"I can understand that! I tore something up in my heel a couple of years ago and couldn't run for almost six months. I was sucking wind. Hard. It took me a while to get back into enough shape to get through Mid-Town, let alone crossing the border south to Jersey." He then quickly added:
"Not that you were trailing too badly out there. For not running in a while, you sure kept pace with me rather well." Justin mumbled a curse when the battery operated bulbs mounted on the ceiling fizzled for a moment before resuming their jobs. How long had it been since they had replaced these things? As he walked over to investigate the faltering equipment, he heard her address him as "Lead Scout", a chuckle coming out of him in reaction as he turned around, brushing some water off of his forehead before answering the question: 
"I personally want to sleep. I think you would want to as well. I don't think you were out for more than an hour before those guys got the jump on us." He grimaced as he felt his shirt cling to his body, lifting it off of his frame before it suctioned right back on. 
"Excuse me, but I'm going to have take this thing off." He walked back to his cot, wrestling the shirt off just as she made an interesting request. Justin looked down at his torso, noting the thin scars that traced across his upper abdominal wall before she made a request, one that he was more than happy to gratify. 
"That's fair. After all, you're coming from a whole other world down in Baltimore." He sat down on the floor up against the cot he had staked for himself so that his wet cargo shorts didn't make his bedding wet for the night(that sucked).
"Where to start? Uh...well, Omega was started by a bunch of older people who had survived the Wipeout through some miracle. They wanted to give hope to people that didn't have any, so they advocated for a system that took people in, put them to work and gave them a purpose. That's when the Bibles started coming out in full force. The older ones had some religious conviction, but when they stumbled onto some Bibles at an abandoned church...they really took to it, you know? Spread a culture of acceptance for all beliefs so just as long as you believe in SOMETHING and work your tail off, you have a place to call home. It's as nice as you can make a place. Got purifiers, clean dirt to plant food in, houses that are actually kinda nice. Uptown was apparently a wealthy part of New York, so scavenging materials was more of a breeze than a chore." He chuckled.
"One of my friends had a gold plated knife hilt cause he just found it rusting away somewhere. Cleaned it off, looked brand new. Of course, the knucklehead showed it off too much and got it stolen by raiders, but whatever." He rubbed the back of his neck as he commented: 
"Anyway, point is this: we're a good settlement with good people. The religion thing kinda spooks loners off, but if you can get past it, it's a great place to be." Justin looked to Cameron, noting the look of exhaust on her face. It didn't detract from the simple prettiness of it. 

Pretty? 

Well, she was. It wasn't like he was going to hit on her, but yeah, she was attractive. 

Pushing his inner dialogue aside, he asked:
"So Baltimore? I hear that it's pretty nice, but never met anybody from down there before. "