Her breathing was ragged. Her lungs burned and her tongue felt like a piece of sandpaper. She was determined to keep going, she had to. Her life literally depended on it. She couldn't stop, at least not yet the moaning sounds of the zombies were still too close. A few more minutes went by before she risked glancing back. They were farther back now, she could no longer make out where one body of rotting flesh began and where another ended. Slowing down to a jog she went on for a little while longer. She went on till she could no longer see anything behind her. Panting, she slowed to a walk.

"Huuuuu boy," she said stretching. Breathing in deeply then exhaling harshly. "I hate when that happens." Stopping to stare at the houses lining the street, she picked the least rundown.

As she made her way to the abandoned house she upholstered her gun. Holding it at the ready, she made her way in. The door creaked as she forced it open. Cautiously making her way inside she decided it looked bigger on the outside. The front hall was an open space, the stairs were off to the left. She ignored them for now. Opting instead to head down the hallway to the right. She kept close to the walls as she moves forward, listening for any sounds that would indicate danger. The hallway leads to a dining room which opened up into a kitchen. Across the hall from the dining room was a bathroom and an office. She cleared the downstairs rooms, making note of the kitchen as she walked back to the front of the house. Inching her way up the stairs she discovered a landing that narrowed into a thin hall. There were four doors in this hall. Three lead to bedrooms the other to another bathroom, all of them, however, were empty of life. Searching the entire house and finding no dangers she declared it safe.

"Home sweet temporary home," she muttered holstering her gun. She walked back down the stairs. Pausing to lock to the front door, then heading in the direction of the kitchen. She made a beeline for the pantry hoping to find some surviving food items. The pantry was small with lots of shelving. It looked like it hadn't been touched for a while, there was a fine layer of dust coating everything. She moved towards the closest items to her. Coughing as the dust got in her lungs when she swiped it away from the label on a protein bar, she was disappointed to see the expiration date was a month ago.

"Those are just suggestions." She muttered, placing the box of them off to the side. Still willing to eat them if she could find nothing else. Moving on to the next group of items, her day was made, there were 7 cans of food.

"Cans of what is the real question," going to pick one up she was finally able to make out the label that read 'Peaches'. "Yes!" she exclaimed her smile stretching wider. She didn't use to get so excited over peaches. The thought made her laugh bitterly, her good mood momentary slipping away. She used to get excited about new movies or going on vacation in the summer. That was two years ago, She was almost sixteen now. Looking through the rest of the cans she found another peach, three cans of peas and three cans of soup. One tomato, another chicken noodle, and the last a vegetable soup. Continuing on she found stale crackers and chips, some uncooked rice, uncooked noodles. She left the rice and pasta reasoning that she couldn't waste valuable water on cooking.

This was one of the best houses she had ever squatted in. They even had bottled water. It was obvious to her that this place has not been ransacked until now. She dug around in her backpack for her water bottles.

"Where are….ah HA!" She called out triumphantly, pulling out her two large, metal, water bottles. "There you are." she put the two down in front of her before pulling the third from its place hanging from the side of her bag. She unscrewed them all and fill them with the water from the bottled water. Screwing the caps back on she places them back in their proper spots. She plops herself down right there in the pantry and reaches for a leftover bottle of water. She takes a sip sighing in contentedness as it soothes her dry mouth. She reaches for a bag of stale chips, opens it, and starts to eat them. Chasing them down with the heavenly tasting water. When she was full and the bottle empty she packed her bag with the food items she had scavenged. She had a large tactical backpack she had found in an army surplus store. It held everything she needed. She started a mental checklist as she repacked.

Two changes of clothing

Can opener

Mess kit

her water bottles...definitely couldn't forget them.

Canned food

A coat,

Two boxes of ammo for her gun,

Some hygiene supplies, like soap and toothpaste and feminine products.

The bag also held little baubles she had grown attached to over her *travels*. After packing she went upstairs and into the bedroom that she guessed belonged to a girl. To raid the closet. Her mouth pulled downwards into a frown, sure it was clean and relatively new but none of the clothes were more functional than what she had. She sighed and looked at her clothing in the mirror hanging from the closet door. Her brown t-shirt was covered in blood, grass and dirt stains. Her cargo pants had the same stains and were tucked into her black combat boots. Her semi-automatic rested in a gun holster strapped to her thigh and her machete hung from her belt. Her arms were covered in dirt and scrapes. Her hair was filthy, it looked browner then it did her norman red. Her bright emerald eyes had dulled, and she had bags under them like she hadn't slept well in weeks. Her cheeks were marred with dirt. She looked awful.

"I need a shower," she informed her reflection, before dragging her eyes away from the mirror and swung her bag off her shoulder and placed it at the side of the bed. She fell back onto the bed not taking off her boots or gun. She fell asleep on her back one hand by her face the other resting on her gun.

Sunlight streaming through the window woke her up. Swinging her legs over the bed she reached for her bag. Bringing it towards her she dug threw to it to find some crackers. Opening it she just sat there and crunched on them. Allowing herself to wake up slowly. Once the bag was empty she picked up her bag from its place beside the bed. Swinging it onto her back she clipped the front straps together to keep it from slipping off. She quickly and quietly left the house. On the lookout for zombies or unfriendly people, she surveyed the street outside. After she was sure it was clear, she started to walk.

She was still walking hours later but she was surrounded by skyscrapers now. The tall, towering buildings looked worn down. Some of the windows were broken, doors open. There was trash littering the sidewalks, the wind even blowing some paper down the street like tumbleweeds. If this was a movie she might have scoffed. But this wasn't. This was real. This area, even, wasn't a particularly safe place to be, nowhere really was anymore, but especially not in a city. Going through them, however, was faster than going around.

*CLANG* She spun, startled, toward the sound. It had come from the ally to her right. Pulling out her gun she slowly moved towards the sound. Making her footsteps as quiet as possible she slipped into the ally. Stalking forward she checked behind the first dumpster she came across. Nothing. She kept to the wall as she moved further in. Checking behind everything that was large enough to hide someone behind. There was one more large dumpster at the end of the ally. Smaller, metal, trash cans had fallen around it.

'That probably was the source of the noise' she thought as she crept toward it. Moving around the smaller cans she sharply turned 90 degrees. Nothing.

"Huh?" She gave a breathy laugh. Still looking around warily. "I could have sworn I-" She was cut off as her feet were pulled out from under her. She gave a surprised yelp as she fell. Crashing to the ground, all the air in her lungs left her. Gasping for breath she looked at her feet. Nothing. There was nothing. No hands as she expected there to be. And that was what freaked her out most about this situation. She was getting pulled by nothing, how could she fight back? Her feet disappeared first. Followed by her knees. She struggled. Trying to find something, anything that could help her. Her stomach was under now. She had had to twist her body to avoid having her ribs smashed constantly against the edge of the dumpster. She tried pushing against the edge. For all the amount she pushed against the metal, the thing pulled harder. She was just hanging on now. Everything but her arms, the tops of her shoulders and head were gone. It gave one last violent tug. Then she was gone.

(Hobbiton, Third Age 2940)

When she next woke up there was a very small man staring at her. 'Maybe the man isn't quite the right word,' she thought while staring at the creature in front of her. He was short and couldn't have been more than three feet tall. His hair fell in ringlets and almost covered his ears. Which she was startled to notice ended in a curved point. His clothing was slightly odd as in he looked like he was from the 18th century. An embroidered vest over a white shirt tucked into pants, odd pants but pants, that ended at his calves. This was not the oddest thing about him, however, what was most alarming about him was his feet. They were probably the same size as a grown mans maybe even bigger and the top of them was covered in a tuft of hair. The hair started at the curve where foot met leg and stopped just before his toes. That she could see because he wasn't wearing shoes.

"Uh….A-Are you alright Miss?" The man asked nervously. She stares at him trying to evaluate his threat level.

"I believe so," She said slowly while pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"Oh good," He sounded relieved. "I had believed you to be dead when I first saw you."-he smiled-"I'm glad you're alright." She relaxed a bit and decided that the man was genuinely concerned.

"I'm glad I'm alright too," She joked with a small smile. "I'm Razena Ryan, nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, I'm Bilbo Baggins."

"Well Mr. Baggins, could you tell me where we are?"

He paused. "The Shire, lady Ryan, are you quite sure you're alright?"

"Yeah I'm good, but here's the thing. I was in a place called Little Rock, Arkansas," she started to panic. "I was in Little Rock, now I'm here." Razena's lips pursed together and she took a deep breath trying to stop the breakdown she was on the verge of having. " I don't suppose you happen to know the way back to Arkansas?" At his negatory answer, she sighed "Of course not."

"Where is Arkansas?" Bilbo inquired.

"It's the US, it's to the right of Texas."

"I'm sorry, I've never heard of a US."

"The united states of America? Canada? Mexico? Nothing?" she was getting desperate now. Bilbo shook his head. She laughed, hysterically. Only half noticing Bilbo's concerned look.

He glanced at the sky.

"It's getting pretty late, why don't you stay with me tonight. Just until we figure out where you come from and how to get you bac-"

"No!" she cried cutting him off. "I don't want to go back." Why would I? She thought. I'd rather stay here, I don't know where here is but it's got to be better.

"Alright," he continued once he got over his shock. "You don't have to go back. Still, stay with me till we can figure out somewhere for you to go." She stopped laughing to stare at him, amazed, mouth open.

"You've only just met me!" in her disbelief her eyebrows tried to disappear into her hairline. "I could be a murderer for all you know! Or you could be a murderer."

"I think you're lost, clearly far, far from home, and in need of some help. I'm certainly not a murderer." his stance was open, honest. She didn't know this place, and the sun was going down. It painted beautiful purples, pinks, and oranges across the horizon. Without the sun the forest around them was getting darker. And while Razena was sure she could survive outside, alone. She didn't want to. She smiled up at Bilbo.

"Thank you." Bilbo just smiled.

"Right then, this way," He turned and gestured for Razena to follow. She scrambled to her feet not wanting to be left behind. The walk there was beautiful. The rolling hills were covered in green grass and golden field of what might have been wheat. When they got to the top of one of the hills, Razena stared wide-eyed. There where little men and women everywhere. Some were transporting goods buy a cart that was pulled but a pony, others were walking down pathways like the one she and Bilbo were on. Most had smiles on their faces as the leisurely went about their days. Greeting each other as the past, it seemed like everybody knew everybody or if not everyone than close to it.

"Woah," She breathed standing stock still. It's so peaceful. She caught Bilbo watching, he seemed caught between concern and content. He continued walking and a few seconds later she followed. During their walk down the path, they passed many small people with large hairy feet.

" I don't want to be rude, really, but what are you?"

"Just Bilbo's fine and I'm a hobbit," He answered.

"A hobbit?"

"We're not well known outside the Shire, it's so rare that any of us travel. We love the comforts of family, food, ales, and pipeweed," Bilbo explained to her.

"There aren't any Hobbits where I come from."

"Really?" He asked an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, just humans…" She trailed off, ending the conversation. It wasn't long after that, that they arrived at around green door leading into the side of a hill.