Chapter 1Ken leaned on the gate. “This is a closed community,” she called out to Cortez. “We don’t let strangers in. It’s nothin’ personal, but we just can’t trust people nowadays. If you wanna pass through, you can hand over your weapons and walk it. We’ll drive the trucks for ya and give all your stuff back. But you can’t come in here with those cannons.”
Cortez looked Kenna over with suspicion. “I know you.” It wasn’t a question, but the look on her face said that she couldn’t remember where and when.
“I doubt it,” Ken retorted. “Ain’t never seen nobody like you before. I take it you’re national. Hasn’t been a state government in at least five months, and that’s pushin’ it.” Her back-country slang was mostly acting, but after living in New Somerset for so long, it came naturally whene
