Instead of going north or south along the main road, Fan goes west of B-Mor, onto the old roads from long ago that connected the old settlements in the distant past. While the Charters and transport trucks use secured, fenced tollways, the county folks use these muddy, backwater roads to get around.

Fan is struck by a VW electro-diesel car as she walks. Injured, she lays in the rain, as a woman’s voice says, “It’s no deer” (40). A large, bearded man, Quig, exits the vehicle and checks on Fan. The woman, Loreen, is annoyed at the stop, declaring that the duo has three hours left in their trip and she is starving. Quig tells her to be quiet and picks up the injured Fan, placing her into the bed of the vehicle. They go to “The Smokes,” a sparsely populated, hilly county. On the way, Fan throws up and moans in pain, but each time, Quig helps her by stopping the car or administering medicine. The painkillers that she was given make her forget much of what is on her mind, even her thoughts of

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