[table][row][cell][b]11:00AM, March 5, 2005[/b][/cell][cell][right][b]Housing Districts, Brooklyn, NY[/b][/right][/cell][/row][/table][center][h1][b][color=00BFFF]Rick[/color] [color=silver]&[/color] [color=DAA520]Rocky[/color][/b][/h1][color=mediumaquamarine]Scavenge Run[/color][/center]

After packing up essential stuff for a scavenging run, Rick left the house with Rocky, leaving Angie back home for cleaning duty. The man secretly noticed that Angie really disliked being left alone, as her eyes quickly turned watery albeit her attempts to force a smile whenever she heard about his plans; but he also knew that this would train her to be more independent. 

They had to take a rather long stroll to reach their scavenging location. The houses nearby had already been thoroughly ransacked by the trio after months of scavenging. The journey was rather uneventful other than one or two undead popping up randomly along the street that Rick could immediately destroy using a simple disposable homemade spear - a [url=http://thekingsshilling.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/pointy-stick.jpg]sharpened wood stick[/url]. He would first signal Rocky (They had a lot of practices together on combat tactics over Winter) to immobilize the zombie by biting its thigh as the man swiftly moved in to deliver a finishing blow by pushing the spear through its neck. The strategy proved to be extremely efficient and relatively risk-free. 

Half an hour of tedious walking passed by before they arrived at the destination. Rick checked his map. This is the last street within the housing district that they had not checked. After this they would have to go way further. [color=00BFFF][i]Might even need to change our hideout spot,[/i][/color] he thought, and he quickly surveyed the street. No signs of undead or the living, but the man knew better to drop his guard. An unknown danger is always the most deadly one. Together, Rick and Rocky began their daily routine as they carefully entered the first house of the street.

[center][h1][b][color=pink]Angie[/color][/b][/h1][color=lightskyblue]Cleaning Job[/color][/center]

[color=pink]"Safe trip ~!"[/color] Angie smiled as brightly as she could, as she sent the two most important persons left in her world out of the house.

[color=00BFFF]"Remember to close the door, and hide if you hear sounds ~"[/color] 

[color=pink]"I know ~ I know ~"[/color] she repeated cheerfully as she pushed a worried Rick out of the door, [color=pink]"Don't worry and bye ~!"[/color] and she slammed the door shut with all her might before her tears started dropping again. [color=pink][i]This is just like when mommy daddy left Angie...[/i][/color] 

She lied against the front door as she looked back into the house. It was a long corridor connecting the living room, the kitchen, and a stairway to the bedrooms. She was all alone now, and the house's corridor seemed strangely unfamiliar again. [color=pink][i]Don't think of scary things, don't think of scary things... you have something more important to do,[/i][/color] the little girl walked upstairs as she tried to distract herself by recalling what cleaning tasks Rick had left her to do for the day. [color=pink][i]Fold the clothes, sweep the floor, pack the garbage, check water collector... what else?[/i][/color]

Over the last winter, Angie had grown to be much more independent than she could ever be before the outbreak - she had learnt by herself on how to do easy tasks such as brushing her teeth and changing her clothes; but the girl wanted to feel more useful instead of being just a burden to the group. She asked Rick to teach her on simple housework, and would always volunteer to help on things. Now she could perform the tasks without much help, and Rick felt more comfortable leaving Angie with the house's cleaning job. 
[color=salmon][h3]"Squeak ~!"[/h3][/color]
[color=pink][i]...what was that?[/i][/color] she froze on the stairs, as the girl thought she heard something.

[color=salmon]"Squeak~"[/color] and then some noises of scratching. 

Something was definitely in the house, and it came from one of the three bedrooms. Angie shivered as she braced herself to the rooms, trying to find the source. First, she opened the master bedroom slightly and peeped inside. [color=pink][i]Mommy's and daddy's room...[/i][/color] A room twice that of Angie's with a wooden flooring and clean white walls. A queen size bed where Rick now slept during the night, and some simple bedroom furniture. There was also a picture window leading to the balcony. This was where Rick placed his DIY water collector and hanged the clothes. Everything seemed perfectly in place. Angie closed the door as she moved on to check the next room, her sister's. 

No one had ever slept in Angie's sister's bedroom ever since the outbreak. Things were kept in place just like how it was when she was alive. A wooden flooring like the master bedroom and light pink walls. a single bed, a wardrobe, random posters hanging on the walls, and a small barricaded window. There was no way something would get into this room from the window. 

Looking at her sister's room always reminded Angie about the outbreak. The kid was pretty much devastated when she learnt about her sister's death from Rick a couple months ago. As a 4 year-old girl who was still new to the concept of dying, it took her a lot of time to digest the idea of not being able to see her sister ever again. For a whole month, she had been crying herself to sleep and would at times screamed her sister's name within her nightmares. The girl really missed her sister. 

[color=pink][i]There was nothing in mommy's room, and nothing in sister's... that means...[/i][/color] The girl jumped as she heard the scratching sound again. [color=pink][i]I-it is in my room...[/i][/color] She turned the door knob and pushed the door ajar, slowly and as quietly as she could. Then she saw it. Something was moving on the window's sill. A tiny creature covered with bloodied flesh and black fur. It was an infected rat. Aparrently it came in from the window. Angie regretted not closing the window when she went down for breakfast.

[hider=infected rat]
[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/59b2/f/2008/006/2/f/2f2e8558f5215821.jpg[/img]
[/hider]

"Squeaak~!" The rat sensed Angie's presence as it quickly dropped down on the bed and thudded on the floor, charging towards her. The girl jumped and instinctively closed the door as fast as she could, just in time before the rat slammed right into the door from the other side. Angie trembled as she felt the rat scratching on the door, attempting to get through to her. Chills ran down her spine and she sobbed. [color=pink][i] Please come back fast, Rick ~ Rocky ~ [/i][/color] 

[center][h1][b][color=00BFFF]Rick[/color] [color=silver]&[/color] [color=DAA520]Rocky[/color][/b][/h1][color=mediumaquamarine]Scavenge Run[/color][/center]

On the other side of Brooklyn, Rick and Rocky had just finished searching the third house on their supply run. They did not find anything particularly useful or remotely edible so far. Bad day, and they were running low in food supplies. Rick slashed out another house from his map as he took a rest in the house's kitchen after some rummaging. His recovering left leg got him tired easily these days. 

[hider=kitchen, abandoned house]
[img]https://i1.wp.com/www.freaktography.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DSC_0001.jpg[/img]
[/hider]

He was offering Rocky a drink when he noticed it. There was a trail of footprints not belonging to the man or Rocky in the kitchen - the accumulated dust had made it easily visible. It was also too organized to be an undead's one. Comparing the footprints with his own made it fairly easy to deduce the time they were left. [color=00BFFF][i]"Fresh footprints, possibly left by a woman not long ago today,"[/i][/color] he thought intuitively. Somewhere within Rick told him that he had the knowledge and experience of tracking down people with footprints before; but he did not think about it too much, as he always had moments of flashbacks after he lost his memory during the outbreak. More importantly right now was he needed to decide whether to follow the tracks or simply ignore them and continue his scavenging run. 

The owner of the footprints will either be friendly or hostile. Rick was more worried about the latter. It would be a trouble if the person found out about them and followed them back to their hideout secretly. [color=00BFFF][i]It will still be better to identify the person's location and her intention first,[/i][/color] Rick decided, as he signaled the dog to sniff and follow the scent of the person who left the footprints. [color=00BFFF]"Rocky, sniff."[/color] 

It took roughly a minute for Rocky to find the exact smell to follow. It would sniff around the kitchen as Rick subtly guide it back to the footprints. When it had pinpointed the exact scent and the direction the target was going, it started moving quickly following the track, taking in more short, quick sniffs. They got out of the house when they heard sounds of door banging nearby.