One year had passed since the boat docked at the pier. The settlement, which the locals called New Heartland, had grown beyond the old pier. It sprawled now across the plains, a patchwork of green fields and wooden structures. There were no straight lines here. The houses followed the contours of the land. The roads were paths worn by feet and wagon wheels, not paved by machines.
Ezra walked through the wheat field. The stalks were waist-high. Golden. They swayed in the wind, whispering against his trousers. He didn't walk in the rows. He walked where the plants invited him. Sometimes the path curved left. Sometimes right. The crops knew where the soil was softest. Where the water ran deepest.
He stopped at the edge of the field. A group of children were playing among the stalks. They we
