Chip was a natural at the bow when they started training in the wilderness and now in some ways he was surpassing Pamela. He was hitting moving targets square in the "sweet spot" for a quick death, because nothing was more heart wrenching than a small animal crying in pain. Pamela and Chip spent most of the last two weeks in the wilderness and she loved it. Pamela didn't have to deal with her dad dying, her mom being a tyrant, or any of the town's remedial shit. Her only job was to keep this young boy on a good path. In a way Pamela was getting the family of her own that she always dreamed about. But Pamela was well aware of the rules in Dust about adoption: a child can only be adopted by a stable family, a stable family being defined as two parents. Chip would never be hers unless she found a man she didn't want to kill. There was really only one man in the entire town of Dust that she could see herself with. Pamela told him a few months ago of her feelings for him but he was in a bad place and didn't/couldn't/wouldn't reciprocate. It was embarrassing and it broke her spirit. You can say that Pamela wouldn't be the tyrannical duplicate of her mother if it wasn't for that. Even though Pamela was always more demanding and like her mother, Dana and Pamela were a lot more similar back in the day. Chip brought her back to that. She needed that little brat. She didn't want a son but Chip needed a parent figure and she could adopt him as a little brother...right? She had so many questions that she did not know the answers to.
It was the sound of a gunshot that brought her back to reality.
"Was that a-"
"Yes, Chip," Pamela instinctually held the ten year old closer to her, "it was...which means someone is mad, someone is in trouble, and Noah may be dead." Chip seem to only own a handful of expressions. It was quite hilarious really but now he showed one that even Pamela has never seen...it was fear. He wore every emotion he had right on his face. Pamela knew that was something she would have to teach out of him because in Dust your emotions may get you killed. "We need to go," Pamela took Chip's hand and they made their way back to Dust.
Pamela stopped walking when they reached the town an turned to face Chip. "I want you to go to my house and stay with my mother," Pamela rustled her fingers through his dark hair, "she is pretty scary at first....and at second...but she loves children so tell her I sent you." Chip nodded his little head, gave Pamela a hug that might have been too long for normal people, and scurried off to the Clay household. Once Chip was out of her sight Pamela felt the old her returning. Noah decided to let the newcomers stay and someone shot him for it; that much she could guess. Pamela made her way to the guard quarters because one of them would be able to tell her the full story. When she arrived she saw him leaving. He didn't see her because he was preoccupied and seemed out of it. Pamela, in that moment, forgot why she was going to the guards to begin with and ran up to Aaron Sullivan, the only man in Dust she did not want to kill.
"Sully," Pamela stopped in front of him, looking him square in the eye sockets, "I need your help with something."