Another week flew past. Roxy recovered quicker than expected. She wasn't nearly her old self, but she was looking far better than before.

The days gotten colder quickly, and on some days, snow was falling. The nights were awful; with temperatures dropping below 0 degrees Celsius. It became hard to stay warm, despite the heater. It simply wasn't efficient enough to warm even a single room.

Food had ran out again, despite the groups attempt to save as much as possible. But the fighting had finally ceased in town, for now, so all places were available again. The first thing that night that Dirk was doing, was preparing for a scavenge in the supermarket. It wasn't exactly the safest place to be, since a lot of people were out to fight for what little food was left.

But Dirk had no choice. He could not stand seeing his best friend like that again—or anyone else he held dear for that matter.

He set out early in the night, bringing with him the shovel and the crowbar.

Soon he arrived at the supermarket. The trip was eerily quiet. Apparently a lot of the background noise came from the fighting.

The outside of the supermarket seemed abandoned. Littering the place were grocery carts, most of them broken or molten from explosions. Clearly, the place was plundered. A few parts of the building were even on fire.

Through the broken glass doors, Dirk could see that nobody was in the front of the building. A good sign. He walked in, and looted a few carts. Nothing but materials and wood… 'Damnit' he thought. He then heard some mumbling behind the door in front of him. He ducked down immediately and hid behind the cart. It took him a few moments to realize how dumb his hiding spot was. "Idiot" he whispered to himself, and came out of hiding.

Nobody was coming anyway, they were staying behind the door apparently. Dirk leaned in gingerly against the door, and listened in on the conversation.

"What are you looking for miss?" a man said. "Just some food." The woman replied. "Oh. I can help you with that. In exchange for some… favors." Dirk was unsure as to what was going to happen next. "Oh no, sir, I couldn't. I have to go back now." The woman sounded obviously in distress. "The hell you can't!" the man yelled, and Dirk could hear him run. "Aah! Please help me!" the woman yelled.

Without hesitation, Dirk burst through the door, crowbar in hand, and smashed it against the man's neck. He was dead on impact. Dirk panted, he wasn't aware of his strength and wasn't actually really planning on killing the man, just incapacitating him… he did feel a little sorry for the guy, but he did have it coming, Dirk thought. The woman stopped to look at Dirk.

"It's okay ma'am. Go to your family." She thanked him, and ran away. Dirk crouched down, and looted the man, a soldier. He took his gun and some bullets.

"These should come in handy."

Dirk paused for a moment, and then turned the man over, revealing his face. His facial features, aside from the usual, looked… off. As if something was wrong. Some reddish snot was oozing out of his nose, which Dirk guesses is normal after receiving such a blow?

But his eyes looked swollen and blueish, and his cheeks looked sunken. His lips were blue too, and he appears to have a rash on his hands and neck. This man looked sick. And quite a bit too. If not for Dirk, he would've died a much worse death soon anyway.

But this bode nothing good for Dirk, who came in close contact with the man. "Oh no." he said, and ran away.