The next morning, Nate woke to find Lindsay already up and sipping a cup of Wakeup Tea. She was sitting at the table reading a book, while oatmeal warmed on the stove.

  He rolled out of bed and waved to her on his way to the bathroom.

  She grunted tiredly and took a sip of her tea. Lindsay had only been awake for a couple of minutes and hadn’t yet drunk any of the tea.

  “How did things go last night?” She asked once he returned and sat across from her.

  “About as well as we expected based on how things were going when you left,” He yawned and cracked his neck. “They didn’t want to listen, and I didn’t feel like putting up with their crap. So, Aura and I eventually just left.”

  Lindsay blew on her tea and gave him a nod. “It’s probably a good thing we left when we did then.”

  He snorted softly. “Aura was so mad at them for talking about you two like that. She froze their legs and really wanted to do more.”

  The smell of the oatmeal on the stove drifted between them, the faint sweetness mixing with the sharper scent of the tea. The Overlander RV felt almost too quiet that early in the morning. It was the sort of silence that let thoughts creep in, the kind he didn’t always welcome.

  Before he could say anything else, Aura padded in from the front, ears half-lowered and tails dragging slightly. She wasn’t usually sluggish, but even she looked like the night’s encounter had left her in a foul mood.

  “Morning,” She said without preamble, slumping onto the floor at their feet with a yawn.

  Lindsay stirred the oatmeal and slid a bowl toward Nate, along with some honey and a second bowl full of berries she had cut earlier. “What are you feeling like eating this morning, Aura? Bacon, sausage, something from our storages?”

  It took everything Aura had to crack open a single eye and yawn again. “Something hot and crunchy.”

  Nate chewed a mouthful of oatmeal, mixed berries, and glanced toward the window. The outside light was just beginning to brighten. “How is Angie handling everything from last night?”

  Angie was a lot of things, smart, strong, and sensitive. It was this last one that was the issue. Nate hadn’t known it until later, but the whole matter with Jace back then had affected her far more than she had let on. Only Lindsay had been privy to the real troubles within her heart.

  “She… she was up for a while after we got back,” Lindsay admitted quietly. “We both were.”

  That explained the need for the Wakeup Tea.

  “I’ll drive today, then. You get some more sleep or use the opportunity to work on the dungeons.” He offered. It wasn’t the best thing he could say, but he also knew that it was what they needed at the moment.

  She held up the mug with a wry smile. “I doubt I’ll be getting any sleep after drinking this. Thanks for the offer though.”

  “Ahh, right,” He scratched his cheek and looked away with a slight chuckle. “Well, the offer still stands.”

  “We’ll see, maybe later. I’ll start out driving myself since I’m awake.”

  In the meantime, Nate actually began rearranging their current course. Originally, they had been going back home to Colorado, taking the roads the entire way. However, one of the dungeons that would be conquered the next day was in Kentucky. Practically next door.

  With the portal added to it, they would be able to get home in moments instead of taking another couple of weeks. They would be introducing the locals to just how useful the communities could be.

  Lindsay finished the last of her tea and set the mug aside. “If we leave now, it will likely still take us two or three days to reach the location.”

  “That works.” Nate slid his empty bowl toward the sink, glancing toward the back where Angie’s door stayed shut. “She’s not going to come for a while, is she?”

  “Probably not until she’s ready to face people,” Lindsay said quietly, lowering her voice even though there was no chance of them being overheard. “She didn’t talk much last night after we got back, just… curled up with Mika.”

  Aura’s ears twitched at that, but she didn’t comment. Instead, she pulled herself upright, stretching until her joints popped, then padded toward the window to watch the tree line. “We should keep an eye on the weather,” She said. “The humidity’s spiking. That usually means a storm is coming.”

  Lindsay stood and crossed to the driver’s seat.

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  The RV began to move as she brought it to life and shifted the transmission into gear. Easing out from their camp spot and back onto the cracked, faded road. Outside, the morning mist clung low to the fields, curling around fence posts and rotting barns. A hawk circled overhead, its cry sharp against the otherwise still air.

  For a while, the only sound inside was the hum of the wheels and the occasional rustle as Nate shifted positions in his seat. He was acting as her navigator while also working on the dungeons. Aura remained at the window, eyes scanning the horizon with the stillness of a predator who’d learned to watch for trouble before it arrived.

  Two hours after they left their campsite, Angie finally appeared.

  Her hair was a mess, and she was still in the same clothes she’d worn last night. Mika was draped across her shoulders, the little weasel’s tongue flicking lazily. Angie didn’t look at anyone as she made her way to the small kitchenette and poured herself a cup of tea.

  “You okay?” Lindsay asked gently, glancing back at her in the rearview mirror.

  Angie sipped, then shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  Nate looked back at her. “You don’t look fine.”

  She set the cup down harder than necessary. “I said I’m fine.”

  The sharpness in her tone hung in the air, and even Aura’s tails stilled for a moment. Lindsay gave Nate a look that said Leave it alone, and he shifted his attention back to the map.

  They drove on until he couldn’t hold his tongue any longer.

  Nate growled and snapped the map book shut. “Look, I have to say this one thing first. You can yell at me afterward if you want, but I have to say it. Last night was apparently not one of my brighter ideas. I thought if we could get the local cultivators on our side, we might be able to hurry things along a little bit. Obviously, I misjudged things, and for that I’m sorry. Just know that if either of you want to talk about last night, Jace, or anything, then I’m here.”

  “We don’t blame you for last night, Nate,” Angie told him softly. Lindsay nodded seriously. “If we didn’t agree or think your idea was worthwhile, we would have told you. We have minds of our own and are responsible for our own decisions. No matter how they turn out. But thank you for the offer.”

  She said something else, even quieter, that vaguely sounded like, ‘He is making this hard.’

  Lindsay caught Nate’s eye and smirked before turning back to the road.

  The farther they got into Ohio, the worse the roads became. Weeds were constantly pushing up through cracks in the asphalt, alongside growing trees, and the rusted-out remains of vehicles from past expeditioners who had met sad ends sat abandoned along the ditches. Some were stripped bare, others still had their windows intact but were filled with mildew and leaves. It was the kind of countryside that felt empty, but they all knew better. Monsters liked places where people no longer went.

  Around midday, Aura’s ears flicked, and she alerted the others without turning from the window. “Something’s following us.”

  Lindsay eased back on the accelerator. “Distance?”

  “Two hundred meters. Maybe less. It’s pacing us through the trees.”

  Nate set his book to the side and leaned over to look at the dashboard. It had been raining for the last hour, which, combined with the general crappy condition of the road, meant they weren’t exactly speeding along. At the moment, they were only going around twenty miles an hour.

  Angie joined Aura at the window on that side of the Overlander. “Does it seem to be aiming for us?”

  “I don’t think so. If it wanted to attack us, I believe that it would have done so already. Let’s see if it loses interest.” She replied, keeping her eyes and ears peeled.

  They kept going, eyes scanning the tree line. Every so often, Nate caught a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision—a dark shape keeping pace, vanishing whenever he tried to focus on it.

  Fifteen minutes later, Aura relaxed. “It’s gone.”

  “For now,” Nate said, not willing to believe that it was gone for good. If it was and didn’t mean them any harm, then great. Out here in the wilds, though, that just wasn’t how things worked.

  No one argued.

  They reached the edge of Columbus a little after lunch. The city was a monolithic structure that was built entirely out of metal and concrete. The dimensional zones had appeared during a period in time when this section of the United States was still heavily invested in actually producing items. Something that had changed on Nate's Original Earth.

  He expected that all the major cities in the primary ‘Rust Belt’, especially those on or near the Great Lakes, like Detroit in Michigan, would be similarly equipped. Especially if they had been safe areas in the beginning due to low levels of qi and a lack of dimensional zones.

  A massive wall of hardened concrete that would have been at home on a dam rose up in front of them. Watchtowers spaced every fifty feet were placed on top with arbalests that could swivel in nearly any direction. It was a city built for a siege.

  It was also a city covered in rust. Everything was taken care of, but it had still been left out in the elements for years on end.

  The gate was a massive slab of welded steel that slid sideways into the wall, operated by a complex system of gears and motors. Guards in patched-together but functional combat armor stood watch, their crossbows held at a low ready. They were professionals, their eyes sweeping over the Overlander RV with practiced scrutiny.

  Lindsay brought the RV to a halt fifty yards from the gate, as instructed by a large, hand-painted sign. A pair of guards detached from the main group and approached, one staying back to cover the other.

  “State your business,” The lead guard shouted. He stopped a good ten feet from the driver's side window.

  Nate leaned over from the passenger seat. “We’re setting up a merchant route for our home city. We just need to speak with your Merchant Guild about the logistics, and then we’re gone on to our next destination. Depending on how long that meeting takes, we may spend the night. We’re not looking to cause any trouble.”

  The guard nodded, his eyes having glazed over at the expansive explanation. He blinked and shook his head, his gaze lingering on the RV. Even in its roughed-up condition, it was a far cry from the rust-buckets and armored jalopies that usually came through. “That’s a nice rig. Custom?”

  “Something like that,” Nate replied evasively.

  “Impressive.” The guard gestured to a small, fortified booth next to the gate. “Entry fee is twenty copper per vehicle, or five per person. We’ll need to do a quick inspection of the vehicle for any illegal items. Standard procedure.”

  “No problem.” Nate gathered the copper from the bag on his hip and handed them over. Aura and Mika stayed quiet and out of sight in the back. The inspection was quick and really only meant that they wouldn’t be able to sell anything in the city.

  When he finished, the guard gave them a thumbs-up and waved them through the gate.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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