She's not at all surprised when she wakes up with sunlight glistening in through the blanket covered windows. She had a dream about her mom. She wasn't very sure what that meant if anything at all. She could barely remember it with each new blink the memory faded. They leave a few hours after waking and she gives Austin the cold shoulder for not waking her up.

"What's that?" Isa asks, pointing to a sign painted on wood in red paint. An arrow pointing up, a circle around it.

"A warning," Hanna utters eyeing the sign with a sick gut, "safe zone uses signs to warn people to stay way. Shoot on sight..."

Isa frowns, dark eyes bouncing between the two older teens. "So there's a safe zone around here?"

"Yeah," Austin answers sort of looking away, working his jaw, "a few miles that way likely. Come on, it's no good for us." He begins walking again, the girls following.

"But why?" The child questions. "Why aren't they helping us? If they had helped people there wouldn't be any cannibals right?"

Sliding her hands over her hair she hand managed to pull back into a too tight tail and rubbing her neck, Hanna lets Austin answer, because honestly, she hasn't one. An answer that is. She also wondered what happened to people. How did life change this way?

"They only have a limited amount of resources," He guesses. "I assume they're helping who they can." He had fumbled for words. Hanna quietly scoffs. She had no doubt that the government or whoever was over the safe zones could help more people if they really wanted too. 

Soon the zone was miles behind and another sign was attached along a tree and in big bold letters read: Hazard Bombing sight 28 miles Southeast. Isa didn't have to ask for an explanation, they moved on, putting a few miles between them and both threats.

Sunlight begins to bleed from the open sky, filling Hanna with dread. She had her issues with being out after night, animals, cannibals, not being able to see traps were a few. She tugs out her map, attempting to see there location.

"Austin..."

"We'll camp out here." He answers seeming to have been thinking similarly. "We'll be fine." Cannibals didn't hunt at night, not usually, it was relatively safe.

The nights were chilly again, leaving the three off them to huddle together around a very small fire. None of them would willingly fall into sleep. But Isa was out quickly, leaning into Hanna heavily, tired. She let her sister rest in her lap, playing with her dirty curls.

"I remember when I was six and she was two..." Hanna says suddenly, voice lifting a little above the wind, "She use to follow me around... like all the time." A sigh leaves her. "So annoying..."

The boy at her side looks at her. She continues to stare at the fire. "I always wanted siblings." Austin admits, he lightly smiles. "A little brother I could boss around." He bumps his shoulder into her. "All I got was you, you were easy to boss around." She glances at him, quietly scoffing. "But... My mom wanted another baby," Austin says, "she use to argue about it with dad. I think she thought it would fix there issues..." But there was no way to fix the issues that man had. He was a murderer, a serial killer of women. She wonders if he was still alive. Were they keeping criminals in jail even though the world went to hell? She hoped so... there was enough lunatics out already. She looks at her friend, wondering how he felt, wondering if he had wondered if his dad was still around or even free. He had been eleven when the man was finally caught and instantly an outcast, of course the girl had remained by his side, but he never really talked about it besides sneaking into her bedroom a few days after it happened, whimpering into her neck as he told her about it. Obviously she had already heard, but the girl had let him tell her.

Best friends, they were best friends, until they began dating, it had messed it all up. She frowned into the fire.

"He came home covered in blood one time when I was about ten." He admits, shocking her. She openly stared at him. "He... He told me to help him wash his clothes and his car. He... He had a..." He frowned deeply, almost as if he were in pain. "I..." He never finished what he was going to say and she wasn't going to force him to say.

###

Morning was cold as well, forcing all of them to tug out heavy coats. Hanna thumps her sister as she began drinking her bottle water quickly. Her sister hisses like a snake, holding her left ear where she had been assaulted.

"Hey!"

"Save a little of that," A sigh leaves Hanna, "make it last all day." Her sister grumbles but listens to her.

A house comes into view as noon rolls around. "Should we?" Hanna questions looking at it. "There's a few obvious traps in the yard but I might not be that bad."

Austin frowns but nods. "Yeah, we have to look for socks." He nods again. "You wanna do it?" The girl nodded, she was quickest at it.

"When can I start going in?" Isa questions.

"Next time..." The older kids say simultaneously. Isa lightly scowls at them well aware of their obvious fib. They said it every single time. 

Quickly they make a plan and once again, Hanna finds herself moving to an obvious trap. She makes quick work of getting inside, using her unlocking tools, she quickly slides inside. The home was large and finding the abnormally humongous kitchen was hard. All over was thin trip wire, on the floor and on the ceiling by her head. She finally found it, the cabinets were filled, almost with so much she would have to come back. She quickly began filling her backpack, widely grinning.

She had finished filling her backpack when she heard it, a footstep and metal sliding against leather. She quickly turns, hands instantly going to her blade, but the air was hit out of her before her hands was able to pull it out. Her body hit the ground, her head smashing harshly. Stars exploded in her head as something cracks. She couldn't help but let out a loud scream. Something cold and sharp pressing into her neck has it falling away, stuck. She finds herself staring up into a pair of murky brown eyes, blood-shot.

"Looks like I have a little filthy rat." The man smirks. "Usually I would of ended you quick but..." His smirk widens. "When I saw you were a cute little filthy rat, I decided I could have a late lunch." Hanna's lids widen as she feels his hand slip under her sweater. "Not a lot of meat on ya... maybe I'll keep you around for a while? Fatten you up?"

Her insides churn and something soaks up all the moisture in her mouth. She tries reaching for her weapon but the man catches her hand, wrenching it above her head. His breath smelled overwhelmingly like liquor and some type of meat. "No no" She attempts bucking the man off her. "Not very nice, filthy rat."

The girl whimpers as he unlatches her blade from her hip and sliding it away from her, his hand returning to under her shirt. "You're a little nasty?" He lightly sniffs. "How about a sh - "

Suddenly the man's weight was wrenched from atop of her and his body slams into the very dusty refrigerator. She looks up, Austin stands over her panting chaotically, his face enraged. Surprisingly fast, the man jumps up and slams his body into Austin, both of them smashing into the wall.

"Fuck!" She hears someone growl as a struggle begins. Metal glints in the afternoon light coming through the broken blinds over the windows. She can only stare, frozen. "Another one of you?" He hisses as he hits Austin into the floor, on top of the withering boy, blade to Austin's throat. Her breath clenches inside her. "I don't need you." Suddenly Austin bolts, hitting the man in the face, tugging out his own blade and plunging it into the man in a move. Instead of stopping, he yanks out the blade again and plunges it into the man again, and again, and again, long after he had stopped withering, a grunt falling from his lips nearly every time.

Then she finds herself falling out of her daze, and she hesitantly crawling towards him. "Austin..." She calls out quietly. He instantly stops, his whole body shivering. He was drenched in blood, so was she. "You... you can stop now."

She was going to say more when more footsteps were heard. "What in the hell?" A younger man was standing in the opening his eyes wide. In seconds Austin was on his feet again, plunging the blade into the other man's stomach, once, the man steps back, setting loose a trip wire, an axe falls downwards barely missing the man's head before hitting the wall, then twice as Austin grabs him, all before the man could reach for his own blade. The man falls upon Austin letting him go, Austin followed, his blade falling from his hands, clattering to the floor. He loudly pants, his body shivering, his hair loose from his pony tail, sticking to his face with blood and sweat. "Are you alright?" His sudden question, rough and broken, draws her from her shock.

"I..." His head was bowed. He had killed... "Are you?" As soon as her words left her mouth she felt like a dummy. "We have to get out of here before more comes." She tells him instead, standing on wobbly and numb limbs, falling into autopilot. After helping him up, both of them make it out of the house quickly, as if possessed by some unseen force intent on survival. Their wounds and pain caused by those wounds forgotten. They bolt across the gravel and nearly leap into the woods.

"Thanks..." She whispers, nearly tripping. He only continues forward.

"I was worried ab - What happened?" Her sister's loud voice is as painful as it is calming.

"We'll tell you later." She tells her. "We have to get out of here." The girl nods, following them without a word.

Austin had a cut on his left hand and one on his neck, both patched up with bandages and disinfected. He's been quiet ever sense they set up a small camp in a small home, even remained silent as she was strong-armed into telling her sister what happened. She can understand why. They both were covered in blood still, but used sanitation pads in attempts of riding themselves of the blood.

For a usually loud and insensitive fourteen year old, her sister remains quiet and asks very few questions about what happened, she even refrains from her normal amount of complaining.

Hanna wraps her blanket around her sister, briefly glancing at the boy who stared silently into the battery-powered lantern. His gaze is dark, shadowed by his thoughts. Guilt eats at her. It was all her fault, all because of her carelessness. When she thinks Isa is asleep, she finally speaks.

"I'm sorry... If I - "

"I don't regret it." The boy says suddenly, looking up at her, darkened irises shiny, moist, wet. "He was going to hurt you and..."

"But if I had been more aware, it wouldn't have happened. I was sloppy." She tells him, looking at the floor. "I'm sorry you..."

"I would do it again." He admits. "If anyone tries hurting you... I would do it again. I just... I always said I didn't want to be like my dad."

"You didn't like it... you - "

"I don't feel bad about it. I can't even say I didn't like it... Hurting him because he hurt you. I don't feel bad about it at all. Should I?" He looks up at her, pleadingly. "Should I feel bad about what I did?"

How could she have the answer he was looking for? She had a feeling he wasn't actually asking her anyway. "You should feel the way you feel..." She frowns, feeling like a poopy pants toddler attempting to explain chemical engineering to a scientist.

He laughs a little, not an amused laugh, but a laugh. "That makes absolutely no sense." He tells her.

"Well," she lightly shrugs. "I'm like that. What I'm saying is, Austin, you saved my life. You're nothing like your father. You... I owe you big. Next time I find a can of pears you can have it, no, you can have all my pears from now on." She cringes at her own words. The boy smiles anyway, though it was fake.

"I'll hold you to that." He says.

***

"You're fifteen years old and you're telling me you have no idea what the word 'illogical' means?" Hanna asks her sister in disbelief, tossing another rotten orange of the window beside her.

Her sister pouts. "I never finished the seventh grade..." The teen defended herself hotly.

"Still..." Austin chimes in, looking as shocked as Hanna. "I mean..."

"I hate it when you two gang up on me." The younger of the three whines, "I mean, so not fair!"

"We're not..." Hanna huffs softly, sharing a smirk with the young man.

"See!" Her sister bellows out loudly. "You two suck." A warm breeze blows in through the window, entwining around very comfortable quiet, as all of the teen cut open oranges, seeing if their insides eyeing them for red specks which revealed it's taint.

"I found one!" Hanna yells holding up a orange with normal orange inside, not tainted. The others quickly crowd her as she begins halving the orange evenly in three's. Everyone took a half and went back searching through the crates of oranges at their feet. "Oh, save your freakin' seeds, Isa." She frowns at the younger girl. Isa burps in response.

"I think we went and raised a monster." Austin says dryly. "How dare you burp such a weak burp without even uttering a word of excuse?" His voice takes on a feigned accent, like he was British woman from the eighteen hundreds. A sigh leaves Hanna.

"Oh yeah, old man?" Isa loudly declares, pointing at the unimpressed young man. "You think you can do better?"

Hanna quickly tunes out the antics of best friend and sister, not feeling the headache was worth it. All her attention falls down to her work, it was rather important even if they weren't acting like it was. Food had become even more of a problem to find as years floated on hazy clouds of air of exhaustion, starvation, and fear. Now they made a priority to find food in anyway they could. As of recently, Cannibals had been less active, they were very much still active, but now if they stayed away from the cannibal group's hunting grounds, it could be weeks without hearing even a hoot from one. They had discovered why a little over a year ago - cannibals had began turning their fellow humans in cattle and breeding stock. It was a sad day they had stumbled upon it.

But ultimately, there were less trap houses with food in them, all traps were now for actually capturing another human instead of killing. It was very troubling.

It had been Hanna's idea to check fruits for ones untainted by whatever was tainting everything else, checking everyone, one by one from the over-grown trees. Out of 100 there was usual one eatable fruit, well it hadn't hurt them yet. A sigh leaves Hanna, they couldn't truly survive like this for long. She felt as if imaginary walls were closing in on her, she felt as if she would have to make a choice very soon. Hunger is a frightening occurrence, it had single-handedly turned likely thousands into cannibals.