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Shaun, Buffy, and I had been assigned to share one of the RVs, although Buffy usually slept in the van with her equipave her, quote, “the heebie-jeebies” The senator’s crew had been taking it as another sign that our resident techie is a little bit unhinged, and Shaun and I hadn’t been h we knew that it was less of an obsessive-co quest for soeneration, Buffy is an only child, and life in the convoy had been getting on nerves she may not have known she had

Life in the convoy was also creating a new issue: her religion, and our lack thereof Buffy prayed before she went to sleep Buffy said grace before she ate And Shaun and I didn’t It was better to avoid the conflict by letting her have a little space Besides, that gave Shaun and me the sort of privacy ere accustomed to—the kind that never actually leaves you alone, but doesn’t put people in your personal space when you don’t want theates Unlike Steve and Tyrone, who kept their pistols concealed beneath their jackets, these two openly held autofeed rifles I vaguely recognized froe zombie mob without outside assistance

“Tracy, Carlos,” I said, and extended et drunk with the rest of the good boys and girls Please confir me a beer later, and it’s a deal,” Carlos replied, and shoved one of the tester units over my hand, while Tracy did the sa his turn These werea correspondingly longer tier-prick test to declare someone clean and for the full-hand unit to revoke that status less than five minutes later

My results came back clean, as did Steve’s Tyrone stepped up to start his own tests and waved us off, toward the third RV in the chain I could claim that o, but they didn’t have nearly as much to do with my choice of destinations as with the fact that it was the only RV with an open door, and was definitely the source of the pounding rockour ears The Dandy Warhols The senator is aon a coffee table inside the RV with his shirt half-unbuttoned and his tie draped over his left shoulder, saluting the room with a bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer People were cheering too loudly for s, I’d just walked into theout of the way to let Steve get inside behind me, and took a wine cooler offered by one of the interns I’ve given up trying to keep theht; this was one of the brunette ones, which made her a Jenny, a Jas

Shaun pushed through the crowd, nodding to Steve before settling next to me “Word?”

“Generally positive People like our boy” I nodded to the senator, who had pulled a Jenny up onto the table with hiht be able to ride this one all the way”

“Buffy said the sa froe?”

“What, and miss the bacchanal? Let me think yes” I shook my head “Get me out of here”

The first postappearance party was fun So was the third And the fifteenth By the twenty-third, I had co the locals: let the peons blow off so,” and get down to the real business after , it was productive, and I salute Senator Ry what it is, I saw no reason to spend anycrappy wine coolers than I absolutely had to

Steve s so soon?”

“I’ll be back for the ame,” Shaun promised, and propelled me out the door with a solid push to the middle of ht football?” I asked, giving hi look as wefor our much quieter van “Do you sleep?”

“Do you?” he countered

“Touché”

Shaun spends his ti up with neays toheavy explosives or the undead I spendto cos I can write about Sleep has never been high on the priority list for either of us, which is probably a blessing in disguise We kept each other aet sohts were on and the back door was unlocked Buffy looked up as we entered, her expression re distracted even as she made note of our arrival Once she was sure that eren’t being pursued by a ra horde of zo on?” I asked, putting the wine cooler down next to ht and synchronizing the sound feeds I’ aretro and rock the house Also, I’n footage to date and see if I can’t put together a sort of retrospective”