The street is dark and littered with debris. Trash, and abandoned cars along the sidewalks. The windows of each and every store shattered. Tim thought to himself, who the hell would break every window? Even the store that sold designer clothes had been trashed. Why would someone need a fancy dress in all this? But there was no more time to waste, Tim closes one eye and looks through his Night Vision Monocle with the other, scanning the storefronts for movement. Satisfied that nothing is out there, he makes a hand gesture pointing at a lone store about a block away with a small parking lot.

Zack, seeing the hand gesture, advances up the other side of the street, checking the windows of the buildings he passes as he approaches the store. Once at the entrance to the store he looks back to Tim, nods then enters the store. 

Tim begins limping down the street, unable to bend his left leg because of the makeshift splint on it. Tim moves slowly, grunting slightly from the pain of trying to move on a broken leg, he doesn’t bother to check the windows of the buildings and focuses on just getting into the store as fast as he can.

Inside the store, Zack sweeps through the aisles looking first for “biters” then for food. Nothing. Tim limps inside the store and looks to Zack who says nothing. The silence is painful, Tim knows what it means.

 Tim drops himself down on the floor near the door, looking around the empty store, then looking at the limited supplies left in his backpack. He looks up to Zack, who is watching the street for biters.

Tim whispers, “This was our last chance, bro.”
“Yea, I know it was.”
“We’ve checked the whole damn neighborhood. We’ve only got enough food for a few more days. We’re going to have to hit a bigger place.” 
“Last time we did that, we lost Chris.”
“I wouldn’t be suggesting it if we had another option, Z.”
“Shit” Zack hesitates for a few seconds, thinking about their fallen friend Chris and the unknown dangers that lay inside the mall a little over a mile away. “Okay, Eaton it is” 

Zack pulls Tim up to his feet and checks his rifle quickly. Tim puts his arm over Zack’s shoulders helping keep the weight off of the bad leg. The two slowly step back out into the streets, the dark outline of the Eaton Center in the distance.