Wayfarer

The painted town five years in the building at the bottom of the Community cavern — rows of brick and clay townhomes set around a central park of green-painted wood chips, lit by floodlights mounted on aluminum brackets high in the rock ceiling. The townhomes carry no nails, no lamps, and no metal frames; the only metal in the whole town is the aluminum the Set tolerates for lights and the speakers of its public address system. Couples promenade the streets; a delivery man hums down the rows with jars of food; children wait for their fathers to finish a backyard swing set. The residents have been told for seven years that the world above ended in ashfall and that this cavern is the only refuge left. MB2:TLM:Ch 56