"Ronnie... I don't want to put you on the spot as a friend, so I am honestly just asking. I don't want to seem like I'm looking for special treatment. And, I also really want your opinion on if it's safe to go. You can say we can't spare the fuel, you can tell me it's a bad idea, I won't take it personally."

By the time Sam and Rebecca rotated off with the next lookouts, dusk was settling in. The flurry of activity was tapering off with the light — Rebecca saw most of the soldiers pulling backpacks and other personal gear from vehicles. Over a dozen "Hesco bastion" basket barricades stood ready to be filled, completing the line of fortifications between the shipping containers and reinforcing the main gate. Their little backhoe was going to be busy, unless a later convoy brought another earthmover.

Rhonda had waved her into the RV when she brought it up, and sat with her at its small dining table. There was barely enough room to spread out a slightly crinkled AAA map of the region, and unroll a wide-format printout of local satellite imagery on top of it — they had to lift one to view the other, alternating between them.

"I know, kiddo, I know. Show me where we're talking about again? I know you said you were south of the university before."

"Yeah. It's easily within the EV-only range of my car, if we can go there and back in a straight line. But... damn. Allie said it stalled a couple times when Leonard last used it." Her expression fell as she remembered the last detail.

"The gas in it is probably too old. Even if they put a stabilizer in it while you were with us at Broadway, I'd bet it has water in it now. You might be able to find some additives that'd help, but definitely have Epstein look at it."

Rebecca sighed, and nodded. Her SUV had been really useful, letting them make a few important short trips without worrying about dipping into the fuel they had left... but apparently that was a double edged sword.

"Don't worry, he can probably drain the fuel for you. I'd rather have you riding around in something with armor anyway for this, maybe Chris and Pat's Humvee since our beast is so fuel-hungry." She meant their commandeered Black Tusk armored truck, the Oshkosh M-ATV that had mostly just served as a portable machine gun emplacement the last few months. "Show me where your place is, though." Ronnie gestured towards the maps again.

Rebecca studied the road map for a moment, oriented herself by locating the campus, and then retracing her daily commute with a fingertip, tapping her destination. "Here, about two miles southwest of it. There's a neighborhood of apartments nestled in that trapezoid formed by the three parkways."

"Hmm." Ronnie rolled the satellite imagery out over the top of the street map again, and Rebecca repeated the process. Sadly, it didn't have the handy labels like Google used to.

Ronnie drummed her fingers on the table thoughtfully as one hand held down the end of the map that Rebecca didn't have pinned under her elbow. Rebecca glanced up at her, then back down at the map, guessing Ronnie was looking at an area circled in red maybe a half mile from the edge of her neighborhood.

"What is that, Ronnie?"

Just as Rebecca had done a moment prior, Ronnie looked up, then returned her eyes to the table. "What it is, is a mess. It was a National Guard recruiting center and armory. Not as big as the ones farther north or south, but still. I wouldn't be surprised if most of our friends' motor pool was from there originally, before so much of it got deployed and eventually scrounged back together. Fair bet it got emptied out when everything went to shit, and that Tierman and Fairbanks have been back through it again... but I wonder when the last time they did a recon pass was."

Rebecca turned her head to match the angle of one expressway. "Huh. Yeah, you know, now that you mention it I remember seeing trucks and stuff from the highway back when."

"This long open area..." Ronnie ran her finger along a linear swath of clearcut open space that ran through Rebecca's old neighborhood, and those north and south of it. "Do you remember if those are power lines?"

Rebecca righted her head. "Yeah. I specifically avoided taking an apartment in that last building that is so close to them, even though it was another hundred bucks a month."

"Hmm. So if roads are fucked in the area, but you're in an all-terrain vehicle..."

"We make our own road? That tract crosses the highway maybe a half mile north, the expressways right there, and then this a back road about a mile south." She traced her finger along the long rectangle, back and forth. "And, I bet some of these side streets leading away from campus here dead end into it, right behind Professor Row."

"Yeah. Odds are there's something of a service road along most of it too. Even if you get where you're going on pavement, it's a good exfil option if you run into trouble. So... we've got somewhere you want to poke around, near somewhere we ought to sneak a peek at, accessible a few different ways."

Rebecca leaned over the map again, pulling her hair back in a loose knot to get it to stop falling past her ears. "What else do you think might be left at the armory? I imagine it's picked pretty clean."

"Yeah, probably, that close to the roads. But who knows, maybe some of those Humvee trailers are still there at least. Might be nice to get a little more cargo hauling ability. Maintenance stuff... tools would probably get looted, but I don't think most people would bother stealing a spare tire, glow plugs, or brake pads."

"I guess. Assuming Lance Epstein didn't already scoop everything up." Something caught Rebecca's eye and she leaned lower to the map. "Hey, are these solar panels?"

Rhonda squinted at the photo, near Rebecca's fingertip. "Huh. Good eye. I know that Broadway's weren't from there, they got those off of a demonstrator system at the power company's local office."

"I wonder if they're still there? Imagine what some extra juice would do around here."

"Other than make your girl really excited? Yeah, that would be quite the score." Ronnie sighed thoughtfully as she leaned back, arms crossed. "Tell you what. Give me two days for drone flyovers. Fairbanks reportedly got a few out of the same training base they got the amphibious armor from. I'll point out the mutually beneficial interest there, I'm pretty sure he'll agree it's at least worth a look. Now that we can get occasional aerial recon, I don't want you going without it."

Even with the delay, Rebecca felt a tingle of excitement. "Oh, totally. I knew you'd make sure we do it right, Ronnie."

One of Ronnie's eyebrows lifted as she stared at the target area on the map. "If we're lucky, they got drones with the ability to relay comms. Whether I go with your not, I'd want one overhead, but I REALLY do if I'm tied up here and not along for the ride."

"Thank you, mama bear."

Rhonda looked up at her and scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. Are you gonna tell Red about what you spotted?"

Rebecca nodded. "I'd better. Even if I have to set expectations and risk a little disappointment, if I didn't tell her about something that exciting, she'd kill me. I mean, at least so she could have the right tools if they're there, right?"

"Smart, kid. On that topic... what about her folks' place? You said you were working your way up to that?"

"It's farther, maybe five miles west of... of my old place, the other side of I-95." Apparently, as the idea of going back got more real, some emotions were getting stirred up after all. Ronnie didn't comment but looked sympathetic.

"What about your uncle's?" Ronnie's tone was much more gentle, some of the corners rounded off her usual practicality.

"It's... way out there. Towards the Rapidan wilderness. When I went up there for a long weekend, I stopped in Culpeper, and that was about halfway. It was about a 2 hour drive, back when, y'know."

"Keep me posted on how you're doing with all this, alright cookie? I think it's important to do, but... be gentle with yourself. Not just with Sam."

"I will, Ronnie. I promise." Rebecca paused. "Thank you again. For everything."

"Eh. It's good to have a hobby, you know?" Rhonda reached across the table to clap her on the shoulder and rise. "We've got a little light left... go get your training blade, we can get some practice in."

Rebecca sighed as she rose to follow Ronnie out of the RV, to fetch the hard blue rubber knife-lookalikes Rhonda had taken to making her and Sam practice with. "Speaking of being gentle..."