[Mafuyu gave a little nod, showing that she understood Chris' warning there. It was much easier for her to sneak around and avoid being noticed when she looked maybe 13 or 14 tops, since that was still solidly in the 'damn kids' category and most of the adults didn't want to bother with any annoying kid. And ever since she cut her hair a few months back, some people even mistook her for a young boy, which was even better.
But then there was that last question...
Mafuyu hadn't really told anyone about her past, before the outbreak, but she had shared one important fact: she had been on the east coast attending school, but her family was from the west coast. She hadn't had contact with them since the phone lines had gone down years ago, so she had no idea if they were even alive or not. Surviving took up a lot of her free time, especially those few months between when her east-coast-guardian had died and when she had met Chris and Jill when she had been on her own, but sometimes her thoughts still drifted back to her parents.
But she felt like she couldn't just say that, nobody would agree to hike across the country on the slim chance that maybe one specific person had survived. No, she had to make it sound logical.]
Well, things have been not so great around here. I was thinking, maybe we should go somewhere else? Somewhere that's doing better? I've heard about settlements out in the midwest, where there's fewer zombies and much more land and stuff for growing food. It just sounded like it might be a good place to go.
[By then she had started poking at her plate with her fork, moving around the few bits of egg left on there that were too small to pick up without physically licking the plate itself. It was a nervous tic, she just couldn't keep her hands still when she was under the spotlight. The hem of her shirt was wrinkles a bit from the constant rolling and unrolling she did to it when she didn't have anything else to fiddle with. But as nervous as she was, she still had to push forward, and hope that Chris agreed to it.
With all the big cities and towering buildings, there was no telling how many zombies were still around. But maybe if they went west, they might find that promised land. It wasn't called 'flyover country' for nothing. With how on-edge everyone had gotten in the last year, Mafuyu wasn't sure how much longer this settlement would last. It was spring now, but if they wanted to get anywhere safe before winter, they would have to leave soon. Even if the zombies were slightly less of a hassle in the winter (being plant-based, they went dormant in the cold months), that wasn't much of a trade-off for the bitter cold and snow that came with it.]
no subject
But then there was that last question...
Mafuyu hadn't really told anyone about her past, before the outbreak, but she had shared one important fact: she had been on the east coast attending school, but her family was from the west coast. She hadn't had contact with them since the phone lines had gone down years ago, so she had no idea if they were even alive or not. Surviving took up a lot of her free time, especially those few months between when her east-coast-guardian had died and when she had met Chris and Jill when she had been on her own, but sometimes her thoughts still drifted back to her parents.
But she felt like she couldn't just say that, nobody would agree to hike across the country on the slim chance that maybe one specific person had survived. No, she had to make it sound logical.]
Well, things have been not so great around here. I was thinking, maybe we should go somewhere else? Somewhere that's doing better? I've heard about settlements out in the midwest, where there's fewer zombies and much more land and stuff for growing food. It just sounded like it might be a good place to go.
[By then she had started poking at her plate with her fork, moving around the few bits of egg left on there that were too small to pick up without physically licking the plate itself. It was a nervous tic, she just couldn't keep her hands still when she was under the spotlight. The hem of her shirt was wrinkles a bit from the constant rolling and unrolling she did to it when she didn't have anything else to fiddle with. But as nervous as she was, she still had to push forward, and hope that Chris agreed to it.
With all the big cities and towering buildings, there was no telling how many zombies were still around. But maybe if they went west, they might find that promised land. It wasn't called 'flyover country' for nothing. With how on-edge everyone had gotten in the last year, Mafuyu wasn't sure how much longer this settlement would last. It was spring now, but if they wanted to get anywhere safe before winter, they would have to leave soon. Even if the zombies were slightly less of a hassle in the winter (being plant-based, they went dormant in the cold months), that wasn't much of a trade-off for the bitter cold and snow that came with it.]