Whispers in the Dark (Project Winter AU)

Chapter 21- The Dark of Night

Shelby's POV (9pm)

After Sausage's funeral, everything had been quiet. Nobody had really been talking to one another. Gem and fWhip have been keeping eachother compony though, so... that's nice. I'm still weary of fWhip and Oli though.

Scott's been beside me all day. It's nice to know that I have one person I can trust... I know Scott would never hurt me. He'd never kill anybody.

At dinner, nobody spoke to one another, it was just... silent. All you could hear was people breathing, or the wind, or the crunching of footsteps in the snow as people sat down or walked around the campfire.

3 people are dead... I don't know what to think. I'm weary that... that Owen person... he was a traitor in disguise... but that wouldn't make sense.

I don't know... but... if we ever see Owen again, I don't think Tay or H will be letting him get away without an explanation again. Tay and H, despite being soldiers, really took up the mantel of leaders, kind of. Tay talks the most during the meetings, so I guess we all just kind of thought of her the leader of all of us. Despite how hotheaded she can be, or serious, she's really nice. She hates seeing people hurt.

That's how a leader should be, if you ask me. Nice and friendly, but also able to be serious when needed. Plus, she's good at fighting. Makes sense because of her role.

Y'know... I remember during the first couple weeks of us being here, I don't remember exactly when, but I had a good laugh at Tay just being her hotheaded self.

"TAKE THAT, YOU BITCH ASS WOLF! I'LL FUCK YOU UP! KEEP THOSE TEETH TO YOURSELF!", is what she had yelled while striking her axe down on the wolf that was trying to bite her arm just moments prior.

Of course, it wasn't a pretty sight, seeing blood flying everywhere from the wolf, but it was funny. She comes up with the funniest insults.

I'll be honest, i'm not used to her being so quiet, she's usually the one to break the silence in a lot of situations. I'm willing to bet though that she's getting hit hard by the 3 deaths so far, as she knows, if she was there, she could have saved Meghan, Jimmy and Sausage.

I wish she wouldn't blame herself.

But either way, I decide to go for a late night walk. Maybe i'll gather some supplies on the way. I don't really know why I'm doing this. Maybe i'm just looking for something to do since it's so quiet. I could have gone to see Scott, but he had said that he was going to call it an early night, so I didn't want to disturb him. I'd feel bad if I did.

The sun was just about to fully disappear over the horizon. I held my axe in hand, and a crossbow was attached to a strap on my back, in case I needed to shoot an animal from a distance. Like a wolf, or a moose.

The sound of my footsteps in the snow was really the only sound I could hear, aside from the wind, but in a way, it was peaceful. I always did enjoy the night time. It was... calming. Maybe i'm the only one who feels this way.

As the sun fully disappears, I look up at the night sky to see the stars. I smile sitting down on a tall pile of snow and look at them. In my head, I begin counting all the stars that I could see. It wasn't the clearest of nights, but I could still see quite a few stars.

Maybe, on a clearer night, Scott and I could go out and watch the stars together. I'm sure he'd love that. He loves the stars too, just like me.

Looking down across the snowy tundra from my slight vantage point, I could see something poking out of the snow just 30 feet in front of me. "Hmm?" I hum as I stand up and head over.

Arriving to it, I could see a pale green plant growing out of the snow, with what looked like white berries on the leaves. It looked like a holly plant, if it was white and pale green, instead of green and red.