A/N: Good evening everyone! We are so happy with the support this fic has been receiving :D It's really great that you are all so curious about where we will take this story, and we'll try our best not to disappoint. Hope you enjoy this new chapter :) Let us know!

Terrie & Handy xxx

Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1 and 2.

Heading South - Chapter 3

x

Unpredictable life. Unpredictable world. Words had never rung so true. The meaning of existence had never been...so meaningless. There was no rest. No peace. Sleeping could be a trap. Walking could lead one closer to them. Whatever you did, nothing was safe. Every noise made could be heard. No reckoning was ever forgotten. Ever. The world seemed darker than it had the day before. He told her that wasn't true, but still, it seemed that way.

xxx

The snow began to fall, harder now, hiding the path before them. The storm was silent, numbing away their senses, their eyes, ears and touch. Frozen fingertips and toes, breathing was hard, walking even harder. They had to slow their pace, neither knew what could cross their way; a tree, a hole, people...but, all that was soon forgotten when John realised they had been separated by the white curtain that fell from above. He stopped then, his heart racing, his cold body beginning to burn with worry.

'Anna!' he yelled, sick with fear, calling out to her frantically in the blinding snow and darkness.

'Mr Bates! I'm here.'

She sounded weak, but not so distant. He stopped, trying to tell where her voice was coming from. His worry was causing him to lose patience. 'Why must you walk so far behind me!' he scolded, but the storm buffered his words before they reached her ears.

'I'm here.' She walked against him at last, taking a strong hold on his stretched out arms.

'Anna!' He took a deep, relieved breath, holding her by the shoulders, making sure she was all right. 'Don't ever do that again.'

'What?'

'Disappear! I want you walking by my side.'

She smiled as he straightened the scarf around her head - it was becoming a habit of his now. 'I didn't disappear, and you walk too fast for me. You have long legs.'

'Just…just don't do it again,' he pleaded. 'Are you all right?'

'Only chilled to the bone and tired.'

'I know, but we have to keep walking before we freeze to death.'

'Mr Bates, we can't see a thing, we'll get lost,' she told him; her eyes trying their best to adjust to the environment.

'No more than we already are. Let's go. I think the road is not far,' he said, taking her arm and placing it around his. 'Just take my arm, all right. I don't want to lose you again.'

The passion in his voice surprised her, and her heart answered in a way she hadn't expected it to, or at all. Anna was not used to feeling more than necessary. No one was, in this God-forsaken world. She took his arm then, holding it tight, and they continued to walk and hope for the best.

x

Hope for the best…

It's said, humans are as good as they are bad; an always tremulous balance, ready to fall at any given moment. Some step to the left, others to the right...it depends on the path they choose to take.

Some never gave a thought to whether their luck was someone else's misfortune. For others, it's that misfortune that makes them lucky. For that, some men are lost. Not in the paths they take but their souls. Souls that never got the chance to feel anything but hatred. No excuses needed. No traumas spent.

One such man and his companion followed the couple stealthily, from a distance, catching only glimpses of them now and then through a blast of snow. At times he thought he could hear their voices carried on a gust of wind. He couldn't decipher what they were saying. Not that it mattered to him - he couldn't care less. He was a man obsessed with one thing. He hoped for nothing but revenge and pain...and death.

x

'I knew we were close!' John shouted, as his feet touched the hard and compressed concrete of the road. 'I knew it!'

'Finally!' Anna exclaimed, watching as he ran ahead, almost childlike down the road they had been searching for. Grey, dark, even more lifeless than the forest they had just crossed. Some cars could be seen, old, rusting away; memories of once a busy way out of this county. Memories of people going to work, to school, of Monday morning traffic. Life was so different now; for Anna, this life was all she had ever known. These cars, these memories had only been stories told to her.

'Look!' John pointed out ahead of them, interrupting Anna from her thoughts. 'A lorry!'

She ran to him, eyeing the vehicle eagerly. 'I've never seen a lorry before. Only pictures.'

'No?' he asked, surprised. 'Well, you'll be sleeping in one tonight.' With some effort John wrenched open the rusted door, peeking inside. 'Look, it has a small compartment behind the seats with a bed and all! Let's get in!' The excitement on her face after his words could be mistaken for something so much bigger. It broke his heart. What had this girl gone through before crossing his way? He was curious.

'Nice...it's been ages since I last sat down on an actual seat. Let alone a bed!' Inside, Anna couldn't help but touch and look at every corner of the lorry, mesmerised by it.

'Me too,' John sighed, sitting back in the driver's seat and enjoying the soft feeling against his back and neck. 'Stuff of dreams. Why don't you try the bed? It looks inviting, hmm? And there's a blanket on it. We can use another one.'

Anna nodded and jumped to the back, where a small, single bed was built in.

'I've never even been in a car,' she told him, her grin never ceasing. 'I didn't know they had beds!'

'Cars, no. But some lorries do.' He turned from looking through the glove box, scavenging for anything they might be able to take with them. 'You don't know much of the world, do you?'

She faced him and winked. 'I'm learning with you.' Her cheeky remark made him smile.

'You know how to write, and read…' he said, nodding toward the book she had placed safely between the seats. 'Who taught you? Your brother?'

'No, my dad did. He was a teacher, although, he never had the chance to work as one,' Anna replied longingly.

'I see. And what do you write in that book of yours?'

'It's a journal.'

'A diary?'

'Yes,' she smiled, biting her lower lip shyly. 'It helps me to keep track of the days. Not to lose my mind... I've written about you too.'

He looked up at that. 'Good things, I hope.'

'Well…' she teased, and he chuckled before she continued. 'This pen was my dad's; I'm always afraid it will run out of ink.'

'I have a pen…' John offered, taking an old pen of his from the outside pocket of his backpack. 'Save that one and write with this. I rarely use it.'

Anna took the pen, considering his gesture. It meant so much to her. 'Thank you,' she faced him almost teary eyed. 'I'll save my dad's then.'

'And even if it runs out of ink,' John added, 'you should keep it always. We need to hold onto all the memories we have from our loved ones.'

'And what do you keep from your loved ones?'

John peered out of the window, trying to run away from her question; from his answer; watching as the snow continued to fall and showed no signs of stopping. His memories? They played in his mind, over and over again, always, now. His memories? The gun he carried in the inside pocket of his jacket and that she didn't know about. That one bullet, that one shred of a miserable hope that was all he could get, all he asked for when needed. His memories? A sharp sound ripping through the stillness, and then the piercing silence of nothing but tears and a shattering sadness, shattering guilt - so great, oh so great it made it hard to breathe. His memories? Loneliness.

'What are you looking at out there?' she asked him a moment after - his reply had never come to be - and he realised then that he had been seeing something other than snow.

Something...something that wasn't part of the view.

'What- oh, nothing, just…' John tried his best to see beyond the line of the trees, where the road met the forest. Was it movement he had seen, was it a shadow? Nothing but a storm, maybe it had just been his tired eyes. 'Nevermind,' he said, eyeing one of the pistols tied to his backpack. If something happened, it was right within his reach. 'Let's rest, enjoy these seats…'

'I have to take my shoes off,' Anna protested to herself. 'My feet are frozen.'

'Let me see.'

'My feet?' She eyed him, unsure.

Her gaze confused him. 'Yes... what's wrong?'

'I once read about…' She hesitated for a second. 'Men who have this... thing for feet…and it's not the first time you ask me to see mine.'

John laughed. 'What? What kind of books have you been reading, Anna Smith? I don't have a thing for feet! Be sure of that. I just want to see if they're too bad.' He shot her a look then, purposely trying to scare her. 'Some people lose their toes because of the cold, you know.'

Anna looked horrified.

'Come on, let me see,' he said, moving to the back of the cab and sitting beside her on the small bed. Without a second thought, she did as he asked, leaning back on the mattress and placing her feet on his legs after John gestured for her to do so. 'Let's see…' slowly, he began to take her boots off, and then her socks, which proved to be rather painful to Anna.

'Blisters...bad ones,' he announced, his expression crumbling at the sight.

'Will my toes fall off?' she asked him, as naively as humanly possible.

He couldn't help but smile. 'Not just yet, and not while I'm around. At least I hope not.' His words although, didn't bring her any hope and he had to chuckle when he noticed her already mournful expression. 'Don't worry. They won't fall off.'

'Ouch!' she complained, as he tried to take a better look.

'I'm sorry. I'm being as gentle as I can.'

'I know you are.'

They faced each other. Her reply had come out too sure, too soft, almost reassuring him instead, that she trusted him in every way. They shared a moment of silence, different from any other they had shared until then. Tender almost.

'All right, let me get the first aid kit. I'll make you as good as new,' he said at last, reaching for his backpack.

Anna had never known a man's touch could be so gentle as he bent low over her feet in the near blackness of the lorry cab. The sensation of his warm breath on her skin relaxing her, nearly putting her to sleep.

Minutes later, she felt him rise from the bed. 'Put your socks back on and cover up now,' he said softly.

'Where are you going?'

'Up front. You get yourself a good night's sleep,' John urged her.

'You deserve a good night's sleep too, Mr Bates.' She sensed his reluctance. 'Look, why would you want to sleep in the front, sitting up, when we can easily share this bed and both blankets. Now that just makes sense.'

She was right.

He sighed deeply and bent to remove his boots, 'Shove over then,' he said, knowing he wouldn't sleep a bit.

xxx

'They're settled...let's get 'em-.'

'No! Wait.' He grabbed the other one by the sleeve of his coat, stopping him from stepping out behind the treeline they had been hiding.

'Wait?! We can't just wait. We're not in any condition to waste these two. The others are running low, before we know it there won't be any left. What then, uh? And look, a female. We haven't had a new one for a long time. We could get some use out of her.'

'No...she's mine.' He had decided back on that one day, weeks ago. Now, he only needed an opportunity to make his words true.

'Since when?'

'Since when I told you!'

'What about him?' the other asked. 'He's a big fellow. We could get plenty off him. Maybe sell.'

'No. I want him dead. I want him dead, and I want her for myself.'

'Let's do it then!'

'Are you stupid?!' he spat, smacking the other across his head. 'He's armed, and he's dangerous. He'd kill us in a minute. We have to get the others first. There's some roaming to do around this area again.'

'It's a deal then,' the other smiled, already planning ahead. The killing was something he took great pleasure in. But then, all of them did.

'It's a deal.' John and Anna had encountered him before. Their fate had been settled in that very moment between saving a life and death. Everyone's fate had, for that matter.

Thank you for reading :)