Julie walked down the street, coated in dust and muck. She walked quickly and silently, making sure to be cautious. Her hand was kept at her side and she was ready to run if need be.
The wind howled in Julie's ears, bringing to mind things she wished she could forget; yellow teeth snapping too close, the feel of coarse, bristly fur rubbing on her skin. Shivering once more, Julie pulled her cardigan tighter and grasped the gun in her waistband.
Carefully picking her way through the rubble, she daydreamed of warm food, a plushy, comfy bed, and, most importantly, the feeling that she was safe.
"No," Julie thought, shaking her head, "That doesn't matter right now." She had been walking for multiple weeks ,but she couldn't remember exactly how many. The rubble and ruin blended together into one miserable landscape, making it hard to distinguish things like place or time.
Julie stopped to take her canteen of water out of her bag. Twisting off the cap and peering in, she sighed and chugged what little was left. Hopefully there was a house nearby, as she couldn't trust the rivers anymore.
Julie picked around the rotting corpses that littered the street, scanning each of them for supplies that she could take. She took a nice knife from a guy - or she thought it was a guy - with half his head gnawed off, and some bullets from a lovely torso she decided to call Charlie. "Thanks, Charlie!" she thought sarcastically, putting the ammunition in her bag.
She found the body of a little girl with her throat torn out with a stuffed octopus clutched in her hand. Julie stared at the corpse for a while, feeling strangely akin with the child. She then gently picked up the toy and tucked it in her pocket. She moved the little girl off the street, looking around for possible parents, and realized that the girl was far away from the rest of the people, all by herself.
Julie walked on, scanning the ground for things like water bottles or weapons. She stepped over an arm, and tried not to look at a mangled leg.
After walking for about another hour, Julie came upon the ruins of a stately Victorian mansion. She stood in her tracks, unsure of what her next move should be. The house might have some supplies in it or other useful things like blankets or weapons. Then again, it might be inhabited by some of the creatures that roamed these parts, the same creatures that had caused the destruction.
Julie didn't know what others called those things, but she personally thought of them as the Things. They had come seemingly out of nowhere, striking unprepared towns and cities. No one knew what they were, and those who might be able to research the Things were killed before they could start. The Things had first eaten all the livestock, tearing through them as easily as humans tear paper, When the livestock was all gone, they turned to people instead. Seeing as the things were about six to twelve feet tall and stronger than John Cena, the humans really couldn't fight back.
Julie turned the issue of the house over in her mind, weighing the positives versus the negatives. On the plus side, she really needed water, and most of these houses still had working taps, and some even had bottles that she could fill up and take along. On the minus side, many of these houses also held danger, danger of the sort she wasn't sure she could fend off.
