“It’s cute you think that,” he said. “We never had fair treatment, and I don’t think we’re going to get it now.”

“We’re here. Some of our people are risking getting shot, even by some of you guys. Do you want to be treated fair? Take the help that’s offered.”

“If we want to be treated fair, the only sure way is to rely on each other,” he said. “That’s not saying we won’t listen to you, but I’m not sure, here.”

I set my jaw, lips pressing together momentarily, because the alternative was that they’d part and I’d say something. I didn’t like these guys. I didn’t respect what they were about.

“Tony and Nan’s sister left,” I said. “They didn’t have as much of a problem with it.”

“Tony had a brain infection when he was young, and he was never that right after,” the guy said.

“He’s nice to look at, though,” a woman said, from the background.

“Mm,” Nan grunted. She sighed. “You guys were the first I came to, to let you know. I thought that was right of me. Do me a favor? Let these people go on their way. They can collect the… ones who are scared.”

“The less loyal,” the woman from before said, from behind the guy with the salt and pepper beard.

“We’re not all soldiers, Mare,” Nan said, and her voice was hard. “Some have kids and they won’t know what to do except run or lose their minds. Houses are falling down. Mine’s gone, Tony and my bed, even. It makes sense to run, I think. That doesn’t mean we’re disloyal. It means we’re fucking trying to survive.”

“Fighting’s tilting this way,” the guy said. “I think the intruders are coming here. We’re going to hold the line, make sure they can’t retreat back this way. You want to go? Go. You come back after.”

“I’m not going to fucking disappear on you, Enoch. I’m a believer. I’ve put up with Tony, for fuck’s sake, from the end of the world to the hereafter. Four months, I dragged him and two kids around until I found you all again. Why would I leave now?”

“How should I know what squirrely thoughts you have in your head, Nan? If you’re going, then fuck off. The fighting’s getting closer. You don’t have long.”

“I can take the kids if you want. Get them out of your hair.”

“You can fuck right off,” Enoch said.

I folded my arms.

“Enoch,” the woman from before said. “Let ’em. We had one of the little ones with a bullet in his mouth, twenty minutes ago. They were suckling on the thing. Nan’s right. They’re in the way.”