"So, how far are we, according to the map?" Crystal asked.
Alice looked up. She had the maps set down on a table set in the centre of the apartment she'd found last night. Not all of them, just those she suspected would be necessary for the next leg of their trip.
"We're right on the edge of the city. The maps don't name it, which is a little strange. Just 'the city.' In any case, we need to cross through it. There's a main road that cuts more or less straight towards the centre of the Zone."
"Really? Why hasn't anyone just used that to get to the middle, then?" Crystal asked.
"I have no idea," Alice said. "But they've used it to map the road out a little."
The maps had a pretty detailed layout for the main street cutting into the city. The side roads and alleys were far less detailed. Little more than pencilled-in notes and scribbles that gave her a vague idea of where buildings and side routes were located. Deep enough in, however, and even that road became less detailed.
"I guess we'll be finding out once we get deep enough in," she said. "There are a few things of note, along the way. But it seems like the road itself is free of any major anomalies. Lots of smaller ones are noted on here, but nothing egregious. If we avoid crashed cars and strange puddles, we should be alright."
"Cool! We can do that," Crystal said.
Alice nodded. "How's Meg--Vasilisa?"
"She's not Megan," Crystal said. "She's her own person, though... barely? We talked a little last night. She's witty, and has a sense of humour, and she's not stupid, but... yeah, it really feels like there's just a surface over nothing. It's super strange, like talking to a doll."
"Should we keep her around at all, then?' Alice asked. "I could... I don't know, dump her into a shadow then grab her later if... you really don't like that idea, do you?" The face Crystal was making said it all, she looked like she'd just taken a bite of sour gummy fingers.
"It's wrong," was all Crystal said on the matter, and Alice decided to drop it entirely.
She realized that after so many years of being a magical girl, she sometimes lost touch of things, which may well include her own moral compass at times. Crystal, somehow, kept two feet on the ground.
Well, maybe not always. She was never the most morally-minded person, and she liked her fun more than most, but when Crystal put her foot down about what she thought was or wasn't right, Alice found herself having to listen.
"Okay," Alice said. "We'll keep her around. She's not much of a liability as it is, though we are moving slower than we could be."
Crystal moved onto her feels then swung up onto the balls of her feet. "Well... maybe we can start moving a little faster, then? How do your powers feel? Your magic?"
"Fine," Alice said. "And yes, that's an honest fine. The dreamscape around here is still off, but my magic doesn't seem affected and whatever twinges I had initially are gone. Maybe it was just disuse? Like not using a muscle for a while?"
"Hmm, okay," Crystal said. "In that case, well, I don't think we're trying to be subtle around here, so there's no harm in letting loose a little?"
"A little loose?" Alice asked.
"Let's not swallow the entire Zone in shadows, or build a super bridge from here to the middle," Crystal said with a pout. "That would ruin the entire fun of exploring with you."
Alice chuckled. "Fine," she said. This was feeling nice so far. A... rather high-stakes but low energy adventure with a good friend. She glanced up as she felt Vasilisa sitting up in her borrowed bed. "Let me pack things up. Want to get Vasilisa? I'm sure she can eat while we're walking."
"Sure thing!" Crystal said before skipping off.
It didn't take too long for Vasilisa to show up, ready to head out. The girl looked a little bedraggled, and like the last eight hours of sleep weren't quite enough, but she was all there, and after wiping her face clean with a towel and some clean water from a bottle, she seemed as ready to go as anyone.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
She did take a moment to grab some bars from her pack and check over her weapons, ensuring that they were all loaded and ready, but after that, she followed Alice and Crystal out of the apartment complex without issue.
Alice pointed the way, and they set off.
It was a rather nice morning, all things considered. A few sparse clouds about, a cool wind from the north, and a pleasant warmth in the air that wasn't too humid. The perfect weather for a stroll.
That didn't mean that the world wasn't prepared to make trouble for them. As her maps warned, there were a few anomalies in this area. One road, the fastest to travel down, had a strange effect overlaid it. The more they walked down the road, the slower their movement became. Alice insisted that they push through it, but even she started to reconsider when it took five minutes to cross the centre of the road, a space only a few metres across. Once they were past the middle, however, the effect wore off and by the time they were on the other side, things were normal.
It was one of the less dangerous anomalies around, and it was safer than any of those on the notes she had for other routes. This one had been extensively studied, from what she could tell, and that made sense. It was mostly harmless, far from any route anyone would normally take, and if they could learn to apply what it did elsewhere... well, there was a lot of potential there.
They made it to the space called the city in short order. The area was filled with apartments. Three to five stories tall, older brick, with more windows boarded up than not. Cars were left abandoned on the sides of the road and it was clear that some buildings had gone up in flames at some point.
One of them was still burning, and they went the far way around its eternally burning fire.
"This area's a little confusing," Alice said as she scanned the space around them. "There's a vet clinic at the end of this road. We turn left, then left again at a building that's supposed to be a rentable office space. Then we continue for a while towards a government building. The safest area after that is a tunnel under a few buildings all the way to the far end of this space. Then it's up and one more block before we're on the main street I mentioned earlier."
"Sounds easy enough," Crystal said. "Left left down up... uh, straight?"
Alice chuckled. "Something like that."
They almost got sidetracked at the first intersection.
The veterinarian clinic had a small pet shop below it. Crystal, being Crystal, stuck her head in.
This part of the city had obviously been evacuated at some point. Alice imagined it was soon after the Zone started. She also imagined that it wasn't easy for the locals, being this close to the centre and all.
They hadn't evacuated the animals.
Crystal insisted that they take a minute to dig some holes, and while Alice personally thought that it was a waste of time, she didn't have the heart to stare into Crystal's watery eyes and say no.
There was a small park just a block over. A judicious use of magic added a dozen holes to the overgrown lawn and Alice moved the bodies over through her darkness so that they wouldn't have to touch anything.
Crystal made a few small tombstones before she allowed them to move on.
The entire time, Vasilisa seemed to waver between thinking it was just as much of a waste of time as Alice thought, and being very okay with the entire thing.
Alice couldn't help but wonder what Meagan would make of this situation. Only... Meagan was likely to use her magics to turn back time to stop the animals from passing away in the first place, so it was hard to tell.
In any case, she insisted that they keep moving. It might have been a nice, sunny day, but that didn't mean that they weren't burning sunlight just standing here.
"The main road," Alice said. "And then we're in the true centre of the Zone, and we can put an end to all of this. I... think I'm looking forward to it."
Crystal nodded. "I think it'll be good for this world too. Whatever happened here, it wasn't very good for it."
***
Two bits of news! First, check out
I read this one a while ago, and encouraged Ren to post it on RR. It's a neat take on SCS as a whole, with an MC whose a mind stuck in a janitor droid. Legit super creative from a writer whose new to writing. It's fun!
Here's the original blurb:
Second! I'll be taking a week off at the start of Fed. I'll try to write stuff ahead of time so that I can post normally, but... well, I can't write 2 chapters a day and also edit, and I have to finish editing Heart of Dorkness AND Noblebright for publication if I want to see either one hit shelves before the end of the year! I'll try to post normally, but... yeah!