Christina crouched against the whitewashed wall of an office building. Through the thin material of her shirt, the sun-heated wall warmed the skin of her back. Bracing herself on one hand -- the other gripping her rifle -- she peered around the corner. 

The city appeared frozen in the state it must have been in when the outbreak hit. They hadn't made it far enough to see the real damage yet, only half a mile or so into the bulk of the city, but the street ahead gave them a pretty good idea. A few odd cars parked in the middle of the road, abandoned for all Chris could tell; she spied a shoe here or a baseball cap there, a gas can lay just ten feet away. 

No sign of the undead. 

She kept looking, under cars and dumps, for the slightest movement, until Tony stood up beside her. She was always aware of his presence beside or behind her. "Stay on the sidewalk," she told him. 

"Don't go anywhere you don't go," he replied. She glanced over her shoulder at him. The corners of his mouth twitched up just slightly; the best smile he could manage. "I know."

With a nod, Chris all but marched around the corner. She followed her own instructions, keeping herself close to the wall of an office building, and checking every alley for the undead. Her grip on the rifle tightened.

At the end of the road, on the right hand side so she could only see so much of it, stood the arched entrance to a shopping mall. Their best chance at restocking supplies and the worst. She couldn't tell how big, or if the place was infested, from where she stood. Putting out a hand to the others, she stopped and surveyed the street again, then jogged across the road. 

The sunlit marble foyer opened out into the mall's vast first floor, where rows of plants intersected with food and sales stalls. Chris could just make out the bottom of an escalator to one side. The whole place might have been pretty, if not for the overturned, bloodied tables and the shattered kiosks. She saw no bodies, not even roaming walkers. She jogged back to Tony.

"They're in there. Just hiding."