She jolted awake with a throbbing headache, sticking to the bed sheets with sweat.

'Bed sheets?' she thought, suddenly aware of her surroundings.

Moonlight shone through tattered curtains on a window, illuminating a small bedroom containing a dresser and the four-poster bed she was splayed across. Across from her was a door, and she fully intended to use it once she could see straight. Little black dots clouded her vision every time she tried to stand up, legs trembling. As usual, a plan immediately started developing in her head. She was to find her bag, maybe some weapons if she was lucky, and get out of there, hopefully unscathed.

Once she reached the door, she slowly turned the knob and eased it open.

She winced as the old door creaked on its hinges. She moved as quietly as she could down the narrow hall, peeking in the small rooms as she went.

Her plan immediately fell apart when she walked into the kitchen area. The same man from the highway was standing before her, empty hands held up. A moment of quiet distrust passed before the man began to speak.

"You're safe here," he began, gesturing to the surrounding room. "It's just me, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"What do you want?" she asked, slowly backing down the hallway. The man matched her step for step, hands still held up.

"Nothing!" He quietly assured her. "You wouldn't wake up, so I took you back here." She looked around, taking in the room that was lit by a small glowing lantern.

"Let me go," she said forcefully, holding the wall for support.

"I'm just tryin' to help, and from the looks of it, you need it," he explained as he slowly lowered his arms.

"Just please give me my pack," she whispered, to tired and weak to continue with the tough front.

"You're not in danger here," he started, coming closer, "leaving now is a death sentence," He gestured to the window, where the darkness consumed everything the moon couldn't lighten up. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"I'll take my chances," murmured.

"Get some food in ya, something to bring that fever down," he pointed to the cluster of various pills, "A good nights rest. Looks like you could use it," he smirked.

She was about to begin her usual refusal, but she thought twice.

'This was everything she had needed. A few days to get better, food, shelter. Maybe even a shower,' she thought hopefully.

She took in the stranger in front of her. Tall and strong, typically a threat in her eyes, but for some reason her gut didn't clench up in fear.

"It's just you?" she asked aggressively.

He nodded his head.

"Why help me?" she questioned earnestly.

"I would want someone to do the same," he began, looking down. She looked away, knowing she would have probably left him for dead if the roles were reversed.

"Elliot," she said, holding her hand out.

A small winning smile played on his lips and he grabbed her hand. "Wade."

As their hands touched for the brief and businesslike moment, she could feel her control slip away as she took the reckless jump into trusting someone else.

XXXXX

Even though he told her to keep it short, she spent what felt like hours in the shower.

Wade gave her a quick tour of the cabin after she requested it, always wanting to know the layout of where she was staying. When he mentioned that the cabin had working water, Elliot had to hide the wide grin on her face.

She could see the dirt and grime running down to the drain, leaving her body fresh and clean. Even after the water ran clear she continued to wash. Showers were definitely something she took advantage of before everything happened.

When the water started to feel like ice, she quickly jumped out.

After the first few weeks, she gave up on looking in the mirror. It only every verified that she looked as bad as she felt. She walked to stand in front of the mirror, and wiped away the steam to see a new person staring back at her. What used to be a glowing full face was now pale and sickly. She had never seen her cheekbones so prominent. No wonder Wade was so insistent on getting her healthy; she looked like the living dead, which was a lethal thing to be mistaken for nowadays.

She walked to her little room and locked the door behind her, still more than wary of Wade. She stared at her pack that lay on the bed then went through the few articles of worn out clothes, which varied from dirty to filthy. She didn't want to soil her newly clean body, so she went through the dresser, looking for anything she could wear. The drawers were filled with large flannels, sweaters, t-shirts, and various things in between. It was every girl's dreams come true. She pulled out a thick red flannel and a pair of boxers, seeing that the only other bottoms were giant Levis.

A wave of fatigue washed over her and she laid across the bed, untrusting of her legs to hold her anymore. Her eyes began to grow heavy, and her body slipped into some much needed sleep.

XXXXX

It was bright, definitely later than she intended to wake up. She discovered the reason for her waking up when she heard noises in the house. She immediately panicked, thinking the worst. She snuck out of the room, gun in hand, to find Wade standing over the stove.

She cleared her throat so he knew she was there.

"Oh, g'mornin'," he happily began, turning back to the stove.

"What are you doing?" She whispered angrily.

"Makin' eggs," he explained tentatively.

"You're making too much noise!" she all but yelled at him.

"Noise ain't a problem up here," he said gesturing around him.

"Where are we?" she asked, still skeptical of the man and his nonchalance.

"The middle of nowhere. About an hours drive from Atlanta," Wade explained, turning back to his eggs. As Elliot sat down he continued to speak, "ya already look better, guess ya slept well."

"How'd you come across this place?" she asked, ignoring his response while she sat at the small table.

"Didn't come across it, grew up here with my grandfather," he said as he brought over two plates of eggs. "When all this happened, I thought it would be a good place to be," he explained as he joined her at the old table.

She slowly nodded her head. Elliot hesitated to pick up the fork as Wade dug into his breakfast. "Eggs?"

"Neighbors down the way had a coop. There was only one left and I figured she'd come in handy," he informed in between mouthfuls.

The rest of the breakfast consisted of her asking countless questions and Wade ensuring the safety of the little home he had created. After the small meal and the grilling done by Elliot, he gave her a small tour of the surrounding area outside the cabin. Aside from the clearing around the house and a dirt road leading out of it, it was surrounded by a thick forest, leaves changing color in the autumn air. It was beautiful, even in this terrifying world.

Almost surrounding half of the cabin was a chain link fence, in the process of being built, as Wade explained.

XXXX

As Elliot washed her filthy clothes with the washboard and bucket Wade had provided her, she started to entertain the idea of staying for a couple days longer. Here she could recover from the havoc that had been wrecked on her body in the past few months. She could sleep soundly, eat real food, and get rid of fever that still caused her pain and bouts of fatigue.

After she had hung her dripping clothes up on the makeshift clothesline, she made her way to Wade, who was working on putting up the fence.

As she watched him struggle with holding it up and burying the bottom into the ground, she stepped forward to hold the fence while he finished burying it and patting it hard.

"So, I was thinking, maybe you were right," she tentatively began, having a hard time admitting that she needed his help.

Wade looked up from twisting the links together with his pliers, "About what?"

"I'd like to stay here a few more days, if you'll have me," she sighed, embarrassed. She looked up at him, a question on her face.

"You're welcome here," he responded after a few seconds too long.

"Thank you," she replied awkwardly, shifting to hold the fence up straighter.

XXXXX

She put on a pair of freshly washed jeans, still ripped at the knees, but much less dirty than they used to be. She threw on her cleanest shirt and made her way outside to find Wade either admiring or critiquing his fence.

"It's a good idea," she said, standing beside him.

"I just wish I could have it done now, but its hard work alone," he explained, crossing his arms.

"I could help," she said as she turned to look at him. He contemplated this for a minute before responding.

"You could," he smiled the same small crooked smile she had already seen too much of.

XXXX

The next few days were spent of her sleeping way too late and taking whatever medicine Wade shoved her way during their meals. She read all the labels of course, still not fully trusting him.

She helped Wade put up the walls of chain link fence he brought back in his truck everyday after an early morning run he did everyday that she wasn't allowed to join. He argued that she was still to weak to come in case of an emergency. This of course made her even bitterer.

She also took to feeding the hen that rest in a makeshift pen in the room next to her. She took it upon herself to change her name from Wade's creative 'Chicken' to Henrietta.

She could feel herself gradually warming up to Wade. The way he smiled at everything and seemed to always be happy. She would catch a smile lingering on her face after he did his usual boisterous laugh, something childish and giddy that didn't match his tall build.

She still didn't let her guard drop, still locking her door every night and watching her back.

Elliot planned on leaving Wade the next morning, regardless of how generous he had been to her.

She found herself in the kitchen that night, looking for something to make for dinner. It was the least she could do after what he had done for her.

She looked in all the cupboards and pantries to find nothing but a few cans of food. She looked around the room helplessly as Wade walked in, confusion lining her face.

"I was going to make dinner," she explained, "but all of the sudden you have no food?"

Wade only laughed as he led her upstairs to the small loft, where he slept on a mattress on the floor. He stepped over the piles of his clothes on the floor to a narrow, nondescript cabinet. After a moment he Wade sighed and turned to her.

"Don't rob me, Elliot, please," he looked to her with a small smile, but a real question in his eyes.

"I won't," she whispered after a moment of holding his eyes.

He laughed as he bent down and opened the cabinet to reveal, nothing. There was no shelves or anything, just a blank space. She was shocked when Wade grabbed what seemed to be empty air and the back panel of the cabinet came out, revealing an endless dark square. He grabbed the flashlight that lay on top of the cabinet and shined it in, revealing a plethora of food, guns, water, gasoline, and various other necessities lining the squat walls.

"Ya could say my grandfather was a bit paranoid," he began, watching her face as she took in the goldmine.

"Why?" she whispered as she looked at the first few items that lined the wall.

"He had a lot of money and didn't trust banks. I have a lot of supplies and don't trust thieves," he explained.

"Looters," she whispered darkly.

Wade could see the story behind her words, but thought better than to ask. He left her to collect the food she wanted alone.

They ate at the table, the room lit by the same little lantern. Wade made his usual small talk and Elliot tried to appear normal as she twirled the spaghetti she haphazardly made on her fork. She was lost in thought about her early morning escape plan when Wade caught her off guard.

"I'm glad I took you in," he said in between mouthfuls, unashamed of something that would color her face red.

"Why is that?" she asked, feigning nonchalance.

"It's hard being alone in this world," he said quietly, his head down on his meal. Her breath caught in her throat as she tried not to let the guilt that racked her body show. "Yeah, I know," was all she could muster through the lump in her throat.

After a few awkward moments Wade spoke again. "So, I was thinking since you're such a poor shot," he smiled, making sure she understood he was joking, "maybe we should practice your shooting tomorrow morning."

She nodded her head, thinking about him waking up to find her gone, and alone again.

XXXX

She woke up that morning to the quiet beeping of the alarm on the watch Wade had given her. It was still dark, the sky almost black. She woke up and methodically packed her bag, filling it with her newly cleaned clothes and the few things of food and water she smuggled from Wade's cabinet. As she looked at the new pistol she took along with bullets for it and her other gun she felt guilt.

'It's just one gun,' she thought, 'he's not gonna miss it."

She stared at it, intending to get up and leave, preferring to be far away by the time he realized she was gone.

The sky grew from purple to dark blue to an orange sunrise. Her legs would not move from where they were planted on the ground.

She jolted from her stupor when she heard a soft knock at the door.

"Let's go soon, Elliot," Wade called cheerfully as she slowly put her bag on the floor beside the bed and hid the gun.

She found him in the kitchen, packing up a few different types of guns, car keys in hand.

"Ready?" he asked, a grin plastered on his face.

She nodded and followed him out the door, agreeing to more than a shooting lesson.