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happens then?” Julie Anne added a bit of water to the entrée heater pack and slipped the entrée in.
    Brody and Ranger exchanged another of their meaningful looks.
    “The way I see it,” Brody said slowly, “is when we reach the point where we simply can’t do anything else, we either decide to hole up at my place… Or we boogie on out of here for greener pastures.”
    “Leave?” Julie Anne asked. “We can’t just leave!”
    “Why not?” asked Ranger.
    “Because… Well… Because… We just can’t! What about the city?”
    “You’re in the know at the EOC,” Brody said. “What is the city doing? And for how much longer can it do it?”
    Julie Anne bit her lip. “People are trying. The ones that are left. Some left early on… A few more, every day. You’ve buried some that didn’t have any supplies or couldn’t take the heat or died of dehydration in their sleep. The Mayor keeps asking for help from the State, and the Governor is asking for help from the Feds. Everything is just falling apart! No one can get paid. And even if they did, there’s no food or fuel to buy. And it is so hot all day and all night!” She was blinking back tears.
    “It’s like this all over,” Brody said gently. “People are helping people where they can. But everyone has to do what they can for thems.elves.”
    “I know,” Julie Anne said. She sat there holding the MRE entrée without eating it. “But how?”
    “You just plug along and don’t give up,” Ranger said. “That means eating when you can.”
    Julie Anne began to eat, silently. She ate all the components of the MRE and drank a full bottle of water. “I need to go back to the EOC and see what the situation is, now.”
    “Be careful,” Brody cautioned her. “People are desperate. Someone might even try to take your bicycle to get out of town on.”
    “Surely not! I’m a City Employee!”
    “So?” Ranger asked, very softly for him.
    “I’m trying to help!”
    “Of course you are,” Brody said. “But they won’t know that ahead of time and might not care if you even get a chance to tell them. For what it’s worth, we’ll come looking for you if you aren’t back here by seven.”
    It was more the last statement that scared her than the earlier statements. “I’ll be careful. And I’ll be back in plenty of time.” With that she climbed back on the bicycle and pedaled away.
    “Things are getting out of hand, dude,” Ranger told Brody. “She’s almost clueless. This city is going to go up in flames if things don’t get better, and you know that isn’t likely. We really need to be thinking about getting to Toby’s place.”
    “I know, Ranger. But there is just something about her… She’s a babe in the woods about some of this, but she’s working like a trooper, doing everything she can of her job.” Brody looked at his friend. “Let’s see what she has to say tonight, watch what news we can get, and then make some kind of decision.”
    “Works for me,” Ranger replied. He stood, tossed his trash in the can beside the garage door, and hitched up the Tyvek coveralls tied at his waist. Brody did the same, and they headed back to continue filling the trench over the last body that had arrived.
    Brody was pacing back and forth at six thirty that evening, in front of the garage. Julie Anne hadn’t showed up yet. But then he saw her pedaling toward him and relaxed slightly. When she stopped beside him she slow-ly got off the bike. Brody could tell she’d been crying.
    “What is it?” he asked as Ranger looked on.
    “They are starting to burn the bodies!”
    “Where in the world are they getting the fuel?” Ranger asked.
    “They got a tank car in, but it was decided it was better to burn the bodies near their point of death using some of the diesel to get the fires going than it was to bring them out here. There’s dysentery and cholera going around.”
    “There really isn’t that much risk with most communicable diseases