"Good girl, Marie."  Why he'd said that he wasn't sure.  Just something about her manner that made him think of her like a child even though she was a grown woman.  He shook his head.  "I'll be back."<br/><br/>He left wondering the fuck he was doing with Marie.  She was nothing but a liability, but he couldn't leave her.  She'd either be dead or someone's sex slave within a week.  He didn't even like leaving her alone to hunt.  Memories haunted him of the column of black smoke over Sheep's Bend and him two days out.  Of what he'd found when he'd returned.  For a while his eyes kept wandering to the barn checking that it was still safe.  Then he got into his hunting mode.  His mind passive, his senses open and alert as he ghosted through the wasteland looking for game.  He picked up one scrawny rabbit, but that wasn't much.  He kept an eye out for more as he headed closer to Briar Rose.<br/><br/>He passed an old farmhouse.  It had seen battle.  There were holes blown all through it.  Someone had been holed up in there and tried to ride it.  Someone else came and took everything they had.  That was the way of the world now.<br/><br/>He found a strange pile of scat.  Nothing he'd ever seen before.  A fairly large animal.  Bigger than rabbit for sure.  He started following it and found more scat and hooved prints.  What the fuck?  It sure wasn't cows.  He followed the trail up into the hills and there he found them.<br/><br/>Goats.  A whole fucking flock of goats.  More meat in one place than he'd seen in one place in a long time.  With meat like this he and Marie could camp here a while, eat well and... His mind jumped like a needle on a record.  Then someone would come take it all from them.  That's what always happened now.  What did he think would happen?  They'd settle down raise goats and have happy fat babies?  Marie was damaged goods and he had a mission.  There was no happy ever afters in either of their futures.  No happy ever afters for anyone any long.  He'd already left her alone to long.  He needed to drop a goat and get back.<br/><br/>He took aim and picked one off easily.  A nice shot in the heart.  He charged them bellowing to scatter the flock with an arrow nocked in case they attacked, but they fled.  He whipped out his knife and gutted the goat while it was still warm.  He hauled the field dressed carcass up on his shoulders and headed back.  After a few steps he broke into a jog.<br/>