genessia | [Audio]

"I'm sure. They said there's some.. similar things in the town called Everglade, but they can't get out of there, so we just have to stay out. I'm not putting my gun away, but it's a lot safer here than it is back home." The truth was the best policy, and she wasn't going to lie to this child and claim that it was perfectly safe here when she'd been told otherwise.

"I understand that.. you're young to be on your own, though, aren't you?" Not that she didn't know some damn tough kids, but being alone in the apocalypse was deadly at best.

Clementine appreciated it, and filed it into her memory. "Well." She said, unzipping her jacket. "I'm not exactly looking for them. It's easier when you catch a break."

"I wasn't alone, I had AJ." There was the sound of splashing water again, because she was cleaning herself up a little, taking the opportunity she'd been presented with. "And I'm smart."

Maggie nodded, unseen. "You'd have to be, to survive that long on your own. It's hard out there." She tried not to think about how hard it had been, before she left. How hard this was, either. "If you need help here, getting settled.. I'm still new myself, but I'll do what I can. Just let me know." She assumed the girl would most likely prefer to stay independent - Maggie could sympathize with that - but she didn't want to just abandon her, either.

"I don't do groups because they're all the same." Clementine murmured. "It always ends one of two ways. Either they're assholes and stab you in the back or..."

She let her words hang, not finishing the thought. "If this really is a decent place, I'd kill for something to eat."

"Yeah. That's.. that's fair." A few weeks ago, she would have argued the point, maybe. Pointed out that her group was surviving. That they weren't bad people. But now? Sure, their group was still mostly alive, but they were fractured. They were less than they had been.

She shook her head, forcing it clear - if she thought too much about that, she wouldn't be able to move on. She had to move on, somehow. Or at least keep moving without thinking about it.

"Yeah. I think we can do that." She paused, leaning back a little. "You want to meet up somewhere? Or just directions?"

The fact she had a good group wasn't something Clementine would begrudge, but it also wasn't something that she'd had much luck with herself, at least, not in a long time.

"I don't know where I am so if you do, it's probably easier for you to find me." Her tone was cautious and uncertain. She wasn't sure what to make of Maggie, but she did know she had to be prepared, even if it was a trick.

It was only being prepared that kept her alive.

"You're right. You're still by the.. the bay, they call it, right?" She stood up, carefully stretching, keeping her movements quiet and quick out of habit. "I'll head that way."

It didn't take her long to get there; She hadn't wandered far, yet, staying near where she had arrived so far. She liked the park she'd first stopped at, and that's where she had been when she saw Clementine's message.

When she arrived, Clementine would see a youngish woman with very short brown hair and very worn-looking clothing. Her expression was pensive, her pace brisk, but she stopped once she saw Clementine, and said, "Hey. I'm Maggie."

Clementine's own brown hair was kept fairly short, tied into small pigtails under a worn blue and white baseball cap. She had a white shirt that was a little too big on her, with a wide collar, but the sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. The shirt was stained with blood, some faded from washing attempts and some fresher. Her left arm had a scar the length of her forearm and the ring finger on that hand was merely a stump.

In her right hand was a gun, drawn at the sound of someone approaching, and the click of the safety off in the same moment.

At the introduction she lowered her weapon and tucked it back into the back of her jeans. "Hi."

Maggie herself wore a gun on a holster, and a knife tucked into her belt on the other side. She didn't go for either, though, letting Clementine size her up and lower her gun before she spoke.

"Nice to meet you," she said, glancing down the street as if to make sure that no one was coming before she said, "There's a place a couple of blocks from here, they've got burgers. They're good." Of course, after years of scrounging for whatever was around, and often going without when that was 'nothing', almost anything tasted pretty good to Maggie. "Do you want to go?"

It was a good sign that Maggie hadn't drawn at least, so she wasn't openly threatening her at any rate, and honestly, Clementine would rather not start a fight.

"Nice to meet you, I guess." She was still a little wary, although likely Maggie understood if she was from the same world.

Clementine turned her back on Maggie to pick up a puffy blue coat and a red scarf and draped them over her arm.

"Yeah, alright. I don't really remember those." She confessed and got closer to Maggie, at least noting where her weapons were. Her own were well hidden, but Maggie should not assume that her gun was all she had.

"To be honest, I almost forgot, it's been so long," Maggie said, trying for something around conversational - it didn't quite get there, but she was trying, at least.

Once Clementine came nearer, Maggie started walking, leading the way to the burger joint. She remembered, vaguely, her first visit, trying to remember how it worked. Money, ordering food from a restaurant, being among people who didn't know what it was like to go through Hell.

As they walked, Maggie kept her guard up, though, keeping an eye on the street as well as Clementine. Although she seemed open enough, she hadn't gotten stupid in the two days since she had arrived here - she still wasn't trusting anyone, not even a child.

"Where are you from?" She asked, after a few moments, curious. "I'm from Georgia."

"Yeah, it's been a long time." Clementine agreed, and she was a lot younger than Maggie. She barely remembered what life was like before the apocalypse happened.

The hesitance and distrust was mutual, after all it wasn't like Clementine wasn't a force to be reckoned with.

"Yeah, me too. Atlanta." She offered. "Just outside of it, I think, but that's not where I was. I was in in Richmond, or at least, close to it. Where the New Frontier set up."

"I wasn't too far from there," Maggie didn't smile when she said it, but her tone warmed slightly at the thought of the old farm. "I was in Virginia, before this."

When they got to the restaurant - if it could be called that, since it was more of a fast food type of place - she took a deep breath before leading Clementine in, hanging back from the counter while she asked, "Do you want me to just order?" She kind of doubted that Clementine had any special preferences (she hadn't), but just in case.

"Yeah? Huh. Strange we never crossed paths." It probably wasn't that strange, since Clementine avoided most people.

"Yeah, sure." The food smelled amazing, honestly, and made her stomach rumble in protest for the lack of food. Hot food, at that. It was a far cry from canned peaches and soggy granola bars.

"They gave me money if you want some."

"That is strange, when you think about it." It felt like it should be, anyway, what with them being so close.

She ordered, though it still felt awkward, and handed over the money. Then she stepped back to wait for their food, standing against the wall, uneasy around the other customers. She kept an eye on them, even when she was talking to Clementine.

"It's alright. I'll get a job soon, and get more. You'll need yours."

"You're not part of the Frontier and you haven't seen AJ, right? So probably...we're just going different directions."

It did seem sort of awkward, people around them who had no idea, and a few that looked even a bit alarmed at Clementine's appearance. If money was the way to get by in this world, then she would need it too.

"What kind of job?"

"That makes sense, yeah. I was at a place called Hilltop. Before that.. Alexandria." The name made her swallow, hard, but she forced herself to let it go. If her hands shook, just a little, she couldn't help that.

She shrugged at the question. "I don't know. I might try down at the hospital, I saw an ad that they're looking for people." That was in the paper, which she'd found in front of her door at the room she'd been given.

"I don't know those areas." Clementine nodded a bit, but at least Maggie knew what it was like to be constantly looking over her shoulder.

"This is a very...civilized place." She was far from it, she was more comfortable with scavenging.

"I guess I'll have to find something to do." She could kill, or survive, or steal. She wasn't sure what kind of job could allow for her skills.

"That's okay." She nodded, briskly, trying to force her mind to move on. Clementine's next comment gave her somewhere to go, and she replied, "It is. Doesn't feel right, does it?"

When their food was up, Maggie went to get it, telling Clementine while she did, "It looks like there are a lot of openings here, for jobs. Come on, let's find a table."

Predictably, she picked the table in the corner, where she could keep an eye on the entire place. Once they were sitting down, she divvied up the food, her movements quick, like she expected someone to take it from them.

"Not really, it's kind of weird."

Clementine followed Maggie to the table and took a seat, turned it sideways so she could have her back to the wall too. She had similar survival tactics, and she looked at the food that was put in front of her.

"I don't really know how I can help yet. I'll have to see." She took the burger in hand and unwrapped it. She wasn't going to put it down again and if someone did take it from her, they'd be sorry.

"I'm a pretty good shot."

"It is." Maggie nodded, unwrapping her burger as well as she replied, "Might be a job for that. I haven't looked too hard just yet. ..good." Being a good shot was one of the more important skills you could develop where they came from, and Maggie was reasonably sure it would be helpful here, though less directly.

She ate quietly, quickly - her time in Alexandria notwithstanding, her body remembered how to eat when you weren't sure how long you'd have to do it, and every instinct she had told her that all these strangers were threats. She could put on a good face all she wanted, but she couldn't forget to be afraid. Or maybe less afraid, more cautious. It was impossible to tell the difference anymore.

When she was done, she put the wrapper from the burger back in the bag. Asked, somewhat quietly, "What are you planning to do from here?"

"Hm. Like patrolling or guarding or something." Clementine agreed, it would be an agreeable job, probably. She was eating slower than Maggie, not because of the urgency, but because if she ate too fast, she'd be sick and she would rather avoid that.

"I don't really know." She admitted.

She paused a moment and held up the phone like device. "How does this work exactly?"

"I think there was a place looking for security, in the paper I got at my room." The idea of reading the newspaper had been (and was) a truly bizarre one, but she'd done it. It paid to be informed.

She took out her own device when she asked, and showed Clementine how to use it, briefly, using her own to demonstrate things since she didn't want to take anything from the girl.

((ooc: I hope it's okay that I handwave the cellphone tutorial haha))

"That might be the best place to start." Clementine agreed but frowned a little. "The paper?" It was truly a bizarre place, if they still had things like newspapers.

She leaned over and paid attention. She was, at least, a very quick study if nothing else.

"Thanks." Clementine nodded and put the device away. She had a couple of other things on her, a necklace in the pocket of her coat, and the envelope of money, and an assigned room.

"Why do they use the paper instead of like the radio or something?"

"There's a newspaper here. It.. showed up at the room they gave me," Maggie confirmed, shrugging slightly. "You'd think that would make more sense, but.. no, there's a newspaper. Want ads and everything."

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bravelittlehero - 2017-09-28 19:03 (UTC) - Expand