With the door now blocked by a heavy wooden dresser, we go and sit in the kitchen. I look through the kitchen cabinets and find some of the items you would expect: pasta, some canned goods. I grab two plastic bags from under the sink and fill them with ice from the fridge. I hand Monty one for his ribs and place the second one on my ankle.

  As we sit with ice on our wounds, Monty stands and gets two glasses. As he sets them down, he takes the bottle of wine he found on our first day here and pours us both a glass. I tell him, “We have been here for nearly two days. I’m running on fumes here. The only thing I am still going to do now is eat and sleep.”

  Monty gives me a nod. He is also exhausted. As I look in the fridge, it's surprisingly full of fruit, meat, and vegetables. It's enough for a couple of days, at least enough time for us to heal a bit. I tell Monty, “There is some fruit we can eat, or if you have the energy, you can cook something up. I am just taking some fruit.”

  He answers, “Hand me an apple, a green one.”

  I hand him his apple and sit to eat the orange and an apple I took. I finish the glass of wine and tell him, “I'll take the guest bedroom,” and begin to take the stairs up.

  The guest bedroom has a bed that's calling my name. I fall on the bed, and it's lights out as I fall asleep the moment I'm on the bed.

  Some hours later, I wake up on the guest bed. I go back downstairs to start looting the house properly. I start in the living room. There are some blankets and pillows. We can't do much with those, so I move to the small office room. It seems an engineer used to live here, as the small office is filled with diagrams and small prototypes of projects. One catches my eye, as it has a compression spring. I can find a use for that.

  With the office looted, I put the prototype on the coffee table in the living room. I then look through the supply closet. There are some cleaning supplies, a case of cheap store-brand cola bottles, and a box of toilet paper. I will take some with me. As I take the box off the shelf, I notice a wall safe behind it. I look the safe over. It's not a high-security safe, but it will take some time to pry it open with only a crowbar, and it will make a lot of noise. I'll wait for Monty to wake up before I break it open. I put the box of toilet paper and the cola on the coffee table to sort out later.

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  I head to the garage, and there I find something interesting. Next to some golf clubs, there is a canvas bag that is long and flat, so I am not sure what is in it. I take it to the pile on the coffee table and return to the garage to grab some tools I will need for later. I start to feel hungry again and head back to the kitchen to make something good. We won't be here long. There is no reason not to use the perishable ingredients that are here. I make a quick breakfast with some bacon and toast.

  Monty comes downstairs and sits at the table, and I give him some bacon. He asks me, “Why is there a toolbox on the counter? Are you claiming this place?”

  “No, it's for a little project. Also, there is a wall safe in the supply closet. I think we should break it open just before we leave. It might draw unwanted attention.”

  I quickly go to the living room and grab the canvas bag and tell Monty, “I haven't opened it yet, but it's decently heavy, so I hope for something good.”

  As I unzip the bag, I can't help but smile as I see what is inside.

  Inside the bag is a compound bow. I know it's useless to Monty, as I'm fairly sure he can't shoot a bow, but with my new skill, I can use it well enough. This will give us a little bit of an upgrade. I pick up the bow to get a feel for the weight. I am about to pull back the string without an arrow, but my weapon-handling skill tells me not to.

  I put the bow down and tell Monty, “Now we only need to get you an upgrade.”

  I go and get the prototype… toy? I am not sure what it is, but it has something I need. I start to disassemble it and take the compression spring. Currently, it's way too strong for what I need it for, but first, I need to cut it to a desirable length with a wire cutter. As the spring is now the right length, I heat the end of the spring to be able to reset the end so it has a larger surface to push against the part. I then put the entire spring over the stove, and when it's hot enough, I use two pliers to stretch the spring to reduce its strength, then I let it cool down.

  I ask Monty to hand me the Walther PPK. As I put the new recoil spring in and put the slide back on it, the only thing that needs to be done is to lock it in place. Luckily for a Walther PPK, it's simple—you just have to let the trigger guard spring back into place. But not so luckily for us, the trigger guard seems stuck in the open position.

  I stand and say, “I think I saw some WD-40 in the garage. I'll go get it.”

  I go to the garage and look at the shelf and find the spray can. I find it behind a box of rat poison. I take it and spray where the trigger guard connects to the grip, and with some force, the trigger guard is able to snap back into place. The slide can no longer be removed without pulling down the trigger guard.