“Okay, well, we can take care of two of those starting tomorrow,” Victoria said. “Electricity will have to wait. I haven’t learned to fart electrons yet.”

Luke laughed, as she hoped he would.

“Look, sweetie, I know this is hard. It’s hard for everyone. Every day, we’re going to face new challenges, and we’ll figure out a way to deal with them.”

Luke took a deep breath and swiped at his eyes again. “Are we going to die from this?”

Again, she resisted the reflex to hug. “Oh, Luke, we’re all going to die of something sooner or later, but there’s no way for us to know how or when. That’s God’s plan.”

“You think God planned this?”

“We don’t know, do we? We can’t. Look, for now, we count our blessings. You might think there aren’t many to be counted, but think about it. We’ve got our family. We’ve got our health, at least so far. We’ve got shelter, even if the floor is hard to sleep on. We’ve got Major McCrea and Paul Copley on our side. And we’ve found a pretty nice town.”

“I want to go to Top Hat Mountain,” Luke said. “I want to see Adam again.”

“We will.”

“Why not now?”

“Things are a little busy, Luke.”

“Why not tomorrow?”

“Because we have things to do here.”

“Like what?”

“Like organizing the clothing bank and the hunting parties. There are a thousand moving parts. Food needs to be delivered to the sick.”

“But this isn’t even our town. Why can’t they take care of themselves? Concentric circles, remember?”

Victoria felt a flash of anger. “If you don’t understand, you don’t understand,” she said. “If you don’t understand why it’s important to help the people of this town who were so gracious to bring us in and help us, then I won’t be able to explain it to you.”

“I think you like being in charge,” Luke said without eye contact.

Victoria pressed her hands against the table and stood. “We’re done here,” she said. “I’ve got work to do.”

God, I wish I didn’t.

* * *

McCrea, Copley and Caine Foster escorted Brandon-Lee down the street from Maggie’s to Simmons’s station. The prisoner was naked, but for his shoes. His hands were bound at the wrist in front of him and he did his best to cover his crotch as he walked.

The gathered crowd had grown since the courtroom, and without any real organization, they naturally formed parallel lines along his path. It wasn’t a long walk—maybe a hundred yards— but it must have felt like an eternity for Brandon-Lee. The swagger was gone, his shoulders slumped.

People laughed and pointed. Lots of taunts about penis size, of course, but also shouted wishes for lots of suffering. Humiliation was the point of this, after all.