Chapter IV

"Here, you put the log like this and make three steps back. Then you just aim and swing." The axe landed with a thump, splitting the log into two halves. "Your turn." Anna handed me the axe and put another log on a tree stump. I made three steps back, like she'd told me to and raised the axe above my head and swung it. I missed the log and the blade of the axe sunk into the wood of the stump. This was my third attempt to cut the wood but each time the blade landed too far to the right.

"Gosh, I'm so terrible at this," I said while trying to free the axe.

"Nah, you were closer this time," Anna wasn't giving up. "Come here," she pulled my arm so I was standing in front of her. She moved closer so our bodies were touching and I couldn't help myself but feel how warm she was. She looked over my shoulder and said: "Maybe you should stand a bit more to the left." She pushed me to the side. "Perfect. Now, imagine that the log was still right in the centre and take a swing again," she said and moved away from me. I looked at her and she nodded to encourage me. Taking a deep breathe I pretended the log was still in the centre so I raised the axe once again and swung it to the log. Two pieces fell on the ground.

"Yay, you did it!" Anna bounced happily and went to grab another log.

"This really wasn't that hard as I thought it would be," I told her, feeling proud.

"I told you you could do it!" she said while putting the piece of wood on the stump. "And since you have to practice so you can master the woodcutting … Cut these, I'll carry split wood inside and then we can take a break," she pointed to a small pile of logs.

"Yes, ma'am," I saluted and she laughed.

It'd been a month since I'd decided to stay with Anna. Not for one second I regretted the choice I'd made. It was actually nice to have someone around. We spent every moment doing something. It was mostly her teaching me things, like cutting wood, or showing me how to make useful knots. When I told her I didn't know to make animal traps she would just roll her eyes at me and wondered how I survived for so long. I just laughed and told her that I had my ways. I bragged that I knew which berries would kill you and which would make a tasty tea. "But you can't live off berries," she argued.

"Oh, believe me, when you have nothing to eat, those small pearls of sugar can mean a difference between life and death," I defended myself.

I was sure that that was the moment when she decided that her main mission was to teach me how to hunt. I wasn't really excited about the idea of killing animals but since I lived in such dangerous and unpredictable times, some things were just worth to be learnt. And it isn't like you haven't killed before, I thought to myself when that particular scene, which included killing a person, played before my mind. That's why we'd been going to forest every day. Anna would show me how to track animals, how to find their shelters, how to make traps and where to set them. From what I'd learnt from her, I could easily say that she was very experienced in survival techniques where I was just a lucky amateur who knew where to look for cans of food and how to start a fire. I was fascinated by her ability to make useful tools from materials nature provided and to see tiny details and interpret them correctly. Like, for an example, we were tracking a trail of a hare and Anna told me it was fresh. I asked her how did she know so she took my finger and gently put it on one of the footprints. "What do you feel?" she asked.

"Um, it's cold and wet?" I answered confused.

"Exactly. Because it's cold it should be frozen but since a hare was holding still on this spot, the ice covering the ground thawed underneath its paws."

An hour later we returned to the safe room with a hare in a bag. Anna killed it with a single arrow through its chest. That was another and probably the most fascinating thing about her skills – she was a deadly archer. She could hit a moving target from a huge distance and the recurve bow was her most valuable possession and she took an extra care of it so I felt honoured when she let me hold it. And naturally, archery was another thing she wanted to teach me. Consequently, these activities were starting to form into a new routine which I was grateful for because I wasn't really fond of changes and disorder. I was starting to love this new routine. We would wake up every morning, eat breakfast, then go outside where I would take lessons on survival, or just do things that needed to be done. Then we'd go back, start a fire, eat dinner, take a bath and go to sleep. I wasn't even aware of how exhausted I was because as soon as I laid down I'd fall asleep. The best part of this routine, though, was Anna. I often caught myself looking and admiring every move she made. She was so confident in everything she did and I noticed that every time she was focused on something she would furrow her brows and stick the point of her tongue into the corner of her mouth which I found extremely adorable. And she was doing it again.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked when I saw she was poking her nail into her thumb, brows furrowed and the point of her tongue sticking out.

"Ah, there's a splinter stuck in my skin and I can't get it out," she answered angrily, her gaze never leaving the offending piece of wood.

I took my gloves of and approached her. "Here, let me see," I said and took her hand into mine. I held it close to my face to get a better look at her thumb. There was a tiny splinter which sunk into the skin deep enough to cause uncomfortable feeling while moving the finger. I squeezed the skin so the point of the splinter came to the surface and managed to get a grip on it and pulled it out. "Better?"

"Better," she smiled.

And then without thinking I planted a small kiss on her thumb. What the hell am I doing? I was sure Anna let out a silent gasp but as soon as realized what I was doing I let her hand and put my gloves back on my own. "I, uh … I'm done here," I said and pointed to the pile of split logs. "I can help you carry the rest."

"Yeah, okay," she said and just before she turned around I saw her grinning. She isn't angry? I wondered and a thought about Anna not minding such contact warmed my heart.

We carried the rest of logs in silence until we were done and Anna said: "I think we deserve a break now."

"A break sounds good," I replied. She handed me a bottle of water and just then I realized how thirsty I was. I gulped down half of the content and sat down on the chair facing Anna.

"Wanna see something?" Anna asked when an awkward silence started descending on us.

"Yes, sure!" I said wondering what was it that she wanted me to see. She stood up and tilted her head as a sign for me to follow. I did and we left the safe room. This time we didn't leave the house but instead she led me through the hall to the atrium and then up the stairs. We didn't stop there and she led me further around the first floor which I never explored more before, for fear I'd be intruding Anna's privacy. Then we stopped in front of the yellow door, wonderfully decorated with flowers even though the colour was slowly fading away. Anna opened the door and we entered. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was still pretty much intact. Walls were covered with posters and frames of pictures, furniture unbroken and, what caught my attention the most, a piano in the corner next to the window.

"This is-was my room," she informed me as she sat on the chair next to the desk. She opened a drawer and pulled something out. I didn't see what though; my eyes were fixed on the piano. "Do you play?" I asked her.

"Yes, well, I used to anyway," she answered. "I don't know if it even works anymore. It's probably completely out of tune by now."

I sat on the piano bench and lifted the fall board to reveal the keyboard. I pressed a key and a sound was released. "Or it isn't," she corrected herself and stood up to sit beside me. "Do you play?" she repeated my question.

"No, but my boyfriend did," I answered. "He was really good."

"What happened to him?" she asked and knew the answer as soon as she saw my face. "It was the virus, right?"

I nodded even though that wasn't quite true but I wasn't ready to share this side of me with her. Yet another silence descended on us until Anna broke it.

"I was seven when my parents took me to the music school. I didn't like it at first but then it sort of became a part of me. I've always loved music but to be the one, who creates it, started to feel really important to me. So I played a lot. I practiced every day and my playing improved so much over years my teacher even suggested that with such devotion I could start a career as a musician. She encouraged me to start writing my own music and so I did. But before showing it to her I would always show it to mum and dad first. I and my parents would gather here once a week and I would play my music to them and they always seemed to like it. And they were so proud of me," a single tear rolled down her cheek as she continued. "Me playing to them was the only thing that stayed the same after my dad came back from war. I was never good at anything but breaking my own bones so it was like a revelation to them when I found myself in music. Well, later I'd do archery as well but I could really see myself writing and playing music, you know?" I nodded when a sad smile curved her lips. "But then the stupid virus happened and everything went to hell. Most of my neighbours ran to the city because they were sure authorities there would start an evacuation but they were wrong. There was no evacuation and none of them returned. Some of us stayed and hoped for a miracle but when the priest died we knew there was no hope. Only I and some other guy survived but he was gone as soon as his brother died …" she trailed off, fiddling with her fingers. "I buried them myself, Elsa, my parents," she sobbed and turned her head to face me. Then she leaned her forehead on my shoulder and cried. My heart was breaking and I could see my vision was getting blurred by tears. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. "We all did," I said quietly when tears broke the dam of self-control and started running down my face. She wrapped her arms around my waist held onto me as if her life depended on it.

We sat like that for what seemed like an eternity. Tears were pouring down our faces and washing away the long oppressed feeling of loss.

When our sobbing calmed and only sniffles were heard we broke our hug and looked at each other's puffy faces. We both smiled and we knew an unspoken deal was made between us – that we would stick together no matter what.

"Would you play for me, Anna?" I asked her. She looked at me and nodded. Slowly, she turned to the keyboard and wiped her face from tears.

"Any specific wishes?" she asked absent-minded while running her fingers over the keys to feel the surface once again.

"I would like to hear your music," I whispered and a soft smile brushed her lips. There was a moment of silence when she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Then the sound of the most magnificent melody I have ever heard filled the room. She moved her head and body along the rhythm and it looked like she was in trance. The smile was still on her lips when I looked at her and in that moment I knew; I was in love with her.

Wow guys, thank you for so many reviews, favs and follows; I really appreciate it! Your actions fuel my motivation.

Now to the hard bit; I'm sorry to disappoint everyone who thought this is a zombie apocalypse fic - it isn't. It's just a where-a-lot-of-people-die-and-everything-goes-to-hell type of an apocalypse. It will be all explained in the following chapters. So, I'm sorry again and I hope this doesn't discourage you from reading this story.

But if you're interested in zombies and Frozen mash-up, you should definitely read Even at Worlds End by General-MeMowwhich is really great and Restless Souls by OperationElsanna which looks promising.