"I'm not sure what you mean Noah. I heard a noise outside and went to go check it out. After following some footprints I found I turned back around and came back, what do you think I did?" Allison cocked her head and tried her best to look confused. "Now could you please put the gun down? I'm a little uncomfortable with you threatening me like you are." As if I could have no idea that she had looted the crate outside. Who else could it have been, we are in the middle of nowhere and the rest of the group was back at the cabin, besides the brothers, who went in the opposite direction from us. She couldn't be telling the truth, right?

"It has to be you, no one else is even here besides Emma, and she was asleep. The math checks out that you looted that traitor crate."

"What the hell are you even talking about Noah? What traitor crate? Look, put the gun down and I'll show you the footprints I was following. Besides, you'll have a rough time shooting it when it's not even loaded." Allison scoffed. I quickly checked the gun, and as she said, it wasn't loaded. I had forgotten in the stressful situation to load a cartridge. I lowered the gun, mentally kicking myself for my stupidity.

"Fine, I will go check out the validity of your story, but first, I need your hands." I grabbed one of the blankets and cut a couple of thin strips off of it. They wouldn't make the best bindings, but I'd feel better knowing it would at least be harder for her to escape. Allison didn't have anything unexpected on her, random bits and bobs, but nothing that would make me believe her story was false. She could have stashed it elsewhere though, so I needed to confirm myself.

I left Emma on guard duty, while I made my way down the ladder. Looking around in the darkness, I did see two sets of tracks going in a different direction than where I had heard the hydraulic release. Her story was at least plausible. So, while I didn't trust her, I couldn't find a reason to keep her bound, but I'd be watching her closely.

"Hey Allison, why were you walking around at night? Oh? You were concerned about a noise your heard so you decided to check out the footprints in the snow, all of which were too large to be yours? I'm so glad you are watching out for us and that I trusted you enough to ask you instead of pointing a flare gun that wasn't even loaded at you." Allison looked more than a little annoyed about what I had done, which while fair, couldn't exactly be helped. She hadn't bothered to wake up anyone else to let us know where she had gone, and just snuck away..... exactly like I had. Okay maybe I was just as bad as she was.

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I untied her, and she immediately got in my face. She told me that next time, I should check to make sure the person I was following was even her, and if I was going to threaten someone, to make sure the gun was loaded. And then she just moved on from it, as if I hadn't done anything to her. Who was this woman?

No one really felt like sleeping after the excitement of the night, and the threat that there was someone out there just watching us was on our minds. We got to talking about where we came from, trying to figure out why we were one of the ones picked up for these games. Emma was apparently just completing medschool, and had been about to start her job in pediatrics in the next month. The last thing she remembered before waking up here was getting off the phone with one of her friends and settling down to get some rest. She had named some small town in upstate New York; Ogdensburg as where she hailed from. According to her, it was convenient to be so close to the Canadian border, especially since there wasn't much else out there to do except drink and party. For as shy as she originally had seemed, she was quite a talker once she got going.

Allison talked about her work as a wedding planner, and had a bunch of stories about the various Bridezillas she had worked with. She was from Denver and had apparently gotten nabbed when she was walking her friends dog. Allison didn't look too upset about the dog though. In the current situation it seems like a minor issue, so I can't really fault her for it.

Then I got to talking about my past. I told them most of the details, leaving out a few things that didn't put me in the best light. I told them about how I had worked as an engineer at the same plant for about 10 years before getting fired due to a workplace dispute. By which I mean, one of my coworkers had gotten me involved in some seedy gambling racket, and when he couldn't pay the bill, sent the collectors my way instead, the rat. After I paid them off, brought up the problem to management, and both of us got canned. Not that I didn't deserve it, but it would have been nice to have had a chance to explain myself. I also told them about how I had gotten grabbed on my way to a bar.

It was starting to get light out by the time we finished up talking, and not wanting to run out of time we got moving as soon as we could. With the sun out, and the wind having died down from yesterday, the walk back was almost pleasant. We came in sight of the cabin, passing by the radio station on the way there. We had decided to see if Greg or Dave had made it back before putting our part in. I pushed open the door to the cabin, revealing that the android had left at some point. The more important fact was that Crazy was on the floor, cracked skull still oozing blood.