Vita had thought that the boy would disappear after her first cold shoulder. The second or third hadn't worked either. She trod carefully around closing time and talked Deidra into staying with her tonight to avoid having to go total meltdown on this guy.

"Why are you running from this boy? I mean he seems a bit naive, but probably a good guy?" Deidra put on a ring heavy with Royston turquoise in the center, while Vita tried to formulate some kind of response that fit her budding persona. Deidra beat her to it. "Holding out for the baby's daddy?"

"Voice down, Deidra. Not many people know yet." She grimaced. She hadn't perfected the art of not giving a shit yet.

Deidra just laughed, her long dark hair bouncing from side to side. "You never answered my question."

"If he -- by some miracle -- lived, I would defend myself and run as far as I could."

Deidra nodded. "My first boyfriend was like that. Drinking, drugs, violence. My soon-to-be husband came into my life and showed me a different path, one I didn't think I deserved."

Vita ignored her pointed eye contact. Just because one guy had been nice to Deidra, didn't mean she needed to give this new weirdo a chance. The world wouldn't be such a messed up place if every situation offered such similar outcomes.

"But I understand you wanting to do this all on your own. Fewer complications or problems coming up. Keep it simple, especially when you'll have so much support."

"Yeah," Vita said. She should have just closed up the kitchen alone and tore the stalker a new one. The concern made her feel unsettled. Why couldn't her business stay her own?

When she and Deidra walked out of the kitchen, sure enough, the guy stood, but he shied away with one glance at Deidra. Maybe it was her height or the stern look the Navajo woman could muster up, but it sent him off in the other direction.

"I wish I could do that," Vita muttered.

"You need to find your inner strength, not this moody, scared girl who hides from what she's done."

Vita frowned and her eyes shot down to the ground. "You haven't done what I have."

"Spoken like a teenager. One day you'll see we're not all so different. Hurt, pain and mistrust are universal like happiness and compassion. But, I have to find my son before he decides he wants to play a superhero again and drown all of our 'evil' possessions. Not as easy to fix post-disaster. Rest well, Vita."

"Thanks, Deidra," Vita said before she went back to the sleeping area. Lying down would do her some good, along with sleep.

The next morning, Cynthia wanted to have a quick chat before breakfast. Mr. M had decided to take the boys on a little mission and they were all eating with him, leaving Cynthia with free time. Vita began to wonder if her plans would start to revolve around the little human growing in her belly too.

"Vita, I want to apologize. I've been so occupied with Peyton's departure and with Winston and Mr. M. I haven't had the chance to be a good friend, but I'd like to redeem myself." Cynthia wore a smile to back up her words.

"It's fine, Cynthia. I'm not someone who needs a check-in every day to keep living. I manage." If she was old enough to have a kid, she was old enough to take care of herself.

Cynthia continued to study Vita's face. Vita worked hard to make sure her passive expression didn't crack. "How have you really been?"

Vita contorted her face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"With your situation, has your perception changed? Are you upset or afraid?" Cynthia reached out for Vita's hand, but she retracted.

"No."

"Have you been eating and resting enough? I sent Mr. M a list of medications that should the good Lord be willing, may show up during one of the store searches."

Great, now she was spreading the news around like wildfire and soon everyone would know. "Babies have been born for millenniums without proper vitamins and it got us to today, didn't it?"

"Infant and mother mortality were far higher in those times too."

"If I lose the baby, I lose it. End of story. My life will not be over if your good willing Lord decides it's a stupid idea to have another psychopathic kid running around. Personally, I feel Rob was enough, but hey why not make things interesting with another." It had been a while since she'd infused something with so much sarcasm.

"Surely there were other factors in that man's life that contributed to his mental state."

Why couldn't Cynthia just accept it and move on? Vita had already. "I wouldn't know, because I only knew him for a few hours before we did it. Yeah, that's right, hours. That's the kind of girl I've become, that I am!"

"Vita, I'm not judging you for your choices. I just want to help you through this and make it as easy as possible."

"Want to make it easier?" Vita folded her arms across her chest. "Then leave me the hell alone. Let me deal with my issues on my own time." She stood up and stalked off to the kitchens.   

"Vita, please. You don't need to act this way."

But the woman's words faded with each step that Vita took. Something good had come of the conversation. She now had a good idea of how she could escape overbearing maternal figures. A new job, one that involved leaving the facility for a day or two at a time. She'd become a scavenger.

Her plan to switch to a scavengers' job, ideal at the time, had involved a lack of foresight. On the plus side, she'd be free of Cynthia and Deidra's knowing and righteous attitudes. Otherwise, she had just willingly committed to days on end with her stalker. Why hadn't she noticed that he was gone when the team disappeared and reappeared when they returned? The kitchen did allow her to see most faces at least once a day.

Impulsivity. Was it always this hard and unpleasant to act without thinking first? Deal with the consequences later. Later had come and she feared the walk out to the nearest site. Not only would she have to deal with that guy, now there was a lot more risk of whatever psychos were out. What if Rob came back? Her fists clenched and her breathing stopped altogether.

Breathe, in and out. He's gone. You saw him in that fire.

"Are you alright, Vita? Reggie said you can always just join us for the next one. No need to jump the gun."

Rich words coming from this guy.

"I'll be fine."

"Alright, I just thought I'd check now. During the scavenging missions, we only communicate when necessary to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. Since you don't have much self-defence training, Reggie wants you in our group."

She followed him into the front area that she and Cynthia had first arrived in. The room where Cynthia found her son and Vita decided her own little monster would become a part of her life. Maybe she'd be lucky and it would turn out half as decent as Winston.

Reggie stood next to the desk and was sharpening a few small knives. His biceps put most to shame and could only have looked more defined if they weren't covered in tattoos. A Spartan warrior spanned from his bicep down to his elbow and other symbols were included too, hard to identify without staring too much.

"Welcome to our crew. I'll be sad to see your pancakes go, but we could always use an extra set of hands here. It's dangerous out there, so you'll have to wear at least another layer of clothing." He kicked over a container the reminded her of the lost and found back at school. "We have some thicker stuff. It'll give you a bit more resistance if we hit wind storms. Can't do much to protect you from a knife wound, but we try to stay vigilant and protect our own." Reggie had a deep voice that could probably carry for a few miles if loud enough.

"Which knife do I take?" Vita asked.

"None, until you know how to use one. It's more dangerous for you have one and risk having it used against you than it is to go without."

"But-"

"But nothing. If you want on this crew, you follow my rules." Reggie stood plain-faced, not trying to intimidate or belittle her.

"It took me three weeks, but I have one now," the boy offered with a smile.

She didn't feel reassured. If anything she had just traded one set of restrictions for another. But she would die if she went out on her own on there. No supplies or defence. At least this crew came with training she could use to keep herself alive.

"Okay, so what do I do if we get attacked?"

"Find shelter if it's available. Stick with one of us if it's not. You can serve as an extra set of eyes, just careful to keep out of the way," Reggie answered. He rummaged through the folders and brought out a sheet of paper. "This is our list of specific items. Each team has one based on where they are going. Take a minute to memorize it. We're on medical duty today."

"And this is a general list. If you see these at any time, grab them since we always need them. Nothing wrong with sticky fingers if you think something else could be useful here."

She glanced through the first list: vitamin C, folic acid, Vitamin D, calcium, and iron. She recalled Cynthia rhyming them off and felt a bit self-conscious that she was forcing these men to go out just for her purposes. 'I can write down prenatal vitamins and make this easier,' Cynthia had said. Vita had argued, not wanting anyone else to know or suspect. Now she was even more grateful, but she could always grab and stash them if she happened to find them.

"How do you know where to find everything."

"Matt does a fairly good job tracking our movements and updating the status of each of these building on the aerial maps."

"Matt?" Vita asked.

"Yeah, that's me," the younger guy said with a forced smile.

She'd been found out. Was it really her fault that she didn't stop to learn the name of the guy who wouldn't give her personal space?

"How did you get these and laminate them?" Vita asked

"That's Mr. M's doing. He got the satellite photos from his military connections and had them all done up before the disasters struck."

"That's a weird thing to do."

"Weird, but damn useful. I can't complain,"  Reggie said. "Are you sure you're still up for this today?"

"Of course, bring it on."

When they took off, they practiced a fair amount of vigilance. As Matt had promised, their communication was limited to moments where it was absolutely necessary. That way any others wouldn't be tipped off to their location. No effort was made to make the paths more navigable.

As Reggie had said, "Leave no trace. Debris stays"

She hopped over a large tree trunk with roots shooting back out the end. Matt stopped to pull out the map and note the obstacle with his pen. She glanced down at what he wrote: salvageable wood, mostly still dry.

The sunray warmed her body to a temperature far hotter than she remembered, but it could have been all the layers she wore. The eerie silence, only broken by the sound of shoes on pavement and rocks, carried on for miles. At times birds would call out from above. A large one circled an area before another joined and they both landed.

"Bodies ahead. Don't look if you're going to scream," Matt warned in a soft voice.

Vita gulped, they hadn't seen too much in the first five minutes, but maybe the group had done some housekeeping. It made sense for there to be bodies given the extent of the trail she had seen to get to Pele's. She'd been too sick to really take notice at the time.

At the next intersection, a building, three-quarters collapsed, had attracted the vultures. Reggie tore away from the group to go look closer. Vita went to go join him until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"We stand back and cover him. Could be a trap."

There was enough red staining to indicate more than one victim. If it was still red, why hadn't the rains washed it away? Her eyes darted into the broken windows of the surrounding shops but couldn't find a culprit.

Reggie came back and shook his head. "Couldn't have been here more than a week. I remember that building standing upright. Dislocated joints, crushed bones. The storms got the building which got them. Shame, they were nice folk."

"You knew them?"

"Allies, Vita, we always want to have allies. They were content living on their own to support their small group. We would help them out from time to time." Reggie said.

"Nya too?" Matt asked with wide eyes.

Reggie nodded and patted Matt on the shoulder. "Sorry, my friend. We should see what they had that hasn't been damaged."

"Reggie, that's not right," Matt argued.

"Better us than people they didn't like. It's survival, kid. Not everything gets a nice pretty bow."

They rummaged through the wreckage of the building, careful not to stand under any beams or roofs that didn't seem structurally sound. Reggie wanted everything useful picked up from food to toiletries to construction supplies. They handed it all over to the other team of men and women who were heading back with the spoils. This group had amassed a fair supply of usable goods.

"We keep going," Reggie said. "They weren't big on medications and there's a pharmacy about four miles from here."

Upon their arrival nearly two hours later, the pharmacy proved mainly looted. First-aid supplies had been taken, no antiseptic wipes, band-aids, gauze, surgical tape. Reggie's face fell. The vitamin section, however, had a few bottles left over.

"Check the seals first, we don't want to risk giving people the wrong items. Not every looter has good intentions," Reggie instructed.

Vita scanned the shelves, careful not to kneel in dried blood or debris when looking at the very bottom. A few bottles caught her eyes. They weren't the ones on the list but the prenatal ones. She went to stick them in her sweater pocket when Matt spoke up.

"What'd you find?"

Of course, he would see her. "More vitamins."

"Mark them in the inventory then."

"They're multi-vitamins so they're not technically on the list."

"For expecting mothers," he read over her shoulder. "Shouldn't need those."

Vita held her breath and tried to figure out a way to justify needing these in the colony. Who could she pin this on or would he buy a hypothetical situation?

"Take any unopened supplement you can find. No telling what will be left next time."

Reggie, much like his tattoos, was proving to be her salvation and all. Vita marked it down under extra on the list and threw the four containers in her backpack. She managed to find a few others they sought out as well.

"Protein powder?" she called across the store.

"Voice down, remember. We never know who's squatting or raiding at the same time," Reggie said as he came up behind her. "But yes, as much as we can carry. Most people don't bother taking it since it's so heavy. Until that fish supply of Mr. M's is up and running we'll need it."

The walk back was less enjoyable as they each carried a large container of protein each. At least she knew the route now and what to expect. She found it a bit strange they didn't encounter a living soul along the way. She spotted more decaying bodies that Matt informed her had been there for over a month. First wave damage. She couldn't help but wonder which wave would be the one to take out their little community.