(Day 1): Allies?

"Do you have anywhere to shelter for the night?" Mia asks. 'Why would she need to know that?' My thoughts drift to the tree-cave thing I discovered not that long ago, but then shake my head. 'I still don't know how much I can trust her yet. I will keep this secret to myself, at least for now.'

"No, not yet at least." I point towards the stiff corpses laying on the grass. Still continuously bleeding their lifeblood out onto the grass. Staining the landscape, a nasty red colouration. "I was searching around for something like that before I noticed them." I look at Mia. "And that is when you saved my skin."

"Mhm. Indeed, I did… Tell me, why did you try to take them both on," Mia gestures to my wounds. "Especially in that condition." I just shrug.

"I'm not sure. I needed supplies but had no luck finding them around here." Mia 'tut-tuts.'

"That wasn't a very smart move on your behalf. I'm getting distracted though, we'll have to find someplace elsewhere if we are going to work together." My heart skips a beat. 'She wants to be my ally. If we weren't surrounded by corpses, I would think she is trying to flirt with me…'

"Work together?" I ask, perplexed. "I thought this was just a temporary help-out." This time, Mia shrugs.

"It could be that if you'd like, but why not? We haven't killed each other so far, which is a plus in my books."

"I guess…"

"And you may need me to save your skin again." Mia elbows me, and winks in a cheeky sort of way. I roll my eyes, the blood rushing to my cheeks once more. Mia laughs, perhaps noticing my blush. Her pleasant laugh does nothing but deepen my quickly growing affection for her.

"Whatever." I reply blandly. Trying to sound uninterested and annoyed. Probably failing.

"So, it's decided?"

"I suppose so. You drive some good points."

"Cool. Cool."

"Well then, my new comrade, do you have anywhere that we could set up a temporary camp, then?" Mia shrugs.

"Eh, not really, but sort of? I found a clearing in the forest that provides decent protection from unwanted eyes, yet still enough visibility of the meadow outside. That is how I saw you being attacked. What a coincidence I was there, else you would be dead… Is that good enough for you?" She raises her eyebrows in a gesture of; 'you in, or you out?'

I nod, smiling at the thought of having a 'comfortable' place to rest. "I'm in. Better than spending a night out here anyways," I gesture around the fresh meadow. 'It would be cold at night out here. Not to mention vulnerable and unprotected.' Mia nods, smiling slightly as she turns towards the two bodies. Crouching down next to the first of the two – the boy – she begins patting it down for anything useful. She retrieves another small packet of dried fruit, looking identical to the one I had. She also finds a small knife that looks like it could be used for nothing other than eating with. On the second corpse – the girl – she finds a water canteen and a box of waterproof, storm-proof, matches. Additionally, she uncovers a few spare rounds of ammunition. She passes them all to me to carry, as neither of the corpses carried a backpack, and neither Mia nor I have one. We must carry all items with our hands or attach them to our belts. I do so with the water canteen, and just carry the set of matches.

After we have finished looting the bodies, Mia stands and turns towards the forest, presumably where her forest opening is. She motions for me to follow her. We take a dozen or so steps forwards and emerge into a great hideout location. All things considered, it's a small clearing, being only about four metres in each direction. It makes up for that with tall, dense tree branches above us that grew together so tightly they block out most light from entering through it. What light that does break manage to through is sourced mainly from the sides of the clearing, as well as small amounts from gaps in the surrounding trees. 'If it rains, we will be very sheltered here.' The floor is completely snowed over with various species of pine needles and leaves. Off to one side is one of the small storage crates that I recognize from being at the centre of the maze. It's coloured pure white. By the looks of it, Mia has smothered dirt over the top and sides to mask the colour. As well as that, she has roughly strewn over it, masking the shape so from the outside it looks like another leaf covered rock or log. I whistle in admiration.

"This is quite the find!" I exclaim, louder than necessary. I step in and gesture around. "Why bother asking me for a place to stay the night when you had already found this?!" I question. Mia just shrugs.

"I would have liked to keep it a secret. Just in case I needed to escape back here." Mia stares at me with cold eyes. I flinch with guilt, knowing that I did the same as she intended to.

"Fair enough, I guess." I simply reply, hiding my true emotions behind a wall of dismissal.

"I mean, it would be better if it wasn't quite so close to where the meadow is." Mia looks at me and then smiles slightly. "But if it wasn't, I wouldn't have heard your girlish screams." I choose to ignore her last statement. 'They aren't that girlish…'

"I suppose… But still, this is still an amazing find!" Mia merely shrugs again. Looking around, I find a spot underneath one of the large rainforest trees making up the 'walls' of the hideout. I find a comfortable looking one on my right. With my back leaning against it, I sigh from exhaustion and fatigue. 'I have an ally, and a comfortable hideout.' I adjust my sitting position, and then amend my thoughts. 'Well, comfortable-ish. Considerably better than what I would have had to sleep in, however. That is a plus.' I take out my larger knife and select a small twig from next to me. With great care and deliberate motions, I begin stripping the outer layer of bark off it. Mia sits down next to the covered crate. Not for the first time, I wonder how much I should trust her. As if sensing my thoughts, Mia smiles at me and opens the box. With a flick of her wrist, she lightly chucks a small, foiled packet at me. I try to catch it, but my sore limbs are too slow to react, and it bounces off my chest to fall and settle on my lap.

"What's this?" I ask Mia. I study the words printed on the packet. On the front of it in dark black writing is labelled: 'MRE'.

"It's an MRE," Mia replies. "It stands for 'Meal Ready to Eat.' I think they are used by military personnel due to the fact they are quick to prepare, and easy to produce."

"So, it's basically just a packet of food?" I say quizzically. And then after a few moments I add; "And how do you know all that information?"

"Yes, that's what I mean by 'meal'." I roll my eyes. "As for how I know that" Mia pauses, "I'm not sure." 'Interesting,' I think. Just then, my stomach gurgles and I realise for the first time in a while how hungry I actually am. 'It has been an active day; I'm surprised I didn't notice sooner.' I eagerly tear open the top of the packet and upturn it. Smaller foiled packages drop to the floor from within. One is labelled 'Water.' The second is labelled 'Nutrients.' The third has no label. As well as these, a small paper sheet flutters to the ground. I rip open the top of the packet labelled Nutrients, revealing a heap of dried pasta and what appears to be powdered flavour crystals. I set it down next to me and move on, turning my attention to the piece of paper. On it is scribed three lines of text.

1. Pour the water into the nutrients packet.

2. wait 10-15 minutes for the chemical reaction to take place, heating the water and cooking the food.

3. Eat it.

"Seems simple enough," I mutter to myself. 'The military must have been humorous people. 'Eat it.' Yeah, what else am I going to do with it? Genius. Never would have thought of that.' I softly snort to myself.

"What was that?" Mia inquires, puzzled. I look over at her.

"Just talking to myself." I reply simply, not wanting to explain any further.

"Mhmm," comes the response. I have already returned my attention to the task at hand, and don't notice. I rip open the top of the packet of water, causing some to spill onto the surrounding floor, soaking through the pine needles, leaves and soil. I pick up the packeted food and deliberately pour the water into it. Being careful not to spill any more water. After a few seconds steam begins to cloud up from within the packet. I pinch the two tops of the packet closed. I am pleasantly surprised to find that they stick together on their own. I leave it next to me and wait for it to finish. Mia clicks her tongue thoughtfully. I glance over at her.

"Pass me the gun that you got from the boy earlier." Mia says.

"I'm fairly certain it was the girl. And, why? It's my only firearm."

"I'll trade you," Mia replies, a devilish smile appears on her face as she pulls out a massive, carbon fibre, bolt-action sniper rifle. My eyes widen with excitement.

"Where did you get that?" I ask, my voice speeding up. I was like a toddler, wanting only one thing, and not going to stop until I get it. Mia places it on the floor and I reach out at it, but she smacks my hand aside.

"Nuh-uh! Not until you give me the pistol." I roll my eyes. I pull out the pistol and hand it to her. She accepts it and places it next to her. Motioning me to go ahead. I pick it up before she motions for me to do so. In that instant, I didn't know why I wanted it, just that I needed it. "I found it in this box, which I also found here already. I tried to use it, but only succeeded in almost shooting my foot off." I look at her quizzically. She motions at her shoe. There is a bullet path traced down the side of it. I can't help but utter a short bark of laughter.