A lone scavenger

She looked like she was barely eighteen but her mannerisms made her seem even younger. She slouched slightly so she appeared even shorter than she really was, her clothes were baggy and hid and sort of figure she may have had, and she avoided making eye contact with Eric. He did his best to not scare or intimidate her in any way so as to not make a scene in case anyone might be near. He looked her up and down and, after deciding that even if she tried something, he could easily take her on, put his hands up and stepped away from his weapons to show that he really meant no harm to her. Once he was a few steps away, it seemed like she was at least a little more comfortable with the situation. She finally looked up and made eye contact with Eric.

"My name is Helen." She spoke very softly and quickly, almost like she wanted to speak the words so badly but wanted them to be hidden in the small sounds of the house they were in. She stood there in front of Eric and dropped her head again. Her left hand came up to her right upper arm and gently rubbed it. It was easy to tell that she was nervous and scared and every feeling that she should be experiencing when faced with a larger man carrying weapons like Eric had.

"As I said, my name is Eric. I'm here looking for some people that are supposed to be hiding out here. Have you heard anything about them?" The words barely leave Eric's mouth before Helen's wide eyes are glued to his. He can just barely make out the wet spots at their corners before she hides her face again and wipes them with her dirty sleeve. Eric slowly nodded. It was clear that there was nothing for him to do here...except there was. Even if there was no resistance group, Helen was still here and he wasn't about to just leave her here to fend for herself. He made his way back to the bag he left with his weapons and pulled out the smaller bag that was inside of it. He saw Helen flinch as her pulled it out and back towards the door of the kitchen. He opened the smaller bag and took out an apple and a small roll. He set them down on the counter beside his belongings and looked to Helen.

Against her better judgement, she jumped for the food and picked up the apple, taking a big bite out of it. Then she picked up the bread and smelled it. She brought it to her mouth and took a smaller bite and sighed. "It's been a while since I had any actual food...it's mostly been a couple stale crackers out of this box, a few noodles that hadn't molded in that box, and the occasional can of soup that hadn't been looted yet." Within a minute, the bread was gone and the apple core was sitting on the counter. Helen looked much more alert and seemed to be trusting Eric a fair bit more. He took a pear out of the bag and took a bite of it.

"I've been part of a resistance group a few miles away for a while now. We scavenged what we could for a little while until someone found a couple fruit trees that were still alive and transplanted them closer to where we were staying. It's not much, but having some fresh fruit can change someone's mood a lot." It was Eric's turn to be caught staring down this time. He was thinking back to when Todd had brought back the trees. They had a celebration that night because it felt like a turning point for them. Todd and a couple others went out the next day to bring back another tree but instead the other people came back with Todd's body wrapped up in a tarp and a couple rifles they had taken off the Reign soldiers. It was a much more solemn night. Eric found a quiet place to hide and cry. Todd had been the one that he trusted most and had shown him some tricks to get by in the world as it was.

"E-Eric?" He was snapped out of his daydream by Helen softly saying his name. He blinked a couple times and saw that he had crushed the pear slightly in his hand with how hard he was clenching his fist. He let go and the pear dropped to the counter as he looked up at Helen.

"Sorry, I...zoned out for a bit."

"Do you need a place to stay the night? It's already getting a little dark and I can smell a storm coming."

Eric saw her cheeks turn a light pink and she tried to hide her face slightly as she finished her sentence. It was oddly adorable and he chuckled a little. "Only if you promise to share the food I brought."

She looked up at him with her mouth hanging open slightly as she nodded her head excitedly.