Annie jumped up. “Me too!  And I’m going to have a pet bear like Allistor.”

One by one, the others all stood.  In less than a minute, it was unanimous.  Helen spoke an oath, which they all repeated together and the green-blue light enveloped them all. Just like that, they had nine more citizens of Allistor’s little Barony.

When they’d all retaken their seats, Allistor said, “Thank you, all of you.  And welcome!  If you want to take some time to gather your essentials, we can go back to the mall and I’ll get you all authorized.  Helen and I will stay in town tonight so we can talk some more.  In the morning we’ll try the missile base one more time, then move on.  I’m thinking Laramie or Casper is next.”

“What about the missile base?” One of the women asked, raising her hand.

“I’m sorry, please tell me your name again?” Allistor gave a little apologetic shrug. “I’m terrible with meeting new people.”

“I’m Andrea.  Tech Sgt Andrea Miller.  I worked at the base before all this.”

Allistor’s pulse quickened.  “Well, helloooo, Tech Sergeant! You are just who we’ve been looking for.  Helen and I have been calling the base on every radio channel, trying to raise somebody inside.  I want to claim the base, most especially the silos and underground bunkers, as a Stronghold.  And upgrade the mall to a Citadel.   But nobody has answered.  And we were afraid to approach too closely and get shot.”

Andrea looked at him, suspicion written all over her face.  “Why do you want the base?”

“For several reasons.  First, the bunkers sound like a good place to hunker down if we’re facing an enemy set on exterminating us.  Second, we need to secure any WMD’s that are down there.  Keep them out of the hands of any unstable elements that might go nuts and destroy us all.  And I’m hoping there’s communication equipment down there we can use to find other survivors and coordinate.  I don’t want us to be the only humans to thrive.  If we can help others, and receive help in return…”

He stopped talking when she started nodding.

“I can maybe get you inside.  We locked down the secure areas right before the Apocalypse.  For much the same reason.  There are forty techs, airmen, and guards down there, assuming nothing spawned inside and killed them.  I can vouch for every one of them.”

Helen asked. “You haven’t been in touch with them?”