I scurried to the nearest house on my left and barged through the entrance, with Lay right behind me.

"I'll check downstairs...you go upstairs." I told Lay as I descended down the stairs of the house. I could tell that this was quite a rich family, as the house looked like it was...or used to be worth a million dollars. I immediately knew I was right when I saw the expensive paintings and artware shattered to pieces on the dark wooden floor of the basement. I went inside one of the three rooms and found a bed which was still very much put together. I smiled in victory as I jumped on it. I hadn't laid on a proper bed for over four days. My back lightnened as I sighed in contentment, loving the feel of the soft mattress against me.

"Li Hua? LI HUA!" Lay's panicked voice caused me to jerk up. Had I fallen asleep? I got off the bed and went outside the room to say Lay frantically searching around for me. I cleared my throat, and his head whipped around. His face filled with relief, but then turned angry.

"Where the hell were you? I got so worried!" Lay shouted. I raised an eyebrow. He seemed to be very concered after we'd met for what, an hour? 

"Um...I was right here. I guess I fell asleep for a couple minutes. Sorry?" I hesitantly apologized. Lay calmed down and his cheeks turned red as he realized his outburst. 

"Oh...uh. Okay. We should go now. I found some supplies here, but no food. We should keep searching." He said, looking anywhere but me. I chuckled lightly at his awkwardness. 

"Alright. But, when we're done we should come back here, the bed inside that room is really nice." I said, pointing in the direction I came from. He nodded and started to go upstairs. I followed behind him, glancing around once more at the torn apart basement. 

For the next couple hours we went down more houses, scavenging for food. The first couple of houses were down that same neighborhood, so it was filled with rich houses. My family was never really rich, however we weren't poor either. We were above average compared to most people. As we went down more houses, I started finding clothes of girls arond my age. It made me feel emoitional...I even used to know some of them, not that I was necessarily in good terms with them. I finally broke down crying as I reached one of my best friend's house. She used to live far away from me, but we always visited each other. We used to share secrets, clothes, food and pretty much everything. My tears flowed nonstop as I sat in the corner of her bedroom. 

I heard footsteps coming upstairs and I quickly wiped my tears away. 

"Lay?" I croaked out, my voice sounded hoarse. 

"Hey. You okay?" He gently asked as he came by and sat next to me. I nodded and turned to him.

"Yeah...sorry I stayed here too long. Let's go   "

"You don't have to pretend with me. I understand." He said, and with that, he pulled me into his arms. I was surprised at first, but breathing his scent in, he felt so familiar now...I could trust him. I wrapped my arms around him and we stayed like that for a few minutes.

"I'm o-okay n-now. Let's go and find food. I'm hungry." I said, standing up. Lay nodded and helped me up. We went downstairs and out the door, and continued our search for food. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten and was eager to put something in my stomach.

"Damn it! Don't any of these people have ing food? I yelled in frustration.

"Li Hua, it's alright. We will find something. Come on, we have to keep going...it's going to be nighttime soon." I could tell that he was trying very hard not to lash out too, but was being patient for me. I nodded, still angry, and followed him. We finally found a house we some food supply after a few more hours. By this time, it was pitch black, the darkness covering over everything. 

"It feels like there's no one alive. What happened if the whole population of Earth got wiped out?" I asked Lay, who was walking beside me, eating the canned food that we had found. 

"I'm not sure." Lay said with a confused look. "Although we can always repopulate it." He added, winking. I pushed him slightly, laughing. It felt good to laugh after a while of frustration and sadness. I held on to Lay's arm as we walked down the streets, I wasn't particularly afraid of darkness...just lonliness. Even though I'd known him for a day, it felt as if we'd been friends for years. The unspoken bond between us was strengthing.

When we started walking again, we looked for a place to crash this time. There was no time to find the house I had previously found, with the nice bed. I kept walking with Lay, grabbing his arm for support incase I fell asleep while walking. 

We had been looking for around two hours, and I was exhausted to the point of no return. "We can't even find a decent place to sit down." I complained. Then I looked at him, making eye contact. "It's as if we're supposed to die off." 

One moment.

In that one moment, Lay had completely changed his facial expression. Usually it was soft, and understanding, sometimes even loose. But in that very moment, he stared at me with an intense gaze in his eye.

"Li Hua. Don't ever say that again." His words echoed throughout my brain.

"Why not? It's basically the truth." I pointed out.

"We're going to find a way out. There's going to be someone to help us. Listen, we may not know much about each other, and I've kinda figured out we need some time to get to know each other."

"You're right." 

In those moments, I realized that I needed Lay, I don't want what I would do without him. Actually, I would probably turn into a canibal and start eating dead people. I didn't even want to think about those things, but what if it was inevitable? If there was no choice?

"Li Hua." I was broken away from my thoughts, as I heard Lay's voice.

"Yeah? Did you find anything?" I asked him. He was looking towards a house. The house looked beautiful from the outside, it's structure still standing. My eyes widened in surprise, how is it still standing?

"Let's go in there." Lay said as he guided me through the darkness and inside the house.

We found a bed as we looked through the house and sighed in relief. I happily bounced over to the bed and crashed on it. The mattress was extremely comfortable and soft. I forgot these kinds of things even existed.

"Aren't you gonna give me some space?" Lay said as he pushed me over and hopped on the bed. I sat up.

"Wait, we're sleeping on this...together?" I questioned, it wasn't that big of a deal for me, but I didn't think that Lay would be comfotable with it.

"Of course. Now lay back down." I did as I was told and snuggled into Lay's arms. I felt him the back of my head and I relaxed even more. He could make me feel like nothing bad had ever happened. He gave me hope, and I hope I never lose him, I thought as I fell asleep in his arms.