At an amusedly sympathetic look from Nate's mother, Rebecca realized she was anxiously tapping her fingers against the handle of his wheelchair in the elevator, dimly lit by emergency lighting. Sure, Rebecca had ample faith in Sam and her assurances it had worked for dozens of test cycles. In fact, since it appeared to have a regenerative motor that put electricity back into its grid on the way down, she was experimenting with having the afternoon garrison patrol send it to the top floor empty, and then the evening patrol send it back down to the bottom as some sort of kinetic battery.

That didn't help the instinctive fear gnawing at the edges of her mind. This is absurd. I've crawled through plenty of dark places before. Sam and Ronnie will totally save us if we get stuck. And dangit, if we're going to have it ready for when Allie goes into labor I might as well take point.

"Hey Nate?" Tania's voice interrupted Rebecca's internal monologue. "Why don't you turn on the lights on your chair so it's not so spooky in here?"

"Oh, sure Mom." He fiddled with a switch on the underside of the right handlebar, and Rebecca flinched briefly away from the bicycle high-beams Sam had installed reflecting off of the brushed steel doors. When she'd acclimated to it, she met the older woman's amused eyes and sighed gratefully.

The elevator hummed smoothly past the third and second floors, then opened at the ground floor with a completely harmless ding.

Sam beamed at them from the lobby beyond, Rufus panting next to her as contented as ever. "See? I told you it was fine. Since it's not hydraulic we don't have to worry about things sitting idle for so long and gunking up."

As Rebecca took a deep breath and pushed Nate forward, Sam ducked into a nearby utility room and the lights and fan in the elevator shut off after a sharp clack. When she returned, Rebecca gave her a wry grin. "You just like something electrical over everything else if given the opportunity."

Behind Nate's line of site, Sam arched her eyebrow in a shock and mouthed a silent wow. "Except when it comes to you, sugar."

She realized just where Sam had clearly taken that right as Tania choked back a laugh from a few steps ahead. Rebecca shook her head with a sigh and leaned into rolling Nate out towards the daylight.

They found Ronnie standing atop the beast of an armored vehicle, supervising a soldier hunched over the new weapons turret and its massive oven-door-sized ammunition boxes. He reached over the side to heft a green ammo can up, and Rebecca noticed two more empty ones next to his companion at ground level. As she loaded their first few bags into the cargo bay in the back, including reluctantly putting Felicia's case there instead of in the main cabin, Ronnie moved to the rear edge of the roof and squatted down. Rebecca shielded her eyes against the sunlight and looked up.

"You know we're staying in town, right? And traveling with 'friends'? You don't have to give us half of the entire armory."

Ronnie chuckled with a lopsided grin. "Don't worry, kiddo. Even feeling as irrationally protective as I am after your last adventure, I know you won't need a full load. I have more faith in your and Sammie's aim than to think it'll take four hundred rounds of fifty-cal and almost a hundred grenades to f— " Ronnie stopped herself and glanced over towards Tania and Nate. "Fend off any losers you run into. And I'll have you know I'm only giving you like a fifth of our supply!"

Rebecca caught the slip and correction, grinning back. "Yeah, okay. You're sure we're not taking too much firepower away from home though, moving that turret out of position?"

Her old mentor and battle buddy shook her head. "Young lady, are you doubting my competence or integrity? There'll be a rocket team on the roof the whole time you're gone."

"Hah. Okay. Consider me suitably chastised." Rebecca's impudent expression shifted into one of appreciation. "Thanks, Mama Bear."

"Just doing my part to make sure civilians can start having normal lives again. Plus, I expect a report on that swimming pool when you return."

"You got it, Sarge."

Rebecca reached to accept another pair of bags from Sam and slung them into the cargo bay. Rejoining her at the side of the truck to get the rest, they found Nate staring up from his chair in awe as Sam lowered a very familiar-looking blue bulletproof vest over his head. "This is gonna be awesome. I didn't know we were going to get to ride in the tank!"

Sam chuckled, and started to correct him. "Well, it's not—" She stopped herself and glanced up Ronnie towering overhead. Counting the turret, the armored vehicle was easily twice her height. "Okay, sure. It's a tank."

He didn't even notice, still gawking at what was probably his first up-close look at the behemoth while Sam clipped the side straps around him. Rebecca was even more convinced that it was her old armor by the memories the distinct clicks brought back.

When he was all suited up, Sam scrambled up the two levels of running boards to the open rear door and across the first seat. Tania handed up a cushioned floor chair they'd borrowed from a neighbor, which Sam positioned on the wide gunner's platform between the two rear seats.

Laura made a sour face as she saw what was transpiring over Rebecca's shoulder. "Is that going to be safe? What about seat belts?"

"Mom..." Rebecca looked up from securing a standard 'milsurp' armor vest around her mother's torso. "You really think any military vehicle will have child-sized seatbelts?"

"Well, no, but—"

"It'll be okay, really. The ride is downright cushy, and if city buses don't have seat belts in them... trust me, if we run into something, we're just gonna go right through it. That thing's at least like five tons. Plus, that's where Rufus rides, they'll both be cozy up there."

Laura continued to give her a look that made Rebecca wonder if she should be offended at the implied aspersions about her driving. Still, it was recognizable from years past as a begrudging silent end to a contention, and she was just glad her mother wasn't clucking about the body armors. "It'll be okay, Mom."

Rebecca turned to help Tania get Nate up into the cabin, but found the Army private who'd been passing ammunition up to the roof already lifting him up from the wheelchair.

"Up you go, buddy. Have fun riding around in the tank, I'm jealous!" The soldier shifted his grip from under Nate's arms to support his waist while Sam helped from above, sliding him into the outboard seat and then pivoting him inwards so he could shuffle the rest of the way. Rebecca could hear Sam admonishing him not to poke any of the buttons on the control console en route and chuckled quietly to herself.

As she turned away, she gave the private an appreciative smile and folded up the wheelchair to stow in the rear. She needed Tania's help to get it in, then walked her to the left rear door to spot her on the climb.

"What about Sam, isn't she—" Tania stopped herself when she saw that Sam had already spidermonkeyed her way back to the far door and down to the ground, her hair barely visible above the floorboard, bright in the late-morning sun. "Oh, okay."

Rufus' head suddenly came into view as he leapt up to Sam and she boosted him in the far side. Nate laughed as he received a couple of excited licks, and Tania started ruffling the pup's ears once she was in.

Rebecca's mother started to reach for the handrail on the center pillar between the fore-and-aft opening doors on the other side, but Sam stopped her hesitantly. "Uh, Mrs. C., if you and technology get along as well as you say, there's a lot of it back there. Do you mind riding shotgun?"

Laura laughed, and obediently grabbed the handrail with her left hand instead, using it and a supporting hand from the private again to haul herself into the 'command' seat with a grunt. "As long as you don't mean that literally. I don't suppose it comes with an airbag?"

"No, mom." Rebecca grinned at the sight of her taking in the inside of the armored windshield and the various screens, controls, and dangling radio handset. "No brake pedal on that side for you to nervously stomp around for either, but it does have a mine-resistant hull and air conditioning."

"Oh, well, good. That's alright then." Laura scoffed at her and dug around for the rest of the multi-point harness she clearly recognized as a mil spec seatbelt.

Rebecca shook her head before unslinging the Tavor from her back and stowing it in a dedicated weapon bay next to the driver's seat. After climbing aboard, she uncovered and flipped the 'Master Arm' switch. Parts of the console in front of her lit up and after a shrill beep sounded she held the 'Off/Run/Start' knob all the way over, until the big diesel coughed to life. Screens winked on and fans started to whir all around the cabin as the soldier with Ronnie on the roof hopped down over the hood. The Gunnery Sergeant didn't follow, but instead scaled down to dangle next to Sam at the right rear door.

"How's it look, Red?"

"Drivetrain and tire pressure coming up green, gun camera just connected successfully too."

"Good stuff. How's the EW suite look?"

Rebecca mouthed 'electronic warfare' to her mother while Sam replied. "Comms stuff good, laser warning and acoustic shot locators self-calibrating like every other time we turned them on, which I'm going to assume means they are too."

"Weapons confirmed cold, you're clear to cycle test." Sam reached for the joystick on the extensive console behind Laura's seat and Ronnie looked up over the roof. Rebecca heard the whine of big electric motors through the metal overhead and Ronnie grunting approvingly. "Slewing is smooth. Weapons?"

Rebecca watched the mirrored view on Laura's screens as Sam aimed the turret in a safe direction and pulled the trigger. A loud snap echoed tinnily through the roof, followed by another. In the cabin view mirror, she could see Nate watching raptly and hoped he didn't get any ideas from the video games he'd been playing on her PS4.

"Fifty's good, forty's good," Ronnie reported to Sam before hauling herself back onto the roof, booted feet thudding. More metallic clanking and clunking followed before she came back down past Sam's door to the ground. "Both weapons are chambered and hot. Set your round counts at two hundred for the M2 and 12 for the Mark 19."

"Copy that. Two hundred rounds for the ungodly terrifying machine gun and 12 exploding party favors." That drew Rebecca to look away from the oil pressure and temperature gauges and purse her lips sympathetically at Sam, the redhead having been on the receiving end of what was probably still the same gun above them now. Sam looked up from the controls and gave her a reassuring wink.

"And eight smoke grenades for concealment," Ronnie added. "Try to use those first and disengage if you can, we've got more of them than the loud stuff. There were a ton at the training base downriver." When Sam flashed her a thumbs-up, Ronnie patted her knee and pushed the heavy armored door closed with a dull thunk. She nodded at Laura as she repeated the process on the front door and Rebecca showed her mother how to latch it shut.

When Ronnie came around to her side, Rebecca smiled down at her. "And because that means getting out of the situation where we're being shot at."

Ronnie grinned. "Always were a quick study. Convoy should be here soon, so roll on up to the gate until they call."

Rebecca nodded, then held eye contact. "Ronnie, we couldn't have taken this last time. The firepower would have been nice, but it wouldn't have fit on most of the roads. And it definitely doesn't keep a low profile."

Ronnie sighed such that Rebecca knew she'd been mulling the same subject. "The whole point of all the muscle is that you don't need roads, but up in the hills... yeah, fine. But we're going the opposite direction on the whole 'low profile' idea now."

"Ain't we just."

The sergeant let out another, very familiar weary sigh that was exactly the reaction Rebecca was trying to elicit with the nerdy reference. Just like old times, and she'd never imagined she would be able to look to those days in a positive light. "We'll be fine, Ronnie."

"I'll hold you to that." Ronnie slapped Rebecca's knee and pushed the doors closed, giving her a final nod just before they shut.

Once Rebecca could see everyone had stepped clear, she pushed the button on the digital transmission control to shift into drive, released the air brake, and gave the the throttle the tiniest of taps to start the truck crawling. Even from so high up from the ground and through all the armor, she could hear the vehicle's sheer mass grinding the courtyard gravel beneath tires the size of her own CUV's tailgate. A quick glance at her companions showed her that Sam was intently paging through different tabs on the big display in front of her, Nate was grinning from ear to ear and Tania was smiling at the sight, and Rufus was pretty much doing the same thing Nate was. Laura seemed to be settling in, or at least trying to, probably relieved they hadn't crashed or exploded already.

When Rebecca spotted Christine and Patrick waving from the second floor roof, she did her best to make an air horn sound cheerful with two short honks. Fortunately, Laura saw the hand movement and didn't freak out at the demonic blaring. She just spent the next few minutes as they rolled towards the gate fiddling with the unfamiliar air conditioning tubes, trying to get the desert-grade system to provide fresh air without turning her into a popsicle.