Both the male and the female residence buildings were arranged in the same fashion: as one large room, with multiple bunks lining the walls next to small windows. Seven had shown Five to an empty bed and informed her, to her delight, that she could call the space hers.
The Abel citizens generously donated Five some spare articles of clothing as well. After taking a fast, cold shower, she changed quickly, pulling on shorts of a comfortable, polyester-khaki hybrid. Next, she slipped on a black spandex mid-sleeved shirt. This was the common uniform of the runners and close to what she was used to wearing at Mullins. Thankfully, the articles of clothing were clean (though they seemed used).
Five wondered vaguely if this had been the old Runner Five's uniform as she attached her own utility belt around her hips and retied her running shoes over thick new socks. She exited the housing area and joined Seven, who was waiting for her outside.
"Does that all fit?" he asked. She nodded and he smiled again. "Good. Let's go outside the gates and I'll show you the perimeter." Noticing her look of alarm, Seven laughed a deep chuckle. "Don't worry, Five. We've got snipers stationed all around. If any of the zombies decide to give us trouble, we'll be ready."
They exited Abel and began exploring the outskirts of the base, Seven allowing Five to take in all the new sights.
"See there, to the middle of Abel?" Seven said as they made their way around. "That's the Quad. It's actually a farmhouse, but it's got such a good view of the area it became the reason Abel was established. It's got good, thick walls, and we hold all our meetings there. It's a bit of a town hall, if you will."
The two runners passed by the hospital, food storage, recreation area (complete with rough asphalt basketball court), housing buildings, and armoury.
"Look out over there," Seven pointed to a small collection of far-off human bases. "That's New Canton. We don't speak to them much. And Scoobs there—you can see it's all burnt up now—used to be a small settlement, about our size. We don't know what happened to it. Must've been some sort of fire."
"That's terrible…"
"You know," Seven continued thoughtfully. "Some people here at Abel aren't too happy to have you here. Mullins has never been exactly honest with us."
Five sighed. "They're not even honest with their own citizens."
"I'm not going to lie to you—that worries me. I mean, just before Scoobs went up in flames, there was a Mullins guy sent over there, in a chopper just like you, but he only arrived with half the supplies he was supposed to. And then your fiasco happened… where were you headed on your trip, anyway?"
"Back to Mullins," Five replied. "We were going to get further orders when we got back. They wanted to check on the supplies we collected before we could deliver them anywhere else."
"I wish we knew more." Seven shook his head. "It's hard enough battling the undead when—what's that?"
Five peered down the hill and saw something sticking out of a tree's low-hanging branch, fluttering in the wind.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I can't see it very well."
"Why don't you go down there and grab it?" Seven suggested, observing the surrounding area carefully. "I'll watch you from here and make sure those zombs to the east don't sneak up on you."