It was about an hour and a half past sunset when Mike took over one of the perimeter guard posts from Susan. It was simply the far corner of the garage complex that overlooked a field and the highway beyond it.

"Quiet?" He asked.

"Pretty much. The dog... what's that dog's name anyway?" she asked.

"He doesn't have one," Mike admitted. "We, uh... we just call him The Dog, you know. He survived. He got through it same as us; he made it, you know. He's The Dog." Mike finished lamely.

"Oh. Sounds like a little guilt there, Mike. Maybe we should all get together and name it," Susan suggested.

Mike nodded.

"Well, anyway... The Dog kept looking off towards the highway. He didn't, like, bark or anything. I thought maybe deer, cows, something else. But with the meat drying, it could have drawn anything at all. The fires and so many people should be enough to keep anything away. Even if it's wolves, they'll probably stay away, right? I just thought you should know about it."

Mike nodded. "Could be something, but you're probably right. Most likely it's nothing. I imagine the smell of the meat will draw every carnivore in the area. That's okay as long as they don't try to bother us. There will be plenty of scraps when we're gone."

Susan nodded this time. "Mike," she hesitated and Mike nodded for her to continue. "Well, I wondered what you thought about Jan and Bob's idea of settling in the wilderness. You know, deep in the middle of nowhere... a new Nation."

Mike nodded slowly. "I think they really want to do it. I think they really believe in it, Susan," he shrugged. Her eyes questioned him. "Okay... and... And I wish I could believe in it the way they do. Not that I believe it won't work. I think anything we do will take hard work, a good deal of hard work," he shrugged again. "And I think they'll put the work in, I really do. Maybe you're asking me what I want to do, and I can't tell you that. I don't know... I haven't decided. It's something Candace and I would have to take the time to sit down and decide, and we just haven't had the time to do that."

"You know, in my head the old world was selfish. It was all about selfish. The me-generation? Something like that. And I'm not saying I was any better. I wasn't. Oh, I had my friends, and I helped them when I could, but when it came down to push or shove, it was me. It was me, and a lot of the people I knew, worked for, with, associated with, were the same way. Social on the surface, but scratch that surface and it's a different story. Push or shove... and not an overly hard push or shove either." He looked at her and Susan nodded.

"At least for me it's been that way. I guess I sound cynical. But it's not that way anymore. I'm not that way anymore. It's not about me. It's about me and Candace. And it really isn't about us either. It's deeper. There are people here I've really come to care about. I mean really care about."

Susan nodded. "Everyone I knew was too busy living to think about how they were living," she said.

Apparently everyone was more appreciative of people now, not just himself, he thought. He turned his attention to the field and the highway. After his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he could see the dark shapes of cattle grazing in the field, a few deer mixed in with them.

He thought about what he had just said, how much he felt for Candace. How for the next few nights they would have a real bed. His mind filled with thoughts of her. He almost missed the radio call, almost wrote it off as one of their own, until he realized it wasn't.

~

"Hello the camp," the voice repeated.

Mike unclasped the radio from his belt...