François Diallo continues his interview for the newspaper, shifting from questions about Arthur Leander and the Station Eleven comics to asking Raymonde about her own life and the Traveling Symphony.

Raymonde explains that she acted as a very young child before the collapse, including appearing in commercials and having a recurring role on a television show, though she can’t recall details. Raymonde admits that her memory of life before the Georgia Flu is fragmented, which Diallo notes is common for people who were children when the world fell.

Raymonde says she joined the Symphony at fourteen after ending up in a town in Ohio with her brother following their flight from Toronto. After Raymonde’s brother died, Raymonde was alone there until the Symphony arrived during a rare attempt to expand its route farther south, traveling down river paths through ruined cities.

Raymonde calls the Ohio expedition a “failed experiment” because it was so dangerous: the troupe lost an actor to an illness on the road, was shot at multiple times, and a flautist was nearly killed by a gunshot wound. After that, the Symphony never again left its usual territory, though Raymonde believes travel is less dangerous now than it used to be.

Asked about other towns, Raymonde describes how communities vary widely in governance and stability, and how signs like fear, starvation, exploitation, or very young pregnancies can signal places the Symphony won’t revisit. Raymonde says the worst are towns controlled by cults, because their “logic” is unpredictable and impossible to reason with; she recalls a town in white clothing that claimed moral superiority for surviving, which triggers grief and anger in outsiders.