"This one was empty. I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up." I said, throughly exhausted from the endless searching since morning.

He sighed, "Yeah. But we have to keep searching. We can't give up."

"We're running low on food and water, and we can't keep moving forever."

"We'll figure it out; we have each other." he says as he smiles, "And that's what counts."

"That's easy for you to say. It's not easy to be as optimistic as you."

"Hahaha! Optimism is all we have left. We can't just throw ourselves into a group of wanderers."

". . ."

"And who knows, maybe there's a safe haven, or even a cure out there somewhere! We just have to keep moving forward."

'If only I had his optimism.'

"I hope so. I'm getting tired of eating canned food."

"Me too." he says with a smile, "We'll make it through this; I know we will. We're still alive, and we sure ain't dying anytime so—"

"Let's check this house. It doesn't look looted."

"Alright... But let's be careful. I will knock on the door to check if something is inside." He then stood behind the door, saying: "Stay alert."

before knocking on the door.

". . ."

We hear nothing.

"Let's enter." He kicks the door down.

As I enter, I see something moving from the corner of my eye—

"Ace!"

I manage to stop it from chewing my face off.

Alex stabs it through the eye.

I let it fall to the ground.

"Now they even learned to stay silent." He exclaims.

"Let's continue; we don't have much time left."

"Fine, I'll take the first floor. You take the second."

"Got it."

"Be careful."

"Have some trust in me. It won't happen again." I say with an annoyed face as I climb the stairs.

On the second floor, I find a bathroom, I start looting it. 'Some tissues and some alcohol, could be useful.'

I then proceeded to move to the bedroom and check the drawers.

"Whoa, this is high quality." I find a still good military knife. My eyes are probably sparkling, Alex would tease me for it—

"Ace! I found some food!" I almost drop the knife as Alex suddenly shouts from the first floor.

"Don't shout like that! You scared me!" I shout to him as I hear him running up the stairs.

"Sorry. Sorry." He smiles, "But this is quality fo—"

His watch starts beeping.

He makes a serious face for the first time since yesterday, "The night is coming; we better start barricading this place."

I nod, as I know that stargazing isn't worth being out at night.

"Help me move this cupboard."

We finished blocking off the doors and the windows.

"Well then, let's use the bedroom upstairs. You get some rest first," he says, giving me a cover from his bag, "I'll wake you up when I feel tired."

"Thanks."

I lie on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

'We managed to find some food before we got too weak. We won't always be so lucky. If only I could be as positive as Alex.' I think such things before sleep finally takes me...