"Maybe," he says, returning a smaller version of the smile. "Maybe fucking not. I dunno. But it helped."

He shrugs again, looking back ahead of them. That blackened hill is still somewhere close by, but now he can feel it receding, and the knot between his shoulderblades is easing as it does. "Sounds like you been through some unbelievable shit. But you still act like a human being, treat people the same. That's not nothing."