She enclosed her pray. She hated hunting in the night. The lack of light was a weakness she could not afford. But it had showed impossible to hunt at day. Because of a massive herd they had been forced to hide high up in a tree, trying hard neither to move nor to speak. Not that the last had been a problem…

She fixated her eyes on the bird before her. Bird. Wings. She had to be quick. No distractions. Quit. Stilness. She sharpened her hearing and prayed to whatever idiot who controlled her faith, that she would be allowed to have a meal tonight. A decent meal. It had been too long. They had to eat soon. He had to eat soon.

Everything around her was quiet. With only the company of an owl she slowly neared the bird before her. She wanted to get as near to it as possible. A wooden stick cracked beneath her feet. The bird´s head popped op. She could see how scared it was. Its small chest quickly filled and loosened air, as it decided whether to flight or stay. It was probably a mother out looking for food to its kid. Just like her.

The bird lost focus and started scavenging the ground again. Her inside said a quit prayer for the bird´s soul, as she lifted the arm. She took aim. She only had one try. She was getting better, but the bird was still at least 12 feet away. She had no choice. She had to try hitting it from this distance. If the bird heard another unnatural sound, it would fly away. And so would their meal.

She took a quit deep breath, focused, aimed, and threw the knife through the air. Less than a second later the bird was humping around bleeding. The knife had hit its side. She hurried over to it before both her meal and her weapon disappeared. Her ears focused. She could not have one of them sneaking up on her from behind with only one knife in possession. She could not take that risk. She grabbed the bird, pulled her bloody knife out if its body and snapped its neck, always fixating both her eyes and her ears on the looming dark all around her. She tight the birds body to the strings hanging from the side of her belt and headed back to the tree. She tried not to enjoy just yet. Things could easily turn upside down on less than a minute. She held her knives in both her hands and walked quietly through the night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She smelled it, before she heard it, and she heard it, before she saw it. Stupid walker. Making all that noise. And she had been so careful not to draw any attention to her on the walk back to the kid. Total waste of time.

The walker was too occupied on the little human in the trees above it to notice her. Good, she though. This would be easy. She quietly neared the walker back, lifted her arm and hit it in the neck right before its cheekbone, the blade up towards the brain. The walker stopped moaning and fell to the ground. It had never laid an eye on her. Killed from behind. A traitor and a cowards way of killing. But if a cowardly way of killing could help keep her and the kid alive yet a day, she would gladly continue being a coward. And a traitor… well, at least she was not going to eat him. It. It is an it. Not a him. Once a him. Now and it. You okay? She asked the kid. Okay.

She thought about eating the bird she had captured raw. She was so hungry, that it would not mind her at all, but it would mite mind the kid. So she started on building a small fire, using the sticks around her. Rain was both good and bad these days. Bad because it would get anything wet and make it impossible to make a fire. Good because then they would have something to drink. Luckily it had rained a bit yesterday. They had managed to fill 1 ½ bottle.

Finally she got the still halv-wet wood to light up in a small fire. She cleaned a stick with water from a lake ,they had passed by a couple of days ago, and sharpened it. Then she held it into the fire. After a while she was satisfied in it cleanness and stuck the dump side in the ground. She took the bloody bird and removed as much of the feathers as she could. She skewered the bird and watched the meat going from being bloody red to golden brown. The smell was all around her, and she knew nearby walkers would smell it too. She quickly kicked grass and earth on the fire and hurried over to the tree, where the kid had patiently waited. Without a word being exchanged between them, the kid hurried down to the lower branches, grabbed the now staked bird from her and hurried up into the tree yet again. The girl was right behind the kid. They did not stop before they were several meters above ground. They found the two strong branches; they had been using while the herd had passed by them that day, and sat down. The boy still holding the bird on the stick in his hands tried giving the meal to the girl. With eyes nearly closed from exhaustion she said; no. You first. The boy hesitated, but it was obvious to both of them exactly how hungry he was, and few minutes later half the bird was gone. Then he stopped and gave it back to the girl. She tried making him take some more, but he refused. Full? She asked him. He nodded, but they both knew, that he could easily eat the whole bird himself and probably a lot more than she could offer him right know. She thought about making the kid eat the rest, but she really needed the food. She just hated making the kid starve. When she had finished, she threw the stick away, and found the two ropes from her backpack. After a few minutes both the kid and her where fastened to the tree. She secured his ropes to be sure. She could not sleep otherwise. After checking the ropes she padded him lightly on the cheek. His lips formed a small smile. Then his eyelids fell down, and he fell asleep. Despite her exhaustion she could not sleep at first. Her branch had a perfect view to the sky and the stars. They were so much brighter out here on the country, than they had ever been in the cities. She had always loved the stars. She had often dreamed about being together with them several million kilometers away. And now more than ever. She looked over at the kid´s face. He always looked so peaceful, when he slept. He looked like a child. She sighed. This was not a world for children.