Beth sees the boy struggling to speak and hears Rodney snap at him. Annoyed by this display she pushes Rodneys arm away and walks towards the zombie while looking back at Rodney over her shoulder and softly shouts, "Rodney! That's enough!"
She walks forward to smile at the young boy and then sees a heartbreaking scene of this malnourished youth struggling to smile back at her very slowly.
Rodney says towards Beth hurriedly, "Lady Beth! We do not know this young man or where he came from. The fact that he's out here at all is suspicious in and of itself! For all we know, he could be someone your uncle sent as a way to detain us. If you ask me, I believe we should-" Before he could finish his statement, Beth gives Rodney a sharp glare with the silent meaning to be quiet.
Beth begins softly and then gradually gets louder as she sees the bald naked young boy shivering while looking away from the group. "He's still a kid! He's here in this hell hole surviving god knows what, and then this guy just rushes at him with a weapon trying to kill him! Wouldn't you be in shock at this situation at his age?!" She then walks over to Clem and says, "Give me your jacket."
Clem looks at her in embarrassment. Realizing that he is the cause for the traumatic event he hurriedly tries to defend himself while giving Beth his grimy Military jacket, revealing a white tank top with stains and hole scattered throughout it. "How was I supposed to know it was just a kid?! There's plenty of zombies that are kids or smaller! I was just trying to protect us! I'm not someone who would beat up on a youngin!" Afterwards he turns towards the young boy and says, "Look kid, I'm sorry, okay? You don't need to be afraid of me doing something like that again."
Then he watches as Beth walks over to the young boy and puts the jacket around him to cover him up. The jacket is ridiculously to big for the boy, looking more like a nightgown with over-sized arms than a actual piece of clothing. He says, "Please try not get that jacket torn up or anything, it's my only one. My brother and I had to work for three days on odd jobs to be able and buy these two matching sets of outfits." He sighs, and gets up off of the ground to lean against the wall for Beth to finish dressing the little boy.
As Beth was wrapping the jacket around the young boy she saw around his neck were deep finger impressions. Seeing this, she reached to touch the marks absentmindedly and sees the boy jerk and look down towards his feet. She asked the little boy, "Is this why you are unable to talk? Did someone do something to you?" To which the boy stood still with his head hung low. Beth took that as confirmation and didn't pry.
Just then Rodney was struck with realization, "Lady Beth! This boy could be the answer to our problem!" He said with an excited expression. Which Clem then replied with a puzzled expression, "What? You think this kid knows where the medicine is?"
Rodney looked at Clem with disdain, realizing he might have solved their problem himself, "No Sir Clem, if this child has been abandoned and does not have any ties to anyone in the Utopia and he was able to stay with us then-" Beth finished the statement in a daze, "-then the government would consider my family a childbearing household..." She then looked at the young zombie in a daze unsure of what to do.
Clem wore an even more confused expression on his face and said, "so what if ya'll have a kid? What does that have to do with getting medicine?" Rodney stroked his graying goatee and said with a chuckle, "Sir Clem, each child of an ascended is precious to Utopia right?" Clem answered back like a bird pecking at feed, "Yuh huh." Rodney continued, "And you know that it is incredibly rare for an ascended to be fertile. With little to no ascended having any children. The ones that do, regardless of their battle capability, are given special treatment due to the fact that they are almost guaranteed to produce another ascended!"
Beth who was off to the side listening, looked at the young boy in front of her who was hurt and practically still naked. She flashed a resolved look on her face and said,"Anywhere would be better than just staying out here for him. I say we take him back with us, just as Rodney suggested. He could be the answer to our prayers, while we might also be the answer to his!"
Beth put her hands on the boys shoulders while kneeling in front of him and gave a big smile to try and comfort him. The boy jolted his head up and saw the face smiling wide at him as he smiled back very weakly.
Then still pressing the issue, Clem brought up a valid point, "Why don't they just take children from an orphanage as their own or ask someone that doesn't want theirs? If there is such a loophole, why wouldn't everyone exploit it?"
Rodney was about to answer his question but then was stopped to see the little boy beginning to shiver again. Rodney said, "Look, I'll explain everything when we get to someplace better suited for talking. Let's just get out of here, there is probably nothing here worth value that wasn't already scavenged let's get Sir -." Rodney stopped abruptly as he came to a realization.
"It just occurred to me that we do not even know this young boys name." Rodney looked curiously at the bald headed youth wearing an over-sized military jacket, he leans down and asks the boy. "What is your name young man?"