WORD ATTACK, HIYAAAAAAH.
Bullet-making. While Jackie was proficient with her double pistols, she was no gun enthusiast. She didn't know one rifle from the next, which scope was most powerful, or anything like that. What little she knew, she'd learned from people willing to teach her. Before coming to Sing Sing, there weren't that many willing to share their secrets.
That mindset was counterproductive to survival, but people in the city had been stingy with their information. Bartering had been the way in. It was part of the reason Jackie spent a lot of time ransacking the buildings in Ossining. The rebel colonists were kinder, more generous, but old habits were hard to break, and she liked being prepared at all times.
With the list she'd gotten from West, for what she needed to keep an eye out for, Jackie had gone scavenging. She hadn't gotten very far in her venture – the number of zombies on basically every street she took were averaging more than normal. It was only mildly worrisome. She was familiar with these streets by now. Shortcuts to take, areas to avoid. She didn't run into much trouble.
Up until Zimmerman's appearance, that is.
Jackie had been standing at the kitchen sink in one of the houses, observing the infected outside and waiting for a lull in their movement so that she could set out again. She wasn't far from the compound. In fact, this was the last and closest house she planned to check out before heading back inside the gates. For the past few hours, the only movement she'd seen had been from the infected.
But there was someone out there now. Someone living.
It was hard to tell who it was from her vantage point, but she assumed it was someone – another scavenger, perhaps – heading back in. Just like her.
Except he – she could tell the person was male, at least – didn't look all that steady on his feet. Injured? Another victim of the infected, or the Bedford gang?
Brows drawing down in concern, Jackie let the curtain fall back into place over the window and made her way outside. She paused on the front porch, flicking on her flashlight and shining it in the man's direction. When she saw who it was, her face relaxed into slack-jawed disbelief.