A young child quickly jolts from the ground in a makeshift tent. She feels like her heart is going to burst from her chest. The yelling out in the encampment is sharp in the stillness of the night. There’s only about five left in the group, including herself, and she’s already heard a few gunshots so she’s certain the men are dead. 

   She can hear a foreign tongue, the words are harsh and fierce. She can make out certain words here and there but without the fuller context they just fall flat and are swiftly forgotten in the anxious state she’s in.

   She’s scared to see what’s happening but nevertheless she feels a responsibility and thus musters up the courage to open the tent. 

   Before she can fully reach, however, an older girl quickly rushes in and covers her mouth.

   Shelby wakes up quietly despite her heart racing. Lifting her head from the pillow, she rubs her eyes and spaces out staring at the wall. Penny, awake but still lying down, stares at her for about a minute before asking if she’s ok. Shelby looks at her with a big smile to convince her she’s fine. 

   Morning arrives and the living room of the cabin is filled with the aroma of sizzling fish. The cabin is laid out like this, the living room, kitchen and dining area are an open floor set up with the living room to the east and dining to the west, beyond this, the bedrooms are to the northeast and northwest of this part of the cabin. Being that Shelby and Penny were roomed together to the northwest, closer to the kitchen, they were the first to notice the oily scent of fried fish. Shelby, curious as to why food is being cooked so early, steps out of the bedroom and is greeted by an unconventional sight. In the kitchen, blood and scales lather the countertops as a shirtless, minus the apron, and feral looking Enrique sizzles fish on a frying pan. “Good morning, can you guess what’s on the menu?” Stunned by the image downloading into her brain, she stutters a bit and then finally manages to blurt a response. 

   “Enrique?”

    Alarm bells in her head have her embarrassed at the realization of her mistake and she yelps out, “fish!” Enrique doesn’t catch that she even made a mistake over the sound of grease popping and just responds with, 

“Bingo!”

   “Umm, hah, so where’d you get the fish,” she asks.

   He replies, very matter-of-factly, “Well, I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went on out and cut a hole in the ice and decided to do a little fishing.”

   “Wait, so you were fishing all night,” asks Shelby, tilting her head to the side. 

   “Oh, I wouldn’t say all night. Probably just for about eight hours or so. Decided to come in after I hooked my finger.”

   The room is quiet for a moment as they stare at each other until Shelby exclaimedly responds,

   “You hooked your finger!?”

   He raises up his hand to show a nasty gash on his index finger. 

   “Oh my God! Are you ok?”

   With a big smile, Enrique cheesily consoles her, “It hurts like the dickens but I’ll survive.”

   With the conversation dragging on, he finishes making breakfast and calls the others into the dining room to eat. 

Clyde looks at him, one eyebrow raised and says, “That’s weird.”

   Everyone continues eating as normal minus Enrique who, in an abrupt manner, stands  up and announces,  “Uh oh, nature’s calling. Excuse me, everybody, gotta go use the biffy!” His ironclad legs burst out the door and everything stops as the three look at each other in an uncertain and suspicious way and then they return to eating. 

   Enrique runs outside in the snowy cold weather and stands by some trees trying to get his bearings. Looking outward into the trees, he sees a bear, standing a few yards from him. He almost runs away but then it  begins to speak, “Why not tell them the truth?”

   “What,” he responds. 

   “You idiot. You’re working yourself up with the mess you’ve put yourself in. You had a job and you grew too attached” says the bear. 

   “Shut up.” 

   “It’s true. You were told to protect the girl until the time came and you couldn’t. You only care about what makes you happy. You should just kill yourself.” 

   Enrique turns around, back to the bear and lifts his chin up. Walking back inside, he heads to the kitchen and grabs a bottle of pills off the counter. A quick glance back outside and the bear still stalks him. He downs a few pills and looks back outside to see there is no longer an apparition. The others welcome him back to the table and they enjoy breakfast together once more. 

   “Sho,” Enrique carries on, his mouth stuffed full of food, “how’sh abhout shum huntching shis evenhing?”

   Penny and Shelby look at each other while Clyde perks up to the idea, “yeah, hell yeah,” he says, “I haven’t gone hunting in years!”

   “I don’t really know,” Shelby says, “yeah! I wanna go hunting,” Penny quickly interrupts. 

   “Super,” Enrique shouts, we’ll head up to town so you guys can get some warmer clothes and I can pick up some buckshot, it will be pretty chilly!”

   Shelby sits in silence as the posse chatters about their exciting plans.

   A while later, as the group is driving towards the nearest town, Clyde takes notice of what looks like a quarry through the evergreens and down the incline they’re driving along.

   “Wonder what those dudes are digging for down there,” he remarks.

   “That there is, one of those anomaly quarries, Enrique responds, “evidently, ever since the war with Kartha, Hypatia has been on the hunt for anything remotely similar to the materials they found when they started digging up that island.”

   “What do you mean by anomaly,” Penny asks.

   Clyde lurches back into the seat and replies, “some really twisted shit. My dad used to tell us stories about what he saw when he was in the service. His commanding officer tried grabbing that stuff. Blew his arms off and ripped his face up.”

She gasps, “Oh my God, did he survive?”

“No clue. Dad wouldn’t really talk about it a lot plus I was young.”

“Oh, maybe you could ask him again sometime and find out,” she says cheerfully.

Enrique looks at Clyde, leaning his head against his hand. He ignores her and Enrique decides tactfully to change the subject. “So, Shelby! How’s about we talk pets? Do ya have any?”

   “Well, I used to have a pet mouse but she died when I was little," Shelby replies. She takes a slight breath to begin talking about it before Enrique interrupts her with haste, “Fascinating! Sorry to hear it! Anyways, we’re here!” The truck turns the next corner and the buildings appear through the trees. The snow ceases its much more milld fall in this valley as they finally see the destination. It's a small town with only about six businesses, there’s one run down gas station, a truck stop that only serves cold food, and a mediocre clinic with a doctor that looks like one of his eyes has popped out of the socket. The trees intercept each storefront, there’s one sheriff and he’s off duty getting a haircut. There’s a strict rule against parking on the side of the  road and there’s only one parking lot, a small dirt patch that can fit six cars, eight if everyone squeezes together.

   “Enrique, this town is a little run down, don’t you think,” asks Shelby. Penny doessn't even hear the comment as she is in awe at the simplicity of everything and asks to explore the whole place. Enrique obliges knowing it will only take about ten minutes. The strong smell of pine and sweets captivates the party as they exit the truck, taking a moment to look around, Clyde steps around to ask Enrique, mid post-drive-stretch, if the town is safe as far as people recognizing them. Enrique seems rather perplexed by the question but nevertheless soothes Clyde’s otherwise antsy disposition by telling him that they’d be fine.

  Concern wavers quickly as he spots the source of the sweet smell, a small fudge and ice cream shop. Without a second to process, instinct grabs both him and Penny who instantly make a b-line to the shop to satisfy their cravings. 

   About to follow suit, Shelby steps forward but is interrupted by Enrique asking her to come along with him and the two go to an outdoorsy outfitters store across the street.

   “Here,” Enrique says, as he holds out his hand with some large bills. Shelby isn’t sure how to take it and starts to stutter and attempt to decline the charity. “Oh come on, now,” he says, “I already pieced together your situation ain’t all too well. You’re gonna need some more clothes than that little bit I’ve seen you came with!”

   Shelby is flattered and after a few seconds of him refusing to put the money away, she accepts it. “Now make sure you buy some warm clothes for hunting tonight, too,” he says with cheer.

   Back down the street, Clyde and Penny are sampling everything they can get their hands on. An old woman chuckles at them and asks them where their parents are, to which Clyde snobbishly remarks that they aren’t kids. Penny nervously waves the lady off and apologizes, and quickly she’s dragging Clyde out of the store while some of the patrons stare them down.

   “Clyde,” she says to him as they walk across the street, “don’t you, um, think you should have been a little nicer?”

   “Nah, that old bitch should have been minding her own business. Acting like she don’t know we’re adults and shit. Don’t need no damn parents to take me to the candy store, pfft.”

   “Do you not have a close relationship with your parents,” Penny asks.

   “Hey, Penny, wanna know something?”

   “What is it?”

   “You should shut the fuck up.”

   She opens her mouth to say something more but her confidence wanes fast and she decides to stay quiet rather than start a fight.

Clyde and Penny come skipping out of the forest and upon seeing Enrique’s kill, begin singing praises in excitement of their fresh new dinner. The whole party, in high spirits, works their way back to the cabin and after a fun night of eating and drinking they turn in for a well deserved sleep.