We form fear and anxiety because of something, that occurred... Something that hurt us so much we will never be able to forget it. A pain piercing through our bodies.

  A pain that controls our actions like a little and annoying parasite with the only goal to suck out our life essence.... Sucking out out trust and joy.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~ A week later

  This place, which was abandoned and had no living creature left here turned into something else... Turned into a home and not just for Octavia, Kai, Niklas or the other ones... But it turned into a community.

  A community out of 30 people, who followed the sounds they heard from here or the lights they saw ... Most wandered from an infected village towards this place in the mountains.

  Some of these were a family of 4... A mother, a father and their two kids, which barely spoke a word when they arrived because of how traumatized they were from the outbreak.

  Some older people... Around the age of 50 who were able to reach this community.

  Some were also young people... Around 20-30 searching for some light in a world already lost in darkness.

  This was a perfect location...

  Fresh water from the lakes, enough wood from a humongous forest with no end in sight, fresh air from the forest, the mountains and enough houses, used as hotels for tourists before the outbreak occurred.

  Everything was... No, is perfect here.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~ Another morning in this heavenly paradise

  Niklas sits at a table and eats "a R?sti", a traditional Switzerlandish dish that consists out of potatoes, salt and oil.

  Niklas: Mmmm... This is such a delicious potato cake, Margarite.

  Niklas smiles as if he's on a cloud, flying around the world with no worries in sight.

  It's nice to eat some hot traditional food again after such a long time.

  Margarite: It's a pleasure to make food to our great leader.

  This line caused Niklas to focus on his food again.

  After he took these people inside and created some sort of structure in here, everyone started to call him "leader"...

  Niklas never called himself like that. Not a single time since the outbreak has started.

  He slowly eats and gulps down every piece of that potato cake, while thousands of thoughts fly around his head. And one thousand thought almost instantly turns into a question as it passes his mind.

  Niklas: Hey... Margarite. Did you see Octavia?

  He asks with a conserned expression. Not that he's worried about her not being able to survive .... Hell, she's probably the bravest person out here. But she's isolated... More than anyone else from this community.

  Spending most of her days hunting in the woods and occasionally changing a few words with Ben.

  That's all she does since she's here. Always alone and isolated. As if she's stranded on a lonely isle with no civilisation in sight and is forced to stay alone, which is not the case.

  Niklas once managed to lead a conversation with her in that boat and it was truly nice. A conversation he won't forget so easily.

  Margarite: Oh, Octavia went to the forest. I saw her going there with her crossbow.

  She smiles at me as she prepares even more dishes for the rest of the people here.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  She loves doing that, so Niklas doesn't mind it at all.

  Niklas: Thanks, Margarite. And thank you for your delicious food. We appreciate your work. Believe me.

  Niklas says this with honesty that can never be doubted.

  Niklas smiles as he walks out and wanders towards the forest.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~ Ben and Frank at their little farm meanwhile

  Ben fixes a part of the wooden fence while Frank feeds the chickens around him with chopped vegetables he carried to the farm before.

  That farm has around 3 sheeps, 10 chickens and a few cows. All seperated in their own fenced areas with enough room to walk around freely. The cows aren't locked up in small areas, but can feel the beauty of these mountains.

  At this sunrise Frank listens to the sounds of their own little farm. Cows expressing their own sounds, the chickens screaming in the morning to wake even the sleepyhead of the farm up, who's name is J?rg.

  Frank inhales the ear and smiles at their creation.

  Frank: That's beautiful...

  Ben looks delighted at this. He shakes his head for a second, just to look up afterwards and steal a few glances at the different forms of clouds in the endless light blue sky with no grey cloud in sight.

  Ben: It is something special.. I guess I found the sense of my life in our farm.

  And besides, now we almost have enough milk for the 30 people in our community.

  Frank smirks at this and touches his beard, which he often does when an enjoyable moment appears.

  Frank: Yes... Niklas is proud of us.

  I'm glad I went with y'all... I'm glad we two built this safe place for the animals. I appreciate the sounds and even the stinky smells of them. They're natural and a part of the world we live in. A good part...

  Frank says this with a smile on his face... A smile of gratitude, which most of the group will probably never get to see.

  Ben finally fixes the fence and joins Frank at feeding the chickens with chopped vegetables.

  Ben: They are. And I also feel at ease when I'm around them, you know? It's like I exactly know where I belong.

  Ben expresses genuine joy as he states this. And it looks like Frank feels the very same way, Been feels like.

  With that they spend the next hours feeding the animals, using the hand- milking technique to gather enough milk for the whole day, collectibg eggs from the chickens and cutting the wool of the sheep.

  Busy for the rest of the day.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~ Niklas in the forest on the track of Octavia

  As Niklas is trying to find Octavia, he pays extra attention to footsteps, broken sticks or maybe even a dead rabbit if Octavia already started hunting.

  As he searches for Octavia in the forest with firs, bushes, grass, moss and hundreds of insects he passes by.

  As he continues his search for Octavia he glances at some ants bringing food to their anthill. All together as a team.. as friends or even as a loving family. No one pays them with mines for it, but they still do it. Fascinating.

  But then a human moves through the forest and Niklas immediately realizes, who that someone is.

  There she is. About to skin the dead rabbit she shot with her crossbow before. That rabbit had a white flur and jumped from one place to another only to be murdered by an arrow.

  Niklas: Well... I guess we could define our meeting in this forest as a hide and seek game. Again... And I won.

  He adds as he smirks and pulls up his eyebrows for a moment at her. Teasing her only to notice almost no reaction from Octavia, except a small chuckle she couldn't hold back.

  Niklas: Need a second hunter? We might find even more rabbits or maybe even a squirrel.

  He says this as it's clear, that he would never hope for a deer. Most ran away or were killed by the deadheads.

  He's really trying to lighten up her mood as well as he's able to.

  Octavia: No, thanks.

  She answers coldly with the hope that he'll just leave her alone. Not because she doesn't like him, but because that way she'll truly think that she's safe and protected. It's just better that way.

  Niklas: Okay

  He says as he smiles at her, admiring her for some unknown reason.

  Then a deer crosses their path and runs into the forest. The deer has brown fur and a stunning antler.

  This is a chance for a huge meal in the community, and besides,if they don't hunt it down, then some deadheads will tear it apart.

  Octavia only nods at Niklas and they follow the deer as slow as any hunter would go to successfully kill their prey. Niklas holds a bow in his hands and Octavia holds her crossbow.

  They slowly approach the deer who's standing next to a huge tree looking into random directions... Not noticing any step from Niklas and Octavia.

  There Niklas senses a chance, which he feels he's forced to use in order to hunt this deer down. At the same time Octavia sees this chance too.

  Both reach an arrow with their hands at the same time as if one is the mirror image of the other one... Their movements aligned. The speed the same, the way their hand grabs the arrows... Exactly the same.

  The deer stands still like a statue. It's head in one place not moving a single inch, making it an easy target even for the worst hunter in the world. Impossible to miss.

  And there Niklas glances at Octavia, indicating that he'll take the shot... That he's going to take it since the distance between him and the deer is much shorter, than the one between Octavia and the deer.

  He indicates it, raises his bow, the arrow aligned with the head of the deer, promising a fast and quiet death with no pain it would be forced to endure.

  He's about to shoot and there's no stress or fear visible in his eyes and not even a single swet drop can be found on his skin. Focused on this kill.

  He shoots, she shoots...

  Both arrows fall to the ground.

  The deer runs.

  Right as he shoots the arrow, Octavia does the same and both arrows hit each other on their trajectory towards the head of the deer and fall to the ground.

  Niklas: No!

  He shouts as the deer already runs away into a distant place. Disappearing into the woods like some ghost.

  His head turns towards Octavia.

  Octavia: Sorry...

  She says after she flinched at his scream. She grabs her arrow and wanders off into the woods.

  Niklas stands there, not mad, nor angry. His eyes don't see red because she ruined it, his eyes are a portrayal of sadness as he sees her wandering off.

  Niklas: Hey... I liked the conversation with you on the boat. It was nice.

  He exclaims as he goes the other way and returns to the community.

  Octavia grabs her crossbow tighter as if it's her only comfort she could ever receive.

  Maybe Niklas isn't bad, maybe she'd like to talk with him again, like she did on the boat.

  But something, something awful slides into her mind... A thought, which stopped her from talking... A fear and panic she cannot control. It kept her back, when she wished she could just lead a conversation, but she couldn't... Just couldn't...

  That dream it brought it all back again...

  And so she wanders under the firs, which cover everything and act like a roof, not allowing any sunshine to pass through their tree crowns.

  After a while she reaches a place she never thought she'd see again. A wooden house ...

  She realized it's the same one after she already recognized the area.

  She enters it and there's a bed in which she slept in after she ran away from home one night. The shelves where she kept her toys and there's also the carpet out of fur.

  The weather meanwhile got rainy outside and she knew, that she couldn't return to the community tonight. So she sat down on the bed as every little detail... everything about her past floaded back into her brain...

  As she fell asleep she knew exactly, that in this dream she'd relieve her whole childhood again.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~