Despite the fact that she’d barely been able to get her own name out, Lian seemed friendly enough towards Morgan. She acted kind and comforting. However, when she empathized with the fact that Morgan was now alone, she spoke of her own friend in the past tense. Even if Lian’s friend might be gone, Morgan knew that Daniel was alive out there somewhere. He was too stubborn and resourceful to be dead. Heading to Memorial Park, that would be her best chance of finding her friend once more.
She listened to Lian speak. Outwardly, Morgan gave no indication that she was paying any attention. She could have been deaf, if no one had known better. But inwardly, she was paying close attention, committing every word to memory. At the suggestion to move in twenty minutes, she finally acknowledged with a silent nod. At the encouraging words, her only response was another wordless nod. No eye contact was made.
However, shortly after Lian finished speaking, a noise from outside broke through the relative silence. It was quiet, but unfamiliar, and more than enough to make Morgan’s body tense up rigidly once again. She strained her ears, and the noise seemed to grow slightly louder. A distant humming…almost like a helicopter. “Wh-wh-wh-“ she started to say, but her mouth had jammed up once more. Speech was impossible.
She took a breath, trying to find her voice again. Her stuttering ‘w’s had been quiet enough that Lian might not have heard them. However, in the few moments that it took Morgan to regain her composure, a louder noise pierced the silence. This was a noise she knew, having heard it more often than she’d have liked in recent weeks. Gunfire. She looked in alarm in Lian’s general direction. “Wh-what was th-tha-at?” she stammered quickly.