The air only got chillier as the pair of siblings made their way up a slow incline through the forest. No telling what month it was exactly, but winter had definitely set in, and Alex couldn't be more upset about it.
"It's freezing," he muttered, rubbing his arms to ward off some of the cold. It was a gesture wasted.
Charlie paid him no mind as she continued on a bit ahead of him. The forest was looking a lot thinner – as it were, with all the leaves fallen onto the ground. It wasn't snowy yet, so she could still see through the spaces between the skeletal trunks to notice a clearing up ahead.
"I wish we knew how to hunt," Alex mused.
"Yeah," Charlie responded. "Sorry, I never was that kind of redneck."
Alex scoffed a small laugh and watched his own breath float in front of him.
Charlie squinted. "Just a little further ahead, you see that?"
Alex stepped up beside her and tried to see what his sister was pointing towards. "Is that a bridge?"
"Looks like it, and maybe something else," Charlie mused, squinting. "I can't see from here. Can you lend me your eyes?"
He didn't answer her, instead darting ahead on his own towards the clearing.
"Woah, woah, woah," she hissed after him. "Slow up, kid!"
He slowed his pace slightly, just enough to allow his sister to catch up to him, but he did not stop. His eyes sparkled as he looked across the ravine in the earth, a great trench connected on either side by the bridge, with a rapid river down below.
"Hand me the binoculars," he said.
Charlie rooted around in her backpack for a minute, grumbling all the while. "Quit shooting off like that before I have to knock you on your ass," she spat as she handed him the binoculars. "You don't know what could be out there."
"Could be people," Alex responded, holding the scopes up to his eyes.
"Yeah," Charlie mumbled. "That's what I'm worried about. What do you see?"
"A lift. Looks like a ski lodge," he said. "Could be a good place to spend the night."
"Sounds too good to be true," Charlie said, taking the binoculars and placing them back in her backpack. "We can scope it out, I guess. Be careful going over."
The pair of siblings quickly reached the base of the bridge, which looked passable enough, save for a few holes and broken boards. Charlie squinted her eyes and shifted her gaze across the horizon, double-checking again for anything dead or otherwise potentially dangerous. When she saw nothing of the sort, she finally stepped onto the bridge, right foot first. Alex followed closely behind, his hand wrapped around the top handle on her backpack like a leash of sorts, and they stuck to the right side.
"This is crazy," Charlie mumbled. "I can't believe there's nothing on this damn bridge."
"What?" Alex asked, his tone unnecessarily hushed, for the rushing rapids below masked any volume their voices could carry. "You expecting to find supplies?"
"No, idiot," she replied. "I just mean it's our dumb luck that nothing's pounced on us yet."
Hearing this, Alex bent down quickly to rap his knuckles against the wooden boards three times. This action earned an eye roll from his sister. "Don't jinx it," he said simply.
"I thought you were the logical smart-guy here," Charlie laughed as they continued on.
"Smart and careful are not mutually exclusive," Alex replied, the corners of his own mouth turning up.
Their quiet chuckles were cut short, however, by a figure appearing seemingly without warning on the other end of the bridge. It stalked towards them at a calm pace and it was immediately evident to Charlie that this was a living person. They stopped in their tracks as they waited for the strange man to meet them halfway.
When he was close enough, Charlie noticed the rifle in his hands and immediately threw her own up in a show of surrender. Alex took the hint and did the same.
"We don't want any trouble," Charlie raised her voice slightly.
"Boy, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that," the man replied, his tone light. "Well… guess it wouldn't do much good these days."
He reached them at last, but at least maintained a comfortable distance as he inspected the two of them. "Come on, guys," he said, "you don't have to keep your hands up."
The two of them lowered their arms at this, and Charlie spoke hesitantly again. "We're uh… just passing through, scavenging and maybe looking for a place to hole up for a bit, y'know."
"You guys need food?" the man offered, to their surprise. "We've got plenty. And, if you want, you can stay at the lodge for a bit. My group's pretty tiny, so there's more than enough to go around."
Charlie's mind was racing. As thrilled as she was about the prospect of shelter and food, alarm bells were going off in her head. Trusting strangers never came easily for her, especially when they came with out-of-this-world benefits. If anyone had had impossibly good luck in the apocalypse, it was her, and this terrified her because she knew that it had to run out one day, so everything was a gamble on her life and her brother's. She knew, despite him remaining silent, though, exactly what her brother would want.
"That's… really nice of you," she replied. "How do I know I can trust you?"
"I guess sometimes you just have to take the risk," the man replied. "You were heading up there anyways, right? I saw you two looking from across the bridge."
This threw Charlie for a loop. She glanced at his gun again, particularly at the scope on its head. This guy… had full power to shoot them, before they even saw him coming.
"Yeah… I guess risks are necessary sometimes," she mumbled.
"Great," the man smiled. "I'll take you up, then. Oh, and my name's Matthew."
"Name's Charlie. And my brother, Alex."
"Hey, thank you, man," Alex said quickly. "This is seriously nice of you."
"It's no trouble," Matthew responded, throwing his hand up in a quick gesture of humbleness. "We get visitors coming through here all the time. One couple has been staying with us for a few weeks now."
"How many of you are there?" Charlie asked as they started up the slow incline towards the lodge.
"There's me and my partner Walter, first of all. Then this older guy Kenny and his girlfriend Sarita. We've had other visitors pass through, but they all came and went."
"Why didn't they stay?" Charlie asked, afraid of sounding too suspicious but wanting to cover all her bases.
Matthew didn't seem to mind her questions. "In search of better things? Usually it's just a small group, like you guys. We give 'em some supplies or whatever they need and they're just happy to go on their way. I think when you're this far into the apocalypse it's hard to trust people."
"Even when they've shown you a great kindness?" Alex asked.
"Maybe it's like a 'get-out-while-you're-ahead' kind of thing," Matthew said, turning back to smile at the boy briefly.
Charlie could relate.
"Here we are," Matthew said as they neared the deck on the front side of the lodge. Charlie took in her view of the large building. There were a lot of windows, but they had the place boarded up securely enough. To her, it looked like a paradise on earth.
"There you are, Matt," a gruff voice resounded from the deck.
As they stepped onto the boards, Charlie saw the owner of the voice was an older man with a full beard in a baseball cap. He stood up to greet them, his smile making the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes bunch together.
"See you brought some uh, visitors," he noted, glancing at Charlie and Alex.
"You must be Kenny," Alex said, holding his hand out for the man to shake. Kenny smiled a guarded smile and took it in his own, delivering a firm and quick handshake. "I'm Alex. This is my older sister, Charlie."
"Funny name for a girl," Kenny remarked halfheartedly.
Charlie grimaced. "It's a shortening."
"Why don't you guys come in and meet the others?" Matthew said, his airy voice lightening the somewhat tense mood that had settled between them. "Walter will be happy to see some new faces."
A/N: i feel like i gotta apologize for my writing (this chapter particularly) being so dialogue heavy, but... that's just how i write, haha. and i guess maybe, it suits the game? i hope it isn't a pain to read or anything. anyway, clem & the others will probably show up in the next chapter. thanks for the reviews so far & i hope you enjoy!