It was dinnertime in the Rock Fortress cafeteria.
"Did you hear? Hank and the others went into the mountains looking for hot springs today. Sounds like they found one!"
"Really? Does that mean this winter might be a little easier?"
"Definitely. If we can pipe the hot water down here..."
Maggie, Glenn, and Carol carried their trays through the crowded cafeteria, looking for somewhere to sit.
As Carol scanned the rows of long tables, her eyes lit up when she spotted Andrea.
Andrea was sitting by the window, with Shane beside her.
They seemed to be talking with several other members of the Defense Force. Shane gestured as he spoke, while Andrea listened with her head slightly tilted, nodding every so often.
"Look, Andrea's over there," Carol said, motioning to Maggie and Glenn. "She's sitting with Shane."
The three made their way through the crowd with their trays.
As they approached, they could hear Shane talking about that day's patrol.
"...so the traps on the east side need to be reset. We've had more scattered walkers wandering this way lately. We can catch a few more and tether them around the perimeter."
Andrea noticed them first and smiled, patting the empty space beside her.
"Hey, just get back? I heard you went into the mountains with the survey team today."
"Yeah. We're exhausted!" Glenn sat down and set his tray on the table. Maggie and Carol found seats as well.
Shane gave the three of them a nod in greeting, then went back to talking with two members of his squad.
"What time are we meeting tomorrow again?"
"Six in the morning. We'll check the eastern defenses first, then repair the traps..."
Shane continued talking with his teammates.
"So how was the hot spring?" Andrea asked curiously, turning toward them.
"It was incredible!" Glenn answered before anyone else could, his eyes bright with excitement. "The cave we went into was full of steam, and even the rocks were hot!
"Aleksei said the water was over sixty-five degrees. That's more than enough for heating."
Carol carefully blew on a spoonful of steaming stew before adding softly, "And the place is very secluded. Easy to defend and hard to attack.
"Maggie and Glenn helped set up a temporary lookout point. There's only one narrow path in and out, with cliffs on both sides."
Maggie took a bite of cornbread and spoke as she chewed. "More importantly, it isn't that far away. If we can lay the pipelines, maybe every room in Rock Fortress could have heating this winter."
Andrea was listening, but her attention seemed elsewhere. She kept absentmindedly prodding the stew on her plate with her fork.
Maggie noticed.
"How was your day? Did the patrol go okay?"
Andrea sighed and continued pushing the food around her plate.
"We patrolled east today and ran into another group of survivors.
"There were about twelve of them, living in an abandoned gas station beside the highway."
The mood at the table immediately grew heavier.
Everyone knew what encounters like that could mean in the apocalypse. Sometimes they brought new allies. More often, they marked the beginning of another tragedy.
"They're in terrible shape," Andrea said, sounding subdued. "They barely have any food. Their water is contaminated, and several of them are sick, but they don't have medicine.
"When they saw our equipment and vehicles, I could see hope in their eyes. But there was even more fear and suspicion."
Carol asked quietly, "Did you help them?"
"We gave them some basic supplies and told them how to get to the Knoxville Industrial Park," Andrea said.
"But Shane thinks they might not come. Some people have gotten used to living on their own, or they're suspicious of large communities."
Blackberry Ranch and Rock Fortress were both hidden and served as the main strongholds, while the Industrial Park was located in Knoxville, where there were far more survivors in the surrounding area. Because of that, all newcomers were now directed to the Knoxville Industrial Park.
Even anyone who happened to stumble across Blackberry Ranch would be taken to the Industrial Park first. Only after passing the screening process and completing the quarantine and observation period would they be assigned, based on their skills and preferences, either to industrial work at the Industrial Park or agricultural work at Blackberry Ranch.
As for Rock Fortress, it no longer accepted ordinary newcomers. Aside from the original core members and people like Martin whose work required them to be there, only newly admitted full members of the Defense Force lived at Rock Fortress. That included Maggie and the other three. Even the reservists were stationed at Blackberry Ranch.
Andrea paused.
"But what really got me thinking was when we were leaving. I looked back at them, at that makeshift camp with almost no protection, and then I thought about Rock Fortress."
She raised her head and looked around at her friends.
"We came from the same world. We went through the same collapse. But now, they and us... we're living in completely different realities."
Glenn nodded. After spending so much time here, he had gradually come to accept that himself.
"Back at the prison, I thought we were doing pretty well. We had walls, weapons, crops.
"But looking back now, we were only maintaining what we had. Here, they're building something. Not just for today or tomorrow, but for next year and even further ahead."
Andrea's eyes brightened.
"That's exactly what I kept thinking about on the way back.
"The people at that gas station are only worried about where their next meal is coming from, just like we used to be.
"But here at Rock Fortress, people are talking about the future. About whether Calista is going to move into Knoxville."
The four fell silent, each turning over the day's experiences and observations in their own mind.
People moved through the cafeteria around them. Conversation, clattering utensils, and laughter blended into background noise that almost sounded like life before the apocalypse.
By then, Shane's teammates had finished eating. He turned back toward Andrea's side of the table and slowly cut into the potatoes on his plate.
"Still talking about winter heating?"
"Elena and Aleksei seem pretty confident," Glenn said. "They said Calista already approved the project and ordered resources to be prioritized."
At the mention of Calista's name, something subtle shifted in Shane's expression.
"If she approved it, then that means the technology is workable and we have the resources for it." He took a sip of water. "Calista never promises anything she can't deliver."
Maggie noticed the change in Shane's tone and exchanged a glance with Glenn.
Of everyone at the table, she knew Shane the least. She had only spent time around him back on the farm.
At the time, Maggie had not thought much of him. To her, Shane had been aggressive and difficult.
Yet now, that same man seemed to trust Calista completely.
That made Maggie curious.
"Shane, you got here before we did," she said tentatively, pushing a few beans around her plate with her fork. "Tell us what the base used to be like."
Andrea turned toward Shane as well, expectation in her eyes.
She had always been attracted to Shane. Not only because he was good-looking, but because from the quarry camp all the way to the farm, he had consistently shown himself to be a capable leader.
In Andrea's eyes, Shane was more decisive than Rick and better suited to the apocalypse than the rest of them.
And right now, she was more than happy to hear him talk about the past.