The next day the snares didn't catch anything, again. Eden didn't know why she was surprised. Her flimsy string was no match for any trapped animal, nor was it hard to see in the sun.

     Not wanting to start walking again so soon, Eden decided to give it another two days and try fishing again.

     The next day Eden checked her empty snares and got her fishing rod ready to go back to the stream. She sat on the water's edge, slowly bobbing her fishing rod in the crystal clear mountain water.

     The sound of the stream rushing by paired with wind blowing through the trees had a sort of hypnotic effect on Eden. She knew she wouldn't die of hunger, she had gone a lot longer without eating in the bunker and even before the bunker time. But it didn't make her any more comfortable.

     She watched as her rod bobbed with the current. Occasionally it would move as if a fish nibbled on her hook, but every time it was just the water.

     After a couple hours had passed, Eden decided to go back to the cabin early and just start packing up her supplies to leave. She wasn't going to wait around forever for a non existent fish.

     She left her snares up, just incase they would miraculously catch something overnight.

Eden laid on her side in the dilapidated bed. She couldn't sleep. She told herself it was because of the moonlight streaming through the window. But really she was worried.

She had never been this isolated before. Ever.

When she was a kid she felt lonely because she never had a dad, and her mom was barely a mom, but even if she didn't like it there was usually someone around. Then she met Klaus. Then her whole world revolved around him and again whether she liked it or not, she was never alone.

Then she left. She got as far away from that place as she could, and she lived on the streets for a long time. But on the streets she saw people all the time. There was this one lady, she was pregnant and had two other kids, but she would still stop by Eden and offer her something.

Whether it was a hoodie or a sandwich, Eden was grateful. Those kids would be teenagers now probably. The baby would barely be 10.

Eden hadn't thought about that lady in years. She wasn't sure why she was coming into her mind now, but that little bit of warmth made a huge difference in her life back then.

When Whitehorse met Eden, she was a scrawny, hungry young kid out on the streets. For some reason he offered her a job working for the sheriffs office. She was just an assistant at first but she tried her best and eventually got to become a deputy.

Then they got that one mission. A warrant for Joseph Seed's arrest. Whitehorse figured it would be a good way to show Eden the way people like the Seed's worked so he brought her along.

Well, all these years later, now Eden was laying in an old cabin in the middle of nowhere after watching the world collapse. If you had looked at young Eden and asked her where she would be in 10 years, she would've never ever guessed anywhere close to this. Honestly she'd probably say she'd be dead by now.

It was scary not having any kind of support, but she realized that she never really did. For a while she had a whole bunch of friends, but she had always felt bad relying on them.

"At least now you're not bothering anyone." She mumbled to herself and flipped over to face the window.

     As she looked out at the moon, her mind drifted to another person from her past. Jacob.

     She had been trying to push down her thoughts about him but they wouldn't stop creeping back. She thought back way back, to when she first laid eyes on Jacob.

     She barely noticed him, she was so focused on trying to arrest Joseph and not freak out. Then all his taunting over the radio. And his damn trials. When she thought back to it, her body still ached in the places she got beat because of those trials.

     She remembered getting kidnapped that one time by his guys, when they beat the hell out of her so bad she almost died. She suffered so much because of him and his family, but she couldn't count how many times Jacob saved her ass. Especially when she was mad at him or told him not too.

     What a complicated guy.

     She tried to remember that guy, that hardened soldier. The punisher. The judge.

      But as she tried, memories from the bunker wiggled their way in. Sleeping on that uncomfortable twin mattress with Jacob. Him locking himself in the weapons room. Hugging him when she played the music that one time.

     Despite everything he did, that Jacob seemed much more genuine to her.

     Eden flipped onto her back and stared at the ceiling. This wasn't how this trip down memory lane was supposed to go. She wasn't supposed to be thinking about Jacob like this. She had decided to detach and walk away from Jacob. She didn't get to miss him now.

     "I bet he's not even thinking about you." Eden whispered to herself. But she didn't know if she believed herself.

     Jacob was laying on his fur hides bed, looking up at the stars wide awake. A wolf howled way off in the distance.

     He looked around at the other sleeping people of the group. Everyone was resting after another long day of work, but his mind couldn't rest.

     His thoughts were only of Eden. Where was she now? Had she met her friends again? Was she alone? She haunted his thoughts. The unknown gnawing at his mind.

Jacob looked at the almost too bright moon above him. Was Eden doing the same thing he was right now?

He tried to convince himself that she had probably found whoever was still out there of her old friends, or made new ones with other survivors. Whatever she was doing, she definitely wasn't thinking about him.

Mid morning.

     Eden untied her last and final snare away from the tree she tethered it to. None of her snares caught anything overnight, but she figured at least she wasn't giving herself any false hope.

     She was hungry, but she tried to push that down and focus on making a game plan. She would come down from the mountains and start making her way to what used to be Holland Valley. With any luck an apple tree survived or better animals to find. Maybe a bow and arrows even.

    Eden got a bit excited at the thought of a bow and did the motion like she was holding one. Then she realized how silly she looked and started coiling up her snare. She put the snare into her pocket and checked the direction of the sun.

     The world may be entirely different now, and the landscape changed, but the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west just like always.

    After getting her bearings, Eden started her walk out of the mountains.

     As she walked, Eden couldn't help but try to figure out exactly where she was. She wished she still had an old map of the area, even though it was so different, it would still help her to get her bearings. She knew she was too far down the mountain, but her thoughts wondered to the Wolf's Den and what they did through everything.

     They were pretty well stocked and had several people there, but were they stocked enough? Did everyone make it? How long could they stay underground?

     The unknown was hard, but it was all Eden knew now. She had yet to find another person to ask and there was no such thing as radios anymore. Or at least, not that she has yet.

     Her mind floated towards resources. She not only needed enough to survive, she needed to make a base for herself. No way her old house would still be standing...right?

     The least she could do would be try to check it out if she gets near there. Who knows, maybe Holland Valley will be crawling with crazy nuke zombies, or just crazy people.

     Zombies...what a crazy thought, but after everything that's happened Eden wouldn't be shocked. Just because she hadn't found any yet doesn't mean there could be zombies out there.

     With the zombie thoughts, Eden came up on a creek and decided to take a break from all her walking.

She knelt down beside the creek and dipped her hand in the cool water. She splashed her face, wiping away the dusty dirt that was coating her skin. She resisted the urge to drink some of the water since there was no way she would drink it without boiling it first.

The cool water on her skin was a nice break, but when she looked up at the sun and saw it was already high noon she had to start walking again.

So Eden picked herself back up and found a narrow spot on the creek to hop across. She continued making her way down the mountain.

By the time the sun was finally dipping behind the highest peak of the mountains, Eden came up on an old cabin. The windows had long since broken, the shed behind it had fallen to pieces. Even the thick wooden beams had cracks in it and one had even snapped, causing the overhang above the front door to collapse.

Eden tried to remember the name of this place. What was it? Eden swore she remembered the people that had lived here. Maybe the Kestrel's? Yeah, that was it. This was the Kestrel cabin.

That would mean their cellar would be near the main house somewhere. Eden walked around the cabin and noticed what looked like old bricks in the middle of a large rock outcropping. The door to their underground cellar should be there.

There was a big pile of metal in front of the door, but Eden moved some of the scraps out of the way to find the door.

     It clearly hadn't been opened in years, but Eden put her weight into the door and it eventually gave way. Eden stumbled through the door and coughed as years old dust flew through the air.

     She waved away some of the dust and looked into the cellar. It wasn't a very large space, but it was cold. There were still some old jars of preserved foods and some old crates scattered around the room. It was weird to see something so stagnant and untouched.

     She didn't think there was any way the food would still be safe to eat, but Eden figured there could be some helpful items in some of the crates. She broke the lock off of one of the crates and popped the lid open. Inside was some assorted ammo for shotguns and pistols, an old map of Hope County, and the a few pieces of a gun.

     Eden searched around the dark cellar and found an old M133 shotgun propped up in the corner. Although it had a thick layer of spider webs and dust on it, the gun seemed to be in pretty good shape. She decided to take it in case of an emergency.

     Eden found a gun strap in another crate and attached it to the shotgun. Now she could wear the gun on her back or shoulder without too much worry.

She found a stack of 1s and 20s tied together with a dry rotted rubber band. She picked it up and chuckled. She didn't know what $50 was worth now, but she decided to pocket half of it anyway.

With it getting dark outside and the cabin in the condition it was, Eden decided to set up her camp in the cellar for the night.

She pulled off her backpack and unrolled her sleeping bag on the floor. Since she was inside she didn't want to light a fire, even though the chill of the cellar was uncomfortable.

She didn't have anything like a candle to provide any light, so Eden just closed the door until there was only a small gap she could still see light out of.

She walked back to her sleeping bag and slid her boots off. She set them next to her sleeping bag and crawled in. The cold material sent a shiver down her body and she nestled in. She pulled her backpack under her head as a pillow and found a comfortable way to lay.

It wasn't the most comfortable place in the world, but it was nice to be surrounded by some sturdy walls.

When morning came, Eden poked her head out of her warm sleeping bag. Her eyes opened to the sight of morning sunlight shining through the gap in the doorway. The dust in the air filtered the light, almost making it look solid. Like she could reach out and hold the sun in her hands.

Although she didn't want to get up, she knew her back wouldn't like her laying on this hard floor anymore than she had to. Eden yawned and pulled herself out of her nice and warm sleeping bag.

She broke down her campsite and left the cellar behind. Outside, the sun had just crested the tops of the mountains, casting a warm orangey glow across the whole valley.

The warm sunlight was met with the cold ground, making fog. Eden looked around to get her bearings and remembered how close she was to the lake. She decided to walk down the the lake shore and see if she could try and catch some fish before the sun got too high in the sky.

Fresh fish for breakfast...the thought made Eden's stomach growl. She made her way through the trees and finally to the old highway. The asphalt has long since become broken and had all kinds of grasses growing through it, but Eden remembered taking this exact road to go to the mountains when she wanted to go hunting.

She remembered the girl who went to the mountains to get away from people for a couple of days. Who escaped by leaving the world behind and searching for her next meal. Eden couldn't help but shake her head at the irony of her starving stomach now as she hunted for her next meal, not for fun, but for necessity.

What a silly girl, Eden thought.

She knew that Elk Jaw Lodge was just down the road. They had a nice dock there she could use to fish off of, if it was still in tact. Eden walked down the road, holding her new shotgun in her hands just in case.

After just a couple minutes of walking, Eden turned down the driveway leading to Elk Jaw Lodge. She carefully scanned the area around her as she walked up to the old lodge.

The building had definitely seen better days, but to Eden's surprise it was still standing pretty well. The roof had a massive hole in it, but the walls seemed solid. The dock behind the lodge was pretty much gone, but there was enough shore line for Eden to fish off of.

The lake though. That took Eden's breath away.

The cool waters of the lake met the warm rays of the sun, making fog float just above the lakes surface. There was absolutely no wind, so the surface of the water was just like glass. It reflected the sun, the clouds in the sky, and the mountains in the background like magic.

If Eden had her old camera she would take a picture, the scene was that pretty. She gave it to Nick and Kim before everything unfolded, she hoped that they used it well.

The thought of Nick and Kim made Eden's heart ache. It had been a while since she had thought of them like that. In her mind they were still frozen just as they were back then. So young and full of life.

She was nearing the Holland Valley region. Maybe Eden would see them again.

A glimmer of hope was stomped out by Eden's pessimistic brain. She didn't even know if anyone else made it yet, she couldn't get her hopes up too much. Besides, she was still hungry.

Eden walked to the shoreline and dug around for her makeshift fishing rod from her bag. She set her bag down on the lakeshore and tightened the knot on her hook.

She tested the rod by doing a couple practice tosses, then finally letting her hook sink into the water. It took a while to get a nibble, but it finally came. Her rod dipped in that familiar way, the tension suddenly hitting the line made her pull back.

Fish on.

She let it fight out some of its energy before she reeled it in. A beautiful trout.

"Sorry buddy, but I gotta eat something." Eden thanked the fish and got to preparing it.

As much as she wanted to avoid lighting a fire, she wasn't going to risk eating the fish raw. So she decided a small fire close to the lakeshore would do well.

The fish sizzled as it cooked over the open flame. The strong aroma made Eden's mouth water and stomach growl as she waited. By now the sun was higher in the sky and all the fog had burned off the lake.

Eden wasn't focusing on the view, she was trying to find a way to pull off a chunk of the trout filet without burning her fingers.

She pulled the stick the fish was skewered on off of the fire to let the fish cool off a bit. Even waiting for another minute was torture.

Finally, Eden decided she had waited long enough. She pulled off a chunk of fish meat and put it in her mouth.

After years of dried, canned, and long expired food, this fish was like a flavor explosion. It was so soft and tasty, it seemed to melt on her tongue. Maybe she would stay by the lake for a while longer.

Eden finished every bite of fish and was feeling great. Finally she got a nice meal in her. She could feel the difference real food made in her body.

     After she finished eating and putting out her fire, Eden was ready to keep walking. She had hopes of making it to the Holland Valley region by nighttime. Maybe she could hole up for the night at the old apple orchard.

     She got her bag repacked and headed out along the main road. She found it suspicious that she hadn't seen anyone else yet, but maybe that would change the closer she got to Falls End?

     Either way, Eden knew she had to stay on her toes. Things could go bad fast if she wasn't paying attention.