Too Far Gone // D. Dixon

chapter fifteen

"So," the woman had crossed her legs, her eyes keen on the young survivor in front of her, "You must be Maren, is that right?"

Maren was skeptical as she studied the woman sitting before her. She appeared so very clean, her office space and everything else for that matter was nearly spotless. The room had made Maren uncomfortably anxious, the state of perfection and the luxury of cleanliness had long since been lost as a result of the fall of society.

This place and this woman was a complete and utter contradiction to the life she's lived for so long, of all of the terrible shit she'd been through in the process of simply surviving.

"Yes," Maren quickly replied, her shortness clearly expected from the woman across from her.

"I know this might be a bit of a shock for you, coming into a place like this after being out there for so long..." The woman paused, sensing Maren's very apparent disapproval, "My name is Deanna Monroe, I'm in charge of this place. I help keep Alexandria a safe place."

Maren nodded as she maintained a certain level of caution when speaking to Deanna, "Why are you doing this? Interviewing all of us?"

"We're all about transparency here. I find that if we get to know each other, we can form a better bond. This place is a community, people work together to make things work. That is why I'm doing this, I just want to get to know you and your group a little better." Deanna explained to Maren calmly.

Maren's piercing gaze never strayed far from Deanna, as she carefully watched the woman with suspicious eyes. Sure, everything she said made sense. But still, she waited and watched for a sign, any sign that this was too good to be true. If her time out there had taught her anything, it was that places and people like this don't exist. At least, not anymore.

"Tell me, Maren, how long have you been out there?"

The question was innocent enough, but it made Maren pause. The truth was that Maren had been out there for a long time, almost too long. Long enough to know how to defend herself and how to keep herself safe, but almost too long. Too long in the sense that she'd almost lost herself to the kill-or-be-killed nature that the world had so brutally succumbed to.

Maren sighed, feeling the woman's eyes burn right through her, "A long time, since the beginning really."

Deanna watched the girl, sensing her unease, "Where were you when everything happened?"

Maren took a deep breath before answering, "I was in my dorm room at Georgia State when it all went down. I remember my roommate and I watching the news...it wasn't long after that when the power went out and the phone lines went down."

Deanna nodded, her face still quite curious, "Did you and your roomate stick together?"

"No, she...she left a few hours after that, said she wanted to go find her family. I stayed back for a while, about a week, I was hoping my dad would come for me."

"Did he?"

The question made Maren's heart ache within her chest. She still remembers sitting in that room for a whole week, waiting alone by the window and hoping she'd hear that familiar knock on the door. Alas, that never came and neither did he. Maren Smith had never in her whole life felt more alone than she did in that moment, and she'd never forget it.

"No, he never did," Maren drew in a dissatisfied and disheartened sigh before continuing, "I never let that stop me though, that's certainly not in my nature."

"So I've been told..." Deanna smiled at the girl, sensing her tension release, "I assume you did leave campus after that, right? Did you have a group?"

"Yeah, I didn't have much of a choice. The campus started getting overrun so I packed up my shit and left. Never looked back..." Maren paused, her voice betraying her and becoming shaky, "I spent months on the road, just trying to get back home to find my family in Virginia. Almost made it out of the state but I ran into some trouble with a...group a while after that, I don't know...maybe a few months?"