The fresh snow glistened as if it were made of diamonds under the sun's evening light. For the moment, the clouds scattered across the forever cyan sky. The frozen light gleamed down on the wintered land, boasting its pristine magnificence within any clear and shiny surface. A small stream spilled through a frozen creek downhill. The clean scent of pine and frozen linen stained the air. It was as quiet as it was still. No critter dared scamper about the snow; no bird rested in their trees. It was a a silence that could be taken either as a feeling of peace, or a feeling of insanity.

Amidst the glittering pristine white, a hare crawled from its burrow. It sniffed the layers of untouched snow and hopped further away from its den. Unbeknown to the rabbit, its fate had been laid out. An arrow silently swished through the air, lodged into its neck, and pinned it to the snow-covered ground, killing it.

Footsteps crunched toward the rabbit carcass. "This won't last long."

"We'll have to make it last," Maeve said, tying the rabbit she caught to Wren's saddle. She resisted a sigh. Rabbits were all they could find the last several days. They were hungry to the point of near starvation, and they were freezing.

After they rested at the mall and patched up the guys, they traveled a whole day before winding up in the basement of a cabin near a lakeside resort. They didn't dare go there, for one, they didn't want to leave the guys alone, and two, it was too far away from the suburban area.

Callus huffed out as Ellie trudged toward him with the rabbit in hand.

"Crazy idea," Maeve said suddenly, "how about we start a little fire when we get back, 'cuz my ass if more frozen than -" she turned to Ellie to finish her hyperbole, but stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening. "Ellie."

"What?" The younger girl twisted, following Maeve's eyes. Her jaw dropped. "Oh."

Large and inches taller than Maeve, a grand buck strode at least a yard away from them, slipping through the trees and striding toward the half-frozen creek. The animal craned its thick neck to drink from the spring; its abnormal tines glinted like unpolished asymmetric ivory branches stretching away from the buck's head, curving to an uneven but narrow crown. Beautifully lean, yet thick. It could be a hefty dinner and breakfast, for several days and nights.

It'd give the guys enough protein and strength.

Both girls shared a look, nodding at each other. They tied the horses to a skinny birch. Together, with their bows and arrows, they crept around the horses and toward the narrow of the stream. Accidentally, Maeve stepped on a stick hidden under the snow, and it snapped loudly.

The buck perked up, alerted by the noise, and galloped off.

"Fuck!" Maeve cursed in a hushed tone, glaring at the broken stick now poking out of the white.

"C'mon, let's follow it!" Ellie said, silently hurrying to where the buck had been before it ran to search for tracks. "This way."

The woods seemed more like a maze. With small mounds and narrow cliffs, even more narrow trenches, and paths packed with snow. Twigs and large sticks were strewn everywhere, some visible, others hidden beneath the snow.

"There you are," Ellie perched on a mound, spotting the buck from down below, digging into the ground with its hoof. "C'mon, Mae. Together."

Maeve lifted her bow, notching an arrow, ready to release. She made sure to aim a bit high, to give the arrow a good angle to hit the deer. Her and Ellie's arrows shot through the air, whizzing like a quick wind. The arrows seemed to trade spots midair before knocking the great animal off its legs; one arrow sunk into its shoulder the other right in the neck.

The buck screamed, clumsily scrambling back up, bleeding. Its cries echoed off every tree, off every rock and boulder, and every icicle. It hurriedly ran off, up a short hill, leaving nothing but a trail of blood.

"That should have killed it!" Maeve grunted, running forward with Ellie, following after the buck.

"It can't' far with those wounds," Ellie commented.

The hill led them to an abandoned mill. The main building had a broken conveyor belt. It was bigger than the other buildings, seeming bigger as they had to cut through it. As they followed the blood trail and hoof prints, they realized they weren't hearing the buck anymore, which could mean one of two reasons: one, the deer miraculously survived and had a hide of steel, or two, it got away and died someplace else.

"Careful, it's a drop," Maeve told Ellie and hopped down from the steep ledge behind the building.

"What is this place?" Ellie warily studied their surroundings.

"Forget that; let's get our buck." Maeve notched her bow slightly as they passed through the seemingly unsound structure.

The blood trail lightened in thick, leading them to the front of the mill, out in the open. Their catch was dead on the snow-stuck path. However, victory was far from won because the moment they inched closer to the animal, they heard crunchy footsteps. Alerted, both sisters raised their weapons, ready to fire.

"Who's there?! Come out!" Maeve raised her voice, glaring in the direction of the sounds.

Slowly, but surely, three tall figures came out of their hiding place. All men. That didn't ease Maeve much, if anything, it heightened her alertness.

"Hello..." the oldest one, or she assumed he was the oldest, smiled politely; he held his hands before him to show surrender. As if that would ease them. "We just want to talk."

She watched them as they came out fully. The first man was tall, with graying dark hair. His face age lines, laugh lines, whatever-she-could-think-of-lines. Though he had a non-threatening tone and expression, the alarm bells rang out in her body. He seemed to be Joel's age, or around his age. He adorned a green winter jacket, the shoulder sprinkled with snow. The second man was pale with an oval face. He looked meaner, tougher than the first man. He wore a knitted beanie and coat with cargo pants. And the third one, he looked her age. His youthful features seemed to confirm her suspicions. He looked like the older man with his dark hair and olive skin tone. His eyes were abnormally narrow and absurdly blue with a nasty bruise on the left side of his face.

"Any sudden moves and put one right between your eyes," the girls aimed their arrows at the men. "Ditto for your boys over there. What do you want?"

The older man shuffled closer yet stayed far enough away. "Um, the name's David, this is my son Adam, and this here is our friend James. We're from a larger group - women, children. We're all very, very hungry."

Yeah, okay. Pull the women and children card. Maeve frowned, not believing the words that came from the man's mouth.

"So are we," Ellie said. "Women and children - all very hungry too."

David and his son shared a look. It didn't go unnoticed by the sisters.

"Well, maybe we could, uh, trade you for some of that meat there," David was the first to speak. "What do you need? Weapons, ammo, clothes--?"

"Medicine!" Ellie practically burst. "Do you have any antibiotics?"

David nodded. "We do. Back at our camp. You're welcome to follow us-"

"We're not following you anywhere." Maeve cut him off, narrowing her eyes. "One of your buddies can go get it. He comes back with what we need, the deer is all yours. Anyone else show up-"

"You put one right between our eyes." This time, the boy, Adam spoke up. He rubbed his glabella, though she felt like it was to mock her.

She met his eyes and hardened her grip on the bow. "That's right."

"Two bottles of penicillin and a couple of syringes," David spoke to the other man James while continuing to face the sisters. "Make it fast. Go on."

James scampered off, leaving the four in the middle of the eerie abandoned mill.

"We'll take those rifles." Ellie demanded the men.

"Of course." Seemingly wanting to appease their nerves, they laid their rifles onto the snow for the girls to take.

"Back up." Maeve warned, keeping her bow aimed at them while Ellie went forward and snatched the long arms. Once she returned to her side, she was given the rifle Adam had.

It was heavy in her hands. She wasn't sure she liked the weight of it, but if it kept them safe, then fucking screw it. She quickly switched her bow with the gun and checked the chamber for bullets, satisfied to find golden-glinted bullets. Now they were both armed with guns and had the upper hand on the eerie newcomers.

The wind breathed through them, licking around the mill, causing it to creak under slight force. It was silent, beautifully so. It was the only thing to ease the sisters.

David rubbed his palms together, glancing over his shoulder and then back at the sisters. "He's probably gonna be awhile. Do you ladies mind if we take some shelter from the cold?"

The girls shared a glance. Ellie then gestured to the buck with the barrel of her rifle. "Bring him with us."

Maeve continued to watch Adam as David lugged the buck into the mill, making sure he didn't try anything brave, or stupid. Murder was beneath her, but self-defense was not.

Inside, David slid the carcass toward a door that probably led deeper into the compound. After, he rounded from stones and sticks, and then built a fire for warmth. Adam stood a few feet behind his father. Maeve felt every hair on her body stand every couple of minutes when he eyed her.

"There," David crouched by the small fire, hovering his hands above the flickering flames. "You know, you two shouldn't be out here all by yourselves."

"We don't like company."

"I see. What're your names?"

Maeve didn't know why, but more alarms went off in her head. Understanding would be futile, wasn't name-exchanging normal for strangers to do? Maybe it had something to do with how odd they were, despite how relaxed and kind they looked. Well, David was more relaxed than his son.

"Why?"

David sucked in a breath. "Look, I understand it's not easy to trust a couple of strangers. Whoever is hurt, you care about them. I'm sure it's gonna be just fine."

The rifle in her hands seemed heavier now. She shrugged it off, figuring it was the cold or stress. Her body wanted nothing more than to go into autopilot and leave that place. There was something she couldn't put her finger on.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn't able to ponder further. Familiar ominous clicking filled the mill, and before she knew it, a shriveled clicker agilely ran right through the door, sniffing the cold frantically.

Everyone jumped to their feet, silently as neither person wanted to attract the infected to them. Maeve's heart pounded hard as she gripped the rifle, keeping it on the clicker, hoping it'd just go away.

Suddenly, there was a shuffle, alerting the clicker. It shrieked and lunged at Ellie.

Three loud gunshots rang out and the clicker went down, bleeding from its head. The sisters then gawked at David and Adam, who now had their very own pistols.

When did they...? "You have another gun?!"

The two, not sounding apologetic, gave them a half-genuine, "Sorry."

Around the mill, more infected came into view, escaping the tree lines and over the fences. Clickers, runners. Dozens of them. Her eyes spun trying to count them all, there were too many of them around them, surrounding the place they hid inside.

Of fuck me...she gripped the rifle harder.

"Okay, I'd like our rifles back now." David glanced at Ellie and Maeve as the infected grew closer.

"No, you have your pistols!"

The father-son duo looked at each other, expressions unrecognizable. In the last ten minutes of meeting these people, Maeve realized they often shared looks. It bothered her because she felt there was something deeper than the expressions they shared.

Adam's jaw flexed; his blue eyes flickered from Ellie to Maeve. "I hope you know how to use that."

"Oh, please," Maeve scoffed, insulted. "We've had practice."

And then the chaos ensued.