Shortly thereafter, Eric made his move. While the closing credits rolled, he (unsteadily) rose and switched offthe set, then staggered over to the...stereo wall-unit. He ultra-carefully put'Oxygene' on the turntable, set it on repeat, flipped on all eight speakers,dialed the volume to .5, and cued it. As the electronic music began softly inthe background, he went and sat across the coffee table from Dan, who wasstill staring at the black TV tube. Eric said, "Hey. Let's play a game. . 'Good job, ' is the best I had heard from him until this."That made me pause. Maybe it was a big deal. Only time would tell.Since I had decided that I would learn self-defense, I spent a few hours at the pistol range, learning to shoot.I had tried to learn some martial arts. I never had been very coordinated. I barely passed gym in high school. My dad always said I took after my mom. She had been known to trip over her own shoelaces.My dad and my sister were the jocks in my family. He had. We had a large corner sofa, and Sue ended up sitting in the middle part, between Shelley and me.As time went on and we got more relaxed, Sue became more and more touchy-feely with both of us and put her arms around me, almost as if she was going to kiss me, and snuggled in closer, which prompted Shelley to ask if we’d ever been an item. We said no, but she pushed the subject further and said how she thought we would have made a nice couple, asking if we’d never even thought about trying it.When. Train stretcher-bearers. Only you can do this. Without you many more will die needlessly. You know this. It's your calling. You know only too well what will happen here without antibiotics. Only someone who truly understands this can help prevent It.," he told him."Very well, I'll do it." Paul said.The preparations continued relentlessly. Training was stepped up; defences were built, improved and improved again. Then late one evening the last two scouts came riding into the camp. They rode up.