Huh. No wonder he heard me screaming that day... "Makes sense. This place used to be a smallish safehouse, so it stands to reason that some of the buildings nearby would have been used for sleeping quarters and caches." Canting her head to one side, she scrutinized him, surprised that he'd given away information like that so freely. "You realize now that you've basically invited another looting predator into this not-so-secret location of yours, right?" She answered for him. "Of course you realize it. You're too smart to be so stupid. Must've already taken all the good stuff, or else why would you be telling me." Wasn't a question. Not really.
Leah snorted when Evan shared the story of George's show of badassery. "That's a step in the right direction." Pridefulness wanted to return-serve a story about Kori doing something that bold, but there was that little matter of avoiding one another's company as much as possible. If Kori had done something worthy of praise, Leah hadn't heard anything about it.
Was it that uncommon, her experience in quarantine? Being strapped down when you were a clear and present danger to yourself and all those around you? Perhaps it was. She didn't spend enough time around the areas of quarantine to have a full grasp on how people reacted when they were thrust into the room and left there for two weeks. All she knew was, they either raged or they mourned. Whether they were subdued or restrained, she didn't know, but for her that was what it had amounted to.
Some things were best left untold. Apart from what happened at the hospital, none of her family knew what had occurred during her stint in quarantine. They'd all asked; Brandon, Lilah, even Kori. But Leah refused to tell them; refused to explain in words how broken she'd been. She was repaired now, like a trusty old piece of electronic equipment. Only, the system didn't run quite as soundly as it used to.
"I kind of gave them no choice," she said finally, rising from her place on the bed to begin pacing aimlessly around the small room. Leah didn't know why she was revealing this to Evan, but if it solidified their need to create a humane means of quarantining new bite victims, she could share a bit of her experience. "This was just after they'd taken my daughter away. I was a mess. Hurting all over, inside and out. You think hearing me scream a few weeks ago was bad? That was nothing." She stopped briefly, meeting the man's gaze. "And that bit of information doesn't leave this room." Part threat, part plea.
Fishing in her jeans pocket for her pack of cigarettes and a lighter, Leah listened as Evan explained how he'd escaped the government's form of quarantine. She gave a hollow laugh, but didn't bother to speak until she'd lit the cigarette and taken that first drag. "I'd say you were lucky, but considering everything else, I don't think you had it much better than I did." Wife dead. Himself bitten, but still determined to take care of his brother and sister for as long as he could. No, the Marchands couldn't have had an easy time of it. Just like so many other broken families.