Being snapped at didn't even merit a raised eyebrow considering the week Abby'd been having.  She glanced around at the children and corpse-removers.  Odd combination, that.

"Hi, yeah, we met at the meeting.  I was the one who [i]didn't[/i] spurn your offer of assistance?  I'm Dr. Ng."  Back in the non-ruined world, Abby had preferred to introduce herself without her academic title.  Any implied authority could only help her here.  

"Two things.  First, I want to start telling people they can come to your building for, you know, safety.  I figured I should clear that with you before I just started doing it.  Second, I need somewhere secure to keep my things.  I'm going to be doing some research, eventually, and I can't have people wandering in and breaking my beakers or whatever.  I'm not offering nothing, either; I have some pretty useful skills.  Like, how not to die of scurvy from eating nothing but beef jerky and twinkies.  So, is that agreeable to you?"

She braced her hands on the straps of her backpack and waited for a response.  The Japanese weren't her only option; she could always go back to living in the woods.  She'd probably be better off there than with a bunch of individualists.  But finding a place in a group where there could be some division of labour was a much better option than going it alone, in her opinion.