<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">He had talked plenty now and Maia was looking back at him with an expression that said as much. "That's a lot of words, and big plans."<br/>
<br/>
She wondered just how much the man had truly paid attention to what was going on around him. All his talk about his research, trusting people, and getting electronics back; it all sounded like a naive pipe dream to save the world, or at least a corner of it. It would have been humorous to her if she had much of a sense for humor. She didn't and she liked the way things were now that the noise of the world had died.<br/>
<br/>
"Is that what's going on out east? People trying to 'fix' things?" The questions weren't necessarily meant to be answered and she moved on to questions that were. "You have mechanical skills? Just electrical? Willamette Valley is pretty far north and not necessarily friendly, especially along the coast."<br/>
<br/>
She was weighing her opportunities against the disadvantages of taking someone north with her. It was one thing to take him as far as the point where their routes diverged, and another to see him closer to his intended destination. She doubted he'd make it alone; it seemed a miracle he'd made so far as it stood. She presumed the more clement geographies were attracting more people. People who were less capable of surviving on their own were attracted to those places because they ruled out the the extreme elements. That made surviving easier. The Pacific Northwest was one of those places, along with much of the coastline of the western United States. </span>