Lizzy felt like an outsider. She still wasn't quit accepted and had actually put little effort to make herself so. She was not the type that could easily become comfortable around strangers – she was good at faking it though – Kahi and Nana were nice, she thought. It was Tablo that seemed to dislike her and made her feel like an outcast.

       He had not said a mean word to her face, but she had heard him talking with Kahi. It seemed like he didn’t want another person to look after. He said he didn’t want to abandon her, but that he was also a little worried about her behavior. Lizzy didn’t know what he meant by that. She thought she had been acting pretty normal.

       Suddenly Nana appeared at her side and put an arm over her shoulders.

       “What are you thinking about?” Nana said, her normally quite high-pitched voice was surprisingly low in that moment.

       “Oh, nothing,” Lizzy said, immediately breaking out in a grin. “What do you think Tablo and Kahi are doing?” The duo had disappeared with Ga-in shortly after finding this shelter. Ga-in seemed like a cruel woman, Lizzy had noted, but she reasoned it was for survival. She was just doing what she had to do to live. But was the point of living if the world was ?

       Nana shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

       “Do you think I’ll be able to stay with you guys?”

       “Hmm? Why are you bringing something like that up? We can’t just leave you behind. You’re one of us now.”

       “Aren’t I just a stranger? Besides, I don’t think Tablo likes me much.”

       “Oh, you noticed...” Nana didn’t even try to hide this fact from the girl. “Hmm… How should I put it… He is just worried. He’s the fatherly type, you know? He doesn’t know how to handle someone like you though...”

       “Someone who knows how to take care of themselves. You are capable, but you look weak. It throws him off-guard. And then there’s the fact that you don’t exactly seem top be… all there, you know?” Nana ruffled Lizzy’s hair. Lizzy frowned.

       “The students at my school… they just started killing each other. Before my very eyes. It was horrible. I don’t even remember killing them… but I know that I did. Does that make me a bad person?”

       “Lizzy...”

       “I killed my best friend.”

       “They were already dead before you attacked them,” came a voice from the other side of the room. Ga-in walked in, her dark eyes studying the girls. Kahi and Tablo weren’t behind her. “Nana, you’re friends are waiting for you. Lizzy, you’re staying here with me.”

       Nana and Lizzy looked at each other, each of them alarmed at the fact that they would be separated. Nana stood though.

       “What’s going on?” Lizzy demanded, following Nana’s lead and standing as well.

       “I don’t know exactly. But your friends are waiting for you,” Ga-in said while motioning towards the door she had just come from. “Lizzy, we set out in three hours. I’d rest until then.”

       Lizzy felt a tightness in her chest. She didn’t want to be separated from the trio that had rescued her from that hellish school. She looked pleadingly at Nana, but the other girl seemed just as helpless. They both knew that Ga-in was most likely not going to let Lizzy go with Nana. At the very least she wanted an explanation as to why she couldn’t continue going with them.

       Ga-in crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall. Her eyes were watching Lizzy, her gaze much too intense for the younger girl to meet.

       “I’ll go talk to them, see what’s up. I’ll try to get them to change their minds,” Nana said quietly, hoping that Ga-in couldn’t hear her. Even though she wasn’t close to Lizzy she didn’t want to abandon the girl and leave her in the hands of the cruel woman standing opposite them. “This just doesn’t make any sense.” Nana left the room.

       Ga-in closed the door after her and locked it. “Don’t worry, Lizzy.” Ga-in took off the mask from and smiled at the girl, her gaze lightening up. Lizzy stood there in confusion at the woman’s transformation. She seemed much more approachable now that her initial hard exterior had been shed. “We’re going to follow behind them. They’re going to the hospital. It’s just not safe to travel in that large of a group. The two of us will be safer together than in a group with three others. Like I said,” Ga-in motioned to a blanket on the floor. “We leave in three hours. Take a nap. I’m going to get the supplies ready. I heard you can fight...”

       “I can’t. I just...”

       “You’re a survivor from a school. I take it you can defend yourself.”