Ground floor

Small hands twist thin green stalks together, just like her mother had shown her a few hours earlier. Her concentration is broken by a sudden cold shiver that was crawling over her body. Looking up she realises that the dark shadow of the tall wall that surrounded their town had fallen over the garden of their home.
Turning around on her bottom, she looks up at the plumpish woman standing over the roses,  "Mama?"
She does not turn from her pruning as she answers, "Yes Vivyan?"
"Why is there a wall around the town?" the small girl asks.
"It keeps the monsters out," her mother answers in a crisp tone.
The girls lips tug down in confusion, "then why can't we go out at night?"
"Because some of the monsters can get over the wall at night."
"But surely the brothers and sisters at the church would protect us?" the girl persists, watching as the branches fell from the bush.
"The exorcists are human too, they rest at night like we do," her mother explains, irritation creeping into her tone.
"So..." the girl starts, fingering the carved bird wing around her neck, "what happens if someone is attacked at night?"
The branches stop falling and her mother turns, a scowl fixed in place. "The dead are buried and any survivors are removed from the village. Now go inside and start getting ready to help prepare lunch."

An insistent itching sensation forces the young woman into consciousness. She inhales sharply, only to end up coughing violently as she inhales small particles of something dry. Opening her eyes she finds herself on her side in the back of a shallow horse drawn cart. The hay she had been thrown in itched at her face as well as her bare legs. Panic begins to set in as she tries to use her arms and find them tied behind her back. A large bump in the road forces her off of the hay bed and onto the hard, wooden floor of the wagon. Groaning in pain she forces herself up onto her knees, hoping that someone was playing a prank and they were just carting her around the walls of the village. Her fears are not soothed when she finds a wall of never ending trees passing by in front of her. Shuffling round to face the front she is confronted with the back of two white robed individuals. Part of the previous nights' events crash into her as the cart slowly comes to a halt. Calloused hands grab her from behind and drag her off of the wooden floor. Painful pins and needles shoot through her legs as they set her down, causing her to collapse onto the dirt road. Looking up she recognises one of the hooded people as one of the sisters who had taught her how to read and write. When the older woman turns to return to the driver of the cart she struggles to stand.
“W-wait Sister Mary! What’s going on?” she cries, managing to get to her knees.
The hooded woman collects a cloth sack from where she had been sitting and returns to the struggling woman. The bound woman stares up at the senior woman with pleading eyes as she places the sack in front of her and proceeds to move out of sight. The bindings on her wrists loosen and Sister Mary rushes past her. The woman on the ground grabs the fleeing woman’s’ wrist, forcing her to stop and meet the distressed woman’s gaze.  
“What is going on? Why are you leaving me out here?”
Mary’s tone is grave, “You know the rules, survivors are thrown out.”
“S-Sur…” she trails off and looks down, finally noticing the dried blood coating her long sleeved shirt.
The Sister yanks free, backing up slowly, "I'm sorry Vivyan, its the law. Perhaps with the angels' guidance you can become human again."
The horse and cart were long gone by the time the shock of being thrown out of her home had worn off. Her vision becomes watery as she reaches for the sack that had been placed in front of her and pulls it close to her chest.
Only one thought echoed through her mind as tears streamed down her face, 'I can't go home.'
By the time her tears dried the sun was directly above her. A rustling from somewhere to her right snaps Vivyan out of her daze. Panic settles in as she realises how much trouble she could be in. She had never been outside the walls of her village, but her mother had told her all about the man eating monsters that lived beyond the walls. Looking up and around she scans for anything in the tree line as she gets unsteadily to her feet. She opens the bag in her arms to see what they had left her with. The corners of her mouth pull down when she finds her identification papers, a sheathed hunting knife and a box of matches in the bottom.
'They could have at least given me some clothes.'
Another closer sounding rustle distracts Vivyan, forcing her to look around at her surroundings again. A trembling hand reaches into the sack and retrieves the sheathed knife. Once it is free, she pulls the ties tight and slings it over her shoulder and starts down the road. While she trudges along, her head constantly swivelling in paranoia. She stops dead in her tracks when a shape moves in the shadow of a tree up ahead. She fumbles with the sheathed blade, eventually pulling it free a little to make it easier to draw. The sound of her heart pounds in her ears as the creature slowly pulls out of the shadow and hops onto the sunbathed road. A gusty sigh of relief escapes her as a small, chestnut brown rabbit bounds across the path. The young woman slowly crumples to the ground, the darkened leather of the case getting covered in pale yellow dirt.
Once her breathing and heart were back under control she collects up her blade and continues to shuffle down the road. The sun was most the way across the sky when she was stopped by a long, pointed shadow. Gazing up she is confronted with a mass of tall buildings, some with even taller chimneys. Swallowing her nervousness and tightening her grip on the knife hilt, she takes one large step forward into the maze of looming structures.