There was a muddy field ahead of her, with dozens of other people digging in it. Mai stood there for a bit before continuing her walk towards the dining hall, carrying the three chickens that she had just beheaded. Irmeli could make her magnificent soup from them.

"Mai!"

She turned around to face the woman shouting her name. Kailyn smiled at her, putting down a big bag of - Mai craned her neck to see inside the sack - potatoes.

Kailyn was from California, with a stereotypical California look. Though her highlights had long since grown out, she still had a very beach-tousled look, and somehow always appeared as though she had come straight from the beach, even in a bulky jacket and two-sizes-too-large trousers. How she managed it with no beauty resources and even less time was a mystery to Mai, even after all this time. Mai herself kept her black hair short nowadays, and even when they wore the same type of clothing she always felt like a bum next to Kailyn. Although the rifles hanging on both of their backs did break the picture.

"How many chickens were left?" Kailyn said, sounding a bit worried. She was always stressing over the food, going as far as counting everything twice a week in the sheds and coops, putting the numbers up in her big notebook. Her diligence had served them all very well, and discounting the disastrous first year, they had always had a bit of surplus after the winter.

Didn't stop the constant enquiries from being tiresome, though.

"About twenty, and these three hadn't laid any eggs for two weeks." Kailyn nodded at this, dug out the notebook and a pen from inside of her shirt and immediately started writing in it. Mai just shook her head and continued onwards. Kailyn would follow her after she was finished.

Mai tripped a bit on a loose cobblestone, but managed to stay upright. Someone, maybe Matt, had volunteered to do some work on the paths, but it was mostly concentrated on the roads they used for pulling carts. This was just an old scenic route, with the scenery being currently mostly young trees meant for future firewood and building. It was pretty, in a way, but before there had been many different flowers, bushes and even a small labyrinth in its place. All of that had had to make way for necessities for the sake of survival. It was all very utilitarian, but no matter how disappointing the change felt, she would still have done the same.

Kailyn finally caught up to her, and they walked to the dining hall in companionable silence. The dining hall was quiet, with only Gunn cleaning up the place, but the kitchens were full of noise and action. Mai tried to get Irmeli's attention, but in the end she had to yell to even be heard over the cacophony. At this Irmeli finally turned, saw them and smiled. She started to walk towards them, ordering few of her workers on the way.

Irmeli was an exchange student from Finland and had taken control over the kitchens almost immediately when the siege had started. She was tall, with wide shoulders she herself called 'corpse-carrier's shoulders', while laughing uproariously. She usually wore a skirt that went just below her knees and was made of whatever fabric she had gotten her hands on.

Irmeli also kept Finnish classes for anyone interested, and even for some non-interested folk. Irmeli had always been proud of her heritage, but after the news told of the whole of Scandinavia being overrun by zacks, she had started to become more and more obvious about it. She had even gotten people to build a small sauna at the yard and had forced everyone in the compound to use it at least once. Mai had herself been surprised by the differences between Finnish saunas and Navajo sweat lodges, but it had been a pleasant experience and she did use it rather regularly. Mai wasn't unfamiliar to the feeling of being the last of her people; she too had been telling people Navajo stories, and writing them, and all the things her family had shared, on paper whenever she had time.

Irmeli crooned at the chickens and tossed them at the table, where Tim started to pluck them bare. Then she grabbed the sack Kailyn was carrying and poured the potatoes into a bucket.

"Have you met the film guy yet?" Mai asked curiously.

"Nah, haven't had time. Kitchen has been busy as usual and we aren't interesting enough to be filmed. Has he been getting in the way?"

"No, luckily for us. I don't know why he keeps wanting to film us..." Mai trailed off.

Kailyn piped up: "I think he's doing some sort of government propaganda thing."

Irmeli looked pensive and said: "Maybe, but I doubt it. I heard that he doesn't really have any helpers, or even equipment. I mean, if the government had told him to film something I guess they would have given him, well, more things? Or even a protective escort?"

"So you're thinking he's doing some private thing?" Mai asked, contemplatively.

Irmeli shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not a mind-reader."

Mai snorted at this and was about to continue when the alarm bell started to ring. All of them quieted down, listening intently. Clang... Clang... Clang... Clang... Four times. Irmeli gasped: "Oh, no... a horde!"

Mai and Kailyn both ran towards the door, pulling their guns free. Kitchen staff were following them, too, Irmeli staying behind to douse the stoves. She was one of the very few non-combatants in the place, so she would be doing necessary safety checks when almost everyone else was defending the walls.

They arrived at the closest wall and climbed on top of it to see what they were facing. There were at least three hundred zacks, with more coming. The horde had crossed the first wall, but was having trouble with the second. The whole compound was surrounded by four walls, the outermost being only nine feet tall and rather flimsy. It was also designed to be extremely loud if torn down, working as a warning system to the guards. The second wall was a lot sturdier and taller, the trend continuing like that until the final, fourth wall, which was twice as thick and tall as the third one. It was also great for shooting zacks, with a few even taller towers to catch the stragglers.

"Will you sing for us now, Sergeant Avalon?" Kailyn said with a rictus of a smile. Their fighting force was starting to spread out with the support force preparing the ammunition, but everyone paused for a bit at this and started to holler their encouragement.

Mai made a face. "Okay, that name needs to go and die a fiery death already." But she still took a deep breath and rummaged through her head for something to sing about. Mai was still surprised at how her singing affected others, brought out the will to fight before the battle or calmed people down around the fire at night. Her voice was decent, nothing to complaint about, but it wasn't as great as even some other people's in the compound.

It did really bring out the difference, and everyone knew it.

She never really sang any songs, but took a melody and put some lyrics she remembered from the correct or a completely different song to it. Or just made the whole thing up. That tended to be distressingly more typical nowadays.

She let out the breath she was holding, breathed in and started to sing.