When the sisters get inside the house, Deanna is setting up the camera. She turns at the sound of them walking inside with the heavy soles of their boots. She smiles over her shoulder. "Oh, hi. I didn't expect two."

"My sister is a minor," Lupe explains as they look around the gigantic study. Plush couches, high back chairs, lines and lines of books on the shelves. It's impressive.

"May I have permission to speak to your sister alone?" Deanna asks.

"No," Lupe replies immediately, "but I appreciate the respect in asking." She strolls around while Alma gravitates towards a shelf opposite the couch. "I won't be answering for her or anything. I'm just here as moral support."

"Understood," Deanna says. She looks at Alma. "Would you like to have a seat?" Alma complies. She doesn't overtly show her nerves. She seems prim and proper as she sits, patiently waiting for Deanna to ask her questions. "May I videotape our conversation?"

"Why?" Alma shoots back.

Deanna grins. "For transparency and posterity."

"Do you have one?" Alma asks.

Deanna's grin widens. "I do."

"Do we get to watch it?"

Deanna squints at Alma, but the smile beneath her stare is thoughtful and amused. "If you want."

Alma fidgets in her seat and looks over at Lupe. Lupe shrugs. "No thank you, I don't want to be taped."

Deanna nods. "Alright." She goes to sit on the large couch. Being so small, it almost swallows her whole. She sits on the edge of the cushions so her feet can touch the ground. "So Rick said he started in Atlanta, were you with him from the beginning?"

"No," Alma admits. "Just me and my sister for a long time. We just met Rick and his group a few months ago."

"And how did that happen?" Deanna asks.

"They got separated and we ran into some of them. Just sort of steamrolled after that." Alma smiles, but it's grim.

"Are you both from Atlanta?"

"No, we're from Manassas."

Deanna smiles wide. "Oh, that's not so far from us. How did you get down to Georgia?"

Alma shrugs. "We decided to head south and just sort of... kept going."

"So it was just you two before you met all them?" Deanna questions, her tone a bit surprised. "How did you survive?"

Alma shrugs. "We scavenged. We scrounged. We learned along the way. Sometimes we'd catch fish and we'd filter our own water."

"Sort of like an absurdly long camping trip?" Deanna smiles.

Alma grins. "Except everyone is trying to kill you." The smile drops off Deanna's face and Alma fears she did something wrong.

"No te preocupes. La mujer no entiende lo que hemos tenido que hacer. Ella es despistada," (Don't worry. That woman doesn't understand what we've had to do. She's clueless,) Lupe muses at an adjacent bookshelf.

"Wow, are you two fluent?" Deanna asks, looking between them.

"Yes," Alma replies. "Our parents were from Mexico."

Deanna's face crinkles with concern. "Did you lose them during all this?"

Alma shakes her head. "No, I was young. Lupe took care of me ever since."

Deanna nods. "I'm sorry for your loss. It's difficult to lose your parents, no matter what age." Her eyes trail over to Lupe who's trying to look preoccupied. "I'm very glad you and your sister have had each other this whole time."

"Me too," Alma grins tight, flashing a glance at Lupe.

"So Alma, how old are you?"

"Sixteen. Just a few months ago, I think."

Deanna nods. "That's great. We have a few other teenagers that you and Carl should get along with. You'll also be encouraged to attend school or start an apprenticeship for one of our many jobs. Everyone participates here in their own ways, even if its just to receive the support and care they need."

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Alma smiles.

Deanna squints and grins. "A fan of Karl Marx?"

Alma shrugs. "Not a fan per se. But I believe a cooperative approach to societal structures is more beneficial than almost everything we've ever tried before."

Deanna's eyes pop wide, but a smile spreads and she chuckles. "I can't say I disagree. We need each other now more than ever." She looks at her watch. "Thank you so much for talking with me Alma. I appreciate your willingness to share your story. I can see you'll become quite an influential member of our community if you so choose to stay."

Alma grins tight again. Her fingers curl in her pant legs. It's a little bit agitation and a little bit excitement. This place is curious, to say the least. But she can't pretend like she doesn't want to look around and forget what it's like outside the gates. "May I go?"

Deanna smiles. "Yes, thank you again."

Alma nods and gets up. She goes towards Lupe and leans in to kiss her cheek. They squeeze each other's hands and Alma goes to the hallway to leave. Lupe still stares at the books. She sighs. Waiting.

"May I start asking questions?" Deanna asks.

"You may, but I can't promise I'll answer," Lupe replies.

"May I film our conversation?" Deanna turns towards the camera.

Lupe smirks. "You may, but I can't promise I'll sit down."

"Anxious?" Deanna asks, flipping on the camera. She still points it at the seat, letting the audio roll is good enough.

"A little." Lupe shrugs. "This is big and very different from anything we've had so far."

"I didn't want to press your sister, but I am curious for more detail."

Lupe sighs. "We lived out of my dad's truck. We kept moving. It was the safest play."

"How so?" Deanna asks.

Lupe travels to another bookshelf and peeks at the spines. "Well, anytime you stay in one place too long, disaster strikes. Either you attract the dead or people find you. Either one can be a death sentence out there."

"So you've both been through the wringer then?"

"And then some." Lupe scoffs. "We stayed close to here for a while. Kinda skimmed your area, but we had decided on going south." She isn't quite inclined to mention why yet.

Deanna leans back to observe Lupe. "That's where you met Rick's group. What's your impression of them?"

Lupe squints at the wood grain. "They're strong. They're resourceful. They never stopped being kind to us, no matter how bad things got and things got pretty bad.

Deanna nods thoughtfully. "What did you do before all this?"

Lupe looks at her strange. "Like before the end of the world?" She exhales, flapping her lips. "Grocery clerk. Assistant manager. I also bartended on some nights and weekends." Lupe sighs. "I was the sole earner of the household at seventeen."

"Was that when you lost your parents?" Deanna shows true compassion in her gaze, even if it's focused and hard.

Lupe shakes her head. "No, my dad had an accident and couldn't work. My mom couldn't either cause she had to care for him. So I dropped out of high school and got a full-time job at the grocery store. They passed right before my twentieth birthday."

"I'm so sorry. That's heartbreaking." Deanna looks down at her clasped hands. "I have a feeling you had to work very hard to get here today. I imagine you worked even harder to make sure your little sister did too."

"I have and will do anything to keep her safe," Lupe growls. "She's safe or no one is."

"That's quite a statement." Deanna blinks, leaning back. "Do you believe she's safe here?"

"Not this very second, no," Lupe says, walking past the windows. "I believe she could be though."

"Is she the only reason you'd want to stay?"

Lupe sighs. "Maybe, maybe not. If Alma ever got the chance to be truly safe, I'm not sure what I'd do with myself." Both of the women chuckle.

"It sounds like you've got the right parenting instincts," Deanna jokes.

Lupe grins. "I need my sister safe. Even if I think me and her are always better off on our own, I won't force her into a life of seclusion." She sighs as she leans her elbows on the high back chair. "I'll stay because the group is here. Because I want them all to be safe. I've learned we can do that pretty good if we're all together."

"So you steered clear of people completely before Rick's group? What changed your mind?"

A leather vest. Silver hair. Laughing teens. A missing sister. Cannibals. A desperate fear of being alone. "I had less of a need for pride and more of a need for help. They provided help. We all sort of just... got stuck with each other at some point." Lupe scowls. "Sometimes I think it was easier. Staying away from people. To avoid helping people. They're a danger and a liability."

Deanna narrows her gaze in a curious way. "Do you think this place is a liability?"

"I admire your dedication to community building. It's obvious, you're trying. Things could be better though, especially security-wise," she replies.

"You don't think the wall is adequate?" Deanna asks with a scoff of humored disbelief and condescension.

"Why are the supports on the outside? I could tap dance my way up one of those!" Lupe snaps back. "You need thicker defenses with a wider expansion. You probably should have included some of the trees inside the development. Add some roosts for better sight lines." She sighs and looks at Deanna. She only seems moderately insulted. But she is paying attention and she's not stopping Lupe either.

"You should invest in securing your perimeter too. There are no guards on the walls. I doubt you have scouts in the woods." Lupe continues, "No traps. I mean, you could really go 'Rambo' out there: bear traps, pits, pikes, swinging logs with spikes..."

"That sounds barbaric," Deanna replies airily.

"Then you have no idea what is waiting for you and your people out there," Lupe bites back.

Deanna exhales shakily. "No, no I suppose you're right, I don't." Her gaze narrows again as she contemplates. "What makes you think all that is necessary?"

"Because the dead aren't the ones you should be afraid of..." Lupe shakes her head and sighs.

"You believe humans are the bigger threat too?" Deanna replies in disbelief.

"Humans have always been the one and only threat." Lupe chuckles grimly. "It's a privilege to have not lived that truth before the dead started eating people."

Deanna nods thoughtfully. "Aaron says I can trust you. He said you cut through more than a dozen of the dead all on your own to save Eric."

Lupe shakes her head and scoffs. "I had back up. My sister and Beth were on the RV taking out the ones trying to flank me. I wasn't alone. None of us can survive alone."

"That's something we can absolutely agree on." Deanna sighs. "I want to build a community, but I'm under no illusions that we're all not in over our heads. We need survivors. We need people willing to contribute so we can care for one another."

Lupe sniffs. "When we were waiting outside, I heard a lot of kids. And I saw some elderly people walking down the street." She turns to Deanna with a frown. "Your community has a lot of people who don't know how to fight. That's a flaw you need to correct. This 'no weapons' rule you have is unwise. People need to be trained and armed. Even kids need to learn."

"You think we should arm children?" Deanna almost gasps.

"Please..." Lupe rolls her eyes. "I'm not talking about child soldiers for shit's sake. I'm talking 'bout making sure the kids can defend themselves and survive." She levels Deanna with a harsh glare. "Not too far from here, there was another community, like yours, that got torn apart. When Alma and I were surviving up here, we saw remnants of some truly awful shit. It's why we left in the first place. I'm not sure I want to stay up here unless you're serious about this."

"You think we've, what? Been playing house here?" That tinge of defensiveness springs back into Deanna's eyes.

Lupe scoffs and grins. "I think you don't know anything about what's out there. I think you're all damn lucky to have survived. I think you're ignorant," she raises a hand to stop Deanna's head from smoking. "But being ignorant isn't a fault if you intend on learning and you depend on growth. The world isn't the same as before your walls went up. People are losing their humanity."

"Did you?" Deanna's question thuds into the silence.

Lupe laughs. "God no... we've been fighting like hell to keep hold of it. Problem is... our humanity has had to adapt to a hostile world." She glares down at her hands and wonders if the blood on them will ever wash away. She doesn't regret the people she's killed. She regrets they existed to cause pain in the first place. She murmurs to herself, "Kill or die..."

"Pardon?"

"It's not so cut and dry out there," Lupe says as a distraction. "It's not so easy to know bad from good. I'm not sure there are any wholly good people left in the world. It's not easy at all..." Lupe shakes her head, her tone challenging, "Humanity? Decency? It calls for different things now. You have to be prepared for that."

Deanna nods. "Thank you, Lupe. I will keep that in mind."

Lupe sighs. "Shit, I fuckin' hope so," she mutters and leaves.