Two weeks passed quickly, and as soon as Ellie was told of the Oklahomans' arrival, she grew rather quiet. Nevertheless, she spent a good deal of time upstairs in her room, face pressed against the grimy glass, trying to see out over the wall of the compound.

Exactly fourteen days later, Tommy and Joel ventured without the gate, to check on the quarantined encampment. Ellie stayed behind wordlessly as the men left, helping Maria dry the dishes. Everything seemed so terribly quiet, both inside the house and outside, when a gunshot split the air.

Ellie jumped and dropped the cup she was drying, and it shattered on the floor.

"Sorry," she exclaimed, dropping to her knees, and beginning to swipe at the shards with her hands. "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

Maria glanced out the window, and then turned to Ellie. "Something is going on," she murmured, grabbing her rifle from the corner and striding toward the door. "Don't worry about it, and put on some shoes," Maria called over her shoulder.

Ellie left the mess and raced upstairs, arming herself with her pistol, checking the magazine and seeming satisfied that four rounds remained. Sticking it in the waistband of her pants and doing her best to conceal the lump with her shirt, she hurried back down the stairs and out into the cold morning once again. The hard ground stung her feet, but Ellie focused on just moving, trailing after Maria. Voices reached them, and it seemed a scuffle was going on somewhere outside the gate.

The guards had their rifles trained on the crowd of people just across the river, and Maria hurried across the dam, Ellie right behind her.

"What's going on?" she breathed, but Maria didn't hear her. Dingy tents were set up along the treeline, and some twenty inhabitants were bunched together around a man with dark hair and a beard who had wrestled another man to the ground and prised his weapon from him. Joel and Tommy were sighted, and the man who had pinned the other was vociferating:

"Idiot! Couldn't you keep your finger off the trigger long enough to –"

"Alright, that's enough," Joel put in. The black-bearded man continued to shout over the remonstrances of the man in the snow, and Joel raised his voice. "I said, that's enough. It was an accident."

Tommy pulled the man off his companion, and the other man got to his feet. His hair was also black, but he sported no beard. He looked at the snow, chest heaving, as the other man approached him once again.

"Foolhardy kid," he spat, and the younger man lifted his eyes.

"I said I was sorry," he retorted, his voice clear in the still morning air.

"Oh yeah? Try saying that to the would-be widow of the fella you almost shot!"

Maria waded into the fray, lifting her voice. "That'd be me. What is going on?"

The hubbub quieted, and Tommy cleared his throat.

"This is Maria. And son, I know it was an accident. Just be careful with that thing."

"I know how to handle a gun. I just didn't know we were expecting you today," he muttered.

"You should'a paid more attention," the bearded fellow snapped.

Tommy gestured to the man, his eyes on his wife. "This is Matthew."

Maria nodded. "Maria."

"Pleased to meet you." Matthew took a deep breath. "No signs of infection. I told you we're clean."

"Alright." Tommy nodded. "You need a hand packing up camp?"

Matthew's eyes twinkled. "I think we got it, thank you very much." He seemed to catch sight of something, and listed his head to one side. "This your daughter?"

Ellie looked at Maria, then realized he was talking to her. "Oh! No, a friend. Of Joel's." She gestured, and then stuck out her hand. "I'm Ellie."

"Nice to meet you." He lifted an eyebrow at Joel. "Your young'ns not wear shoes?"

"Ellie..." Joel remonstrated, looking at her feet. "What're you doin'?"

"In a hurry!" she explained, and caught sight of a spattering of blood behind her in the snow. She cursed under her breath. "What the heck..."

"You're bleeding." Ellie looked up to see the man who had misfired when Tommy and Joel approached the camp. He eyed her feet.

"Yeah, I guess," Ellie muttered. "Must have stepped on a piece of that stuff. I broke a cup."

"This's my son, also Matthew. We call him Matt," Matthew explained. "And I swear I taught him how to use a gun." He snorted. "Fat lot a' good it did him."

The young man's face flushed dark. "Just leave it," he growled. Ellie grinned at him.

"Hey, the first time I fired Joel's gun he said I almost blew his head off when I actually saved his life." She wrinkled her nose. "So, we're even."

Matt nodded appreciatively, his face still an odd color. "Thanks," he managed.

"Name's Ellie." She stuck out her hand, and he took it, prying his eyes away from her feet. "You, ah... better get some shoes," he chuckled.

"Yeah." Ellie pulled her hand away, and began to look about for Maria, who had headed off to help the Oklahomans strike camp. Joel alone had witnessed the exchange, keenly aware of Ellie's thin shirt and innocent conversation.

"You should go back and put some shoes on, kid," he said as she passed him. "I'm comin' so I can have a look at that cut."

"Jeez," Ellie snorted. "It doesn't even hurt."

"That's 'cause your feet're frozen."

"They are not." Ellie stood one one foot and tried her best to wiggle her toes, not succeeding very well. "Alright, maybe." A shiver ran down her frame. "I'm headed back."

"Ellie?" Tommy was calling. "Give Maria a hand with this?"

Joel swore under his breath. "She ain't wearin' shoes, Tommy!" he called.

"This'll just take a minute."

Joel shook his head. "Go on, then, but be quick."

Ellie nodded, and scampered through the snow, her eyes on Maria where she was wrestling a tent pole to the ground, and as a result, she did not see the figure directly in front of her until they collided. Both fell to the snowy ground from the impact of the collision, and Ellie was the first to scramble up, giving the other individual her hand and pulling them to their feet.

It was a young woman, perhaps a few years older than Ellie, with long waving hair tumbling from underneath a filthy stocking cap pulled low over her brow. They both began babbling at the same instant.

"I'm so sorry –"

"Are you okay? I didn't mean –"

"It was my fault, I wasn't –"

"I'm fine, are you –"

They both stammered to a halt and regarded each other dumbly for a minute, and Ellie recovered her voice first.

"I – uh, sorry, I didn't see you there," she began, twisting her fingers. "Clumsy, and all."

"Ellie?" Maria's voice was heard calling.

"Coming!" she shouted, turning her attention back to the young woman, whose eyes had drifted to Ellie's feet. Ellie stepped one foot upon the other protectively.

"Oh, don't you start too -"

"Don't you have any shoes?" the girl began.

Ellie retorted, "Of course I have shoes. I'm just not wearing them. I mean –"

The girl laughed, a light, friendly sound. "It's okay. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Fine." Ellie bobbed her head. "You?"

"Fine. I'm Anna." The young woman stuck out her hand, and Ellie took it, almost shyly.

"That's awesome. My mom's name was Anna."

"Really? Well, then, it's a sign."
"Sign of what?" Ellie regarded her blankly.

"That we should be friends," Anna chuckled.

"Oh! Yeah. Of course." A bright color came over Ellie's cheeks, and she seemed to break forth from a reverie. "Maria... I – I've got to go. See you later?"

"You didn't tell me your name!" Anna called, as Ellie hurried off over the cold ground. Ellie's eyes widened.

"It's Ellie," she called back, turning briefly, and smiling. "Ellie. See you later!"

For some reason, she worked in the cold much longer than she would have thought she could, owing to the warm feeling somewhere deep within her as the light from Anna's smile lingered in her eyes.