” She slowly turned back to the door to leave but the man had quickly gotten up, rushed to her and grabbed her arm. “ What's your name?” He did...'t sound angry anymore. She hesitated briefly. “ ... Shawna, but I really should leave.” “ No,” he gripped her arm harder and pulled a little causing her to drop the comforter on the floor by the door. “I'm Brandon, and it seems we have problem here.” She turned her head a bit to see his face, “What problem?” “ You walked in on me, didn't say. He spotted a number of Lizardman overseers, who were armed with pistols and whips, and were strolling amongst the miners and checking on their captives productivity. The Kintark prisoners looked thoroughly cowed, and the overseers meandered through their ranks without bothering to stop and chastise anyone.“Who first?” Alyssa asked him, as she lined up a shot on a guard in the furthest tower.John looked over the guards, and replied, “Let’s clear the towers first, then take out the overseers.. The rest of the morning was anticlimactic and while he went looking for the supply Sgt. to get his spam, I went to the base PX and bought several boxes of the great big candy canes for my adopted daughter and the other kids of the village. I made sure to buy all that they would let me have cause I knew the elders would steal a lot of them since their sweet tooth's were a well known secret. I thought the kids would love these as they were peppermint, but had red stripes in them and were huge.. “I’m just… I’m thinking about my 40th birthday next month…” “Oooh, the big four-O. That’s the new 30 you know.” She laughed, and that released some of her tension. She took a drink from her own punch. “Shonda, I know I don’t have to tell you how much I love Kareem.” I swallowed the ‘huh’ of confusion that nearly popped out at the abrupt change in topic to Simone’s husband of 20 years and father of her boisterous teens. “Of course not.” “I just… I need more,” she blurted out. “I mean, he’s a.