The search for supplies began, as Ekko and Riven walked towards the hotel that stood in front of them. It wasn't as pleasing as it sounds- dead corpses everywhere, completely destroyed buildings everywhere, and a horrible stench to add some more spice to it. But since they lived in a city that was completely polluted, it was pretty normal for both of them.

"This is the first place that isn't totally destroyed, I think we're of to a good start." The boy said, with a smile on his face. He saw a bright future for both of them, even if it wasn't clear at first sight. But nonetheless, they walked into the building to complete their objective.

They took a quick look-around the reception room, where they were as of now. It was in a surprisingly good shape. Not many scratched walls or any sign of chaos. Weird, but convenient. Ekko saw, at the corner of his eye, a vending machine! It had a good amount of snacks and drinks. So he walked up to it, pulled out his bat, and bashed it open. Without such a thing as bags, he took everything he could and put it in his pockets- which could only hold one soda and about three snack bars. "Hey, Riven, would you mind helping me carry some of these? I'll go upstairs and see what I can find. If you loose track of me, follow my hologram, it'll say where I was four seconds ago."

And so he made his way to the first floor. There where quite the amount of rooms there, so he would have to search in every single one of them. Not much was found in them other than lost change, cloth and other things like that. And since right now money didn't matter, he didn't bother to collect it. He found a bag on one of the rooms though, so he took that for extra storage space. Not much but it would come in handy. Although, after searching through twenty or so rooms, not much was found. They still had extra floors to explore, but that would take a while. So Ekko went down to the reception room.

"Everything OK?" He asked, as he walked towards her fellow partner.

"i dont like it here" said riven, "its way to quiet". She stood still and listened if any sound could be heared. It was super quiet because the only thing she could hear was her now quickly beating heart. Ekko said she shouldn't worry to much and that they should continue to search for supplies. He told Riven that there was another upstairs area and that they should look there. "oh, i almost forgot, i found a lower area. It might be a basement for storage and we should not forget to check that out." After a little discusion about if they should split up they both came to the agreement they should..................

"A basement? It's just like horror movies! Let's go search there!" Ekko replied, as he followed her to the entrance of such basement. As he got closer to her, he heard pounding. Ekko stopped next to her, and didn't hesitate to ask. "Are you... scared?" He could not believe that. Why would someone be afraid of a basement or a simple building? He could not understand that, and besides, Ekko just wanted to help out his friend. After all, two are better than one.

"Look, if there is such thing as danger, we're prepared. Trust me." He said, trying to comfort Riven into exploring what she had found earlier on. Either way they headed down there and to their amazement, there was no light. Only darkness. Luckily, Ekko's time-travel device gave away some light, so they weren't totally screwed. "Take this, it should help you see what's around here." As he said that, he gave Riven his bat. Since it was made out of neon, it also lighted up the place- even if it was the tiniest bit.

"I'll look over there." He pointed to the direction he pretended to analyze. "You can follow me if you want, but It'd be best if we split, to cover more area."

"well, i geuss you are right as always" Riven said anxiously. She went left and Ekko went right. She was walking inbetween 2 big rows of shelves thinking "how can Ekko go through all of this and not be scared, or at least not show that he is scared". When Riven walked arround the corner she noticed how huge this place actually was. "how are we ever going to search through all of this?" she wispered to herself.

Riven was walking trough the big corridor of shelves and boxes piled up all the way to the roof. She was terrified for some reason she didn't know. She just felt something was wrong. She decided to actually go scavenge for some supplies instead of just walking arround waiting for something to happen. As she started walking to one of the closets the neon stick Ekko gave her started flickering. She opened the closet and screamed. She tripped and fel on her back as she noticed it was just a rat.

A scream could be heard through the basement. Something as about to happen, and Ekko didn't like where this was going. He recognized that voice from every corner of the planet- it was Riven. "She's in danger, I have to save her!" He thought to himself, as he rushed around the basement, searching for another blue light in the darkness. "Dammit, where is she?!" He pondered, as he noticed a faint glow in the middle of the nothingness. Ekko rushed towards it and found who he was looking for.

"Are you alright? I heard screaming and- W-wait a minute... what happened? You seem to be fine, if anything." Even if she could have just been frightened ever since she entered this basement, it didn't make sense. Until he saw a rat. "R-really?... A rat. That's it?" He said, sort of disappointed, and followed up with a sigh of relief. "Well, at least you're alright! And that's what matters." Ekko didn't quite realize what she had found as well. Supplies! All kinds of them! Pretty dusty, but definitely in good shape. "*Chuckle* This is the mother-load! Really nice find! I-I'm sorry that I left you alone, didn't think it'd be this terrifying for you..." Ekko said, reflecting on what he had done. It was a simple, yet quite memorable mistake. He'll remember that for when he faces another task like this.

"Anyway, let's get as much as possible! The night will be pretty cold, but we can stay here if you want!..." After that, he gathered as much as he could, with the help of Riven, of course.

"i think we should stay here for the night, im really tired." they walked up the stairs to find a place to sleep. They went to the first floor and walked through the corridor searching for a nice room. At the end of the corridor there were 2 pretty much untouched rooms. It was a perfect place to stay for the night. Ekko was just about to head into his own room as riven asked: "uhm..can you stay with me, i don't want to be alone again."

As he was about to enter his own room, and heard the request from Riven, Ekko stopped. It was kind of shocking and he didn't really know how to answer to something like that. "I...uh... sure, I-I'll stay with you." His face turned a bit red, but he turned around and entered the room where they would now sleep in.

"I'll sleep on the floor, not the most comfortable of all places, but I've lived on the streets, so I'll figure something out." Ekko said to her, as he got a bit of cloth to at the very least not freeze to death. Before anything else, he asked Riven something. "Hey, you still have my bat, right? Keep it. It'll serve as a light. So if anything happens, you'll be able to do something about it." And without further ado, he went over to the door and closed it, same for the windows. It wouldn't be nice to have something happen during the night.

Riven was happy Ekko said yes to the question earlier on. Its nice to have someone actually care about what you think she tought. She had been alone for so long and now she has a good friend to fall back on. Riven falls asleep thinking about how Ekko is always there for her.

Riven woke up when it was light already, she stood up to go look out of the window when she felt the terrible pain in her back. It must have been the fall yesterday. she started crying lightly.

Ekko woke up after a long night of preparation with a yawn, and a dazzled face. "Rise and shine, a new day is at the door! Well... outside, but still! New day!" He got up, and saw that Riven, of whom he was sleeping with (sorta), had a tear running down her face. The young boy walked up to her and sat down in her bed. "Are you alright? Did something happen while I was asleep?" He asked, with words filled with concern and kindness.

He didn't really get an answer, maybe she was still hurt by something. And indeed she was. Ekko wasn't sure where, but he knew that she needed some help. He asked once again if she was hurt, and awaited for an answer.

Riven wiped away the tears and says: "i don't know, i was just thinking of home and how things used to be." She didn't want to tell Ekko her back hurt. That would just create more problems, she tought that they already had enough problems. Riven made a simple breakfast for both and then they went on searching for any forms of survival.

"Hey, don't worry! You have... well, me, but I'll be sure to do everything in my power to protect you. Not like you can protect yourself, but still. Two's better than one, right?" Ekko said, as he tried comforting his friend. Without saying much, she shook her head and stood up. She got some of the food we had found and made some breakfast for both of them. It was simple, yet a good way to start the day of.

"You know... I never had food like this... it's amazing! You're cooking skills are really good!" He said, as he stuffed his face with the food that was displayed to him. Riven smiled, as she never had been complimented like this. That alone made Ekko happy as well. He glanced at the window which was open, letting in sunlight. Those two things combined made the boy look forward to what lied ahead.

Some time after that, they prepared to leave. As much as they wanted it to be a trip, it wasn't. It was a case of survival. But outside was a surprise that they did not expect. The corpses that where on the ground started moving. Was the radiation effecting them? If so, it made no sense... but why or how they got up wouldn't matter. If they wanted to get out of there, they'd need to fight. "Riven, my bat, I'm going to need it!" He said, as they we're preparing for a pretty big fight.