Wrapped in a clear shower liner, they carry the bloody deer for about 20 minutes or so. Hobie had been walking funny for a few minutes before he finally spoke up. "Mirin, we need to stop real quick." "Why? We're almost there-" "I gotta piss!" She turns to look at him over her other shoulder, "What? Now? Can't you hold it?" "NO! It won't take long, hold tight." He stops short and shifts the deer's weight to the floor, then rushes over to the nearest tree and hops around to the other side for some sort of privacy. Feeling the corpse falter, Mirin sucks her teeth, "Make it quick, man!" She exclaims, holding the deer up as best she can. He fumbles with his pants, but gets to his business soon enough. Letting out a relieved low sigh as he melts the snow beneath him. Hardly ever do they get a moment's peace though, as Mirin's ears twitch and perk up. She looked towards the groggy sounds and sure enough, a rather large undead hell spawn had fallen over and was crawling towards them. A red tint then catches Mirin's eye in her peripheral, the deer! Its blood had leaked out, turning the grass into a forbidden snow cone. The way Hobie had sat it down, it found its way through its covering. "Shit! Hobie, hurry that up." She urgently whispers as she dips down to fix the breach in the liner; tightening its confines with more twine from her bag and quickly rubbing clean snow on the bottom in order to not leave a trail. "What? It hasn't even been a full minute-" "Shush, we've got company on our tail." With how much blood that spilled, there would be more of them in no time.
As if on cue, the approaching zombie loudly groans, almost screeching. It must have finally gotten a good whiff of the deer. "Time's up, let's go." Mirin yanks up the hen's cage, causing it to squawk in return; and then starts to pull the heavy deer half away. "Wait, wait! My junk's still out!" Hobie frantically fixes himself, zipping his jeans up and quickly following Mirin to help her. The zombie seems to have called for reinforcements, as one doubled to two, then five. Soon enough a hoard had accumulated, hot in pursuit.
Dashing through the snow, as fast as they could manage with the added weight on their shoulders. Of course they could just bludgeon the damned things, or shoot them. But they'd have to catch them first; no sense in wasting bullets or confronting the hoard if they could just out run them. Well, more like out walk them.
They were basically almost home-free, but Hobie began to get antsy again as he followed Mirin's lead. "Where's the stream, Mirin? I don't see it." "We passed it already-" "What?!" "We can't exactly jump across with this big bitch, now can we?" Hobie hadn't thought that far ahead, he stayed quiet but wasn't satisfied with her sass.
A stone bridge was coming up that went across the stream. It was much wider here, more rapid, but that's besides the point. "There was a bridge this whole time?!" Hobie shouts, exhausted and appalled that this was always an option. Mirin couldn't help but laugh a little at his dumbfoundedness. "It'd be kind of hard to drive into town without it." She jokes, leading them towards the bridge. "Why didn't we just cross this way yesterday? I almost fell in, you know." "There was no time to get all the way over here, skipping stones was faster~." Across the bridge and up the ramp they go; passing a jeep covered in snow and leaving the chasing hoard below. Clawing and groaning at the mountain wall, the hoard reaches out after Hobie, who slams his foot on the floor pad. Effectively retracting the ramp.
Inside, Mirin sets the hen down onto the shoe cubby and they hurriedly get the deer to the bathroom tub; not even shutting the front door. Both promptly give out and catch their breath with the adrenaline still rushing through their bodies. Mirin plops herself on the toilet lid as Hobie slumps down to the floor against the wall. "Well," Mirin speaks up breathlessly, "I'd say you've repaid me well, kid." Her tone was endearing, but Hobie could tell it was hinting at something. She uncovers her face, pulling her mask down to breathe better. "So, you're free to go, if you so choose." He smiles softly, "Yea, about that. Maybe I don't want to leave so soon after all. I mean, how are you gonna eat all this by yourself?" She chuckles at his teasing, shaking her head. "This was supposed to be your trade for shelter; but if that's your way of asking for dinner, then sure. I could use the extra set of hands around here." She then wipes her forehead and stretches as she stands to her feet, motioning her hand for Hobie. "That being said, be a doll and help me close that front door?" He nods and props his hands on his knees to stand back up straight. With his help, the front door is shut, the gate is slid back into place, and the latch is secured.
Mirin leans her back against the door and looks fondly up at Hobie. "You really came in clutch today, you know that?" Her elbow playfully jabs him in the rib, "Just repaying my debt, ye?" "Well, if you want dinner tonight, you're gonna have to put those pretty hands back to work. How good are you at skinning and dressing your kills? It's been months, you had to have learned something in order to be eating this whole time." Mirin makes her way over to the kitchen as she speaks, hen's cage in hand. Almost instinctively now, Hobie followed behind, "Can't say I know what i'm doing, but I did have to figure it out the hard way. Never for an animal this big though, only like birds and squirrels and such like that." She hands him a pair of stained plastic gloves and puts on a rubber pair onto her own hands. "Well that simply won't do, in these conditions? C'mon, you'll learn faster hands on rather than just watching me work. Now, I'm gonna go find somewhere to put this hen."
In the laundry room, Mirin sets down an old towel on the floor for the hen to rest on. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to house this bird, or even what she'd feed it for eggs, but she figured the room that was easiest to hose down was the best first step. "I'll have to scavenge again for some berries and tree nuts, but the hen will just have to eat what we eat tonight.' Mirin thought, setting down the cage on the towel. She placed a bowl in the floor sink and filled it with water for the hen before slowly opening the cage.
At the sight of freedom, before the cage door was even pried open, the hen revved up and bolted out, squawking and running towards the wall. It makes a fierce u-turn for Mirin and goes right for her hand again. This time though, Mirin runs and shuts the door to the side room. The hen was rightfully furious, it had been abducted and carried in a rush to some place else. It pecked at the door for a little while before she heard its wings flap off to the other side of the room. Mirin let out a sigh of relief, making eye contact with Hobie at the kitchen island. "Let's just give her some time to cool down. She almost tried to get another nip at my hand." He tried to hold back a laugh, having seen the whole debacle go down. "Little miss feisty giving you a hard time?" He teases, to which Mirin just scoffed, "She's gonna be ms. Tasty if she bites me again."
Back in the bathroom, Mirin shows Hobie the right way to dress the deer. Skinning, washing, removing its entrails, and cutting sections of meat for proper storage. She would wrap the cuts of meat back in the deer skin and fit them in her small deep freezer, packing it with snow and ice from outside. After they clean up the very bloody tub as best they can, Mirin takes one cut aside. She heads back to the kitchen to start washing her meat again for cooking, cutting a small piece off to cook separately for the hen.
As Mirin cooks, Hobie was given the task to store the other cuts of meat away in the freezer. As he does so, he recalls something he had on his mind earlier. "Mirin?" he breaks the peaceful silence. "Yeah?" "Earlier, when I knocked your gun down, I got a closer look at your gun." She looks over to him for a beat, away from the sizzling venison. "Uhuh, what about it?" "I noticed that the embroidery doesn't say 'Mirin' like I thought it did, but 'Marina' " He tried to gadge if asking that may have hit a nerve for her when she didn't respond back right away. He was just trying to make conversation, so he looked over to her. Instead of the skeptical face he expected, he was met with a solemn one. She sighs, reminiscing as she shimmies the pan. He speaks up again, feeling as though he's over stepped, "Sorry, forget I asked-" "No, no, it's alright. I should be used to people mentioning the gun by now. It's my name… my real name. I just...go by Mirin. It's special to me." Hobie just nods, lips pursed and hands back to being busy. After a few more silent moments, Mirin now breaks the silence, "My uh, …my brother got me that gun. He used to tease me by calling me the sauce." He felt reassured when he heard her giggle a little, "Sounds like a cool older brother. I always wanted a sibling, being an only child." "Yeah…he was." Her use of past tense let him know that he was no longer here. He just nodded again, not wanting to say the wrong thing.
"Hey, don't call me Marina, okay? Only call me that if absolutely necessary. Most people know me as Mirin and I'd like to keep it that way." Seeing her be playful again puts a warm smile on his lips, "I got it, loud and clear."
They eat dinner, which is just venison for tonight, and Mirin checks on the hen again with a little plate of shredded, unseasoned meat. The hen had tired itself out and made quite the mess of her laundry room. It now rested on the towel. Mirin slowly approached and set down the plate. The small sounds awoke the hen and it of course started to cluck and puff up. "Now, now , I've come bearing gifts." The hen waddles towards the plate and calms down as it finally eats, it was just scared and hungry. Low cooing noises can be heard as it chows down, but it was still cautious of Mirin. It flapped its wings to intimidate Mirin, to which she backs up and lets it eat. "You'd better be able to give me some eggs, miss thing." She jokes, leaving the room again and shutting the door softly. " is finally a bit calmer now that I've given her a peace offering." Hobie chuckles, "Is that the name you've given her, now?"
Before they go their separate ways for bed, Hobie thanks Mirin once more. "Thanks again for letting me stay, I'll pull my own weight, don't you worry." She smirks with a hand on her hip, "I'm sure you will, now rest up. You're gonna need all your energy for tomorrow, we didn't get a chance to go to the next town over today, so we'll be going bright and early in the morning after we scavenge again. I need to reset all those traps and hopefully forage for whatever we can." "Ugh, yes ma'am." Hobie playfully rolls his eyes as he waves her good night and goes into his room. Mirin then goes into her room as well, locking the door and finally hitting the hay after a long day. It was only around 7pm or so at this point, but they were both exhausted.
In the wee hours of the morning, Mirin sits at her desk with a candle and updates her journal. She hadn't done all the tasks she had given herself, but she secured food for a little while, that's a win in her book. Tomorrow is another day. She stops what she's doing when she hears shuffling downstairs. "Hobie?" She calls out. A few seconds later, "Ye?" he calls back. "Just checking." He had also woken up, well rested. She had given him a candle as well for the bathroom. He had gotten bored and went to check out the hen, and surprisingly it warmed up to him pretty nicely.