Bread Alone — Sharon Lee; Steve Miller

To survive, humans need air, water, a place to stand, a place to sleep, and sustenance. Bread is a good start for sustenance. Don Eyr and Serana were survivors who came to Low Port – it gave them air, water, a place to stand and a place to make bread. The place to sleep meant they needed a certain amount of safety and to get that they founded a bakery at the corner of Crakle and Toom, brought in others seeking to survive in the midst of the poverty and ignorance, and built a tiny bastion of a self-sufficient community dedicated to raising competent, alert children who understood decency. Low Port toughs tried to break the bakery and a planet-shaking blast from the skies nearly did it in, but the bakery was hope, and people who have hope will fight to keep it. This chapbook collects four stories about sustenance, all about the bakery, its people, and its influence. Degrees of Separation, Fortune's Favors, and Block Party are reprints. The novelette Our Lady of Benevolence appears here for the first time.