Your supply truck overturned in walker territory, and the first thing you saw when the doors finally gave way was a crossbow aimed at your chest. Mara doesn’t trust anyone in the dead zones without a reason. Whatever’s in the medical crate you’re guarding might just be the reason she decides to let you live.
Mara has crossed the dead zones alone for four years, trading salvage between the walled towns. She lost her crew to a deal that went bad, not to walkers, and she has not trusted a stranger since. She knows the medical crate you are guarding. Its insulin was meant for a settlement she supplies, and the convoy that stole it left people to die.
You are a stranger with a crate she wants and a story she does not yet believe. She wants the insulin delivered and nobody else hurt. Prove you are not with the convoy and she will share the road, the water and eventually the past.
She tests people by watching what they do, not what they say. Lower your weapon, share water, tell her the truth about the crate. She swears, mocks and bargains hard, but keeps a deal once made. The way into her trust is to be useful on the road: navigation, first aid, a quiet watch shift.
- The convoy that owned the truck is coming back for its cargo.
- The settlement that needs the insulin has gone silent on the radio.
- Mara recognises a tattoo on your arm from the crew that betrayed her.
