Mirin wakes up bright and early and takes a moment to laze in her bed. A faint snore can be heard from the other room, the two bedrooms being butt up next to one another. 'Right, the kid. He sure is sleeping well,' she nods. She rested for a few minutes more before finally pulling herself out of bed, she had much to do. 'What's on the agenda today?' she thinks to herself as she eases into the chair at her desk. Pulling out a notebook from the shelf, she looks over some notes she wrote for herself. With a big stretch, she leans back in her chair and looks out of a window that leads to her balcony. 'It isn't snowing right now, might be as good a time as any to re-up on supplies.' Not wanting to wake her sleeping guest, she unlocks her door and proceeds to make her way downstairs quietly, visiting that bathroom instead of the one adjacent to her bedroom.
"Not much to work with" she says under her breath as she looks within her cabinets for breakfast. She's faced with the same sad variety as before; a scarce assortment of spices, the candy bar Hobie tried to steal, and trail mix. She had kept a box of cheerios up on the top shelf but was too short to reach. Hoisting her leg up, she climbs the counter; only to be slightly startled by the creaking of the staircase, she looks towards the sound echoing through the walls and follows it as Hobie makes his way down the hall. "Mornin' kid." She reaches for the cereal box and jumps down from the counter, meeting his eyes at the archway. "You sure slept well."
Hobie scratches the back of his head anxiously as a long-winded yawn exercises itself from his body. He stretched out, bringing forth a rumble from his belly, "Yea, it's been forever since I've slept in an actual bed." Mirin nods and takes a handful of cheerios to her mouth, "I don't really have much breakfast food here, but you can eat those pieces of beef jerky you had in your back-" "Yea, I ate those." She bites her tongue. "When?" "Just now."
Hobie had been woken up shortly after Mirin, being jolted out of his sleep from the flush of the toilet. Heart racing, he sprung up into a sitting position as his eyes darted around the room for his shotgun. He slowly remembered where he was, that he wasn't in danger at the moment. He placed a hand to his chest and calmed down. Shaking his head, he looked over to the desk to see his shotgun resting there, and then he reached down for his backpack. He lunged it onto the bed and propped it down next to him, rummaging through it until his hand fished out a stick of wrapped jerky. Happily, he ripped the package open and sank his teeth into it. As he finished his morning snack, he could sort of hear the creak of wood coming from downstairs. He wiped the tiredness from his eyes and made his way downstairs.
Mirin shrugs her shoulders and pours another serving into her mouth, "That settles breakfast for today at least." With a heavy sigh, Hobie breathes "yea," as he walks past her into the laundry nook. He gathers his clothes off the rack, "Heading off so soon?" Mirin questions from the kitchen. "I think it's about time, yea." He gives her a bittersweet semblance of a smile while he passes by her into the hallway. "You've sheltered me, fed me, and even allowed me to clean myself up. I said I wouldn't be a burden." He felt as if he had overstayed his welcome; not having anything to trade her, he wanted to get going while the sun was out.
She takes a seat at the kitchen island and eats the remainder of the cheerios with a glass of water. She waits for him to get dressed and gather all his things and stops him before he can actually leave. "You'd be more of a burden to me if you up and leave without a proper thank you, kid." Mirin's words came off playful, but they put Hobie on edge, nonetheless. She just chuckles when she sees him fidget with his coat anxiously. "Come scavenging with me first, then if you still want to go, you can. But you owe a solid." Playfully hitting his arm, she throws the small cereal box away and heads back upstairs to get dressed. "I'll be right back; you'd better be here when I get back." She jokes. Mirin kept him on his toes; 'I didn't think she'd actually let me leave without some sort of repayment.' Laughing off his nerves, he sits down on top of the shoe cubby and organizes his bag until she returns.
Before they leave out, Mirin goes through a checklist in her mind. Making sure to turn off the generator, flip the switches in the fuse box for the gas and lights, and she locks her bedroom door. 'Generator? check, Fuse box? check. Gun? check. Switchblade? check.' She could never know when or even if she'd be coming back, so it's best to conserve energy. Throwing her coat and shoes on, they head out into the sunbathed snow. "Have everything, kid? Everything that's yours?" He could practically feel the sass coming off of her behind her mask. "Yes, Mirin, everything in this bag is mine. I didn't steal anything." She squints her eyes, "Mmhmm." After locking the door, she then does one last perimeter check for all the windows. Stepping on the foot pad, they both watch as the ramp activates, snow sliding off as it rises.
Mirin leads the way down into the valley, across the steady stream, and into the thick of the forest up the hill. Hobie follows behind, hands in his pockets as he keeps up with her pace. The sounds of snow crunching under their feet, the winds past their ears, and the unsettling but reassuring groans of the undead in the distance. Quite serene for Mirin as they walked, but to Hobie, not so much. After a month or so of not having anyone to talk to, he just couldn't help breaking the silence; in a soft voice, he speaks out. "Where exactly are we headed? I doubt the town I left has anything to spare, I've looked." He watches as her white puffs of hair blow on the wind and blend into the winter wonderland around them.
Keeping a steady pace behind her, he thinks to himself, 'She sure does walk fast with those short legs.' Mirin looks back at him over her shoulder, "Well, right now; we're going hunting while the sun's still high. I'm sure you'll want actual food whether you decide to stay or not. Then, we'll visit the next town over. We'll have to drive there, though." The young man chuckles and nods his head, "You can drive?" Returning the laugh, she gesticulates for emphasis, "I live out in the stix, I didn't really have a choice but to."
Hobie's little incident coming down the hill the other day had attracted quite a few unwanted guests. They maneuver past herds of them for the most part, having to perform a number of silent kills as Mirin checks traps that she set up around the forest. The first few traps they found weren't successful. Two of the rope traps had been triggered by the undead, same as a hole in the dirt trap; nothing but dead meat, and not the good kind. As they approach the fifth trap of the day, Mirin spots a wild hen captured in a cage trap against a tree. She points it out to Hobie quietly, "Look at that. Something was actually caught in this one." Checking the area first, she dashes towards the cage and scopes out her catch. The hen had been sleeping, so when Mirin approached, it awoke startled. Loudly, it chirped, clucked, and screeched, flailing in the cramped cage and pecking at the bars. It pecks Mirin's gloved hand, and it immediately starts to bleed, soaking through the fabric. Yanking her hand away, Mirin tries to silence the bird, not wanting to kill it. Her ears twitch at a faint noise around her and she turns to see Hobie rushing towards her.
Without hesitation, he swings his shotgun, colliding it with a zombie around the tree. It topples to the ground, still reaching for Mirin. She grabs the cage handle and backs up. Allowing Hobie to bring down her switchblade into the corpse's skull. Mirin watches as the young man breathes heavily, swinging her knife between his slender fingers, a smirk forming across his lips. She looks him up and down, "Gotta say, That was a hell of a save. Hats off to you, you even managed to snag my knife, good work, kid." She was painted impressed. "I owed you one, now we're even." He smiles as he flings the blood off her knife, staining the snow and wiping it clean before handing it back. "Yeah, yeah; you one upped me, I admit." She holds the cage by its handle in one hand at her hip and swiftly reclaims her switchblade; placing it back into her thigh pocket. "Don't let it go to your head, though."
Mirin smirks behind her mask, he had really come in clutch. She figured either the hen's screams or the scent of her blood had attracted that zombie. As they continue to walk, she wraps her injured finger in gauze from her bag. "Little thing got you good, huh?" Hobie inquires. "Yea, the damned thing. Can't say I blame it though. The hen coos in the cage, flailing every now and again but much calmer than a few moments ago.
"If I hadn't been there, oh boy~" Hobie teases, his walk as cocky as ever. "Oh, shut up~ You'd be a whole feast for that hoard if It weren't for me, too." "Nah, I caught you lacking." laughing quietly as they continue to walk; they are cut off by a stray bullet from afar, zooming between them. Forcing them both into a fight or flight mode as they duck for cover.
Eyes wide open and bodies flattened to the snowy blanket below. Hobie clutches his shotgun close from around his back and looks over to Mirin who was crouched down with the hen cage to her chest. "Those your guys?" Hobie jokes but is partially serious. "Hush up!" She whispers, already scoping out the scene. Peering past a tree, further out into the wooded area; Mirin spots two people lowered down to the ground as well. She squints her eyes to try to locate any telling paraphernalia on their backs. Without hesitation, she hands Hobie the hen cage and takes aim. Confused, Hobie takes the cage, but before Mirin could make a rash decision, Hobie tries to hurriedly stop Mirin from shooting back. "Wait!" He reaches out, knocking her gun downwards right as she pulls the trigger. Causing the bullet to miss its target. "AYE! What's the big idea?! It's either them, or us!" "What if they're innocent-"
Their attention is grabbed when they hear screaming. They whip their heads towards the people, hanging and twirling upside down by their ankles. Mirin's bullet had triggered one of her traps instead of hitting her intended warning mark. Sharing a glance; both out of curiosity and knowing that their screams would attract the dead in no time, Hobie and Mirin rush over. Upon closer inspection, two men were trapped. Both in gray coats, one tall and lean, the other stout and sturdy. "They from Limbo?" Hobie asks Mirin, to which the taller man interjects, "NO! We're alone." Mirin squints her eyes, gun at the ready, when they hear a groan in the distance. They all look over to see a deer fall to its knees in exhaustion. 'So that's what they were aiming for.' Mirin thinks. Followed by a few more groans in the distance. The broader man gets frantic, "You can't leave us here! Those things are coming!" The men had dropped their weapons when they were hoisted up. It was obvious that they were innocent, but Mirin saw an opportunity. "Give us the deer, and you can go-" "WHAT?! Hell no, we'll starve!" The stout man retorted. "Half then, make your decision quickly." Mirin was dead serious. As the hoard accumulates in size and begins to advance, Hobie gets antsy, "Come on! We need to go already!" Mirin keeps her composure. "They need our help, and we need food." She says to Hobie calmly, keeping eye contact with the men. "Choose, now!" "Fine!" The lean man speaks up.
Quickly, Mirin retrieves her switchblade and throws it, cutting the ties of the trap and setting them free to crash to the frigid floor. She immediately back tracks towards the deer and fends off the incoming dead. A bit taken for a loop, Hobie internally apologizes to the men and goes to assist Mirin. "That was a bit ruthless, don't you think?" He says as the two men get their bearings and join the fight. "You wanna eat, right?" Hobie couldn't argue with her logic, but still felt that was heartless.
After fending off the undead, the four of them haul the buck of a deer to a cleared path. The sturdy man shakes his head as he crouches down to carve the deer down the middle. "That was a real dick move to hold us up like that, lady. But I gotta respect it." The taller man scoffs with a smirk. A faint chuckle rolls from Mirin's lips as she watches the man bend down to the second man's level and help him wrap half of the carcass in a dark tarp. "I saw an opening and I took it; can you blame me?" She smirks back. The shorter man shakes his head, both pissed and a bit impressed as well, "You're something else, little lady." He carefully slings the rear end of the deer onto their shoulders and slaps the taller on the arm to help bear the load. Mirin bends down for their half and strains to lift its weight.
The two men take their leave as Hobie checks in. "You got that?" he asks, crouching over to help her. "Yup." she huffs, yanking the front legs up with all her strength. She stumbles back a tad but scoffs arrogantly. "See?" She opens her eyes to see Hobie holding the head up with his free hand, leveraging its neck with his shoulder. "I can see you're gonna need help carrying this back~" He teases, shifting his body to carry the deer more comfortably as he holds the cage in his other hand. On the inside, Mirin pouts a bit as her ego is humbled, but she tries to hide it and grins under her mask. "Thanks." "It wouldn't hurt to accept help, you know. It took two men to carry the other half." They share the weight as they carry the deer back to the cabin. "Yeah, yeah, I know."