[h3][b]Natalie Mansfield - Office Building[/b][/h3]

Natalie was sat down in the corner of an old, dirty apartment. Her back was against the wall and her knees were brought up to her chest, a backpack next too her on the floor with all of her possessions inside. The wallpaper was rotting and peeling of the walls. This place was obviously not kept well before the apocalypse, let alone after. Dirt masked what could have been a once nice looking pattern, and a nice looking floor. The room was nearly bare, had it not been for a couch against the wall where she had been sleeping and empty cans and bottles littering the floor. Natalie sighed as she ran a hand through her hair which also wasn't as clean as she would have liked, peering to her side an looking into her open bag.

"One bottle of water... some snack bars..." She said to herself as she rummaged through and took note of what she had left. Some spare clothes, some cigarettes. Some bullets that she didn't have a bloody gun for. She was coming to the realisation, no matter how much she didn't want too, that she couldn't just sit in this grimy apartment any more. She was quickly running out of food and water, and frankly having nobody to keep her company was starting to drive her insane. Venturing out would probably only solve one of these problems, but that was better than none. She reached too her side, grabbing the wall and pulling herself up before swinging her back onto her back. She held her machete in her hand and reluctantly left her hiding place.

She stepped out onto the street. The sun beamed down onto her. She looked around as she took a few more steps forward and examined the houses and shops on this street. Most had already been broken into. She turned and started walking down the road until she came too a huge office building. "Fucking hell". She said as she looked up at it. The front doors were wide open, but hardly any of the windows were smashed, and peering inside, it looked like all of the things inside had been chucked about and vandalised a little less than usual. She would try here first.

As she walked in, she pulled out a cigarette and some matches, lighting it in her mouth before putting the box and the matches back. The smoke hitting her throat was ironically like a breath of fresh air. One hand clenched her machete as she snuck around, crouching and moving as slow as possible as she moved so that she couldn't be detected, and the other held the cigarette. She moved from room to room, searching for anything useful. There was almost nothing.

She had almost given up on finding anything when all of a sudden she heard something on the floor above her. It sounded like somebody was trying to smash through a door. Natalie moved quickly to the stairs, and started climbing to the next floor. She got to the last flight of stairs and just as she turned the corner, she froze. It was one of them. A zombie was standing at the top of the stairs, staring into a room she couldn't see. Whatever she had heard, the zombie had too. Natalie froze and started holding her breath. She was not getting noticed by that thing. She must have been standing there for about half a minute, just staring at it, before it suddenly roared and ran off into the room she couldn't see. She started climbing the stairs, but stopped at the top and waited, not wanting to go in if the zombie had beaten whatever it had gone for. She would wait and see what came out. 

A few minutes later, a man walked out and turned the other way, not seeing her as he walked. She gasped out loud. A person. Another actual living person. Natalie had to talk to him. She didn't want to go right up behind him, in fear of being mistaken for a dead person, but she didn't want to shout and attract actual dead ones. There really was no good way to surprise somebody these days. She moved a bit closer, but not too close, and spoke. "Hello..." She said.

[@Sophrus]