𝙰𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙴𝚍𝚐𝚎 𝙾𝚏 𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚢 | 𝚃. 𝙾𝚝𝚝𝚘 𐂃

- End Book One -

Cristine barely made it back for breakfast, but decided to skip the first meal of the day altogether. Her appetite wasn't there so she decided to just go somewhere since the Ranch was large enough to minimize contact with people. In particular, any of the geared up wannabe soldiers - at least for today.

She washed, changed her clothes,  bandaged her wrists and covered her neck with the highest collar she could find with a button up.

Cristine ended going to the pantry and decided to spend the rest of her day here. She saw Gretchen and approached her. "Mind if I take over?"

The teen, jumped a bit and holding the clipboard against her chest, cocked her head to one side. "You missed breakfast," she said

"I went out to get some fresh air first. I wasn't that hungry." Cristine shrugged, the lie rolled naturally down her tongue and a ghost of a smile thinned her lips, "show me?"

Gretchen was kind, a bit naive, but a good kid. She was one of the better ones around the place and that was giving the Ranch too much credit already.

Placing the clipboard in her hands, she took Cristine through what needed to be done. "You don’t have to finish it all today-"

"It's fine, I want to. I just need some peace and quiet for today." Cristine interrupted her with a shake of her head. This would occupy her for most of the day and that was just what she needed.

A distraction to filter all the filthy air and feelings clinging around her.

"Ok well, I’ll leave you to it." She clearly wanted to say some more, Gretchen's face a light twist of worry, but nodded in defeat. Despite the awful stories she heard from Mike, Gretchen trusted her instincts enough that she could safely leave the place in Cristine's hands.

-

"She's back." Willy mused bored as the group sat together and finished their food. The ruddy haired man smirked as he swallowed the last of his coffee.

"Leave it. We got work today." Troy said and began with taking his tray. Troy would normally enjoy the games they played, but today wasn't the time and place.

According to his father and Jake, a lot of chores needed to be done on the land. Fences needed to be finished, patrol schedules had to be put in place and policies enforced to keep the Ranch up and running. Not only from the dead but mostly the living.

He didn't want him and his men distracted.

He finally put Cristine in her place yesterday and further research just had to wait.

According to Mike, who had the news from his sister, James his daughter was hiding in the pantry. At first, he wanted to drop by and assign her another job, but decided at the last moment not to.

He'd let her process it, until she'd come running to him.

-

Cristine's day was busy. People came in for lumber, weapons, bullets and other tools. Still, she carried out the most mundane of tasks today. She had tried to let the chores completely occupy her mind so there was no room left for to stew on the events of last night.

But, as hard as she tried to focus on her job at all times, Cristine found her mind drifting. She smelled blood and it would trigger multiple memories that weren't just of last night. She remembered the first place she was in; an emergency base and how it fell. Then there was the place between, where she had to kill people for the very first time in her life.

She and her group came out with half the people they went in. Cristine vaguely remembered her separation from her small group and she worked had to suppress all of those memories as they brought about a cacophony of emotions in her.