The whistle of the arrow flying forward so smooth and quick is a sound Taeyeon finds extremely satisying. It's calming; reassuring; because usually the only time she ever hears it is right before it strikes their next meal. Just like now.

The sight of the turkey dropping into the dry leaves is a little louder than Taeyeon's comfortable with, and she stays crouched in her hiding spot for a few minutes, waiting for any sign that the noise had drawn attention to anything. When her surroundings stay just as quiet as they were before the big bird fell, she carefully steps over the log she had hidden behind and makes her way to it.

It's not the biggest turkey she's seen; this one is much younger than the others she hasn't been able to catch. The younger ones are the most reckless ones, however. Taeyeon had learned a while back that they were easier to catch. And it was something. Hell, it was way more than they had been able to get for a couple of weeks. A bird this big meant food for a few days!

Taeyeon pulls the arrown out of the bird, takes the dirty handkerchief from her pocket, wipes the blood from it, and slips it back into her quicker. She reaches down and grabs hold of the turkey by its neck and makes her way back. It's a 30 minute walk through the woods without dragging the heavy animal. It takes her a bit longer to get out now, but when she's out, she's greeted by the sun.

It's another 15 to 20 minutes until the Korean makes it back to the house. When she's through the door, she locks it back behind her. She drags the bird up the stairs, making sure to cover the entrance of the stairwell with the couch again, just like always. She goes through the hallway until she reaches the open door at the end. She peeks in to find Krystal sitting on the floor, making ridiculous faces, legs straight out in front of her. Taeyeon moves forward and leans against the door frame, getting a full look into the room. Joel is standing in front of Krystal, inches away from her feet. He's wobbly, but he's standing nonethless.

"Pretty soon he's going to be walking." Taeyeon says, a big smile on her face at the little boy with a head full of curly dark brown hair.

"Yeah, maybe then he can pull his own weight." Yuri says, lying in the bed Krystal is leaning against. "Starts providing for the group, ya know."

"Hmmm." Taeyeon her head to the side, pouting her bottom lip out and looking down at Joel, who was distracted by her voice and had already fallen back onto his . "All this time, I thought we were waiting until he was big enough so that we could eat him."

"Very funny, guys." Krystal says sarcastically. "He's a fighter, this one. He'd break your fingers if he thought you were going to eat him."

"Us? No, he'd just giggle at us." Taeyeon says in a baby voice, rushing forward and scooping the toddler into her hands and into the air. Joel queals and laughs as Taeyeon sets him back down on the carpet. "Speaking of food. I brought us a meal." Taeyeon drags the turkey into the room and Yuri spins herself off of the bed.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Yuri says, taking the turkey from her friend and dragging it further into the room.

"I take it that means you weren't so lucky?" Taeyeon asks her as Yuri makes her way to the closet.

"I did actually find a couple cans of beans. Baked beans."

"No kidding?" It wasn't too rare for the small group to find food from scavenging, but to find cans and catch game on the same day? Especially after a week with barely anything to eat? That was rare.

"I found them on the other side of the neighborhood. I was about to give up; come back with nothing. But I hesitated when I saw the house and figured I'd do a quick sweep through. Lucky us, huh?" Yuri steps out of the closet with five cans of baked beans and a big smile on her face.

"Lucky us." Taeyeon repeats, looking at the food in awe.

"Lucky us!" Krystal says in her baby voice to Joel. The one year old squeals in response back and giggles.

Taeyeon joins Krystal at the side of the bed and plays with Joel. She hadn't seen him almost all day, except in the morning, and he obviously missed her. He crawls over to her and Taeyeon helps him to stand up. They spent a lot of time on the move, stopping at houses in neighborhoods with little to no Walkers for a week or two before going off to another place. Staying in one area for too long was something they agreed on not doing. For their safety and for Joel's safety.

They'd learned their own ways to survive as a group in the time where it has just been the four of them. No matter what, someone always had to stay back from the scavenging and hunting to take care of Joel; it wasn't safe to have him out in the open; he was so vulnerable. For that same reason, the group decided almost immediately that they couldn't stay out overnight in the woods like they used to do. It simply was too dangerous for a baby to be out so everything could hear him.

When the meat is cooked, Krystal serves each of them a plate of the turkey and beans. Joel gets mostly beans and a small pile of cut up turkey. He'd been learning to eat more solid and tougher foods once his little baby teeth started coming in, but he was still more interested in the mushy and softer food for the most part. And they couldn't waste what they had on a baby that probably wouldn't eat it.

Dinner consisted of rare happiness today, as well as chatter. It was a great day whenever they had enough food to fill their bellies and they were going to relish in the luck and make the most of the rest of the day. Taeyeon finds herself looking at her best friends as they laugh at Joel, who just smushed his face into his beans and had juice all over his forehead and cheeks.

Yuri usually wears her hair up in a ponytail nowadays, to keep her jetblack locks out of her way. Her near black eyes were always darker now; ever since they had given up hopes of finding Yoona and the others. Her smile never really reached its full potentional anymore, but whose did, huh? She's a fighter, though. Nothing will change that. That girl had been through so much, between almost being eaten alive when they were overrun, almost bleeding out from Lucas attacking her, and fighting and running around in the snow storm with Joel all in one night? Not to mention the close calls she'd found herself in with Stiffs and Others since then. She's definitely a fighter, and Taeyeon is grateful to still have her by her side.

Krystal's bright red hair is fading and her dark roots covered inches of the top of her head now. She didn't care anymore; her looks were the least of her worries now. She still looked so young and almost innocent. Hell, Taeyeon really wanted her to keep that innocence, though she was having a harder time nowadays with that. Krystal wanted to be involved more and more with hunting and scavenging and Taeyeon was starting to run out of reasons for her stay in. Yuri needed a break sooner or later from house raiding. She was a strong girl, Krystal was; less naïve now; more mature. Taeyeon knows that time in a world that seems to have already ended would do that to anyone.

Joel was a growing boy! Aready a year old, he was starting to babble so much that it was becoming a problem to go outside with him. He grabbed the attention of anything within earshot of his talking; animals and Walkers included. Taeyeon loved the kid. God, did she love him so much. The three women had grown so attatched to the little boy, his safety was always the first thing they all thought about when making decisions about what to do next. In times where they would only find tiny amounts of food, it would go to him, no matter what. The only hands he would be safer in are his mother's. If she was still alive…

By the time they're done eating and enjoying themselves, the sun was already down. With as much food as they consumed, it was no surprise they were all exhausted afterwards, and soon enough, they were all curled up together in the bed sound asleep. The first good night they'd had in a long time.

Who knew when they'd have another one.

Don't hate me for being sooooooo long with this short chapter update! As you all know, a lot of stuff was going on.. DX But here I am! I know it's really short, but I do hope and plan to write the next chapter and post it soon! Next chapter will be Jessica's POV. Also, as you can see I totally gave up on the chapter names. Oops! But anyway, let me know what you guys think of this and thank you so so so so SO much for still being interested and STILL commenting and wanting more updates despite how long it's been since the last update! You guys are seriously so awesome and make me feel more confident in my writing and story telling abilities! I've been thinking about writing my own book some day so seeing all of the love from you all really makes me feel like I should give it a shot!