You're barely surviving on the few provisions you have, and that doesn't even include food. You can't afford to pass up this opportunity, even if it is a little reckless. Parking your cart in the woods near the house, you cautiously approach and make your way silently onto the porch. Peeking through the windows, you don't see any signs of movement, so you slowly open the creaky front door and step inside. The interior smells like rotten eggs, and there's an ungodly stench coming from the hallway to your right. You can see a kitchen on the other side of the living room, and there are also stairs leading up onto the second floor of the house. Where do you search first?

You search the kitchen.

As soon as you enter the rundown kitchen, you freeze. Through the window, you see a tall figure outside making his way towards the house with a large hunting knife in hand. The terror moves your legs into action, and you bolt back out the front door. You're moving so quickly and in such fright that you don't even think to go back for the cart, and instead you launch yourself into the river and frantically stumble across. Your heart is throbbing in your ears by the time you reach the opposite shore, and looking back, you think you see movement in one of the windows of the house. You have no time to think and act on the primitive fight or flight response alone, fleeing the scene and leaving everything behind for the stranger.

Next.

With no supplies to carry and no idea of where you're going, you feel lost and without a sense of purpose. You wander through the forest in the bitter cold, clutching your arms and clenching your jaw to keep your teeth from chattering. Your stomach is empty, and your nerves are raw—every noise sets you off. You wish you had done things differently. You go over every scenario again and again and try to understand what went wrong, but really, it was the world that went wrong. All you were doing was trying to set yourself right... right?


Your mind continues to race with possibilities when suddenly you run into something hanging from a tree and accidently knock it down into the snow. Startled, you cautiously look down to find it was a nearly frozen corpse, poorly dressed for this weather and, well, dead. These things used to freak you out, but you've learned to accept them for what they are, so long as they aren't you.


You stare at the body at your feet, mind racing. You don't want to resort to that. You promised your brother that you wouldn't. But you're so hungry already. You have no idea how you'd go about it, but you're convinced you'd find a way. You're convinced it's the only way.


You...

You resist.

You sit down in the snow and ash beside the body and watch it. It's a female. She was probably no older than nineteen. You bet her name was Meredith. Or Jenette. You like the name Jenette better. Your mind begins crafting a backstory for Jenette: a loving family in Tennessee, a big heart for animals, a tire swing on which she'd drag her pet cat on a sunny day in June... And soon enough, you can't even bring yourself to think about eating her. She was a human once, after all. She still is a human. Your stomach protests, but you smile softly to yourself. Your integrity remains intact, if only for today...