"Now, hold still," Joel murmured, scooting his chair closer to Ellie, who had her foot propped up next to him.

"It tickles," she complained, and he gave her a silent look, before taking her ankle in his hand and turning her foot so he could see the sole. He pressed the pad of his finger to the pink-tinted flesh around the cut, and Ellie flinched.

"Hurt?"
"Kinda," she murmured.

"Well, nothin' to do but walk on it for tonight. Wear socks and all, and give it some air when we get home," Joel said, giving her leg a gentle slap. "Maria's goin' to have a fit if she sees that we ain't ready yet."

"Are you kidding? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. I've been smelling this stuff cook all day." Ellie stood to her feet and tightened her ponytail. Joel looked doubtful.

"Did you have a shower?"

Ellie shrugged. "Day before yesterday."

Joel nodded. "That'll do. We need to get a move on."

Maria's footsteps were heard in the next room, and she called, "Ellie! Get your shoes, it's time to go!"

"Coming," she returned, pinching a kernel of corn from the pot and sticking it into her mouth, giving an innocent look at Joel who simply snorted. Maria hurried in, and regarded the girl in disbelief.

"Ellie? Shoes?"
"Got it," she said, limping quickly from the room. Joel approached and took the pot in hand, turning to Maria.

"This it?"

"I took the other stuff down already. Tommy's going to meet us there."

"Just take it easy," he muttered. "This ain't a big to-do. Nobody's expecting anything."

"-Except corn!" Ellie called from the next room.

"Ain't talkin' to you," Joel retorted in a loud voice. He dropped his tone, and met Maria's eyes. "Don't put her in a situation tonight, 'hear?"

"What do you mean." Maria met his gaze steadily. "So she made a friend. I'm happy for her."

"This Matt fella can stay a friend, as far as it concerns me."

"But it doesn't concern you –"

"-Or you and Tommy," Joel put in dryly.

"It concerns Ellie. So we'll leave it to her."

Instead of replying, Joel shifted his eyes to the girl who approached and stood in the doorway. "Time to go?"

"Feet alright?" Maria asked brightly, nodding, and beckoning Joel and Ellie out the door, shutting it behind them.

"Good enough. Man, I am so hungry." Ellie wrapped her arms about herself. "I can't wait til dinner actually starts."

"Now, this is for the new group, you know that, kiddo," Joel began, and Ellie regarded him with horror.

"You mean we can't eat any of it?"

"Relax." He chuckled, and jostled the pot. "There should be enough for everybody. Just makin' sure you remember why we're doin' this."

Ellie looked as if she was preparing to respond when a voice was heard calling her name.

"Ellie?"
"Matt – hi!" She looked up to see the young man approaching, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his worn coat. "Did you bring the book?"

He presented the title with a flourish. "Herman Melville's Moby Dick, right here."

"Awesome!" Ellie seized it in her hands, and flipped to the first page as Joel and Maria walked on. Matt watched the girl closely as her eyes passed quickly over the text, her lips slightly forming some of the words until she stopped, and furrowed her brow. "'Circumambulate'?" she pronounced with a distasteful look. "What's that?"

Matt suppressed a grin. "It's a word that means... uh – walk around?"

"Then why the heck didn't they say that?"

"They didn't use to talk like that." Matt leaned close, and underlined a sentence with his finger, reading, "'What do they here?' It's a much more beautiful way to speak, isn't it?"

"I guess." Ellie shrugged. "If everyone still knows what you're saying."

Matt pointed to Joel and Maria who were entering the building. "We're late. You want to sit together? I can help translate for you." He wiggled his eyebrows and gestured toward the book.

"Sure." Ellie wiped her nose. "Is it a cool story?"

"Very cool." Matt touched her arm lightly. "C'mon, let's hurry. My dad will wonder where I am."

"I can't go too fast," Ellie grimaced, waving her foot inside her sneaker. "Cut still healing. Hurts like nothin' else."

"Need help?"

"Nah." Ellie picked up the pace, ambling along with a gait bearing suspicious resemblance to a lobster. "You laughing at me?" she grinned, seeing Matt's comical expression.

"No," Matt straightened his face with some effort. "I just wish you'd let me help."

"What, and give me a piggy-back or something?" Ellie stared at him. "We're here, anyway." She heaved open the door and beckoned Matt through, her eyes gradually adjusting to the dim interior lit up by a few yellow electric lights mounted on the walls. The building was long and filled with two rows of tables, placed end to end; a large group of people were already present, milling around, taking, and filling the place with a pleasant warmth from simple body heat.

Someone was shouting for order and gradually the crowd quieted, small ripples of conversation dwindling to a stop as Tommy stood up on a chair.

"I'm goin' to keep this brief, because I know you all are hungry, and ready to get on with this thing. We're here to welcome the group from Oklahoma, so we're going to welcome them best we can. We're a community here. Everybody owes to each other anything they'd owe to their own families, and expects the same in return. It's good to have some newcomers, and hope this is a good thing for everybody. Now, I know there's been some cookin' goin' on today, am I right?" A chuckle ran through the group, and a few hoots were heard. "Alright. So lets get on with enjoyin' it."

Ellie turned to Matt as Tommy clambered down from the stool. "This reminds me of the speeches they'd give at the school I used to go to."

"You used to go to school?" Matt eyed her. "That's neat."

"What, didn't you?" Ellie raised her voice to be heard over the noise as the crowd resumed conversation around them.

"Couldn't spare me in our zone, I guess," Matt shrugged. "It was really little, soldiers only came a few times a year. I worked with my dad since I was old enough to haul tools." He looked a little unsatisfied at having to relate this of himself, and ran a hand through his hair. Ellie stared at him.

"How'd you learn to read?"

"Dad taught me. And then I'd read in all my spare time. And write. And study all I could get my hands on, because I wanted to be smart." Matt chuckled. "I dreamed of being a book smuggler when I grew up."

Ellie snickered. "What, because there were enough people already smuggling the important stuff? You know, like food?" She gestured to the forming line. "Speaking of."

They wriggled into spots in line, and Matt tapped Ellie, who was in front of him to regain her attention. "Hey. You admit that reading is great."

She shrugged. "Yeah. When you're not shiving clickers or trying to, you know," she gestured, "stay alive."

Matt looked thoughtful, and leaned down, his mouth near Ellie's ear, feeling it was somehow wrong to be shouting over the hubub on such an important topic of conversation to him. "That's the tragedy of society. We're reduced to simply staying alive, when, in a place like this, it is completely possible – and I'd argue, completely necessary – to re-implement things that only existed before the infection. Things like real education, higher thought, community, belief in God..." He smiled. "I know I sound like a weirdo. But that's my dream. To write about this stuff, and convince others that life can be rebuilt. That it need to be rebuilt."

Ellie looked up and met his eyes which were shining with the light from his passion, when a voice near her interrupted her partially-formed thought.

"Hi, you guys!"

She turned to behold Anna, the dirty stocking cap no longer obscuring her face, her long hair braided over one shoulder. Ellie did a double-take, and then gave the girl a hasty hug.

"Hi!" She looked down in horror as she realized she'd stepped on Anna's foot in the act. "Oh – sorry! I – did I hurt you?"

"Hm? No, I didn't feel anything." The young woman grinned. "What'd you do?"

"Stood on your foot," Ellie flushed. "I'm so clumsy."

"No sweat. You know Matt?"

"Yeah! He's cool!" Ellie exclaimed. "He was telling me all his crazy ideas about writing."

"Oh." Anna rolled her eyes, giving Ellie an opportunity to see the bright color of them even in the dim light of the building. "That again."

"Knock it off," Matt grumbled, giving Anna a gentle push. "Just because you have no dreams..."

"How do you know I don't have dreams?" Anna crossed her arms indignantly.

"Yeah." Ellie draped her arm around the girl in mock support. "How do you know she doesn't have dreams?" The girls snickered at one another.

Matt squinted. "Because... you're young. You've not yet progressed to that point of maturity..." His voice assumed a strange intonation, and Ellie looked at Anna.

"Why's he talking like that?"

"Thinks it makes him sounds smart. Heard this English guy talk on a movie one time, and he's done it ever since."

"A movie?" Ellie stared in disbelief. "You've seen movies?"

"We used to watch them in the zone in Oklahoma. We had a projector set up in the church, until we lost power."

"We should totally do that here!" Ellie exclaimed, helping herself to an empty plate, one of the many assorted dishes brought by the families, and doling them out to her two companions. "That would be awesome!"

Something happened as the three helped themselves to plentiful food and sat in a corner together to partake, Matt seated on the floor, Anna perching on an odd tri-legged stool, and Ellie squatting indian style, her plate on her knees. None of them realized it, but Matt's dream was not as far off as he had thought; three young people who before had been only occupied with surviving, were together, laughing, talking, engaging in debates, foyning, jibing, and joining in with the other survivors buttoned snugly in the warmed metal building to create a sense of community, a sense of safety and restoration. A sense of friendship.