exit. They entered a hall that was raised over the ground; it led into a larger room. There was a mechanism in the center of the room, it looked like an old elevator of sorts. It was broken, the platform stuck on this floor, seemingly stable for anyone to just walk on it and then give away.

"It's a dead end," the sisters deflated. "How on earth did they use this building?"

"What do we do?"

David reloaded his gun. "We hold our ground."

"Is there any other choice?" Maeve wanted a second option. She had no arrows and her knife could only do so much damage against an army of infected.

"We die," Adam spoke. His eyes sharply scanned the surrounding area.

"Looks like these guys fought those things and lost." Ellie made a sudden comment, which caused Maeve to turn and see a couple of bloodied bodies on the floor.

"Dear Lord," David said. Did he know them? "We've been looking for these boys." Guess he did. "Doesn't matter now. Grab their gear."

"Hey, you can make a Molotov or two with this," Ellie climbed up the steps onto a slightly higher stage, grabbing an empty bottle and alcohol. "Looks like there's some nails and stuff here too - you can make a bomb."

"Bombs and molotovs?" Adam eyed her, reloading his gun as the screams of the infected grew closer. "Just who are you?"

Maeve ignored him, hurrying around the railings and toward Ellie. She made quick work of the materials, beginning to make a Molotov when runners burst through the way they came, with friends behind them. Urgency filled her.

"Get ready!" David yelled, already shooting at the infected.

Before they all knew it, there were nearly a dozen of infected. Too many to keep up with. Gunshots and wrangled screams echoed through the winter atmosphere. Empty bullet casings littered the floor as did blood.

"Get off me!" Ellie was suddenly overwhelmed by infected while trying to reload the rifle in her hands.

Maeve quickly aided her, hurrying to stab one of the runners from behind. She ignored how the blood made her hands feel colder.

"Die, you gross fucker!" Killing them seemed to get easier, she realized. She automatically knew the right places to jab at to put them down fast. She felt lucky enough the cold numbed her nose, and the smells weren't as pungent.

"Clicker!"

She wondered when she'd stopped seeing those. It came into the open without warning, screaming out, attacking the first person near it.

"Adam, watch out!" David shouted to his son, busy fighting two infected.

"The fuck--!" The dark-haired boy wasn't quick enough to shoot the clicker and was grappled by it. He struggled against its strength. Had he been well-rested, perhaps he'd easily fought it off. He was losing dominance.

She didn't know what she was thinking, but her body moved, jumping onto the clicker's back as if she had no self-regard. Her knife sunk into its chest. Its hands tried smacking at her as she yanked her blade out and stabbed it in the throat. And then again. And once more to be sure it was dead. She hopped onto her feet as the clicker's strength left, drooping the cold metal floor.

"A bit overkill, don't you think?" Adam grunted, eyes flying between her and the dead clicker.

"You're alive, aren't you?" She returned to the battlefield.

"Tough cookie," he clicked his tongue, sounding impressed. "And feisty. I like that."

She chose to ignore that. She needed to focus on what was important and that was--

Something odd groaned through the air as the clickers and runners began to thin. It was heavy...and terrifying. More terrifying than the clickers and runners they've killed so far. It came from above them - on the roof of the mill. A loud, gurgled growl emitted through the air, and this time, Maeve recognized the sound. She paled. Many unpleasant memories resurfaced, causing her to dryly gulp.

"What the fuck is that?!" Adam warily clutched his pistol as the roof loudly creaked under the heavy body stumbling across it.

"Don't tell me..." Maeve and Ellie shared a concerned glance, looking above the elevator shaft, there was a crooked opening. A very grotesque body dropped through the metal sheets. Its bulging cysts and fungal plate-covered body was frosted white, nearly whole with ice. Some blood dripped from its puffed torso, either it was old or new blood, Maeve didn't want to find out.

The bloater roared.

"What the fuck is that thing?!" Adam yelled out; both he and his father stared at the fungal monster in fear.

"It's a bloater!" The sisters were quick to run for cover when the bloater met the same level as them. "Get behind cover!"

The bloater roared again, its powerful yell vibrated the frozen windows and the floors, rattling the noninfected's bones.

"Fuck, I'm low!" Adam called out. "Do something!"

Maeve grunted, irritated. "Don't you think we're trying?!"

"Well try harder!"

"These stupid..." she and Ellie shared a look. "Give me that."

Ellie handed over the freshly made Molotov and it was lit. Maeve peeked over their metal cover, tossing the flaming bottle over the railing at the boil-covered infected. The bottle shattered against its body and flames were quick to engulf it. Orange fire licked every crease and crevice it had. Immediately, the bloater roared out in pain, lunging at the cover the sisters hid behind.

"RUN!" The girls bolted from their cover.

She prayed with every molecule her body had that she wouldn't be grabbed and squeezed to death. Her teeth pinched her cheek. No. She wouldn't let that happen. Her hands were quick to grab the bomb from her bag. She'd made it during their stop at the mall, having found powder and some chemicals to experiment with. The bloater would be the perfect test subject to test it on.

"Get behind something!" She yelled out over the gunshots.

"What?!"

"Just fucking do it!"

With the lighter she snagged from Ellie, she lit the fuse and aimed at the bloater. Her arm screamed as she threw the dangerous mix at the equally dangerous foe. The canister whacked the infected in the face, pissing it off. The mixture had completely different ingredients, most of which were a big no-no mix and would cause an unforeseen amount of damage. It seemed like minutes ticked by, but it was mere seconds. A few measly seconds. She dove for cover behind the wall of the elevator just a robust blast shook the mill. Bits of razor and nail ricocheted off the walls and floors. The bloater screamed out, having its body shredded. For a moment, it stood, and then a loud thud sounded out, finishing the loudness.

And then it was silent. No screaming or gunshots.

"Holy shit!" Ellie gasped as she saw the damage dealt to the bloater.

Its face was ripped apart. The legs were nearly torn off, the thighs were sliced so deeply the muscle inside practically came out. Its belly was cut wide open and its organs poured out. Bits of fungal plate and blood stuck to the floors and parts of the walls. It wasn't for the weak of stomachs, that's for sure.

"Ugh..." Maeve covered her mouth and got to her feet. "Everyone okay?"

"Yup!" Ellie replied shakily. "You?"

"Fantastic." She grimaced seeing the dead bloater. The sight churned her stomach. She was someone with a weak stomach. "I didn't expect it to be so strong."

Adam and his father precariously approached the torn body. "You sure know your bombs."

"Uh-huh." She turned away. The sight was too much for her. She knew mixing those chemicals would be disastrous...but she had to toot her own horn. It was a good thing she saved it. It certainly put down the big guy.

"Are you okay?" Ellie carefully walked around the bloater and inched closer to her.

"Just a little woozy." Maeve held her stomach, her mouth uncomfortably rubbery and metallic. She needed to get away from all the blood, so she began toward the bridge. Cold, but fresh air seeped through the broken glass. With that, she felt tons better.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," she was careful to not Ellie's name, as the males were still in earshot. "I'm fine. Just the smell."

"It's quiet." Adam looked around. "Think we got them all?"

David seemed confident and eager to believe the infected were finished off. "I don't hear any more of them."

"I hope so." It was clear, the land below and the air around them. Empty. Void of infected, for now. It was peacefully silent. Only crisp, clean, and soft wind remained. The snow-covered trees swayed with the wind, creaking softly.

"No infected," David proudly observed the empty mill site below. "What'd I y'all? Let's head back and check up on that buck of ours."

After some time, the four returned to the main area of the mill. Being longer in danger, Adam and David rekindle the small fire they created. It wasn't much heat, but she appreciated it even if it were a little warmth.

Like a moth, she crouched close to the small flames. The warmth comforted her, slowly returning to her fingers and palms.

"You handled yourselves pretty well back there," David said as he poked the fire a stick. He grinned between the girls and his son. "Hell, I'd say we made a pretty good team."

Ellie snorted, crouching down next to Maeve. "We got lucky."

"Lucky?" The older man chuckled to himself. "No, no such thing as luck. No, you see, I believe everything happens for a reason."

Maeve gave him a weird look. Something's off. In her stomach, there was this twist of oddity and dread. It almost was like an acid reflux feeling, but wasn't. She didn't like the feeling and all the warning bells went off in her mind like church bells.

Ellie, on the other hand, merely scoffed. "Sure."

"I do," he said in a reassuring tone. The air suddenly became colder, if not heavier. "And I can prove it to you," he poked the fire again and pulled the stick away to gesture with it. "A few weeks back, I sent a group of men out -- to a nearby town to look for food. Only a few came back. They said the others had been, uh, slaughtered by a crazy man," a smile stretched across his face. "And get this, he's a crazy man traveling with three kids. You see? Everything happens for a reason."

The dread in her stomach intensified. The sisters stood immediately, aiming their weapons at the males. Adam looked cold, this eerie flicker in his eyes, unlike his father who kept up his kind persona and became hawk-like. David didn't look upset, he continued looking at the small fire.

"Now don't get upset. It's not your fault. You're just kids," David poked the small fire and glanced up. "James, lower the gun."

The girls whipped around; their bows now pointed at the returning man. His pistol bounced between Maeve and Ellie, his face reddening in anger. "No way, David! I'm not letting them go."

"Lower the gun," David commanded calmly, and much to Maeve's surprise, the man reluctantly listened. "Now give them the medicine."

Stone-faced, James tossed the pouch on the ground before Ellie. "The others won't be happy about this."

"Yeah, well, that's not your concern."

"Move the fuck out of the way," Maeve demanded, ready to fire her last salvaged arrow at the man blocking the exit as Ellie snatched the pouch from the ground.

"You won't survive out there," David's voice halted them briefly. "We can protect you."

Although he said it as if he had good intentions, Maeve couldn't shake the feeling of him having other ideas in mind. His words meant nothing to her. Her gut screamed at her to turn and run, to get away from that place as far as she could.

"No thanks." With the medicine in hand, the girls rushed from the mill, hurrying to find their way back to the horses.

When they found Callus and Wren, it'd begun to snow. Light, but still enough to possibly get lost if they waited too long.

"C'mon, girl." Maeve mounted the silver mare, and Ellie mounted Callus. "Let's get out of here."

And they rode off to return to their wounded escorts.