She was going to puke. The smell was unbearable. It embedded itself into her nostrils, haunted her lungs. She tried breathing through her mouth, but the thick stench could still pierce through the closed passage. She had to do this. She must do it. It was a necessity. She couldn’t let it all goto waste. She needed to survive. It wasn’t like anyone was going to know. She could tell them she survived through the rest of their combined food. She carefully planned it. The food. No one had to know. Her hands shook, inhaling a shaky breath. The last thing he said was still echoing in her ears.

“Ellie, I know we-”

And no more.

-

I was comforting her, trying to build a fire. The silence was loaded, and I was desperate to cut through it, get rid of the suffocating atmosphere. The oxygen level was low, and we were getting seriously lightheaded. Sucking in fresh air was never this hard. I couldn’t take it anymore, the stillness, the silence. It was killing me.

“Ellie, I know we-”

And no more. Everything went black. It was not immediate, but blinking, like lingering light before a power outage during a storm. Unconsciousness was thick, and I tried to sit up, but nothing moved.

And then I felt myself sort of flow upward, like the smoke from the sparkling fire. I saw that the fire was finally going quite steady. Light and sound were coming back. I looked around, in time to see Ellie let a rock the size of her foot drop to the ground.

There was a spot of red on the rock.

And then I saw it.

Ellie jerked a little, then reached again for the rock. Her hands were shaking really badly. I let out a shriek, but the forest was quiet, except for the sound of her pants.

I witnessed Ellie putting the hard material down onto the side of my bloodied head, again and again and again until it looked less like a human’s head. I thought our skull was stronger than that.

I could just stand there, reverting my eyes away from the scene. The movement ceased after a while. I risked a glance up, purposely not looking at the result of such repeated force.

She sit there, trembling, and emptied the content in her stomach onto the ground. It was just water and some goo. She rocked back and forth for a little bit.

I could understand why she did it, but I just couldn’t fathom how she could do it.

Her movement continued, and I shuddered when she flipped out a camping knife.

No way. No no no no no no no no.

I tried to get between her and the body. No use.

I started to weep as she readjusted the knife, and sliced through the fresh meat.