Rust sat at the kitchen table, watching the sun rise above the distant city.

  Shim and Quilt were sitting with her in companionable silence. Shim with his head resting on the table, and Quilt not looking much better, her face tight and tired.

  "That is not a child." Shim said, his voice muffled by the wood, and Quilt reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder.

  "Just 'cause she bit you doesn't mean she ain't a kid."

  "You said it, she bit me!" Shim waved one arm in the air briefly, not moving his head from its place against the table, "and she threw a glass at me, and she knocked me over, coulda killed me!"

  Rust leaned over and patted him on the other shoulder, and he grumbled something incomprehensible, shrugging them both off, lifting his head blearily.

  Quilt leant back on the chair, her arms hanging loose behind her. "Are we still goin' out today?"

  "Not me, I just wanna sleep," grumbled Shim, "let me go back to bed and wake me up in another thousand years."

  "Come on," Rust said, "you're young, you can go one night without sleep. Didn't you used to work nights?"

  "Yeah, but I also used to sleep during the day to counter it, and I wasn't being attacked throughout the night."

  Shim paused, "well, not normally. There was that one time where my boss wasn' expecting me to be in and thought I was a robber."

  The two women looked at him expectantly, but he didn't elaborate.

  "She's probably just been on her own a long time, poor little thing." Quilt said finally, "must be traumatic, kid can't be more than ten right? If she's been awake and alone half as long as we have…"

  She trailed off, expression sad, and Rust nodded.

  "She didn't bite me, so I guess I'm doing better than you two."

  Rust glanced towards the door to the living room, "I left her with Gertrude, but she'll want to be back outside with the others sooner or later."

  "Are you sure that's safe?" Shim spoke over her, lifting his head again and leaning back on his chair, "What if she attacks her, the kid attacks the chicken, I mean. I'm pretty sure she could take on even Gertrude. I'm so bleedin' tired."

  Rust shook her head. "She's been through a lot, I think. I hope. I didn't get the impression of uncontrollable violence from her."

  Shim snorted, "sure, just tell that to the twenty different bruises I've got goin' right now, and my poor foot!"

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  He waggled his foot somewhere under the table, and Quilt yawned. Rust resisted the urge to do the same.

  "We can skip goin' out for one more day, we still have uh, eggs and at least meals worth of beans left, although it goes less far with four of us."

  He squinted towards the pantry, which was mostly unused and filled with boxes. "I oughta clear that out, but not today. I feel like trash."

  Rust resisted the urge to pat his shoulder again. "Do you really think she walked here through the snow?" she asked instead, and Shim nodded.

  "She was wrecked when she landed on the doorstep. Didn't know if I was lookin' at a kid or a mop. She basically passed out as I opened the door, and she was soaked to the skin."

  He sighed, holding his head in his hands and exaggerating his tiredness only a little, "She was freezin' too, and I found snow on her, so she must've come from the City."

  Rust looked at him, and then over at Quilt.

  "I got her into some dry clothes," Quilt nodded, taking over from Shim, "but she was barely concious. I dunno if she was even aware what I was doin'. Shim pulled the clothes outta his room, said there was a whole box in there."

  "My kids clothes, stuff they grew out of decades ago." Rust said, "made it easier, come holidays, for them to stay over with the grandkids, and it didn't matter if they got mucky during a day trip."

  Shim leant back, mimicking Quilt and looking out of the window at the dawn-lit city. "Bet it was like, the best thing, comin' over here to grandmas. You had what, horses and chickens and a whole forest to play in? I bet it were like magic."

  Rust laughed under her breath, "One pony, and he was older than the gods, but probably, they were all city kids so they weren't used to any of it. Thought the chickens were gonna bite them, never seen grass, fascinated by the trees."

  She smiled, and Shim squinted at her blearily.

  "I'm gonna go back to bed," he decided finally. "Shout me if our little wildcat wakes up and does something interesting."

  He stood, wobbled on his feet for a second, and then hesitated. "We should look again at gettin' something to sit on in here that ain't just the wooden chairs. The sofa was a good idea, then I could just sleep in here."

  He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "If you can get her to stop freakin' out, she might appreciate a bath, the chicken seems good as long for calmin' her down, as you don't think she's gonna neck it"

  "She's not." Rust stated, and he nodded.

  "Ok, good, I'll see you in a couple of hours"

  A minute later he was gone, the slow creaks from above pinpointing his path.

  "How're you doing, with everything?" Rust asked Quilt, and the other woman shrugged.

  "Been worse, been worse. Didn' like how scared the girl gets every time we so much as look at her, but I guess trauma is to be expected, in this kinda situation."

  She sighed.

  "Do you think there's others out there, or parents who're lookin' for her?"

  Rust bit her lip, looking away, and Quilt sighed.

  "Maybe other people're wakin' up, that means. Like your family. I hope there's people lookin' for her, it's a bum deal, being' stuck here with us otherwise."

  "I looked at her, and I saw my grandchildren," Rust finally said, and Quilt nodded.

  "I figured. Is she one of yours, ya think?"

  "No," Rust stared out the window, "I don't recognise her enough for that to be the case, but she's around the right age. The thought of one of them being trapped in that big empty city alone…"

  She placed one hand on her chest, looking at nothing. "Makes me sad to think, that they might be in that situation. They're just kids. They don't deserve any of this."

  Quilt reached over and touched her hand, and Rust blinked at her, before smiling a melancholy smile. "Oh, it's ok. We'll keep looking, and if the are people out there, there's nothing I can do except look after those who turn up on my doorstep. It just... It's hard to imagine, a kid going through all this, and alone."

  Quilt nodded, yawned, and got to her feet. "I'm gonna leave you with the wildcat then, and try an' get some sleep too."

  With a nod, she was gone, heading up the stairs after Shim and leaving Rust alone in her kitchen.