“Oh, cool. I’ve never been to Kentucky. What’s it like there?”
She had traveled to New York with her family at the start of the outbreak. By the time she had reached the city, it was down to Norah, Harper, and her. They had lost sight of Harper during the evacuation. Then, on the journey to Austin, she ended up losing Norah too. Much more permanently. She didn’t like to tread too far into the subject since the wounds still felt so fresh.
“I came down after,” she answered, walking down the sidewalk, “Traveled with a group of people for some time too, but then eventually I’d made my way here alone.” North had more or less mastered how to navigate a conversation away from anything too personal. She preferred things to be more casual than awkward. It wasn’t that she was afraid of sympathy. Everyone had their own tragic story to tell. She just didn’t want to dig up old memories, old memories that brought mostly pain. “So, what did you do before the whole ‘end of world’ happened?”
The street was quiet. Eerily quiet. Despite the fact that her voice was already lowered, North felt like they were alone in a stadium. She wasn’t afraid that the sound would carry and attract shufflers, but it still made her skin bristle at any wayward noises. Being a scout was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Every outing could be the last. She never thought that she would be living this dangerously, regardless of her past antics as an adventurous thrill seeker.