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again until I awoke in my metal, white room. The lights had come on and a voice over the intercom told me that it was time for breakfast.  

Chapter 4 - Remi

    “I’m telling you, they are with Shadowface,” I whisper to Gabe at the dining room table.  
    He shakes his head at me, obviously annoyed at my insistence. “You don’t know that.”
    “Oh what are you two whispering about now?” Nancy calls out from the kitchen.
    “Probably thinking of a way to get out of another one of your meals,” Ray spouts grumpily as he walks out of the kitchen shaking his head. He picks at his teeth after having eaten some of the food in question. “I tell ya, after this whole outbreak thing, her cooking has gone considerably downhill.”
    “I heard that!” Nancy yells.  
    “How are you feeling, Remi?” Ray asks as he takes a seat.
    I’m half surprised that the chair doesn’t break underneath his weight, but it remains solid as he sits across from me, still picking his teeth. It has become a ritual over the past month for Ray to ask me how I’m doing ever since Gabe and I got here. It’s almost as if he’s never seen a gunshot victim before. Of course, I’ve got to admit that I did look pretty rough for the first couple of weeks.  
    “I’m getting better and better every day,” I tell him. I feel for the bandage underneath my shirt, though I know I don’t need to anymore. For the longest time, I had to feel for it to make sure it hadn’t bled through, but that stopped a long while ago. I’m pretty much healed up now, though I don’t feel as spry as I did a month ago. Maybe that’s because Gabe and I have been hanging around these two geezers for so long. Of course, I mean no disrespect, it’s just that these people were raised in homes where there was no television, internet, or anything stimulating, so they are used to keeping themselves busy throughout the day and night when there is seemingly nothing to do. I spent so many years not being bored after the virus outbreak, that I had forgotten what it felt like until I came here.  
    So, Ray asking me how I am feeling right before we eat is just another item on a long list of routines we go through each and every day. I appreciate the concern, but I think he will still be asking me how I’m feeling ten years from now if we stayed that long—or if we lived that long. I sigh at the thought. Living here has been boring, but that’s not a bad thing at all. It’s been such a relief to not have to worry about anything. I haven’t had to make runs for food, and we haven’t been attacked by greyskins. It’s been wonderful.  
    Ray and Nancy are part of a settlement, but it’s more like a village. The defenses are subpar, but it’s more about the location than anything. No greyskin seems to wander nearby, and if it does, it’s a strange sight. And raiders have yet to try and rob the place. It’s one of the more well established settlements that I’ve seen, and it rivals Crestwood in its feeling of safety. Not to mention it has no presence of Shadowface.  
    Not yet.  
    That’s what has me concerned about tonight’s meal. This morning, two men came by the village in a beat up truck. The people of the village didn’t like it one bit, but the men just stuck their hands up in the air and asked for food and a place to stay for the night. Ray and Nancy, being the lovely saps that they are, decided that the two should stay with us. I started to raise an objection about it, but Nancy just said that it would be all right since Gabe and I would be here.  
    Great, I thought. I didn’t like them from the start, but what I really didn’t like were the questions they started asking when they came into the home.  
    So, how many people are here? Who is in charge? Who constructed the defenses? What sort of preparations do you make for greyskin attacks?
    It was like they were appraising the village for its value or usefulness. It sounded a lot like Shadowface work to