in about two weeks.

CHAPTER ONE: LIFE IN THE APOCALYPSE, A CHAOTIC PREVIEW

It was already their third time migrating to the south for the winter. September, the dreaded mid-season, was being unusually kind regarding the weather, and even the road was exceptionally clean. To be fair, it wasn't a previously densely populated area, so by that time all the Infected had either been taken care of or had extinguished on their own. It was still a strange sight, which gave her a sort of eerie feeling, like an important piece was missing, so much so that she imagined them lurking in the shadows of the tall trees and bushes on the sides and felt a sense of relief in doing so. Maybe it just convinced her she was in total control of the situation: after all, she was used to them being around all the time, and those were not the type of thing anyone would want to be surprised by. Nothing was more important than staying alive at all costs, and the couple was quite ready to uphold that belief whatever it took. She would have never admitted to it out loud but, in her heart, she knew it worked because it was the two of them and no one else. She couldn't make it without him, as much as he couldn't make it without her.

He was having the same thoughts. That is how he justified the unnecessary tension that was making his muscles sore: he needed to be alert, powering through the exhaustion of the journey - they also hadn't rested properly in months, to add fuel to the fire. Without needing to speak, both knew that it was obligatory to be on the lookout with their weapons close; he wouldn't have minded some conversation though, since they practically hadn't spoken in days, or weeks if singular words here and there didn't count - and they most certainly didn't count to him. He used to be such a social animal, and now he was stuck with the most quiet, antisocial person on earth. It was his fault since he had agreed to marry her, eagerly even, a few years prior.

THEIR FIRST WINTER

For some reason they hadn't thought of it; maybe it was the stress of the whole new situation, the vicious pandemic, the losses, the riots, and the raidings, having to leave their home and their belongings with very little resources, on the lookout for supermarkets that hadn't already been emptied, not knowing if they were going to survive, or for how long, and the aching, pervasive loneliness brought by the knowledge that they were completely, utterly, on their own. Of course, they had each other, shouldn't that have been enough? Spending every single possible moment together without any outside contact wasn't in the wedding vows, it wasn't expected nor anticipated.

So, with that whole situation, maybe they just weren't ready for the nomad survivor's life. With October around the corner, the two realized that they had to find a way either to keep themselves warm while still being able to move around relatively easily or find enough food and water to then occupy a somewhat insulated apartment. Neither of the two options was very doable: they didn't have access to a good wardrobe of clothes their size, any house that had been already broken into had nothing useful, they didn't know how to break into the intact ones, and even if they could they would end up encountering Infected, risking their lives, possibly wasting time and energy, without knowing if they would get something out of it; finding food was even more challenging since pretty much anything edible in the city had been taken by hoarders and rioters, they only had an unlimited supply of water, by collecting rain, filtering it with a cloth, and boiling it with fire from the matches they had found in a mini-market.

After a while of desperately trying to find a fitting solution, it was clear that whatever they were doing was not enough. That's when they had the idea of trying to move towards the south, looking for a kinder climate. It was an incredibly risky move, but it was between that, and barely scraping by day by day until it would get less cold; considering they didn't have any advantage from staying in the city, with not much food, and more Infected than they would find in the countryside, it ended up being an easy choice. So, the couple gathered the necessities, and a map, and started moving with caution. After the first two hours of uninterrupted walking through the aggressive wind, Tom found a functioning car - or more precisely, he got tired of moving with a small, rationed amount of food in his system, and stubbornly checked every single vehicle in their path that looked intact enough to be used. She was concerned about the time wasted but had never seen him as angry as at that moment, except maybe when he had cut off contact with his father for good, so she let him do his thing. That move proved useful, saving them hours of walking before the car eventually gave out.