"You're fine for now. If you blow all your energy pushing yourself today, you won't be fine tomorrow. I refuse to explain to Ellie that I got her pseudo-dad killed because I let him be a fucking moron." The word dad sounds crisper, more bitter than the rest of the sentence. "I was a military kid and then I was a Firefly, okay? And I was good at it. I know what's what and I know how you keep people on their feet in bumfuck nowhere, so don't try and brush me off like that."

She clears her throat slightly. "We're in luck on the houses front. I raided a few before I found you. Hung out with some guy calling himself Roland. Not a fun bone in him I could see, but an all-right guy for what you're gonna find in a place like this. It's hard to tell where to go in this fog, but I'm pretty sure of the direction I found some apartments in. Good place for holing up for a little bit, all those hallways can be like a rat warren."