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sooner than this.” Damian sounded one hundred percent certain and Ryan wondered what this man had seen overseas. He knew better than to ask. Anne was the only one who could talk to him about his military career without getting their head bitten off.
    Ryan nodded. “We’ll keep our eyes and ears open for any hints but you’re probably right. Thanks again for the night off.”

VI.
     
    They wandered off through the camps, noting that Sue and her young helper, Violet, were keeping the kids tightly wrangled towards the northern end of their camp. Sean nodded his approval. “They’re smart. Kids can be a burden, but they’ll be a commodity to the wrong people. Best keep them close and safe.”
    “You sound like a father.”
    Sean shook his head. “No, don’t want any of my own, but I don’t like to see them suffer, either.”
    She walked by with a jug of water and Ryan could only stare after her. She was dark, maybe Latino, maybe partly African American, with that black, black hair. Her clothes didn't do her body justice, her ample breasts almost hidden beneath a shapeless shirt, but nothing could hid the curve of her firm big ass or the soft fullness of her thick thighs.
    Beside him Sean whistled. “Did you see her?”
    Ryan nodded. “Didn’t think I’d ever find a girl like her out here.”
    How she’d kept a figure like that was an honest mystery. All the butter-ball office ‘boys’ that had left Bismark with them had already dropped a lot of pounds. They’d stopped complaining about the walking after the first ten pounds and were now breathing easier than they had in years. And then Ryan stopped thinking about Pauline’s full figure and zeroed on in Sean’s open appreciation of it.
    “You too?”
    Sean nodded.
    “I’d hate to lose a friend over a woman, even one as fine as that.”
    Sean nodded again. “I agree. You know we could just go talk to her. She might be married.”
    “Wouldn’t that just be my luck.”
    “Come on then.”
    “What? Now?”
    “They might be leaving in the morning so why wait? Let’s go meet this buxom beauty.”
    They weaved their way between the haphazard maze of tents until they reached the spot where she had disappeared from sight to find no trace of her. And how to ask for directions when they didn’t know her name? Ryan was ready to turn back when Sean elbowed him. “There, I think I just saw her. Come on.”
    They stumbled into her through pure luck. She was sitting on a folded blanket on the ground in front of a ratty tent eating a bowl of dry cereal. She smiled at them. “Hey there, I ain’t see you two before.”
    “We’re from the other camp,” Ryan said.
    “No kidding.”
    Ryan felt his cheeks heat up.
    Sean jumped in. “We were just taking a walk around. I didn’t see a lot of kids in your group.”
    “Looking for one you misplaced? Dave and Sam didn’t bring a lot of kids along, said they’d be a burden.”
    “Didn’t see a central fire either.”
    She laughed now, a rich, throaty sound that relaxed something tight in Ryan’s chest. “No. No central fire, no central water supply, no central food supply. We all carry our own goods and if we need more we have to work for it. ‘We can’t let capitalism die’,” she said, that last in a passable imitation of a male voice.
    “Here,” Sean said, pulling a pack of jerky out of a pocket of his cargo pants.
    She eyed the package and made no move to grab it. Finally she said, “What’ll it cost me?”
    Sean shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking of cost, I was thinking of being nice. It tastes better than dry cereal.”
    She took the bag. “Thanks.”
    They settled on the ground in front of her. “I’m Sean, and this is Ryan.”
    “I’m Pauline. God, this tastes amazing. I haven’t had meat in five, no six, days now, not since we left Rapid City.”
    Ryan frowned but bit his lip.
    She winked at him. “Oh, I can usually trade favours for food, but most of the folks in my age bracket have