James was decidedly done killing for now, he would get back to it in a couple of days but for now he couldn't afford to hunt down any more bandits. He only had three cans of food left, not enough to partake in his favorite pastime without worrying about starving to death whilst doing so. He would devote the next day or two towards gathering supplies, if he came across any small groups of bandits he would certainly think about taking their lives but only if he was certain he could do so without endangering himself too much. Now wasn't the time to be careless, if he killed too many of them they were bound to send more out looking for him and that would make scavenging far harder than he needed it to be. 

He took a look around the room that had been his home for the last couple of days, it had been a good find. The previous occupants had taken it upon themselves to board up the windows, even the ones upstairs and some of the doors still had locks on. It had been quite the moral boost when he had came across it. Sadly James would only be able to stay for another night or two. He had made it a rule to never stay somewhere that wasn't completely secure for more than a few days. The longer he was there the more chance there was of something or someone dangerous coming across him. He had also made sure not to make noise, or at least as little as he possibly could. So far the place had served him well and he hadn't been heard or seen in there by anything or anyone, to his knowledge at least. He wasn't dead, so he assumed it was safe thus far. 

The bed was pretty comfy too, though he couldn't remember the last time he had slept with his clothes off. He had to be ready to up and go always, sleeping comfortably was a huge luxury these days, just like pretty much everything that used to be taken for granted. It wasn't just the world that had changed since the end of life as everyone knew it, he had changed a lot too. For example, before he had dedicated his life to teaching the kids of Baltimore, hoping and praying that somehow he would put some of them on a path away from the killing and some of the other horrible things some of his students lived through in the city. Now he was a killer, and as much as he tried to deny it inside he knew he enjoyed it. He had hoped it was simply because they were bandits though. He prayed in his deepest depths that he wouldn't get the same enjoyable rush after killing someone who wasn't the scum of the earth. 

He quickly dragged himself out of his thoughts. It wasn't a new thing, he had always thought too much. He could hear his wife’s sweet voice echoing in his mind. 

“I think you think too much darling.” 

That's what she would say. Every time he stayed up hours too late thinking about how to address the kids at school on something the next day. Every time he ranted about something that bothered him about the city, world, universe or just society in general. He did think too much, but these days his thoughts were pretty much all he had. They were the only constant, the one thing that would never leave him. 

“Till death do us part.” He mumbled, 

With death now on his mind James looked around the room. It was another rule of his. He had to either take or dispose of everything that would give anyone an inkling that someone had been there recently. There wasn't much laid around, but what was there he cleaned up, even sorting the bed so that it looked like no one had touched it in months. It was time to scavenge, hopefully he would return to his temporary shelter safely. Putting his bag on his back and making sure his rifle was loaded James left the house, closing the front door as tightly as he could and putting a matchstick near the bottom; between the door and the frame. If anyone entered the place he would know when he returned, the matchstick would obviously fall and it would be a dangerous tell tale. One that would make it so he would have to decide whether to either creep away and avoid the danger or creep inside and take down the intruder. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, but it would always be better to be safe than sorry. Especially now. 

Carefully he looked up and down the street. There was no movement, no sound of anything, complete and utter silence. He hated silence, but for now all it meant was that he was currently safe. He could check all the houses on the street, but that would risk making noise or attracting unwanted attention to the street his currant shelter was on. No, he would travel a little while and then scavenge a bit, if he had to he would search the houses tomorrow after he packed up a final time and moved on. Hopefully by then he would have enough supplies to continue doing his part to dwindle the cities bandit population. 

He had a fair few bullets, enough that he could kill a dozen bandits if he was very careful. He couldn't get in any fire fights, his forty bullets would be gone in a minute if he did, but if he took his time and hunted the bandits the way he had trained himself to he was bound to be able to kill plenty of the bastards. Feeling far too eager to get back to killing James pushed on, heading deeper into the city and hoping to come across a small grocery store and avoid any large amount of the dead. He doubted his luck, he was bound to come across something that was going to piss him off on his little shopping trip. It was too bad, he would just have to deal with it, whatever it was. Hopefully he could deal with it before it dealt with him, but who the hell knew, and more importantly, who the hell cared.