[b]American Midwest, West Texas;
Upper Rio Grando Region
9:01 AM[/b]

	[color=fff79a]"Heat beats the bugs. Heat beats the bugs. Heat beats the bugs."[/color] Lizzy reminded herself in a monotone mantra. It must have been close to a hundred. The lithe blonde woman, hair tied into a ponytail drifting out from underneath a light purple beanie, trudged alongside a desert road. A backpack on her shoulders full of supplies, a metallic water canteen attached to the belt of her shorts.

	[color=fff79a]"Come on, Lizzy. You got this."[/color] She lifted up her purple shirt and wiped her sweaty forehead with it. Then she tucked it back into it's normal position, revealing most of her midriff but drooping down the sides of her body to let her skin breathe as much as possible. 

	[color=fff79a]"The stars at night, are big and bright...deep in the heaaart of Texas. Bum bum bum bum, bum bum bum...bum."[/color] She clapped half-heartedly. This was her life. Hours upon hours of mind-numbing boredom, punctuating by minutes of sheer terror. She was so...lonely.

	[color=fff79a]"Why?" [/color]Lizzy pondered aloud. [color=fff79a]"I'm likable, aren't I?"[/color] She kicked at a loose stone with her boot. She'd spent the better part of the morning travelling from one small, unmarked town to another. Fortunately they weren't that far. But if Lizzy was going to get anywhere, she was going to need to get a car up and working again. The distances between places in Texas were just too vast. Fortunately, there were supplies in places one wouldn't expect. If you knew where to look. The Swarming happened pretty damn fast, so...people left stuff behind. One of the reasons the bold scavenger still had some meat on her bones and some rose in her cheeks. 

	[color=fff79a]"Here we go. Shithole-Nowhere, Texas."[/color] Lizzy spotted the town in the distance. [color=fff79a]"My home for the next few weeks."[/color] Place to place, place to place. A nomad. It had worked out for her so far. Self-reliant. Stay quick, stay quiet.

	She approached the outskirts of the quiet town and tried to find the nearest point of interest. Gas station, grocery store, library. Even just a house that didn't look too ransacked or broken. And definitely looking for signs of bugs. She kept to the middle of the street, staying away from any buildings until she got a good look at them. Didn't want anything jumping out at her without some time to react.