There was no way a group of survivors large enough to defend a trailer park would have let a wound as big as the one in the fence go untreated. As Arvo slipped through the gash in the mesh and saw the state of the insides, it confirmed his suspicions that this place had fallen. The carcass of a community that was once thriving had to have plenty of supplies, the only thing left to fear here was the dead.

He turned the doorknob of the closest trailer, relieved that it opened with no problem. Surely he wouldn't have to venture too far to scrounge up a couple of things.

Glass crunched under his shoe as he moved towards the kitchen, gripping his screwdriver. Arvo didn't consider it a real weapon, but Buricko wouldn't give him a knife so he had learned to make use of what he had. The constant creak of his leg brace annoyed him at even the best of times, but now, when it was the only thing cutting through the eerie silence; it was an unbearable cacophony. With each step he took it felt like he was attracting walkers, but none had appeared.

For now, at least.

Arvo pulled open the cupboards and squinted at the shelves through his cracked lens, resisting the urge to take off his glasses and clean them as if he could just wipe away the fracture. I'm never going to get used to this. He wished he hadn't come back so late the day he had met that girl, but Vitali would have found any reason to pick on him. Now he had to live with broken glasses for the rest of his life, however long it may last.

There was only one can of food on the shelf, which rendered his earlier assumption about this trip being easy as invalid. It was foolish to think that the kitchen would be fully stocked, but he didn't expect it to be this empty.

He was just about to head down the hallway when he heard the door open, sending him scrambling back into the kitchen and behind the counter, praying that those monsters hadn't learned to open doors. From his position he couldn't see who or what had entered the trailer, but from the sound of it, they didn't drag their feet like the dead did. Speaking would give away where he was, moving would make noise, but he had to do something.

Gun in one hand and screwdriver in the other, he rose to his feet to find the girl he had met days earlier facing him, the kitchen counter the only thing separating them. It took him a moment to realize it was her, she looked different with her hair up and out of her face. Arvo had left her while she slept, but he could tell from her pallid complexion and the dark circles under her eyes that she hadn't gotten much sleep since then.

Rowan seemed as surprised to see him as he felt, but she was the first to get over her shock. "Privyet, Arvo."

"How is your arm?" He smirked, knowing full well she wouldn't understand what he was saying.

She stuck her tongue out in response. "Translate."

"I said, how is your arm?"

"Okay, I guess. Thanks again."

"You have not looked at it, have you?" He teased lightly, raising his eyebrow in amusement.

She stared at the floor, face flushed. "No. But it doesn't hurt anymore, so it must be getting better."

"Good. Are you looking for food too?"

"Yeah. I don't have anything left. You could have just asked instead of stealing from me, you know."

Arvo shoved his hands in his pockets, she didn't sound genuinely angry but he still attempted to defend his actions; rather weakly at that. "You were asleep, I did not want to wake you. We can search together, here." He took the can out of his bag and held it out to her as a peace offering, she accepted it and transferred it to her own backpack.

"We can be friends, yes...?" He asked tentatively. The last time he could recall establishing official friendships was when he was a little kid without a brace on his leg or a care in the world, running amok at the playground under the watchful eyes of his mother or Natasha. Now companionship came with a contract. Maybe we should shake hands on it.

"Okay. Friends."

She smiled at him in full this time instead of only half-way, erasing any of his doubt.


Rowan was adept at taking down walkers, and she did it in such a nonchalant manner that he wasn't sure if he was envious or admired her for it. Even though he was able to kill too, he was never that confident in his abilities.

She had just finished pushing a walker up against the wall and jabbed her blade into its skull when he asked, "How are you not scared of those things?"

"People die when I'm scared, I can't be anymore. Not of them, anyway."

She had already nudged the fallen corpse out of the way and walked through the door before he could respond.

The interior of all the trailers they had inspected thus far were practically identical; the skylight illuminating the room and the various bloodstains being the only distinguishing features this one had. Arvo turned the corner into the kitchen to find Rowan sliding an empty container back and forth on the counter-top.

"Find anything?" She asked.

"Nope." He admitted glumly. "But there are other places to go-"

Rowan grabbed his arm and jerked him to the ground mid-sentence as the container rolled off the counter and clattered to the floor. That was when he saw the walker turn its head. Its lower jawbone was crooked and looked as if it were about to fall off, but it still managed to snap at the air with fervor while it stared through the kitchen window with fog white eyes, searching for the sound of the noise.

Neither dared to speak, it was only one, but if it saw them and started banging on the walls, others would notice.

The sound of gunfire in the distance caught its attention and it turned and began to totter away. Arvo released the breath he was holding, but that brief feeling of relief was quickly substituted with a new worry.

"Who is out there?" And who would be stupid enough to start firing in a place like this?

Rowan drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them and did not move, as if she were frozen to the floor.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"The people who took my cousin, that's them."

Arvo frowned. There is no way to tell. "I will shoot them if they come after you." He tried to sound brave, but he had never shot at anyone living before, let alone actually killed someone. "We have to go. Come." Still kneeling, he latched onto her arms and pulled her up with him. The sound of gunshots was going to draw walkers, and he wanted to get as far away from this place as possible.

Rowan went straight to the window, somewhat reawakened now that she was on her feet. She flipped open one of the blinds with her hand, and whatever she saw caused her to back away from the window with a small gasp. "Don't open the door."

"Are people outside?"

"No, but the geeks are. I think some of them saw me."

"How many...?"

"I don't know! We can't go out the door." She pointed towards the skylight. "We have to go up."

"Are you crazy? I can't! We should wait-"

Rowan was already pushing on the kitchen table to no avail. "They'll find me if we stay. Help me!"

"Why, so you can escape?" He glared accusingly at her.

"I'll help you too! Come on, please!"

A loud pounding on the door started up and they turned their heads towards the sound. It wouldn't take long for all of those things to catch on to what the one slamming on the door was doing. They would break in soon.

Arvo had no other choice now, so he helped her push the table over the skylight. Rowan lept atop the desk and undid the latch, pushing the window open. The banging on the door grew stronger and Arvo climbed up the table immediately, egged on by his fear.

She netted her fingers together. "You go first." He put his good foot into her hand and clutched her shoulder to steady himself, trying not to put too much weight on his injured leg. When she hoisted him up he grabbed the ledge and was able to pull himself up, slowly but surely.

Arvo held his hand out for her and helped her to the roof, then surveyed the ground below them. Walkers were everywhere, the quiet when he had first slipped through the fence was replaced with snarling and growling. Dread was setting in, and when he stared back down through the skylight and saw that the dead had broke into the trailer and were filling into it he began to shake. He couldn't go back inside, or anywhere else. There was nowhere to go.

Rowan kicked the skylight shut with her foot. "Don't look down there, okay?"

"You are not helping! What the hell are we going to do now?" He yelled at her in his own language, even though she would not understand him.

She wasn't even paying attention to him, instead staring at the mobile home next to the one they were standing on, the one touching the fence. It was the way out.

"Arvo, can you jump?"

"What? No." What she was suggesting dawned upon him. The gap between the two trailers was small enough to leap across. For someone without a bum leg, that is. "No." He repeated. "No no no, you cannot leave me." Arvo latched onto her arm ferociously, reminiscent of the day he had thrown a fit when Natasha had left for school and he was too young to come along. "You are not going anywhere without me. I'm going to die." He choked out, panic crushing his lungs.

"Let go!" She jerked her arm out of his grasp so violently that she almost slipped off the roof.

Once she steadied herself she gripped his shoulders firmly. "I am not going to let you die, I can get you across."

"How?"

"Trust me. I won't abandon you. I have a plan."

She dashed to the edge of the trailer and jumped on the hood of the other one before he could even ask what that plan was.

The wave of dead turned and crashed against the vehicle, trying to claw their way up to her. Arvo stood there staring at the space between them, waiting for her to hop over the railing and desert him. He clenched his fists together, fury fueled by his hysteria. I have to die here, and she gets to live.

But Rowan was not heading towards the fence, and instead took the wooden plank leaning up against the vehicle and pulled it up before the dead could turn the corner and tear it from her.

"What are you doing!?" Arvo called out to her. She brought it to the edge of the trailer and leaned it across the opening; building him a bridge over the sea of walkers.

Which he would now have to cross.

He glanced down at the the mangled, bloody hands and tried to imagine that they were there to catch him if he were to fall instead of tear him limb from limb. It didn't work. "Please do something else." He begged, knowing full well that she had done the only thing she could for him.

"I told you not to look down!"

When he tore his eyes away from the monsters below, Rowan was still waiting for him. She hadn't run away; if he was in her position, he probably would have. It was either die here slowly, or take a chance.

Good leg first. Arvo placed one foot on the board and it creaked out a warning to turn back, triggering tremors in his leg. The frenzy below intensified once they noticed him creeping across the plank, ecstatic at the prospect of him losing his balance and toppling over.

"Don't look at them, look at me, see you're almost here." He shuffled across the board until he was in range of her outstretched hand and then locked his fingers with her own and leaned into her as she pulled him to the roof. It felt good to stand on a sturdier surface, and the roar of the walkers felt distant now that he had reached salvation.

Arvo wrapped his arms around Rowan and held her to him tightly; and she gasped while he was busy whispering his gratitude into her shoulder. You didn't leave. The rage he had felt towards her moments ago had expired, now replaced with an intense adoration. She pressed her forehead into his shoulder in an attempt to reciprocate his affection despite the fact that the suddenness of his actions had startled her.


Arvo felt absolutely giddy, even though his feet hurt like hell and it had begun to rain. Icy cold droplets were nipping at his skin, but his infallible mood was fueled with each step he took. He was breathing, walking, and feeling, and he marveled at every second of it. Right now, to just be alive was good enough for him, no matter what condition the world was in.

Rowan was walking on the trail at a brisk pace, holding her pistol so tightly it appeared as if it were glued to her hand, Arvo increased his speed to catch up with her. "Wait!"

She came to a stop and turned around to face him. "I need to get back to the deck. I can't let them find me."

"They are probably dead by now, no rush. I have to take this back." He lifted up his bag as she began to fidget.

"Why don't you just take it back to your group?"

He had a feeling she would ask him that eventually, and he was kind of glad she did. Half because she had proven herself to be trustworthy and the other half because there was literally nobody else he could tell; and what better time to start opening up than when his adrenaline rush was beginning to wind down. "We have to leave, it isn't safe."

Rowan's gaze softened. "Are your friends bad to you or something?"

"No!" That response was too generous, so he quickly added, "Only sometimes..." It surprised him how swiftly he came to their defense considering all the times they had mocked him and pushed him around, but he did not hate them.

"Did one of them break your glasses?"

He stared at his feet. "I fought with Vitali, yes. I did not win."

"I didn't think so."

Rowan started walking again, this time at a more leisurely pace and he walked beside her.

His eyes narrowed indignantly at her comment. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. It's okay, I didn't win any fights with people either."

"You have fought with people?" He asked, somewhat intrigued. Rowan did not seem like the type of person who fancied fighting with the living.

"Not those kind of fights."

"Then what kind?" He asked.

"You know, arguments and stuff. When I was with my group it was all anybody ever did."

"I never win arguments either, because nobody listens to me."

Rowan, who had been driven by fright earlier, was now slowing down. She so weary that her feet scraped against the ground, the only constant sound among the occasional gust of wind or rustle in the bushes. Arvo kept her upright, helping her walk.

"I think he's gone." She admitted to him quietly, and Arvo knew whom she was talking about.

"You should come with me and Natasha then."

"Where are you going?" His offer seemed to shock her out of her haze, and she was now blinking up at him with sleepy green eyes.

"Away."

"Are you going to find different people?"

"I do not know." They had not interacted extensively with anyone outside the group; not since Tamara had been killed.

"We used to live on a fort, back in Virginia, before it fell. It wasn't perfect but it was better than running around in the woods all day."

"Those places never last, it isn't worth it." He reminded her gently.

"Ours lasted a long time." Rowan replied wistfully. "What about your sister, she knows what you're doing, right?"

"No." He couldn't keep it in anymore, he had to tell her everything. "We cannot stay with them anymore, our friend died because of them. I have tried saying so but she does not listen, she thinks it is safer with them but Buricko does stupid, insane things. It is like he is trying to get himself killed. I have to take her medicine and hide it at the deck before anyone knows, then I will take her to it and we leave before they know it is gone." He took a deep breath, glad to actually tell this to someone else, though it had all come out so quickly he couldn't remember how much he had even said in English.

"That's kind of..." Rowan trailed off, her voice tense. Clearly she understood enough of what he told her to disapprove.

"What? Dishonest?" He interjected before she could finish her sentence. "I know. But there is no other way."


They were climbing the stairs to the observation deck when she finally gave him an answer, "I can't go with you, I'm sorry."

Arvo couldn't hide the disappointment in his voice. "Why not? I thought you did not like staying here."

Rowan put her face in her hands and turned around the corner, he couldn't see her but could still hear her. "Don't make this hard for me, okay? I can't leave if there's a chance he'll come back." Her voice cracked. "I know I said he was gone, and he doesn't care about me anyway, but I can't-"

He found her leaning against the wall, she had taken her hair down now that she was back inside and the damp stands clung to her face.

Seeing her so broken up over this made him feel guilty for trying to pressure her. "Why would he not care about you?"

"Because I screwed up and he's still mad at me."

"He cannot stay mad forever, he is your family."

"It doesn't work like that."

"Yes it does. Natasha gets angry at me, but she does not hold grudges."

"What was the worst thing you've ever done to her?"

He paused, wanting to tell Rowan the truth, that in a few days his lie was going to be the worst thing he'd ever done to his sister. But he was trying to get her mind off of their problems; not bring them up again. "When I was seven I pushed her down the stairs once. Broke-" He didn't know the word for wrist and instead held up his arm and pointed to it.

That piqued her interest. "Seriously? Why?"

"It was accident! The stairs, not the pushing." He clarified. "I did not think she would fall all the way down."

"But why'd you do that?"

"Because she helped my cousin duct tape me to wall, they wanted to play video games, and I was there first." It was years ago, but he could still remember tearing at the tape and running up to the hallway screeching his head off, shoving her with all his might.

Rowan tilted her head back and snickered. "That's ridiculous."

"I know. It took many months, but she forgave me."

"But does she take care of you because she has to, or because she loves you?" She asked.

"We take care of each other. She is all I have."

"Oh. That's nice." She said faintly, with a melancholic expression. "I want to go with you. But I need more time."

Arvo nodded, knowing he had overreacted earlier when she first declined his offer. "I understand. I will be back in..." He held up four fingers. "That many days. So you can decide what you want then, okay?" Compromising always made him feel better.

"I don't want to be here anymore." Rowan admitted, biting her lip.

"I am not going to be gone forever." He tried to console her as he backed out towards the deck, knowing his words probably wouldn't have much of an effect. As soon as he left, she'd get lonely again. "Just be here when I get back."


Why was it so difficult for her to make up her damn mind? She might as well add Gale to the list of absent family members whose fates she would never find out about. Arvo was the first friend she had made in so long, and if she said no to him he would just go on with his life and leave her behind; and she'd be stuck at this godforsaken memorial, waiting for someone who in all probability wasn't going to show up.

Moving on was imperative, or she would die here. Sleeping at night was not a luxury she could afford and any attempts to nap during the day were futile, for every little sound kept waking her and she couldn't get the damn gift-shop open, which kept her out of a safer place to sleep. She couldn't keep going back to that trailer park for food, it was too dangerous.

And most of all, she couldn't live a life of solitude. She needed people, but people didn't last long in this world.

Rowan got up and wandered over to the old newspaper clippings on the wall, a strange mix of boredom and apprehension urging her to read over them again. There was a lot to memorize, but she had four days to kill.