Rebecca knelt at the side of her own apartment door, carefully extracting the tip of the flexible "snake" camera from under it while her friends covered her. Her peek hadn't revealed anything obviously unusual inside, but at least she could confirm there wasn't someone lurking just the other side of the door.

She wasn't entirely sure it wasn't just procrastination, but she decided she'd feel better focusing on her apartment after checking the rest of the apartments on that floor. Maybe then they could linger without worrying about someone coming up behind them. She gestured that idea to the others, who nodded and followed her lead without just like Ronnie told her they would.

307. 308. 309. 310. Everything down the hallway was the same, all the way to 316. Doors smashed in, rooms all clear, not much useful left inside. Certainly nothing food or survival related. Rebecca sighed and called that in, and then they crept back along the unsettling hallway. Rebecca briefly compared it to some kind of alternate reality in a horror movie, and mentally facepalmed when she realized how apt the notion was.

Setting up back at 306's door again, she took one more quick look with the camera, stowed that away, and held her key up just in front of the lock. She glanced at Sam once, both to confirm she was ready and for reassurance, and slid the key forward into the lock as quietly as she could, turning it, and pushing the door open... lifting up slightly as she did to keep the hinge from squeaking, just like she did every time she came home late a world ago.

The first thing she noticed was that the curtains were open. Then, her brain clicked through a handful of other things — some "wrong" in contrast to the rest simply because they were how they used to be. That was definitely her couch, and one of the chenille end pillows from Target, but that wasn't her blanket tossed over the back. The right shelves under the window, but they'd been swapped. The place was tidy, but not how she left it.

A whispered "What the..." escaped before she could stop herself, and she bit her lip in self-admonishment as she took another step into the entry hall. Bathroom would be on the other side of the wall her to right, kitchen behind the wall on the left where a picture of the view from Edinburgh Castle still hung. As she neared the end of the hallway, she could see most of the apparently unoccupied bedroom at an angle through its door. But as she pivoted left to pan her view into the kitchen as she cleared the wall carefully, she heard a slight scuffle of movement and trained her sights on a scared-looking couple brandishing one of HER frying pans and chef knives.

Rebecca was almost as startled as they were, jumping slightly, but her appearance was probably more menacing. The girl raised her hands slightly, open-palmed, so the knife wasn't pointed forward anymore, and the guy's eyes widened and he took a half step back.

"Oh Jesus, please don't hurt us..." The young woman, in her twenties with light-skin and frizzy brown hair, was terrified. Rebecca lowered weapon slightly, relaxing her tightly hunched posture, which raised her face above the obstructing front of her weapon, and the girl blinked. "Oh... I recognize you. You're the girl in the pictures. Sorry... if this is your place, we... "

The words jolted Rebecca's consciousness like she'd fallen into cold water. "If this is your place." Exactly what she'd heard Jaime say around the corner of a hotel kitchen as he must have been staring down the barrel of a gun, and now here she was hearing it, holding the gun.

She stammered a little as she tried to reply. "I... it's okay. Uh... that sweatshirt looks a little familiar." She took a step back and lowered her gun a little farther, and saw Sam do the same. The girl reached behind her to put the butcher knife down on the counter, then glanced down at the hoodie she was wearing and plucked at it self-consciously.

"Oh god, this is awkward. I'm sorry, you can have it back. This was just the only apartment in the building with a working lock, so we thought it would be safe. We didn't know anyone would come back. I mean, we knew it was a possibility but there's so few people left... oh no. Are you going to make us leave?"

"Please, at least let us pack some things." The guy behind her put the pan down on the stove with a scrape and held his hands out in supplication.

Rebecca lowered her gun the rest of the way to a relaxed carry. "No, it's okay. I live somewhere else now. We just came back looking for a few things, I'm not going to kick you out."

The female squatter sighed and clasped her hands in front of her. "Oh, thank you. I... I think I remember some mail on the floor addressed to Rebecca. Is that you?"

Rebecca nodded. "Yup. But if you want to pick up the rest of the lease, that's okay as long as you pay the utilities too." Sam and the other couple chuckled, a little of the tension draining out of the room.

"I'm Monica, this is my boyfriend Alan." Rebecca made eye contact with "Alan" and nodded at him in greeting with a little half-smile as "Monica" continued. "Like I was saying, we came here looking for, well, you know. Anything useful, and we found all the doors open, but your door still had an intact lock. I guess the top one wasn't latched when you left?"

Rebecca shook her head and smiled wistfully, glancing down for a moment. "No, I suppose it wasn't. You can thank my lovable dope of... of a boyfriend for that." Her sigh was leaden, and Monica picked up on the implication.

"Oh... I'm sorry."

Rebecca looked back up. "Yeah. Thanks..." She wasn't about to get into detail, and could leave the topic at that. "Look, I took most of our survival-y stuff when we left." She started to look around a little, but without turning away from these new people. She was trying to be reassuring, but wasn't an idiot. At least she hoped not. "I was just hoping to get some sentimental items, some odds and ends."

"Oh, of course. The place was a mess like the other apartments when we got here, so we had to clean up. I felt a little weird having pictures of strangers up, but also couldn't just throw them away, so those are all tucked behind the couch there. And, I put some of the things from your room in a box, it's in the closet. I can show you?"

Rebecca smiled. "That would be great."

Monica was clearly relieved that Rebecca was being so calm about everything. "Okay! Alan, can you get those pictures out for her?"

He nodded from behind her, and then crossed behind Monica as Rebecca stepped back from the kitchen and towards the bedroom. Not "her" bedroom anymore, a couple of different ways, but whatever. Sounds like some of her stuff was still here at least. Sam smiled at her on the way by, and started to follow Alan deeper into the living / dining "room" open area.

Monica was stooped over with her head in the closet when Rebecca came into the bedroom, and turned around with a good-sized cardboard box with the top folded closed. "Here, this is all the personal-seeming stuff that we put away. Uhm... the jewelry's in a ziplock bag in the top dresser drawer if you want it. The rings wouldn't fit, and we didn't know if we might have to trade it or something."

Rebecca nodded, and slid her backpack off and set it on the foot of the bed. "Thanks. I appreciate it. Here, we have more of these, you can have it." She fished a folding solar charger out of the larger pouch, along with the USB cables and an adapter to charge a couple of regular batteries at a time.

Monica stepped carefully around Rebecca to open the dresser drawer and pass her the bag of jewelry. "Oh. That's really awesome of you, I mean, you could just take whatever you wanted at gunpoint." Rebecca was entertained that she seemed to be making a point of moving slowly and predictably.

"We've run into some people like that already. We're trying not to be that way, and it doesn't seem to work out well in the long run, you know?"

"Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Live by the sword and all that."

Rebecca unfolded the box top and poked around inside, most of the decorative trinkets she was looking for were in there, along with some clothes that didn't look like they'd fit on Monica. She could hear Sam and Alan's voices murmuring in conversation in the next room. "I saw some books on the shelf, some familiar and some new. I'm hoping to grab a few of those too."

"Sure." Monica sat sideways on the far edge of the bed. "There might be a little more wear on them than when you left, it's... kinda hard to find things to entertain ourselves these days."

Rebecca chuckled. "Yeah, so much for Netflix. I'll try to leave you with some decent reading."

"Again, thank you. Is there anything else specific you're looking for?"

Rebecca sighed again, but thoughtfully this time, looking around. "I mean, not much else specific. My laptop?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess if you've got something to charge with, that'll actually work again. I think it's buried under the bed. I can dig it out while you look around?"

Rebecca smiled. "Thanks."

"Uh-huh!" Monica slid off the end of the bed onto all fours and started tugging things out... Rebecca saw a couple of her old power strips and extension cords get tossed on top of the bed, followed by her old PS4. Hmm, maybe she'd grab that for Nate in case they ever had enough power to spare. She supposed that if Monica was going for a weapon, it would have been somewhere more accessible like the nightstand or dresser drawer, and peeked into the closet for a moment or two, tossing her favorite cardigan onto the box, and then stepped into the bathroom.

The shower and tub area were dark, absent a window — that was the one thing she never liked about the apartment floorplan, there was no natural light or ventilation in there, and she was relegated to a single ceiling light and noisy exhaust fan. But, the vanity counter and sink outside of the water closet was lit enough by light from the window, and backscatter from her still-on flashlight, that she could see herself in the mirror.

Now THAT was weird. Sure, she'd seen her reflection in mirrors and windows lately, but... this was back where her life had been normal, and now here she was looking at a totally different her. She knew her face and arms would be more tanned if she could see the color accurately enough in this light. The same girl as usual looked back at her, but looking so incongruous clad in body armor and wearing a black tactical helmet that she still hadn't gotten used to seeing herself in even in the rear view mirror of a Humvee.