There's an abandoned car over thataway, but there aren't any useful objects lying abandoned on the ground. Just some empty bottles of booze and similar litter. Maybe one of the houses would have better objects.

Nothing egregiously stands out as a mimic, but there are a number of places one might hide. Mostly the discarded litter.

Well. Fine then. Into a house to see what she can dig up. She can check out the abandoned car once she has replaced her backpack.

The house looks to be in a bit of a mess, exactly like a family packed up and left in a hurry with everything they thought was valuable. There is a backpack available, but it's small and pink and doesn't have very many pockets.

No mimics jump out at her.

Small pink backpack will have to do. She checks that the water still works, drinks some on principle even though she's not thirsty, and starts methodically replacing all the things she kept in her first backpack. Water bottle, notebook and writing utensils, is there such a thing as a Swiss Army knife in this house and if not at least a letter opener or something? She has definitely been carrying an insufficient quantity of easily accessible weapons.

There's a notebook that'll do if she rips out the first few pages of algebra notes, and writing utensils are easy enough to find. Bottles of water are in the pantry, and there's even some abandoned nonperishable food if she wants it. Granted, it's all canned, so this is perhaps not practical to carry. There is no Swiss Army knife in this house, and there aren't any letter openers, but she can have a knife from the kitchen if she wants one.

Carrying a kitchen knife loose in a backpack full of other items she values seems like a losing proposition. And even worse if it's in a pocket. But then again so is being eaten by aliens. But then again, if she runs into a second instance of the one that got her, a kitchen knife is probably not going to help much. Decisions, decisions.

There are some sharp looking metal pens available if she'd like to branch out into that instead.

That might work out better. And a pack of tissues, you can always use a pack of tissues.

Okay. New backpack: adequately supplied. Time to go check out that car that almost certainly doesn't work.

Nothing attacks her on the way there.

As predicted, the car doesn't work. It looks like part of the engine was ripped out. The car itself is packed with supplies, though, someone was probably attempting to use this as an escape vehicle before the engine ripping occurred. Whoever it was that had been using it, they're definitely gone now. There aren't any bodies, though there is a dark stain of dried blood in the backseat.

Well. She can raid their supplies, then, if they've got anything useful that she can carry.

There's some more bottled water, a lot of food of varying types, clothes (some of which could maybe fit her), a plastic map of the city, and a first aid kit, all carefully organized. From context, how well supplied this car is, and some suspiciously empty spaces where they don't make sense, there was probably at least one other bag with the more immediate survival supplies. That bag seems to be gone.

The first aid kit is useful. Some of the food is also useful. The clothes could be useful, and conveniently come with a small suitcase to haul them around in. All right, onward with the quest to find a working car.

Onward!

... An almost human voice echoes down the street.

"- got to get out, they're everywhere, what are they, why can't I find a working car?"

Almost human, you say.

It echoes unnaturally, and sounds a little garbled. Sort of like someone took a poor recording of a human and then played it back on terrible speakers.

"... has to be some reason for it, secret military project, area 51, can't just be random..."

...

Yeah she's just gonna go the other way.

That's probably a wise move.

The other way does not have any creepy echoing voices! There are a few more houses, if she'd like to try to raid any of them.

She would!

The first she tries is locked up pretty tight and cannot be entered without breaking a window. The next house's back door is unlocked, though.

She can try that one, then.

This house smells like death. Like something died in here a while ago and then was left to rot.

Would she like to continue inside?

...not really, no.

Then she can leave this house behind.

She can get into the next one through an open window, and it does not have the death smell problem.

Oh good. What about useful objects, does it have those?

There's a better backpack than the small pink one! Also a flashlight, and some matches. Food and water, too, but she probably has enough of those for right now.