"Okay. The target store is right there. I can see that it's got a lot of supplies. It's a general store, it should have all kinds of supplies..." Dimitri spoke up as all three of them were crouched, peaking over the fence.

  "B-but... Dimitri are you sure about this? It's surrounded by cannibals..." Margarita gulped, her eyes lingering on the horde of infected surrounding the general store.

  "That just means it's actually got a lot of untaken supplies. A lot of infected means little survivors would attempt to loot it." He said with a small sigh. "And besides..." He turned his gaze over to the blonde haired girl next to Margarita. "It's not my suggestion." He shrugged, although, there was a hint of concern on his face.

  Margarita glanced over at Veronika, her lips trembling. "Are you sure you can do this, Veronika?" She asked, concern evident on her face.

  "I'm sure. I've done this a couple of times before. You don't have to worry devushka." She beamed.

  Margarita, taking notice of the word she used just sighed. "No need to call me that. Just call me Rita." She smiled. It was good that Veronika was talking to her respectfully, but... "And besides. I'm 31, I'm not a young lady. Haha~" She smiled awkwardly, scraching her cheek.

  "... You're 31?" She asked, sounding slightly taken aback. Margarita nodded. "I may not look like it. But-"

  "Tyotya." Veronika blurted out without thinking. Margarita froze. Dimitri froze as well. The usually cold, calm and collected man couldn't stifle a laugh. If it wasn't for their current position. He would have burst out laughing long ago.

  She just called me... "She just called you 'auntie'... Pfffft...." Dimitri clasped a hand to his lips, desperately holding in his laughter. Margarita's expression was frozen in place as she just stared at Veronika.

  The teenage girl, realizing the rudeness of her statement swiftly stood up. "S-sorry! I'll go now! Byeee~" Veronika rushed out from the fence and ran, though, her movements were controlled and precise. She snuck through the snow, moving at good speed.

  Margarita's expression was still the same. While Dimitri had long since lost his composure. "Heheheheh!" He giggled as a result of straining himself to not laugh.

  "D-don't laugh!" She snapped at Dimitri, a blush of embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. Her snapping only made Dimitri lose more of his composure. "Hahahahah~" He couldn't hold back anymore. Thankfully the cannibals were far away.

  Being called 'auntie', Margarita couldn't help but cry inwardly. I'm not that old!!!

  Half an hour earlier.

  "So in conclusion. Your name is Veronika and you were here to steal stuffed animals?" Dimitri asked, tilting his head to the side.

  "To fuel a bonfire." Veronika interjected.

  "... Alright. We're going to work together from now on Veronika, is that fine with you? Are you willing to cooperate for the sake of our team?" Dimitri asked the question. All of them were sitting inside the store in a closed off back room. It had no windows so it was the best place to have a talk without staying in the cold for too long.

  "... Yes." Veronika replied after a moment of silence.

  "Good. Now we can take her back to where Erika is-" Margarita started speaking as she smiled, but she was interupted.

  "To where Erika is? We don't have time to take her back." Dimitri said, frowning at Margarita. Margarita furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

  "We already don't have a lot of time to scavenge, but now we also have another mouth to feed..." He said gesturing at Veronika, who was sitting there with a teddy bear sitting in her lap. Dimitri hadn't noticed it at first, but it sort of looked cute how she clutched the stuffed animal, using it as a comfort despite her age. Kids'll be kids. Let's let her have it. It's an even worse world out there now...

  He sighed. "And I think she's capable." He said, gesturing at her. Margarita frowned at that. I saw it earlier. When the door was going to be opened, Dimitri heard some rattles on the door knob. Which only meant one thing. That the door was locked, and that Veronika had lockpicked her way through.

  "Capable... But the center..." Margarita pursed her lips together. Dimitri shook his head. "Let's leave the decision to her." He said as he turned towards Veronika. "Kid. Do you want to go back to safety? Or do you want to come scavenge with us?"

  "I'll come with." Veronika answered without hesitation, manipulating the teddy bear's limbs, moving it in a way that almost gestured at confirmation. "I'm really agile." The blonde haired girl's smile radiated pride and confidence.

  "See?" Dimitri turned towards Margarita, and the ginger head had nothing more to say, so she just sighed, exhaling slowly. Veronika held up a hand, taking the two's attention. "I know where we can start gathering. I was eying it for a while but I couldn't really carry so many supplies on my own. Especially with my backpack." Veronika said, scratching the back of her head.

  "So you know where we can start?" Dimitri's eyebrows shot up, both in surprise and delight. "Well, let's go there right away."

  Now, the two of them were watching Veronika from afar, the newest addition to their team. "Look, she's moving really quickly and she's not even making any sound." Dimitri spoke. His voice did not do a good job at hiding the surprise and bewilderment too well.

  "She just jumped the fence." Dimitri said once more, his eyes narrowing so he could see what Veronika was doing.

  The agile little rat jumped over the fence and went for a window. The window was closed, so pried it open with a crowbar that she pulled out of her backpack and got inside. "Now we wait..." He spoke up again as he turned towards Margarita. The ginger woman had her head down, sulking. "I can't believe she called me auntie..."

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  "Are you still on that?" Dimitri shot her a blank stare.

  Veronika grinned as she pried the window open. It took little to no effort to drop her backpack inside and jump inside herself. She squeezed through the little gap she made in the window and climbed inside. She gripped the rim of the window tighly as to not fall immediatly. She slowly eased herself down and stood on her feet.

  "Easy." She whispered with a small grin. She grabbed her backpack and swiftly moved deeper into the store. By the way. How can they trust a random girl they found at a toy store? Veronika's thoughts were coupled with a small frown as she searched the drawers of the house.

  She grabbed a few cans of food that she found on her path before she moved for the door. She tried the knob and it didn't budge. "Another lock." She mumbled as she took out her wallet, extracting her lockpicking tools out of it. She swiftly unlocked the door. She placed her tools back into her wallet and opened the door slowly.

  Aren't they a little too reckless? She frowned. The ginger one seems to be a little naive... The guy is more careful than her. But all in all it's just a shabby group. How did they make it this far? She furrowed her brows. I also heard them talking about a third teammate. Veronika placed one hand into the inside of her jacket's pockets and quikly found the now familiar grip of the Makarov.

  They didn't even search me properly. She grinned. Well, all the better for me. She carefully navigated the store, finding herself in the main area. The whole area was silent enough to hear a pin drop. There were some aisles toppled over each other, several busted cans of food that froze in the cold.

  "They're too leisure with their approach. They're casually trusting me to get the supplies for them. And they easily let me know of their dire situation. Idiots." A dark look came over Veronika's eyes. Not that I wouldn't know of their situtation. I stole their supplies after all.

  Veronika had long since dropped the supplies she stole in the tank. She then took a quick path clear of cannibals to find herself at the toy store. Seeing all those stuffed toys on the inside, she just could not resist. So she took a quick 'break' in there. Surprisingly there were a few cans of food there, probably left there by some other survivor.

  That was when the duo caught her trying to escape. Veronika deliberately stayed with the duo. She could get an easy ride for a while. That was her expertise, taking advantage of others and robbing them for all they're worth. She clenched her fingers around the Makarov as she crouched down to pick up a few cans of food and a frozen water bottle.

  I'll stick around for a little. Eventually I'll leave with the supplies they'll gather. She placed another bottle of frozen water into the sack. Considering the global cooling. Every source of water you might find may be frozen already. So the best way is to melt the ice from the inside. Using fire is out of the question as they were plastic bottles. But the easy way is to use body heat.

  Wrapping the frozen bottle in a piece of cloth and keeping it near your crotch, thighs or armpits may help with gradually melting it. You only need it to melt a little to allow you to free the block of ice from inside with a sharp object. Then melting the ice becomes an easy task.

  Veronika sighed. Just looking at the frozen bottles of water reminded Veronika of how hard staying alive in this time and era was... Veronika just threw the bottles of water into the sack. This is a good amount by the way. I should look for more. She resumed her search. She passed a few aisles of empty shelves and useless items. "Who's gonna use a fork in this kind of situation?" Veronika huffed.

  Veronika arrived at an aisle that had a few items on the shelves. "Ah, bandages and bandaids." Veronika smiled as she walked and picked off the items, throwing them into the sack. With each aisle that Veronika walked through, the sack got bigger and bigger. "This is a good amount." Veronika brought up the sack and weighed it in her hand.

  "Hmm... I should get some more supplies." She walked through another aisle, grabbing any and all supplies that looked useful. I should gain their trust for a while so they let their guard down... Especially that Dimitri guy... That ginger woman looked naive, but she had a wrench. Who the hell uses a wrench as a weapon? There is no way they didn't come across another weapon different from a wrench...

  That Erika woman. Why did she not come with them? Did she stay back at their base? Was I wrong and that house wasn't their real base? Veronika's face was a contemplative mask of thoughts as she grabbed any good looking supplies. I've seen some groups choosing multiple places as a base to allow for more robust and flexible movements.

  Veronika turned her gaze towards the distant window. Through it, a small subtle light was cast onto the ground. Veornika stared for a few moments, the light was such a rare sight that she couldn't help but take a moment to look at it.

  Veronika crouched down and picked up a small can of food. This one's good... She said as she placed the can into a prepared empty sack. She walked around to the next aisle, which was toppled over onto another still standing aisle, creating a gap that Veronika could crawl through. "There's probably something here." Veronika said as she dropped her bag and crouched down.

  She started crawling through the gap. It was quite dark so she took out her torch and lit the area a little with a beam of light. I wonder if there is any- holy... Is that what I think it is?! Veronika's eyes lit up as her mouth gaped. Drool started rolling down her chin before she wiped it away with her fist. Her gloved hands swiftly wrapped around a certain item that she spotted.

  She grabbed it and swiftly tucked it into her chest. "Chocolate!" She sputtered out in a whisper. I hadn't eaten one of these in forever! Greed shone in her blue irises. "I have to eat it now! B-but I reaaaally wanna save it for later!" Veronika wiped the drool rolling down her chin as she stared at the wrapper of the chocolate bar. It looked like gold in her eyes right now.

  She sat in the little space in between the collapsed aisle, there was little space there. But thanks to her petite stature she managed to fit pretty well. She threw her gaze around, warily surveying her surroundings before she swiftly tore into the wrapper of the chocolate.

  She looked at the dark brown surface of the sweet chocolate. "This is a gift from god... God didn't forsake us. Yuri, you stupid idiot." She giggled softly as she slowly brought the chocolate bar closer to her open mouth. She bit into the chocolate, the soft snapping of the dark brown treat resounded through the silent store.

  Veronika closed her mouth, falling silent all of a sudden as her eyes shadowed over. She stared intensely at the chocolate bar in her hand. She pursed her lips as a small tear drop started rolling down her chin. "It's... So sad..." She mumbled, her words slurring as the chocolate was still melting in her mouth. Her tears intesified as she started wiping at them with her gloved hands.

  "It's really sad actually..." She swallowed gently before she bit into the chocolate bar again. That this might be my last taste of sweetness... The ram broke. The first taste of sweetness and sugar that Veronika had gotten in 5 months since the apocalypse started was the final straw that broke the camel's back. She started sniffling audibally.

  She frantically wiped at her eyes, the tears flowing uncontrollably as snot slowly oozed out of her nostriles. She couldn't help it anymore. "This is so good..." She spoke up, no longer caring whether she made a lot of noise or not. The cannibals were idiots anyways, they won't figure it how to get to her. She took another bite of the chocolate.

  "What am I doing? Crying over some chocolate..." Her voice came out stuffy and trembling, as if a stone was lodged in her throat. "Ugh... This is really sweet..."

  It didn't take long for her to reach the final bite of the chocolate. she was slightly reluctant to eat it right there. But it was what it was. She swiftly popped the final square into her mouth, letting it melt there as she sniffled loudly, occasionally hiccuping.

  Alas, what can you expect of a young girl?