I woke up with a start. My first instinct was to look around and see what may have caused my awakening, but then I remembered the nightmare I was having. It was... disturbing, especially since... I stopped myself; it was too difficult to think back to. It had been several months since everything went to hell in a handbasket, but I still had trouble coping with the fact that I may never again see the world I was used to.

I brought his hands to my face and exhaled deeply. The AK-74 I had owned since I turned 18 sat next to me, leaning against the wall as I had been for the last several hours, and the M9 I had picked up off a dead police officer sat in it's holster strapped to my thigh. It was insane to think all of this happened in under a week, and it had been over 6 months since the start of it. At least, that's what I thought; I hadn't been keeping track of the days. Regardless, it had been long enough since I last got food that I was probably going to have to make an incursion into Toronto proper to grab some more.

Acting in kind, I stood up and picked up the AK. I looked around the long abandoned home and considered the irony of me calling it abandoned even though I had used it as a place to stay ever since I came to Toronto. I put my arm through the AK's sling and threw the rifle over my shoulder. I headed down the stairs of the house and towards the front door. The house was only a couple of miles away from Toronto proper, and I could make the trip in about an hour. I could tell by the angle of the sun that it was still roughly morning, which meant I had plenty of time to head into town and grab whatever I could find before heading back here. Without skipping a beat, I opened the front door and began walking down the way to Toronto proper.

---

As I had predicted, the trip took me a little more than an hour, at least that's what it felt like. It was hard to tell, considering there probably wasn't a properly timed clock within 10 miles. I found myself within the main part of Toronto, where several stores and outlets lined the streets. I started to consider the prospect of running into someone. It's something I've thought about for a while, and it's also something I knew I would have to be flexible with. Depending on the type of person I ran into, I could be shaking hands with them and trading supplies without a hitch, or I could find the business end of a gun pointed at me within a second. Whatever the case, I'd have to be prepared to react, and hopefully have the first-sight advantage, and thus be able to take control of the situation. The only surefire way to ensure a clean exchange of words is if the person in question drops their gun or otherwise proves themselves to be nonthreatening.

Knowing that that sort of situation was probably highly likely in a downtown area, I pulled the AK off of my shoulder and started to slowly and quietly pull on the bolt handle to cycle the first round. I heard the first bullet click into place in the mag well and started to settle the bolt back into battery. When the bolt was about an inch from being completely locked in place, it stopped. I remembered that this happened as a result of the bullet sliding into the chamber and gave the bolt a slap forward. This turned out to result in a loud *clank*, louder than I would have hoped, but at least it was quick. I took a quick look around to see if anyone may have heard it, but saw no one. Thus, I continued walking.

Not even a minute later, I found myself in front of a large shopping center, one that I had passed by several times before; the Eaton Centre. It was basically a mall, which I had long considered to have nothing in the way of supplies since everyone would think to go there, but for some reason I decided to get a look inside today. Maybe I would get lucky. I walked towards the doors, keeping my rifle lowered, but ready to fire if need be. I took one more look around at the streets behind me before entering the large shopping center.