A young woman in a filthy army jacket trudges along the road, with a heavy rucksack on her back and a heavier gait. It's hard to be sure in the rain, but at the edge of the light cast by your headlights, you can just make out her thumb, sticking up defiantly in the universal sign for hitching a ride.

The woman manages a friendly grin as you pull over, rain dripping down her face and dropping her pack with a sigh of relief ... Heya, chief. You headed this way, too? Could really use a lift.