The fairy-like girl stared with her watery eyes at me and pointed the gun with her shivering hands at me.

"Who are you?" she asked with her slender finger at the gun's trigger.

". . ." I opened my mouth but no words came out, only a soft breath escaped my lungs.

'Oh right. I'm mute,' I remembered. It seemed that not talking for weeks made me forget this.

Not knowing sign language, I could only move my hand and tap on my throat, hoping that she will understand what I mean.

"Who are you?! I will shoot!" she cried.

She didn't understand me… My heart was sent into turmoil and beat like crazy.

'If I can't make her understand me, she will shoot me.' My thoughts raced. 'What can I do? I have no technology with me that can speak.' It seemed that I would be dead either way: starve to death or shot to death.

Accepting my fate, I closed my eyes and waited for the shot to come. Each second felt like eternity.

Even though I was ready, my heart couldn't be at ease. It beat faster and faster…

". . ."

". . ."

'Huh? Where is the shot?' Bewildered I slowly opened my eyes again and stole a glance.

The brown-haired girl's finger tightly clenched the trigger, her eyes were tightly shut, and her face turned to the side.

'Why is she looking away? Why doesn't she shoot?' I was both, relieved and confused, that she didn't shoot.

Her dreamy eyes shyly opened again. But when she saw me still standing here in good condition, she looked bewildered at her gun.

Biting her soft lips, she threw her gun through the window at me and screamed, "Go away!"

The glass shattered and the gun was flying at my face. I reacted fast and caught it with my hand. The gun was heavier than I thought.

It had a lot of scratches on the metal and also some dirty parts. It seemed that it was used often a long time ago but not in recent times.

'Huh? The safety is still on?'

I moved the switch, and a clicking noise was made. 'She really forgot about the safety switch…' Looking at the girl again, she looked terrified.

Not only did she not shoot me, she also gave me the weapon. If I would be an evil person, it would mean her end.

'I should give it back to her or else she won't trust me.'

I turned the gun around and pointed the handle at her, intending to give her the gun back. But she moved away from me, slowly taking steps backwards.

She probably didn't trust me. So I laid the gun on the windowsill and stepped away from it.

Seeing me distance myself from the gun, the girl clutched the edges of her dress tightly and warily stepped to the windowsill.

'*sigh* Now she should understand that I mean no harm.'

Arriving at the windowsill, she put her hand through the broken glass of the window and grabbed the gun lying on the other side.

As soon as she held it in her hand, she retracted her hand rapidly, scratching her tender skin against the broken glass.

"Ahhhh! *clank*" A pained cry left her sweet lips and she let the gun fall down.

A long cut stretched across her forearm. Blood flowed out from the wound and trickled onto the floor. She clutched her wound and distorted her mouth and eyebrows in pain.

Lifting her gaze, she stared with her watery eyes at me and screamed in a brittle voice, "Go away! *sniff* Just g- Just go away! *sniff*"

She fell onto her knees, closed her eyes, and sobbed. Tears flowed down her tender cheeks, and her blood continued flowing down and stained her dress.

'How could I leave you alone? You are in pain! And with blood here, the Creepers will come soon enough too.'

Having sympathy for her, I walked to the door of the house to come to her aid.

I put my hand onto the door handle and pushed it down, trying to open it. It was locked; it didn't move in the slightest.

'Guess I have to do it the hard way.'

I drew my knife and rammed it between the door and its frame. Turning the knife to the side, the door creaked and shot open without the lock on it, leaving the lock hanging on the doorframe.

I ran to the kitchen where the girl was at. The smell of baked apples was now very clear in the air. It couldn't make me lose direction of the kitchen.

The girl was lying on the ground now in a small puddle of blood. Her skin had already turned to a ghastly white and her lips to a pale red.

Her hand was no longer clutching her wound; it was lying lifeless with her on the ground. She didn't lose much blood and probably only passed out from the pain.

'I promise you that you will be fine!'

This is the first time I found a sane person after the apocalypse started. I can't let her bleed out and loose her.

I kneed by her side and checked for pulse and breathing: both were there but weak.

Feeling relieved that she was still alive, I put down my backpack and opened it.

Knowing its contents by heart, I grabbed a needle and thread from it and started to stitch her wound and wrapped it in bandage afterwards.

'She should wake up in a few hours,' I thought and carried her to the bench near the dining table, putting her down there.

*growl~~*

Smelling the sweet scent of baked apples from the oven, my hunger resurfaced and made me drool.

'No! Those aren't for me. They are for her and I don't steal food,' I said to myself and resisted the urge to eat.

I went to the oven and lowered its temperature so that the food won't be burned when she wakes up.

Moving back to the dining table, I took a seat next to her and put my backpack onto the table, sorting the things I took out of it back into it.

"Rooargh!" a howl sounded out from not far away.

'They are here,' I said to myself again and grabbed my knife with full confidence.