Chapter 10:

[Ethan Talon]

"You can can cut the grain and I'll try to invent a harvseter," Ethan said with a grin.

He loooked around the house and shook his head, "Not much room to be honest. We got a lot of people living in this old house right now. The basement is packed full of foods and whatnots." He shook his head, "We'd have less if not for the pneumonic plague that swept through here. Started from the prairie dog colonies scattered around here. David lost his wife and children to the plague. Hell, we all lost someone we knew. Thankfully Terri showed up when she did, there might not have been anyone to welcome you.

"The plague was both a curse and a blessing. We had too many people, and it cut our population in half, but we lost way too many good people. Some to the disease, others to madness, and folk like David who couldn't stay here anymore and left.

"We'll figure something out. Maybe we can take it to the old high school in Florence. We more or less control everything south of the Arkansas River and the Abby controls the north side. We have a small garrison using the high school as a base for their border patrols. Let's just say your arrival wasn't unnoticed."

[Kat Donovan]

"To that end. What shall we call this new kingdom of ours?" Kat asked as Mrs. Ackers cleared the table and started handing out slices of fresh baked apple pie which was something of a delicacy since sugar was a commodity that had no immediate replacement since sugar cane didn't grow in Colorado and the sugar beet factories were now abandoned hulks.

Ethan poured a cup of chicory coffee from a pot Mrs. And had set in the center of the table. Real coffee was jealousy hoarded as once that commodity was gone there was no replacement. "Well, names have never been my strong suit, but should we use geography? There's Stull Mountain to the west, and a ghost town called Galena on our western border and Pueblo to the east."