Ara ran blindly through the streets of the men's camp. Her eyes were blurry from her over flowing tears, stumbling on any obstacles that were in her way. Her ankle was aching from when she twisted it on a stone a way back, and every step on that leg was antagonizing. Every other step she cried with pain, anger, betrayal. Pain because of the shooting feeling in her ankle, anger because she let him take away the very thing she was supposed to protect, and betrayal because for some reason she thought he cared for her. The years they spent together before the war, did that mean nothing to him? The other night, was that meaningless for him? No that can't be true. But if it weren't wouldn't he put herself over him? Somewhere behind her she heard Jack call for her, in his voice that she once found melodic and beautiful. Flashbacks darted into her head. Images of them laughing in their school cafeteria, picnics in the park with the sun shining on their faces and pictures of laying next to each other on one-another's beds in bedrooms, looking into each other's eyes occasionally kissing on the foreheads, on the cheeks, on the lips.. Finally she fell onto the floor, the ground hitting her hard. It must be mid afternoon as it starting to get dark. Ara looked up at the sky to see white flakes of snow drifting down.

How fitting. She thought. Snow for the winter while I wait to die. She sat in the snow waiting for the numbness to take her over, to carry her away from this dreadful place they call earth. Ara closed her eyes, focusing on the cold, solid wall she was leaning against, until, finally, she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Ara!" Jack called out for her, straining for a reply. No sound answered him. Worried he ran through the bitter cold air, fighting against the snowflakes flying into his face and eyes.

"Ara!" he tried again. Still no reply. Quietly he cursed to himself and ran on through the alleyways. The steady crunching of his feet on snow was the only sound in the night. He felt tired, exhausted, cold; but he couldn't leave Ara with things the way they were. He kept searching until he saw a few footprints, woman sized footprints. With his heart skipping a beat, Jack quickened his pace to follow the trail until he approached a huddled figure. He bent over the person to identify the woman as Ara. With a breath of relief, Jack picked up the unconscious body of the girl, looking down at her face as he did so. She was pale with the cold and her lips were purple.

"You are going to be okay Ara, you're going to be okay" he whispered into her ear as he walked off with her cradled in his arms.