In the beginning Snippet

Ashley struggled against her, fighting the small arm tangled up in her coat, dragging her backwards into the dark of The Nest. One last shove sent her flying towards the back wall, wood yearning to the impact of her body. She collapsed to the ground, shuffling around to face her, rustling the remains of bed hay strewn across the ground.

Ashley bore her eyes into Chrissy's face.
She refused to meet her eyes, slamming the door behind her and hastily interlocking each of the six bolts one by one.
"You killed him! How could you do that? He was one of us and you left him to die! I thought you loved him, cared about him? You should have saved him!"
Ashley waved her hands around frantically, fingers pointing towards the floor boards, knowing that a few hundred feet below was Jeff's body. Or what was left of it.She inhaled sharply at the thought, tears welling up.
Chrissy hesitated. Her fingers fumbling over the brass of the third fixture. She spoke through gritted teeth.
"I couldnt have saved him...we both would have died. And then what use would I be?" She twisted away, breathing heavily.
"He...would have understood."
Her eyes sparkled in the small beam of light escaping from the peephole. She slammed the bar of the sixth into its placeholder as if to end the conversation before returning her gaze to the small slit in the door, silenty watching, waiting, crossbow held lightly to her right.
"Its all about surviving now." She said softly, words meant only for herself.
"Then you might as well be one of them."
Chrissy's head spun towards Ashley. Eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, made harsher by the streaks of yellow light.
"What do you mean?" Chrissy slouched, arms dropping, her tense muscles gone for a moment, like the fight had left her.
"Its all they care about..." , Ashley gushed like it was obvious.
"They kill to survive, to adapt. You're no different now, you've already lost."
Tears escaped her eyes, clearing a path through the mix of dirt and blood encrusted on her face. Jeff's blood.
"How can you say that?", her face crumpled, obliterating her gentle, pale face.
"The moment we stop fighting for each other is the moment we lose our humanity. It was in one of the books I had back home. I always thought books had the answers but nothing is as bad as the truth."
"Books have a habit of lying starling.", she tilted her head slightly, her gaze creeping to meet Ashley's.
She glared back and she saw something different. This was not the Camp Mother she knew. The woman stood before her now held no resemblance to the one that had found her in the woods. She didnt believe in the same morals that Jeff had. She believed in herself. And her own survival.
"My mother once said to me...when you protect the ones you love, you save each other. But betray them to save yourself? Then you're already dead."
Chrissy stared. And a smirk slowly crept across her pale face.
"Do you really believe that?", she spat.
Ashley didnt respond.
She seemed to laugh hysterically.
"You have no idea do you? Why do you think I saved you? And all the other pathetic little birds I had cooped up by my side?"
Ashley continued to stare at her. Seeing the completely twisted version of a person shed trusted.
"I kept you around as fodder! Who would they get first if they were to attack? Who do they want?"
Her eyes were wild, her body hunched over like a mad man, spit flying with ever word.
"They want you.", she hissed, "as long as we sacrifice you, we'll survive, i'll survive."

A group of small gasps erupted from the darkness behind Chrissy. Her face dropped and she span round to meet the small shocked faces of her little birds.