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Charlie has found a place to live off of the Cooper farm. It's closer to town, and amounts to a small house on an acre of land, but the power still works and she doesn't really know very many people anyway.

There are other homes in the area that need to be sorted through and cleaned, some of the refuse can turn out to be worth a little. That's what she's just come back from; helping clear out another of the outlying farms in exchange for some of the loot, and stopping off at the Farm to deliver over half of her split (clothing, canned goods, a little cash and seed packets).

Fate knows they need it more here than she does.

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"Need some help with that?" Mac asks, having seen her unloading.

"Yeah. That'd be helpful."

Charlie climbs out of her Bug and opens up the front trunk.

"That one is food, those two are clothes, and that plastic bag has packets of vegetable seeds."

He grabs the two clothes bags with his left hand, and the food bag with his right. Even in Facade, he was considerably stronger than he might look, so he had no trouble with them.

"Just lead the way to where these go," he says, aware (as always, lately) of his Australian accent. "I'll be right behind you."

Charlie blinks in response to the appropriation of bags but holds her tongue otherwise; if people want to go around being polite it's no skin off her back. Scooping up the bag of seeds, she slams the trunk shut and heads up into the house.

"Thanks."

He did say he'd follow.

And follow he does.

"So... haven't seen you around before. Course, I'm pretty new myself. Been here long?"

"I move around a lot."

Charlie shrugs, setting her lone item down on the counter.

"Couple of months, I guess. Spent some time on the East Coast before heading back this way."

"Longer than me, anyway," Mac says. He sets the food bag down beside the pantry door. "Where d'you want the clothes?"

"Counter. I don't live on this farm anymore, so moving around past the kitchen or living room isn't all that comfortable. How long have you been here?"

Mac shrugs. "Hard to keep track of time. Got pulled in here a few weeks ago, month tops. Over in Sydney. Slummed around there without seeing a soul for I don't know how long. Happened to catch the eye of a plane doing a flyby and caught a ride here."

"Sydney. That explains the accent." Well, she knew it wasn't even remotely American, and possibly not British. After a moment's hesitation, the blonde holds out a hand.

"Welcome to Kansas, then. I'm Charlie."

"Born and bred," he replies, shaking her hand. "Call me Mac. Everyone else does."

"Mac, then." Charlie takes one last glance around and heads back outside, still feeling a little furtive despite herself.

Mac follows her out in case there are more bags to bring in. "So, where are you staying, if not here?"

Charlie settles against the hood of her car. "I spent a week cleaning out an abandoned house closer to town. No one else was using it," she adds, a bit defensively.

"Sounds like a good deal. May have to go looking for a place of my own soon. I'm not used to being around so many people."

By people, of course, he means "humans". He's not been in Facade for this long at one time since his Becoming.

Shrug. "Plenty of places left wide open if you want to put in the time and work to make them habitable again."

Charlie only knows he feels off. The how and the why don't interest her unless he hurts someone she likes.

(Which account to maybe two or three people.)

"Anything nice in your neighborhood?" he asks with a cockeyed grin. "Something on the market for a while, with a reduced price, maybe?"

He'll get a wary look for that, as if she's unsure whether or not he's kidding.

"I ... yeah, I guess."

Mac notices the look and shrugs a little. "Joke. Just a joke. I'm not gonna move in next door and start stalking you or anything. I'm just wondering if there's a place where I can have some space of my own but not be too far away from human contact."

Her expression tightens momentarily. "I wouldn't suggest it, no." And relaxes after a few seconds.

"There's a place down the road from me, like two or three houses away. It's habitable with some work, but a little too close to town for my taste. You could probably move there."

"Sounds pretty good. What's the town like? Are there people living there, or is it like Sydney, overrun with giant spiders or such?"

"No, it's reasonably safe, I guess. Not too many people, but isn't like a ghost town."

Beat.

"Giant spiders?"

Mac nods. "Yeah. As in 'stringing webs between buildings across a four-lane street' giant. Legs half-again as tall as I am."

"I am fucking never going to Sydney."

Charlie has a spider phobia. Actually, she's got several phobias, but spiders and other insects are one of the bigger ones.

"Don't blame you. The place has really gone downhill lately. No culture anymore."

The glib is a coping mechanism.

"So... mind if I catch a ride back with you to check out this place? I don't mind walking, but if you're heading that direction anyway...."

"Sure, why not. But, dude, if you assault me, I have no problem killing you and then dumping your corpse somewhere along the route."

And with that said, she pushes away from Herbie's trunk long enough to climb back into the driver's seat.

Mac chuckles, but sobers and nods. "Fair enough, then."

Granted, she might find that rather harder than she expects, but since Mac has no untoward intentions, it's a moot point anyway.

He ducks into the passenger side, easing the seat back to accommodate his longer legs, and belts in.

There's always the chance she'll run into something bigger and badder than she is, in Mac's case probably both figurative and literal.

After a glance around to make sure she's not going to run anyone over, Charlie starts up the car and backs out of the driveway, before tearing off down the road towards Smallville.

She drives like a maniac. Or someone with more video game experience than real-life.

Reckless driving, he can handle. It's no worse than a couple of his friends -- and they'd do it with other cars on the road.

"Sturdy little car," he observes.

"Herbie is the best car on the planet," Charlie agrees, barely keeping him upright around the next corner, and pulling a miracle when they don't flip.

Needless to say, the fifteen minutes to the empty house down from hers could be easily called 'nerve wracking'.

"No arguments here."

Mac tries to pay at least some attention to the route. He's not looking forward to the walk back -- fifteen minutes at that speed makes a lot of distance, but he relaxes when he notices that there are intact power lines for most of the way. That'll make things easier.

"So, is there anything important I should know about the area or the world in general? Acid rain, sinkholes, dinosaur attacks, anything like that?"

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