Maggie Walsh, Resident
by Rob Morris

OCTOBER, 1999

Buffy had to get up after the lecture. Maggie was a dream come true.

"Doctor Walsh, I never thought I'd pass, let alone like, psychology. But you make it come alive."

Buffy's ignorance of Maggie's secrets was one way, sadly.

"Sometimes, Miss Summers, its better to keep certain things in a lively state than to destroy them entirely with narrow thinking."

"Wow! I wish you'd been able to psychoanalyze my old principal. He made school not a fun place to be, and I don't mean he didn't give us milk and cookies. He saw it as his job to drain the life from us."

Maggie laughed.

"Sounds like the job I left, back East. Imagine the most isolated, backwoods squared corporate town you've ever seen. I did some good work, there. Memorable stuff. But I had to get out. It was strictly a Hive mentality."

"Oh? Was it really all that bad?"

Walsh shrugged.

"The company built it up so it looked like a major megalopolis. But it was still cut off from most other places. You could nuke the place, and successfully cover it up without much effort."

Buffy laughed too, despite how uneasy she now felt for no reason she could define.

"Did this place have a name?"

Walsh sat back down.

"Oh, the town fathers gave it a fancy title. But again, it was so far backwoods, most of the staff and townsfolk just called it for Raccoon City."