At this moment, Divya and Anjali had been ahead of them for almost an hour.

They moved quickly through the snowy landscape, deliberately avoiding obvious roads and open areas, choosing to travel along densely wooded paths.

"Divya, can...can we really escape?" Anjali’s voice trembled slightly. Her stamina was nearing its limit, and her legs felt as heavy as if filled with lead.

Divya gritted her teeth, glanced back at the path they had come from, and whispered, "Don’t stop. They’ll catch up soon. We have to find a place to hide, or...or find a way to fight back."

"Fight back?" Anjali’s eyes widened, her voice filled with disbelief.

"Don’t think so much, just run first!" Divya interrupted Anjali. She knew there was no time for them to hesitate now.

"I...I can’t run anymore..." Anjali’s voice was tearful; her legs were numb.

Divya didn’t answer, she just held Anjali’s hand tightly, forcing her to continue.

She didn’t know when the group from the Savage Wolf Shelter would catch up, but at present, not only Anjali, but Divya, who had been running for over an hour, was also starting to feel her strength wane.

Just as she was considering whether to find a hidden place to rest, a figure by the roadside caught her eye.

It was a Survivor cutting down a tree, with an iron building not far from him. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

She quickly assessed the man in front of her, weighing the pros and cons in her mind.

She knew nothing about his background, but they were now at a dead end. She took a deep breath, trying to make her tone sound calm and sincere.

"Sir, we are passing Survivors being pursued by a group of people, and we’re truly desperate. Could your Shelter...let us take refuge for a while? We won’t bother you for too long; we’ll rest for a bit and then leave."

Her voice carried a hint of fatigue, but her tone was firm, neither appearing overly humble nor revealing too much fear.

In this environment, excessive weakness might arouse suspicion, or even malicious intent.

The man put down his axe, narrowed his eyes, and his gaze swept over them, as if assessing something.

A moment later, he nodded, stepping aside to clear a path, "Come in, it’s not safe outside."

She felt a sense of relief, but remained vigilant. Holding Anjali’s hand, she cautiously followed him into the Shelter.

The man introduced himself as Sam, the owner of this Shelter. He led the two into a simple room with a table and a few chairs, and some food and water on the table.

"Eat something, you two look exhausted," Sam said, offering them some food. His tone was gentle, and he didn’t seem like a bad person.

Divya didn’t take the food. Since entering the room, her gaze had been scanning the interior.

Such a decent Shelter, yet only he lived in it.

The shelter owner’s seemingly warm smile, which was actually a bit unsettling, combined with her tense nerves from the escape, made Divya feel suspicious.

"Thank you, we’ve already eaten," Divya said softly, a faint unease lingering in her heart.

Sam sat to one side, his gaze occasionally sweeping over the two of them, an unreadable emotion flashing in his eyes. Seeing that Divya and Anjali didn’t take the food, he began to eat by himself and asked in a muffled voice, "Who are the people chasing you outside?"

"A group of bad people. They want to capture us," Divya replied briefly, without revealing more details.

Her eyes continued scanning the room. Then, as if she had discovered something, Divya’s pupils suddenly constricted.

Relieved that she hadn’t touched the food, she grabbed Anjali’s hand, who had just begun to relax, and said to Sam, "Thank you for your help, but we have to leave."

Hearing this, the previously gentle Sam suddenly turned around and blocked their way. The smile on his face vanished instantly.

"Leave? Do you think this is a place you can come and go as you please?"

Facing Sam, whose expression had suddenly changed dramatically, Divya’s heart sank. She gripped the short knife she had summoned from her backpack. "What do you want to do?"

Sam’s eyes turned sinister. He pulled a dagger from his waist, his voice filled with madness. "The weather’s getting cold, and food is hard to find. What do you think I want to do?"

He did not answer her question, but instead counter-questioned.

Divya could clearly see his throat bobbing. Combined with what he said, it fully confirmed her earlier suspicion.

It turned out that Divya had already noticed something was off much earlier.

When they first entered the Shelter, the pervasive stench in the air made her vaguely uneasy.

Initially, she thought it was just the common musty smell of an abandoned Shelter, but as they went deeper, the smell grew stronger, even mixed with a hint of fishy saltiness.

Later, her gaze swept across the dim room, and she noticed some things covered with rags piled in a corner. The edges of the fabric vaguely revealed a few stark white bones.

However, it was too late to talk about any of that now. The man in front of her had already decided to kill, and it was too late to leave.

"How about this, I’ll give you the food from our bags, and we’ll pretend we saw nothing. You let us go." Divya’s eyes were grave as she negotiated with him.

If possible, Divya did not want to stay there for another second, but if she didn’t resolve this immediate trouble, she really couldn’t escape.

"Heh heh, I can get that food even if I kill you two." Facing Divya’s negotiation, Sam was unmoved, his smile growing wider.

"Today is truly my lucky day. Two big fish came knocking on my door themselves, saving me the trouble of going out door-to-door to find food." He shook his head, his tone relaxed.

In his opinion, these two women were defenseless, and it wouldn’t take much effort for him to take them down.

Upon hearing this, Divya’s expression completely darkened. Knowing that there was no longer any room to retreat, she immediately pushed Anjali aside.

Divya, who had never killed anyone, now had a hint of determination in her eyes. She raised her short knife, ready to fight him to the death.

Just as the two were about to make their move, outside the Shelter, a sudden shout echoed across the snowy ground.

"Boss, the footprints stopped right here. They must be hiding in this Shelter." The speaker was one of the subordinates from the Savage Wolf Shelter.

"Hmph, they think this kind of iron Shelter can stop five of us, how naive."

Then, without hesitation, he extended his arm, pointing at the iron door of the Shelter. "Brothers, let’s just tear this Shelter down."

"I’d like to see where else those two can run today." Kuldeep’s anger intensified when he saw that he was finally about to catch the two of them.

His subordinates, hearing this, all picked up their respective weapons and began to pound on the iron door.

"Clang—Clang—Clang—" The sound of blunt objects hitting the iron door was incessant, and it also reached the ears of the two people confronting each other inside, interrupting them.

"Damn it, you two sluts, who are these people chasing you? Why are there so many?" Sam put down the dagger in his hand.

He only chose to eat his own kind because he lacked food; his mind wasn’t completely mad. Seeing this scene, he also felt a little timid.

He ignored the two women and walked directly towards the door.

Divya and Anjali also consciously distanced themselves from him, standing against the wall furthest from the door.

The two quietly watched Sam, who was standing at the door, speak.

"Stop knocking, big brothers outside, the people you’re looking for aren’t with me. Just now, the two of them came outside my house, wanting to stay temporarily, but I didn’t agree, and they ran off." Sam shouted nervously at the door, afraid that the people outside wouldn’t hear him.

"Hmph, two cheap bones, still trying to use this trick to divert us." The five, having learned their lesson, did not believe him and instead focused on destroying the iron door.

Kuldeep continued, "Speaking of which, you two are really lucky. In the middle of nowhere, you can still have a Survivor covering for you."

"You like to meddle in other people’s business, huh? When I get in, you’ll be the first one I kill."

Kuldeep had truly misunderstood Sam. He didn’t want the few people to know that Divya and Anjali were inside, simply because he didn’t want the food he had obtained to slip away for nothing.

Seeing that he couldn’t bluff his way through and was even being threatened, Sam was left with only helplessness.

"No, no, no, gentlemen, let’s talk calmly. To be honest, the two women are in my house." After a quick calculation, Sam decided to tell the truth. After all, no matter how fierce he was, he couldn’t take on so many people outside.

"Since you want them, I’ll help you tie them up. How about we consider today’s matter settled?" His heart bled at the thought, but he had no choice but to give up what was already in his grasp.

Sure enough, upon hearing Sam’s words, the people outside stopped pounding on the door, seemingly willing to compromise.

After a brief moment of thought, Kuldeep shouted from outside, "Alright, if you don’t interfere, we’ll let you off the hook. But besides the two women, all the food and supplies you have must be handed over to us."

Were they joking? They weren’t good Samaritans. In this Wasteland World, even a passing dog would be stripped of everything, let alone a lone survivor like Sam.

"...Alright."

Normally, he was the one robbing others, but now that he was the one being robbed, Sam felt a surge of anger. Still, he could only grudgingly accept it.

He immediately turned his head, intending to tie up the two who had caused him such heavy losses.

However, Sam, who had been talking at the door, had overlooked the danger posed by the two women.

Just as he turned his head, he saw a pitch-black arrow flying towards him.

Before he could even raise his hand to defend himself, the arrow pierced his head.

"Puff!"

The arrow had entered precisely through his eyeball, and blood splattered out in an instant.

Sam was still in the motion of raising his hand to cover, but he quickly fell to the ground, lifeless.

Divya, who had shot the arrow, was clutching the compound bow Vikram had given her, trembling all over.

This was her first time killing someone.