11.

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When they get back to the settlement people immediately crowd around them. Quinn grips her gun tighter, glancing around quickly at all the people as a bit of panic fills her body. Parker grabs her hand and leads her out of the crowd.

He takes her gun carefully out of her hand and puts it in her holster after he flicks the safety on.

"Thank you." She mumbles, holding onto his hand tightly. Parker nods and gives her a smile.

They walk into a big building, the two leading Parker upstairs and Parker leading Quinn upstairs.

"Mrs. Shepherd? We found those people who left the car in the road." Zach says as he walks into a room. 

"Really? Bring them in." 

Robin nods for them to come inside so they follow her inside the room. They see a woman in her late 30's maybe mid 40's. 

"Come on in you two, have a seat." She mentions to the two chairs in front of her desk. 

Parker glances at Quinn who's just staring out the window, not paying attention to any of them. 

"So, as one of those two have probably told you, we found your broken down car yesterday. Can I ask why it broke down?" 

"Well, we'd found it in Seattle. It went from there all the way to here. That's pretty impressive that it made it far but I guess something went wrong that we couldn't fix. We ended up having to just leave it there."

"Was Seattle difficult to live in? Is that why you came seeking out shelter?" She asks, folding her hands in front of her. 

Quinn scoffs, "It's one of the worst damn places to be." 

"What Quinn means is- there's lots of Geeks everywhere, not to mention Seattle has so many underground systems and so many buildings and the Climbers and Screamers are hiding everywhere. It's hard to find food and in the rainy seasons the streets of Seattle flood so it's almost impossible to get anywhere." 

"Hm...That seems incredibly difficult. I'm so sorry. Well now you can live here and you don't have to worry about that anymore." 

Parker goes to talk but Quinn talks first. "How do you keep the walkers from hearing the noise and seeing the lights? This seems like a big trap for the walkers to find you all." 

"Well we have patrols around the base, through the forest. We kill any zombies we see and since we're so deep in the mountains the zombies freeze in the winter. In the summer we have strict patrols to kill all the zombies. We have our strong concrete and metal walls, reinforced by foot thick metal beams." 

"And you've never had a problem with any types of the Walkers getting in? No Screamers, Tanks, Climbers?" 

"Never." She gives Quinn a reassuring smile. "You're safe here. Don't worry." 

"Your patrols, explain to me how they work." 

Robin gives Zach a worried look and he shrugs. 

Parker puts his hand on Quinn's shoulder. "You two can discuss this later. For now, I was wanting to ask a few questions." 

"Of course." 

"How do you get your electricity?" 

Mrs. Shepherd smiles, "Well we do have generators in town but most of our power comes from a hydroelectric power plant we have down by the nearest river. Our generators provide the town with all the power we could need.  We just have the generators for backup." 

"Right." He nods. "And about your food and water?" 

"Well we the water is heated in your own homes with the water heaters and any water in your home is clean and safe to drink. And as for our food we have animals, cows, pigs, horses, sheep, and we grow lots of food. The animals are over by our farms and the horse stables are over by the town hall." 

Parker smiles and looks over at Quinn. She seemed distrustful of this whole situation. Parker was wary and nervous as well but there was something Quinn absolutely didn't like. 

"I think we'd like to stay." 

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