"I guess I should introduce myself," said the woman. "I'm Corporal Cruz."

"Your name is Corporal?" asked Clementine.

"Corporal is my rank," clarified Cruz.

"Rank?" said Sarah as she adjusted her grip on Omid. "You're in the military?"

"Was. I lost contact with the chain of command same time as everyone else lost touch with the rest of the world. And I'm the only one left in my unit."

"Then why do you still call yourself Corporal?"

Cruz shrugged. "Old habits die hard I guess," she said. "That and I like the alliteration. Corporal Cruz sounds much better than Ms. Cruz."

"So, if you were in the military, does that—"

"I know what you're going to ask me, and the answer is going to be no to everything," assured Cruz. "No I don't know what the hell happened or why the dead started coming back. No I don't know if the government or anyone had some big plan to do anything. And no I don't know anything more about this shit than anyone else. I was just a reservist helicopter pilot.

"The biggest thing I could tell you is that it sounded like the regular military was being deployed around major cities on the coast and the reserves, or at least the ones I was serving with, were supposed to secure a handful of small towns."

"Why?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know, we never got new orders. Some people have been passing around rumors, like the government evacuated a portion of the population to Newfoundland and left the rest us to rot; others say Cuba. But it's all just that, rumors. Not like any of us have been there, unless you two came from Cuba or Newfoundland."

"No, I used to live outside of Atlanta," said Clem.

"Hang on, let me write this down." Cruz retrieved a small notebook from her pocket. "I just realized, I don't even know your names yet."

"I'm Sarah, and she's Clementine. And this is Omid." Sarah held up the small boy, who had stopped crying for the moment.

"Why are you writing that down?" asked Clem.

"Some of the people back home are still holding out hope they'll find lost friends or loved ones, so I take down names wherever I find them," said Cruz. "Do either of you have anyone you're looking for?"

"Most of the people I used to know are dead," spoke a saddened Sarah.

"Or they're people we don't want to find," added Clem. "But, do you know anyone named Molly?"

"No, but I could ask around when I get back," said Cruz. "What's her last name?"

"I… don't know," realized Clem.

"Well, that's not a lot to go off of," said Cruz. "You said your… parents, were out looking for supplies?"

"Um, yeah," said Clem.

"They didn't go north did they?"

"Why?"

"Because there's almost nothing on the north side of town. I just came from there; total dash."

"Dash?" asked Sarah.

"Little code word we use, as in dine and dash," explained Cruz. "It means whoever was here last grabbed everything they could, but in a hurry, so there's little bits they overlooked. That also means nobody is probably living in the area anymore since anytime people set up shop, collecting everything into one stash is usually the first thing they do."

"We do that," said Clem. "But everywhere we've checked has only had a little bit of food left."

"You'll get that a lot in these little backwater towns, where people tried holding out until rescue came, only to lose patience and go looking for safety. Had they been anywhere else first, they probably wouldn't have left any food behind at all, because they would know they might not find any more."

"Yeah, that's what we're worried about," admitted Sarah.

"We just can't find much food anywhere lately," added Clem.

"Did you ever find any bullets?"

Clem tensed up when she heard that question. "Why?" she asked.

"Because if you do, that's a good sign. Ammo is one of the first things people hoarded when shit hit the fan. Back then, most people didn't know you had to shoot those things in the head, so they stocked up in a big way, and unlike food, usually there were only a few places to get bullets from, if any. You find somewhere where ammo got left behind and it probably means a lot of other things in the area got left behind too. Besides that, dashes don't offer a whole lot."

"That reminds me." Cruz flipped the page and started writing something in her notebook.

"What are you doing?" asked Clem.

"Just making a note that this town was a dash too," said Cruz.

"Why?"

"It's how we keep records. One of us goes out, checks a bunch of places, writes everything down, and when we get back there's a guy who uses our notes to update our maps. He even came up with some cutesy code words to keep our findings simple. Like dash."

"Are there any other code words?"

"Yeah. Near mint means places where people only took what they could carry and left the rest behind. Jackpot is for somewhere untouched, which we almost never find anymore. Lately, most areas I've checked have been clean."

"Clean?" asked Clem.

"As in picked clean, typically from people staying in one place for a while until they use everything up."

"That's what we did," said Sarah. "We were hoping to find somewhere else to do that, somewhere people didn't take stuff from."

"Good luck. From what I've seen, the only jackpots left at this point would be places overflowing with the dead. Even when you know how to get past the damn things, it's hard to move truckloads of goods without getting their attention. Places light on the dead like this are about as much as a couple of people can handle by themselves."

"We were finding more food on the backroads, in people's houses," said Sarah. "But—"

"You ran out of gas?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Same thing's happened to some of our scouts," said Cruz. "Rural places off the beaten path are a gamble. Some people packed up and headed for the cities in the first few days, leaving a lot behind for the rest of us who were lucky enough to stay away. But not always, and it's a lot of fuel to burn on a gamble, especially even if you find a jackpot, you gotta drag it all back home. Or at least I do."

"Where is your home?"

"It's pretty far from here," said Cruz.

"Where?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"It's just how we do things," said Cruz. "I'm guessing from how you two greeted me, you know you have to be careful around people. We make it a rule to not talk about where we live unless whoever we're talking to is coming back with us, and even then, only after we've taken them home."

"Well, can you at least tell us what it's like?" asked Sarah. "Even if you can't tell us where it is?"

"It's okay, I guess," shrugged Cruz.

"Okay?"

"Yeah, I mean, we don't have many problems with the dead at this point, or even other people since there doesn't seem to be anyone left in our area we don't know about, but you know, it's still hard to keep people fed."

"We tried growing a garden," said Sarah. "Bugs and birds ate a lot of it, and the sun killed some of our plants."

"Yeah, we got a lot of that, and not having enough water for our crops," said Cruz. "Biggest problem is we just didn't plant enough. It looked like so much when it started coming in. We dug up a big park to plant things in and we thought it'd be enough to last us. But people gotta eat every day, so it didn't last. And that's why me and some others are out here now, trying to scourge up enough food to get us through the coming winter so we can try again next year."

"Have you found places with food?" asked Sarah. "Places better than here?"

"Actually places like here aren't bad for food if you know where to look."

"Like where?"

Cruz looked aside for a moment. "Restaurants."

"Restaurants?" asked Clem.

"Wouldn't everything be rotten by now?" said Sarah.

"Most of it, but country restaurants, locally owned places, or anywhere that serves stuff like corn, beans, and other vegetables sometimes have really big cans of stuff in the back. Sometimes it's pre-frozen portions that will have gone bad though. It's never actually fresh though, no matter what they say on the menu."

"I never even thought about that," said Clem.

"Well make sure you bring along some heavy duty bolt cutters, that kind of stuff is usually in a pantry or walk-in fridge, some of which people bothered to lock before shit hit the fan. Then you'll want something to block out the smell of everything that did rot."

"I've been using a ski mask," said Clem. "But it doesn't work too well, and it get's really hot and itchy."

"Get one of these." Cruz tugged on the mask hanging around her neck. "Next time you're at a hardware store go to where they keep all the painting supplies; you'll find respirators like this one. Not exactly comfortable, but they're better than those huge gas masks that cover your whole face, and they're lighter too."

"And the sunglasses?" asked Clem. "What are those for?"

"I just think they look cool with the mask," admitted Cruz with a smirk. "I guess that's why you're wearing that bracelet." Cruz gestured to the colorful band with the heart pendant on Clem's wrist.

"Sarah made it for me," said Clem. "For my birthday."

"I got the heart from a necklace Clementine had given me," said Sarah.

"Sounds like you two are close," noted Cruz.

"We—"

"Bah-bah!" chanted Omid as he wriggled about in Sarah's grip.

"He must be hungry again," said Sarah. "Clem, could you hold him while I make him a bottle?"

"Sure." Clem moved to put her gun away, but hesitated when she saw Cruz watching her. The woman didn't look nearly as intimidating as she did earlier, in fact she looked concerned now. Clem holstered her pistol and took Omid from Sarah.

"Must be hard, you two, taking care of a baby, when your parents aren't around," said Cruz with more than a hint of sadness in her voice.

"It is," said Clem.

"Do you have any kids?" asked Sarah as she prepared Omid's bottle.

"God no," said Cruz. "I never wanted kids, but it's actually nice to see some again."

"There are no kids where you live?"

"There are some teenagers, and someone's got a daughter who I think is about twelve. That's it. There was a pregnant woman, but…"

"What happened?" asked Clem.

"She died in childbirth. And so did the baby." Clem found herself instinctively tightening her grip on Omid upon hearing that. "Something went wrong and… we couldn't even get it out of her before she… changed."

"She turned into a lurker, while she was giving birth?" asked Sarah.

"That's just what happens when you die." Cruz sighed. "There's another woman pregnant now, and we're hoping for better this time, obviously." Cruz took a breath and collected her sunglasses. "I guess I've taken enough of your time."

"You're leaving?" asked Sarah as she gave Omid his bottle.

"Well I can't exactly stay here, I've got people counting on me to bring stuff back." Cruz donned her sunglasses. "If me and the other scouts don't find enough food, we're gonna have to pack up the whole town and move. Some people want to do that now, but I keep telling them, it's hard enough for just a couple of people to get around these days, let alone a few dozen." Cruz pocketed her sharpening stone and notebook. "I…" Cruz took a breath. "You two could come back with me."

"We could?" asked an excited Sarah.

"I thought you just said you're not sure if you'll even have enough food," said Clem.

"I did, and I won't tell you where I live in some kind of paradise," said Cruz. "But it's not a bad place to live, and we've got a lot of good people who know how to treat children right, and a few who'd probably even be excited to meet some new ones."

"I… I don't know," said Clem. "I—"

"It's a big decision," said Cruz. "You'd probably want to talk it over, with your parents, right?"

"Um… yeah," said Clem. "We… we would."

"I've got a lot of stops I need to make to pick up all the scraps I found on the north side of town." Cruz donned her respirator. "How bout you sleep on it and give me your answer tomorrow?"

"That sounds good," said Sarah.

Cruz unlocked the door and stepped out. "I'll be back at sunrise, stay safe until then." Clem locked the door behind Cruz and went to the window. She watched Cruz collect her bloody coat and her rifle before moving back towards the highway.

"So?" said Sarah. "What are we going to do?"

"I… I don't know," admitted Clem.

"I think we should go with her when she comes back. We could use some help taking care of Omid," said Sarah as tried to burp the infant. "And, we're not doing so good on our own."

"We're… we're just new at this," reasoned Clem. "We'll do better."

"What if we don't?" asked Sarah. "Or what if we don't do better before we run out of food?"

"What if this place we go to runs out of food? Like she said it might?" asked Clem. "Then we'd just have to find food on our own again anyway."

"Yeah, but it might be okay."

"We might be okay if we stay on our own."

"I don't understand why you want to stay on our own so bad," said Sarah. "Do you think she was lying to us or something?"

"I don't think she was lying," said Clem.

"Then what?"

"It's just…" Clementine sighed, unsure how to tell Sarah she had killed a person the day they left home, and that person was probably someone Cruz knew. She turned away from the older girl and looked out the window.

"Do you think something bad will happen if we go with that woman?" Clem felt her chest tighten as she heard the anxiety seeping into Sarah's voice. She hated hearing hear friend worry, and dreaded finding out how Sarah would react to hearing the truth. "I… I just don't know what we're going to do if we stay on our own."

Looking at the window, Clem could see Sarah's face in its reflection, as well as the anxiety welling up in the older girl's eyes as she rocked Omid in her arms. Clem found it hard to even look at her own reflection, seeing just a small and frightened little girl staring back at her. She racked her brain for something that would ease Sarah's concerns, ease her own concerns, but nothing came to mind.

"Sarah."

"Yeah?"

"I…" Clem bit her tongue before the truth could slip past it.

"What is it?" Clementine could see that one word had made things worse, with Sarah looking more anxious and Clem thinking she looked worse herself just from trying to utter the truth. She found herself wishing she had never pulled that trigger, but she had. "Clem, what's wrong?" Unable to look at Sarah or even her own reflection anymore, Clementine turned away, as if she expected to find answers staring out at the gas station instead.

"I…" Suddenly, the gas station seemed to give Clem the answer she wanted. "I think I know what to do."

"You do?"

"You were right, we were getting more food from the stuff far away from everything else."

"Yeah, but it takes a lot of diesel too."

"So we just need more diesel. A lot more."

"But, how?" Clem pointed out the window. "Is that—"

"That's where they keep the gas," said Clem as she pointed to the metal covers embedded in the ground. "If we can get in there, we can get all the diesel we'll need for a long time."

"But how?"

"You said the place next door had a lot of tools, right?

"Yeah."

"There has to be some stuff that'll help us get the gas."

"What if there's not, or we just can't do it?" Clem sighed to herself. "I just mean, what do we do if we don't figure it out?"

"If we can't get the diesel before Cruz comes back tomorrow, we…" Clem took a deep breath. "We'll go with her. But if we do get it, we stay on our own for now. Sound good?"

Clem turned around, awaiting Sarah's answer. She watched anxiously as the older girl considered the proposal, her face twisting as she weighed her options. Finally, Sarah opened her mouth to speak. "Okay."