In the morning, the storm clouds had disappeared over the stone walls, taking their terror along with them. Dew drops speckled the ground, weighing each blade of grass down like a catapult about to unleash a projectile. A blanket of misty fog covered the Glade. It gave it a mysterious, slightly frightening look. That's what May thought when she woke up.

The young girl must've fallen asleep half-way through last night's horror.

Deep in the woods, the sound of an ax swinging echoed through the air. The constant thump stayed at the same steady pace, one swing after the other, until it was interrupted by a loud crash, then the thumping would begin again. May looked around, her eyes being the only thing visible from beneath the two blankets Alby had wrapped around her before leaving to go chop some wood. The fabric was tight around her body. Alby must not have wanted her to get cold, or to breathe for that matter, while he was gone.

After a minute or two of breaking free from her confining blankets, May stumbled to her feet to the sound of another tree falling. Man, this guy was on a roll.

* * * * * * * * * *

Albert hadn't slept at all the night before. He'd done what he could to keep May calm during the worst of the storm, but around half-way through, it lightened up a bit to the point she'd been able to get some rest. Not Albert, though. Paternal instincts rising the more and more time he spent with this little girl, the more he realized just how scared her life here must have been before his arrival...

He thought he was frightened when he came up in the elevator. Albert would've lost his mind if he'd been here alone, especially for four whole weeks. He didn't know how many storms she'd been through alone, how many nights she'd fallen asleep afraid. That wouldn't happen again.

Not on his watch.

With each chop of the ax, he was thankful for the slight distraction from his own fear of the unknown. Without May here for him to look after, he'd be too busy crapping his pants to survive. The only way he could've been strong through this was if he had someone to be strong for. Another chop, another, followed by another, one after the next, and the tree fell down with a loud crashing sound.

"Alby!"

The voice caught him off guard as May waddled over to him, wrapped snuggly in one of the blankets he'd covered her with, two pieces of bread in her hand with one half-eaten. He set the ax down against the fallen tree's trunk and wiped the sweat from his brow. May glanced around at all the trees he'd chopped down within the past few hours and her eyes widened in shock.

"Wow." She said simply and handed him the piece of uneaten bread. He thanked her, then took a hungry bite as the two sat down on the fallen log. "Have you been at this all morning?" Albert nodded as he chewed and swallowed, then took another bite. The bread was soft in his mouth, but turned into a heavy paste the longer he chewed. Not exactly the most appealing meal ever, but he had no room to complain.

"Did you sleep alright after the storm passed?" He asked the blonde. She nodded in reply, her eyes on her hands in her lap as she hungrily finished off her own slice of bread. This might have been the most satisfying meal she'd had in weeks.

"What are you building?" She asked once the slice was gone.

"Well, I'm trying to build a house." May looked over him, an eyebrow raised slightly. "I mean, it isn't going to be fancy. No indoor bathroom or anything like that. But it'll protect us from storms like the one last night better than sitting under the platform." She opened her mouth to object, slightly insulted by the fact he wanted to replace her platform so quickly. After all, she'd worked on that thing for days. But he had a point.

"Yeah, you're right." May admitted. The toes of her boots dug against the moist ground. "That didn't do much to protect us last night, but at least all of our things were dry. Maybe we could build onto it... Possibly add a few planks above it so that we could still use the top without worrying about getting poured on." She said her ideas out loud. It felt strange talking to someone besides herself for once.

"We could do that. And use the extra wood to enforce the platform a little more from below to avoid a collapse in the future. Maybe add a room beneath it for our supplies."

"And I could use my machete to cut the stumps' roots away while you're cutting down the trees, maybe we could use them as chairs." Alby smiled at the small shadow of happiness in her voice. The first sign of anything besides seriousness or fear he'd heard from her since he arrived.

"I like the way you think, kid."

* * * * * * * * * * *

The two set to work after that. May ran for her machete, filled an empty jar with water from one of the plastic barrels, re-bandaged Alby's injury on his head (which had stopped bleeding as much, but neither one of them wanted to take the chance of it getting infected), then began to hack away at the stumps sticking up from the ground like sore thumbs. She would've watered the corn-plants or whatever Alby called them earlier, but decided against it since they received enough water the night before.

By the time the sun was in the center of the sky, Alby was finished chopping down enough trees for the platform and was being kind enough to help May with the last of the stumps. She'd done a good job by herself since dealing with stumps was much harder than cutting down trees, but Alby still wanted to pitch in.

"Why don't we stop for a break?" The man suggested as he sat down on one of the stumps they'd freed from the ground. The sweaty, tired girl nodded breathlessly in agreement and handed him the glass jar of water, which was only half way full at this point. He shook his head. "You finish that off. Don't want you to be dehydrated." She started to object, but he beat her to it. "If you're so worried about me, fill it back up again once its gone and I'll drink it all." She couldn't argue with that. With a defeated sigh, May started chugging the last of the water as she walked back over to the barrels.

"Maybe we could use these branches for firewood." The girl suggested once she returned with the drink. Alby listened as he did his end of the deal and began to down the entire jar. "Or weave the thinner ones together to make baskets for the corn-things when they're ready to be harvested." The man nearly spat out all of his water. The smile on his face was obvious as he held in a chuckle. "What?"

"They're called 'ears'." Alby laughed. "Ah, 'corn-things'." And he started to chuckle all over again. May couldn't help but smile as well.

It felt good to not be alone.