A minor scare, then to her place

Despite the discussion inside, the two of them walk side by side as they make their way through the abandoned city. Helen leads Eric down the main street and takes a couple turns that he takes mental notes of in case he goes out on his own. When they turn onto one of the more crowded streets, there is motion in front of them. Eric quickly moves into the shadows and pulls Helen with him. He keeps his eyes trained on the place where he saw something moving. There was nothing for a few seconds but then a deer lifted it's head up and chewed on it's meal. He relaxed and looked down to see Helen hiding her face.

"It's alright. Just a deer." He realizes he is holding her arm and is subconsciously holding her close to him. He lets go and she quickly takes a couple steps away, still hiding her face. Eric has thoughts run through his head about how he may have just scared or pissed off his only potential ally anywhere near here. He took a slow step closer to her but kept his distance. He didn't want to make things worse than they already were by overstepping his bounds. "Uhm...should we keep going?" Helen slowly nodded and started to walk the same direction they were headed before. Eric kept a few feet between them still but was beside her in case something happened. Or at least he thought he was.

He went to look over at her to see if she was still hiding her face and saw that she had made her way closer to him and was almost touching his shoulder. She had been so quiet and so careful about it that he hadn't even noticed her moving at all. While his mind was still catching up with reality, Helen quickly turned to the right down an alleyway, pulling Eric with her. She dragged him to the deepest corner of the alley before stopping. Eric's instincts were starting to ramp up, imagining that he had just been brought into an ambush. He watched Helen closely as she knelt down in the corner and pushed on a brick in the wall of one of the buildings. It gave easily and the bricks around it popped inwards slightly. She pushed again and the group of bricks swung inwards. A secret door?!

Helen quickly climbed inside and then stuck her hand out and waved Eric inside after her. He looked around, checking for all of his exit paths, before walking closer to the door and slowly and clumsily climbing inside. Once his eyes adjusted and he got his bearings, he looked around and took in the dimly lit, halfway furnished "saferoom" that Helen apparently now called home. There was a bed in the corner, a few shelves that seemed to be for food and other supplies but were mostly empty now, and a small lamp with a makeshift bookshelf beside it and a few pillows on the ground.

"Nice little place." Eric smiled as his eyes came to rest on Helen, standing in the middle of the room.

"I know it sucks. But it's secret, it's large enough for me, and I got enough amenities to suit me." She crossed her arms again and looked everywhere she could but at Eric.

"No, I meant it. Compared to some of the places I have seen people hiding out, this is a five star resort." He gently set his bags down by the entrance, now seeing the mechanism that hid the door, and felt more comfortable seeing there were no hiding spots for anyone to attack him from. When he looked back, Helen's eyes were on him and her arms were back at her sides.

"Who are you and why are you here?"