The two had returned home before noon.

The world, dark and desolate, had never truly felt like home to Spere. The half-destroyed concrete building she called home would never really be a home in the manner that she wanted it to be. It was a base to her; nothing more, nothing less. When Spere and Stonehenge entered the home, they were greeted with a series of enthusiastic queries.

"Did you find out what happened? Who killed them? Did you kill anyone?" Spere couldn't tell which member of the group was talking. Really, they all were.

She waved them away with a hand, "Hush. We didn't find anything. It was mostly a dead end." She took off her gas mask. The rough air burned her throat.

"Mostly?" Half-Height gave her a confused look.

Spere nodded, "We found a bloody knife. That's about it."

Stonehenge chuckled, "Spere, you're leaving out the best part. We found poison!"

Mayhem raised an eyebrow and lowered his mask, "You just said it was a dead end."

Stonehenge humourlessly laughed again, "It was! She was literally dead!" Spere elbowed his side, and Stonehenge shut up.

"You aren't funny," she whispered. "The woman who died was poisoned. A dog ate off of her carcass and died because of it. That's why no other animals had taken to her corpse, I guess. But that's all we found, we didn't figure out anything about who did it or if it was an accident," Spere explained. A moment passed, then she added, "The knife was bloody but she didn't have any stab wounds."

"So there's another body?" Half-Height asked.

Fairytale whimpered, "Are we in danger?"

Spere shook her head, "No, no. There wasn't any sign of anyone else nearby. It could've been an accident or something as well. We don't know anything about the knife or poison in the girl's body. So let's try not to worry or panic unless we find anything else. She probably used it on her attacker, I would assume. Her attacker had to have been there when she died, because they looted her body."

Stonehenge added, "I think we should start scavenging in pairs of two just in case, though." Spere rolled her eyes, knowing he meant he wanted to go scavenging with her, and upon seeing her glare, he winked at her.

Mayhem nodded, not noticing the two's exchange, and pulled his mask back up, "That's not a half bad idea. Let's do that." He turned to Dynamite, Fairytale, Zenshock, and Half-Height for approval. Nobody objected, and a few of them nodded.

Zenshock, an older dark-skinned boy who was rather solitary and excluded, spoke softly, "What will we do if the people who killed her come back and target us next?" He was soft spoken and difficult for Spere to understand. So, Stonehenge answered instead.

"Look, that's not gonna happen. Let's just be cautious and not worry about it." Zenshock nodded and picked at his nails. Spere gave Stonehenge a slight look of approval. Dynamite and Fairytale began to talk amongst themselves, and Zenshock went into a backroom by himself. Mayhem walked up to Spere, kicking aside some loose gravel on the stone floor. It seemed the sort of meeting had ended.

Mayhem took a minute to cough before saying, "Why don't me and you go scavenging this evening?" Spere glanced at Stonehenge, who had begun to set his bag on the floor and shuffle through it. He turned up to look at her, sensing her stare on his back, and gave her a questionable look.

"I thought we were going to go scavenging?" Spere said pointedly at Stonehenge. Stonehenge got to his feet and dusted off his sweats.

He said, "Yeah, we already made plans." Stonehenge took a step towards Mayhem, placed a firm hand on his shoulder, tsked, and said, "Better luck next time, buddy." Mayhem smacked his hand away, made a mocking face, and walked away angrily.

Stonehenge laughed, and gave a look at Spere. Spere wasn't laughing. Rather, her face was stone cold in an undistinguished emotion. Stonehenge's smile dropped.

To be honest, Spere didn't know what it was that she felt. She felt pity. She felt sorry for having turned down her friend, Mayhem, for her enemy, Stonehenge. At the same time, she felt happy to spend more time with Stonehenge. Stonehenge was irritable and annoying, but they actually had a lot in common, and she hoped they wouldn't be enemies or argue so much. Although Spere hated it, she knew the rest of the group could feel the odd tension between her and Mayhem. Mayhem was one of her closest friends out of the group, and she tried to keep it that way, despite how clingy he was at times. She wondered if he liked her romantically. She decided, then, to not worry herself with it.

She couldn't worry herself with it. She had to stay focused on whatever she was doing at that moment; which, most of the time, was scavenging. The streets seemed to grow colder with each scavenging trip. For once, Spere wished she could have a day of, but knew that it was a silly thing to yearn for. She also yearned for warmth, sunshine, the colors of grass and leaves and plants that she had fantasized about for so long. She yearned for a sky that wasn't dark, and air that was crisp and clean without particles of ash floating through it. A warm breeze would be blissful.

"Are you okay?" The group had dispersed to do their own things, and it was just her and Stonehenge still standing by the entrance.

Spere just huffed, said, "I'm never okay," and lifted a fabric mask over her nose and mouth, leaving the gas mask with Mayhem. Stonehenge was a bit stunned and stayed silent. After a moment, Spere asked, "When are we going scavenging?"

"Oh. You want to do that now before it gets dark?" Stonehenge responded.

Spere nodded, "Sounds like a plan." She dropped her bag to the grimy floor and walked through the back hall, leaving Stonehenge alone in the main room. Spere's footsteps left footprints in the thin layer of ash on the floor as she walked down to a small room at the back of the building. She stood in the doorway. Inside the room, Mayhem sat on a torn mattress on the floor.

"You want to go scavenging with us?" Spere asked, crossing her arms.

"And leave the girls alone?" Mayhem raised an eyebrow.

Spere chuckled, "Half-height is just as responsible as the rest of us. And Zenshock will be here too."

"Alright... I'll go. Just because I don't trust Stonehenge." Mayhem stood up, and slung a small pack over his shoulder. "Aren't you scared of him?" he asked Spere as he walked towards the doorway where she stood. Spere moved out of his way and began walking alongside him in the hallway.

She said, "No. I trust Stonehenge more than I'd trust almost anyone else in our group."

"We're a family... The way you two argue, he hasn't.. hurt you?" Mayhem asked.

Spere laughed dryly, "You're seriously concerned about this?"

"Yes." Spere thought for a moment, perplexed.

As they walked into the main room, Spere said, "You know, Stonehenge couldn't hurt me even if he tried to." Stonehenge, having overheard, turned towards her and Mayhem with a raised eyebrow. Spere glared up at him challengingly.

Stonehenge smirked, "Oh, I could beat you up in a fight if I wanted to."

"Bet?" Spere jumped into a fake battle stance, her fists raised and knees bent. Stonehenge mimicked her. Mayhem watched quietly, slightly confused, but also knowing all too well what was going to happen.

Spere was the first one to charge. She raced at Stonehenge like lightning in a storm, and threw a punch at his face, but missed. Stonehenge laughed out loud, gripping the wrist of her arm in mid-air, and pinning her back against a cement wall in a move that he frequently used on her.

"I'm not even trying," Spere pushed him away from her.

Stonehenge took a step back, laughing, "Okay, buddy."

Mayhem asked slowly, "How come you guys do that?"

"Hm?" Spere turned to look at him.

Mayhem explained, "You guys fight all the time but at the same time laugh about it. I just don't get it."

Stonehenge put an arm around Spere's shoulders, grinning, "We're just two peas in a pod!"

Spere shoved him away from her, "Absolutely not! You don't even know what a pea in a pod looks like!"

"So what? I can still use the expression!"

Mayhem butted in to their fake argument, "Guys! Can we just go?" Spere gave Stonehenge a look, but nodded, and began to walk out the door, the two boys behind her.

"Where to first?" Spere asked them.

Without missing a beat, Mayhem said, "I want to see the body." Spere stopped in her tracks. The snow was numbing her toes, even beneath the socks and hiking boots she wore. Of course that's why he wanted to go with them. He didn't like her. He thought that they were hiding something from him.

"What? Why?" Spere asked.

Stonehenge added, "We just came from there. Dead lady, dead body. Probably suicide. That's it. That's all there was."

"What happened to the knife?" Mayhem asked. Stonehenge and Spere both glanced at each other. What had happened to the knife?

"I think I gave it to you," Spere pointed at Stonehenge.

"Well, I don't have it!" He lifted his hands innocently.

Mayhem growled, "Stop it! Just stop it!" Spere and Stonehenge once again gave each other a wide-eyed look.

"Hey, what's your deal today?" Stonehenge asked sourly.

"You two are!" Mayhem said angrily. "You two have been acting so weird. You go to inspect the body together, and now evidence has gone missing, and you're not even sure if it was a murder or not?" A moment of silence passed before it clicked for Spere.

"Wait, you think we killed that poor girl?" She asked, perplexed. The three had stopped moving entirely now, and stood facing each other in the middle of a grey snow-covered road just a few meters away from their home. Mayhem didn't respond, and instead looked away, shuffling his feet.

Stonehenge scoffed, "I'm low. But I'm not that low. And Spere? She isn't that low, either." Spere realized fully now that the tension she had felt between her and Mayhem was not a matter of romance, but rather, a matter of who had killed the girl. Spere didn't think anyone in their group had killed her, or even could've.

Half-Height was definitely capable, but he was so young, and he held his morals highly. Dynamite and Fairytale both were such quiet, soft-spoken people that it was hard to imagine it. Spere couldn't even think of the last time she'd seen Fairytale angry. Fairytale was a motherly figure for them, and Spere doubted she could go against that and kill a young girl. Dynamite got angry a lot, and was very blunt about things, but she only was to make communications clear and defend the people she loves. And Zenshock was also a very timid, soft-spoken kid. He didn't show much emotion at all, but whenever he did, he always seemed frightened or worried.

Spere thought about Mayhem and Stonehenge. Stonehenge definitely couldn't do something like that, since he never went out. Mayhem... Spere didn't want to point fingers. Mayhem was awfully quick to throw hands at Stonehenge, though. Stonehenge and Mayhem stood, neck to neck, arguing loudly.

Finally, Spere growled, "Y'all two are gonna make the savages hear us!" They both grew quiet, although remained glaring at each other. After a moment, Spere continued, "Let's just trust each other and assume none of us had anything to do with it until we find any more evidence. We're a family; we can't turn our backs on each other when there's a potential murderer out there."

Mayhem sighed, "You're right. Let's just go scavenging already." Stonehenge huffed and crossed his arms, but agreed. Such an infant, Spere thought, narrowing her eyes at the two. Both of them.