Finally, the sun rose again after the long night.
*Chirp. Chirp. Chirp*
The cicadas are still loudly and annoyingly chirping.
Her white socks and blue pair of shoes were quickly on her feet as she hurried downstairs to go on with her routine.
A few steps down, she recognized a somehow familiar scent coming from somewhere nearby.
She wasn't able to smell it upstairs as there was no way the odor could seep through the windows or the ventilation shafts since they were blocked by vegetation growing through the openings.
Continuing downstairs the odor got stronger, and at that moment she was sure, the smell was coming from food—food being cooked.
This quickly confused Nora with her already rattled thoughts earlier before the sun was even up.
She had no one with her. She's all alone... as far as she knows.
The last time she scouted, the neighborhood's empty.
Nora was probably the lone person for miles around the walled community.
Nora crossed the street cautiously.
This time she's sure that the smell originates behind the white concrete house just across from where she stayed last night.
Her increasing curiosity and hunger forced her to check out the back lawn.
The picket fences surrounding it were a few inches taller than she is but she was able to take a peek through a small hole made by termites gnawing on the wood.
She had to clear out some of the foliage that crawled to the height of the fence to see.
Looking through the hole, she saw a plate on a wooden table, and a stool made from a log.
It's the only plate on the table and on it is a lump of grilled meat and possibly just a few spoonfuls of mixed vegetables which smells unforgivingly delicious to a hungry stomach.
As she nervously scanned around the insides of the back lawn, she saw a small ingress that was probably made for a sizeable dog or whatever their pet was.
She's small enough to fit through but she had to take off the twelve-pound backpack she always carries wherever she goes.
*THUD*
The backpack landed heavily on the ground.
As she was crawling through the entrance, she was stopped by a loud clicking sound pointed hardly at her head.
Shaking with fear and at the same time unable to move, her peripheral view revealed brown shoes covered with dried mud.
An unmistakable human figure, she was discretely relieved but still clearly quivering from fear.
"N-no... please. No. I wa-"