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Melancholy overwhelmed any pain that you could've felt from facing the sun so late in the day. The leaves you were seeing it through helped mitigate it regardless, but... no. You turned to your human companion.
Your family didn't live in the City... but what if Briar had a point? Especially near the epicenter... what if people were trying to replicate that kind of chaos?
"...Steele?"
The bushy-faced businessman gave you a mock-salute. "At your service!"
"...Steele, after you're done in Sacramento... where will you go?"
Mary looked up from your lap at him. The pair of you saw Steele's expression dull. "Well, I... I hadn't thought of that. I was just going to return to Indiana, as I always do." He turned his attention to the decrepit railroad running through town, just ahead of you three. "If the Sacramento rails aren't working, however..."
His brief dip in tone was replaced with the usual sort of fire you had come to expect. "Then I'll go there on foot. It'll be good exercise, indubitably! And, boy, I am quite in need of such things!"
You couldn't help but grin a bit at the guffaw that question had left you with. He continued. "If you haven't any other plans, I'd be happy to have you!"
...
"...well, I was just thinkin' about my family. They're in... New York, Steele." His expression didn't falter. "Ah'm... ah'm a bit worried, is all. They should be fine 'n such. The whole reason I have Mary with me is thanks t' them."
"But I can't be sure, Steele. An' there's nothing I'd rather like than t' be sure, about this, right now."
Steele kept strong. "The only one stopping you from being sure of this is yourself, Buchanan. If you know in your heart, truly, that your kin are well... then that they shall be!"
...
It was hard to accept that kind of thinking.
You instead turned your train of thought to productivity. What you'd do today. You couldn't just sit underneath a tree and pet Mary all day, after all...
>Yes you could, actually. You can walk with your leg, but it hurts enough that you think some resting here would do it well. Spend most of the day under the tree, planning routes and writing up lists of supplies.
>Keep up your idea of getting some interviews. There's no chance that Briar's mindset is the only one in town, and you really need people to stop throwing rocks at your lamb friend.
>Look for any opportunity to help the town out. Hit the clinic, the general store, the fire station, anywhere. The town is clearly in dire straits. It wouldn't hurt to try and win the local populous' favor.
>Search for neofauna as soon as possible. How are you going to assess the threat if you don't know what it is? Best you identify what's causing trouble and put it to pasture before things get worse.
>Write-in.
