She glanced up at him once again. They'd been silent ever since they left the area she was taken to. She wanted to talk to him about something, anything, to get her mind off of what had just transpired an hour ago. She looked forward again, swallowing harshly.

"So, where are we going?" she broke the silence, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Alex glanced her out of the corner of his eye. His jaw ticked with emotion before he looked forward again.

"We are going to the trading center to see if there is anything worth getting, and then we'll crash somewhere for the night. We should be out of this city by tomorrow afternoon," he told her. She nodded and they relapsed into silence. They walked for a few more minutes before her thoughts started creeping back to the men who had taken her. She squirmed uncomfortably before speaking up again.

"My mother's name was Linda. My dad's name was Mark. My mom had the biggest heart of anyone I knew. She was the type to treat strangers like they were her best friend," she started. She swallowed back the spike of emotion that grew in her throat. Alex listened to her quietly, worried if he said something, she would stop sharing.

"My dad was a jokester. We were constantly going back and forth. When I was around the age seventeen, he used to joke that I would need to stop going to school because I was getting too smart for him. He was always there for me." She tilted her head towards the sky, blinking away the tears. Since their death, she never spoke about them. It felt like she was reopening a wound that never properly healed in the first place.

"What happened to them?" Alex asked softly, trying to tread carefully on the subject.

"Blights. We had a nice home in a sanctioned neighborhood. Something happened one day though. I don't know if the military wasn't paying attention or what, but the compound got breached. I was getting groceries when it happened. I came home, and there they were. They were lying on the ground, Blights above them, gorging on them. It was too much for me to handle." He glanced down at her wrist.

"Was that why you'd cut?" he questioned her. She stiffened, and he instantly regretted asking her. Just great, Alex. She starts opening up to you and you get her to close right down again. She gazed up at him before looking back down and nodding hesitantly.

"I felt like it was my fault. Maybe if I would had been home, they wouldn't had died. Maybe I would had saved them. I always thought to myself, 'if you would had been home, they would be alive. It's your fault they're dead.'"

"What made you stop?" Sun paused for a moment, before shaking her head.

"I don't want to talk about that." Alex's demeanor turned awkward as he glanced away.

"That's okay. We don't have to talk about it. I was just trying to help you get some things off your chest. People can't always get everything out there at a time. I understand com-" he cut himself off, smiling sheepishly over at Sun. She raised an eyebrow towards his rambling. I'm such an idiot. Just when she started opening up, I had to go and freak her out. Not to mention I panicked. He groaned internally at himself.

They were once again in silence, and Alex half expected Sun to pick the conversation back up. He had no clue why she was so chatty; he expected the exact opposite. He figured she wouldn't want to talk at all. He still welcomed the change nonetheless.

"I had an older sister and a younger one, Rebecca and Quill. They were complete polar opposites. One was popular and preppy. The other was more like a rocker and hung with the outcasts. Even though they were different from each other, they were still really good friends. They were always there to coach me and give me advice on things. I'd like to believe I wouldn't have survived this long without them.

"My parents weren't the best. They always pressured me to get straight A's. A lot of times, if my grade dipped to a B, I'd get everything I could use to contact friends with taken away and I would have to study for hours on end. But they were still pretty cool. Every break they would ask us where we wanted to go. Sometimes it would be place ridiculous like Germany or France. Other times it would be Grandma's house or the next state over. We always went no matter where."

"That must had been expensive." Sun piped in. Alex sent her a lazy smile.

"To most people, yes. But, my mom was a doctor and my dad was a lawyer. They had an abundance of money with nothing to do with it." Sun scoffed.

"What I would have done to make that kind of money. My student loan would had been paid off and I'd have money for the rest of my schooling and then some!" Alex gave her an embarrassed grin.

"I don't think my parents ever realized that the amount they made was a ridiculous amount compared to a lot of people." He looked off to the street in front of them. "There's the trading center," he changed the subject, as he nodded his head towards a building. Sun followed his gesture. In front of them laid a sprawling, one story building. The windows were shattered and boarded up with wooden planks to keep things out. The facade of the building crumbled, and vines crepe amongst the cracks and bricks. The front doors remained relatively sound. They were revolving, and a few of the glass panes were cracked. Sun sent the structure a wary look as they approached it.

"What should I expect in here?" she asked guardedly.

"Just stick close to me," Alex told her. "Oh, and watch out for the stench. It may be a bit overwhelming?"

"Stench?" she asked, but her question was answered for her when she was pushed into the revolving doors, and she was inside the complex.