Paxton explained that her boyfriend was no good for her and that he would leave her the moment things got serious. She was convinced they were in love - they were high school sweethearts after all. They had been so much at odds that Jessi told him that she hated him, and he told her that he didn’t want anything to do with her. He even told her that if she ever got pregnant, not to ever bring the child to him. She said she wouldn’t think of it.

As I sat there listening to Paxton explain the situation with tears in his eyes, he seemed like a much different person than the one that had just banished me. I don’t know what it was. He seemed…human. I didn’t like the fact that I was interested in his story. I don’t like the fact that his story makes me want to go search for her even more. There is a part of me that finds the idea intriguing that he would condemn a woman (me) to death, only to use said woman to go out and bring his baby girl back to him. Only, his baby girl and his baby girl’s baby were probably greyskin food by now.

Of course he didn’t have a photo of her. I would have been able to confirm if she were the same Jessi that I had met in college. The pregnant girl. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that Paxton has given me an impossible task. I already know that it will be a dead end probably leading to my untimely deadly end.

This situation sucks, there’s no doubt about it, but for once I’m trying to look on the bright side of things. Since the outbreak, I’ve never had a goal outside of my own survival. It is kind of exciting to have a mission even though it means traveling outside the safety of walls again. If they are going to banish me, better to give me a purpose than to say, good luck, hope you don’t die!

I close my eyes and scan Crestwood again with my advanced hearing ability. I check my apartment and hear nothing. I listen in on conversations of families or groups that might be eating together. I get bored with that quickly. I listen at the front wall for about the twentieth time today, but this time it sounds different. There seems to be a big commotion. I hear a lot of shouting, a lot of reasoning. Eventually, I hear Paxton at the wall asking questions.

“What do you want?” he asks over the wall.

A gruff voice answers him. “You have something of mine,” he says. “People that are staying here.”

“You’re nothing but bandits,” Paxton says. “You have exactly ten seconds to get out of here before I order my men to open fire.”