The groans of the dead echoed like thunder, reverberating like the tolling of the death bell. Alice had her arms around her nephew, making every attempt to comfort him through their entrapment. The two had come into this barn 3 days ago in order to escape a small herd of biters. They had been living off a severally rationed water supply, and a couple protein bars. The herd had grown since then, and, brainless as they were, the biters were making quick work of the lower support beams of the hay loft the pair had taken refuge in.

This was not usual, in most cases, biters had a short attention span, and after a few hours they would lose interest and lumber off in search of an easier meal. Perhaps their food supply was running low; maybe hunger was driving them to adopt patience into their hunting strategies. Christ, who was she kidding, it was just rotten luck! She had a single bullet left, only having run out a couple weeks ago. Her ill desire to raid the last couple houses had robbed them of the opportunity of escape. Pulling Gabriel all the tighter, Alice sang quietly hoping that something so simple as music would calm the 12 year old. "Yesterday, a child came out to wonder, caught a dragonfly inside a jar…"

Her eyes darted around the barn; they were running out of time. The biters were activated at the slightest bit of sound, and Gabriel's whimpers weren't helping. Normally the kid was silent as a mouse, but the thought of impending death seemed to bring out to the yowling cat. Alice had been hatching a make-shift plan for a few hours now. "Tearful, when the sky is full of thunder…"

To the far right of them was a window. More crappy luck had made it so that the two came into a barn that was probably rotting away years prior to the apocalypse. There was only one small bit of loft left, and that was where Alice and Gabriel were. "And tearful at the falling of a star…."

Alice leaned forward a little, taking in the couple inches of wood that once supported the other portion of the loft. It looked durable, looked like it hadn't submitted to the rot just yet. If it could support several pounds of wood and hay, perhaps, even in this state, it could support a 90-100lb kid. The kid, most definitely, but her, she wasn't entirely sure. At the thought, Alice kissed the boy on the head. "And the seasons, they go round and round, the painted ponies go up and down. We're captured on a carousel of time."

The wood of the loft began to creaked again; the biters had taken out the first pole. Alice coaxed Gabriel up and got him to move away from the weak side. "We can't return, we can only look, behind from where we came, go round and round in the circle game."

Catching site of the look of wide eyed fear on her nephew's face, Alice spoke softly. "Gabe, I have a plan, and I need you to listen."

At her words, the kid looked up, waiting for orders. His gaze filled with every iota of trust and expectation. In the first few weeks, Alice had been staggered by that look. It was absolutely foreign to her, having no kids of her own and barely knowing Gabriel before this, she did not have a clue how to take it. Now, now was different, it had been almost a year, and she had come to expect that sort of reliance, just as Gabriel had expected her to have the answer to every situation.

Taking a deep breath, Alice got up into a crouch, Gabe followed her example. Gesturing towards the window, she launched into her plan. "You understand that we can't touch the ground?"

Gabe nodded. "Good boy, see that couple inches of wood along the wall?"

Again he nodded. "Alright, that's our way across."

The boy eyed the beam, and bit his lip. Despite the several months composed of living in trees, Gabriel had a fear of heights and adding the 'don't touch the ground filled with biters' factor was not helping in the slightest. Glancing at Alice and then at the ground he whispered. "I-I don't think I can…"

Shaking her head, his aunt didn't dare look at him. "Well, I think you can. And you're going to shuffle to that window."

Gabe glared at her; she did this every time she wanted him to do something. Even when he saw her during family reunions, she'd pull stuff like this. "I don't think I fucking can Aunt Alice."

That got her attention. The pair looked to be snarling at each other, identical amber brown eyes boring into each other. "Look kid, I don't care if it's the end of the world, you'll watch your damn mouth, and none of that Aunt Alice crap either."

Though Alice was in no way her sister and cursed like a drunk sailor, she was sure to respect Linda's wishes that Gabe did not taking up cursing. "Now, you have to move quickly, they've taken out a pole, got one left and the support beams, and that won't be much to hold our weight."

Gabe swallowed a great deal of spit and fear, nodding in understanding. "What about you?"

She chuckled, giving him a playful nudge "Concerned 'bout your aunty eh?"

He nephew didn't share the joke. Knowing this, Alice looked straight at him. "I'll be right behind ya, alright…. We'll be ok."