She cursed while curling up in a ball at the seat of the snowmobile, clutching to her legs that were burning in pain, some tears slid down her face, burning her skin cold even beneath the face mask.
She lost at least one hour in the middle of nowhere, plus the time she needed to make sure if she was still in the right path, before resuming her journey, now she thanked Mina for the extra fuel cell, she might need it later.
Sometime after resuming her journey she saw the smoke again, behind a snow hill, she stopped the vehicle, took the rifle, and made her way on foot util she found the entrance to a cave.
…
She never thought that her mission would require her to spend her time in a hole like that.
They stopped for the day to eat and make calculations to guarantee they were still on route.
The constant calculations, long hours of walking and pre-made rations weren´t that bad, the worst part was, her company for the journey.
Two men were assigned to act as her helpers and bodyguards, she could see in their eyes how fed up they were and how they looked her body up and down, even with the thick clothes that covered her from toes to neck.
She was pretty sure that they were afraid of what would happen if just the word of something they did returned to the city and that was the only reason she was still safe.
Despite all that, they were useful, somehow, they managed to make a small fire with the remaining resources inside the cove to conserve some fuel for their personal generators.
She was lost in thoughts when one of them spoke up.
"Did you hear that?"
She lowered the map in her hands focusing on the sounds, a light humming got to her ears and then stopped.
"Must be the wind…" She said, the others shrugged.
"So, how far are we?" One of them asked after some time, popping open a ration can.
"If we keep like this, we are one day to the first objective, since we don´t have confirmation about scouts to escort us we- "
Noise, snow shuffling, they all shoot their heads to the entrance of the cove. Both men stood up putting their hands inside their coats in search for their guns.
"Who's there?!"
"Hey! Hi!" A girl with short black hair appeared, her steps heavy but almost soundless and calculated, they seemed almost unnatural "I thought I saw smoke, good that I got here, I'm a scout, are you all lost?"
Both men slipped their empty hands out naturally and looked back to the girl curled close to the fire.
Alice took that second to analyze them, clothes with much better insulation and well conserved than any other of the city or survivors she had seen, bags of supplies stocked for some days and by the looks of it, they had guns.
"Where are you from?" The girl spoke and she got dazzled for a second, lost in a sky-blue stare and golden hair.
"A city, not far from here" She snaped back to reality with the sound of the fire crackling.
The blonde raised an eyebrow to the answer "Are you our escort?"
Alice gave back a confused look "Sorry? I mean…I can take you guys to the city, but I am not assigned to rescue anyone, are you from another city? Is it far?"
The man to her right looked back to the blonde girl "She doesn't know"
She gave the man a nod and took a deep breath before asking "Which city. Are you from?"
"New London"
She ran the names in her head, all the cities that could have survived and someone not on the list had to find them, even if they were close it was a risk sharing information with anyone not from the project, even with their first stop so close.
"And did you find us, all by yourself?"
"My group is making a search in another place; we could join them and go back"
The girl sighed "She can´t know, just do something about her but leave the body, she´s probably from a scout group, if they don't find the body they may search the whole frostlands, we don´t want to meet them on our journey if they are from another city"
"What?"
The men looked to the girl, as if they were hungry, their faces turned sick smile "And you don´t mind if we have some fun first, right?"
The blonde looked to the other girl, there was fear and desperation on her face, her knees bent to run, arms outstretched forward, breath accelerated.
"Wait, if you guys don´t want help I can just leave, I never saw any of you!" She looked directly to the girl's eye "I was just trying to help!"
Both men were approaching her, step by step, still waiting for the permission.
"No! Wait, we can work something out…"
"Do whatever you want, just leave her in one piece" She said and closed her eyes.
The girl tried to run but slipped, she turned to the entrance, crawling, her hands digging the snow desperately, one of the men grabbed her legs, she screamed.
The blonde just covered her ears, trying not to listen to what was about to happen.
"So, that´s how it´s going to be huh?"
The voice was from the girl, but her voice wasn´t weak anymore, now it is was fierce and sharp.
There was a metallic click.
A loud burst like a shoot echoed.
It scared her. A high pitch note hammered her ears.
Then choking.
When she opened her eyes the cave celling was painted red, one of the men laying on the ground with a dark scarlet stain on his back.
The other was standing still, not a muscle moving.
The body moved and rolled to its side, a hole in his chest, from underneath it the black-haired girl appeared. She stood up, a rifle in one hand. Her eyes focused on the second man.
He tried to reach for the pistol inside his coat but in a blink the girl was to close.
Her right leg rose striking his knee, the sound was like a metal bar hitting a slab of meat.
Then a loud pop and a scream, not from pain but from agony caused by the sight of his knee, bent inwards and horizontally, he fell to the ground.
"Ugghhh…you b-bitch!" He tried reaching inside his coat again, but she stepped on his hand pressing it to his chest, the man growled in pain, his teeth clenched and breathing heavy.
Lowering herself she got his gun, examined it with a smile and showed it to him, a fine revolver made of black steel with a polished wood handgrip and a barrel longer than the usual ones.
"That´s some nice piece of work mate, where did you get it?"
"F-Fuck you" He raised his head and hissed through his teeth.
"That´s what I though" She tossed the gun up grabbing it the by the barrel and smacked his face with the guns butt. Another crack was heard, and the man blacked out.
She stood up again, put the pistol inside her own coat and her eyes darted to the girl.
One more metal click, the Winchester model spit out a slug, she walked to the girl that had yet not moved an inch.
She crouched in front of the blonde; the gun covered with snow now in her lap.
The girl felt vulnerable, the fire shined into the other one´s amber eyes, in front of her there was a ferocious animal that was just put into a corner, survived, and now was staring her eye to eye as if she was her prey.
A sweet smile appeared on the black-haired girl face, but her eyes were dripping with poison.
"I think we started with the wrong foot" She extended a gloved hand "Alice"
There was a long pause until the girl managed to say "Emily" shily, cautious and with a weak handshake.
"It´s a beautiful name" She looked back to the horror scene "You don´t seem very shocked Emily"
"They were just my escort and of lower value; besides, they would turn on me sooner or later, I was taught to not mourn over this kind of people" She didn´t stuttered, not even once.
"You´re right" Her smile grew even wider and her eyes narrowed "You´re a smart one, where are you from?"
"I can´t tell"
She chuckled "Okay and I respect that, but I am losing my patience" She removed a glove, traced one lock of hair out of Emily´s face, her fingers brushed the girls cheek making a jolt run in her skin, despite the scene in front of her, she knew that it wasn´t fear it wasn´t fear "Think a lot about you next answer, where are you headed?"
Silence filled the cove, the fire had died out, but the place felt as hot as if it was the insides of a boiler.
"Winterhome"
Alice´s smile died and came back with a crack of laughter, she stood up to not fall backwards.
"What´s so funny?"
"You see, I'm headed to Winterhome right now, so if that hadn´t happened we all could-"
She was stopped when something tugged her clothes. The girl was on her knees, holding her pants like a child.
"Please take me with you, I really need to get there"
At this point she didn't knew what to think of the girl anymore, she was strong and smart and even if she was trying to convince someone that she wasn´t scared, it was very much the contrary, but there was something very important in Winterhome if she was so desperate to ask help from someone who had just killed her travel companions. Or they really were just trash.
"You do know I just killed at least one of them, right? Not so sure about the other one"
She nodded.
"And what makes you think…I won´t do that to you"
"Because you know that somehow I am important, and you are a curious type who would get in trouble for sticking your nose in other people's business"
She clenched her teeth, the nerve of the girl to talk to her like that, she liked it "And how do you know that?"
"As you said, your group is somewhere else, so if you are here alone, judging by your determination and skill you´re their leader or someone strong enough that they trust, so you are my best chance to stay alive right now, besides you probably have a vehicle"
"Perceptive aren´t you?"
The girl frowned, she talked to much.
"Okay, I will take you there" She shrugged.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I need one thing from you"
"What is it?"
"Sleep"
"What?"
The last thing she saw was the butt of a rifle in her face, a loud impact in her ears and then darkness.