Surviving by yourself was miserable, scavenging around for any crumble of food that you could find, cleaning yourself when you could, which was rarely, having to learn to be as silent as possible as to not draw any attention to yourself; not from the living, not from the dead.

The snow fell softly against the ground, on your hair, on your lashes, but you kept walking, you needed to find somewhere to stay, or you'd die. You'd survived two winters, you could survive another one. Shivering, runny nose, bones, and limbs hurting, but you could.

You feared having to walk through what used to be downtown, too many stores and places to hide and catch you off-guard, someone could simply come behind and rip your head off if you didn't move fast enough, it was easy to get lost when you entered the neighborhoods that looked so similar, you could barely tell if you'd been there or not. So, you were always watchful, eyes and ears focused, trying to tune out the soft crunch of the snow and catch any different sounds.

Your head snapped in the direction of a faint creaking sound, which you recognized easily. It was faint, but it was close at the same time, and you quickly pulled out your pistol, ready to shoot on sight. You had enough ammo to defend yourself and run, but when you started noticing how the sound became louder and dispersed, you weren't so sure.

Suddenly, more and more of them started coming out of the rundown stores and buildings. It wasn't a horde, but you were sure that this fight would attract even more of them — you had to think fast.

You prepared to shoot, clean your way out, and make a run, leave the rest of the undead behind, but something was faster. You heard and watched all of them fall to the floor, sharp shorts in the head making them fall face-first on the snowy ground.

Your eyes were wide, breath heaving, and suddenly, your ears caught something.

"Are you alright?" A deep, feminine voice came from behind you, making you spin around and point you gun at her.

She carried a long-range rifle from what you could tell, she was tall, sharp features, long and dark blue hair, her clothes seemed to be clean, good enough to keep her warm — you guessed she wasn't alone.

Her hands went in the air. "I'm not going to hurt you." she said, and you noticed her accent.