Small groups started straggling in as the weather turned cooler. Several were returning home much like Etan had. A growing number followed dreams to a small mountain town they’d never heard of before.
They settled into houses long empty, breathing a bit of life into Wolf Branch after years of quiet decline. Almost everyone showed a quick interest in growing and preserving food, drawn to the cannery and community garden as if by magic.
Even as the outside power grid supplying Wolf Branch weakened and grew more erratic, the new arrivals adjusted with enthusiasm and relief. Too many to be a coincidence brought equipment they didn’t know how to use with them. Precious space and resources taken up with glossy solar panels, small water and wind turbines, boxy storage batteries.
Neither they n
