James Houston - Unknown Street with Mary ParkJames let out a light laugh at Mary's offer of candy. It felt good, he couldn't remember the last time he'd found anything amusing.
"No, no it's okay," James said. "You keep it. I've got a can of beans, I'll get it open even if I have to use my head to crack it."
James thought in silence for a few seconds, about what Mary had said of her time at the hospital. "Whoa, I bet you've seen some things? The hospitals were the first to go, if I heard Old Man Cowsky's radio right. I've been sheltering away in an attic for the most part, trying to let my ... um, wounds heal. They still hurt, but I'm as good to go as I'll ever be. The need for food drove me outside, and aside from this tin of beans, I haven't found squat."
Then he remembered she'd mentioned a house, and that its garden had vegetables. This struck James as odd, because he wasn't sure if vegetables could grow on their own accord, or if they needed someone to look after them. James was many things, but a gardener wasn't one of them.
"The house sounds like an option, but we should be careful. Someone may still be living there, though I'd find that hard to believe. You're the first person I've seen in weeks, but then I didn't go much further than the attic's window. Still, we should be careful," he said, before noticing that Mary seemed uneasy about the prospect of teaming up. "Hey, it's okay. I've got bigger things to worry about than sex right now, I'd much rather be trying to get some food. We can worry about the whole man-woman thing once I've eaten, but even then, I plan to be heading out of here pretty quickly. I'm thinking the further away I am from the city, the better." He paused, looking at the bloodied umbrella on the grass. "Besides, judging by the way you killed that thing, I think I'm the one in danger here. Keep your eyes off my ass," he laughed with a wink, hoping his awful joke composition came off better than it sounded.
