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As soon as Fox put her gun away, Emma began picking the other woman's brain for information. "Do you know what happened to everyone?" she asked as she followed Fox through the house.

Fox laughed, "Haven't you seen the zombies?"

"Yes, that's not what I meant. Everyone else. Do you know where they went?"

"No fucking clue." She walked out to the backyard. Emma froze at the door way, staring at the bloody mess in her backyard.

When Fox had said she had shot a moose, Emma was expecting to find a moose carcass lying out on the back lawn, perhaps cut open and a bit bloody. What she was not expecting to see was a body strung up and hanging from a tree. It had already been skinned, revealing the animal's muscles, fat, organs, and a few bones. The head had been cut off and was lying off to the side. The moose's skin had been hung, flesh side facing them, from a rope that had been strung up from the tree to the house.

She also didn't expect to see a large German Shepherd standing in her backyard. Regina had never been a fan of dogs, specifically large dogs. She believed them to be dangerous and unpredictable animals.

The dog standing in the yard only seemed to aid in her wife's argument. He had a death glare on Emma and as she approached he stood. His head lowered as he studied her movements. Emma was certain that if she had ill intentions, the dog would have leapt and pinned her to the ground.

"She's okay." Fox said to the dog as she grabbed his ear and gently stroked his head.

Emma looked beyond the moose to Regina's apple tree, where her two horses were happily munching at some of the fallen fruit.

Fox followed her gaze and smiled. "The horses came from round from the front, that's how I knew you were here." She stood in front of the hanging moose and stared at it for a long time before shaking her head, "I can't do this by myself. If ya' give me a hand smoking the meat, you're welcome to half of it."

"Sure, yeah, what can I do?"

Fox looked up at her for a long moment. She was trying to decide which of two evils to deal with. Send her away with the possibility she'd never return? Or give Emma a knife and trust her to cut up the moose and not gut her. Fox's gaze went from the moose to Emma, "We need charcoal."

Emma nodded, "I'll see what I can find." She climbed onto the buckskin and rode off. The draft horse followed after.

Fox watched them trot away and shook her head. "She won't be back. How much you wanna bet?" She asked the shepherd. He let out a high pitched bark and settled next to her as she began cutting into the meat.

It had been two weeks since Emma had seen another living person. Many of the people she had run into on the road were hostile and unwilling to trust anyone. Others were skittish and ran at the sight of another person. She had run into a few people who she had travelled with for some time before parting ways with them. They had been friendly after realize that she wasn't going to steal from them or kill them in their sleep.

Fox seemed to be like of the friendly variety, but Emma was unsure if she could trust the woman. The way she had strung up an animal twenty times her own size was a little unsettling. The promise of food, particularly preserved meat, was the only reason she was helping the woman and not picking her brain for information and going on her way.

She managed to find two bags of charcoal and secured them to the draft horse before heading back home. Fox had a good portion of meat laid out on a large cutting board that Emma recognized as being from her kitchen.


It took the two of them two hours to get the meat cut and marinated, and the large smoker up to the right temperature. Fox was staking down moose's hide, preparing to scrape the rest of the flesh off, as Emma sat on the stairs to the porch.

She watched the dirty blonde carefully as she de-fleshed the skin. "What's your story?"

"Does it matter?" Fox growled as she continued scrapping.

"Yeah, we've all got a story."

Fox nodded, "You tell me your story. I'll tell you mine."

Emma smirked, "Alright. I was a cop here. Sheriff for a few years. My wife was the major."

"Why weren't you here with them when the world ended?"

Emma looked down at her feet, "I was given the chance to meet my birth parents."

Fox paused, looking over at the blonde.

"Regina, my wife, wanted to come but…" Emma sighed, "…it's was so stupid."

Fox had gone back to scraping the skin. She figured Emma wouldn't continue and was surprised as the blonde began talking again.

"We had gotten into a fight. I went by myself." Emma shook her head at herself, "What about you? How'd you end up just you and the dog?"

"The dog's name is Simon."

"Simon?" She looked over at him as he lay stretched out between them. "So, what's the Fox and Simon story?"

"I'm a taxidermist. He's a police dog. Not much to tell."

"Police dog? How did you end up with a police dog?"

Fox paused and shook her head.

"Come on. I told my story, now it's your turn."

She huffed, "Fine. My girlfriend was a police officer. Simon was her police dog. When the virus hit the city she left him with me so I'd be safe. I got a knock on my door from one of her coworkers. He insisted I get out of town. That she'd meet me at this location they had set up." Fox shook her head, "There were other families and officers there. Everyone waiting." She scrapped a little harder at the skin, "I waited three days there before it was overrun with zombies."

"You don't know if she's dead or alive?"

"Nope. She's probably gone though. I doubt she made it out. Even if she did, she could be anywhere."

Emma nodded, watching the woman as she finished taking the flesh off the hide.

"So, your wife and son aren't here. Where you headed next?"

"I don't know." Emma shook her head, "I don't know."