Clementine felt the wind stinging at her face as she pedaled down the road. It was warmer today, but still not nearly enough for her liking. The snow had disappeared almost as suddenly as it had come, and once again it felt like they were on their way to an early spring, or maybe they were just a few days closer to an ordinary spring now. Looking out at the vast empty fields of the Osage Nation, midday sun lighting every withered blade of grass, Clem was disappointed to find no signs of civilization beyond the power poles running beside the road, her only clues to a possible oasis in this desert of emptinesses.

Seeing a barn approaching on the horizon, Clem stopped pedaling and started coasting along on her momentum. A wooden fence came into view, and Clem suspected this was another cattle farm instead of the kind they were looking for, but seeing it was the only building for miles she stopped to check it out. Deploying her bike's kickstand, Clem removed the tomahawk and raincoat stashed in her saddlebag and climbed over the decrepit wooden fence.

There wasn't much in the pasture but a few stray weeds, but Clem could see something piled up in one of the corners across from her and a couple of bodies lying in the dirt just before that. Approaching them, she could see their decaying limbs had been twisted into unnatural positions, and their clothes were little more than darkly stained rags now, but she still raised her tomahawk and punctured the nearest one's lifeless skull.
Approaching the second body, Clem felt a leg bone snap under foot. Suddenly, the second corpse twitched, causing Clem to jump backwards in response. Watching anxiously, Clem saw that the walker's head could only barely pivot in place using the torn strains of flesh that were once its neck. It could only fruitlessly chomp at the air, or even the dirt depending on which way its head bobbed; Clem put an end to its pitiful existence.

Reaching the corner of the field, Clem discovered what she had seen before were piles of bones that probably use to belong to a couple of horses. Their skeletons had been picked clean and left to bake in the sun, with weeds growing in the spots shaded by their presence. Looking ahead, Clem noticed the corner of the fence had been knocked down and past it she saw one more animal's skeleton. Whenever that was the last one or there had been others who had escaped, she didn't know.

Clem headed for the barn next, where she found nothing of interest, then the farmhouse just beyond it, which wasn't much better. There was no food left, the dressers were left half-empty from when the previous occupants had fled, and the interior dotted with leaves, dirt, and other things that had likely blown in through the windows over the last two years. Having found nothing of value, Clem returned to her bike and resumed her lonely search.

"Pawhuska's gone," informed Devlin over the radio. "I was holding out hope this far into Osage land we'd find signs of them, but nothing."

"When we investigated Hominy and the surrounding area, you said the damage was much worse than you expected and speculated it was possible troops from Oklahoma City could still be here into the Osage Nation," reminded Sin. "Do you think they could be this far in?"

"Doubtful," said Devlin. "We already knew the people living out here had consolidated on the area bordering Tulsa a long time ago. Even if OKC came in this far, Pawhuska looks abandoned like everywhere else, not burnt down and shot to hell like Hominy was…"

"I guess there's probably not any Osage left," concluded Sarah.

"Or any troops," added Sin.

"Or if there are, they went in a different direction than us," noted Devlin.

"We're already halfway across the Osage Nation, and we still haven't found anyone," said Sarah. "Although, it's a big area."

"And empty," added Sin. "This is our third day, and we still haven't found a suitable place for the farm."

"Only because you two are so picky," retorted Anthony. "We've found tons of abandoned farms now, but for every single one you guys say—"

"We need to find the right one," recited Sarah.

"Yeah, that," said Anthony.

"I gotta ask, do we have any room to compromise on this?" said Patty. "I mean, multiple water sources, one big enough to fish in, two acres of flat farmland, buildings with roofs right for rainwater collection; can't we get by without the fishing or—"

"You were all worried about the workload necessary to run a farm, as you should be," reminded Sin. "Sarah and I devised what we felt were the bare minimum of necessities needed for the seven of us to run a self-sufficient farm without any help. Remember, we have no running water, no electricity, no animals, and we're going to have to grow many different things. Farms usually grow many of one thing because different crops have different requirements, but we'd have no one to sell a surplus to, so—"

"I get it!" insisted Anthony.

"I did find a small river," reported Patty. "I guess I can follow it for a while, see if it borders any farms."

"Keep us posted."

Clem slowed to a stop as she spotted something sitting in the road. Using her binoculars, she could see it was a black bicycle; Patty's bicycle, which she had lent to Jet. Clem had known he was making a sweep of this area, but didn't think she'd already looped back into the area he was surveying. Rolling her bike up to his, she looked around for any sign of the boy and spotted someone standing on a small hill in the distance.

"Jet!"

Clem watched as the figure turned around; it was him, and he started waving for her to come closer. She hopped off her bike and started walking across the hill. "Did you find something?" asked Clem as she moved up to join him. "It looks like it's just cattle farms and ranches around here, no…" Clem looked out at the mass of metal debris blanketing a field leading up to a large broken metal tube. "Whoa."

"Yeah." Jet started moving down the hill, Clem following behind him. Charred chunks of metal littered the entire area, seemingly weaved into the thin layer of dead grass they were walking across. Even trying to avoid the bigger pieces, Clem heard harsh metal crunches under her shoes as she moved forward. Most of the debris was so badly burnt it was difficult to tell what they used to be. It wasn't until she got closer to the tube in the distance an image of a passenger plane started to form in Clem's head.

Approaching the broken fuselage sitting just beyond the debris field, Clem found herself becoming tense. Jet pulled his machete while Clem readied her tomahawk as the two stepped into what remained of the dark tube. Listening to their feet echo across that metal gave Clem a shiver, and carefully scanning the area made her paranoid something was going to jump out at her.

Jet suddenly raised his machete over his head as he pulled open a large cabinet, only to find nothing inside. Facing forward, the pair found themselves staring at a partially opened door just ahead. They moved in close, Jet approached the door while Clem traded her tomahawk for her pistol. He slowly pulled it open and Clem could see a wrecked cockpit inside. Jet briefly stuck his head back past the entrance then looked back at Clem.

"It looks empty."

She followed Jet in, discovering a couple of seats facing cracked windows that looked out over the empty fields. Clutching her gun in her hand, Clem crept past the edge of the seat only to discover it was empty. There were a few stains on it that may have been blood, but were so faded it was hard to tell. Looking over, Clem saw Jet standing right beside her examining the other empty seat.

"I guess we shouldn't have expected to find anything," concluded Jet.

"You never know anymore," said Clem as she put her pistol away.

"We're out of the sun in here," noted Jet. "You want to stop for lunch?"

"Sure." The pair shut the door, piled their equipment into the corner and removed a couple of cans from their packs. Sitting down in the seats, Clem found something odd about looking out at an empty field through a cracked windshield. Observing the desolate landscape from the confines of an abandoned vehicle didn't feel much different than sitting in the Brave actually.

"Thanks again for the hat." Clem looked over to see Jet was wearing the Apollo cap she had given him not long after they met.

"It's no problem," she assured. "I'm surprised it fits you; I thought it was too small for me."

"Granddad did some stuff to it make it bigger," said Jet as he removed the cap. "He said I should just get a bigger hat, but I told him I'm probably never going to find another one like this now that we've left Houston. I think he likes that it says 'Failure is not an option', so he made little cuts in the back that let me stretch it out more; he's handy like that, when he wants to be. Although I guess it's silly wanting to keep this so bad, but…"

"You like it," concluded Clem. "That's a good enough reason to keep it."

"I tell myself that I'm wearing this to remind me that if people could travel into space, then we can at least survive," mused Jet. "But really, I just like it, like you said. If you had any more NASA stuff I'd wear it too."

"We have a NASA jacket for when OJ gets bigger, but I don't think your granddad could ever stretch it enough for you to wear it," informed Clem. "We used to have a toy space shuttle too, but OJ lost it."

"How?" asked Jet. "Doesn't he stay in the RV most of the time?"

"He does, but he managed to lose it anyway. One day he had it, the next day he didn't, and we couldn't find it anywhere. He did the same thing with a pink marker we gave him once and some other stuff. Sarah thinks one day we're just going to find some spot in the Brave where OJ has been hiding everything, but I think he probably just threw them in the trash and we didn't notice until it was too late."

Clem fished some corn out of her can and started chewing on it.

"So what do you think happened?" said Jet.

"To this plane?" asked Clem.

"Yeah."

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Maybe someone was bitten, got on a plane, turned into a walker, then caused it to crash."

"Yeah, probably." Jet twirled his spoon around his can and sighed. "I remember when it all started, there was a plane crash on the news."

"You think it was this one?" asked Clem.

"No, they said this happened near Dallas, so I guess there were two plane crashes that day… at least. At the time, people were worried about if it was terrorists or an accident or… something else. I guess it was the last one."

"We still don't really know what happened," said Clem. "Not really, other than people turn into walkers now when they die or get bitten by one. You didn't hear anything on TV that told you why this happened did you?"

"No, at least I don't think; it all happened so fast," said Jet as he shook his head. "I remember waking up that morning, seeing that plane crash on TV, and thinking how horrible it was. Around noon, the news was on every major channel, and they were talking about a riot in downtown Houston, and Granddad called to say he'd be coming home early. By the time he got back, there was an emergency broadcast on every channel telling everyone to stay indoors. It stayed on TV for a few days, then there was nothing…"

"I remember me and my babysitter being annoyed most of the channels didn't have our favorite shows on, so we just did other stuff. It wasn't until I was getting ready for bed did I know something was wrong. My babysitter thought she heard someone knocking on the door and went to check."

"It was a walker, wasn't it?"

"I heard her scream, then I found her in the kitchen, bleeding all over herself… then she tried to kill me. It just got worse after that."

"I always thought things would have to get better eventually, but they never really did," spoke Jet in a quiet voice. "Well, except meeting you and Sarah and Patty."

"Things got better after you met us?" asked Clem. "I mean, we just told you how bad things really were and that New Orleans was wrecked."

"Yeah, don't remind me. But, for once, people said they would help us, and you did… that was probably the best thing that happened to us in a long time." Clem looked over at Jet, hunched over in his seat and he scrapped the bottom of his empty can. "Thanks…" he spoke in a whisper.

"Don't thank us yet," insisted a weary Clem as she tossed her empty can aside. "We've still got a lot to do."

The pair gathered their equipment and returned to their bikes to pedal off in opposite directions. Clem didn't like traveling alone, likely no one did these days, but with such a wide area to search they had little choice. No matter how far she went she could only find more empty space spreading out in every direction. If not for the utility poles and what remained of the road, Clem would suspect that no one had ever lived here to begin with.

Eventually, she found a worn but still paved road breaking from the highway, with power lines leading off in the same direction, meaning there had to be something this way. Following this path for a while, she found herself passing by a fairly large pond; a possible water source for their own farm Clem thought. She was going to detour towards it for a closer look when Clem noticed a truck parked on the road in the distance.

Skidding to a sudden stop, Clem used her binoculars to examine the vehicle. She could see the truck was parked between a gap in a fence, which was obscured by the dead trees bordering it. At first she assumed the truck was being used to block the road, but upon closer inspection she noticed the hood had been popped and one of the doors was open. Clutching her gun as she approached the vehicle, Clem saw more signs of it being abandoned, with all the tires being flat and the seats being covered in a thin layer of dirt. Checking under the hood, Clem saw a lot of disconnected cables and stray tools resting on the engine.

Moving past the truck and the fence, Clem discovered a one-story house just beyond them. A quick survey of the building revealed nothing out of the ordinary or any recent signs of habitation. Stepping out onto the back patio, Clem spotted something at the end of the yard she hadn't noticed during her immediate inspection of the house's exterior. Moving past the swimming pool half full of murky green water, Clem discovered three grave markers.

They weren't as crude as the crosses made from random scraps of wood the military had left behind in areas they cleared out, but they were still primitive. They were little more than planks of wood cut in the shape of graves, the words carved on them barely legible. The first two graves had just names, likely James and Eleanor from Clem's best guess, but the third one had 'I'M SORRY' written across it in big letters. Looking down, she saw this last marker stood in front of a grave that was still partially open.

Peering into it, Clementine could see the outline of a corpse only half covered in dirt, the vacant eye sockets of its head staring up at her. As distasteful as she found to do so, she gripped her tomahawk tightly and swung its blade into the rotten skull, creating a sickening crunch as she caved in what remained of this person's face. Pulling out her tomahawk, Clem spotted something metal sitting in the corner of the grave.

Pushing aside the dirt with her hand, she discovered a pistol sitting right next to the deceased's head. Examining the weapon, she found it was in poor shape, filthy and rusted likely from being left in the dirt for so long. Removing the magazine was difficult as it refused to slide out, and even using her bayonet it was hard to pry the piece from the rest of the gun. There were still six bullets inside, and one more in the chamber after Clem managed to cycle the rusted pistol.

Tossing the gun itself back into the hole, Clem noticed a shovel lying in the grass not far from the grave. The house had been devoid of even scraps of food, with jars of condiments having been scraped clean. The broken truck was the only transportation she had seen in the area, with not even so much as a bicycle left in the garage. Considering the gun she found in the grave and the words on the wooden headstone, Clem surmised this person possibly shot themselves after running out of food, likely even climbing into their own grave before they did it.

Whenever or not that was the fate of the other two people, she couldn't say. She hadn't seen any overt messages or notes in the house, and she wasn't keen on going back to look for one. All Clem had was the message 'I'm sorry' on the final grave, and even trying to decipher its exact meaning unsettled her. Looking at the still uncovered corpse, Clem felt a sudden urge to finish it. Whenever motivated because of sentimentality or guilt from literally robbing their grave, Clem picked up the shovel and started moving dirt into the hole one scoop at a time.

"Sound off," Clem heard Devlin say through her radio. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah," said Clem as she grabbed her radio. "I'm fine." Clem took a deep breath as she placed the radio back on her belt, then started shoveling again.

"I'm okay," she heard Jet say next. "Still haven't found anything that you guys want though."

"We're okay too," assured Sarah.

"No one has had any luck?" asked Sin.

"None," reported Patty's voice.

"You think we'd at least find someone's leftover crops by now," reasoned Anthony. "Didn't you say these Osage people were already growing stuff?"

"They were attacked near the end of the growing season," answered Devlin. "If they were any survivors, from the Osage or OKC, they probably took whatever was left before leaving."

"Yeah, but surely there were some corn farmers or something around here," said Anthony. "Shouldn't we at least see something growing after they left? I mean, corn grew in the wild before right?"

"Not like we have now," said Sarah.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Anthony.

"In one of the books I read, it said that most of the fruits and vegetables we eat are only the way they are because people started growing them."

"What?" asked Patty.

"Well like corn, the book I read said thousands of years ago, corn was a really small and dry grass, and it wasn't until people started growing it did it change and get a lot bigger like the corn we have now."

"It just… got bigger?" asked Jet.

"It likely mutated over dozens of generations after it was domesticated," speculated Sin. "Farmers would obviously want to maximize their yield, so they'd do everything they could to make their crops as fruitful as possible, and over hundreds of years the plants themselves would adapt to their new conditions."

"Yeah," said Sarah. "But that means they're used to being grown on farms now, and don't do well in the wild."

"Are you serious?" asked Anthony. "You're saying we can only grow food on farms now because that's what they're used to?"

"Some foods," said Sarah. "Others were bred with similar or different fruits and vegetables to make them better, or make new ones altogether."

"Make new fruits and vegetables?" asked Devlin. "Like what?"

"Well, I read lemons were something people created by mixing two different citrus fruits," said Sarah. "Animals wouldn't eat something so sour which means they wouldn't spread its seeds, so the only way they could exist is if people invented them."

"We invented lemons?" asked Anthony in disbelief. "Um… we invent any other fruits?"

"I seem to remember reading that bananas were similar to lemons," said Sin. "The ones we got at stores don't have seeds because they were created by cross-breeding two different types of bananas, and the result was a bigger and better-tasting fruit with no seeds."

"Wait, if they don't have seeds, how did we ever make more of them?" asked Patty.

"Probably through cloning," said Sarah.

"Are you serious?" asked Patty.

"Well, cloning a plant isn't like cloning animals," said Sarah. "You cut off part of it, plant it in the ground, then take care of it until it grows into a new plant on its own. When strawberries stop growing berries, they grow these long vines called stolons that grow away from the plant and into the dirt to make a new strawberry plant just like the old one; they actually clone themselves."

"Stolon?" asked Clem as she stopped shoveling for a second. "That word sounds familiar."

"Yeah, Dr. Bostwick said it when she was… well not teaching us about plants really."

"The problem with cloning is there's no opportunity for the species to adapt if its environment ever changes," said Sin. "What I read also mentioned the bananas we have now, or had, were actually smaller than the ones people ate until the nineteen-fifties. A disease wiped out most of those types of bananas though, and since they were all clones of each other and couldn't produce different versions that could possibly adapt, they died out and we had to switch to a different type of banana that wasn't susceptible to the disease."

"I thought you were only an expert on oil or something?" asked Anthony.

"I've done a lot reading on horticulture and botany lately," said Sin.

"Me too," added Sarah.

"How the hell did Valkaria keep all those orange trees going if this stuff is so complicated?" asked Patty.

"Southern Florida was probably the right climate for orange trees to grow," said Sin.

"And orange trees don't usually need to be pollinated to grow fruit," added Sarah. "So you just have to worry about keeping them alive."

"What about apple trees?" asked Devlin.

"I think I read they need to be near a different kind of apple tree to pollinate each other, otherwise they might not grow any apples," said Sarah. "I'll have to check, I brought notes for apple trees."

"Devlin, do you know what kind of apple trees those saplings should make?" Jet asked.

"I have no idea," answered Devlin.

"This is all making my head spin," said Patty.

"I always thought you just put seeds in the ground and that was it," said Anthony.

"Agriculture is complicated; if it wasn't, famine never would have been a problem." Clementine paused as Sin said that. She found herself staring at her own shadow laying on the mound of dirt in front of her, the headstone resting just past it. "The surpluses of food we used to enjoy weren't by accident; we arrived at that by careful design."

"And cheap labor, don't forget that," added Devlin with a hint of derision. "Which we don't have."

"We don't have anyone who's an expert on this stuff either," said Sarah. "If Dr. Bostwick was here—"

"She's not," said Clem as she tossed the shovel aside. "Nobody is…" she said as she turned away from the graves. "It's just us."

"Yeah, I know…" said Sarah.

"Unless one of you find a suitable site soon, we should prepare to move on," said Sin. "Sarah and I will check the map to see where we can try tomorrow."

Clementine returned to her bike and continued her search of the area, finding more emptiness and a few scant abandoned homes that weren't adequate for their needs. Moving into the late afternoon, Clem reunited with Jet, who confirmed he had no success either. The pair started pedaling back the way they came, eventually arriving at a lone neglected airstrip where two semi-trailers and a couple of familiar RV's were parked.

Standing behind the Brave, Clem saw Devlin leaned up against the RV.

"Was just about to call you kids," said Devlin as he tossed his cigarette aside. "You two okay?"

"Yeah," said Clem as she hopped off her bike.

"Except we didn't find anything, again," added Jet.

"Join the club." Devlin grabbed Clem's bike and carried it over to Brave's bike rack. "Pawhuska was a total bust; not even any infected left."

"We found a crashed plane," reported Jet as Devlin moved the second bike onto the rack.

"A plane?"

"What's left of one," said Clem. "It crashed a long time ago, probably right after everything got bad."

"Probably just one of many," said Devlin as he set the second bike on the rack. "That first day, we were hearing reports of all kind of things. Some of us thought it was actually a coordinated attack before we realized it was an outbreak… or whatever the hell it was." Devlin sighed.

"Do… do you know where Granddad is?"

"He went to chill in his RV after I brought it back from Pawhuska," said Devlin. "Guess he needed a break."

"So do I," said Jet as he headed towards the Sunseeker.

"Me too," said Clem as she took off her backpack.

"You sure you two are okay doing this?" asked Devlin as Clem headed for the Brave's door. "I mean, I talked with Sin and he said he was willing—"

"It's fine Devlin." Looking over her shoulder at the man, Clem could see the unsettled look resting on his usually chiseled face. "I get it bothers you kids are doing this, but the sooner we find somewhere to stay, the sooner we'll all feel safer."

"You ever change your mind or just want a break, you just tell me."

"I will… thanks Devlin." Clem managed to force a smile on to her face for the man. She was grateful for his concern, but her mind was too preoccupied to fully appreciate it right now. Heading into the Brave, Clem found herself stepping over boxes and maneuvering past a still unassembled crib in front of the couch just to reach the fridge to store her raincoat.

Tossing her backpack aside, Clem headed for the bedroom as quickly as she could while stepping over large boxes sitting in the way. Inside she found Sarah sprawled out on the bed, surrounded by binders and books while a map was laid out in front of her. She didn't even look up when Clem entered the room, and appeared exhausted herself.

"Kem-men!" Clem watched as Omid climbed over his crib's railing to get to her faster.

"Hey OJ," said Clem as Omid landed on the pillow set outside his crib.

"Omid," dictated Sarah.

"Huh?"

"You should start calling him Omid," said Sarah without looking up. "Now that he's starting to learn words, we shouldn't confuse him by calling him different names."

"Kem-men," repeated Omid as Clem looked away from him.

"He can already kind of say our names," said Sarah. "But I don't think he knows his yet because you and I call him different things."

Clem found herself irritated that this was the first thing Sarah said to her upon her return. "I'm back by the way…" Sarah looked up, clearly annoyed herself, prompting an awkward stare down between the pair for a few seconds before Sarah sighed.

"Sorry," she said as she looked away. "I had a lot of time today with nothing to do, so I was trying to get him to say Omid and noticed he had trouble with it, even though he's getting better at saying Sarah."

"Sah-rah," repeated Omid.

"Listen to you," said Clem in a sweet voice. "You're talking like a big boy now Oh… Omid."

"Oh-muh," babbled Omid.

"That's about as close as he gets right now," said Sarah as she carefully crawled off the bed.

"I'll start calling him Omid," assured Clem as she set him down.

"It won't be forever, just until he learns his name, and only when he's around; it doesn't matter if you call him OJ when it's just us and he doesn't hear you."

"Where's Patty?" asked Clem.

"She said she was going to meet up with Anthony and check something out before they came back."

Clem pulled her radio from her belt. "Patty?" Clem waited for a second, but received no answer. "Patty, are you—"

"Give me a minute," whispered Patty in a harsh tone.

Clem looked over at Sarah and saw she was every bit as concerned. Without thinking, the pair moved back towards the front; Clem collecting her backpack and Sarah heading for the driver's seat, both anticipating trouble. Watching through the windshield, Clem could see Sin stepping out to meet Devlin, the two men clearly worried about what they had heard over the radio. Sarah already looked ready to turn the key when there was another cracking sound from the radio.

"Okay," said Patty. "I think we found it."

"Found what?" asked Clem.

"Sarah, are you there?" asked Patty.

"Yeah."

"Get your map."
Patty passed along some directions and both RV's headed for the nearest road. The sun was setting now, but Patty assured the group they didn't have far to go. From her seat, Clem eventually watched as something come into view just beyond the vast empty fields spread out before them. She could see the orange glow of the sunlight bouncing off water on the horizon. It was pleasant at first, then somewhat blinding as the size of the body of water they were approaching became apparent.

"I think we found a water source," said Sarah over the radio in awe as she slowed down to get a better view.

"Yes," said Sin, sounding stunned. "I see that."

"Bet the fishing's good too," added Anthony.

As they drove along a road bordering the lake, Clem could see just how big it really was. It paled in comparison to Lake Pontchartrain or even the Indian River, but it still dwarfed every meager pond and stream they had seen since entering the Osage Nation.

"The lake is just the start," said Patty. "You're gonna love what comes next."

Following the road through a dead forest and over what looked like a small swamp where the lake met the land, the trees began to thin out and an old wooden fence came into view. Beyond that, Clem saw a fenced in field with a pond in the corner and what looked like a stable. Across from it was a big farmhouse with a chimney, along with a smaller guest house and a big shed. Rounding a corner, Clem found themselves moving down a driveway to where Anthony's truck was parked.

"Come on out," prompted Patty. "We checked the area, it's safe."

Stepping out with the others to examine her surroundings, the group was immediately greeted by Patty and Anthony.

"Whatta think?" asked Anthony as he gestured to their surroundings. "Pretty nice huh?"

Clem moved over to the fenced-in field to study it closer. It was pretty quaint compared to the other fields she had seen, but still seemed big enough for their needs. Staring at that patch dirt, she started envisioning rows of vegetables growing there and her coming out every morning to water them from the large pond sitting in the corner of the field.

"That stable's roof would be good for rainwater collection." Clem looked up to see Sin was studying the large structure just past the field. It was long and metal, with deeply slanted roofs. "If we could put some gutters up, we could probably collect barrels of water easily every time it rains."

"This looks like at least two acres," said Sarah as she stared out over the field. "At least… I think it is."

"I also found what looks like a pretty new tractor in that barn that I can probably get running," said Patty "I think this place was in the process of changing owners or something because the house is almost bare."

"Bare?" repeated Clem as she moved to get a better look at the house in question.

"Almost nothing in there but some basic furniture; dressers, one big bed and a smaller bed in a separate room, a few tables, chairs, and so on," listed Patty. "Looks real sturdy though, like they had just finished renovating, two stories, plenty of room, one and a half bathrooms, even has this old timey looking stove that's part of the kitchen."

"One and a half bathrooms?" asked Jet.

"One with an actual bathtub on the second floor and then there's a closet with a toilet and a sink on the first floor," said Patty.

Studying the house, Clem saw it had a big welcoming front porch leading up to a bright red door. Seeing the chimney in the back, Clem started reminiscing about the many nights she and Sarah had spent in front of a fire in Spokeston, and checking one of the second-story windows, she imagined what the view must have looked like from up there.

"What about the guest house and the shed?" asked Sin.

"Pretty much the same, mostly empty but they look sturdy," said Patty. "There's also a storm shelter on the edge of the yard."

"Ugh, stay away from that," cautioned Anthony.

"Why?" asked Clem. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's creepy."

"Creepy?"

"It's small and dark and cramped."

"It's a storm shelter Anthony," said Patty. "It's what they're like."

"Well then I don't like storm shelters," said Anthony as he crossed his arms.

"We could probably put up chainlink fence around all of this and the driveway, keep any stray infected who wander in away from us and our vehicles while we're sleeping," proposed Devlin. "And all the cover will make this place harder to see."

Looking around, Clem noticed the entire area was surrounded by dead trees, almost like they were encircling this tiny farm. At the moment their branches were bare and casted twisted shadows over the area, but as spring came and leaves returned, they would block out any view of the outside area, as well as hide the farm from sight from anyone looking in. Again, Clem found herself picturing what it would look like, and found the idea of a home tucked away in a small forest very comforting.

"I'm concerned about how close this place is to Pawhuska though," said Sin. "We can't be more than a few miles away, and that lake we passed is big enough that it's probably on most maps of the area."

"Being close to Pawhuska might not be a bad thing," said Devlin. "It might not have any food, but there's still plenty of tools and goods we can salvage; save us a long trip back to Tulsa if we ever need anything."

"The lake is on the map in my atlas, but it doesn't list a name for it," said Sarah. "It's a lot smaller than the one we checked out near Hominy though."

"You can't have it both ways man," said Anthony. "Anywhere with a big ass lake or river isn't going to be totally isolated because other people are going to want water for the same reasons we do."

"We did spend some time scouting around the edge of it," said Patty. "Lot a little small docks built just past the shore, probably for people to go boating in the summer, but we didn't see any other farms or big houses, let alone one as close as this."

"That's another thing, there's some distance between that lake and this actual farm," said Sin. "Trying to build a trench out to here from it would be a challenge."

"Seriously?" asked Patty. "This is pretty much everything you and Sarah have been asking for. We haven't seen anything else even close, not on these damn country roads we've been searching."

"And the longer we wait the closer we're going to get to the growing season," said Sarah. "It's already early March, and we haven't even started yet."

"Kem-men! Sah-rah!" Clem spun around to see Omid slowing climbing down the Brave's steps one at a time.

"I gotcha you." Clem picked up the boy, then looked ahead at the spacious house and large yard in front of her. "I vote we stay," announced Clem suddenly.

"Ditto," said Anthony.

"I think we all do except you," said Patty as she turned to Sin. The man crossed his arms and looked out over the land, slowly evaluating everything with a careful eye. "Well?"

"I think we should search the immediate area a little more thoroughly."

"Granddad, are you seriously—"

"Just to be sure there are no immediate threats in this region, or even better places to settle on this same lake," explained Sin. "We can do that tomorrow, and if we don't find anywhere better to settle, we could probably make this place work for us."

"Good enough for me," said Patty. "Anthony, give me and Devlin a lift back to the airstrip so we can bring the trucks up. Unless we stumble upon Xanadu in northern Oklahoma tomorrow, we'll probably be off-loading them before long."

"Got it."

"Come on Clem, we should—" Clem took a step towards the house.

"Let's go inside," she said.

"Why?" asked Sarah.

"To see our new home."

"We don't know—"

"If we stay here, it'll be our new home; don't you want to at least see what it looks like first?" Clem looked down to see Omid trying to approach her while Sarah held onto one of his hands. "Omid wants to see his new home."

"Oh-muh," he repeated as he kept trying to pull free from Sarah.

"All right," said Sarah as she took a step forward, bringing Omid close enough to Clem to hold his other hand. "Let's check it out."

The trio pushed past the big red door and emerged into a spacious foyer. The house was largely bare as Patty had described it, but Clem found herself quickly growing comfortable with her surroundings anyway as she kept envisioning filling in the empty spaces with their own possessions. Their books in the book shelves, their pots and pans in the kitchen cabinets, even their laundry hanging in the backyard.

The living room was spacious with a massive brick fireplace positioned in the back, which the girls had to stop an excitable Omid from crawling into. Sarah suggested a table in front the fireplace would be a great place to spend evenings playing games together. Picturing it, Clem saw it as something big and open like the cabin while being cozy and comfortable like their home in Spokeston; she felt warmer just thinking about it.

Heading back to the foyer and towards the stairs, the pair stopped to help Omid climb his way up. He still struggled to scale each step, but seemed to enjoy the challenge, looking more determined with each one he conquered. Reaching the top, Clem pushed open the nearest door and the trio entered an almost entirely empty room. Except for the window and the empty closet, it was a bare four walls and Clem was about to leave when she felt Omid pulling free from her grip.

"Omid, come on."

"No," said Omid as he pulled away from the girls. He walked further into the room, awestruck or perhaps just confused by his surroundings.

"I don't get it, what's he looking at?" said Sarah.

Clem watched as Omid stood in the middle of the room, his mouth agape as he kept staring up at the blank ceiling.

"He's never been in a room this big before," realized Clem.

"He hasn't?" said Sarah. "At the Space Center we—"

"Not like this, where it's just a regular room you stay in," said Clem. "Everywhere he's stayed has always been really cramped. Even back in Spokeston, he stayed in a bedroom with us, and it was smaller than this. This is… it's like more space than he's ever had before."

"You're right," noted Sarah as she knelt down to get a better look at Omid. "Do you like this room?"

"Do you like your new room?" corrected Clem.

"Ruh-roo." Omid eventually turned his gaze downward, and instead started walking over to the window. Clem scooped him up and held him up to the glass. "Ah-bree-duh-ow-sah!" he cheered as planted his hands on the window.

"It's perfect," said Clem with a smile.

"Really?" said Sarah. "It's empty."

"Exactly," said an excited Clem. "We can make a room just for Omid, one that he can grow up in and be happy in for years."

"All we have to do now is learn how to run a farm," said Sarah, sounding less enthusiastic.