PotS 125-195 Consorti

Lauren finally has her chance to leave the town. Her father is lost and presumed dead, and after that the neighborhood and the rest of her family. After drug addicts break down the walls and set her house on fire she is forced to run away to escape the confusion, and kills a man in the process. Luckily she grabs her emergency pack that she previously prepared for such an occasion and has some supplies for life on the outside. The next day she returns home to scavenge the ruins of her home as a now homeless person. As she picks through her old house for extra supplies and the stash of money in the back yard, she learns that some of the poor are grateful to the people who did this for bringing down the "rich". She heads north shortly after meeting up with Zahra and Harry, two old neighbors. Her intentions are to spread Earthseed now that she has little other purpose to her life.

Her father missing was the beginning of the end, as he seemed to be the last hope for the community. Or at least the last person who actively sought to keep the community together. They searched for him but eventually had to give up and assume the worse and by no coincidence the neighborhood fell shortly after. After the community is broken into, Lauren has little reason to live. Her previous love interest is nowhere to be found and she has no family, the only thing driving her north at this point is her own religion. When Harry is shocked by the gruesome things Lauren suggests are necessary on the outside life, the difference between good and evil are blurred further. Once these people tried to live decent lives, because it didn't work do they try again or join the supposed morally compromised? Lauren and Zahra abandon their previous notions, not completely because they still hope for a better life in the North, but they will kill and steal to get there. Harry doesn't like it but reluctantly as Lauren reveals her hyperempathy agrees. In this time of desperation and little hope, Lauren introduces Earthseed to Harry. Given the hard times, promising words of change, and Lauren's background in religious text and public speaking, I think it is no question that Earthseed will take root in Harry and Zahra.