3rd Person P.O.V

After months of being alone in the tiny log cabin, freezing her butt of for days, living off of rations and religiously reading the events of the outside world on her stolen computer, the woman was now sat in her birds' nest, watching as the strange man in the bright red coat trampled through the snow, obviously heading towards her 'home'.

She saw his face. She wondered what it would look like without all the facial hair, because the normal female woman inside her was telling her he looked hot, and that she should naturally be attracted to him. Back in the day, when she was just a genius scientist bent on curing the world's incurable diseases, she would have gone for him. He was a rugged type of handsome, not the kind you'd see in magazines or in movies. But now, after her smart mouth had gotten her experimented on and turned into an agent, she was calculating how long it would take for her to take him down in a hand-to-hand fight, or whether she should just shoot him and then leave his body for the wolves.

"Are you going to pretend you don't know I'm here?" She called down to him, as he was walking past the tree she was perched in.

"I was just trying to be polite."

She rolled her eyes, and jumped down, landing perfectly on her feet. The man turned round to face her, his eyes immediately drinking her in, and then scrutinising her weapon.

"I wasn't expecting you so soon. What did you do? Come over the mountain?" She asked him, taking a couple of steps forward, slinging her rifle over her shoulder.

"Don't they forward my position?" The man asked.

The woman smirked.

"You beat the record by two days."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. You didn't know there was a record?" She asked him, unsurprised. They never told anyone anything they didn't 'need' to know.

"No. It never came up. Wasn't your record, was it?" He asked, a smirk on his face.

"No one comes over the mountain." She replied, not answering his question. It was her record. She'd taken the long way round, because that was what she was told, and she wouldn't disobey orders. She knew where disobeying orders got her.

"Well I did. I'm Aaron, by the way." He said, smiling at her.

"Why did you do that? If you weren't on the clock, why take the risk? Why take the mountain?" She asked, ignoring his attempt to be 'chummy' with her. She never exchanged names with the others. She wouldn't start now, just because she found him attractive. She thought if they had met in a different situation, in a different place, before she was made into this killing machine, she would have charmed him, and they'd be sleeping together by the time night came.

Aaron hesitated before answering the woman's questions.

"I lost my chems. I dropped my program kit, that's why."

Mentally, she called bullshit. She frowned at him, and walked past him without saying a word. Aaron watched her walk away from a second, before following her to the cabin.

She put her gun back with the others, which were lined up against one wall, and started taking off the layers she didn't need anymore, starting with her gloves. She heard Aaron in the doorway, but ignored his presence for a few seconds. No one had been here in months, but her. She'd have to get used to sharing her space again.

"Protocol is for me to call in your arrival," She said, as Aaron closed the door behind him. She removed her hat, and shook out her long blonde locks, then removed her coat. "They're going to want a sample pick-up. You got blood work, right?"

"I owe today." Aaron answered her, as he started to shed his own gloves, hat and coat.

"Alright, pull it now. The drone takes about three hours to get up here so I'll get some food started. You can dry your shit." She said, moving around the room, picking up the necessary equipment to prepare a meal.

"So…look. I got a real problem, here. I came over that mountain because I lost my chems."

The woman sighed, and turned to him.

"What are you taking?" She asked, seemingly exasperated by the man and his drug addict-like behaviour, but she knew what happened when you haven't taken your chems in a while.

"My daily? Phys meds, 250 green. Cognitive programs, 400 blue." He replied.

"Define 'lost'." She said, leaning against a counter, a look of distrust on her face.

"Lost. Fell into the rocks off a 20-meter cliff. Lost." Aaron snapped the last word, getting slightly agitated at the look on the woman's face. Sure, she was beautiful, had pretty eyes, and a mouth that made him want to kiss her, but the look made him want to hit something.

"How is that possible?"

"Look, I've had a pack of wolves on my ass since I left the drop, okay? I thought I lost them, but they came at me at the river, so I took the ledge up to the ravine to try to rally out the night," Aaron said, trying to ignore the woman's sigh, as she knew it was a stupid move. "I chose wrong. I got caught out in the open, I couldn't climb. I couldn't make a fire, my hands got stiff. I dropped them."

The woman straightened up a little, shrugging her shoulders, still not believing him.

"You're gonna have to write that up." She replied, a look of innocence on her face that didn't reflect the smug tone she said it in. It was one that clearly said 'I'm glad I'm not in your shoes'. Aaron chuckled.

"So is that yours?" Aaron asked.

The woman tilted her head in confusion.

"Hmm?"

"The blood work?" Her eyes flickered over to the vials of blood that were on another counter. "That's yours, isn't it? You're not a contact, are you?"

The woman didn't answer. She turned away from him, and began preparing Aaron some food, hoping he'd shut up soon.

"Look, I'm sorry to call you out like that. It's just that…I've never met anybody in the program before," Aaron said. She gave him a quick glance before she tend to the fire, adding another couple of logs to make sure it was hot enough to cook their meal on. Aaron continued talking. "Never, nobody. You're the…"

Aaron trailed off when he noticed the woman was purposefully ignoring him, as she placed another log in the fire.

"Look, I know you have some extra chems here." Aaron said.

"I'm not supposed to ration you out until you leave tomorrow." She answered.

"Yeah."

"Did you chem today?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Green only. I haven't had a blue in 32 hours." Aaron replied.

The woman looked at him, her gaze hard for a second, before she closed the fire, and stood up.

"Stay here. I'll go get you some extra chems."

"Thank you."

"I wouldn't do this, if it weren't for the fact that the last idiot who lost his chems and didn't have a blue beyond 32 hours flipped. Needless to say, They weren't happy when they had to send a plane to collect the guy's body."

Aaron looked at her, wondering if that was the woman's attempt at humour, but he could find no sign of it in her expression, only a warning. Her eyes pretty much said 'attack me and you'll die', so Aaron stepped out of her way, as she walked out, pulling a set of keys out of her pocket as she left.

Aaron watched her from the window as she dug around in the metal locker outside, looking for the blue chems. He knew that the blood work was hers. She was an agent, like him. Yet she didn't look like what he thought another agent would look like. Physically, yes. He could tell that under the thick jumper she was wearing was some pretty impressive muscle. Mentally, no. She seemed too intelligent for an agent. Her eyes showed an understanding that he knew his didn't.

When she came back, she handed him the chems, before walking back to the fire, setting up for their meal.

"You'll get rationed tomorrow too. In case, you manage to 'drop' them again."

And in that instant, he felt like she knew he'd been lying and knew that he had to find out more about this mysterious woman.

Three hours later, the drone arrived and the woman had already boxed up all the blood work and labelled it. She shrugged on her coat again, and pulled on her hat and gloves, and trudged towards the small white drone, that could almost blend in with the snow.

She opened the compartment, and placed the blue box in it, closing it and stepping back next to Aaron, who had followed her out. They watched in silence as the drone flew away with their blood work. The woman turned back first, and Aaron stood there for a few seconds, before once again following her back to the cabin.

It was dark now, and everywhere was quiet, apart from Aaron quietly eating, as the woman sat opposite him, taking apart a hand gun and cleaning.

When a wolf's howl interrupted the quiet, the woman gave Aaron an amused smile as he looked up from his bowl of stew, in the direction the howl came from.

"Your friends are here." She said, the smile still on her face.

"I know," Aaron replied, still looking out the window, before he turned his eyes towards the woman. "Don't you think that's strange? The wolves? They don't do that. They don't track people."

"Yeah. Maybe they don't think you're human." She said, taking her eyes off her gun, and looking at him, before taking a bite of her own bowl of food. She put the pieces of gun down on her lap, and began eating with him.

"So, how many of us are there?" Aaron asked her.

Her eyes locked with his, but she took another mouthful before replying.

"You ask too many questions."

"Maybe you don't know, either," Aaron muttered. The woman's mouth twitched, as she fought off a smile. She knew how many. She just wouldn't be the one to tell him, until she was sure he could be trusted. "So what are you doing up here, anyway?"

She shook her head, and grinned.

"How do you know that I'm not evaluating you?" She asked him, sitting up straighter, and leaving her half finished meal, to put her gun back together again.

"I don't know. Are you?" Aaron countered. "Maybe I don't care. Do you ever not care?"

The woman hesitated, scrutinising the man sitting in front of her, her eyes taking in every slight movement he made.

"Maybe you're the one evaluating me." She said.

"I went off the grid for four days, that's why I'm here. I skipped my check-in. Now I'm on this bullshit scavenger hunt." Aaron told her. She was sure that he only told her that to try and gain her trust.

"They'll have their reasons."

"Yeah, well…I thought I was having my wrist slapped, but now I'm not so sure. I'm still trying to figure out whether you're supposed to kill me or give me a pep talk." Aaron said, before sipping some of the hot chocolate she'd made to keep them warm.

She grinned at him.

"I don't give pep talks, and this coming from me is weird if you knew me before this, but you think too much." She shook her head at him, and he smiled back at her.

"Aren't we wired to stick our nose in, you and I? There's not another person for 300 miles. I know nobody's listening. Come on, you've got to give me something. Talk to me, come one!" Aaron said, his voice getting slightly louder as his begging continued. The woman just looked at him amused. "Why'd they pull you off the field and put you up here? It's not physical, with the way you've been moving, so what did you do? Turn down an assignment? Start thinking for yourself? Fall in love?"

The last one made the woman's eyes flash, and Aaron knew he'd found the reason she was here.

"You fell in love."

"You're not very perceptive. My eyes flickered in remembrance, but not because I fell in love. I was remembering what love felt like. And it wasn't because I started thinking for myself or because I turned down an assignment. I always thought for myself, and I turned down one too many assignments, so here I am, in my log palace," She grinned again, and pushed the gun across the table. "This one is better for wolves. There's an ammo box by the door. Take as much as you need. We're done talking. You ate, you're pulling out early, you should hit it."

The woman got up, and picked up their bowls, putting them in the sink.

"Okay. Some other time, then."

"Yeah."

"Thanks," Aaron said, looking at the woman, who refused to look at him. She scrubbed far too aggressively for the bowls, probably angry for revealing what she had.
"I've got one more question before I go."

The woman shook her hands, before drying them on a piece of cloth beside her, and then turned around.

"What?" She asked, an expectant look on her face.

"Where're you from originally?"

"Canberra, Australia. My accent didn't give too much away, did it? You'd better get some rest. If you still feel like asking a lot of annoying questions, save it for tomorrow. I'll consider answering a few of them."

Aaron smiled at her, before turning away to go to the bed she'd given him for the night.

His sleep was short lived. The light above his face was switched on, waking him instantly. He blinked twice before he recognised the blonde haired beauty leaning over him.

"Get up. You want answers. You're about to get them," She said, before she straightened up, and moved away from him, and out of the room. Aaron noticed that she was fully dressed, wearing her blue winter coat, and her black woolly hat. "Don't just lay there, and stare at me, Agent. Get your arse up and moving. Unless you fancy a bullet in your head or to be blown to little pieces. Get your gear, and be ready to leave in twenty minutes. I've got weapons ready. We're moving out."

Aaron jumped to his feet, and pulled his coat on. He was already wearing most of his clothes, just not the outerwear. He grabbed his backpack, and his sniper, and pulled them onto his back. And after pulling on his hat, he left the room.

He saw her sorting packs of blue chems into a small bag, before she closed it, and chucked it towards him.

"Those are for you, as is that Glock 26, and all that ammo on the table. My bag is already packed. I'll answer your questions once we're gone."

"Where are the green chems?"

"You don't need them. Don't ask any follow up questions, just trust me." She said.

"How can I trust you? I don't even know your name! Why are we leaving?" Aaron demanded, putting all the stuff she'd laid out for him on the table in his pack.

"Because I don't fancy waiting around to die. When they sent me up here, I managed to steal a laptop. I'm good with computers and made sure that they can't trace my signal. Four Outcome Agents died suddenly today, all around the same time. Me and you, we're the last ones. They're burning the program to the ground, and getting rid of all evidence. Including you and me. I'm not going to die because they can't deal with the fucking consequences of creating the program in the first place." She ranted, as she grabbed her sniper of the wall and slung it onto her back.

"Why did you wake me up? Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm not stupid, and I know you'll make me a very powerful ally." She replied, looking him in the eyes.

Aaron looked at her, until they both heard a very faint whirring sound.

Her head snapped towards it, then back to him.

"We've got to get out now. My tracker is currently residing in the rat that is in the cage on the chair you sat in last night. We'll get yours out once this place has been blown up." The woman said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out of the door.

Aaron would have fought to get out of her grip, but he saw her urgency, and didn't think to stop her. They got to the tree line when a missile blew the cabin up. The blast sent the pair flying backwards, and left a high-pitched ringing in their ears.

They struggled to their feet, grunting in pain, but both stood as they saw the same drone plane from the night before fly over the charred remains of the log cabin.

"Eliza." She said.

Aaron looked at the woman in confusion, wondering if the blast had affected her mental capabilities.

"My name is Eliza. Now we've got to go. Your chip is still active and they'll want to terminate it. Let's move." Eliza ordered, her grey eyes glinting like steel. Aaron smiled slightly, but it was gone quickly, as they both ran into the trees.