'Why's it so dark?' 

Those were the first words that popped into Jess' head. She sat up from her uncomfortable position on the cold, hard floor of the pharmacy. It wasn't easy getting up as she tried to stretch out her sore and painful muscles while trying to stretch off the painful gnawing in her stomach. She hadn't eaten much in the past few days. She and her friends were due for a run into the city before the bandits came in. It didn't help that she had burned all her energy trying to run as far away from those bandits as possible as well as keep herself safe from the multitudes of the undead all around. She remembers having been absolutely exhausted that night trying to run away. She had been running for what felt like hours before finally settling down. Thankfully the pharmacy was a relatively safe spot to stay in. Not a lot of undead around as well as the empty shelves kept people from wanting to check the place for any supplies that might have been overlooked in the initial chaos.

She stood up and continued to stretch her sore muscles, not being in a particular hurry since everyone she knew was pretty much (un)dead. Taking a good look of her surroundings she began to scavenge the shelves, most of them were disappointingly empty, as were the cabinets. Whoever was scavenging made a really good point to literally go through everything and grab anything that they could. She does the same as well. Even though it's only been a month, everyone's supplies are probably running low. Rationing so little food for a month can only do so much before one has to go out and go on a supply run. She was lucky enough that there were still supplies at all when she and her friends did their runs even after the original burst of chaos when everything started going to shit. She imagined that stores and all would have been looted dry. But when people are dropping like flies and then getting resurrected to eat other people's brains and guts out, no one's really thinking straight. 

As she gets ready to go out she takes one last survey of the storeroom. She puts her ear up against the door, listening closely for any groans or shuffling, even though she probably isn't going to hear much. Placing her hand on the knob carefully and twisting it as slowly and quietly as she can she pushes the door open, praying to god that she isn't going to encounter anything. Her entire body is sore and she has yet to eat a meal big enough to keep her from fainting. So running away from a horde of zombies (or even a few) is the last thing she wants until she gets food to eat. 

She's thankfully greeted by nothing dangerous. 

She sighs in relief and begins to move towards the door. Surveying as much of the area as she can see, she comes to the conclusion that there is nothing to worry about for now. She walks outside into the sunlight and begins her journey to finding some food to eat. But it isn't even a minute until she hears some rustling in the alley next to the pharmacy. She looks over to where the sound was coming from, taking the knife out of her bag and moving towards the sound. She's quiet and tries her best not to make a sound as she's moving towards the garbage bags. More rustling occurs and she's put more on edge by it. But that's when she hears it...

[i]"Where's momma...? Where's favva...?"[/i] 

'Oh my god...' she's dumbfounded. If she heard what she heard just now correctly, that must have been a little girl hidden among the garbage. There's no way that a little girl could be in the garbage right now. It must be the hunger that's getting to her. She's hearing things that aren't there. Thoughts and ideas of what she heard race through her mind. Can zombies talk now? Are they able to create actual words and sentences now? And sound like little girls hiding in garbage? Could this be a trap of some sort? Or could this be an actual child hidden in the garbage? 

She's only a few feet away from the garbage now. Her hand shakily holding the hunting knife. There's only one way to find out if this is real or not. 

"H-Hello? Is anyone there?" she asks. She's loud enough that whatever was in the garbage can hear her, but not loud enough for anyone else outside the alley to hear. She doesn't dare take a step any closer, not wanting her feet to be grabbed just in case this all goes to hell.