As MJ stepped forwards a firm hand was placed against her shoulder. Her chestnut eyes pathed their ways up the guard's arm, weaving between the camouflage to find an unfamiliar face. The man in question was classically handsome, tall with blue eyes and a squared jaw that was covered by light, somewhat messy facial hair. "This one will need to be processed seperately from the other two." The tall stranger gently patted Marie's shoulder as she was ushered ahead of the room both Maddie and Alicia had been placed in. Both Clark girls began their protest, earning nothing but blank stares and a closed door in return. Shadows of the pair's hands battered against the frosted galss and MJ called for them.
Their efforts amounted to nothing...
Marie sat idly in the red leather arm chair, throat and appendages spent after beating the plastered walls that seperated her from the Clarks. The brunette's eyes flcikered around the room, taking in as many details as she could. MJ found herself fixated on the masses of literature that ranged from survival manuals to Shakespeare. They called her name, beckoning her closer - she couldn't remember the last time she saw this many books.
Marie Jana gravitated toward them, fingers brushing against each and every spine of every book within her reach. A gasp elicited its way from her lips as a particular piece of literature caught her eye. MJ picked up the pages, memories of her mother reading to her and Christ when they were only young flooding back to her. The feeling was familiar, the smell and feel of each individual page. Marie began to get lost in the feeling of the book, one she hadn't experienced since high school.
"John Steinbeck." MJ dropped the book to the floor, eyes wide in disbelief as she came face to face with the same stranger from earlier. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." He added with a smile, one that was sickly sweet. Marie backed away from him slightly, not tearing her gaze away from him as he placed a small cup of tea on the desk between them.
His expression remained stoic as he trailed over to the literature that now lay abandoned on te floor. The tall stranger tilted his head from side to side as if to examine the cover. Finally, he picked it up and placed it on the desk beside the hot drink. "Of Mice and Men is one of my favourites." He began, taking a seat on the edge of the desk as Marie Jana kept her distance.
"My mother used to read it to me." Marie's comment earned a nod of acknowledgement as a notebook was placed upon the desk.
"I'm Troy." The man in question extended a hand.
"MJ." She refused to shake it, instead taking a seat on the pristine chair in the middle of the room. "Why am I here?" The nineteen year old got straight down to business, wanting Troy to leave her in solitude as soon as possible. Marie's dark eyes were now alert, defaulting to their usual coldness as she followed his every movement.
Troy Otto's brow twitched in annoyance as he immediately registered Marie Jana Manawa's hostility toward him and his group. The teen wouldn't be easy to sweet talk, much like the women he assumed to be her mother and sister. "You spoke about your mother. Madison I assume." MJ shook her head. "She's deceased then?" Her downcast eyes were enough of an answer. "I apologise, my mother passed also." troy seemed detached from his words as he scribbled scriptures into his notebook. "And your father?"
"Your men took him." Troy Otto nodded, this information was old news for him.
He looked up, gesturing limply with his hand as if trying to muster his next words. "Imean where is he from?" MJ furrowed her brow in confusion, the question not unfamiliar to her but definitely strange in this situation. "We need to know where people are from, it's security protocol."
"It's none of your business is what it is." Marie Jana had no problem with people asking about her ethnicity, however these people clearly couldn't be trusted and the teenager wasn't ready to divulge an ounce of information they searched for. Troy Otto was a man that, on the surface, seemed like the boy next door. With blue eyes and a sweet smile anyone with half a brain was bound to trust him.
Luckily for Marie Jana Manawa, surviving the apocalypse had taught her many things, most important of which was - trust no one.
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