The galley was mostly empty except for a few people taking a break from guard duty and the occasional night owl. After grabbing some leftover stew and an apple, Autumn made her way to a quiet corner by herself. Or at least she had planned on eating by herself, until Mitch showed up.

Mitchell, or Mitch, as he preferred to be called, was a younger member of the settlement. He was only 2 or 3 years younger than Autumn, but he acted far less mature than that. He was loud, with a shrill quality that made him that much more unpleasant. He was also a great source for gossip when necessary but Autumn refused to ever get intel from him. A pale, gangly fellow, he was often on housekeeping duty since he was near useless in the field, an air worker with next to zero control over his element. Hell, the man had asthma for God's sake. And unfortunately for Autumn, he was smitten with her.

"Lord give me strength." She muttered to herself as she accidentally made eye contact with him and he approached her table.

"Autumn, how are you darlin?" Mitch purred as he sat himself across from her at the table.

"I'm fine" she stated simply, not in the mood to engage with his antics.

"Just fine, pretty lady? No new clothes sewn, or stories to tell?" he prodded.

"I was on excursion with my sister today. Just barely made it back in one piece." She did her best to keep her voice monotone.

"Ugh. I don't know why such a delicate thing such as yourself even deigns to go out to fight." he says. "Your sister I can understand, but you, you should be in here where it's safe."

Autumn cleared her throat and put her spoon down. She really was not in the mood for this.

"Mitchell, I'm giving you all of 30 seconds to get the fuck out of my line of sight. I damn near died today and the last thing I need is your bitch ass squawking bullshit. And if you ever mention my sister again, well, let's just say you won't like the consequences" Her voice was icy, harsh.

Mitch, however, was nothing if not persistent.

"Oooh, feisty!" was his reply. Autumn simply rolled her eyes.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to offend. I just meant that you're so... soft. You shouldn't be out there fighting zombies and getting dirty. You should be in here during the day, helping with the children or in the med bay." his voice grated Autumn's nerve like a zester on a lemon.

Autumn pulled her butterfly knife and began to absentmindedly twirl it. She was definitely getting riled up.

Autumn put on her fake sweet voice. She was getting tired of this motherfucker. "Mitchell, since my subtle threats seem to be goin in one ear and out the other, let me dumb this down for you,"  she looked down at her bowl of food before making an unshakeable eye contact. "If you want to see just how sharp I made this knife, please, keep talking." Her voice was smooth like crushed velvet, but her eyes were sharper than the very knife she wielded.

She looked him in the eye as she stabbed the knife straight up into the table next to her long forgotten bowl of stew. "If there's nothing else you gotta say, leave." She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms with a look that screamed "Try me, dummy."

Mitchell swallowed audibly, eyes wide as his Adam's apple bobbed.

"I...I'll just be on my way then... until next time beautiful." he stammered, finally getting the hint.

Autumn simply flipped him the bird before going back to her food. Fortunately, the rest of her night was uneventful. After finishing her meal, she took a quick shower and went to her quarters to fall into a deep sleep.

Autumn was in the hospital, surrounded by beeping machines and the smell of disinfectant.
"Autumn, baby girl, you've gotta go, don't worry about me." A voice weak, but  sweet like honey spoke.

Autumn looked at the woman in the bed in front of her, ink black hair splayed out on the pillow behind her, the color drained from her face. It was her wife, her whole heart, laid out in this bed.

"Ami, don't say that.. You know I'll always worry about you, chicken wing." She gave her a sad smile as she watched her wife cough.

Amira wasn't about to back down. "Autumn Ariadne, I'm so fucking serious. We both know that this... this isn't about to get any better. And I don't want you worrying about me."

Autumn couldn't stop the tears from falling. "I'm fucking serious too. I'm gonna keep worrying about you until I don't have to anymore. No matter how long that takes." She grabbed her wife's hand. "I'm right here, Ami. Right here."

"Autumn, I need you to promise me something." Amira whispered.

"Anything, baby." was Autumn's simple reply.

"Don't you dare not be happy. You deserve to be happy no matter what. Go on an adventure and find someone, something that makes you happy, mama."

Autumn woke up in that moment, face wet with the tears she had shed in her sleep. She quickly went to the bathroom to wash up and dress and head to her assignment.

"Ami, I'm glad you aren't around for this level of fuckery." Autumn muttered.

Little did she know that today would bring in a whirlwind of changes for her, and that her adventure had yet to begin.

The Council's meetings were held once a week to discuss what new developments had come up. Births, deaths, major assignments like guard duty and excursions, things like that. There were 11 members in total to prevent any ties when voting. Bruce, Cannon, Cass, and a few older members. They were seated in an old meeting room, around an old oak table.

"Does anyone else have anything to bring to the floor?" Asked Cannon, who was leading this week's meeting. His gravelly voice was tinged with boredom since nothing new had been mentioned yet.

Bruce raised his hand. It was now or never.

"I want to discuss the colony down by the river." he said plainly.

"The what now?" Asked Cannon, confused. Cass simply rolled her eyes as the rest of the council started to murmur amongst themselves.

Bruce cut Cass a look before continuing. "The Gold sisters were on excursion yesterday. Aeris found another group of survivors about 5 miles to the south. I think we need to investigate it."

One of the older men on the council stroked his beard. "Are they hostile, infected?" he asked.

"Unsure." Bruce replied.

"I think it's too dangerous." Said Cass, defensively. "We don't know if they're friendly, if they're infected. We don't even know what they work with." she stated smugly.

"Cassidy, there's no way to find out any of that if we don't investigate." Bruce raised his voice on the last word.

"Bruce has a point, Cass." said Cannon with a shrug. The other members murmured in agreement.

Cass stood up from her chair. "Do you really want to waste resources on investigating a group we can't even verify even exists?" she said angrily. The room went silent.

This wasn't uncommon for the woman in front of them to get this way when it came to matters she didn't want to talk about. But the group was interested in how Bruce would handle this.

Being the youngest member, he often didn't appear interested in the usual events, but when he had something to say, he made damn sure people would listen.

Bruce gave Cannon a knowing look before settling back into his chair a bit. He crossed his legs at the knee and took a sip of his water, face devoid of any emotion.

"Cass, you're worried about what we may find and that's understandable, but don't you dare say it's a waste. Best case scenario is we gain some new allies we can trade with. Worst case, we never have to interact again. But if there's a chance of boosting our numbers and survival rate, then by all means we should take it."

Cass gave a bitter chuckle. "You think that we give a damn about allies? The fact that we've made it this far is a miracle. Everyone here is immune to the disease. What is the likelihood of it being the case with that other group? Let's say you're right and they're friendly and we end up being carriers of the stupid fungus and we infect them. How will that look? We just killed our precious "allies" just by touching them! And we don't know who they know. It's about more than us just setting up trade and shit. We here at Ironwood have managed to be self sufficient for the past 6 years. We worked with our elements to get this place in runnin' order, and I'll be damned if we fuck it up by tryin' to be friendly. We do enough takin' in the strays that manage to find this place." her southern drawl coming in heavily.

Now that was a line of thinking Bruce had completely missed. Before he could respond, Cannon spoke up.

"If they managed to make it this far past the beginning, they're most likely immune too, Cass. I think Bruce is on to something I think we should at least investigate. No contact, but just observe for now." he said calmly.

"Tch. I still think it's a waste of time and manpower." She said as she finally sat down.

Cannon simply rolled his eyes. "Alright, we're putting this to a vote. All voting for investigating, raise your hands."

7 hands went up, leaving 4 naysayers.

"Ok, so it's settled. Tomorrow, Cass, you get the details from Aeris about the exact location, and then we send someone for recon."

Cass scoffed. "If we must do this, let's cut out the middle man and just send Aeris and Autumn back out there. They already have the best idea of where to look."

Bruce shook his head. "Just send one of them. We don't want to give the wrong impression."

Cannon nodded. "Send the little one. Aeris is good, but Autumn looks less threatening should they have to interact."

Cass simply hummed in agreement. "I'll let her know."

"Ok, meeting is adjourned." With that, the group dispersed.