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schizophrenic.
    Further, she knew she had no treatment for him.
    She began to grow concerned for her future. Without
Konnor, she would have been much worse off, and she knew it. He had
contributed so much to her survival and her emotional well-being.
Now all that was threatening to unravel because she could do
nothing for him.
    With winter coming on, she didn’t think she’d be able
to survive on her own.
    Caitrin didn’t want to contemplate what it would be
like living with a crazy person. That was especially so when the
craziness already in their lives because of the purges was almost
more than they could handle together.
    If he was going around the bend, she’d have to deal
with it.
    If only she knew how.
     
    It took a week for Caitrin to convince Konnor that
she should be allowed to make the daily excursions into the city.
She’d need at least that much time to gather up the remaining items
they would need. She was able to convince him to allow her to start
with two days a week, on Monday and Thursday.
    He almost refused to let her do it.
    She’d get up first thing in the morning, fix herself
a quick bite to eat, and then dress for the day. She hid the fact
that she was a woman by wearing bulky clothes. Her jeans were
loose. She tucked the cuffs into the expensive hiking boots she had
obtained during a smash-and-grab at an outdoor store’s window
display.
    She considered strapping down her breasts, and
decided against it. A sports bra would have to do. Overtop of that
went a t-shirt and a regular shirt. She added an oversize hoodie.
Under that, a ball cap covered the long hair she kept in a bun
whenever she went outside. She checked herself in the mirror each
time before she left, as if she might have missed something.
    She never did.
    On her way out the door, she added the shotgun and
the ammo belt. From the belt on her jeans she hung a small k-bar
with a handle just big enough to fit her hand.
    As hard as it had been for Caitrin to convince Konnor
to let her go, he never seemed to notice her disappearance on those
twice-weekly excursions. She stopped saying good-bye in fear that
it would set him off on one of the ever-increasing rants that he
was beginning to subject her to. She couldn’t take the yelling and
screaming. All she wanted to do when he started in on her was to
escape to the isolation of the outside world.
    After a while, she began enjoying the silence and the
solitude.
    As her treks got longer, she’d often be gone all day,
almost into darkness. She wouldn’t allow herself to be out in the
night. At the end of the day, often as late as twilight, she’d
arrive home, exhausted, feet sore and back aching from the weight
of the huge pack she toted.
    She knew she was using those two days as an escape
from her developing problems with Konnor. She spent the time
thinking, and she didn’t like the one question she kept asking
herself. What was she going to do without Konnor to help her exist
within the confines of the deserted city?
    Despite her worries, she enjoyed being out of
Konnor’s way. She got to examine parts of the city that she barely
knew existed. She was most cheerful when she passed through the
city’s parks with their huge shade trees and picnic tables. Some of
them even had barbecues. It reminded her of what was missing, but
she soon chased those thoughts out of her head.
    Caitrin used a city map to mark out the areas she had
already explored, and made notes of where she might return where
the pickings turned out to be good. On foot, it was slow going.
She’d tried using a bicycle, but ditched that idea when the heavy
pack she carried got the better of her. She had tipped over, and in
her clumsiness, knocked herself out when she was dumped on the
ground by the off-center weight of the pack.
    Hell, even a kid knows how to ride a bike , she
told herself on the way down.
    When she came to, she looked around, embarrassed that
anyone might have seen her, until she remembered she was all