Maria was an extremely wealthy individual, she couldn't say she arrived at this wealth from nothing-- on the contrary, she fully acknowledged her privileged upbringing-- but she also acknowledged that she to work her way up from upper middle class into the top 5% of wealth on American continent. It was a minor annoyance that she had to stop working while some "infection" spread, perhaps the more major annoyance was the fact that the incompetent government of this country of consumers had apparently not made [i]any[/i] progress on the development of a cure-- but what was unacceptable was that for the past [i]two weeks[/i] she had to share her space with the common rabble, Camp Pendleton. Clearly her money hadn't earned her a more secure haven.

'[i]Absolutely unacceptable...[/i]' She muttered to herself, trying to find the proper drone to get her water ration from.
 ---
24 mg of Invega. Twice the recommended dose for getting rid of hallucinations and delusions, Mother wanted to be sure the symptoms never showed when she was prescribed some 36 years ago and Maria just... kept doing it, perhaps as a way to remember her? Regardless, as she swallowed the pills with a bit of newly acquired water, the realization came upon her that she would either need to find a way to get more pills soon, or lower her dosage.

She left her tent to find someone to discuss this troubling issue with, until--“[b]Fuck you! I said let me go![/b]” What was this? Maria stood aside to watch the exchange.

“We can’t allow you to do that, son.” The two didn't appear to be related, the grunt appeared to raise a weapon to the man. The last time Maria checked, we weren't under marshal law.

“You don’t understand! She’s still out there! She won’t survive on her own! I have to get back to her! I- I could show you just-” Ohhh, cold twist. A Romeo looking for his lost Juliet. The soldiers maintained their breaking of every local, federal, UN, and Geneva law by keeping their guns raised, however.

“Don’t worry kid, we’ll find your friend.”

Maria scoffed, [i]'In the same amount of time you found Osama Bin Laden, I'll bet...'[/i]

After the exchange was over, most of the easily frightened sheep that populated the camp seemed to veer away from the young man. Maria, on the other hand, found herself interested-- and enchanted with the idea of possibly exchanging one hellhole for another. She followed the man, staying a quiet distance behind him, he appeared to be following the wall. Looking for an exit? If so, she could certainly credit the man with diligence. Eventually he stopped though, Maria could just make out the man muttering something as she approached him. Figuring this was not the time for overly formal greetings, she said the thing she knew would attract his attention, "So where do you think she is now?"