3 November 2017, Southwest Missouri

Silence. A cold wind blew, resembling the howling of the dead, uncontested by nothing. Seeing that the streets were empty of both the reawakened and awake, Valentina made her cross, keeping her head down. She remembered Lieutenant Hugh's lessons, and how she paid for not listening once. It was rather dark, as it was very cloudy, and looked just about to snow or rain. The building she wanted to enter loomed over her intimidatingly like a giant staring down at her, but the girl was unafraid, as there were worse things than shadows to be afraid of. Racking her brain through for a word to describe the building, she remembered that it was a shop, except this one was a big one. One thing lead to the next, and as she was hiding behind a car, she remembered her past life, which seemed like forever ago. Her parents would take her to those little shops with their friendly attendants, and then there was Sa'at's mart. To this day, Valentina still wondered what had happened to Salim Sa'at, the Turkish owner who was her friend - going to his place wasn't just grocery shopping. It was like visiting a friend. Her father had said that Salim had flown back to Turkey to visit his family, but she wasn't sure anymore.

Grief was beginning to fill Valentina's heart again, but she pushed it away - with great difficulty. She remembered what would happen if she slowed down, and wiped her tears away. Some of it was trapped underneath her 'pirate eyepatch' as she called it, so she had to wipe underneath and readjust it. Pulling out Lieutenant Hugh's knife, she kept her head down and sneaked towards the front door, looking left and right consistently for any distressful surprises. It was dark, but she was used to it, having lived in the dark half the time for months. For reasons she did not quite understand, the lights in the entire world had stopped working many months before, but it was just another mystery she had to live with in her short life.

Testing the door leading into the shop, Valentina found that it was unlocked, and became quite afraid. It seemed too easy, just like when her siblings would hide their best cards in a game of Monopoly Deal or Uno. From the past, she remembered that there would either be people or biters, and usually a group of them. Yet it was quiet, deafeningly quiet and still.

With both her hands, Valentina opened the swinging door while she was crouching. "It's like a game of hide and seek, Valentina." She remembered what Lieutenant Hugh said. She remembered his hand on her head, and how she liked it, "Don't let them see you." Sometimes, whenever the coast was clear, they would even play a real game of hide and seek, and the soldier would somehow manage to pull the smiles and laughter out of her despite the loss of her friends and family, and everything. She remembered his hugs, the closest thing to what only her father could give.

Silence. Valentina ran in, never forgetting to keep her head down. First, she hid behind one of the many cashier counters before going past them, her ears always peeled to listen. Treating any piece of furniture as if they were buoys in the middle of a stormy sea, she scurried to the closest store shelves and listened again. Silence. After some time of silence, Valentina became sure and confident enough that she was alone. Ever since Lieutenant Hugh's death, Valentina had become afraid of people, and it wasn't just because everyone else she had met after were bad people, but she had lost far too much to want anyone more.

Switching on Vertov's tactical torchlight, she started flashing it past store shelves carefully, always terrified of giving anyone or anything even a hint of her existence. Most of the shelves were empty, and Valentina moaned internally. The few odd shelves that contained something were either filled with useless things or... Precious few packeted and canned food made themselves known to Valentina. Like a stalking cat or rat, the girl was almost duck-walking, inching her way closer to the closest prize before finally seizing it. Beef jerky. Hastily, she moved on to the next closest morsel, and discovered that it was a can of Pepsi.

After moving on to the next aisle of the shop, something caught her eye, something amongst the useless stuff that would not help her survive. Toys, many of them, most of which remained in mint condition and well packaged. There was a whole group of them that was familiar to her. Matryoshka dolls, something that was her father's business. Valentina's father dealt with Russian toys as part of his small-medium business. Tears were once again stealing their way out of Valentina's eyes as she picked one of the Matryoshka dolls up, and noticed from a happy bear face logo that it was actually manufactured by her father. Slipping her bag off, Valentina swept the whole collection of dolls into her bag along with the little food she managed to salvage.

Memory after memory of her family began forcing their way into her mind. Valentina found that she couldn't move anymore. She felt drained, too upset to go on living. Sitting down, she leaned against the shelf, distracted from the fact that every moment spent out in the moment was hazardous. She remembered her previous life, and how the world became how it was on the day of her birthday, which was also Valentine's day. She remembered how her life was torn away from her one bit at a time, one family member, one friend at a time, each cut deep and goring and excruciating. Holding up her combat knife, the young girl contemplated joining her family. She remembered going to church every sunday with her family, listening to stories of a heaven where all good people will go, and a hell where bad people will be thrown into.

Then she remembered her time with her father and how he wanted her to be strong and fearless like a bear. She remembered her first day going to school, and how she cried uncontrollably in the family car, refusing to leave it. It took her father some time to coax her out of it, telling her stories of his very own anxieties and First Days and how school was like in Soviet Russia.

Getting up again, Valentina continued foraging for food, throwing into her bag the odd chocolate bar and canned condense milk (which she would not be able to open), nuts and crackers. After filling her bag, she turned to leave...