"Ok how about two Reece's Pieces for some deer Jerky?" Zoe pleaded again.

"No way, the Jerky's mine!" I stood strong in the face of the chocolaty temptation.

We were running extremely low on supplies so we have been resorting to bartering amongst ourselves. We never made that trip a couple of months ago; was it just a couple? Man, it felt like a lifetime ago. All radio stations had quit broadcasting, even the emergency ones. We could no longer see the lights from the city so the nights were beyond dark.

We opted for the safer route, which was to wait here and see if help came instead of running head long into the city we just tried to escape. Well obviously since we were still sitting here arguing over junk food, it was a wise choice- yes that was sarcasm. So now we really did have a choice to make, starve or chance a run into town to grab some much needed supplies. On the plus side, with nothing but time on our hands, we had gotten lots of target practice and I've even been on a few hunting trips. Not that I was much use on them.

Basically it was to show me how to use my rifle. Damn Taylor showed me up every time. But at least he got his comeuppance.

"This is unholy early," I yawned, pulling the rifle strap back up my shoulder.

The damn thing kept slipping off as I trekked behind Taylor in the rough terrained forest. Well it was rough to me anyways.

"Six in the mornin' is the best time to catch game," Taylor once again pointed out, "Hey it was you who wanted to learn anyways."

"Yeah but I didn't know it entailed getting up at 5am!" I shot back.

I was not a morning person. I saw him clench his jaw and then he picked up his pace leaving me to scramble behind him just to keep up in the face of all these tree roots. This kept up for another hour and I really was regretting my decision to attend this Taylor hosted event. I heard the crunch of leaves off to our right and Taylor held up his closed fist which I assumed meant "sit still and shut up" so I did. Slowly Taylor slid his rifle off of his shoulder and moved quietly towards the noise.

I opted to stay standing since I would most likely trip and fall thus ruining any chances of catching something. Or worse, alert something to our presence. I turned my head and squinted to try and see what made the noise. I couldn't see much but I spotted a mass of brown fur with white spots. I may have been a "city girl" as Taylor called me but I knew that was deer. The grin on Taylor's face reinforced my guess and he crept silently closer while bringing the rifle up to eye level. Then what happened next was quite strange.

One minute Taylor was approaching the deer and the next he was gone, almost like the ground had swallowed him up. I heard him let out a yelp of surprise and the deer bolted off in the opposite direction. I ran to where Taylor had disappeared and heard a "Stop!" I came to a halt just in front of what looked like a pitfall and Taylor was standing at the bottom. This was not a natural formation, which lead me to believe this was a man made hunting trap. I peered down into the trap at Taylor and I couldn't help myself.

"It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." I burst out laughing.

Needless to say, Taylor didn't look amused.

"That's real hilarious," He drawled and I clutched my sides from laughing so hard.

Roots were sticking out in every direction and dirt was constantly sliding down the sides and landing on Taylor's cowboy hat and shoulders. The hole must have been seven or eight feet deep but wasn't very wide; maybe enough for two people who knew each other pretty well to fit. 

"Give me your hand," He said as he held out his own.

Still chuckling, I leaned down to offer mine as I said, "Give me the ring." Then I burst out laughing again.

He rolled his eyes, but I could see a semblance of a smirk on his face. Finally, with much effort on my part, I stopped laughing long enough to help him out of the hole. I strained to lift as he dug his boots into the loose soil while grasping at the gangly roots. It took a couple of tries because he would lose his footing and I had to let his hand go or risk being pulled down with him.

"We never speak of this again," He huffed.

Both of us were sitting side by side on the forest floor trying to catch our breath. I started to chuckle again at the bizarre situation and Taylor shook his head.

"Come on, when would I ever get a chance to say that again?" I laughed.

Taylor grinned, "Fair enough. But not one word."

"Fine," I muttered, "Bad karma's a bitch huh?"

"Whatever, let's just see if we can track that deer down," He said dusting off his pants which were covered in loose soil.

A few hours later, the sun was getting relentless and was even boring down through the thick roof of foliage. I could feel the start of a sun burn on my nose and shoulders.

"Hurry up," Taylor demanded.

"You better be a bit nicer country boy or else I'll tell the whole camp," I grinned. Wasn't leverage great?

He turned his attention back to the fresh deer tracks and studiously ignored me. To be fair, he had taught me a great deal about tracking. The older the tracks, the more leaves and twigs that covered them but usually the leaves and twigs were crushed and broken. The fresher tracks usually weren't covered, but stood out in the dirt floor. The tracks we currently found, feel under category number two, so we were close to something. I could hear the faint sound of rushing water and Taylor had mentioned that brooks and ponds were the best place to find game.

I mirrored what Taylor was doing and followed closely behind him as we approached the brook. Luck was finally on our side. The deer had stopped to take a drink and I could have jumped for joy except that would put us back to square one. Taylor didn't dare get any closer as he lifted the scope to his right eye and took aim. I plugged my ears now fully aware of how loud a rifle really was, thanks to the copious amounts of target practice. The shot rang out but before the deer could react the bullet hit him sending it to the forest floor. We ran up to it and it was still alive. Taylor pulled out his hand gun and shot it in the head to end its misery.

I couldn't understand why but I felt bad. I am by no means a vegetarian or a member of PETA but having witnessed this first hand I wasn't sure I wanted to do it again. Well at least this was a legal way to get out your serial killer tendencies. Taylor turned to me with a grin plastered on his face.

"Finally! That took forever," He exclaimed.

"So what now?" I asked, not sure I could stomach him gutting it.

"Well we should gut it here so it's lighter to take back," Taylor said. "But it will rot faster if we cut into it."

"Plus it will leave a nasty trail leading back to the cabin," I pointed out.

Taylor seemed to think about as he pulled out a folded map and compass.

"Looks like the deer took us back around, we're actually only 'bout an hour's walk with dragging the deer back, from the cabin," Taylor noted as he read the pen-marked map.

So we got to work and found a strong, lengthy tree branch to truss up the deer on. I felt like a caveman dragging their kill back to their cave. We both had an end of the branch with the deer between us, hanging from its tied legs. Taylor had brought the extra strength rope with him in his small backpack, which I never would have thought of. He said we were lucky because the deer was a small one but to me it seemed like it weighed a ton. I got the end with the head which made me cringe every time I looked at it, but supposedly it was the lighter end.

I was about to demand we stop for a break so I could give my shoulder a break when the trees started to thin out and more light became visible. I sighed in relief knowing this meant we were finally getting out of the forest and back to the cabin. John and Darren met us at the property fence and I gladly handed the thing over to them.

"Look at that," John smiled as he inspected the deer. "We better get this thing cut up right fast."

"I'll take a pass on that," I said as I massaged my shoulder.

"You should learn how just in case," Taylor grinned, flexing his own sore shoulder.

"Unless you want to see someone throw up, its better I don't," I insisted.

"Why are you covered in dirt?" Darren eyed Taylor and I burst out laughing again. See this is what happens when I don't get my sleep; I get delirious.

I don't know how they gutted and disposed of the parts but I didn't ask. That night we had fresh cooked deer and it was delicious. I still felt bad about having to kill it but my hunger washed away my hesitation. They decided it wasn't worth the risk to keep it for fresh meat any longer so they smoked the rest of it and I guess we would be dining on deer jerky for quite a while.                                                    

"Alright so were down to 'bout ten percent of our food supplies and essentials," John said as we all situated ourselves around the camp fire.

"I thought we had a bit more than that left," Darren said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Nope, so this means we really have to make that trip into town," John said. "But we have to plan this right."

I toyed with the ring hanging from my gold necklace. I completely forgot that I had packed the ring and matching necklace, but it was a nice surprise to find it at the bottom of my backpack. My parents had gotten me the jewelry as a graduation present and at the time I thought I would have to end up pawning the pieces just to help pay off my student loans, but I'm glad I didn't. It was a nice reminder of my family and I felt a little less despondent went I wore them; it reminded me of home even though 'home' was so far away. The crackle of the walkie-talkie brought me out of my revere;

"Guys, we got a situation over here," Taylor's voice sounded out. "I just found our first infected."

John picked up the walkie before anyone even was able to get up.

"What marker are you by?" He asked.

"The 4th one," Taylor's voice answered.

"We'll be right there," John said as he made sure his guns were on his belt and bolted off towards the direction of the marker.

I hopped up and followed John, briefly registering that Darren was right behind me. The good thing about all this exercise was that I lost those nine pounds that have been haunting me since my freshman year.

The sun was setting but it was still light enough that we could see without flashlights and in the distance I could see Taylor's silhouette against the rays from the setting sun. I could also see a second figure which appeared to be stuck on the barbed fence. Taylor was standing far enough from the thing that its grabbing hands were uselessly flinging up and down in an attempt to reach him.

The odd thing, aside from the walking around dead part, was that the infected was wearing hunting gear which was torn and dirtied from being out in the forest. This guy must have been camping out in the woods and gotten infected but the question was how did he get infected? I thought it took actual contact with a sick individual to turn someone. That was a scary thought. His face was barely there it had become so decayed. His lips were chewed off and a chunk of his cheek was missing. The other side was so sunken in that his cheek bone stood out painfully against his emaciated and discolored face.

"What should we do with him?" Taylor asked.

"Shoot it," John said with finality.

"Then what?" I asked.

"Burn it," John said back and I made a face at that.

There was no way that would smell good.

"How about we bury him?" Darren suggested and I nodded in agreement.  

"Fine."

Taylor raised his gun to shoot the now snarling infected but John grabbed his arm.

"We're on the cabin property and that shot will be quite loud," John reprimanded Taylor.

"Well then what do you suggest?" Taylor huffed.

John turned to me, "Bailey has a silencer on her Beretta."

I didn't like were this was going. I didn't like the smirk that was encroaching on Taylor's face either.

"By all means," Taylor smiled too nicely and thought maybe I should 'accidently' shoot him.

"If ya hand me your gun, I can shoot him," John offered but I knew I would never live this down if I chickened out.

"No, I'll have to do it one day why not start now?" I said, proud that my voice hadn't given way to my unease.

They backed up a few feet and I removed the silenced Beretta from my hip holster. The still shiny metal coating reflected the dimming light as I lifted the pistol to eye level and flicked the safety off. I took a deep and slightly shaky breath as I aimed and slowly squeezed the trigger. 

A/N: Hey, it's just me, the pesky author again. Just wanted to check in and see how you were doing? Enjoying the ride? I hope so. And I also hope that means you will support us writers and vote! I really means a lot.