Esther slowly woke up and looked at Sven, who was still sleeping. She looked outside and saw that the sun had come up and that the snowstorm had ceased. The ground was as per usual covered with snow and there was the sound of a calm wind.

As she looked around, she saw something she didn't like though: a bear who was looking quite hungry. She quickly, but silently woke Sven up.

He opened his eyes and looked confused at Esther. "Why are you waking me up?"

She signaled Sven to be quiet and pointed at the bear, then at his rifle.

Sven shook his head. "I am sorry... I can't."

She looked quite confused. "What do you mean you can't?" She said aggressively, yet silently. "You know how to operate a rifle, right?"

Sven sighed. "I only use it for intimidation, I've never shot before and I am scared to ."

Esther rolled her eyes and grabbed his rifle. "Fine, I'll do it myself. No way we can sneak past him."

Sven touched Esther's back. "Hey, b-be careful alright?" He stuttered, after which he looked away.

"Coward", thought Esther to herself. She remembered how she and her father went hunting with when she was younger. She still remembered the basics of shooting.

She looked at the rifle, which appeared to be quite old, definitely from before the 60s. She looked at the side to identify which model it was. There was an inscription on a brass disk that was located on the stock. It read "M41B." That must be the rifle model.

She then proceeded to figure out where the safety was and turned it off. She checked if the magazine held munition and then opened and closed the bolt, in order to ready the bullet.

Finally, she aimed at the bear, held her breath and fired. the shot made a loud noise as the weapon was shot.

Esther didn't know which part she hit, but because of the painful roar the poor animal made, she knew that she had hit her target. The bear appeared to be in pain but wasn't dead and quickly ran away into the forest.

Esther sighed, relieved. "You can look again now, coward." Said Esther annoyed. "You own a rifle, but never shot with it. What kind of crap is that?"

Sven looked turned to Esther and looked down. "I only use it for intimidation... I've never actually shot with a gun."

She rolled her eyes. "Come on Sven, sometimes you don't have to be afraid to take action. Don't be too hesitant to act. Do you think I like it to be seen as a 'filthy scavenger?' I don't! But I need to do it. Otherwise I wouldn't survive. Sometimes, you need to do things you don't like to save your own hide. Do you get that?"

"Yes Esther, sorry Esther." He said as he rolled his eyes.

She looked quite annoyed at him. "Don't give me that look. When something happens next time, be prepared to deal with it." Sven nodded slightly.

Esther then proceeded to turn the safety of the rifle back on and told Sven to prepare his bag to depart.

After they were ready, they left the cave and went to the route again. It was still a long way to Jokkmokk and they had no time to lose as their supplies were slowly but surely running out.

There were a lot more tensions between Esther and Sven today after the incident that happened and most of the time, nothing was being said.

Eventually, Esther got curious about how Sven got the rifle in the first place. "It's an old family heirloom. My grandfather worked as a sniper in the Swedish army and after his service, he got to keep the rifle to hunt. He then passed it to his father and my father passed it to me when me and my girlfriend bought our own house." He explained.

"So it was just for decoration, then?"

Sven nodded. "Indeed, I've never actually shot with it but in the aftermath of The Last War it does come in handy. To keep thieves and scavengers away, for example."

Esther laughed. "Well, it sure served its purpose then. For a moment I thought you were going to shoot me!"

"Are you kidding? I would never shoot a person, unless that's absolutely necessary and even then I don't know if I could do that... Anyways, I thought that we might have to use it during our trip, so I took it with me. Alongside the remaining ammunition I had for the rifle. It has already proved its purpose, it seems."

She nodded. "It did, but you have to learn how to shoot with it, just in case. Maybe I should train you during lunch? How about that?" Sven was hesitant, but agreed.

They walked a little longer and then stopped to eat. This time Esther went to search for wood to make a campfire. As she told Sven that even she was tired of all the canned fruit. She took a tiny axe with her to chop off branches from trees as the wood on the ground was too wet to use.

After chopping enough wood, she returned to Sven and carefully made a fire. She looked inside her bag to see what they could eat and decided to go for canned spaghetti this time.

She sighed as she sat down and waited for the spaghetti to get hot.

"What's wrong?" Asked Sven.

"I am just worried after what happened this morning. You're a good guy, Sven. But what would you do though if you would need to take action instead of me?"

He thought for a moment. "I would be hesitant to act, but if I would truly need to take action to save you or myself, I would do that. I won't repeat what happened this morning."

Esther smiled. "That's good... Let's just hope that you never have to prove it."

The spaghetti soon became hot and they began eating. After they were done, Esther stood up and clapped her hands in excitement. "Time for shooting lessons, Sven!"

He sighed and stood up as well. "I guess I should learn it, yeah."

She smiled. "Don't be afraid, it's not that bad."

Esther grabbed the empty can and placed it further in the snow. She then learned Sven the basics about shooting. After a bit, she concluded that Sven was ready to shoot a real bullet.

"Okay, take your time and try to hit the can." She told him. He was shaking as he was aiming and missed the can. Esther gave him an assuring smile. "Don't worry, it takes time." She said to him. She then explained that he had to remain calm and told him to hold his breath.

He then continued to practice. He missed a couple of times more, but eventually he succeeded in his objective.

"Let's see if you can do that again, alright? Let's practice some more!" Instructed Esther.

Sven fired some more shots and they all landed on the target. To Esther it was clear: he was competent enough with a rifle. She clapped her hands as Sven was done. "Good job!" She said. "Now we can both save ourselves if the need would arise."

He smiled back. "Yeah, let's just hope that will not be necessary again."

After the shooting, it was time for them to leave. They still had a long way to go, after all.

Sven put out the fire and then both of them grabbed their bags and continued on their way to Jokkmokk.