"Keep going Eli. You have to keep going. Don't give up. You must live, you must survive. So keep going and never give up… for me."

The woman's voice filled the empty black void.

There was nothing, only her voice.

“Stay strong."

Her voice was so calming, so soothing. It flowed effortlessly through the empty space, like raindrops through the sky.

"We'll be together again, some day."

He shot up in a vicious panic and immediately regretted it. No sooner than he finished the action did he hunch over holding his head. It throbbed uncontrollably, sending sharp pain throughout it and his body like lightning cutting through the heavens.

The pain was so immense that he groaned loudly, cursing himself for it after.

Once his vision returned to focus and the pain subsided to a more manageable annoyance, he took in his surroundings.

He was sitting up in a bed, covered up with a cotton sheet and heavy wool blanket, in an unfamiliar room. It was a smaller than average bedroom probably only used when family came to town, back before it happened.

A small candle burned on a wooden nightstand next to the bed, sunlight was creeping in through the shades on the window.

"My bow! Where's my bow?"

He looked around the room frantically but it was nowhere to be found, along with the rest of his equipment.

He looked down and realized his clothes were different, his hand brushed across the lower half of his face.

"My mask is gone!"

All of his memories started to flood back from before, while he was busy trying to recall what happened the door knob began turning. He snapped his head over to the door and the throbbing came back even sharper than before, he groaned once more.

The door finally opened and there was a sharp intake of breath from whomever opened it.

He lifted his head up to see who was there, slowly this time to not cause another flare up of pain, and much to his surprise it was a woman.

"Silas, our guest is finally awake!" She called out the door behind her.

She was middle aged, the blonde in her hair was slowly beginning to fade into grey, a few small wrinkles starting to show in her face. She was rather slim, although everybody was by now with food starting to become even scarcer, and slightly above what he had taken to be average height for a woman.

She turned her face back to him now and smiled warmly, "It'll just be a moment dear, Silas is on his way down now."

Right on queue, the man heard footsteps coming from outside the room coming down a set of stairs.

"On his way he is indeed." Silas said from just outside eyesight.

He entered the room now, "That was quite the fall you took back there, I'm glad you're awake. And not as one of those things."

The man sat there quietly, studying the situation. Now that he wasn't worried for his life he was able to get a proper look at Silas. He was roughly the same age as the women, only his light brown hair was starting to fade into grey, and on the taller side. He had broad shoulders and wasn't showing the effects of lack of food visibly yet.

"This is my wife, Rebecca." Silas began before pausing as he realized the man was clearly confused by what was happening. "After we escaped and were making our way down the path through the woods you slipped and took one hell of a nasty fall down the side of the hill. By the time I realized what had happened you were already halfway down that blasted thing. You smacked your head on a mighty big rock on the way down and passed out."

Realization began to show across the man's face and it all came back to him in detail.

First the fall, then the pain in the back of his head, then nothing.

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He looked around once more for what Silas figured was his bow.

"Don't worry about your things, they're all safe in the next room. I found a way down the hill and went to check on you and then carried you here. We patched you up and put a fresh set of clothes on you that weren't soaked through and covered in mud."

After Silas finished there was silence for a few moments.

The man remained sitting in the bed, silent, like always.

Realizing he wasn't gonna speak, Silas tried to push him to, "Rebecca here washed all your clothes, they've been dry and folded since yesterday."

"Yesterday!"

Suddenly it all clicked in his head. He'd been knocked unconscious for at least a day.

So he spoke.

"How long was I unconscious?" He asked.

Silas was surprised that the man spoke, his face showed it.

He quickly pulled himself together and responded, "About 2 ½ days. Like I said you took one hell of a fall, and I'm guessing you have a God awful headache and a concussion, I can see you pupils from over here."

Panic washed across the man's body. 2½ days was a long time to be unconscious, especially in a world like this.

“Why?" He asked.

"Pardon?" Silas said.

“Why would you save me? Why didn't you just leave me to die?" He said, the pain of past trauma obvious in his voice.

"Because you saved me. You could've let me get stabbed by that man, or eaten by that abomination, but you didn't."

"You don't get it." The man said sharply, "That kind of attitude will get you killed in this world!" He finished, a little louder than he intended.

Silas was taken back by the minor outburst. He certainly never expected that from the close mouth stranger who saved his life, but what was more concerning to him was the obvious pain and suffering in his voice. He couldn't be older than 21 yet he had seen far worse and suffered more than anyone his age ever should, an image flashed across his mind as he remembered all the scars that covered the young man's body and he realized that the boy probably had.

"I couldn't leave you to die, that goes against everything I stand for. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did." Silas responded firmly.

"You shouldn't have put your family at risk by bringing some stranger back home just because they saved you once. You put their safety at risk for a moral code that has no place in a world like this."

Rebecca's eyes went wide with the man's comment, "How dare you insult him like that! He saved your life! He's the reason you're still alive!" She shouted at him.

"What's even the meaning of living in a world like this."

"Why couldn't he have left me for dead."

“Don't say that, you have to keep going. You can't stop now."

"Now calm down Hunny." Silas said, turning to her and motioning his hand up and down in an attempt to calm her.

There was one thing the stranger said that bothered him however, he turned back towards him now, "How do you know this is my house?"

The stranger looked him in the eyes as he answered, "I'm concussed not disabled. This is obviously a very nice home, the kind of place people would take residence in for long term."

Silas nodded as the stranger spoke, what he said made sense. It was a simple observation.

"But how do you know there's others here? What makes you think I have a family outside of my wife?" He asked.

"Because I heard them come down the stairs shortly after we started talking." He said plainly.

A look of shock danced across both Silas and Rebecca's faces. They didn't even hear that.

"Well I guess that cat's out of the bag now." A female voice said from around the corner.

"Maybe there's even more to him than I thought" Silas said to himself before speaking out loud, "Yes Alyssa you're right, it certainly is. However I was hoping you'd stay upstairs just in case."

"Oh come on Dad, I was curious about our new guest." Said Alyssa, still around the corner, "And I don't think he's gonna do anything to hurt us, at least not right now."

She came around the doorway into view of the man now.

"She's beautiful." he thought to himself.

"What are you thinking!?"

"Don't even consider it."

"Attachment leads to suffering."

She had the same light brown hair as her father only without the grey and was slim just like her mother, probably from lack of food as well, and about half a head shorter.

"She looks about my age." He thought to himself

“Hi." she said to him, "I'm Alyssa."

"This is my daughter." Silas said, almost as a warning.

The man studied them all once more.

"I think it's about time for me to get my things and be on my way once more." He said.

"Not with your head how it is." Rebecca said very motherly, she couldn't help it.

"She's right." said Silas, "It's much too dangerous out there for someone in your condition."

"I've survived worse." He responded sharply.

"That may be but we're still not letting you go." It was Alyssa this time, "And besides you don't even know where your stuff is."

"They're in the next room." He said plainly.

"Okay maybe you do know where they're at. But either way we're still not letting you go anywhere until that concussion heals. You'll just get yourself killed."

Alyssa was starting to take the reins on the conversation now.

He had to leave now.

"What if they find you?"

"Get back on the move before they catch you."

"Everyone around you is in danger."

"You don't understand, I have to leave. It'll be much safer for the three of you if you just let me go now and forget you ever saw me." He said to all of them.

"At least stay til morning." Rebecca said, "You need to recover your strength and get a warm meal in you."

His stomach rumbled loudly at the mention of food.

Alyssa must've heard it because a smile crept across her face, she was unable to hide her amusement.

At the same time a sharp pain shot through his head once more.

"I guess that would be okay." He said to Rebecca.

A wave of relief flowed throughout Rebecca's body and she smiled, "Good. I can't even remember the last time we had a guest at a meal."

“Neither can I." Alyssa started, "Speaking of our guest," she turned to the man, "You got a name?"

He sighed, knowing that she'd continue to ask until he answered, and his head hurt too much to deal with that.

"Yeah, I do. It's Eli."