Something was wrong with Bella. She was acting oddly around Ren and Sophia. Being extra gentle and kind. At first, Sophia had liked it, reminded of the world before all these monsters. But, she was treating them like little kids.
"Bella. Why can't we help you?" The day before, the teenager refused to let them go out and look for berries and fire wood. They were instead trapped inside. The dark haired girl looked up from the stack of firewood, her eyes were sad.
"It's nothing, there isn't much to do anyways." It had to be a lie. Food needed to be collected, Bella wanted to check out the forest for people, or signs of the wolves. Plus, water needed to be boiled, and Bella had been complaining about dirty clothes.
"Bells, Let us help you, we aren't bad at helping!" Ren argued, meanwhile, the youngest felt awkward standing there while the siblings fought. A sad whimper surprised them, and Bella was crying. Without thinking, Sophia ran forward, wrapping her arms around Bella, and Ren quickly followed. They were silent for a few minutes, nothing but badly hidden sobs. Leaning into their warmth, Sophia shed a few tears with her.
"I know you're not bad at helping. I appreciate all of your help. But..." Sniffling, they were pulled into a tighter hug. "You... you're still kids. And you've been amazing, but if you were to ever get hurt, I could never forgive myself." Bella sighed, letting silence engulf them.
Clouds hung low in the air, Royal was asleep curled up in the windowsill. By now, Sophia wasn't sure how long its been since she had seen her mother... and silently, she wondered if Carol missed her. What about the other people? And the adults? Some of them looked at Sophia like he was a bug. Annoying and inconvenient. But, Ren and Bella? They were nice.
"Come on. Here's what we'll do. I know it doesn't make any sense to kee you two locked up in here. So, I'll teach you how to do some of the jobs." Breaking the silence after awhile, if they were using their weight, like all the adults did, then maybe Sophia could go back to her mom soon. And protect her.
**Sophia**
"Ewwww." Ren gagged as he poked the fish with a stick. True to her word, Ren's sister was teaching them how to clean fish. Definitely a disgusting job. Scowling at the other boy, Sophia tossed the extra skin into the river.
"Ren, just get it over with, you're a scary cat." Ren ignored Sophia's teasing, and opted to hold the fishing rod while the girls cleaned the fish.
"Just ignore him Soph." Bella laughed, the mood around them had turned around. Still a little somber, but nothing so terrible. A soft 'who' from next to them, and then, Sophia gagged.
"Royal! You killed a mouse?" Said owl was preening, and eating the first food that wasn't worms. "Gross." The owl was getting better. He still couldn't fly yet, but managed to disappear every once in while from their camp.
**Sophia**
It didn't take too long for Sophia to see the first dog. She and Ren had ventured out into the forest that morning, Bella had asked them to go fishing again, something about drying out the meat for winter. Bella was busy setting up noise traps within the fences, if anything found its way inside that was bigger than a squirrel, they would know.
The kids were sitting on a tree branch, holding the makeshift fishing pole they made. Luckily they had enough fishing line that they could sit on the tree hanging over the lake and fish. It was probably for that reason, that the dog didn't maul them.
"Oh, and then, I would totally make a chocolate cake, and-" Sophia's dream was cut off by Ren's scared look, and he covered her mouth. If his hand wasn't shaking, perhaps she would have thought it to be a bad joke. But, she followed his finger, pointing about 200 yards away.
It was too far away to make out exactly what it was, but there was a huge four legged animal. It reminded Sophia of her old neighbor's dog, a mean Pit Bull, and if that's what this one was, she was incredibly worried. It's was sniffing around the river bank, digging around for something.
"Do you think?" Barely even audible, they pulled their feet up to their chests. Ren nodded slowly, and, another figure stepped out from the woods. This one was even bigger than the last, and bulkier too on its four legs.
The children saw it before the dogs did. A zombie, it stumbled out of the forest, attracted by the sound of living things no doubt. And, the moment the dogs noticed it was there, they burst into action. The bigger one tackled it in one fluid movement, and the other one began ripping it apart from the head down. After they had completely killed it, the bigger one raised its head to the sky, and began a deep howl.
Sophia wasn't ashamed to admit she clung to Ren, the sound had haunted her dreams the past couple nights, but up close, seeing rabid animals just as ferocious as zombies, but even faster.
In a matter of seconds, more howls joined in. The brunette boy hugged her back, trying to be reassuring. If they were this loud... were they purposely attracting the zombies here? It couldn't be safe... right?
They got their answer, as the dogs began eating the dead person, and Sophia nearly lost her lunch of fish and peaches. Forcing her eyes closed, images of dogs eating her came to mind.
"They're just dogs. Just dogs." Whispering to herself, Ren nodded slowly, they were both shaking. "We should go. We really should go back." The mere thought of being able to churn up around the embers of a fire sounded nice, eating those sweet berries Bella had found yesterday. Even if they didn't get fish, she doubted that anyone would be upset about that. What could these monsters do to her and Ren?
"Come on, quiet. We'll go by the trees." Ren pulled her to her feet, and they both clung to the trunk, stabilizing themselves before even turning back the way they came. "We'll have to tell Bella to travel like we do. If we go in the trees, we won't leave a scent behind." This was suddenly much more difficult, Bella as too tall to jump through the trees like they did. And what about Royal?
They needed to get out of here, quick.