when you hear the story about the ten-foot-tall one-legged man who decapitates people with a metal shoe, your skeptical self of course thinks it's ridiculous. but the real question is is it more ridiculous than the dead coming back to life? the storytellers shall inherit the earth. 

silver in my head in this universe was displaced from his home country in some way or shape or form when he was very young. when the apocalypse hits perhaps a family member of his or someone he loves decides to stay behind and die because leaving home during the original displacement was too devastating. this time they die in their own home. maybe the loved one who stays behind does so in part because cell towers are down and only landlines still work. they still have loved ones in the original home country and they want to stay at home trying to call back one last time before the zombies reach their neighbourhood. silver flees.

or maybe silver is displaced alone when he is very young. part of how he rises to power among people is because he has actual practical experience with displacement. when the apocalypse originally hits and everyone is fleeing their homes, it's not his first rodeo. he's the only one who knew to bring not just canned food, but also a can opener. maybe he had to care for someone through part of his original displacement and that plays into his ability to become "quartermaster," among those evacuating to get away from the zombies. he knows how to manipulate people going through their first evacuation. but of course it ends up being read as genuine care.

maybe when the main goal of apocalypse flint threatens to lead to possible displacement again that sets off the betrayal. or maybe flint wants to stay and fight and defend some outpost instead of evacuating but silver has resigned himself that no home ever lasts and there will always be evacuation and displacement. maybe he ends up dooming madi's community, which has actually succeeded in forming a strong, well-guarded resilient community, to dispersing and becoming nomadic, moving place to place trying to set up again before they're chased out.

This is how they survive. You must know this. You're too smart not to know this. They paint the world full of shadows and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn't true. We can prove that it isn't true. In the dark, there is discovery. There is... possibility. There is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it. And who has been so close to doing it as we are right now?

Jack and Anne have no idea what they're up against with you, do they?