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The holidays start here at Kroger with a

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variety of options to celebrate traditions

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old and new. You could do a classic

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herb roasted turkey or spice it up

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and make turkey tacos. Serve up a go-to

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shrimp cocktail or use Simple Truth

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Wild Caught Shrimp for your first Cajun

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risotto. Make creamy mac and cheese

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or a spinach artichoke fondue from our

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selection of Murray's cheese. No matter how

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you shop, Kroger has all the freshest

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ingredients to embrace all your holiday traditions.

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Kroger. Fresh for everyone.

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We are Bragg. Makers

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of the apple cider vinegar with the big yellow

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label. And while some people love the power of our

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apple cider vinegar, some people love other things

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too. Like honey and cayenne and

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cranberry and citrus. And not just

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an amazing wellness drink. That's why we've

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made Bragg apple cider vinegar blends with

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honey or honey cayenne or citrus ginger

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or cranberry apple. So you have more ways

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to love us and drink us and stay healthy

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with us. It's the same Bragg, now

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with a little something extra. Bragg. It's

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not weird if it works.

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Almost forgot to put that hose away. Looks

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like we're the only ones left. Ready to call it

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a night? No.

1:16

Tomorrow everything starts

1:18

up again and people leave.

1:22

You can stay up a while longer.

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Fair

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enough. Pass over my thermos. It's

1:31

getting a little chilly. Want

1:38

some tea? I'm okay, thank you. You

1:44

know, you never did tell me the

1:46

rest of what happened on your trip back north.

1:49

Yeah. You told me about

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Muddy Sarah. But

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not what you did after that. That's

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fair. Damn,

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I miss that. them. Though

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being with you makes it hurt less.

2:13

After they went back out into the universe, I

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sat for a long time. Most of the

2:17

night, in fact. I didn't get moving

2:20

until almost dawn. It meant spending

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the day in a trailer waiting for dark again, but

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it took a while to get a hold of the writers

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regardless. The writers.

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Everything was set up. I just had to make

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the call.

2:33

We've got an arrangement. I do mechanical

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work for them now and then, and I can catch a ride

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when I need one. Same way I made

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it here so fast. It's gotta be somewhere

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along their routes, but it's a pretty good deal. You

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welcome those huge

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trucks and boats and

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one time a hovercraft.

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I met Ziggy, the driver I was waiting for that

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day, broke down beside the road

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near Greater Nashville. We

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got a tread with no idea what to do next.

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Neither did I really, but

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I found a toolkit and pulled up a layout. Two

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hours later, we were on the move.

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You know me, Elio. I can't stop

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myself. Some people see a problem.

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I see how to make it right again. So

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the writers took you north from there? Well,

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part way. That was right

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after zero day, of course.

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We snuck past Orlando while things were

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in chaos, but by the time we closed in on

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Atlanta,

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you was checking every vehicle. I

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had to flip out of runway ramp half

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a click

3:29

before the stop point and go on foot from

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there.

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Good thing I already liberated a few supplies from

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their cargo. I'm not that

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great at foraging out in the woods. I

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made my way with a GPS and a multi-tool

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and a backpack full of freeze-dried cheesecake

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bites. You know how

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it is. You've done a lot of traveling cross

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country.

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Mostly with a group though.

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I did meet up with some folks eventually after

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a few bad nights on my own. I got banged

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up sliding down a bank to avoid a drone patrol.

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They've been sending them further out every season. Had

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to camp out for most of a week while I healed up

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from a sprained shoulder and some pretty deep

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road rash. It was a quiet

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spot, but there's a lot more people on the trails

4:11

than usual. I thought I'd better

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join up with some good ones before the other kind

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came around. Not everyone's

4:18

got an Elio or a Mardi Serra.

4:21

Or an Ana. It

4:23

was a mixed group. There was a Corps who

4:25

knew each other. They'd been running to camp somewhere, not

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quite a freehold, but not corporate either. So

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they weren't new, but they were new to the road. They'd

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taken in stragglers before me. I could

4:36

see where things were getting frayed at the edges, but

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they were good people.

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I talked to the one who seemed to be heading things

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up,

4:42

Shell, and made my way

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in. I hope that they could use

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your help. Shell was pretty handy,

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but I made myself useful giving advice on the best

4:51

routes, taking points with strangers. We

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had some trouble outside Charlotte, a couple

4:55

that just didn't feel right. Turned out

4:57

to be security infiltrators. You

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know the type. Hell, I

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think I spotted them because I pay attention to how you

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read people. Did they cause

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you trouble? Not much, really. We

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had to put them out by force, but by that time I had

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proof of all the shit they'd been up to. The whole

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group knew it had to happen. I

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made sure it was all out in the open. That's

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all you can do. Not that I wouldn't

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have had it out with them either way, but this

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was better. So I think I pulled

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my weight while we were on the same road. I actually

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left them at Three Rivers, our old freehold.

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By that time, the Megas were focusing

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on rebuilding, and it seemed as safe as anywhere.

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I got the water wheel running again so they'd have

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power, helped them fix the gates, and set tripwires.

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The garden there was still growing.

5:44

I'm

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not sure

5:49

that was completely business

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related, if you know what I mean. Oh no.

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I'm not getting into details. It

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was nice, that's all. partners

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made fun of me for saying no. We've

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got a pretty open arrangement as often as I'm away.

6:05

I'm half serious when I flirt with Elena. Elena,

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could you someone

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nice?

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The reason I'm only half serious is

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I'm not sure I'm nice enough. Not

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compared to who's still in her head. Next

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stop after three rivers. Next stop

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anywhere. The side of the continent is always a Great Lakes

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Super City. Fancy naming for

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a security border to keep folks from crossing to the north

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or vice versa. But it's

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also got a string of ports call for supply ships

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cruising in and out. So you know what

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that means. The riders again,

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the riders. Not

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that I saw them this time around. Crossing the lakes

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is down to a science. You hide

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in a shipping container at side A and

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get loaded on a ship. You let yourself out

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at the signal one long and two shorts on

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the horn. You might have

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to do a bit of swimming but the folks who watch the

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coast from our side are waiting with a boat. Sometimes

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I think the megas have got to know but

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maybe it's not really worth their

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trouble. I mean what they did to

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the land. It doesn't look like

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anywhere worth escaping to.

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Is it that bad up

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there?

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Everyone says that it's bad.

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Here, just a second.

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When the corporations took over, they

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told us the old treaties were erased. The

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government who signed them didn't exist anymore.

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Generations of legal battles ended right

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then. They got rid of the laws. Half

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our land they took outright. The rest,

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they offered us sponsorships. We could keep

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our homes if we worked for them. If

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they could use us for their purposes.

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Mostly PR. Indigenous

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life brought to you by the conglomerate.

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We are North. We are Native. We

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are NutriSoy. Some

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people thought we'd have more freedom in the end. Once

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they shot their commercials, why did

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they care how we lived? And

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for a while that was true. But

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bit by bit they cut the rest of the forest.

8:14

They pumped every clean drop of water.

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They stripped the land bare with mines and let the

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rest catch on fire. That's

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when they came for what they left us. After

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all, they were our sponsors.

8:27

Not like they owed us anything.

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I know most of that from stories. When

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I was born the worst had already been done. They

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kept pushing us into smaller spaces anytime

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they saw something they could use. Or

8:43

just to prove they could. When

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I was 15, they moved us out for safety

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reasons. They said the houses

8:51

were condemned, the ground was contaminated.

8:54

Who could have done that I wonder.

8:57

We had to pack in a day. They had trucks

8:59

drive us halfway to the other res. But

9:02

then we walked from there. Whatever

9:04

we couldn't carry stayed by the side of the road.

9:08

I had this tool cabinet, about as tall as you

9:10

are. By the time we settled in the new place

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and I could hitch a ride back to sea.

9:15

It was gone.

9:16

Those tools weren't just mine. When

9:19

I started showing I was handy, they came from

9:21

family, from friends. Some who moved

9:23

on. They were an inheritance. Later

9:27

on I hitched a ride further, right up to the fence

9:29

they put up since they moved us. I

9:32

hopped over and spent a full night going through folks garages,

9:34

basements, the fuel stop that did auto repair.

9:38

Found a decent set of ratchets, a torque wrench

9:40

and some bolt extractors that came in handy when I broke

9:42

out again. Enough tools to

9:44

start over and to do a hell

9:47

of a lot of mischief for the conglomerate when

9:49

they weren't looking.

9:51

They had a lot of bad luck with their equipment

9:53

after that. Hard to say why.

9:57

They couldn't end us. Hard as they tried.

10:01

We made places of our own where it wasn't profitable

10:03

to get to, where the cameras suddenly

10:05

didn't work and they couldn't shut

10:07

our power down. We dug

10:10

in and we waited them out. When

10:12

they thought they'd squeezed us dry, when they

10:14

were distracted by their own problems, we

10:17

took that bit of life they'd never managed

10:19

to claim and set it growing. Is

10:23

it bad? If

10:25

you cross the lakes now, the first thing you see is

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bare earth, crumbling roads, a tangled

10:30

wilderness, thousands of

10:32

acres that still smolder. But

10:35

you push in deeper and there's life,

10:37

there's home. We've got

10:40

fields and a river and satellite access.

10:42

We are taking it back. Not for

10:44

the future, not for all of humanity, for

10:47

our own selves. It's

10:51

been bad, but

10:53

it's also the best goddamn thing. You

11:00

should come and see it all, Elio. I'd really

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like that. Oh, and meet my nibblings.

11:05

Still can't believe that part of it.

11:09

For now, though, it's past bedtime

11:12

and I made some promises for tomorrow. Lots

11:15

around here to be fixed.

11:18

Here, I'll help you out.

11:48

Thank you for listening. This episode

11:50

featured Robin Regolado as an Ung and

11:52

Becca Marcus as Elio. The

11:55

script was written by DJ Silvis. Cass

11:57

McPhee is our audio engineer. Our

12:00

theme music is star by the band Ramp. Our

12:03

cover art is by Peter Chikowsky. We'll

12:07

be back next week with the most unexpected of our

12:09

deep dive bonus episodes. This

12:11

one, looking at the Enclave Officer and

12:14

what he's been up to locked in Moon Jail. Until

12:17

then, you should look up our fellow shows

12:19

on the Fable & Folly Network. There's

12:22

info at fableandfolly.com.

12:25

And find your next great audio fiction experience.

12:29

Take care and be excellent

12:31

to each other.

12:57

...that rises and falls.

12:59

And a new Canadian TTRPG

13:01

and podcast inspired by that

13:04

almost soothing mathematical motion. Let

13:06

me show you. The action begins to rise

13:08

as powerful strangers in a ruined

13:11

yet vibrant world band together. If

13:13

you run north, they will chase

13:15

you. I suggest you

13:18

stand behind me. Partner, I'd rather

13:20

stand beside you if you're willing to help. Tension

13:22

continues to mount higher as

13:25

our characters must push themselves beyond their

13:27

usual limits.

13:28

As I'm climbing into the driver's

13:30

seat, I'm gonna

13:31

say to Sarah, sometimes you gotta make tough decisions.

13:35

I'm driving now.

13:36

And it peaks as the danger and

13:38

excitement hits Zenith, leading

13:40

to great failure or success.

13:43

Fenrir would be just

13:45

fire at this point. She straight up might die.

13:48

Like this encounter might murder you. You know

13:50

what? You've lit me on fire. We're gonna

13:53

be on fire, baby. And

13:55

this tension relaxes. A

13:58

tragedy, but more on...

13:59

often humor that comes with great

14:02

pals being around a virtual table playing

14:04

a game. Discover Sign

14:06

on your favorite podcast player.

14:08

S-I-N-E. Choices

14:12

of the characters are theirs to make, but

14:14

the fate of the world is up to the dice.