Susan threw herself on her bed, exhausted. "Cod, I hope our new headquarters are closer to us than this one," she groaned into the pillow. "If we have to walk all the way over there every day, I'll die."

Anna sat down on her bed and took off her socks. "Yeah, it's quite the walk," she murmured and stared up at the ceiling. "If they aren't, we might have to get a car."

Susan looked up. "Wouldn't that cost us a fortune? We'd have to save up for months. And even then, we'd only be able to afford some garbage car that would break down a week later."

Anna said nothing but continued to stare at the ceiling. "Do you even know how to drive?" Susan asked. Anna shrugged. "I took a few classes. But that was years ago, before the flood. When everything went to shit, I was too focused on survival to be able to learn how to drive."

"Yeah," Susan muttered. "I was planning on taking classes, but then the flood happened and I had to scrap those plans. I only know how to drive the sled."

She looked back up. "Could we drive that to work? I never thought about driving it inside the city."

"If you want us to get arrested, then sure, we could do it," Anna responded. Susan buried her face in her pillow. "Figures."

A few minutes passed without neither of them saying a word. Susan couldn't stand the silence and sat up. "So, what did you think of it?"

Anna pulled herself up and leaned up against the wall behind her. "It looks pretty interesting. And having a stable income will be a nice change of pace."

"But can you believe it?" Susan continued. "We're working with Off the Hook and Marie! Remember when we used to cosplay as them all the way back then?"

Anna smirked and looked out the window, dreamily. "Yeah, it's crazy. When you told me first about this job, I thought it was a scam. But now that I've seen it's actually legit… I don't know, it feels so unreal."

They stayed silent for a few moments before Susan spoke up.

"Hey, Anna?" she asked, wary of her tone. Anna looked at her. "Hm?"

Susan had to choose her words carefully. She didn't want to put Anna on the spot all of a sudden. She was even considering not asking the question. But this had been bothering her all day.

"Well, I was just wondering," she continued carefully and Anna sat up, a questioning look in her eyes. Susan swallowed and kept going.

"It's just… Well, you acted kind of strange today."

Anna tilted her head. "Strange? What do you mean?"

Susan bit her own lip. Now she was starting to regret asking the question, but it was too late now. She took a deep breath.

"Well, you know, for as long as I've known you, you've always had difficulty with talking to strangers."

Anna sighed, like she'd been expecting this conversation.

"You would always freeze up. Like you did when we met Marie today. So when we were going to meet the others, I thought you'd freeze up again. Especially if it was someone like Off the Hook we were meeting. But you just acted so… I don't know, casually towards them."

Anna stared out the window, like she was thinking to herself. "And is that a bad thing?" she asked after a few moments.

Susan's face began heating up once she realized how she'd sounded. She quickly shook her head in response. "No, no, no, no! It's great! I'm glad you were so casual! It just caught me off guard, that's all! I didn't really expect you of all people to be so chill around strangers!"

Anna's mouth twitched into a slight smile. "I was going to tell you eventually, but I guess I might as well tell you now since you brought it up."

Susan tilted her head, confused. What was she talking about? Anna lay back down on the bed and began talking while staring at the ceiling.

"When you go out scavenging, I hang back here at home, waiting for you to radio me. At first, I thought it was great. I just sit in my apartment, in front of a computer, and don't have to talk to anyone. It sounded like a dream job."

Susan rose up, curious. Anna reached for her guitar at the foot of the bed and began playing each string. She wasn't playing a song, just hitting each string without really thinking. Anna continued.

"At first, I loved it. I could just chill at my desk, do whatever the hell I wanted and no one was there to interrupt me. Of course, every time you radioed in, or gave me a special job to do on my end, I did what I had to do. But most of the time, I was just chilling in front of my desk."

She sighed and silenced the guitar. "But, after a few months, it changed… I don't know how to describe it but, it just felt different."

Susan leaned forward. "How was it different?"

Anna's body language said nothing about how she felt. She just continued to lie on her back, guitar in hand.

"I thought not having to talk to anyone and do almost practically nothing would be a dream," Anna continued. "But then I realized, I was going insane by being closed up in here."

Susan raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Anna laughed, but she sounded almost exhausted. "Turns out, not having anyone to talk to for hours really gets to you. I found myself staring at the wall for hours because there was nothing I could do."

She began hitting the strings again. "I've tried watching TV, but there's only so many movies or shows available. I tried reading books, but I've run out of any to read. I checked if my computer could play any video games, but turns out no one makes any new ones anymore. And the few that are available are either too much for my computer to handle, or so basic that I'm finished with them within minutes. It was driving me insane."

Susan didn't dare say anything, and let Anna continue. "I was starting to talk to myself or argue with my reflection in the mirror. I sometimes had daydreams where I thought someone was breaking into the apartment. I would pick up a knife, or a bat, or anything I could use for a weapon, and attack what I thought was a burglar, only to realize that I was strangling the coat rack."

She sat up, still playing the guitar. "By the time you got home, I was so desperate for anyone to talk to. It was really getting to me. I felt so useless and empty."

"Anna—" Susan said sympathetically, but she was cut off by Anna.

"You don't need to say anything, I don't do those things anymore. I realized the only way to fix this was to talk to people. But I didn't have the courage nor the social skill to do so. After a while, I sucked it up and began taking lessons on social interactions. I couldn't bear another day doing almost nothing. I began talking to people online, even being part of groups where we would just introduce ourselves and just talk about what we'd done that morning, what our hobbies were, or just talk about random things. It was online so that I'd be able to help you if you called in, but it at least gave me something to do."

She put down the guitar and looked at the moon outside the window. "Eventually, I started talking to our neighbors. I'd bump into them in the hallway, and we'd just have a nice chat. I even dropped by some of them, had lunch or something like that."

She looked back at Susan. "So, I've gotten better at talking to strangers and just talking in general. I froze when we met Marie because I wasn't expecting to meet a former pop star at a coffee shop. It threw me way off track. But when we met with Off the Hook, I was able to prepare myself. I could take a few breathing exercises before meeting them. I know I looked pretty chill on the outside, but I was having an absolute panic attack over the fact that Pearl gave me a fist bump."

She looked down at the guitar. "Well, that's all. That's why I acted so strange today."

Susan nodded and leaned forward on her bed. "Anna, it's great that you've been able to come out of your shell! It really is! I couldn't be happier for you! But… Why didn't you tell me? I could've helped you at least somewhat."

Anna shrugged. "I didn't want to worry you."

"Anna, you have to talk to me about these things. I want to help you, but I can't if you won't talk to me."

Anna looked up at her. "I could say the same thing to you."

Susan's words froze in her throat, and she fell silent. Anna waited for a response, but when none came, she continued.

"Something is bothering you. You won't tell me, but I can see it. You have constant nightmares, you stay awake hours on end, and you always try to dodge my questions about it. Just tell me what's wrong! I want to help!"

Silence lingered between them, as they stared into each other's eyes. Anna sighed and leaned up against the wall. "You don't want to talk about it, and I completely understand that. I know better than to try to drag it out of you. It's getting pretty late, we should sleep so that we can wake up early tomorrow."

"Yeah…" Susan responded and lay back down on the bed. "Good night…"

"Good night," Anna responded. There was a hint of worry in her tone. Susan felt her stomach twist and turn. She really didn't want to worry her, but… she couldn't tell her what was wrong.

Susan closed her eyes. Anna began playing the guitar again, the soothing tones dancing in Susan's ears. She loved it when Anna played. It helped her sleep. Susan's limbs became heavier with every string Anna played. As her consciousness faded into sleep, her mind drifted over the events of the day. "What a day…" she thought, and the tones of the guitar echoed through her mind as she drifted into sleep.