That was an exercise of frustration and beating ones head against a wall.

It took a talk with the town council, getting in contact with someone in command of the Army who remembered us and having two teams to the east (one distraction and the other a covert kill team for Chinese soldiers wreaking havoc east of the continental divide... guess which one I was on), as well as someone who could verify the credentials of Rogan, Wade, Scott and Axel of being airforce... as well as a lynch mob of angry villagers dragging the police chief out of the council meeting to tar and feather him to actually get our gear back... Apparently a few of the local police had decided taking things from evidence now and then since the apocalypse had happened wasn't a problem and there had been a growing movement in the shadows against the chief who was covering for them. And our arrival and discontent at not all of our gear being returned tipped the balance.

...I swear we don't sic' lynch mobs on people....well we'll try not to make a habit of it. Either way I've got my rifle back, it has a nasty scratch through the finish now and that's annoying me greatly. We're going to leave fort Collins as soon as things settle down enough that we can barter for supplies.

Plan is that next stop is Denver, they'll have a better idea of whether or not the interstate is clear enough to head west, or if we'll need to keep going south. There's also an enclave of airforce folks there according to the rumor mill.

Fort Collins isn't as bad a first impressions made it out to be, though they're still weird.