Sepphy half turned her face toward her shoulder when he put a hand on it, and it was all she could do to keep it together enough not to throw her arms around his neck and cling, even if it was for just a moment. Instead she reached up to put her hand over his, giving it a squeeze.
"I know they would have fought. And to be completely honest...lately, more and more, with the problems the other shelters are having with each other, the violence and death and everything else, I keep coming back to the idea that there's got to be a better place out there than here. Some place where the scavenging isn't going to run dry so fast, some place where we could actually grow things, maybe go outside. Some place where things aren't falling apart so fucking fast and consistently."
She looked down. "Everyone matters. Every single person here matters to me. Hell, everyone out there matters to me too, but they're all playing a constant game of 'my dick's bigger' with each other. But every loss we ever suffer? I feel. I know sometimes it might seem like I don't, or that I don't as much as everyone else, but I do. I just know that I need to have my shit together. Everyone needs to know that I have this."
Sepphy exhaled. "We do keep going. We have no other option."
She was quiet a second, then looked back at him. "We need you," she told him. "I know you want to go after them. But we need you."