Biking, when combined with superhuman physical abilities, was not a difficult task. Frank led the way, gradually speeding up as he went. Even with a loaded, unwieldy pack causing drag, no special experience biking, and a mountain bike rather than a road bike, he was able to maintain a speed of twenty miles per hour. Frank could have pushed more, but out of consideration for the other three, he chose that pace. The hills and valleys made faster progress out of their grasp.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, the four of them passed several small communities. Frank chose not to stop. The goal was Seattle. They'd make it as far as they could before it got dark. The grouping they had was a fragile thing, Frank thought. The fewer opportunities for someone to have a different opinion than him, the more likely it survived in the short term. Right now, they were a bunch of borderline strangers. He knew he'd have to change that. He didn't want to spend the time to do it now. The presence of skinwalkers behind, and Seattle ahead, urged him onwards. There were no meal breaks, only a few, short stops for nature's call.

Finally, the evening sun began to dip over the distant mountains. Arriving in a small town called Royal City, Frank decided to spend the night there. Travelling in the dark was simply too dangerous. He signalled to the other three, then peeled off at the highway exit, taking the road down into the town proper. It was no larger than Redstone unless parts of it were hidden around a bend in the land. Frank slowed down his pace as they approached the community until he could stop quickly if necessary. As they reached the main road that wound through the community, a man sitting on a foldable lawn chair in the middle of the road came into view. The sound of bicycles made him aware of the presence of others, and he quickly put down the book he was reading and stood up. Even quite a distance away, Frank could hear it creak dangerously under his weight.

Standing up fully, the man was a giant. A full head taller than Frank was a great bald slab of fat and muscle. Frank pulled up to a stop a few feet in front of him, and Bill, Rina, and Maria followed soon after. The man greeted them excitedly, his flabby face animated by strong emotion. He turned to Bill.

“Finally someone passing through! We’ve been keeping an eye on the road in for days and you are the first people who aren’t local to show up. What brings you here? Whereabouts did you come from?” he said, his voice oddly high. It wasn’t exactly feminine, but Frank thought he sounded like a teenager, despite his obvious middle age.

Bill was taken aback for a moment at being addressed first but soon responded, though he was breathing heavily from the day's exertion “We’re heading to Seattle from Redstone. Getting dark though now, so gotta stop for the night. Fucking cars not working is a real bummer. Biking uphill sucks. Coulda been in Seattle already. I’m Bill, this is Maria, this is Rina, and this is Frank.” He introduced everyone in turn.

“Name’s Sean, and I guess I’m organizing things here for the moment. If the cars don’t work out as far as Redstone, I suppose you’ve experienced some of the other stuff going on?” He looked pensive after speaking.

Frank took the moment to step into the conversation. “If you mean the messages and the death-matches, then yes.”

Sean frowned. “Not what I hoped to hear. Any idea how far this has spread?.”

Frank looked at him. “At least as far as Northern Canada. That’s where I was before this all began.”

Sean took a deep breath, then sucked in air. “Shit, you wanna come further in? We can put you up somewhere safe for the night. You all are headed for Seattle? Richie tried to head into the city through Snoqualmie, but he had to turn back, might want to give him a listen. I’d also like to hear about what you all have seen.”

“Sure,” Frank said. “Can’t leave until tomorrow anyways unless we want to fumble in the dark.”

“Alright, come this way then. People are hanging out at the event hall for now. With those things wandering around, it hasn’t been safe to be out and about on your own too much. Nothing’s come into town yet, but lots of folks have seen them on the outskirts.” Sean lead them down the street for a few minutes, casually talking to everyone in turn, before reaching a large hall adjacent to a church. He ushered them inside after they stowed their bikes around the side.

The inside of the hall was filled with tables, chairs, and people. Candles filled the entire room with dim light. The floor was an old hardwood, in need of repair, while peeling wallpaper bridged the gap between the floor and the wooden beams of the ceiling. A cursory inspection let Frank estimate the number of people currently inside. There were about one hundred. Most of them were middle-aged, though he spotted a few older men. He frowned when he compared that to Redstone. The skinwalkers had truly done a number on that town. There weren’t any here that he could see.

Sean saw his frown but misunderstood. “Sad sight to see. There’s probably thirty more of us who are either out doing something or didn’t want to leave their homes. But that’s less than one in ten outta who’d been here before. Town’s on the old side, and I reckon a lot of the older folks are in trouble if they had to deal with what everyone here did.”

Maria responded with a hint of sadness. “I only saw three dozen people, tops, in Redstone when we left.”

Sean looked down. “That’s terrible. I don’t suppose you have any idea why? Or you’ve heard from the government? That’s why Richie tried to head over. He wanted to try and get over there and ask for help.”

“We can talk about everything inside, let's find somewhere to sit,” Frank told him.

Sean nodded to that. “Right, you folks have been on the move for a while from the looks of you. Probably could use a rest.”

Bill nodded gratefully, and Sean led them over to an empty table. Others were looking at them curiously. A couple of people asked Sean who they were, and he informed them they were from further East, and that he’d tell everyone about it later. That satisfied the curious for the moment, and soon five people were seated. Frank and company had their packs on the ground beside them.

“So how about I tell you what’s going on here, and then you fill me in on out East,” Sean asked Frank.

“Fine by me, but first, this might simplify things a bit,” Frank said. He opened up his pack and pulled out a copy of his system primer. “This is what I’ve figured out about the situation so far.”

Sean accepted it from Frank, then placed it on the table in a position to get the most candlelight. He frowned as he read it. “Can’t say I much like what you’re saying. Makes a certain kind of sense, though,” he said, after reading. “This whole situation is still a bit unreal, but it feels like a trial from God.”

He looked at Frank, sighing again. “I feel like you know more than you put there, though.”

Frank responded simply. “I only put what I thought I could get most people to believe.”

“Oh?” Sean raised an eyebrow. “So you do know more. Care to share?”

Frank thought about how poorly the reveal of his identity had gone in Redstone, then replied. “Sure. But you offered to talk first.”

Sean chuckled half-heartedly. “Yea. Well, this all started Sunday morning. I was getting ready for church. That message appeared. You know the rest. Fight those things, escape.” His face took on a melancholy look. “I’m a big man. Wasn’t too hard for me once I realized I had no choice in the matter. But I don’t think I’ve seen a tenth of the folks in this town. First three days, people filtered in regularly. After that though, maybe half a dozen over the past two? The last couple of people to show said they were fleeing those things.”

“Things?” Frank asked.

“Yea, this whole system thing, to use your words, it calls them Kobolds. Lizard looking things. Look like little savages, nasty from what I’ve been told. And what I’ve seen. We found a couple bodies, folks’d been killed. I think by those Kobolds. Everyone is just hunkered down in town while we decide what to do about them. I’ve half a mind to go out and look for anybody still out in the woods, but, those things…” He trailed off.

Frank pondered what exactly to say. “There’s probably a nest of them somewhere. We had Goblins, which were kind of similar, in Redstone. Found a little camp of them. They’d captured some people. I think that’s your best bet to find anyone still out there. Plus if you deal with the nest they won’t be a threat to you anymore and you can all move more freely.”

Sean looked at him. “Yea? That what you all in Redstone did?”

Frank answered his question. “Yes. The system called it a field dungeon. Gave a big reward for dealing with it.”

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help out with this?” Sean asked.

“Gotta get to Seattle, sorry. Personal reasons. If I delay, I risk the pass getting snowed in. Then I’d have to take a massive detour.” Frank responded immediately. He’d noticed Rina about to say something. She looked at him sadly.

Sean smiled sadly. “That’s alright. I don’t hold it against you, though you might already be out of luck there.”

Frank changed the topic. “On a separate note, there are a lot more people here then there are in Redstone. I want to tell you why.”

Sean’s face didn’t become less sad, but he looked at Frank incredibly seriously. Frank started to explain the skinwalkers. As he told Sean about them, the man’s face betrayed a hint of fear.

“Hard to swallow something like that, but I don’t know what you’d get out of lying,” Sean stated, after a bit of thought.

“Just be on the lookout. I mentioned how to find them. The fact that there are so many more people here makes me hopeful the skinwalkers are not.” Frank told him. “But anyone coming from the East, I’d be careful.”

“Well, that’s all good to know. I’ll keep this for now.” Sean put his hand on the paper Frank had given. “Probably get someone to make a few copies and spread it around once I verify enough of it. No offence, Frank.”

Frank nodded in return.

“Well, that’s that I guess. I’ll get you folks some food and send Richie over. Better to have him explain what he saw. If you’re a Christian, Father Gregory’s in the church building if you want someone to talk to. Feels a little odd to have him working out of a Baptist building, but I know a lot of folks’ve been doing better after talking to him. He’s doing a sermon every morning as well.” Sean made a goodbye and left.

A few minutes later, a thin man in his early twenties showed up. “Sean said you guys were looking for me? Trying to go up Snoqualmie?”

Frank nodded. “Richie?”

“That’s me,” the man said. “Sean could have probably filled you in himself, but I guess he prefers you to hear it from the horse’s mouth. You can get up there pretty easy if you’ve got the fitness for it. But once you get to the ski lodge it’s whiteout. Unnatural as hell too, it’s like a straight line. Road just suddenly ends into a swirl of snow. It’s not even freezing up there yet, still gotta be at least fifty degrees during the day. I didn’t know what to make of it, but I wasn’t about to bike through it.”

Frank frowned at that. It had the smell of a field dungeon. “Sounds like something related to everything else.”

Richie shuddered, then agreed. “Yea. That’s why I turned back.”

A teenage boy arrived holding four plates of food. The ease with which he balanced them on his arm could mean he had improved agility, or just that he’d worked in a restaurant. “Sorry you don’t get to choose, but we are trying to get through all the perishables. With all the fridges down it’s going to be a bit of a struggle.” He placed down a plate in front of everyone but Richie, then exited.

“Chicken A La King?” Bill questioned, looking at the mixture of chicken and vegetables in cream sauce.

Richie frowned. “Sick of it myself. Can only eat so many cream sauces before you don’t want any more, but we gotta get through as much of the milk as possible. Could be a while before help comes. Guess I should be grateful someone knows how to cook this kind of stuff with what still works. Anyways, I’m in a rush, so I’ll leave you to your meal. Not really anything else to say about the pass. You can check it out if you want, maybe it’ll have stopped by then.” He got up and left.

The four of them ate ravenously. That was the first cooked meal since the barbecue any of them had had. A couple of minutes later, all the plates were emptied. Rina looked at Frank, her gaze questioning. Frank noticed the stare.

“After we find somewhere to sleep,” he told her.

She nodded, but her face remained unsatisfied. Frank ignored her for the moment. Maria carefully stacked all the empty plates. She addressed the group.

“I would like to go to the church if you all don’t mind. I don’t know the next time I’ll see a proper priest.”

Frank allowed it. “We’ll have to either come inside or wait nearby, for safety, but I suspect Sean or someone will eventually be back to lead us to somewhere we can sleep. We can spare the time. Things are fairly well organized here.”

With that, Frank led the group back outside, grabbing his pack and letting a man sitting nearby know they’d be at the church if someone was looking for them. They grabbed their bikes and wheeled them over to the church entrance. The door into the chapel was propped open, and Maria went to step inside. Frank stopped her.

“For safety, two things. Don’t leave the main room, stay in view from the entrance. Second, ‘gravity’ is the codeword. Remember it. I haven’t seen any sign of skinwalkers, but we need to remain careful,” he informed her.

“Okay,” Maria said, then walked inside. Frank kept an eye on her from inside the doorway.

She was met by a middle-aged man dressed, unsurprisingly, like a priest. A conversation ensued, but they were out of earshot. At one point, the priest pointed towards the door, at Frank, watching them in the distance. His face showed concern as he asked her a question. Maria shook her head in response. They continued talking.

Rina ran out of patience while waiting. She asked Frank quietly. “Why don’t you want to help them?” There was a hint of accusation in her tone.

Frank waited a moment before answering, choosing his words carefully. “Because they need it less. Look at this place. It’s organized. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people aren’t nearly as tense. Even just the half-hour we’ve been here, it’s obvious how much better off they are. Compare it to Redstone.”

“But we could help them,” Rina replied firmly.

“We could also help people in any other town. Royal City is in great shape, compared to what I’ve seen. That much is obvious just from a cursory glance. We could deal with the Kobolds that Sean mentioned. If he’s telling the truth. Then what? They are all safe for the moment, but when something more dangerous comes along?” Frank responded. “It’s not just that helping them would only be temporary. Unless I plan to stop here and lead this town, someone will have to take charge of the situation. People will have to be able to defend themselves and fight for their survival. Better to let them be forged by something they can realistically deal with, then shattered by whatever comes after.”

Rina looked down. After a while, she asked another question. “How can you leave people to this so easily?” Her voice was soft.

Frank looked down. “It’s not easy.” He thought about the fact he hadn’t actually had to abandon anyone for a long time before returning. He hadn’t deliberately left another person behind in years. He thought about how there was always a little bit of him telling him he’d feel better if he just stopped making the hard choice. How he’d asked the same question once, to another person. He didn't explain.

When it became obvious Frank was done speaking, Bill decided to chip in, speaking to Rina. “You gotta look at the big picture. You think people need help here? Imagine Seattle. If Seattle has one in ten people remaining that’s still hundreds of thousands who might need even more help. Gotta play the numbers.”

Rina didn’t bother to respond, sighing and then sitting down by the door, looking at the ground. The three of them all fell silent, waiting several more minutes awkwardly before Maria returned.

“Gravity,” she said when she stepped back through the door.

“That help?” asked Bill.

“Yes. It helped a lot.” Maria said.

Frank looked at his companions. “I’d like to find somewhere to sleep. Sean mentioned it earlier, so we should go look for him.”

Maria shrugged, and the others followed Frank back to the hall. By this time, a chunk of the people there had left. A couple dozen remained. Sean was there, chatting with an older woman. He noticed Frank, and put on hold whatever he was discussing, at least for the moment. He walked over.

“Looking for somewhere to bed down? Something else?” he asked.

“A place to sleep,” Frank responded.

“No problem. There’s a motel a little further down the road. I’ll show you.” Sean said.

He lead Frank and company out the hall, and down the street for a few minutes. Since they’d arrived, the sun had gone from low and declining to almost completely gone. It’d be full twilight in the next half hour.

“Sorry if it’s a pain moving around in the dark. We are trying to get that figured out, but we only have a few kerosene lamps. Everyone’d switched to LEDs. Right now all the lamps are going with the patrols.” Sean said.

“Patrols?” asked Bill, curiously.

“Yea, got people making the rounds in small groups, in case something tries to sneak in or someone stumbles out of the woods,” Sean replied.

Bill and Sean made a bit of small talk the rest of the way until they arrived at the motel. Sean fumbled around the office for the keys and gave them four adjacent rooms on the upper level. Before he left, he gave Frank some advice.

“I know you know more than what you wrote there. I know you probably figure a lotta people won’t believe you. I figure if you are telling the truth, you might as well put everything there, kid. Lotta people won’t believe you regardless, and a lotta people are gonna believe it just because it’s written down and someone is saying something that makes sense. Might as well put it all on the table.” He wished everyone a good night and then left.

Frank ushered the group into his room, looking pensive.

“A couple things, before we sleep. Make sure you barricade your door. These suites thankfully don’t have huge windows, but I’d block them too. Keep your pack ready to be slung immediately. Make sure your bikes go in your room. Four codewords, before we go. I’m ‘juniper’. Bill is ‘Bismarck’. Rina is ‘broken’, and Maria is ‘capitulate’. Use them in the morning to identify yourself.”

Rina, Bill, and Maria all nodded. Frank continued. “Tomorrow I’m going to introduce a few basic hand signs and gestures, in case we need to communicate something silently. For now, though, get some rest. It’s going to be a long day getting to Seattle, especially if there’s something to deal with in Snoqualmie pass like we’ve heard.”

Bill was visibly excited by the mention of codewords and hand signals, while Rina and Maria seemed indifferent. Frank let them all head to their rooms, before locking his door and moving the furniture in front of it and the window. He’d considered trying to get them to sleep in the same room, but he knew how stressed they were. He thought the women especially would sleep better in their own space, and the risk was low enough that it was worthwhile. The structure and length of his document also occupied his thoughts. Sean had made a good point. Was it more important to get as many people as possible to take it seriously, or was it better to make sure a smaller number of people had more detailed knowledge? Frank decided to sleep on it.

He woke a little before first light and roused the others. With additional vitality, none of them needed as much sleep as before, but their bodies would in no way have adjusted to that fact yet. Even with the extreme exertion of yesterday, seven hours was enough to recover. That Frank’s own biological clock had stayed with him was a bit of a blessing, even if it didn’t make too much sense biologically. Everyone blearily took several minutes to get out of their rooms, bike in tow. Rina came out with a decent stack of paper in hand as well.

“Bismarck,” Bill said confidently. Everyone else repeated their codewords, prompted by Bill’s utterance.

“Um, I made a few more copies of the document, and I changed them a little. I put a spot for people to list any enemies or places they’ve found. I thought it might be good to prompt people to share that information too.” Rina told Frank. “I didn’t add anything else or change your words though.”

Frank thought for a moment. “That’s a good idea,” he replied. “I’ll write something on goblins after.”

“Let’s see if we can get some breakfast, and I’ll go over the hand signals while we eat.” He lead the group back towards the church and hall. As it turned out, someone was cooking scrambled eggs in a big batch for breakfast. All four of them got a big bowl of cheesy eggs.

Maria commented as she ate her eggs. “I’m lactose intolerant, but ever since I increased my stats, milk doesn’t do anything to me. If not for literally everything else, that’d be super cool.”

Bill nodded. “I’ve noticed that kind of thing too. I bet my allergies are gone. Not that I want to test it. Be a bit ironic to go out from a bee sting when there’s all this going on.”

Frank wolfed down his food. Upon finishing, he started going over the basic hand signals he wanted to start with. He kept it simple, four different ones. One finger pointing to get someone to look, the whole hand to direct someone to move, a hand across the mouth to indicate silence, and a horizontal palm moving down to tell people to hide. Once he was sure they all understood, he introduced a final gesture. Frank pinched the bridge of his nose.

“If I do that, that means something’s up,” Frank told the others.

Everyone finished their food without rushing. Frank didn’t hurry them.

“It’s so weird being here, and everyone is just sitting down for breakfast,” Rina opined. “Like, it reminds me of summer camp when I was a kid. All I have to do is not think about anything that’s happened for a while and I can actually relax a little bit here.”

Bill replied first. “It’s nice. But there’s an entire world to save. I did some thinking. Seeing how these guys are doing, and comparing it to Redstone, I think it might be because of Frank.”

Maria looked at him sharply. “Explain.”

He looked around, seeing that no one was close enough to eavesdrop. “I mean, think about it. Time traveller shows up, and the spot he’s in is suddenly overrun with things he can’t deal with. They weren’t there right away either. We saw goblins at first until suddenly those things started showing up. I mean sure, that could have been chance. But do you really think it was? Way I figure, someone figured it out and sent those things our way. Fucking measured the time particles or used magic or some shit, sent em at us. Frank was probably supposed to clear out that dungeon slowly or something, but there was interference.”

“Everything’s too convenient. There was an Olympic decathlete, a former special forces commando, myself. You said your dad is a master outdoorsman. Doesn’t that seem like the perfect setup for a fellowship, for a fucking party of champions? Then the skinwalkers appear. The hunter gets injured, the soldier and the Olympian get turned against him by deception. It all goes fucky. So he ends up with me, because I met him before anything could interfere. You are the next best thing to your dad. I bet Rina’s got some sort of hidden potential too.”

Rina looked down at her mostly empty bowl in response to that last sentence. Frank listened to what Bill said, pondering on it. It did have a certain logic to it.

Bill continued on. “That’s the way I see it. Something thought Frank was dangerous enough to send those things after him. Makes me think that helping him is probably important. I was several states East and got dumped right beside him. Makes me think that wasn’t a coincidence either. There’s gotta be a reason, and I don’t think it’s as simple as solving small-town problems.”

Rina and Maria both went silent, thinking on Bill’s words.

After some consideration, Maria looked down and prayed, her words an unintelligible, whispered mutter. Rina just looked pensive.

Frank stayed silent for a good minute. He was about to start getting everyone to ready themselves to leave, when the teenage boy who brought out their food last night jogged in, face slightly red.

“Sean said he wanted to see you. Something about what you talked about last night. I can lead you to him.” He said, not quite breathlessly.

Frank nodded, and the group followed the boy out of the hall after grabbing their packs. He led them out towards the highway at a jog, Frank and the others biking behind the young man. He carefully unsecured his sword so that he could draw it quickly. Soon they arrived where Sean was. Frank saw two women and a man standing in a group nearby. The problem was the message that appeared.

Skinwalker(Level 6) Skinwalker(Level 9)

Both women were skinwalkers. The question was whether the man between them was. Frank touched the bridge of his nose. He’d have to find out his companion’s stats later today. That would be important. For now, though, he walked over, casually greeting Sean’s huge figure as he stepped beside him.

“I was thinking about what you said last night. I figure it’s a good idea to take a step back.” Frank carefully emphasized the last two words. Sean quickly acted, backing up several strides. The skinwalkers reacted almost immediately, but Frank was on them before they could make a run for it. Three steps had him upon the higher levelled of the two. He drew his sword as he did, savagely wounding his enemy with a slash to the torso that it had no chance to escape. The man in the middle’s face contorted into fear, while the other skinwalker attempted to push him forward to block Frank for a moment. The man turned out to be stronger though, and in a panic reversed the situation, grabbing its arm and pulling it off balance then past him as he broke into a stumbling run, yelling in fear. Frank took the opportunity presented, but instead of slashing it, just knocked it over.

Sean witnessed the scene, and couldn’t help but yell out. “Holy fucking hell!”

“Help me hold it down!” Frank shouted.

Bill and Maria quickly came over, followed by Rina. Sean collected himself after a moment and arrived too.

“Hold it down so it can’t move, there’s a hypothesis I need to check,” Frank said. He checked the other skinwalker, and seeing it limp on the ground, blood slowly oozing out, turned his attention back to the one detained. It tried to beg as it struggled, but Frank ignored it. “Stretch out one of its arms,” Frank told them. Bill and Rina complied, forcing it’s left arm straight. None of the others had a good look on their face. Frank made a decent slash on its arm with his sword and waited. There was almost no blood. If it were a human their arm would be covered in it shortly. He nodded, then finished it off.

Bill, surprisingly, looked the worst off of the group at that scene. Frank wondered if it was because the skinwalkers had been pretty looking women. The system soon popped up with a message.

Skinwalker(Level 6), Skinwalker(Level 9) defeated. Frank awarded 6000EXP. Maria awarded 100EXP. Steven awarded 300EXP. Bill awarded 100EXP. Rina awarded 75EXP. Sean awarded 70EXP.

The man was human. That made it easier. No need to chase him down, thought Frank. He looked at the others. “So that shows you can reveal them with a decent cut. Anything that’ll bleed enough will give them away. Gives you a way to prove you are human, too.”

The system message ended the violence with a finality that calmed people down. Though no one else looked anything but disturbed, they weren’t panicked, except for the teen who’d led them here, who Frank could see bolting back to town. Frank cleaned his blade on the leg of the slain skinwalker.

Sean took a minute to gather himself. He looked at the bodies of the two skinwalkers without comment. Their features were starting to blur, and blue motes of light were coming off them. “I see what you meant about these things. They had a perfect cover too. That Steven guy was bragging that they’d shown up in his little town looking for help and he’d agreed to take them to Seattle. Gave me one of those looks like I was supposed to be jealous he had two women hanging off him.” Sean shook his head. “Guess that’s pretty good evidence what you said was true.”

Frank didn’t respond besides nodding. There was a lapse into silence before Sean spoke again. “You have anything you need in town? Or are you going to move on towards Snoqualmie?”

Rina and Maria looked back towards the town but didn’t say anything. Frank responded. “Yea. If we can get through Snoqualmie pass quickly enough, we could make Seattle by sundown.”

“Well, good luck then. Thanks for helping me out here. I’m going to go find that boy. He’s probably scared out of his wits right now.” Sean said, before leaving back towards town. When it became certain Frank was leaving, the man appeared to lose all interest immediately.

Frank addressed his companions. “Time to get moving.”

They listlessly complied, and soon everyone was mounted and cycling down the highway once more. Frank pushed the pace a little more than yesterday for the first while, deliberately trying to use exertion to clear their minds. After an hour, he let off a bit, and everyone fell into a rhythm as the surroundings passed by. The terrain began to steadily climb up as they got closer to the mountains. Two and a half hours later, they biked through a much larger community. Frank thought it might even be a small city. He planned to get past it then call for a quick break, but the presence of an outdoor store piqued his interest. He decided to check it out.

It took a bit of exploring, as the exit from the highway didn’t take him straight there, but they had before long arrived in front of it. He saw no one else. Given the size of the town, that fact could mean something was afoot, but he didn’t want to investigate. Instead, he finally arrived in the parking lot of the store and brought everyone together.

“What I want to find are bike trailers and winter gear. I was hoping we wouldn’t need cold weather clothing yet, but if there’s something going on up the pass, better to have it and not need it than to turn back to find it. Let's get inside and take a look.” He told them.

The shop was locked, but Frank’s sword broke the door open, it’s status as equipment making short work of mundane obstructions. Inside, the lack of lighting left it dim and eerie. It was a fairly large shop, but it was still packed with things. A quick jaunt around revealed there was a section specifically dedicated to biking. Fortunately, it included trailers. Frank picked out four of the largest model on display and brought them to the front. He confirmed the store was empty, then addressed Rina, Bill, and Maria.

“Grab winter gear, bike repair stuff, anything else you want. The kind of food they sell as well. Travel bars and rations are going to be useful.” He told them.

They all started grabbing what they needed with obvious pleasure. It took almost an hour, between getting there from the highway, setting up and hitching the trailers, packing them with stuff, but they were much better supplied at the end of it. Frank felt more secure than before. Bill had also recovered somewhat over the morning. He asked Frank a question as they prepared to leave.

“Why didn’t you figure that out about skinwalkers before you went back in time?”

“Higher-level skinwalkers have more blood. At least that’s my best guess. They bled normally, but they were also level fifty or higher when I encountered them.” Frank explained.

“What do we do if we encounter high-level ones, then? How would we discover them?” Maria asked.

“If it’s level fifty right now, it probably wouldn’t bother to hide for long. It’d just kill everyone outright. So if something like that happens, scatter in different directions and hope it’s not fast enough to catch everyone.” Frank said.

That killed the conversation right there. Frank had been planning to ask them about their stats, but he decided to delay until later. Instead, he got back on his bike, now burdened with a trailer. He pedalled out of the parking lot, followed by the others. They made it back to the highway and continued on, the added weight of the trailers and increasingly uphill pedalling slowing the pace by about a quarter as the group made for the pass.