A/N: Hi! Just like it says in the summary, this is a re-upload from a different account I used to use. I just thought it'd be better to have everything in one place instead of two separate accounts. If you've read this story already, I'm sorry it's not anything new. I haven't changed anything plot-wise, I've only made minor tweaks to improve word flow and such. Feedback is always wanted and much much appreciated!
"Crap!"
The girl's voice was hushed, yet beyond pissed. She had taken a cautious step forward, her army boot landing on something hard and apparently easily breakable. She inhaled sharply, and stayed completely still for a few moments, making sure no one had heard her. 'Stupid mistakes like this will get you killed, Anna,' she sighed, allowing herself to relax a little, her shoulders losing some of the tension they had been carrying. Tightening her grip around her gun, she removed her foot from the broken bottle and continued to walk slowly and quietly towards the next room.
Five years. It had been five years since the outbreak, and things didn't seem like they would be getting better anytime soon. At first, everyone had tried to remain calm. The scientists, the doctors, and even the government had withheld large portions of the truth, attempting to put everyone's minds at ease about the situation. They assured people that everything was under control and that nothing would happen as long as the contamination remained that way; controlled. Things weren't meant to be serene for long, though.
It hit fast, and it hit hard; soon, people everywhere knew fully well what had been going on. A virus, they said. Well isn't it always a virus? All those zombie movies Anna had grown up watching in secret from her parents always started off with some kind of virus; one that was "highly contagious, and could spread through blood and bodily fluids". The words still rang through the girl's ears, sounding like they were coming from one of those movies; only they weren't.
The memory of the day it all finally begun was still fresh in Anna's mind. How they had packed only what they could carry; one backpack each, filled with only the essentials and nothing more. How her father had practically carried everyone to the car so they could leave on time. To where? No one knew. They just knew that they needed to get out of there as soon as they possibly could.
Her mother was the first to go. Anna, though she would never admit it, had seen it coming from the start. Her mother had always been a rather weak and sickly lady, so when they were forced to abandon their car and continue on foot, Anna knew the poor woman wouldn't last long. She wasn't bitten. The infected never got to her, and Anna was quite proud of herself for that. She was on lookout duty whenever her father had to go out in search of supplies, and she always prided herself on her remarkable (and often infallible, according to her own self) marksmanship. So when she was left alone in a house, in charge of taking care of her mother, she was more than certain that she could, and would hold her own. And that's exactly what she did. For an amount of time that, even though it couldn't have been more than a couple of months, was indeterminable to the young girl, all she did was peek out of windows and shoot people.
No, not people. Her father had made that very clear with her the moment they hit the road. Those- things were not human. They used to be, yes, but not since they had been infected. They were empty shells, incapable of feelings, incapable of determining right from wrong, or restraint from killing whoever got in their way. Despite all her protests, the man's words had reasoned with her, and killing them had become significantly easier as time went by. She still remembered the day she first pulled the trigger and watched the bullet travel through the air and embed itself in an infected's head.
Everything had happened so fast, and yet time seemed to be moving in slow motion.
They had been on the road for only a month or so when they came across a what looked like an abandoned house. Granted, they had seen several empty houses on the way, but something always seemed off about them. That specific house, however, seemed surprisingly and, as they found out eventually, alarmingly quiet. Anna had been instructed to stay in the car, like she always did when her parents went outside to survey the area and look for supplies or a place to spend the night. No matter how reluctant she always was to stay behind by herself while her parents were out there, the girl would do as she was told, never causing any trouble. That day, however, things were meant to change. She was the first to see it, walking inside the house in a slow pace, dragging its feet. 'Not a runner,' was the first thing she thought as she grabbed the spare gun her father kept under his seat, bolted out of the car, and entered the house at full speed. She had seen the infected from the window and had been surprised that neither her mother nor her father had noticed it until it was too late.
Her mother was lying on the floor, seemingly unharmed, but that didn't calm Anna in the slightest. Her father, on the other hand, was at a dangerously close distance to the creature and didn't seem to be doing very well. His gun was on the floor, a few feet away from him, and he was struggling with all his strength to get free from the infected's potentially deadly hold. Anna didn't think; she didn't have the luxury to do so. She raised the gun in her hands and aimed. She had practiced before; she had to be ready for any and everything. But, as she realized now, tin cans were extremely different from an actual moving target. A target that not only did it look human, but it was also holding her father captive and was ready to bite him.
Her hands were shaking violently, and her breath was coming in short gasps. She couldn't do it. She couldn't kill. All that time, she thought she was ready, but when it came down to it, it was painfully obvious that that was not the case. Anna shook her head, trying to get rid of the sudden blurriness, her grip on the gun loosening a little. It wasn't until she heard her father's voice that she was snapped back into reality, the gun almost slipping from her hands. He had urged her to shoot. Of course he had; he would die if she didn't do something. She aimed again, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, despite her brain telling her to do the exact opposite. 'Keep your eyes open, you idiot! Your father is right there!' Taking one last breath, she opened her eyes, and pulled the trigger, hoping with all her might that the bullet that came out of the gun would hit its target. It did. It grazed her father's cheek in the process, but it did. Anna let out the breath she had been holding, her eyes wide in a mixture of surprise, horror, and relief, and let the gun drop, her hands flying to her mouth.
It wasn't until she felt a pair of strong hands wrapping around her shaking shoulders that she was finally able to come out of her trance, blinking repeatedly, when she found it hard to focus on the person in front of her. It was her father, her name coming out of his mouth again and again until she turned her eyes towards him. She was vaguely aware of the man telling her that it was going to be okay, and hugging her close to him, saying how proud he was. 'Proud? I just killed someone!' Her mind was screaming, but the only sound that came out of her mouth was a broken sob, and she felt her father's hug tightening. The girl numbly raised her arms, and wrapped them around the large man's waist, hanging on for dear life, desperate to have something to ground her. After that, and much to Anna's resentment, killing the infected had been as easy as a walk to the park.
~Present~
Anna continued walking around the dark office building, making sure to check all the cubicles for both potential threats, and supplies. She knew what she was doing; she had been doing it for three years, and she had managed to stand her ground quite well if she did say so herself.
"Just how big is this building?" she muttered under her breath as she finished checking the last cubicle of the third floor. She had found the building early that day, and it seemed like a good place to find some food. And yet there she was, almost three hours later, her backpack not in the least bit fuller than when she had first walked inside.
"This is ridiculous," she mumbled irritably as she made her way to the staircase that led to the fourth, and apparently not the final floor. She counted the steps as she ascended, a habit she had only recently acquired for reasons unknown even to her. '...twenty-three, twenty-four, twent- What?' Anna resisted the urge to facepalm when she saw that the path in front of her was blocked.
"You have got to be kidding me," she hissed, maybe a little louder than she intended to as she tried to climb over the chairs that were piled up on the stairs.
It took Anna a while to find her pace and climb over the chairs with relative ease, and she couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face when she finally managed to move her leg without knocking something over.
"Whoever did this has a sick sense of humor," she muttered, grabbing the leg of a chair in an attempt to pull herself up. 'Either that, or they really didn't want whatever was down there following them up,' she gulped nervously at the thought. 'What was down there?' she glanced behind her momentarily, and shook her head, refusing to believe that someone had barricaded themselves on the fourth floor. "Okay, Anna. Almost there," she murmured and tried to place her foot on what seemed to be a relatively stable office chair. It wasn't. Next thing the girl knew, she was losing her footing and falling backwards, arms flying frantically around for anything to hold on to. The jolt of pain she felt up her spine moments later meant she had failed miserably.
"Oow... God dammit," she got up and limped slightly. Apparently, falling down a flight of stairs could throw you off your game. "That's gonna bruise so bad," she groaned, rubbing her back as she picked up her gun which had fallen a couple of feet away from her, and made her way back up the stairs. At least the path was clear now.
The fourth floor was just as quiet as the previous three had been. 'This is a waste of time,' Anna thought, checking in yet another cubicle which was, not much to her surprise, empty. She let out a disappointed sigh, and her shoulders slumped as she rubbed the frustration from her eyes. Just as she was about to give up, turn around and leave, a slight movement from across the room made her stop dead on her tracks. The girl's eyes widened, and she turned around as quietly as she could, hoping against all odds that what she had just seen was not a threat. She tightened her grip on the gun and sighed in relief when she didn't see anything coming towards her. She only had time to take a single step when she heard it.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit. This is not good." The sound had come from behind her, and it was hauntingly familiar. A clicker. Anna moved as quickly and as silently as she could, ducking underneath a desk, in hopes that it wasn't too late, and that the clicker hadn't heard her fall flat on her butt about as gracefully as a hippopotamus doing ballet. With her breath heaving and her hands trembling slightly, the young redhead stayed there for what felt like an eternity. And all that time, the sound wouldn't go away. Gritting her teeth, Anna took a deep breath and rushed out of her hiding place. There was no use staying there if the clicker was simply going to roam around.
She crouched behind a corner, just like she had done so many times in the past, and poked her head out just enough for her to see if the coast was clear. She sighed in relief when she realized that the clicker wasn't waiting to attack just around the corner, and she slowly moved further away from the sound. 'Plan A. Get away from here. Like, now.' Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt, however, when she saw the creature appear to her right. Had she been so distracted she didn't even hear it approach? She shook the thought away, as she raised her gun and aimed for its head, "seems like we're going for plan B." She was at a relatively safe distance, and all it would take was one shot. She cursed her luck because she had broken her last shiv that same morning, and hoped that no other clickers were around, as they were drawn to even the slightest of sounds. Pursing her lips in a thin line, she inhaled deeply one last time before pulling the trigger. Nothing.
"What?" she gasped as she looked at her gun, the words flying out of her mouth before she could even think to stop them.
Suddenly, time seemed to slow down. The clicker turned its fungus-covered head to face Anna, who instinctively took a step back, only to stumble and fall hard on the floor. 'This is it. This is it! I lasted long enough,' she thought as she saw the creature enter "beserk mode", and run towards her, arms flailing around aggressively. The only thing left for her to do was close her eyes and wait for her inevitable end. The girl covered her eyes with her hands and prepared herself for the pain that was to come. And just as the clicker was about to grab her, another familiar sound was heard, one that caused the clicking to stop. And the pain never came.
Anna didn't dare to open her eyes. Everything was suddenly suspiciously quiet, and if she had learned anything all this time she was out on the road, was to never, ever trust silence. Of course, Anna had always been incapable of resisting her curiosity, so that meant that she had to know what was going on. Why was she still breathing? Why did the clicking stop? And, most importantly, why was there a clicker with its head blown to bits lying right in front of her? She slowly raised her head, her bangs falling in her eyes, and looked around inquisitively. There, just a few feet to her left, stood the most beautiful creature Anna had ever seen. The angel walked towards her, a worried expression painted on her face, and crouched down, placing her shotgun next to her.
"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, and her voice sounded like music to Anna's still ringing ears. "Are you hurt?" she asked again, her ice blue eyes running up and down the younger girl's body when she received no answer.
"N- No, I'm fine," stammered the redhead, shaking her head and blinking her eyes. "I'm fine," she repeated in a stronger, more confident voice, "thanks."
"Don't mention it," answered the girl as she got to her feet, shotgun in hand. "I'm Elsa," she stated, extending her arm for the other girl to take.
Anna eyed the offered hand somewhat suspiciously. 'What does she want? What if she wants to kill me and take my supplies and ammunition? Or worse! What if she's one of them? ...She doesn't look like one of them, though... She doesn't look like anyone I've ever seen. She's so gorgeous... Oh my god, focus, you idiot!' The girl snapped her eyes from the hand to the stranger's face, and got up, refusing to be helped. The stranger, Elsa as she had just introduced herself, frowned slightly and watched the shorter girl take a few tentative steps away from her.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Elsa's voice was still worried, as she once again scanned the girl she just met for any injuries.
"Yes, I'm sure," Anna smiled a little, deciding that the newcomer didn't seem to be so dangerous. "The only thing wrong is this stupid pistol that decided to clog right as I was about to shoot the damn clicker," she joked, but deep down she knew that, had it not been for Elsa, she would most likely be dead. "I'm... I'm Anna by the way," she introduced herself, smiling slightly, and earning a small smile and a nod from the other girl, whose expression seemed to relax significantly.
"You should clean your gun more often," noted the blonde. "Next time you might not be so lucky." Anna rolled her eyes slightly, somewhat offended that someone she had just met was scolding her on her firearm care, but nodded in agreement, knowing full well what the stranger meant.
"So uh... What are you doing here?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I could ask you the same thing," came the response from the taller girl, who started walking towards the next cubicle, her steps soft and her eyes looking around for any movement.
"Oh I- I was just looking for food, some gauze... You know, the usual," Anna laughed nervously and mentally facepalmed herself. 'Nice going, genius.'
"Are you on your own?" Elsa's question came out of the blue, causing Anna to stop walking. It had been three years, she was used to being alone by now. Or at least she should be used to it. "Are you okay? I'm sorry, didn't mean to pry," the taller girl hesitated when she saw the discomfort in Anna's eyes.
"Nah, it's okay. Plus, it's time Ι actually talked about this to someone other than my own self, you know?" The pigtailed girl flashed a somewhat forced smile, earning a faint nod in return. "I've been on my own for three years," she started after taking a deep calming breath. "Three years and twenty nine days to be exact. My uh... My mom got sick pretty early on, and- no, she wasn't bitten," she added quickly when Elsa opened her mouth, "I'm pretty sure it was pneumonia, but I ain't no doctor." By then, the two girls, determining that the rest of the floor was empty, had sat down in front of a large desk. A story like that could not be told while walking and killing infected. "Anyways, after that it was just my dad and I. We did pretty good for ourselves... You know, always having each other's back and stuff. So one day three years ago -it was a Wednesday- he left me at a safe house we had spent the night while he went to look for supplies. Nothing out of the ordinary, he would always wake up early in the mornings and let me sleep in for a while. Not that he was a bad father! Like, he never left me unprotected or anything! It's just that- I was never a morning person, right? So it was pure torture for me having to wake up at like five in the morning every single day. A girl's gotta have her beauty sleep." Elsa chuckled slightly, causing Anna to clear her throat nervously. "Anyway... That day I woke up like hours later, and he still hadn't come back. At first I didn't think much of it, but as the hours kept passing, I figured there had to be something wrong. So I gathered all the courage my fifteen-year-old self could muster, and I went outside." She shuddered at the memory. "It was the first time I was out there on my own, without knowing where my father was," she explained, "so you can imagine how I felt when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Any movement! It was usually a cat or something most of the times. Though I did meet three... four! Four infected. I crashed them." The way the girl raised her shoulders as if killing four infected on her own had been the easiest thing on earth made Elsa roll her eyes, and laugh softly. 'This girl sure likes to talk.' "So where was I? Oh, right. So I went out looking for my dad. I was out searching for two days before I came across a wrecked building, I think it was a pub or a bar or something. Now, my dad always said to check places like that 'cause since they used to actually sell food and stuff, it was all the more likely to find something useful inside. So I did just that, and-" Anna's voice suddenly ceased and the older girl looked at her, a troubled expression adorning her face. Without giving it much thought, she placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and gave it a small, encouraging squeeze, causing her to jump slightly in surprise.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she simply said, her voice so soft and calming, it made everything better. "I know it can be hard to talk about stuff like this. Especially to a complete stranger."
Anna nodded, "it's hard, but..." she glanced around nervously, "for some reason I feel like I can... well, trust you. I don't know why, and you probably think I'm really stupid for thinking that, which is actually true, but I feel like I can talk to you, you know?" Her vibrant, green eyes finally landed back on the blondes face. "You did just save my life after all," she winked playfully, feeling her cheeks growing a little hot. 'Damn it, Anna. Get it together!' She prayed that her blushing had gone unnoticed as she opened her mouth to continue her story. "He was..." her voice broke and she internally cursed herself. "He was just lying there. There was blood all around, and he was in the middle of it. So much blood... I called out to him to get up and leave, but- he... He wouldn't move. I guess I was in some sort of state of denial because I kept yelling at him to get up and that what he was doing wasn't funny at all. Of course, he never did get up. I don't remember much from the following week or so... I just kept wondering around like- well, like a zombie," she laughed bitterly at her words. "I remember attempting to drag his body to a place where I could at least try to bury it, but he was too heavy. Or I was too weak, that's a possible explanation too... So I just... I left him there!" Elsa winced at the tone of Anna's voice and the sob that had escaped the redhead's lips and tightened her grip on the younger girl's shoulder. "After a week of moping," Anna began again after composing herself slightly, "it was like something had finally snapped in me. I decided to leave, and head to that shelter we were originally going. I was gonna make both him and my mom so proud! That was three years ago. By the time I got to the shelter it was all in ruins, destroyed by the infected. I didn't know what to do, so I just kept going... That's it. That's my story." She hadn't noticed the wetness on her cheeks until she felt a gentle hand wiping her tears. "Oh shoot, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go all emotional on you," she laughed awkwardly, blinking her tears away. Elsa only smiled. "So what's your story?" It was Anna's turn to ask, and Elsa's turn to breathe sharply at the sudden question. Her reaction, however, went unnoticed. "Are you on your own too?"
Elsa blinked back the sudden wave of tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. "Um... Yeah... Yes, I'm on my own too. For four years." 'and eighty-nine days, and seven hours...'
"What happened?" Anna's ignorance of Elsa's uneasiness was torture to the older girl. She had never talked about it to anyone; not only because she didn't want to, which was true, but also because she had no one to talk. She had been on her own from almost the day it all began.
"Nothing," she mumbled, intending to put an end to the conversation.
"Hey, I told you my story," came Anna's voice. "It's only fair you share yours."
"Nothing happened," Elsa repeated, her tone harsher than she intended it to be. "I'm sorry," she said quickly when she saw the younger girl flinch. "It's just... I don't know if I can talk about it..."
"Oh, okay," the shorter girl nodded slowly, her voice small. "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable," she added. "I didn't mean to..."
"It's not you," Elsa was quick to say, hating the fact that she had made the other girl feel bad. "It's... It's all me, it's just- I've only talked about this to one other person, and it did not end well," she explained, her head bowed and her eyes glued on her lap.
"Oh…" not knowing what else to say or do, Anna nodded once again. "So... Where is this other person?" she asked a few moments later, finding herself intrigued by Elsa's story; or rather lack of it as she refused to share anything much.
"I told you, it did not end well... That guy, Hans," Elsa's face twisted in disgust when the name came out of her mouth, "he... He tried to double cross me and side with a dubious organization. When he realized I was onto him and planned on leaving him behind, he tried to kill me," she chuckled lightly at the surprised gasp that escaped Anna's mouth.
"That bastard," she muttered. "Where is he now?"
"It was either me or him..." replied Elsa after a couple of silent moments. "And well... I'm here and he's not, so..."
Anna's eyes widened at the realization. 'She killed him!' her brain screamed. 'What makes you think she's not gonna try to kill you too? But he wanted to kill her too, she was only protecting herself! That's what she told you. Do you really know this girl? What she's capable of? She's just a girl who had to do something horrible to save her life. She saved me not too long ago, why would she want to kill me?' the two voices inside Anna's head battled for dominance, and the girl had to admit that each thought that made its way into her mind made some kind of sense. Unable to process everything right then and there, she settled on a small nod, hoping that she had done the right thing.
"I'll be going soon," came the soft voice after a while. The two girls had been sitting there for quite some time, neither of them knowing what they should do next. "I heard there's a medical facility not too far west, and I was hoping I could find some useful stuff there. And there may also be people as well, so..."
Anna turned to look at her and nodded, "and people are always a plus, right?"
"No, not always... Some of them are though."
"Would you... Would you mind if I tagged along? I mean, you're on your own, I'm on my own, we could make a pretty good team if we worked together." Anna smiled, a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
"You mean you need a bodyguard because of your poor gun cleaning techniques?" Elsa smirked.
"That is not what I meant," Anna rolled her eyes, "but yes, that too," she added almost inaudibly, making the older girl chuckle. "So…?" the pigtailed girl asked again, but this time received no answer. Instead, she watched as the huntress lifted herself up and started to walk away, propping her shotgun on her left shoulder. "I guess that's a 'no', then…" she murmured disappointed.
"The medical facility is a three-day journey. If we want to get there soon, we need to get going," came the gentle, yet teasing voice from where the taller girl was standing, glancing over her shoulder. Anna's eyes lit up, and she smiled a wide toothy grin as she got up and skipped her way over.
"Aren't we going to check the fifth floor?" she asked when she saw that Elsa had begun going down the stairs instead of up.
"There's nothing up there. Just a couple of dead clickers," Anna blinked in confusion at the response.
"How do you know?" she ran down the steps in an attempt to catch up with her companion. 'I have a companion! And a great one of those!'
"I was just up there. I've been scouting the building since this morning," Elsa replied simply, laughing lightly as she saw Anna glare at her.
"You were the one who piled those chairs, weren't you?"
"There were clickers up there, I couldn't let them come down. I mean… Yeah."
"You knew I was down there?" Anna was intrigued now.
"I heard you," Elsa nodded. "It's not like you were trying to be quiet," she added smirking.
"Hey! I'll have you know that I was very quiet!" she said in mock offense and added: "Up until I tripped on those stupid chairs…"
"You destroyed the whole barricade," Elsa deadpanned, earning yet another glare from Anna, which she promptly ignored.
"This is going to be an interesting trip," she grumbled under her breath, and skipped forward once again when she realized she had fallen behind.
"The place is safe. We'll stay here for the night," Elsa informed as she came out of an abandoned house, and motioned for Anna to follow her back inside. After months of traveling together, it had become a kind of a routine for them. Elsa would check the house they would spend the night, while Anna would wait outside, ready to attack any infected that may cross their way.
"I call the master bedroom!" exclaimed Anna after having gone through every single room of the house.
"You can't call a room!" came Elsa's voice from somewhere in the house. "Not unless you're in it," she added, and Anna knew exactly what was going on.
"Hey!" she yelled and made a run for the bedroom, only to find out she was too late. "Get out," she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Elsa just looked at her, laying on the bed, her arms placed behind her head, her legs crossed at the ankles. "Elsa, this is not fair. You had the big bed last night and I had to sleep on that creaky couch! Come on… Please?"
"You do realize I haven't called the room yet, right?" Anna gasped and opened her mouth.
"I call th-"
"You can have the big bed, you goof. I'll take the first watch, okay?" Elsa said chuckling while getting off the bed. "You rest. You get the early morning shift. Lucky you!" she shuffled Anna's hair playfully as she exited the room.
"Wait, wha- Elsa!" the girl ran after her. "You know I had the early morning watch yesterday! You're trying to sneak by me, aren't you? Well it's not working! It's your turn to wake up at four in the morning, and I really don't want to take that away from you."
"Anna, you get the big, comfy bed, and the four a.m. wake-up call. It's only fair!" Elsa tried to sound serious, but she couldn't help a small grin from turning the corners of her mouth.
"It was fair yesterday when I had the couch too for some reason. Care to explain that?"
"No, not really," the taller girl stated, raising her shoulders. "I'm going to make dinner. What are you in the mood for? We have… canned beans, canned peas, and canned pasta. Make your choice."
"Oh, gee, I don't know. They all sound so appetizing, I can't choose," Anna replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Why don't you surprise me?"
"Why don't you tone the attitude down? Is it because I told you to get the morning watch? I'll get it if it bothers you so much."
"No… No, I'm sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me today… I just really want this to be over, you know?" she let out an exasperated sigh, and covered her face with her hands. "I'm sorry," came her muffled voice a couple of seconds later.
"It's okay, Anna," Elsa placed a gentle hand on the other girl's shoulder. "We all have those days." 'Some of us have only those days...' The blonde pulled Anna into a tight hug, the kind she never thought she would be able to give. She smiled as she thought of how much the younger girl had changed her. Before her, she was always on her own, opening up to no one, helping no one, and letting no one into her life. And then this stranger came barging in, turning everything upside down, and Elsa liked it. She liked the change; she liked having someone to share her adventures with. Having a person to talk to and feel close to.
"Elsa," Anna's voice sounded muzzled, "you're- crushing me," she gasped and pulled away from the embrace.
"Sorry," Elsa pulled back, immediately clasping her hands in front of her. "I'm gonna go make dinner," she whispered, running her hands through her loosening braid.
"Or…" Anna grabbed her by the arm, "you can go take a shower and relax a bit while I make dinner. What do you say?" Elsa couldn't say no to a smile like that.
"Are you implying that I smell?" she asked in pretend offense.
"What? N- no! What? I was just saying you-" Anna jumbled upon her words, not expecting a reply like that from Elsa.
"Relax," the taller girl laughed, "I'm just kidding," she smiled, and then giggled at the relieved sigh that traveled to her ears. "It's not a bad idea actually. You think you can manage?"
"Duh! I have cooked before, you know."
"And we all know how that went," Elsa muttered, earning a not so soft punch on her shoulder.
"Go shower, you stinker! I'll call you when the food is ready."
...
"One of these days we really should eat something different…" Anna muttered and grimaced as she opened the can of peas, trying not to make a mess of everything. She scrunched her nose and stuck her tongue in disgust as the contents of the can fell into the plate, making a wet, plopping sound. "Eeew... This is so gross... Humans should not be allowed to eat this. Ugh." She set the plates on the makeshift table they had been using and turned around in search of a light source as it would be dark soon. They usually used an oil lamp they had been carrying around, but for some reason, tonight, it felt like a candle light dinner night.
"Eureka!" she exclaimed after a while of looking around. "Oh, Elsaaa... Dinner has been served, my Queen!" she singsonged, making her way upstairs. "Elsa?" she asked in a somewhat concerned voice when she opened the door and saw that the room was empty. 'Where did you go?' "Dinner's getting cooold... and grosser than usual," she muttered. She had made her way back down when she heard someone humming softly. A smile appeared on her lips as she quietly walked towards the front door, 'What are you doing?', and it only grew wider when she saw Elsa sitting there, her hair still damp, her head tilted upwards but her eyes closed. She was about to talk, but something stopped her. The older girl's humming turned into a song, and Anna was left dumbfounded by the beauty of her voice.
"And I'd give up forever to touch you... 'Cause I know that you feel me somehow. You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be, and I don't want to go home right now..." she paused and sighed, her eyes never opening. "And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming... Or the moment of truth in your lies. When everything feels like the movies... Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive..."
'You skipped a verse, silly,' Anna chuckled silently, but her smile turned into a frown when she saw tears in the corners of Elsa's eyes. 'Oh no. Oh no, she's crying. What am I supposed to do? Please don't cry.'
"Hey," she said after a deep, encouraging breath, and Elsa jumped slightly, wiping her eyes as fast as she could. "What are you doing out here? I've been looking for you."
"Just sitting," the older girl raised her shoulders and smiled warmly. "Dinner's ready?" she asked and Anna nodded, smiling back.
"You okay?" she asked, trying not to make it seem like she had been standing there for at least five minutes.
"Yeah, why?"
"No reason. I just thought I heard you sing, and you only sing when you're sad so..."
"You... You know about that?" Anna couldn't help but giggle at the pink color that immediately appeared on Elsa's cheeks.
"Yep. It's not like the walls are thick, you know," she laughed, trying desperately to stay calm, and avoid her own cheeks from turning red. 'I've known you for months! Talking to you shouldn't be so hard!'
"Sorry..." muttered the blonde.
"Sorry? For what? If anything, I really enjoy it. You have a gorgeous voice," Anna placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and Elsa chuckled awkwardly.
"I..." she began, but couldn't seem to be able to find the words. "Today is the five-year anniversary..."
"Ooof...?" Anna desperately tried to make sense of what Elsa was saying.
"I… I killed them," the blonde whispered, and the pigtailed girl was left staring.
"Wh-what?" she stammered.
"I killed them," Elsa repeated, this time a little louder and more confidently. "My uh... My parents and my brother."
"What are you talking about?" Anna asked under her breath, too shocked to speak up.
"Remember... Remember back when we first met? You asked me what had happened and I was on my own, remember?" Anna nodded slowly. "Well... I wasn't always alone. I was living with my parents and my little brother when the outbreak first happened. We didn't have much time to leave the house, so we barricaded ourselves inside. It was okay at first... Well, as okay as can be, but we got by. We would have left the city, but my brother was too young to travel under those conditions, so my parents had decided that it would be best if we just stayed there, and hoped for the best," she smiled sadly. "One day my parents were securing the garage door, when uh… a- a swarm of infected managed to break in... They bit both of them... Mother and father managed to kill most of the- creatures before that, but they were so many... Too many. If only I had been there to help..." Elsa was unable to stop a sob from coming out of her mouth.
"Hey... It wasn't your fault..." Anna tried to comfort her, not really knowing what to do. Elsa was the strong one; the one who was always there to kick ass. She never cried. Anna had never seen her so vulnerable, and it pained her.
"We knew something had to be done," she started again, after calming herself a little. "I... I offered to help them. One shot to the head and they were gone... It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do..."
"What... What about your brother?" Anna asked quietly.
"I took Olaf out of there. Too young or not, I didn't care. I couldn't live in that house anymore, and neither could he. We traveled around for some time, and, for a while, it seemed as though we were going to make it. We were going to be okay... For a six-year-old, Olaf was… He was very mature for his age. Maybe too much... So... one day, when he came to me crying, and shaking like a leaf I knew something was wrong. I left him out of my sight for a second. A second! I didn't even understand how it happened, when it happened, but it did... It did, and that's what was important. An- an infected had gotten to him. He was a brave boy... Such a brave boy... He had a bite mark on his arm, and he was still the one comforting me... I knew what I had to do, but I couldn't bring myself to go through with it... Yet I couldn't, I wouldn't let him turn into one of them... I talked to him about it, and I realized that he too was aware of what had to be done... He was such a brave boy..."
"Elsa..." the younger girl whispered and hugged her friend tightly as the latter one finally broke down. "I... I feel like me saying I'm sorry isn't gonna help all that much right now..." 'Why do I have to be so goddamn useless?!' Anna couldn't even begin to imagine how Elsa must have felt. She had lost both her parents too, but she didn't have to kill them. That was something no one should go through. Not for any reason. And then her little brother too? It was a surprise Elsa was still able to function.
"I'm sorry..." came a broken whisper. "I don't know what came over me... I'm sorry," she broke the hug and wiped her eyes.
"Don't be. You had been carrying that with you for ages, Elsa... Sometimes you just have to let it all go, you know. It makes you feel better," Anna tried to smile, but she had a feeling it came out more like a really awkward and uncomfortable frown. "So... Are you ready to go back inside now? It's dark and it's getting pretty chilly out here," she noted as she got up, dusted herself, and offered her hand for Elsa to take.
"The food must be all gross and inedible now..." Elsa said as she took the girl's hand and pulled herself up. "I-"
"Don't you dare say you're sorry! It's not your fault!" Anna scolded her, and she let out a soft laugh. "Plus, it was inedible to begin with. I mean, have you seen the way it looks? Ugh. It looks like something that would come out of a sewer!" she grimaced in disgust, making Elsa laugh again, this time a little bit louder; a little bit more genuinely. 'There we go,' she thought and, before she knew it, she felt herself being pulled into a rough yet loving kiss. She smiled and hummed into it, her body relaxing as she wrapped her arms around the taller girl's waist, pulling her closer. 'Yep. Everything's okay. More than okay,' she thought as she broke the kiss, chuckling at the sound of Elsa's soft moan, and opened the door, letting them back inside.
A/N: On to the epilogue!