The Broken Link

Eleven

We find shelter in an abandoned wooden cabin. It's small, and looks as if whoever lived here had left in a hurry. The stove is still on, and the kitchen table is littered with dirty dishes. The kitchen connects to the living room, where Elsa and I lay Astrid's unconscious on the small, lumpy, brown couch.

"What do we do?" Elsa asks me quietly.

"I dunno," I reply. "I want tah know where everyone in this village is."

"Do you think... do you think they're dead?" asks Elsa fearfully.

"I don't think so," I say. "It looks like everyone left in ah rush. Bu' why?"

"The stove in this cabin is still on," Elsa points out. "So whoever lived here couldn't have left long ago. If only we had got here sooner..."

"We couldn't 'ave predicted this. Whatever 'appened 'ere wasn't our fault." I say.

Astrid stirs on the couch, moaning a litre. She slowly opens her eyes, her hand clutching at her head. "What happened?" she croaks out. She takes in her surroundings, and scrambles up into a sitting position.

"Are yuh gonna kill meh?" I ask cautiously, and breathe a sigh of relief when she frowns at me.

"I wasn't planning on it..." Astrid smirks a little, then sighs. "I tried to, didn't I?"

"Yuh don't remember?" I ask.

"I remember being really angry, and then... nothing. My head hurts though." Astrid replies.

"Well, the short story is, we all wanted to kill each other." Elsa says bluntly.

"We what?" Astrid frowns.

"Yep. I snapped out o' it, and so did Elsa." I say.

"Here's your axe," says Elsa, giving Astrid her weapon back.

"I can't believe what would've made me want to kill either of you..." Astrid mutters, staring at her axe. "How did I end up unconscious?"

"That'd be mah fault," I blush a little. "I knocked yer head on the ground. Yuh threw yer axe a' Elsa, and yuh wouldn't stop trying to 'urt meh when I pinned yuh down. It was kinda o' a split second decision."

"We don't know why we all tried to kill each other. But at least we've stopped." Elsa says.

"And I guess you haven't found anyone in the clan MacIntosh either?" Astrid asks.

"Nope." I grumble, feeling annoyed that nobody was here but us.

"How does an entire village just vanish without a trace?" Astrid frowns.

"Maybe they left," Elsa says slowly. "Something isn't right in this village. We all tried to kill each other. What if the same thing happened to them?"

"But wouldn't we see bodies?" I ask.

"Not unless they left," replies Elsa. "If they realized something was wrong, maybe they fled the village."

"But why would the leaders of the clan just leave their village?" Astrid frowns. Elsa blushes a little, and looks down.

"Sometimes running away seems like the best option." Elsa says softly. We all fall silent, thinking amongst ourselves.

"Could we track 'em?" I ask.

"If we knew where they were headed. Our best guess is Elsa's. Maybe they fled because something really is wrong in this village." Astrid mutters.

"In my experience, whenever someone is fleeing something, they don't really pay any particular attention to their destination. They just run away." Elsa says thoughtfully.