Extinction Event¹ ━ FTWD

CHAPTER 9: No Atheists In Foxholes

EXTINCTION EVENT

chapter nine: no atheists in foxholes

[ original episode ]

DAY 08

Nothing happened of any particular note while getting rations. Nothing ever did, but Katie would spend at least an hour debriefing her just to be sure. As if she couldn't trust Meghan's word.

Meghan glanced down at the reusable bag which carried their rations as she walked back to their house, mentally tallying the contents within. It didn't look like they'd cut down on any of their supplies like her mother had worried they might, but she'd double-check to be sure. Then her mother would check again, because of course she would.

It was frustrating —everything about this, but especially the fact that she'd gone from being her mother's trusted lieutenant to foot soldier all because of one screw-up back at the dorm. Realistically, she knew it was coming for awhile. Katie had been building up a reservoir of resentment ever since she made the decision to study across the country at UCLA against her wishes.

Her hands stung, the hard canvas of the bag strap digging deep into the pads of her fingers. She shifted the bag over to her other hand, and glared down at the ground as Holly tugged at her leash. If all this happened before she left, the pain wouldn't be cause for so much as a blink. It was pitiful, how calluses she'd built up over months and years of nocking arrows and switching out bow strings had been undone over just a few weeks away at college.

Her jaw involuntarily clenched as she trudged on, making sure to plaster a smile on as she passed by her new neighbors on her tour around the block.

By her estimates, the average house spanned about 40 feet in length, and the distance between each house was an average of fifteen feet.

From this, she'd figured the distance between their house and the military pick-up for rations to be roughly half a mile, but she'd pushed that distance further each day as she continued to map the surrounding neighborhood. Her slow circumference of the El Sereno neighborhood had gone unnoticed by her family, and to her knowledge, everyone else. She'd been careful not to alert her mother or sister to her activities, only mapping about a half mile in excess each day.

So far, she'd plotted out about two miles, but she estimated there were at least a couple more she hadn't seen yet, making the neighborhood roughly four square miles total.

Meghan's arm jerked taut and she stumbled, almost dropping the bag as Holly tugged her roughly forward.

"Holly!" Meghan snapped, readjusting her left arm so the rations wouldn't spill all over the ground. Yet another screw-up for Mum to use against me, she thought darkly. The lab ignored her protests, and jerked once again at the lead, straining to get over towards whatever had caught her interest.