Another rainy day.

Fuck.

It never rained this much before, Regan thought. Or perhaps, before the world went to hell, everyone was so distracted by bullshit, when it did rain like this, no one really cared. She shivered and silently cursed. She needed to find shelter, and soon. It had been raining for 5 days straight. Some of the major roads were starting to flood. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out a plastic bag, containing a map. Pulling her tarp further over her head, she peered at the map. She couldn't stay in the tree forever.

Hm. Southwest of DC, but is DC worth the risk? Perhaps I should take the long way around.

There could be a plethora of supplies in DC. It could also be completely overrun with the dead. Either way, she couldn't stay where she was. Time to get moving. Putting the map back into her coat, Regan looked down from atop the tree she was perched in. No signs of any dead around. Nothing but an empty road, trees and rain. She began her decent down the tree to the wet ground. The water was over the top of her feet. Regan sighed and adjusted the heavy pack under her tarp and made her way to the road to head east.

A few hours and miles later, Regan began to see signs of previous civilization. More cars started to show up on the sides of the roads, light poles, and finally some housing. The rain still continued its onslaught, but luckily, this small town didn't seem to be washing away anytime soon. Regan made her way, cautiously to the small downtown area to scout for supplies. The usual places; hardware store, grocery, pharmacy and-jackpot. A gun store. No doubt, mostly cleaned out, but worth taking a look at anyway.

The town seemed to be completely deserted. No dead, no living, nothing.

Never let your guard down. Never let your guard down. Never let your guard down.

First in her path was the pharmacy. The front windows were still intact, and the front door was locked. She turned down the side of the building and made her way to the back to see if there was another way in. The back door was padlocked, but there was a fire escape that led to some windows on the second floor of the building. Stepping on the lower step, she tested the stability. It seemed to be ok. Taking it slow, she ascended the ladder to the balcony. As quietly as she could, she pulled the ladder up to secure the fire escape. Just as the ladder clicked into place, the rain began to pour down, adding weight to Regan's already heavy burden on her back.

Please let the window be open.

Pushing up on the window, it slowly slid open.

YES!

However, excitement was replaced by the horrific rotting smell. Since Regan had been outside for more than a few weeks, and with the rain, she had almost forgotten how horrible the smell of the dead are. Inside was a small room that was furnished with a small bed, book shelves with a lot of medical books and a desk. At the desk was where the smell was emanating from. The body of a man, missing a good deal of the back of his head, sat, slumped in the chair. Regan spied the gun just hanging out of his hand near the floor. She rolled her eyes and climbed inside. She hurried to remove her pack on the floor and made her way to the desk. Thankfully the body was on a rolling chair. Getting it out of the room would be a little easier. She wheeled the chair over to the window. She quickly patted down the body to make sure there wasn't anything of use.

A lighter, some smokes, a flask and a few .410 shells. Turning, she saw the gun on the floor was a Judge. Nice, she thought. Setting the items aside, she moved to dump the chair out the window, causing the body to flop over the window sill. She moved aside the chair and flipped the legs out the window as well. She slid the window down and locked it promptly. As much as she wanted to just crawl into that bed and sleep, she knew she had to secure this place first. She quickly checked the other window in the room. Already locked.

She picked up the revolver off the floor and checked to see if it was loaded. Only 1 expensed shell. She removed it and replaced it with one she found on the body. Moving to the door, she saw it was locked from the inside. Not knowing what to expect, Regan put the revolver in her waistband and pulled a pair of 7 inch shears from her hip. She unlocked and slowly opened the door. There was a stairway that led down. It was dark with the exception of some gray dingy light coming from the outside at the bottom of the stairs. Regan turned back to her pack on the floor. She opened it and located her faraday flashlight. Giving it a good shake, she turned back to the door and stairway. She flashed the light down the stairs to see them clear. Just dusty. She quickly turns off the flashlight and puts it in her pocket. She quietly makes her way down the stairs to another small hallway. Two doors, one on each side. One says "Restroom", the other "Employees Only". The hallways appeared to go out into the pharmacy.

Regan approached and tried to turn the handle on the "Employees Only" door. Locked.

Maybe the keys are upstairs, she thought, I'll come back and check in a bit.

She turned and slowly walked into the pharmacy. There is a big metal shudder that has the pharmacy locked up tight. Regan assumes that's where the "Employees Only" door may lead. For the most part it appears to be picked over pretty well, but not completely empty. She gathered up a few items for barter; a few bars of soap, some travel bottles of shampoo and conditioner, some hard candies and more cigarettes. She kept a few luxury items for herself; disposable razor, a bar of soap and a bigger bottle of 3 in 1 hair and body wash. They would probably end up as barter items, but she hoped that maybe someday soon she could feel a little luxury again. With the items in her arms, she ascended the stairs, dumped them on the bed and decided to look for any keys. It would be safer to just unlock the door instead of trying to pry or break the door down, potentially bringing the dead to her doorstep.

Turning her attention to the blood and brain matter spattered desk, she began rummaging around papers and in drawers to try and find a key. She grimaced and made a mental note to clean the desk off later. In a small drawer, she noticed the bottom of the drawer seems short in comparison the front. Pushing on the front part of the bottom of the drawer, the piece of wood covering the bottom flipped up.

Success!

She took the wood out and located a small ring of 4 keys. They're all labeled. "Pharmacy", "Safe", "Gun Store", "Home". A low rumble outside drew her attention and she noticed it started to get darker. A flash of light and a loud crack of thunder pierced the sky. There would be no wondering around the rest of the day. The day would soon end and it would not be smart to wonder around in the dark in an unfamiliar town. She took the keys and made her way back downstairs to the pharmacy door. She gently knocked on the door, and put her ear to the door. No groans and scraping sounds are heard on the other side of the door. She takes the keys, unlocked the door and slowly pushed it open. A wave of euphoria spread as she spied the contents in the room.

Not only was the pharmacy seemingly fully stocked with medications, but there were also first aid supplies, a few cases of bottled water, 5 gallon jugs of water, 4 boxes of MREs, too many boxes of ammunition to count, 4 rifles, 2 hand guns and some other miscellaneous materials. Including candy bars.

"Oh thank the sweet baby Jesus, " Regan whispered to herself. She immediately grabbed a chocolate candy bar. She opened the candy bar and takes a bite. It's a little stale, but oh so heavenly. She hasn't had a chocolate bar in so long. She had almost forgotten what chocolate had tasted like. This was cause for a little celebration. But first, she decided it would be best if these supplies were best kept upstairs with her.

A couple of hours later, Regan sat on the bed, exhausted. It was dark now, but the tiny space was dimly illuminated by a candle she had found in the bathroom. She had managed to move all of the food, water, first aid supplies, ammunition and guns upstairs. She had grabbed as much of the pain killers and anti-biotics as possible. She had located the safe under a couple of floorboards and put the most of the medication, some ammunition and one of the handguns in the safe. She managed to locate a stack of buckets as well. Some were now sitting on the balcony collecting water from the continuing storm. She had the contents of her pack neatly organized on the floor to do a full inventory.

After she had assessed her inventory, she longingly looked at a gallon of water.

It's been a while since I had a nice scrub down.

She grabbed a folded washcloth off the floor, a bucket and one of the gallons of water and sets up a makeshift bathing station on the now cleaned off desk. She removed her grimy clothing and tossed them aside into a pile.

I'll deal with those later.

Before she started to bath, she took a moment to examine herself in the mirror she took from the bathroom downstairs. She has bruises and cuts over most of her body.

Living in the wild will do that to you.

She took note that she has lost weight as well. She knew she had as her clothes didn't fit as well as they used to. But being completely devoid of clothing really put in into perspective. She scoffed and picked up the washcloth, pouring a small amount of water from the gallon onto the washcloth. She took the damp cloth and removed a majority of the "life in the wild" from her body. She rinsed and re-dampened the washcloth, but this time she took the bar of soap and lathered up the washcloth. She scrubbed until her skin was pink through the suds. She left the suds on her body and grabbed the gallon of water. She tilted her head over the bucket and poured to wet her hair. Thankfully, there wasn't' much hair to get wet. Long hair wasn't something that was practical in this world. She grabbed the 3 in 1 from the desk and took a small amount to her hair. Being clean felt normal and soothing. She reached for the washcloth and gallon again to rinse, but stopped. She hadn't heard thunder for a while, or saw lightning. But it was still pouring rain. She walked over to and peered out the window. It was pitch black out. If the living were around, there would be some signs of life-lights or fires or something.

"Fuck it," she said aloud. She unlocked and slid the window open. The rain drops on her bare skin were exhilarating. She climbed out onto the balcony and let the pouring rain rinse the suds away. Never would she ever have done something like this before the world went to shit. Standing there naked in the cold rain. She rubbed her hands through her hair and body to help remove the suds and soap. She smiled, enjoying this private naughty moment. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and made Regan jump. Another thunderstorm seemed to be rolling in. She frowned and turned to go back inside. Thankfully, she was completely soap and suds free. She reached for the spare set of clothing on the floor and puts them on over her wet body. What she wouldn't give for a hot towel.

Regan finished her night with washing her clothes, re-packed her back and secured the windows and doors. She put her shears and a 9mm hand gun under her pillow. Locked and loaded. She blew out the candle and finally laid down. It felt amazing to be clean and in a bed. She smiled as she closed her eyes, reminiscing on her private moment with nature on the balcony.

But it wasn't as private as she had thought.

A few miles away, someone had gotten bored. It had been raining for days and no one was allowed to leave The Sanctuary when it rained like this. Cabin fever was starting to hit. He strode over to the window and peered out his telescope. Nothing interesting seemed to be happening in a neighboring town. Just a few walkers here and there. That place had been deserted for a good long while. Time to go scope it out.

A flickering of light caught his eye. He zoomed and focused the lens of the telescope. Sure enough, there was a dim flickering of light peeking through a break in a window curtain. He can see movement too. A long slender leg, glistening in the flickering light. A hand moves up and down the leg. Suddenly the body moves, and the curtain moves away, and the man is met with a full view of what he could only assume was a figment of his imagination. Completely nude with suds all over. She's coming out of the window onto the balcony!

"Holy. Fucking. Tits, " he gruffs. He can barely make out the silhouette against the light of the window. A flash of lightning flashes in the sky and illuminates her entire body in the night. What a magnificent sight to be seen. He chuckled when he saw her jump. She got scared.

Cute.

He continues to watch until he can no longer see the flicker light through the curtain.

"DWIGHT!" he yells. A moment later a lanky man wanders into the room.

"What's up, boss?"

"Gather up a small group for tomorrow morning. There's a small town a few miles away that we haven't had the lovely opportunity to grace with our presence."

"What if it's still raining like this?" The man turns to Dwight with a stern look.

"Does it fucking matter?"

"No, you're right. Sorry Negan. I'll get right on that."

"Good. We leave mid-day." That's the good thing about being in charge. You can break your own rules.