It had taken a lot of courage on Sarah's end to get out of the Bunker. For the past... However long she had been there, the Bunker was her home. Celeste was her 'landlady'. Juka was probably her best friend. Slate was... Slate. Not much else she could say about him. She had left her home. Not for long though! She didn't know what she would do if she didn't go back. The Bunker was the only place she felt safe. In a world destroyed, it wasn't something she would give up.

Shaking her head softly, the twenty-six year old forced herself to focus. She had left the Bunker for a reason. It seemed silly now that she was out of the protective walls, but it was a reason none-the-less. With a sigh the brunette tightened her grip on her bow, which already had an arrow notched and ready.

Sarah was training.

About a month ago she had picked up her bow and instantly felt like her grip was wrong. When she felt it was fixed, her stance was wrong. When that was right, something else was wrong. The cycle continued until she gave up and decided to see if Celeste would let her leave. The blonde did and after a month of getting the courage, Sarah was out in the world training.

Oh how the human woman wished she hadn't left.

There were fallen buildings all around her and scaresly any wildlife, though she had heard some rubble fall. The area she was in was just creepy. But Sarah was determined to stay out until she felt confident in her archery skills. Sometimes the brunette felt like her brain wasn't working.

Looking around at the path she had used to get from her apartment building to the Bunker, Sarah felt sad. "How could I have not noticed all of this?" she asked herself as she spotted children's toys and other objects in pieces along the road. "How could I have walked this path and never have known what was on it?"

The shell of Lizzy now known as Melody was out looking for food. It seemed that was all she did nowadays. The effort to leave her safe spot took so much. Melody felt like there were always eyes on the back of her neck. The area she traversed at the moment was full of rubble. It was like death walked through this area of New York, but that’s how almost every part she had been in felt right.

Sadly, there was not much wildlife in this area, but Melody was always on the lookout for rats and bugs. She never knew when she would find a food source. Out of the corner of her eye, Melody saw a slight movement on the ground – she assumed it was a rat. Following the motion she spied the four-legged creature as it scurried underneath a large pile of rubble. Under there, Melody had no chance of retrieving the rat even if she used her high-pitched scream.

This angered Melody, and it bubbled up inside her. Her fists balled up and she struck the ruined wall next to her. This created a chain reaction and some rubble from above began to fall. She had to jump out of the way to miss the rubble. Well there goes that food, she thought as she sat there looking at the concrete that almost crushed her.

Melody couldn’t sit there forever though. Daylight was burning and her stomach was growling. It was a typical feeling with the scarcity of food, but it was a need that Melody needed to fulfill. As she walked down the cluttered road, she heard someone speak. The presence of someone sent fear and slight panic into Melody’s head. Very rarely she encountered people, so out of precaution, Melody clutched her pocketknife tighter in her hand. Sometimes it was kill or be killed, and Melody did not want to be killed.

She peered around the corner to see the stranger. She was a female, and looked like a slightly petite at that. The woman had a bow and arrow; Melody made note of this just in case it would come to a fight. What struck her most was that the woman didn’t look like she was hunting. And she looked… sad as she stared down the road.

That was when Melody lost her balance. She was leaning on the rubble too much and it gave. She fell and the pocketknife in her hand flew through the air and landed in plain sight of the strange female. Melody knew her position was given away, but she needed that pocketknife. With a scared, feral look in her eyes, she darted to her pocketknife hoping and praying that an arrow would not pierce her heart. Melody grabbed the pocketknife and glanced at the woman who must have seen the wild, pitiful look in Melody’s eyes.

Sarah walked slowly as she looked around at the destruction on the street. She could remember leaving the safety of her slightly insane landlord's half destroyed bunker. Once her mind was made to find some survivers, it seemed her memory became fuzzy. The brunette tried to piece together an explanation for her lapse in memory, but she could only think of shock.

Suddenly her ears caught the sound of falling rubble. It was closer than the one she had heard some time before. Either she was closer to the source or the source was closer to her. 'Option three: Both.'

She heard something clatter against the ground and turned. A female rushed after what appeared to be a knife. Sarah pulled the string of her bow back move as her stance changed into one far more sturdier. When the other female had the knife, she released her arrow and string. Quickly as she could, she grabbed another from the quiver hanging from her waist. All the while she kept her eyes on the other female and her arrow, which had landed right in front of the blonde's feet.

"Any hostile movement and I won't miss you heart," she warned.

She wasn't threatening the rather thin looking girl, though they all really looked thin. She had only stated the truth. While she felt uncomfortable with her bow, she would not miss if it meant her life. If she took a violent action towards Sarah, the brunette would defend herself. And she had the upperhand, unless the girl could throw that knife. All else fails she could run into the back alleys. It may have been some time since she had been in the city, but she knew the back streets like the back of her hand.

The arrow that stood at Melody’s feet was a warning – a very strong warning. It sent chills through her. That arrow could have done it. That arrow could have ended her life. Melody just stared at the brunette woman and internally thought about what death would mean to her. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It would mean no fighting to find rats or any scraps of food; no worrying about who’s watching every move you make; no, well, anything. Even as Melody thought about how nice death might be, something in her screamed at her to not give up.

The strange woman warned Melody that she wouldn’t miss if she made any “hostile movement”. She wasn’t sure if the stranger was telling the truth or not though. Clutching the pocketknife in her fist, Melody called out, “How do I know you speak truth?” Ever since she left the life of Lizzy behind, Melody had difficulty trusting people. It became easier to just put up a wall. If no one came in, she wouldn’t be hurt.

Her eyes darted to her surroundings. There was a possibility to run out of the situation if she ran behind herself, but with the stranger having a bow and arrow, there wasn’t a guarantee that she would be unscathed. No, the best thing for Melody to do right now was stay exactly as she was: crouched on the ground clutching her pocketknife just in case the stranger goes against her word.

>>“How do I know you speak truth?”

Sarah paused. Her string was still taut, the arrow still aimed, and her heart was beating faster than at rest. There wasn't a way the girl would know she was truthful. Well, none came to the brunette's mind.

"You don't," she said simply. "I'm not going to lower my weapon until you put away yours."

There really wasn't a way for Sarah to put her bow away. It would always be in sight and in reach. She had learned how to notch an arrow as she got into a proper stance when she was younger. The movement was second nature now. Even if she put her bow up, the girl was still in danger. It helped to protect Sarah, but it also caused some problems. One of them being now.

Hostility wasn't something she was used to. Not saying they didn't get a few rough costumers at the Bunker, but Celeste had a large enough gun o make people think twice. Besides, Sarah was usually cleaning or cooking. She had started out as the cook, but there was so little to do. She often cleaned the living space to times a day. This caused violence to be rather limited for her to experience.

Basically, she wasn't sure what the girl wanted or if the girl would charge her. The brunette hoped the threat of an arrow in the heart (quietly she remembered her brother's teasing of 'an arrow in the knee') would keep the blonde from charging. Sarah wasn't too good with close combat.

The strange woman pointing the bow and arrow warned she wouldn’t lower it until Melody put away hers. There was no way to have a guarantee that she wouldn’t be hurt. Blind faith was all she could go on. It wasn’t something she could give, but it was all Melody could do for the moment.

Reluctantly, Melody closed the blade on her pocketknife and stashed it away in her pocket. It was close enough where she could pull it out if she really needed it, but it was still further than Melody would have liked it to be. Besides, if she really needed to, she could send pain coursing through her body with her scream. The arrow might pierce her heart before that, but it was better than nothing.

Her gaze never left the strange woman as she put away her weapon. She forced herself to be ready just in case there was a hint of betrayal. “Mine’s away. You do the same,” Melody called to the brunette. However, there was no time for her to act upon Melody’s words. A noise appeared behind Melody and it was second nature for her to spring up, slightly crouched, pulling her pocketknife out while facing the noise.

Behind the rubble appeared a savage man. He had a long black mane and a thick beard – most likely hadn’t cut his hair since New York went up in ruins. All he wore was remnants of a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, but what frightened Melody the most was the long, sharp knife he carried in his right hand. It looked like an old kitchen knife. The man stared straight at Melody while he slowly approached. He had turn into the worse of them all: a cannibal. He must have been starving, but Melody wasn’t going to let her body become someone’s dinner.

Melody slowly backed away toward the strange woman. There was that intuition that she wouldn’t want to be eaten either, and if the two of them worked together, there was a better chance of survival against a large man. “I don’t like this, but let’s work together to get out of this mess,” she hissed at the woman. “Can you shoot him with one of your arrows?” Melody’s pocketknife wouldn’t do any good against a kitchen knife and she wouldn’t be able to take him on in close combat. The arrow was their best option because she didn’t want to use her high-pitched scream unless she really needed to.

>>“Mine’s away. You do the same.”

She had been ready to take the arrow away when she heard the same noise that caused the blonde to turn. The arrow was no longer pointed at the other girl, but instead the crazed, and hairy, man that had appeared. His clothes were more rags than true clothes. There were some red stains on his shirt that Sarah knew wasn't from an animal.

'Just what we needed,'[/color] the brunette thought as she aimed at the man. The blonde had backed up so that she was closer to Sarah. While it made the brunette tense, she knew the blonde wasn't going after her.

>>“I don’t like this, but let’s work together to get out of this mess. Can you shoot him with one of your arrows?”

"Yeah, I can hit him," the brunette stated as she drew her string back a bit further. "So long as he doesn't have a shield of sorts. I'll hit him."

With that said the brunette let her arrow fly. The arrow had been aimed at the large man's chest. However, something forced the arrow to hit his left knee. The lightly tanned woman cursed aloud as her arrow missed its target.

"Looks like we'll be here for a while," she stated to the blonde.

The woman sent an arrow flying toward the man, but instead of hitting his chest, it hit his left knee. This was not going to be an easy battle. Melody cursed under breath. It didn’t even cross her mind that the wild man could be a mutant – and that’s including the fact that she was one herself!

>> “Looks like we’ll be here for a while.”

Arrows were out of the question for killing the man, and Melody certainly couldn’t run up to him and stab him while his kitchen knife loomed over them. And who knew the extent of his mutations. Obviously he could either create some sort of force field to protect himself or could redirect airborne objects.

An idea struck Melody. She didn’t want to be forced to this, but she didn’t see any way out. She was a sitting duck there otherwise. Arrows wouldn’t pierce him, but her high-pitched scream would work.

“Plug your ears. You won’t want to hear this,” Melody muttered to the brunette woman. She didn’t check to see if the woman did what Melody warned her to do, but took a deep breath and focused on the ding of two glasses hitting each other. It was easy for her to imagine the noise because she thought about it so frequently. Melody plugged her ears and as the man began to rush the two women, she screamed.

She screamed her high pitch so loud that the man dropped his kitchen knife and fell on the floor clutching his head. The sound wouldn’t stop and it pained him. He began to writhe in pain as Melody casually walked up to him, kicked the kitchen knife away, and stared at the hairy man. She had no love, no kindness for the man; only hatred was left for him now.

Melody stopped her scream. The man was still clutching his ears trying to make the ringing go away. The pain he just felt was terrible and the remnants of it still went through his body. She simply pulled out her knife, clutched the hair on his head and in a smooth, simple movement, slit his throat.

Blood gushed everywhere, but Melody didn’t care. He was dead, and couldn’t kill her. Also, the blood would be a nice attraction for any rodents in the area. And where there are rodents, there is food. “Good riddance,” Melody said at she spat at the corpse.

She then proceeded to picking up the kitchen knife that lay wasted beside the body. “This will be much easier to hunt rats with.” It needed a little cleaning, but it was much sharper than the pocketknife she carried around.

>>“Plug your ears. You won’t want to hear this.”

Sarah looked at the blonde before slipping her bow and the arrow into her quiver. Whatever she was up to, the brunette wouldn't stop her. Clamping her hands over her ears, the twenty-six year old waited.

She didn't have to wait long either. There was a muffled scream hitting her eardrums, making her clamp her hands over her ears tighter than before. The cannibalistic man was in pain. The scream was harming him.

When the scream stopped, Sarah slipped her bow and arrow back into position. While the blonde slit the man's throat, she watched with a queasy stomach. It had to be done, but it didn't make her feel any better. A quick mumbled prayer was sent from her lips to the spirits of the land.

>>“This will be much easier to hunt rats with.”

Sarah's face turned into a grimace. She knew that some people ate rats, but the idea scared her. She hated seeing people go hungry. It was one of the reasons she agreed to cook for Celeste. To keep people fed.

"You'll do better if you spread some of the blood," she stated. "The scents good, but if you spread it around it'll attract even the hungriest of animals."

All the while, the arrow was trained on the blonde. Now that their threat was gone, there was nothing keeping them on the same side. She wasn't going to put down her defenses. Whoever this girl was, she wasn't a human like her.

Melody briefly forgot about the brunette until she mentioned that spreading out the blood would help attract more animals. Although she should have been concentrating on the woman with the arrow pointed at her, the promise of food because of the freshly spilt blood overtook Melody as her mouth began to water at the thought of a nice rat or two.

She didn’t sense any misleading intent in the woman’s advice, so Melody decided to follow the advice. With her newly acquired kitchen knife, she cut out the blood-soaked shirt of the corpse in an attempt to spread the blood. She dragged the shirt over to various rocks nearby, leaving a trail of blood in its path.

When she was satisfied with the blood trail around the area, she looked at her work with hungry eyes. If this didn’t attract any source of food, she didn’t know what would. Until the rats had enough time to sniff out the blood source, Melody needed to get her mind off of this possibility of food. She then remembered the brunette, and quickly set her gaze on her only to see an arrow staring back.

“I suppose you hunt,” Melody called to her. “How else would you know about the blood?” Her grip tightened on the kitchen knife in her right hand. There was nothing to keep the two females from attacking each other anymore, and now that the stranger saw Melody for what she really was, she didn’t trust the brunette’s words more than she had to. Finding out about mutant powers was a dangerous thing. She figured if she attempted to converse with the archer, then maybe an arrow wouldn’t pierce her heart. Whatever the case, Melody did not want to relinquish her grip on her kitchen knife.

>>“I suppose you hunt. How else would you know about the blood?”

Sarah nodded. "Yeah. Got a pretty good set up now though. Hunting isn't really needed. There's enough food for all of my family."

She felt like she was rubbing her well off life in the blonde's face, but maybe the idea of people looking for her would keep her alive. The others in the bunker knew where she was headed, so it wouldn't be hard to find her.

"What I said before still stands: You put the knives away and I'll do the same with my bow."

There wasn't much less she would say. If the girl wanted to keep her weapons out, Sarah would either leave or shot. Either way, it would mean they would split ways. If the girl put the knives away, Sarah would as well. Then they could talk like civilized people.

So the stranger didn’t have to hunt. Well bully for her. Hearing about having enough food for her… family irritated Melody. She wished that her life was all roses for herself, and she didn’t have to hunt. It wasn’t. Melody clutched at her stomach at the thought of real food. She couldn’t imagine what it tasted like. It was hard enough to imagine anything besides rodents and bugs.

Thinking about her thin memories of real food also brought her back to her old life. She remembered eating turkey, potatoes, and apple pie on Thanksgiving with her… family. It hurt to remember them. She was no longer the same girl anymore. Melody had to shake the thoughts away before they incapacitated her.

>>”What I said before still stands: You put the knives away and I’ll do the same with my bow.”

The archer’s statement forced Melody back to reality. Lizzy was a part of the past. Right now, Melody’s goal was survival. She looked down at her bloody kitchen knife and then back at the bow. Could she trust her? The brunette hadn’t shot her yet. Even though she knew Melody was a mutant, she didn’t shoot.

There weren’t a lot of options once again either. The easiest one would be to do what the archer said and put away the knife. There was the slightest hesitation, but Melody placed the kitchen knife on the ground beside her and put the pocketknife in her pocket. She didn’t want to place the kitchen knife in her sweatshirt backpack because it might poke her, and it wouldn’t really fit anywhere else.

“That work for ya?” Melody hoped the stranger wouldn’t mind the knife on the ground. She could deal with it right there, and there wasn’t really anywhere else to put it. After motioning to the archer to return the motion and put down her weapon, Melody continued to stare at the arrow that gazed upon her.

Sarah waited with baited breath as the blonde placed both knives away. The pocketknife to its place on her body and the kitchen knife on the ground. She could understand not wanting to put the sharp bloody metal on her person.

>>“That work for ya?”

A sigh of relief relaxed the muscles on her body. The brunette slipped her bow and arrow into the quiver as she promised. There wasn't much else she could do. With a look around the area, a great sorrow built up in her.

"Did you live in this area before the explosion?" she asked quietly.

There was a possibility that she knew the blonde, though it was slim. At the moment, she couldn't be able to tell. The blonde might have worked with her for all she knew. People change. The world they lived in forced it to happen faster.

The stranger put away her bow and arrow just as she promised. This made Melody relax a little to see that she kept to her word… so far. Melody didn’t expect that she would ever be completely relaxed, but that was her persona nowadays. It still felt slightly odd to not be clutching her knife, but that was because she half expected another crazed lunatic to come barging in again.

>>“Did you live in this area before the explosion?”

It was a simple question, but it flooded memories into Melody’s brain. Family dinner. Playing the guitar in the subway. Running around in the park. The last hug she gave her mom. The explosion. Returning to her old apartment. Sobbing over the loss of her parents. Everything came back to her just in that little question. Melody stared in the stranger’s general direction, but her mind was far away from the current situation. She croaked, “Yes.” It was all she could say at the present time.

More and more, Lizzy kept reappearing in her head. Melody didn’t want that part of her back though, but every time she stuffed Lizzy back, the memories would flood out harder the next time. Now, the memories gushed out. The emotions overtook Melody as she fell to her knees under the weight of everything her mind was going through. The emotional weight transferred to physical weight, and it just became too much for Melody.

Tears began to flood from her eyes as she knelt there and continued to think about her life as Lizzy and her life before the explosion. They were uncontrollable, and Melody couldn’t get a hold of her mind. Everything just hurt too much.

She then remembered the stranger watching her. By this point, it might have been mercy if she just shot her with an arrow. Happy memories felt like thousands of knives. Melody was an uncontrollable, emotional wreck, and she knew it.

All of a sudden, the blonde wasn't as calm as before. She was breaking down. Sarah watched stunned as tears flowed down the girl's face. It had been a long time since she had seen tears. It felt like forever even.

Finally, she got control of her body. With quick strides she came to the girl. She placed her pack and quiver beside her as she knelt down. Wrapping her arms around the young girl, Sarah started to say some things meant to comfort. She pulled the sobbing girl to her as she continued to whisper into the girl's ear.

"It's okay. Shh, everything's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay," she whispered over and over.

As she comforted the girl, memories of her own family sprung into her mind. She could see exactly what her family would have been doing at the time of the explosions. The idea that her family was gone was heartbreaking. A few tears fell from her eyes and into the blonde hair under her chin.

Now both girls were crying. Sarah kept whispering words of comfort. Now for the girl and herself.