Morning came quickly, and Frank was up immediately with the earliest bit of usable light. He woke Maria and Felix, then found himself breakfast and immediately got ready to get the day started. It was just past seven in the morning, which meant he had approximately four hours to work with before his agreed-upon meetup for the trade. That was time to find a place, potentially. He checked the bicycles, hooked them all up, and removed the cabinet from the front door.

Fortunately, Maria had a full night's sleep, while Bill and Rina were awake already. Felix slept lightly because he was already wide awake just from Frank’s movements. With everyone gathered, Frank explained what he wanted to do. “As the first order of business, I want to reach the western coast of the city and find somewhere to stay there. Hopefully, a likely place is easy enough to pick out. Once that’s dealt with, we’ll head back into the city proper so I can get my mace. After that, it’ll be gathering supplies. If any of you want specific things, think about it now, so we can search efficiently. If you want to do something else, go ahead, but if you want to split away you’ll have to prove your identity when you come back.”

“When do we help the other people here?” Rina asked.

“At eleven when I teach the very basics of sword use to that woman,” Frank responded.

“I mean, when do we make that the focus?”

“When we are set up to be secure until the spring,” Frank said.

Rina looked disappointed by that. “What about everyone else?”

“If you starve to death over the winter, what good can you do?” Frank responded.

“I’m not stupid. The same thing you said applies to everyone else. If we need to stock up on stuff, doesn’t everyone else need to do that too? What good can I do if everyone dies while I sit and watch?” Rina said, a bit of passion in her voice. There was no anger though.

“If there’s a Tower of Wishing, you might be able to do something. You’d probably just die, though.” Frank told her, after a moment’s consideration. He regretted it immediately, caving to the reflexive urge to provide a solution, even if it was useless.

Rina looked straight in Frank’s eyes. “Could you help everyone through the winter if you did something with a ‘Tower of Wishing?’”

Frank looked at her back. “Yes.”

Rina frowned. “But you wouldn’t. I can tell from how you answered.” She turned away, muttering as she did. “I hope you know what’s best.”

Frank got the group moving after that. Half an hour had them in the southwest portion of the city, checking out the waterfront homes. They passed by hundreds over the next hour, until Frank found a spot with good potential. A small castle, quite old and constructed of stone, on a very large wooded lot. The entire property was walled off, and there were few large windows on the ground floor. It ticked a lot of boxes. The downside was that it did not back on to the waterfront. It was about two blocks inland from it. Ultimately, Frank felt that compromise was probably worth it, provided the inside was up to par and the place wasn’t occupied.

He motioned to the group. “That looks like a place worth checking out.”

They brought their bikes up to the gate, which was closed. Frank forced it open without hesitation. Electronic gates weren’t exactly manageable now that they didn’t work. He’d replace it with a wooden barrier that could be easily dragged in and out of place if this turned out to be the spot. The five of them walked up the driveway until they reach the front of the house.

Close up, it was positively stately, with meticulously kept gardens, huge, elderly oaks, and an exterior that was trying to evoke a castle. The front door was open, which meant that it had probably been looted already, but that was fine. It was the house itself that would be important.

“It’s a fucking castle,” Bill said, sizing it up. “That’s so fucking awesome. I thought we were going to end up in like a McMansion or something. This is way better.”

“I’m hoping it’s as old as it looks because that might mean there are real fireplaces,” Frank responded.

Frank called out, seeing if there was anyone inside. When no one responded, he led everyone in to check it out. The place was ransacked. Throughout the many rooms, drawers and cabinets were thrown open, their contents scattered about. The damage was minimal, but there’d be a lot of cleaning to do. The floors were marble, on the ground level, but the stairs going up to the second floor were cherry, as was the flooring up there. The castle had eighteen separate rooms, not including bathrooms. There were seven bedrooms, enough for each person to get one, along with an office, parlour, living room, family room, kitchen, formal dining room, smaller family dining room, mudroom, an event hall, a gym, and a positively huge pantry. Each bedroom had a fireplace, which upon inspection was closed up, but not permanently so. The office, living room, and family room all had working ones, but they were gas-powered. Frank would have to see about tearing those out so they could use wood. Although the dishevelled state of the place meant there would be more than a day's worth of work to clean it up, it was a great location. Additionally, there was a proper cellar that could be used to store food outside around back, and a bunch of outbuildings on the backside of the property, including a workshop.

Upon finishing the inspection of the place, Frank spoke to everyone assembled. “I like the idea of setting up here. There’s a lot going for it.” He waited to see if anyone else had input.

“It’s a goddamn castle. Of course I’m down,” Bill replied. No one else had much of an opinion to voice, and so the decision was made to use it as their base.

They gathered in the parlour. “We’ll need to secure this place properly, as a priority,” Frank told them.

“I think we actually need to clean it up first,” Maria suggested, gesturing at the scattered detritus of books and art in the parlour. It was the least rummaged through of the rooms, and it still looked pretty bad.

Frank shrugged. As long as people were doing something constructive, he wasn’t going to quibble. “I’m going to go get that mace. For now, you should stay here as a group, or come with me as a group.” He left the decision up to the rest of them.

Rina immediately supported staying behind, and Felix concurred right after. Maria went along with the other two, leaving Bill the only person who wanted to go with Frank.

“I’ll be back in the afternoon,” he told them, emptying his supplies from his bike trailer and keeping only a minimal kit in his pack.

The trip back downtown wouldn’t take too long, so Frank did some exploration of the area around before he went there. The immediate area was primarily residential, but it was only fifteen minutes to get south into a mix of box stores, car dealerships, and strip malls. The big find was a large building supply and home improvement store. Also in the area and useful was a giant combination grocery/department store. Between the two, Frank was hopeful he could get most of what he would need for the immediate future. He’d have to consider how exactly he’d bring it back though. By the time he’d gotten a good grasp on the immediate area and what it had to offer, it was 10:30. He biked into downtown, passing a small checkpoint as he did. Nothing so far indicated that anyone was restricting people’s movement, and he was waved through immediately.

Frank found his way to the agreed-upon spot by 10:45 and then waited. Despite apparently not having a working watch, Lana was there only a few minutes late, and she greeted him upon arrival.

“You showed up. Hope I’m not too late,” she said casually.

Frank shrugged. “If you still wish to trade, then we need to find a place where I can teach you,” he told her.

“There’s a park two blocks over, we can just go there,” she said.

Several minutes of walking and the two people were in an open patch of grass, slightly overgrown from the cessation of mowing. Frank looked at her. “I’ll demonstrate the most basics techniques, then we’ll trade, then I’ll help you go through them once or twice. That work?”

“Guess you aren’t the chatty type,” she responded. “Sure, let's see it.”

Frank stepped away from his bike and trailer and took off his pack, unstrapping his sword. He held it in hand and slowly went through the most basic motions, explaining his stance and where to put his weight as he did. Then, he performed the basic attacks of slashing and thrusting in the same careful manner. He went through them several times in the same order, with the same movements. Eventually, she told him she needed to try it out to get anything else out of it.

They traded weapons, and Frank immediately felt more secure with his preferred weapon in his hand. He walked over to his bag, and pulled out the monocle, handing it to her as well. Then he watched as she went through the series of motions he’d just demonstrated. He corrected her as her posture was inevitably off by a margin throughout, and her movements inefficient. It was clear she had no experience with combat, and probably didn’t do anything that would train her body control either. Nevertheless, he advised her through it several more times, and by the end, she at least was doing something similar. The trade done, he handed her a copy of his system primer, which he had revised slightly, and made to leave.

Lana stopped him. “Are you willing to teach me more?” she asked him. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Sure,” Frank said. “And anyone else you know who wants to learn. Money doesn’t really help much anymore, but there are a bunch of things I could use.”

“Do you think this isn’t going to blow over too? I mean, I figured that, but almost everyone I know is arguing over who did it or when the army is going to show up. The naval base across the water isn’t that far away. They’d be here by now,” she replied.

“If I were you, I’d prepare for a winter without heat or electricity or running water,” Frank responded.

Lana frowned. “Yea. So, how can I contact you? Can’t exactly exchange numbers anymore.”

Frank explained to her where he was staying. It wouldn’t be hard to find. After suggesting she read over the document, he left. It was early afternoon, which gave him about six hours of good light. He wanted to make use of that. The first thing Frank did was to go find a checkpoint. He asked the person manning it where the most dangerous areas were and was warned away from a golf course on the basis weird creatures there were attacking anyone who went near.

“We’ve been talking about clearing it out, but I really don’t think trying to get at those things with a machete is a good plan. It’s been a problem though, I’d stay away if you aren’t looking to get hurt.”

Frank thanked him perfunctorily and headed in that direction. Travelling south and east, Frank knew he was near his destination, not by the sight of the golf course, but by the sight of a creature. It looked a little bit like a cat-sized bear, but its eyes were many faceted like an insect’s, and its claws were five inches long.

Aberrant Experiment(Level 1)

Frank promptly whipped out his newly acquired mace. The thing charged him, and he clubbed it in the head, stunning it. Then he broke its legs so it couldn’t move, and tossed it in his trailer. He rode back to the castle. The damaged abomination growled angrily the entire time. Frank knew it’d still be trying to attack him, even so disabled. Arriving at the open gate he called out to signal his return. Bill and Maria soon appeared to meet him.

“I see you got your mace, what’s next on the schedule?” Bill asked him conversationally.

“I prove my identity,” said Frank. He opened the trailer and tossed out the captured creature. It screamed with rage at the sight of him. “One of you finish this off,” Frank told them.

Maria and Bill both looked at him uneasily. It was pretty obvious what Frank had done to it.

“I’ll do it,” Maria said, after a moment’s hesitation. She walked back inside and returned with her spear. Her face frowned as she looked at it for a time, then she finished it off.

Aberrant Experiment(Level 1) defeated. Maria awarded 30 EXP. Frank awarded 60 EXP.

With Frank having confirmed his identity, he started heading inside. Bill and Maria walked back with him.

“Was that really necessary? I get it but, fuck, that makes me feel kind of ill,” Bill said.

Frank thought about how the idea had been described to him by David, soon after they first met. “The skinwalkers probably aren’t here, but they could be. Not confirming it is taking a risk,” Frank said.

“Yeah but like, isn’t leaving on your own a risk too? Or even coming to Seattle?” Bill responded.

Frank considered that lips pursing. “It’s not the same. If someone attacked me while I was out today, I could respond to that. I could deal with the situation. But I sleep here. What do I do if you are a skinwalker or something else and just kill me in my sleep? I can’t really respond to that. I don’t know if I’d even be able to fall asleep without at least some degree of confidence you weren’t.”

They made it back into the castle. Frank left his bike outside, as he planned to leave again in short order. Rina and Felix soon came over, and he addressed all four of his companions.

“We need to start gathering supplies, and then find a dungeon,” Frank told them. “I took a look this morning and found an area south of here we can do the first. I plan on travelling there and loading up on as much food and such as possible, then camping out in the dungeon for as long as it takes to get a few things done.”

“Why is it so important to go to the dungeon right away?” asked Maria.

“I need to revise the document I handed out. I’ve thought so since stopping in that small town, but haven’t had the time. I’m also trying to write a manual of fighting,” Frank said.

Felix blinked several times. “You are going to go into one of those to write?” he asked, confused.

“Time flows differently. I can set up in there, have you guys bring in the supplies while I get started. Spend a month, it’ll only have been a few hours. But before I do that, we need the actual supplies.”

“When are you planning on going?” queried Rina.

“Next half-hour,” Frank responded. “No reason to waste time. At the least, I want to gather supplies tonight, be in the dungeon tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

“What are we going to do while you are in there?” Maria questioned.

“It’ll only be a couple of hours outside, most likely, so just relax above?”

That declared, Frank fixed himself something to eat from the expansive kitchen. It looked like while he was out the main floor of the castle had largely been cleaned. The kitchen was fully stocked with food, except for the emptied fridge and freezer, which had been left open to air out. Frank looked at the empty appliance while eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich. There wasn’t a good reason to keep it anymore. He finished his sandwich, walked over, and pulled it away from the wall. It was slightly awkward due to its boxy dimensions, but he easily maneuvered it out the front door and deposited it in the yard. He’d dump it off the grounds later.

Frank walked back inside. “Might as well get all the electronics out of the place when we have time. They aren’t going to work anymore,” he mentioned to Rina, who was in the parlour.

Rina acknowledged he’d said something but didn’t respond. She was lost in thought. Frank went and found the other three upstairs. Bill was laying down on a bed, while Felix and Maria were cleaning up. Felix was especially vigorous. Frank called them all downstairs.

“I want to go get supplies now. Between all of us, we can probably bring back around four hundred pounds of stuff. Primarily, we need food, toiletries, and hand tools. Anything the rest of you want, you can shove it in with your stuff. Water is also important, we are almost out of bottles. We’ll need firewood as well, but that’s going to take more capacity than our bikes can hold. We’ll have to pull a car trailer back on foot for that.”

There weren’t any questions about something that straight forward. Several minutes passed as they all got ready to leave, and then the group was off, heading south towards the nest of strip malls and box stores Frank had scouted previously. Once there, Frank first led them to the hardware store. He started directing them to find certain supplies. Hammers, nails, screwdrivers, screws, adhesive, handsaws, hatchets, axes; anything that could be useful. He’d get the necessary building materials at a later time.

While it was warmer on the coast than further inland this late in fall, it still wasn’t exactly pleasant at night. He grabbed a couple of days' worth of logs while he was at it. Finally, he filled the rest of his trailer with a trio of propane stoves and as much propane tanks as he could fit.

“I thought you said cars and stuff don’t work?” Bill asked curiously, as Frank loaded it all up.

“Coleman stoves still do.”

“Yea but they use propane, that’s basically gas. That doesn’t make any sense,” Bill said.

“I agree, it doesn’t really. But you can still burn things with gasoline,” Frank told him.

“There’s gotta be something more to it,” Bill stated.

Frank just shrugged. He’d had a lot of time to think about that kind of thing, and smarter people than him hadn’t found answers. He focused on the supply run. One trailer was half full, another was full. Two were still empty. Combined with the packs they all carried, there was still plenty of space. After a few minutes, Frank got them all heading towards the gigantic department store. It was only a short jaunt, one block over. Once there, everyone grabbed a shopping cart, and Frank explained what food they’d need, before forcing open the sliding doors. Stepping inside, the place was poorly lit, without windows except at the front. The smell of rotting meat was almost overpowering. It permeated everything. Even Frank wrinkled his nose at it.

“Oh God,” Maria said, suppressing a gag. “That’s disgusting.”

Bill and Rina nodded in agreement, stepping back outside. “I don’t want to take anything from in there, fuck,” said Bill. “We should just find a store that didn’t sell fresh groceries.”

“Do you know another grocery store? I’m not going to waste time searching for another one,” Frank told him.

Rina cut in with a suggestion. “If you grab some peppermint oil and some bandanas, we can use that to mask the smell.”

“Alright,” Frank said, nodding. He briskly walked in and began searching the place for both. The peppermint was easy to find, but after a brief inspection revealed no bandanas, Frank simply grabbed some linen dishtowels and came back out with them. Rina dabbed a little bit on each towel, and each person held one to their face. The smell of peppermint was so strong it probably would have caused a headache if Frank had a lesser constitution, it was still better than rancid beef. He called out to the others.

“Fill up your carts with food, then grab anything else after. Get canned stuff and dry goods.”

That said, he immediately headed over to where the rice was. He grabbed half a dozen huge bags of it, then slid over to the canned goods, filling the rest of his cart with those, except for a few boxes of salt. As he did so, he could tell he wasn’t the first person there, but the absence of vehicles made systematically emptying a place much more difficult. There was still plenty of stuff remaining. He snatched himself a bunch of razors, baby powder, and a pile of medical supplies and off the shelf medication before he left, heaping it over the other stuff. He walked back towards the store entrance with his cart and started filling the trailers while he waited for the others.

Bill was the first to make it back, having secured a bunch of shelf-stable milk, along with value-packed breakfast cereal, oats, and interestingly, a few boxes of powdered eggs. Frank hadn’t seen that before. Frank helped him load it all in. Additionally, he had secured a bunch of toiletries for himself. And a few changes of clothes. Frank had declined to do so, worried that they’d just smell of rotten meat.

Rina came out next. She’d filled her cart with a variety of canned goods, as well as a lot of flour, an assortment of multivitamins, and lots of seasonings. Frank saw at least ten pounds of salt alone. Getting lots of salt was a very good plan in the long term, and Frank was about to mention that it was a good idea, when he got distracted by the system.

Frank awarded 20EXP.

That was all it said, but it meant that someone had benefited enough from him that he’d gotten partial credit for something they did. That was good news. He wondered if it was someone who he’d handed the document, or maybe the woman he’d shown swordplay. Either way, it was a welcome tiding. He moved with a slight spring after that.

Maria and Felix came out at the same time. Frank had kind of expected Felix to follow Rina around. He wasn’t sure whether he would have preferred that to continue though. Maria’s cart was full of rice and dehydrated food, while Felix had mainly grabbed dried beans and lentils, along with a copious amount of cleaning supplies, both personal and household.

“Why’d you get all dehydrated stuff?” Bill asked Maria.

“Figured that since the dungeons have fresh water we’d always have potable water to use,” Maria explained.

“Ah, I didn’t think of that at all. That’s pretty smart,” Bill told her.

“I spent so much time hiking. It makes you really aware of water since it’s so heavy when you try and bring in your own.”

“I never got to learning too much about the outdoors. It was on my list of things to do, but fuck, I kinda got interrupted.”

“Yea interrupted is one way to put it,” Maria mused. “This is all so weird. Every time I think I’m getting my head around it something new happens that upends it.” She gestured to the smoke in the distance. “Like that.”

“Fucking right. I knew shit was happening, but this is beyond it. How the fuck are you supposed to deal with the situation when it’s all bullshit and it doesn’t make sense?” Bill groused.

After much finagling, everything but a few bags of the rice was stuffed into or tied onto the trailers and packs. Frank moved the excess back inside and closed the store door. The group got ready to move back to the castle, and the conversation between the two died off. It’d been the closest thing to a normal, natural chat that had occurred in Frank’s earshot since he got sent back. It made him melancholic. His thoughts flitted back to his time with the second group he’d fallen in with before things truly became so dire people gave up hope. He missed them. David, Peter, Anna and all the others.

He knew, at least with David and Anna, that they would probably be very helpful. If he could find them, David’s mind would be incredibly potent, and Anna’s magic could be pivotal. Yet he hadn’t even thought about making the attempt. Of course, there were more immediately important things to deal with, but Frank realized he’d consciously avoided even making the decision to deal with it later. Listening to that conversation, he realized why.

He was alone. Truly alone. He wasn’t friends with his companions. He knew no one, and no one knew him. His previous experiences made his point of view almost completely unrelatable. Unless he found another time traveller, there was no one like him, just people who reminded him of how he used to be. If he went and found someone he knew from before, that’d just be worse. They’d look like his comrade, his friend, talk like them, have the same mannerisms, but it wouldn’t be them. Not really. Frank would probably never speak to someone who shared his experiences. It was alienating to think about, and Frank chided himself for his weakness. He’d have to look for them at some point. It’d be idiotic not to. He couldn’t let his personal hangups get in the way.

His thoughts turned to the specifics of Maria and Bill’s conversation. The surrealness of the entire situation to them. The confusion, and the underlying fear neither of them voiced. He compared it to himself. He’d already experienced all of it once, already gone through it, yet he still balked at having his conception of things challenged. He thought about the books and scrolls he’d left untouched, how he’d recoiled at the possibility of the system communicating with him. Frank’s mood sunk low. He was doing a shitty job of things. He could tell.

Arriving back at the castle, Frank helped unload everything and get it inside, gathered his belongings then immediately went upstairs, taking a bedroom for his own. He shoved the clothes and other objects strewn across the bed onto the floor, then lay down on it, ruminating over his actions. He lay there for almost half an hour, doing nothing but thinking. It didn’t make him feel any better. He just felt like he was wasting time. Annoyed at himself, he got up and started grabbing supplies. He filled his pack with food, water, and writing supplies, then told Felix, who happened to be at the door, that he was leaving for the afternoon. Unhitching the trailer from his bike, he rode out towards where he found the creature, searching for the dungeon.