After their little trip a bit out of the area for their supplies, Kenshi and Maiko return to base, where Tatsuro opens the gates for them. "You got anything?" he asks as they step in.

"A shit ton." Maiko chuckles, fixing her bag for nth time because of the contents inside it. It was full of supplies, so was Kenshi's bag. "Damn. Alright, Riki's with Boss inside the supply tent right now, just go bring it to them."

"Where's Juro?" Maiko asks before she follows Kenshi. "Up in the tower with Hiro, they're playing cards while on duty. Lucky Riki's busy, huh?" he chuckles before making his way up the ladder to the tower again. 

"Thanks!" she calls to him as he gets back up to the tower. "No problem." he grins before returning to his position.

She walks off and enters the spacious tent, where Riki and Atsumu were seated, looking through supplies as Kenshi carefully sorts his bag's contents out. Kneeling down beside the tall brunette, Maiko begins unpacking her things.

It was quiet, except for occasional questions for something to be passed over. "So, anymore duties before I go?" Maiko finishes hers quickly and stands. "No, you can go ahead and do something before dinner." he says with a small smirk. 

"Unless you want to-" "Nope. I'm out." she doesn't let him finish his probably perverted sentence as she rushes out the tent, leaving the men to laugh and snicker after her.

As she walks back to their apartment building, Juro catches sight of his mother and excuses himself from his small game with Hiro. "Mom's back. I need to go talk to her about something." he says, getting up. The ginger smiles, "Alright. Talk to you later, and say hi to Mai to me, I guess."

"Sure. Thanks for the company." he thanks him and climbs back down, jogging up to their apartment and opening the unlocked door. 

"Hey, mom..." he steps in with a small smile. "There you are Juro. How was the entire thing here? Anything happen?"

"I'm fine mom." he grins. "But I got some new weapons from Riki!" he says happily, pulling out a crossbow and a few arrows. He places it on the table nearby, along with a dagger and three new guns.

"Damn... That's plenty." Maiko says with surprise, looking over the weapons. "Yeah, but the crossbow's for you, along with this shotgun, from what Riki told me."

"Alright. Thanks." she nods, grabbing it and strapping it onto her bag, making sure it was secure before getting up. "I need to change, it was pretty bad out there. Had to off some." she sighs, opening the wardrobe and getting some new clothes.

It was nothing fancy, just a pair of black jeans and a camouflage patterned tank top, with a slightly damaged leather jacket over it. I mean, it's not like you have time to get all dolled up anymore. Those things out there don't care either way.

"I'll be out in a few minutes. Just stay there." She walks off and quickly changes, putting her hair up into a ponytail. "Mom! We have to help Boss with dinner!" her son calls, as she hears the rustling of clothing, presumably him putting on his jacket.

"Alright." she nods, stepping back out. "Let's go."

~*****~

"Hey guys!" Atsumu greets them happily as they step into the small cabin. Takuto was there, eating soup, and surprisingly, not pork noodles like usual. "Takuto's a bit ticked right now, I ran out of ingredients for pork noodles so he's pretty upset."

"Heh," Maiko chuckles, "Anyway, what did you need us for?"

"I need you guys to help me make dinner for the whole group tonight. We're having ramen and some salad."

"Alright, what do you need me to do?" "Juro, I need you to run over to eh supply tent and grab some fish or meat, your choice. And some of the wheat noodles, it's in a bag by the back of the tent." the boy nods respectfully and exits the cabin. "Maiko, I need your help cutting up some of the things for the salad later."

It didn't take much time for the dinner to be cooked and soon, they were all outside, finished with their meal and completely full. All split up to do their own thing, mostly going to bed since they wanted to rest for the day.

Juro had gone to bed and was sound asleep as Maiko sighed and pulled the blanket over him, exiting their apartment after. She made her way out of the building and to the towers outside. With a jacket on, she climaxed the ladder before standing still at the top, looking out to the scenery outside the walls.

"Hey," a deep voice made her slightly jump and turn around. Kenshi stood there, his tall frame looming over her as the moonlight shone down on both of them. "What are you doing out here? I thought you'd be asleep."

"Same could be said of you." she replies teasingly, making the man chuckle. "I suppose so. So what're you thinking of?" the man moves beside her and leans on the railing of the tower, looking out to the scene like her.

"It's just that... I'm thinking about everything." she replies quietly, narrowing her eyes slightly. "It's been almost 3 years since this entire thing happened, and everything went to shit so quickly." 

"Like look at this, Kenny," the name naturally slipped from her mouth, making the man blush slightly, but deciding to listen on, "This place was once so beautiful, probably full of life and joy. And look at it now. Look at us now."

"Maybe some things were to happen for a reason." he offered a reply, but she shook her head. "But not this... This isn't supposed to be like it is now. Like look at them." she points a few walkers in the distance slightly. "Those were once people. People like us, who just wanted freedom and happiness out of life. But look at them now."

"I..." "Exactly... It's just that everything went so bad, and the funny thing is, this all started and spread so quickly. Even to different cities, and I definitely wouldn't be surprised if it went all the way over to countries."

"Like think about it, about your family, friends and everyone important to you... They suffered because of this. Maybe because we weren't strong enough to save them." then her last words stabbed him the most.

"Just like Yoshiko suffered, because I wasn't strong enough to protect him..."