A Lifetime Ago || Javier Garcia

Six | Beginning

In the morning you head to the cafeteria, which was just a small room with 4 long rectangular tables. Each person was limited to a piece of fruit and granola for breakfast, up until dinner time when Clint and some others would make a slightly larger meal for everyone. You'd like to say there was a little less than 20 people in the new frontier, so having enough food for everyone was going to get difficult sooner or later.

David enters the cafeteria with a man you'd never seen before. He approaches the table you and Ava sat at and instructed the man to take a seat next to you. He grabs a piece of fruit and returns to the man, handing him the chosen fruit.

"You'll feel better after eating something. Never rely on this." David motions towards a bottle in his hand and the man simply looks downward, picking at the skin of the fruit. "Thanks." He says.

You smile awkwardly and look towards Ava who seemed to be having the same thoughts as you. "Who's this?"

"This is Paul, he's a doctor." David rested a hand on his shoulder.

"And what's that?" Ava asks glancing at the bottle in David's hand.

He shrugs and slips it into his pocket. "Doesn't matter."

Your eyes scan the man, noticing his sunken features and tired looking eyes. A silent 'oh' fell from your mouth in realization.

"You can call me Linguard." The man offers. You silently take note of his name, figuring he'd be here a while if he's the only doctor available.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ava and this is Y/n."  Ava greets.

Silence washed over the four of you and all you wanted to do now was leave the awkwardness that had settled in. David hummed and finally looked towards you.
"You ready?"

You let out a breath and nod. "Yeah, let's go." You wave bye to Ava and followed David out of the building, maybe Ava could break the ice with that guy.

"Okay...." David starts, pulling out a paper from inside his jacket, unraveling it to reveal a map with two big X marks. "This is what we're checking out today. First a gas station, Joan said she had a group go through it for food but they left a load of stuff inside." He explained, pointing to the X marked closest to the base.

"After that we go here, It's a settlement, we're gonna try and bring some people back with us." He says pointing to the second X, way farther than the first mark. 

"What if they're doing better than us? They're not going to join us." You shrug.

David rolls his eyes. "Then we convince them. We got a doctor now, that's gotta lure some people in."

You cringe at the thought of this new doctor. "He looks out of it." 

David motioned for you to keep up with him as he started walking. "He is. I knocked some sense into him this morning though, says he's gonna change."

"How did you find him?"

"Hauled up in a van with medical supplies, some useful stuff. Asked him where he was from and he said he didn't have anyone worth staying for. He planned on dying right in that van."

You stayed quiet and waited for David to finish.

"We talked for hours. He worked at the medical school and knows a lot, he's going to save lives Y/n." He looks back at you knowing you were already doubting this doctor.

"I believe you." You reassured.

In all honestly David knew how to find good people. He could immediately tell when someone was truly genuine or wanted to cause trouble. And because of that, you'll believe that he could turn this man around, help him find his will to live again.