Updates have been sporadic at best, and for that I apologize. My father passed a couple weeks ago and so I haven't been in the mindset of writing.

However, I am so grateful for the feedback and support I have received lately. It really does help when things are decidedly shitty. So, thank all of you who have stuck with me through this story.


Where did the simple stop and the complicated begin?

Claire had been alone with her thoughts the entire night and next day. After the only disagreement she could ever remember having with the teenager, K-mart had slept in the fuel truck with Carlos and Alice, rode with them the next day. It meant another long, dusty day alone in the Hummer, with the occasional crackle of radio chatter from the other vehicles in the convoy. By dusk, they estimated they were no more than a few hours from their destination. But the last thing Claire wanted to do was roll into Fort Lewis in the dark, without knowing what to expect.

They would camp for the night and make it onto the military installation by midday tomorrow. That would leave them plenty of daylight to scout the area for any Infected before committing to any risk.

As they had traveled over the course of the day, the desert seemed to retreat. It was by no means forest, but neither was it quite the rolling dunes of dusky orange sand and barren rock either. Small, ragged bushes had cropped up along with trees. Not the hardy, broadleafed trees of Before, but scraggly little things. The landscape was changing gradually, so slowly that Claire had not truly noticed until after they had made camp, after she had made her rounds to each of the vehicles in the convoy.

Now that she was alone, she noticed the little shoots of gray green at her feet as she sat in front of her meager fire. She noticed the breeze, how it tasted of… rain, she realized. There was humidity here. Maybe not much, but more than she could ever remember feeling in the past six years. The further north they traveled, the more things seemed to shift. Perhaps by the time they reached Alaska, it would be the verdant paradise she had seen in her dreams.

Or perhaps it would only be another soul-crushing disappointment, with nothing but the chalk of old bones under her feet and sand and ash as far as they eye could see. Perhaps there was nowhere left that the Infection had not reached.

Across the camp, Carlos's deep laugh caused Claire to glance up abruptly. Their fire was far enough away that she could not hear what Carlos and Alice and K-mart were saying, but close enough that she could see the expressions on each of their faces. Alice was smiling, shyly, tentatively as both K-mart and Carlos laughed until they wheezed for breath.

That smile. The sight of it was too much for Claire to bear, and she quickly averted her eyes back down to the fire. She willed herself to concentrate on the erratic dance of the flames, the crackle of wood as it splintered into orange white coals. She tried to listen to the breeze, to the sound of it rustling through the bushes instead of howling down the slopes of dunes.

"Hey." K-mart said softly, startling Claire from her reverie. Without waiting for an invitation or answer, the teenager plopped down next to Claire, folding her legs in front of her.

"Hey," Claire replied. They were the first words they had spoken to one another in nearly two days, since their argument. "Still think I'm an idiot?"

"Definitely." K-mart responded without hesitation, but a small smile worked its way onto her lips. "But I wanted to apologize."

Claire smiled wryly and threw her arm around the younger woman's shoulders, giving her a tight squeeze. "You don't have to. I'm pretty sure you're right."

"Yeah, but… I talked to Alice. She wasn't happy. And she's right too."

Her heart leapt at the mention of the other woman, and Claire forced herself to sound casual when she asked, "Oh? What did she say?"

K-mart shrugged and leaned into Claire, resting her head on her shoulder. "That it wasn't my business. That is was your decision, and no one could make it for you. That you didn't need someone to tell you what to do." She sniffed and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jacket. "Only… you know… she said it in Alice-speak—which means she just kind of frowned and said 'K, Claire can decide what she wants for herself.'" She sobered and imitated the older woman with startling accuracy, nailing her clipped tone and emotionless expression.

Despite herself, Claire laughed. "That does sound like her."

K-mart grinned and shrugged again, tossing a twig into the fire. "Well, you're both idiots. But it's none of my business. And I'm sorry."

"You know what my biggest fear is?"

"What?" K-mart's brow furrowed and she turned her face towards Claire, as if bewildered that anything could frighten their leader, her idol.

"That all there is left is Infection. That no matter what we go or do, it will follow us until we just… accept it. Until we all just become… numb to it, accept it." The convoy leader faltered, swallowed hard to regain her composure. "What if this all that is left? Running and fighting and dying? We're trapped by circumstance, caged in. I'm afraid of forgetting we were once more than this."

The two women sat in silence, with nothing but the hiss of the fire and the occasional chatter of other survivors to break the quiet. K-mart wordlessly sought out Claire's hand and squeezed it. "We are more than this." Without letting go of her hand, she gestured vaguely to indicate their surroundings, the Infection, the world. "We're a family. We're alive because of you."

"Not all of us."

"No, but a lot of us. I didn't have anyone when you found me. My mom and dad and brothers were all killed. I was alone, and would have been dead too if it weren't for you and Carlos and Mikey and all." Claire had only heard the girl mention her family, her biological family, two or three times since they had found her in the parking lot of her namesake store. But then, no one ever spoke of their lives Before, why should she be any different. "We'd all be dead or alone, or just alone if you didn't bring us together.

"Mikey died, but he died knowing that we would bury him and remember him." K-mart sniffled again, but this time wiped her eyes. "And if I die… then I know you'll remember me. That I won't just be another nameless body rotting on the side of the road."

The image of the teenager, lifeless and pale struck Claire like a mallet. "I will never let that happen, K, never." Claire said emphatically, her jaw clenched with conviction. K-mart was like a kid sister, like a daughter to her. She would rather die herself than allow any harm to come to the girl.

"That's what I mean, Claire." K-mart smiled sadly, old enough to know that while Claire would rather die than let harm befall her, that some things were just out of her control. "You're like my mom. So we already are more than just running and fighting and stuff. We're more because none of us are alone. You don't have to be alone."

Claire pulled her close, and the teenager snuggled into her under her arm. It was an awkward position while seated, but K-mart showed no signs of shifting or moving, content to rest her head against Claire's chest and be held, be close.

Stroking her back, Claire finally ended the comfortable lapse in conversation. "When did you grow up?"

She felt rather than saw K-mart grin. "When you weren't looking."

Across the line of vehicles, of dimly flickering fires, Claire gazed into the night, her eyes searching for Alice. The older woman sat across from the fire she and Carlos shared, her hands extended, palms towards the warmth of the flames that reflected in her ice blue eyes, dancing. Her hood was pulled back from her face, her hair still cut in that unruly shag that was just a little longer now.

Their eyes connected, even across the distance, and this time Claire didn't look away. Alice smiled, the same way she had when Claire had fixed the collar of her jacket. An open, honest smile that robbed Claire of her breath and broke her heart all in the same moment. Involuntary tears stung her eyes, blurring her vision, but when she blinked them back, Alice had already looked away and the smile had been replaced with somber pensiveness. The abrupt change only caused the tears to well up in her eyes again, and this time no amount of blinking could keep them at bay. All of the sudden, Claire felt broken again, as if what she wanted to reach out and touch and been cast irretrievably out of her grasp.

K-mart shift, buried her face deeper against Claire's chest, half asleep. Her voice was no more than a barely discernible mumble, stifled by sleep and the fabric of Claire's shirt. "I wouldn't mind having two moms, you know."


And there you have it. We're slowly moving in the right direction. If only Claire wouldn't be such a stubborn, angsty ass about everything.

Leave some feedback, y'all! It makes me all warm and fuzzy and junk!