Nitaliyah sat up and gasped audibly, cold beads of sweat dotting her feverish skin. Her lungs were on fire, and her chest heaved outwards in a series of heavy, labored breaths. She'd had that nightmare again, and it didn't take long for her to realize that another pair of eyes was staring at her, watching her from nearly eight feet away. Ashley was sitting on the floor cross-legged with an open shotgun, loading shells into the open barrel. The fire was still raging in the hearth, and judging from the slightly aromatic scent in the air, she deduced that Ashley had found more firewood. He wordlessly glanced up at her. The incensed flames cast a bright reflection on his dirty face and illuminated his deep brown eyes, making him look sort of...handsome. Nitaliyah rolled her eyes and gripped the right side of her head, trying to overcome the effects of yet another hangover.

It was definitely the alcohol.

Her eyes went wide when the harsh sounds of horse hooves mingled with deep voices rang inside her ears.

"Did...did you hear that?" she asked breathlessly, her eyes wide in anxiety. He looked up from his work and glared at her again. A deep silence engulfed the room, and the only thing that could be heard was the frigid early morning air whipping at the outside of the house. His eyes zoomed around the room.

"Hear...what?"

"Those voices." she answered. "I thought I heard voices."

Ash looked over at her in pure confusion, then resumed loading shells into his shotgun.

"You're paranoid, lady." he said, pausing for a moment to throw Nitaliyah her blouse. "...And er...your headlights are flashing."

For a minute, she had no idea what he was referring to, until she felt a cold breeze pass across her bare torso. Now was one of those mornings that she forgot that she slept half-naked. Nitaliyah blushed and pulled her blouse over her shoulders, quickly fastening the buttons to hide her pair of natural perks. She pulled her knees to her chest and stared over at him for a few seconds, her mind temporarily lost in a sea of curiosity.

"What...what exactly was I saying?" she asked, the words slipping out of her mouth like an unintended blasphemy. Ashley shrugged, reassembled his firearm, and cocked it.

"How the hell should I know? I don't speak Romanian." he replied casually, stuffing the remaining shells into his back pocket. Ash neglected to add that he'd heard her crying in her sleep for most of the night. Poor thing.

She muttered a curse under her breath and was about to say a few choice words about him when a hard object crashed through one of the windows, shattering the boards. A flaming circular object landed on the floor between them, giving off a powerfully rank stench. It smelled of burning flesh and rotten meat. Nitaliyah poured her canteen water on the object in an attempt to extinguish it. Nitaliyah gripped the steaming object in the palm of her hand and put it to the light. The thing was charred beyond recognition, but she could see two deep holes, what looked like a jawbone, and crude rigid-edged teeth protruded from the upper jaw. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and goose bumps quickly blanketed her skin.

"A human skull." she muttered absently, her eyes growing red with anger. "I guess we're not alone."

At that moment, a loud noise could be heard, and what sounded like angry voices followed suit. He had no idea what the calloused voices were saying, mainly because there were so many of them and none seemed to speak proper English. Ash instinctively grabbed Nitaliyah and dropped down, roughly pulling her to the floor with him.

"What the devil are you doing?" she asked him, shaking herself out of his grasp.

"The element of surprise." he answered mostly out of annoyance. "Now shut up and lay still."

Ash smiled to himself, at the same time realizing how long it had been since he'd said that to a woman. Reluctantly obeying his orders, Nitaliyah shut her mouth and laid flat on her stomach, but not before cursing her male comrade in four different languages.

The door flew open, knocking another cloud of choking pale dust into the room. Before a foot was set inside, the loud, obnoxious sound of his shotgun went off, knocking the poor creature through the outside door frame and back into the early morning air. The two of them rose from the floor and rushed outside, looking around as if expecting more. Ash bent down and poked the cold, bullet-ridden corpse and grimaced. The man, goat, or whatever it was, had hideously enlarged lips and jet-black eyes that practically bulged out of his head. Its disturbingly purple-bluish skin that was plagued with dark warts and pimples, some of which oozed with a thick, cheesy green pus. A pair of sharp, neatly filed horns stuck out on both sides of the thing's head, and shone as if they had been recently polished. Its blackened, crooked teeth protruded from his mouth, they too, slicked with dirt...or really bad plaque. Its shirt was stained with blood from where it had been shot, and in its clutched hand was the crude axe that was meant to be a weapon. He knelt down to see some sort of badge or crest decorating the right part of his chest above his heart. It was gold or something close to it and inscribed with a message, but the thing was mangled beyond recognition by the bullet holes.

"LET ME GO, YOU BRUTES!"

He quickly turned his head to see two other monstrosities man-handling Nitaliyah. One had her by the arms and the other had her by the ankles; both of them threatening to carry her away. She was screaming her head off and trying to fight them at the same time, but the woman was no match to her muscle-bound, possibly brain dead abductors. He reloaded and fired twice, hitting both gargantuan in their heads and leaving a bloody mash of raw hamburger meat lingering on their shoulders. For a few minutes, the bodies stood in place, their limbs still holding onto her hands and ankles. Ash pulled her from the grip of the corpses and tossed her over his shoulder.

"Get your hands OFF me!" she shrieked, pounding his back with her fists. "Just WHO do you THINK you ARE?! Put me down NOW!"

He picked her up and threw her onto the ground, so hard that he was sure he heard one of her bones snap. Ash smiled in the back of his mind as he saw her grip her elbow and grit her teeth in pain as he saw dark red blood gush through her fingers. She may not have been naked or tied up, but at least he got the satisfaction in knowing that he made her bleed.

"You know, you should try being a little more grateful when somebody saves your life." he said harshly, walking back to where their horses stood. She stood up and charged behind him angrily, the blood from her elbow trickling down her arm.

"Who do you think you are, putting your filthy hands on me like that, PIG?"

He stopped as he felt her hand grip his shoulder, and right now, her voice was beginning to annoy him quite a bit. His eye began to twitch uncontrollably, and his blood began to boil. He gritted his teeth hard enough to chip a tooth. He was straining to hold back so bad to the point that he almost felt a major blood vessel burst in his brain. His anger had reached its peak, and as he turned around all he could see was red. He felt his open palm swing against the cold air and connect with skin. A brief female scream broke the silence, and a loud thud could be heard colliding against the morning grass. As he came to, Ash looked down to see Nitaliyah kneeling on the ground before him, her hand covering the left side of her face. Her head was lowered, and she was shaking.

Nitaliyah was whimpering softly like a little girl, and although her hair covered part of her face, he could see her lower lip tremble violently as if she was about to burst into tears. That seemed to be sort of out of character for her. Her head rose to him, and her big, bright eyes focused on him. To his surprise, her gaze wasn't one of anger or vengeance; but pain, almost like an injured puppy. Tears welled in the woman's eyes, and in a matter of seconds, Nitaliyah broke down and started to cry…loudly. Then the horrifying realization had finally sunk in. He actually hit her.

A more sadistic part of him wanted to laugh and kick her in the face or something, but the more gentlemanly, 'don't-raise-your-hand-against-a-woman-unless-the-bitch-is-trying-to-kill-you' part of him felt sorry for her. He pulled the sobbing woman off the ground and began to apologize.

"Come on now, Nitaliyah. I...I'm sorry." he tried to explain, trying hard not to sound like a hostile woman beater. "I didn't mean it. I just...lost my temper a little, but you shouldn't have-"

Before he could say another word, Nitaliyah's closed fist crashed into his face, forcing him to stumble backwards. Ash felt his jawbone dislocate for a second, his vision instantly went blurry, and for a second or two, he swore he heard birds chirping inside his head. A sharp stab of pain surged through his head, leaving a throbbing sensation viciously pulsating in his brain. He grabbed the trunk of a nearby tree for support and stood up shakily, at the same time trying to mentally process what had just happened. He put his hand to his nose and was surprised when he felt a small pool of warm blood trickle into the palm of his hand. Sweet Jesus. This broad punched harder than he did.

"Now we're even." she smiled sweetly, wiping the artificial tears from her eyes. She opened her pack and once again glanced at her pocket watch before heading towards their horses.

"Once you're done bitching, saddle up. We only have twenty-two hours of daylight left."