Sell you a Bridge chapter 177

February 15th 2011 The OZ 10:00 AM EDT

We  went to sleep after Raw did his thing, making sure to get some rest in  preparation for the next day. With the images from her memories Wally  set off in a search pattern. Even with his new speed it was going to  take him some time to cover the huge amount of space, and that was  assuming it even looked similar enough to find. Because of that we  headed south the slow way while we waited for him to report back. We  mostly walked in silence, the groups similar to how they had been.  Dreamer and Zee with me, and Artemis with DG, Glitch, Raw and Cain.  Vykin, Serifan, and Bear kept to themselves. I suspected they were  trying to give Dreamer space in case she went with us when we left.

It  was the light of day and we'd been walking for a while however, when DG  froze. She stared down at the ground, then reached down and picked up a  rotten fruit. "Apples." We all looked at her in confusion, and Todo  asked what she was talking about. She answered in the distracted tone  she always used when lost in her memories. "Something Azkedelia said.  That we would explore the woods as girls. Gather apples." She swallowed  hard. "I remember being here. We were exploring and a bear attacked us.  We held hands and our magic scared it off. She protected me."

Her  face twisted with pain as she whispered to herself. "Azkedelia, what  happened to you?" She shook off the memory but withdrew into herself for  the rest of the walk. Artemis tried to get her to open up, and Glitch  tried his usual sunny optimism, but she'd shut down. Something about  that memory was hitting her hard, and her aura was twisted with pain and  confusion in a way that broke my heart.

That  pain abated somewhat when it was overwhelmed by awe as we came to a  giant ass canyon. Cain had mentioned this when we first got DG back,  after he talked about the papay. The 'Crack in the OZ' which, while kind  of melodramatic was a pretty accurate description. Cain whistled at the  drop before glancing over across the gap to a series of wooden  platforms covered in soldiers. "Longcoats everywhere. We're not getting  past them in broad daylight." He turned to me. "Don't suppose you could  take care of the problem kid?"

I  shrugged. "I mean...I could. They would probably all die though. I  could think of a dozen ways to get rid of them in minutes but they're  all fatal. Blast the supports out on those platforms, throw a spike  grenade, that kind of thing. If you're asking me to make all of us  invisible and simultaneously carry us across than I'm going to go ahead  and say no. It's...possible. But it would take so much of my power that  I'd be a sitting duck on the other side, and I'm the only one here who  can beat back Queenie when she pokes her weirdly coiffed head out."

Todo  spoke up. "The eclipse is almost upon us, we don't have any time to  waste." He was looking around nervously, as if we would be attacked at  any second. Todo had been getting more and more squirrely the longer we  had been traveling. I was ninety percent sure he was a spy of some kind,  but he was also actively helping DG with her memories and his aura  showed he genuinely cared about her and felt guilty about what he was  doing. Honestly I gave the old dog even odds of switching sides before  turning on us.

Cain  however, refused to be rushed. "If he says it won't work we find  another way. Quick and dead might be ok with you dog man, but I'll take  slow and breathing every time. Which means if the kid can't brute force  us across we might need some help." He scanned the forest before he  found something odd and his eyes widened. "You all see that cabin?" His  eyes were glued to the small wood building as if he'd seen a lifeline.

Glitch  shrugged. "Sure, but it's probably full of longcoats. They're all over  the place here." He worried his lip eyes scanning every which way. He  was clearly trying to come up with a way to cross. I felt for Glitch, I  really did. Knowing you were a world class genius but having access to  literally none of that intelligence sounded like a fate worse than death  to me. I had no idea how the flighty man stayed so positive all the  time.

Cain  grinned at us. "Nope. Look at the smoke." He pointed to the cabin and I  noted that weirdly the smoke was blue, which seemed like a whole bunch  of effort for little to no payoff, which meant it was probably some sort  of signal. I remembered Cain mentioning he was part of the resistance  against Azkedelia, which was why Zero had attacked him and his family.

He  gestured us ahead and we all made our way down to the cabin together,  the older man practically bouncing from all the spring in his step. That  spring was somewhat dampened when we approached and an older man in a  cloak cocked a gun at us. "State your business." There was another  cocking of a gun and a woman stepped out from behind the other side of  the place, also leveling a long barreled gun at us.

Cain  raised both hands. "We mean no harm. We're travelers of the realm,  seeking a warm meal and a cold cup of hearty grog." That was a really  fucking weird thing to say, so I was guessing either it was some kind of  code of Cain had just had the most unfortunately timed stroke in  history. The man's eyes narrowed, but he didn't shoot my friend for  being a gibbering lunatic so the whole code thing was pretty much  confirmed.

It  wasn't going to be effective though from what I could see. "Food is  scarce this time of year, and the grog has long since been sized." Which  was either a countersign telling Cain to fuck off or the longcoats had  been rampaging through the woods stealing random people's beer. Which  admittedly sounded like something those assholes would do, but I felt  like this place was remote enough that beer jacking them would be more  trouble than it was worth.

Cain  just nodded as if that was fine. "Then we will leave you in peace." He  pinned the gun wielding man with a meaningful gaze. "May your hearth, be  warm." I was starting to see how Cain had gotten caught contacting the  resistance. The code phrases were a bit obvious, but they could  theoretically fly, but the intense emphasis and secretive glances were  pretty much top of the list of things you shouldn't do as a spy.

The  gun wielding guy apparently went to the same shitty amateur tradecraft  school that Cain had though because he gace a meaningful nod and said.  "And your smoke be blue. Come in, quickly." He turned and opened the  door, fleeing into the house. His wife, or sister, or whatever the woman  with the other gun was, followed him in with her head on a swivel as  she ushered us inside.

We  followed them in and the man smiled. "I'm Ralph, this is my wife  Lorraine." He gestured to the woman, who had pointedly not lowered her  big ass gun. I was kind of getting sick of people pointing weapons at  me, but since she was a mundane human I decided to let the other handle  it. Unless she tried to shoot me. In which case I was going to kick her  ass a little. Ralph gave her a disappointed look. "They're friends,  Lorraine."

She  just shook her head. "No such thing anymore." She gestured to Cain.  "Put your gun on the table." I blinked. I'd...forgotten Cain was armed.  His six shooter was pretty old school compared to the laser blasters the  longcoats were packing, not that guns in general were really much of a  threat to me. I gave him a nod and he withdrew the weapon and set it  down. Not like it cost us anything to make them feel at ease.

Cain  smiled to put them at ease. "No problem." He withdrew his pistol and  set it down slowly. "We just need shelter until it's safe to cross."  Ralph gestured for us to take seats as best we could. There wasn't  really room for everyone to sit down though. Hell there was barely room  to stand. Glitch, DG, Raw, me, Zee, Dreamer, Bear, Vykin, Serifan,  Artemis, and Cain made for a tight squeeze.

Ralph  smiled ruefully and shook his head. "it's never safe to cross. But the  cover of night will help at least." There was a loud thump from a wall  across from us and Lorraine snapped at the wooden structure, rapping it  with her gun to push whoever was back there to stay hidden. Ralph put a  calming hand on her shoulder. "Let us show some trust." He looked to the  wall. "It's alright children, you can come out now."

A  pair of kids stepped out, one small boy and a girl around twelve. Zee,  who was shockingly good with kids for someone who was never around them  when she was one, waved cheerfully. The boy hid behind his sister, who  waved back. Glitch cleared his throat. "Am I the only one that's  hungry?" Literally every one of us turned to glare at him because these  people were obviously insanely poor and could barely feed themselves and  there was eleven of us. Even if Wally wasn't here which really cut down  on the food intake.

Ralph  smiled tensely. "Of course. We can eat. Children why don't you help  your mother." Lorraine stood in the kids way and Ralph frowned.  "Lorraine, please." The woman just glared back. He heaved a tired sigh  before turning to us with a sad smile. "Please excuse my wife. We've  lived in fear for too long." I didn't blame her though, especially not  considering they had so little to share.

I  raised a hand. "Actually how about I provide the food. It only seems  fair since you're being so kind as to host us. I have enough for  everyone and don't mind sharing." He seemed a bit confused as to how  that would work, but nodded curiously. I stepped over to the table and  started taking cooked dishes out of my spatial ring. Best part of a  spatial ring by far was the stasis effect. Hot food stayed hot, cold  food stayed cold, and none of it ever touched. Everything in the ring  was perfectly preserved as it was right after it was made.

I  took out a huge roast turkey, some mashed potatoes, a foil dish full of  asparagus, and then looking at all the people a second turkey. I had  plenty of prepackaged food stored away, but I kept the homemade stuff  for just in case people needed a pick me up. These people pretty clearly  did. The eyes of every person in the cabin went wide and the kids  looked excited I smiled at the hosts, and even Lorraine defrosted a bit,  giving me a grudging nod of thanks.

As  the kids bolted to sit at the table and everyone else moved around to  try to force themselves into some semblance of comfortable seating I had  to smile. I hadn't had a dinner like this since that night at my place  when we introduced Wally to Artemis's mom. It was a nice change, having  so many people around. As we sat down and Lorraine started passing out  plates I briefly wondered if we should save some for Wally, but then I  just shrugged it off. I had more for him in my ring if he was hungry.  Well, more of the dinner stuff. I somehow doubted my ice cream stash  would survive the night.