"I hate those days" Ellen replied.

"The fog is just too thick to spot any of those fuckers."

Alex nodded. "You're right but if we hide inside, we won't see them for sure. We should get moving soon anyway. Just the two of us won't hold out here much longer than a few days. We were lucky enough we had enough food in here but we will run out soon. Anyway, we don't even have real weapons, only homemade stuff like a knifeshootingdevice, yes I mean your silly so named KSD. That is the only ranged weapon we have here, all the other things are traps and knifes and my axe."

At the same moment, there was a loud noise, almost like a pig screaming.

"Damnit Alex, let's get out of here. This place is good for spotting, but when it comes to an encounter, it's the worst. "

"I know meatbrain, this isn't the first day here after all."

They both came down from the roof of the barn and ran into the house. It used to be the house of a farmer but he and his family must have ran away or have been attacked. The small windows were barricaded from both the in- and outside and duct-tape was used to make sure there was no opening so no light would shine through little gaps. The stairs were chopped away and there was now a rope ladder which could be pulled up if they were both on the second floor. The whole first floor was empty, except for the kitchen which was too hard to move upstairs or destroy and a kitchen was needed to prepare the food anyway. Everything else, including the fridge, was moved to the second floor. The former master bedroom was now sort of the living room, the fridge was standing in the furthest corner from the door. Next to it there stood a couch which wasn't in the best shape anymore. There was a table in the middle of the room which had a various collection of knifes laying on top of it and there was a scythe laying under the table. In the bedroom next to it, which probably belonged to the son of the former farmer, was changed into the bedroom for both since it would be a waste of space to use two chambers. There was always one of them awake to keep an eye out for unexpected visitors and privacy was one of their last concerns. The bathroom still remained the bathroom except for the change that there was no working water system. If they wanted to take a shower, they had to use the water they had accumulated from the rain or use the water from a nearby river. The same counted for 'flushing' the toilet. The last bedroom was turned into some kind of storage. Everything that might come in handy, was stored there: hammer, nails, the remaining duct-tape, some jerry cans full of gasoline, two bikes, a hay bale which already has been partly used to fill the blankets, clothes from the former inhabitants of the house, as well as shoes, batteries and lights and also all the bags that they could find.

"Hurry meatbrain, or else I will leave you downstairs" Alex said while climbing up the ladder.

"Don't worry about me you bloody bugger. I am right behind your fat lazy ass" replied Ellen quickly. As soon as they were both upstairs, they pulled up the ladder and pushed a closet before the entrance so that it looked like there was nothing there but a wooden wall.

"And now we have to be quiet until they leave" whispered Ellen softly.

Alex nodded quickly as a response. They moved quietly to their sleeping room and sit down on their beds. They stayed like this for over about an hour until they were sure there was no one else around the house.

Still whispering Alex said "Ellen, we really can't stay here, we will have to leave next day okay? We need to find others or at least better weapons and a better defendable place. I know that we haven't been attacked so far but that will only be a matter of time and..."

Before he could finish his monologue, Ellen interrupted him while saying "Yeah yeah, I know, the only thing is, where do we go?"

They both remained silent for a while.

"Wait a minute Alex, what would be a place easy to defend... Some place more people will think of, a place where we surely will find others.... A castle would be nice right? They were build for defence and I cannot be the only one to think of that!"

"That's true meatbrain, you're right, surprisingly enough. So we are heading to the nearest castle I guess?"

"yeah, we will move out be tomorrow but will do the preparing right now."

"Sure, guess we will be leaving early tomorrow then."

Ellen nodded and they both began packing the bags. All batteries and lights were packed, as the same with the duct-tape. Every single piece of food was also packed and every bottle was filled with water. They left the jerry cans there because if you're travelling by bike, there is no need for gasoline. However there was a car available, it was easier and safer to travel by bike because it makes less noise, is more agile and it can be used on various kinds of terrains. They agreed that Alex would carry the scythe and the axe and about 5 knifes while Ellen would carry all the other knifes. As a wise man once said, you can never have enough weapons. That was the policy they agreed to live by. The hammer and nails didn't count as weapons but they packed them anyway, because they didn't know when they would need to build anything like barriers for example. It took them about an hour and a half to complete the packing and it was about 5 pm then.

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"I think we should make some kind of dinner, I'm hungry enough to eat one of those bastards."

"you smell like one of them at least, perhaps you can join them" said Ellen while smirking a little.

"and you smell like a lovely lady of course, well, that would be true if lovely ladies smelled like shit. Now make me some diner woman! You belong in the kitchen after all!"

"shut up fool!" Ellen replied while throwing a knife at him which he quickly dodged. "make your own!"

They kept on friendly insulting each other while cooking their food together. Technically speaking it was not cooking, more like heating some food from the day before and since it was heating, they didn´t need to go downstairs to the kitchen, instead they remained upstairs and used a little gas heater. After diner, which was finished in less than fifteen minutes, they laid down on their beds facing each other.

"I think we both need some sleep this time, if we are really moving we will need our energy." Alex softly said.

"That might be true, but it's still not wise to let our attention slip for a tiny moment." Ellen replied.

"and since when are you the smart one? But think about it, they have never bothered us at night, did they? We also need our sleep, especially if we are leaving as early as planned, don't you think? We have never been attacked or so much surrounded or anything, why would it be any different this time?"

"Perhaps because you are so confident about it, that would be reason enough to me. Shouldn't you knock it off or something, I don't know how you called it before."

"I know what you mean, knock on, I believe oak wood, to prevent the thing you just said that wouldn't happen from happening. People believe that it's a bad omen to say something won't happen... For some reason, they think if you say it won't happen, it's more likely to happen and if you knock on oak wood, it won't happen... You know how I think about that shit. I have never knocked it off as you said and never did it happen. I did sooner think that trying to force luck upon you is bringing you bad luck than saying things will continue as they are. I...

"Stop it please, your nonsense is killing me. If you want to philosophise about something, at least make sure you have the right translation.

And before you try to argue with me about this," Ellen quickly added as she saw that Alex wanted to say something, "we were talking about keeping watch."

"Yeah, I know, sorry. I just don't think it's necessary this time. If they attack us this night, we would be dead anyway. I don't know if they can see in the dark, but we surely can't. This means we can't run and we won't be able to defend ourselves properly anyway with all our stuff packed and as I said before, we will need our sleep."

"Damn, Alex, you're scaring me when you think logical, well, actually, you're already creeping me out when you think at all... but it does make sense what you say, which is even more disturbing."

"So shall we or shall we not keep watch on turns?"

"Fine, let's have it your way then, let's sleep both." Ellen sighted, secretly a bit happy with the extra hours of rest she would have.

"Sure then. It's too early to sleep now, but there is not much left to do..."

They both sighed as they stared at each other, both longing to better times.

"You know what I miss the most Ellen? From all the things, I miss the peace the most. Not the world peace, which has never existed, but the peace I found in little things you know? Like I was able to sit in my room and lay down on my bed listening to music with nothing more to worry about than my homework. To sit down in the fields with some friends and talk about nothing. I miss the feeling of not having to look behind you all the time, that I don't have to be cautious all the time."

"Shut up fool, we both now you wanted the action."

"Well, the same counts for you. I guess that if we keep telling each other that, we will eventually believe it."

They kept talking and started telling each other stories from their respective past, stories they already heard from the other but they nevertheless wanted to hear because that was all they could do. They kept telling until late in the evening when they both fell asleep.

*

"Promise me that this has never happened, please?" Alex whispered softly, standing next to Ellen's bed. She nodded lightly and he laid down into her bed next to her, crying softly without sound. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight.