I kept on smelling the black beverage. Its odor was simply captivating, let alone the taste. Our guest had been sobbing. How did I heard it from here? I was out on the yard sitting on the snow after I closed the basement door. It was painful to hear a girl sob and knowing that you couldn't do anything about it. I left a tear or two out there.

Carrie was again playing with her doll. I enjoyed seeing her being a child. My brother and I tried to give her the best childhood we could, of course like any of us living out here she had seen her share of blood. She knew her way around a gun and was good sneaking around. My brother is strong and determined. I've seen him take a beat and come out victorious. Convince an armed man to turn around and leave. Me? I… I well, to be sincere I am dependable on my brother. I just know how to shoot a can at pointblank and perhaps miss the first shot. Hell even Carrie could kill me with her doll. I think that is one of the reasons I stick with them. Many people this days abandon their families because they have something called skills. I am plainly mediocre.

I went to the bathroom to wash my eyes with water from melted snow we gathered last night after Ellie tried to open up my neck. I took some water from a little bowl and splashed it against my face, the icy water was horrible at touch, but I felt dirt coming off my skin as I scrubbed harsh. I lifted up my face to see a beaten up face with long whitish blond hair. A faint of a small beard appeared on my chin. And circles below my green eyes. I kept on scrubbing.

"Hey Scott, about our newest member…"Owen started, "Ellie" I cut him. "What?" Putting a question mark face. "Her name, she is Ellie." "Okay, Ellie. Scott she is too dangerous to have around, we could just leave now and…" "What the FUCK do you mean leave now?! We are not letting someone tied up on a basement with nothing to eat to starve to death or to those fucking scavengers!" I was stupefied, skeptical even. My brother thought of doing something like that to a girl my age, I mean, she DID tried to cut me off, and we DID find her all stained of blood, yet it felt wrong, like it could be the most horrible mistake we could ever commit. "Scott she tried to kill you last night, I saw her kill men inside the University and was as well willing to shoot me, you saw it in her eyes, that grimness, she is lost to herself and I really doubt she is coming back." He argued, firing all his shots and hitting on the bullseye each time. I knew he was talking truth, but "she is human, and as you said she is broken, there is no way we are leaving anyone in her state to die of starvation, or killed by hunters if they found her." Nobody would talk me out of leaving her behind. "Okay, imagine that we take her with us, we are good a couple of days everything is laughter and flowers, then she snaps again, what if she threatens Carrie, what if she kills her huh? Do you think you could live with yourself after knowing you brought a murderer between us, someone that could murder our baby sister, HUH?" At this point he was yelling, but he didn't cared about it, any horde in a radius of 50 meters could come finish us up.

I heard the slight noise of the basement door moving then subtle footsteps on the deep snow. I rushed us outside to found myself with Ellie and a pack of type 4s, she was letting out a deaf scream, her mouth was wide open. They were headed towards her. One of them took one of those fucking fungal bombs and I had to lift her up and run to get her to safety. I fell just away enough for the fucking spores not to reach us. I took her hand and pulled her up, but she wasn't helping, she seemed as if she had given up. I would NOT let her give up. I brought her up and slapped her back to reality. She frowned but I gave a fuck about it, I put her hand in mine and ran as hell. "Duck" Owen shouted and we obeyed. A cylindrical tube flew right through our heads and the blast pushed us forward. One down, one to go. The thing caught my jacket and dragged me through the floor. It lifted me up and I got the chance to take my six-shot and blew the thumb off the asshole. I fell and heard something break and lost grip on my gun, leaving it laying on the floor. It brought me up with the other hand and approached his deformed, terrifying and fucked up face to mine, I felt a disgusting breath. It was crushing my face hard but a pipe made him lose its hold and I landed on my butt. My eyeball was hurt and I was bleeding from my cavity. It was all blurry, I just heard thump after thump after thump. A scream, a high-pitched one drummed against my ears.

I saw a dash of red hair, of a little girl bringing down a monster twice her size. The monster's arm went limp, but it smashed her against the wall leaving her unconscious. It was approaching her, coming for the kill. I crawled to the Smith & Wesson as fast as I could, every second I didn't had the gun meant another second she was in risk. Every inch felt like a kilometer. I felt the cold handle of the gun and placed my index on the trigger and shoot the remaining five bullets to the back of the infected. Then I heard gunshots that hit on it. Once, twice, a third and a fourth. And then it fell. Owen shot his Winchester. He brought me back to my feet. But I couldn't see correctly and the pain started to set in. "C'mon kid, we need to go. Get up on the horse." "What about Ellie?" "I'll wake her up, now get on her horse."

Owen led me to the horse and helped me up to it. Our most recent addition went up and rode us away.

We were out on what used to be a roadway but now it is just a forest with rocks in between. The snow was falling gently on my swollen eye. I was leaning on Ellie's back. Awkward as it may sound I wasn't feeling so great after I broke my arm and damaged my eye this severely. Owen was leading us to somewhere where I could get patched up. "Okay, stop." He jumped off the horse. "I'll go see if nobody, or nothing is around here. Carrie, come with me," Owen handed her a gun, my gun, "you two, wait for us here." He turned around and started off but he turned himself and said, "take care of him, please." Then both of them left.

"You can stop leaning on my back, don't get so cuddly," she said, "come on get off." Ellie laid my back on the horse. She got off and tried helping me down, emphasis on trying. I fell on my good arm. I smelled the winter forest, felt the snow under me, cold, a refreshing cold. Ellie got me up on my feet. "I… have some bandages on my backpack." We had been running from the house ever since those type 4s attacked, we weren't able to bandage my eye or put a tourniquet on my arm. She brought the bandages back and I sat down on a tree stump that was near. She kneeled in front of me and started covering my eye.

"Thank you," I said trying to start up a conversation, "for back at the house." "I was just paying you back for carrying me up when those bloaters appeared." "Bloaters?" "That's how we called them." "Who's we?" Her expression changed suddenly and knew I shouldn't pushed forward anymore. back"I'm sorry, it's evident you do not want to talk about it, so I'll leave that at peace."

The forest was calm, peaceful. Carrie walked alongside me. "What do you think of Ellie?" Carrie brought me back to reality. "That girl… I don't know." I really couldn't come up with anything about her, she was as closed to herself as she wanted, or so it seems to me. "It seems Scott likes her, I mean like she trusts her. Owen, what are we going to do, do you think she will come with us to Canada?" Rumor had it the infection was less severe there, that there wasn't as much concentration of infected and the environment was peaceful. I knew it was crazy to follow a weak-hunch. But I want our family to live as peacefully as possible. "I doubt it, unless she doesn't have anywhere to go." She still poses a bit of a threat, but after she lunged at that thing back there to save Scott, I was shocked. I was terrified that I couldn't find my Winchester but at last I found it in time to save her. She saved him even though it meant putting herself at risk. "Well I like her." Carrie said, and I am starting to think I am taking the likes of her.

"Ouch," I growled "that hurt, could you be a little bit more careful, I might lose an eye here." "Ha-bloody-ha, I'll try." The snow felt on her tiny nose and on her beautiful red hair. "Okay iiiiit's done, check it." I pressed my palm against my eye socket to feel the pain, even though I knew it was there, just to remind myself I wasn't eyed. "Now what?" I asked. "Now what, what?" "You know, what are we supposed to do?" "You're asking the worst person you could have asked." "Well unless the tree is going to respond me I'd bet nobody else can answer me. So where are you going? Cause I doubt you are staying with us but if you stay there would be no problem with," God why am I rambling so much stupidity and why can't I bring myself to a stop, "us. Yet again I'm sure you have a plan." "Do you ever ramble as stupidly as that?" "Sorry." "I am not staying, I got business elsewhere." "Wow, that sound so mature for a girl your age." "Fuck you." "That sounds more like it." We both laughed, and even though every last bit of this was stupid I enjoyed it.

"I know all of you mean well, you are really nice but I must go." "No worries, I can't make you stay," although I wished I could. "What happened back at the university, why were you all covered with blood?" She kept silent from that moment until Owen and Carrie came back