The cameras really were too easy for someone who was familiar with the layout of the compound to avoid. Jackie caught the man’s quieter words and snorted a laugh. It didn’t seem like something he wanted to talk about, though, so she stopped her brain from forming any further comments.
“I do, when they’re not allowed outside the prison walls.” She plowed on before he had a chance to misinterpret her meaning, “For good reason. Don’t want the little ones to become zombie food. I’m just saying: kept inside these walls all the time,” she gestured to indicate the prison walls outside the lab, “yeah, all kids are a little sheltered. It’s not like they can easily go and visit their buddies in the next town. Or go to Disneyland.” That was a sad thought, really. No more Disneyland. It also put a related idea in her mind, but winter wasn’t really the time of year to put that into motion. Spring, maybe. She inclined her head to acknowledge his latter statement. She didn’t agree with the opposing side, but she could respect someone else’s view of it.
Jackie smirked and nodded. “Yeah, I think we all had those little things.” She couldn’t really pinpoint her own, but that was beside the point. “Something like that I wouldn’t call impossible. Not with all the unprotected sex that goes on around here. I’m actually surprised there’s not more kids than there currently are.”
“Or set shit on fire.” She laughed, though her brows were raised curiously at the idea of Evan assisting Team Science. “A fire I can handle. An explosion?” She shrugged. “Depends on the situation, I guess.” She studied him a moment, then asked, “You thinking of taking on a new hobby with the science crew?”
It would’ve been easy enough to come up with another explanation for why she was there; keep the new laboratory a secret from leadership for a while longer, until they were more established and could prove that the place was safe. Jackie saw no issue with what they were doing, though. She was confident in the work she’d put into making the warehouse safe. Besides that, people were free to come and go as they pleased – a somewhat dangerous and unstable system, in her opinion.
His offer to help was met with a shrug. “Depends on how long you’re planning to stay up. I could use a hand getting some of this shit to one of the trucks in the garage. We’re planning to take a field trip to the new lab day after tomorrow and I wanna make sure some of this stuff’s put to good use again.”