CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN - PODUNKY

I severely underestimated how far from home 2 hours was. Like, sure, that sounded fine on paper, but there wasn't one single highway to ride down. Instead I took a highway out of Fortress ENE, then had to get off of it, ride through a small, still-occupied town, then through a few smaller roads until I got onto another, different highway. That one went on for a solid hour before I took yet another ramp off and quickly found myself on some country-side roads.

The only thing they had going for them was the view. The road followed along this nice river and had cleared space on the other side. There were a lot of twists and turns all the way.

Fun to look at, sure, but a little annoying to ride through.

Still, I eventually made it to Podunky, population 7,458. It was a small town, laid out as a grid, with two grocery stores and one gas station. There were no fast food joints, just a few mom and pops that were closed this early in the morning. There were five churches.

It was nine something by the time I arrived.

So, that two hour thing was bullshit. It was more like two and a half hours.

I would... not be willing to do this ride over and over again. Once was fine, but most portals took me... what, twenty tries to perfect? Driving for two hours twenty times was... forty hours of bike time. Screw that.

I'd look and see if there as a bus or something, but there was no way that one of them left Fortress ENE at fuck o' clock in the morning

So, if I wanted this to work out, I'd need a Save on location. Not now, though. My plan for the moment was to scout the place out, then return once I had a good bit of data, and for that...

Urgh. What could I learn by being here that I wouldn't be able to learn from my laptop at home? I rode my bike around the edge of the town, getting a feel for the place and its layout, but that was only so much help. It did feel very... movie-small-town-ish. Lots of older homes, some with nice yards. The few people out seemed to be on the older side, and the cars and such weren't all new either.

Lots of farms in the area too. I could see those, uh, I didn't know what they were called, but the big dildo-shaped towers for hay. There were barns too, and plenty of plowed fields around.

If I was an inter-dimensional portal to another realm filled with magic and monsters, where would I appear?

Well, probably not next to a town that prided itself on being called Podunky. I'd pop up in a nice, ritzy place that I didn't belong in. Probably the woman's changing room of like, a tennis school or something.

Did that even exist?

Whatever. The point was, I couldn't see any portals just by circling the town once. Option two, then. Wait for it to breach, then see people's reactions to it. That seemed like a better option anyway, since I'd be able to ask the locals about it.

So, I returned to the middle of town and discovered a quaint 'main' road cutting through the middle. Two little restaurants and a coffee place, next to an old school bakery and a general goods store. The rest of the road was pharmacies and notaries and a pair of banks, along with like... normal small-town essentials. They had a barbershop of all things.

It was the coffee place that interested me, though.

I pulled up in front, parked my bike, then went in. The clientele were old fart. A few gruff, retired farmer sorts that smelled strange, some old ladies, one younger couple. The waitress at the counter looked up and blinked, seeming surprised to see someone unusual stepping in.

I waved, then walked up and ordered a carrot cake and a large mug of coffee. Then I headed to a place by the front windows where I could indulge in peace.

While I snacked, I checked the news... or tried to. The internet here was all one-bar. It took seconds for pages to load!

I did get a good look at a local map on my phone, pinching it to zoom out some. We really weren't that

far from Fortress ENE. The problem was that none of the highways made it here directly, and the road that might have once done just that was closed. It had probably only been an hour, maybe an hour and a half before, but now there was a huge detour.

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Could I risk that closed road? If the condition wasn't too bad, I could maybe race it, avoid any monsters by moving too damned fast.

Eh, it was an idea. I turned to a farmer-looking sort nearby, gestured to the map, and asked him about it. It was fun, being a lot braver about asking random folk. It wasn't something I'd be as confident in doing if I was in a normal timeline.

He was nice enough, if a bit suspicious. Said that the road was more seasonal now. Opened from March to August and closed the rest of the year. The winter made it too annoying to keep it guarded and repaired, and it didn't get that much traffic besides.

Interesting. I'd maybe ride back along it, then, see if that wasn't a valid shortcut.

One thing led to another, and I started asking about the state of jobs in the area, which wasn't great. Apparently the only company left in town, other than all of the smaller family-owned ones, was Synthcorp.

I blinked. "Wait, the company that makes all of that synthetic meat?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's the ones," he replied.

That... rattled something in my head. I couldn't quite remember what, though. Not until I pulled out my phone and looked at a picture I'd taken of my last long-week loop's notes.

There was a synth meat recall tonight.

Weird coincidence?

My last long loop had ended on Sunday. Tomorrow, basically, and other than the recall being all over the news, there hadn't been a reason

for it.

"Where's their HQ at?" I asked.

"In the city," he said, giving me a look as if I was a clueless city girl, which was fair. "If you mean where they employ from here, there's a big facility just on the edge of town."

Ah, I'd ridden past that, then. A collection of some half-dozen pretty big buildings with green roofs, but I'd thought them just normal farms or something. I supposed they were close to the edge of the city for that, but someone had to have space to store stuff, right?

I asked my new pals a few more questions, but it wasn't really going anywhere, besides, it was nearing noon, and that meant that they had to head out.

I did so as well, only just as I was heading towards the entrance, an out of breath old man came over, huffing and puffing. "There's a breach!" he called out, then he ran off to the next place.

Well, that was my cue.

I glanced at my watch. Ten thirty-seven. A solid hour and a bit before noon. I walked over to my bike, grabbed my revolver and my work-issue handgun from the saddles, regretted not bringing my sword, and then strapped my knife to the small of my back.

Following the sound of sirens was enough to know where to go. I didn't even need to get on my bike.

I walked over to the corner, and down the street was a quick police barricade. Two cruisers parked across the street, a few cops behind opened doors, the sort who'd seen more doughnuts than crimes. They were taking shots at lumbering forms making their way down the street.

And yeah, that was the street that Synthcorp compound was on. I could see a bit of smoke rising up from the place, and some people running out, most being chased.

Approaching the police, I found that I wasn't the only active citizen, a few old-timers had come out with shotguns and rifles, and they looked ready to defend their own.

I grunted as I saw the enemy we'd be dealing with.

They were large, six, seven feet tall, and built like linebackers. All corded muscles. Most had weapons. Some wooden shields, some spears, a lot of chopping weapons, axes and cleavers. Nothing ranged, and their armour was... a little on the rougher side. Cured leathers and thickly padded cloth.

Beneath that, greenish-grey skin, tusked faces, and mean eyes.

Orcs. The breach had opened up to a bunch of orcs.

Which meant that this was, at the very least, a mid-D portal, and if there were this many, it could well be a low to medium C.

"Damn," I muttered.

***