The Survivalists

-Chapter 2-

"Tahlia, darling, fetch the water." 

The voice was soft, almost distant, coming from the woman with shoulder-blade length strawberry-blonde hair, in short waves. Her eyes were a pale blue which watched the soup bubble in the large pot  ontop of the gas stove. 

"Alright." Tahlia replied lightly, grabbing her dark brown knitted sweater, wooden buttons open. She crossed the plank flooring and grabbed the gun lying on the table, along with the flick knife. She held the gun within her calloused palm and placed the knife in her sweater pocket. 

She would have thought that the seamstress who'd made her dress would have thought to make large pockets in it considering their survival battling situation, however, she wouldn't complain. Holding the gun wasn't a bad idea. It kept her ready and prept. 

She pushed lightly against the wooden frame, and stepped into the biting air of a winter's day.

She trudged through the thick snow, her dark brown boots slooshing through the snow blanket.  Flakes fell lightly on her collar-bone length black hair and contrasted greatly against it, like small pearls twinkling against burnt bark. 

The sky was growing dark as the sun slowly hid behind the horizon in the direction of the thick forest which lied just outside their village. She pushed her hands into her pockets to protect them from the freeze and continued slowly, smiling politely as she passed the others of her village. 

One step at a time, eyes looking out at the thick green lush of the pine trees. She blinked slowly, putting a hand up to try and hide behind the bright shine of the suns powerful rays. 

Exiting the tall brown log fence of The Village, she made her way down the same trail she had for years. In the months with no snow fall, a dirt trail was there from the many times they all had to travel down this way. 

She looked on steadily as she made it to the frozen lake. She bit her lip and sighed as she took one hand and knocked it hard against the solid surface of the lake. She blinked, looking at the moving fish beneath the layer of ice. 

It wasn't very thick, but it was too hard for her to break through it, at least. 

She fought the urge to roll her eyes and stood, brushing off her dark green dress, snow falling from it in clumps. She walked further into the forest, heart beating a bit faster as she heard the sound of The Infected walking behind the trees, limping through the cold. 

They were less active during this time, though they were just as dangerous. Slower, but just as vicious. 

She quickened her pace silently and broke through a line of dead trees to be faced with the large cliff at last.

She blinked, taking in the view of the setting sun along the lapping beach. She walked carefully to the edge of the cliff, preparing herself to walk down the side, where a small trail was crudely and barely there. Though it would work, she'd had to walk down multiple times before.  

However, her eyes were caught by sudden movement and she paused, cowering slightly. 

She blinked, rubbing her eyes for a moment as she squinted harder. What was this, that she was seeing? 

White movement. At first, she thought perhaps that it was the snow, though it was moving too far, too fast.  

She could swear it took on the shape of something more human-like. 

A sudden wind picked up and the white blew up to reveal a dark dress beneath it. 

She let out a soft gasp. A white cloak ontop of a dark dress? It was a human, and so were the others.

She counted in her head.

There must have been at least thirty of them. All dressed within hooded cloaks of white. 

She looked on curiously, watching on intensely as they moved across the land quickly in a small group, out to the edge of the ocean, gathering the water. 

She watched also, however, with curiosity. She, herself, was sent out to fetch water for batheing. Were they going to get the same? If it was dirnking water they wanted, ocean water was hardly suitable. She felt the urge to warn them of the dangers behind drinking ocean water. She bit her tongue back though as they turned and moved away quickly.

They weren't young. They were around her mother's age. They should have known the difference between the waters. They were alive before The Infection and so they had, had a much better education than herself. 

As they left the snow and sand filled land, Tahlia watched carefully before making her way down the path. When she had finally made it to the bottom, she could not even see which way they had traveled.

Strange.