When Hondo walked into the room where he and Molly had been sleeping and found Tonya and Molly talking about life, guys, and such other things as women talk about when bored. Molly smiled at the sight of him, got up from where she sat, walked over and kissed him deeply, but did not linger too long, since Tonya was there. Tonya turned away, partly embarrassed from her own thoughts at seeing them kiss, partly still embarrassed because her attitude as of late had upset Hondo, and partly just plain embarrassed.  
 
Molly pulled back after a moment and gave him a soft smile.
 
“I’ve been waiting to do that all afternoon!” She said breathily.
 
“Have a lot goin’ on, tryin’ to keep everyone safe, you know that.” He replied.
 
“I understand you have things to do to protect us, so your being gone doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is being close to you and having to keep my distance… I wish you could be mine always.” She said, frowning a bit as she spoke softly but seriously to him.
 
He sighed and looked away from her, feeling a bit ashamed for not being able to give her all of himself still.
 
“I know but..” He started to say but she stopped him.
 
“It’s alright! You don’t have to explain again. I know and I accept it for what it is. I hope for more someday but even so, I would just take this if it were this or nothing as you make me happy. A wessen girl like me rarely gets this kind of happiness once, let alone twice. You lose your mate and that’s usual a death for your happiness too.” She replied.
 
“If you are lucky enough to find a mate, as a wessen.” Tonya piped up sadly, reminding them both that they were not alone.  
 
Molly took a step back from him as they both turned towards Tonya who sat looking at the floor.
 
“Girl, you’re too young to be talkin’ that way.” Hondo replied a bit sternly.
“A lot find their mate younger than me. You wait too long and either die, taking as a sex slave, or are passed up for younger than you.” She said sadly.
 
He shook his head, “You can’t think like that. Life is hard, I know, but things are different now. You aren’t alone anymore, an’ you have time. All you need to do is help out, listen to me, an’ work on bein’ the best woman you can be. Someday some nice fella will take notice an’ come after ya, an’ I promise I’ll try not to shoot him or anythin’ less he needs shot!”
 
He grinned at the end there, trying to half joke with her, but all he got was a sour look. His dad was not the easiest to live with, when Hondo was younger, and he had been a bit hard on him and his siblings at times, but Hondo know knew why he made horrible joking comments are tense times, when he did try to be a father and not just a disciplinarian. Surprisingly enough, the joking comments still did not help ease tensions much nor where they appreciated much like when he was Tonya’s age.
 
Tonya looked at him for a bit longer, sourly before looking back down with a sigh.
 
“Hector might be evil, but he was the first man that made me feel worthy of being loved… Will I ever feel like I’m worthy of anyone elses love again?” She asked softly.
 
Hondo frowned, “I’m sorry I’ve not made you feel worthy.”
 
She looked up at him quickly with a look of horror on her face, realizing how she sounded.
 
“Papa, I didn’t mean that …” She started to say but he held his hand up to stop her.
 
“Doesn’t matter what you meant, truth is I’ve failed you. I know a woman needs a man in other ways, but a father is supposed to make a daughter feel worthy of love so they don’t jump to the first man that is nice to them, as they know they are worthy of someone kind an’ good already… Reckon I’m no good as a father.” He replied sourly, trying to hide the disappointment in his voice.
 
He had a lot going on and a lot on his mind, and though he tried, he knew they needed more from him, especially after all they had been through before he rescued them that fateful day. The problem was, though he had tried, he blamed her feelings on himself. He understood, or at least thought he did, why she had lashed out and was lashing out a him and Fernando. She never had a strong, loving male figure in her life, at least not for a long, long time, and she needed his love. He worried that it was too late and worried she would be stuck with some daddy-complex and she would end up with some abusive, old creep like Hector because he failed.  
 
“Papa, please don’t…” Tonya started to say again but he stopped her again.
 
“No! It is obviously my fault an’ I am sorry… I have to do rounds now, but we will talk later, alright?” He said firmly.
 
She only nodded and looked back at the floor.
 
He looked at Molly and shook his head for a moment before turning to the door.
 
“I’d better go. Will be dark soon enough.” He half mumbled.
 
Molly followed him out the door and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. HE stopped but did not turn to her until he heard the door close behind her. When he turned he saw a very concerned look on her face.
 
“Are you alright?” She asked.
 
He sighed. “Just tired. Tired of this hell hole, of draggin’ them an’ you through these shittin’ towns an’ around these evil bastards. Just not fair to any of you.”
 
“You are doing the best you can.” Molly argued.
 
“It’s not good enough, apparently.” He replied.
 
She frowned and put a hand lightly on his chest, “We have all been through some rough times, you know that. They just need time to fully understand and adjust to having people who care and will protect them… Your best is always good enough for us.”
 
He shook his head and pulled back, “Nope, it isn’t. They deserve better from me, need better…. So do you.”
 
Before Molly could reply someone cleared their throat a few paces from them, down the hall.
 
They looked up to see the twins standing there.
 
“Is everything alright?” Minerva asked.
 
Hondo sighed and nodded, “Yeah. Everythin’s fine. … You need somethin’?”
 
“Your fox girlfriend said something about a before bed treat for the children? It was getting late so would like to give it to them sooner then later.” She said.
 
“The fox girl is my daughter, Tonya.” He replied firmly.
 
“Oh! I.. I just saw you together and thought….” She stammered a bit.
 
“I’m not sure you thought,“ He replied a bit sharply, cutting her off. “If you tried to get to know those who helped you an’ your friends out, you might know better.”
 
She sighed and hung her head, “I .. I know. I am sorry.”
 
She felt a bit guilty for hanging on Fernando’s shirt-tails all this time and ignoring everyone else, but until today, she had only thought of her savior as Fernando. While he was her savior, she did not see all those who worked and sacrificed to feed her and the children and keep them safe, warm, dry, and clothed. She knew she had to take care of the children first and foremost, but she felt a bit selfish, just spending her spare time trotting after Fernando and offering him, or anyone else, little to no aid when she was there.
 
She stood with her head hung for several long seconds as no one said anything.
 
Minya looked at him curiously and tried to hide a slight smile on her face. She had underestimated this one, and was rethinking how she handled herself around the camp. Whoever he was, she was starting to like him and maybe even respect him. She figured anyone who could put her sister in her place was due respect, in the very least.
 
“On the counter downstairs is a large box of cookies. Should be enough for three for everyone. There should also be an apple for everyone too. Make sure they eat the apples first. Don’t want anyone savin’ them for later an’ only eatin’ the cookies.” He replied after a moment.  
 
“Thank you.” Minya replied, bowing slightly before grabbing her sisters wrist and half dragging her past them towards the stairs.  
 
HE and Molly watched them as they past, only speaking once they were gone.
 
“Well, I need to go check things out.” He replied.
 
Molly stretched up on her toes and kissed his cheek quickly before stepping back and looking at him with that worried look of hers that seemed to eat into his very soul.
 
“Please don’t be so hard on yourself… and be careful.” She said softly.
 
He nodded, “I’ll try to be careful.”
 
HE then turned and headed down the stairs before she could say more. HE walked out to the door and looked around a bit before going out and lighting up a cigarillo. He could only think of that look Molly gave him and how Valentine used to give him the same look and make him feel the same way. He now missed the days when Valentine had looked at him that way.
 
As he stood there it started to rain again, and he sighed, crushing out his cigarillo and heading in before he got wet. As he went in his stomach growled at him and started hurting again, so he went to the kitchen for some water to take his pills with and then washed them down with some whiskey. He was not liking how he felt, and taking pills so he could eat was not something he cared for, but if it bought him time he would do it. He only hoped it would be enough time to get things done and get the women home, to his and Fernando’s time, before he died. If the doctor was right he might not make it, so he prayed like hell that the doctor was wrong.  
 
As he stood inside, he heard the wind pick up as the storm got more violent. He looked out again, but it seemed to just be a rough thunderstorm from the look of it, so he went back inside. He  leaned against the bronco and stood there for a while, how long he was not sure, before the sound of the storm seemed to stop suddenly. He listened for a moment, finding it curious that it had stopped so suddenly, but he was pulled from his own thoughts as he saw Minerva run down the stairs and out the door. It took him a second to collect his thoughts before charging after her, as her actions surprised him.  
 
Outside he found her standing in front of the door, gawking at the sky. Seeing Minerva outside, Hondo goes out and grabs her to cover her from view with his jacket, yelling at her.
 
“Get inside, you can’t be seen out here!” Hondo yells at her.
 
Nervous and scared, Minerva points to the north in the direction of the parking lot. They can both see the black cloud rolling in, large debris swirling about high in the sky, and a point developing at the base of the cloud. Hondo knows what it is, a tornado in the making. But he finds it odd that he cannot feel the wind blowing about them, but see the biker gang member on their bikes eventually being swept away by the winds at the runway many yards away. He lets go of Minerva and steps towards the runway until he is stopped in his tracks as if he hit a brick wall.
 
He steps back and then reaches out with his hand in front of him until it hits something hard. Small arcs of electricity flow out from where he hits it but he cannot go past it. He pushes against it harder and then decides to punch it. Still can’t get through. He looks up and around. Pieces of debris falling out of the sky seem to bounce off something many feet above the hanger.
 
“Jefe...” He says to himself for a second. He lets out a sigh before walks back to Minerva, grabbing her by her waist and leads her to the hanger, “We’ll be safe inside, but just to make sure, let’s check the manhole.”
 
Together they go to the rear of hanger and then out the rear exit. They walk the few yards to the manhole until they both walk into the force field, stopping them in their tracks. The manhole is just a few feet away on the other side of the force field. Minerva tries again to walk to the manhole but hits the electrostatic wall, before deciding trying to hit it with the side of her fist. Hondo grabs her arms to stop her from hitting the force field.
 
“What’s going on?” Minerva asks.
 
“This is Jefe’s doin’. He set up a protection shield around us. But just in case, let me go check if we have a basement and we get everyone in there.” Hondo tells her.
 
Minerva nods her head before they go back into the hanger. Hondo finds the entrance to the basement in one of the rear “office space” in the back of the hanger through steel doors on the floor and a staircase going down. He goes in and turns on the lights, finding it to be some sort of storage room. He finds another door and opens it by busting an old rusty lock that was chained to it; it leads into the caverns of the sewers. He looks and nods before closing the door.
 
 
The supplies look old and he is not going to inventory them yet. But he assesses what is there before going back up. He tells Minerva to get the kids lined up outside the office while he gets the others to go down stairs.
 
Going into the girls’ room, he tells them sternly, “Git the cats and your thin’s and get downstairs with the others, we need to move out now!” Zoe and Macey look at him for a moment before he tells them loudly, “NOW!” As they start packing up their things, he moves to the next rooms.
 
Finding Tonya and Molly, he tells them, “We got a bad storm moving in, git your things and wait with the kids downstairs.”
 
“OK... father.” Tonya replies a bit nervously, only having seen this side of him once or twice before. They both go their rooms to gather their things as he moves onto the next rooms. He quickly finds Karl, Marvin and the sheep girls and tells them to get their things quickly and to meet them downstairs.  
 
Along with the soldiers, Karl and Marvin, Hondo gets the children and their care givers to the basement of the hanger.  As they set up camp downstairs, Hondo takes a mental measurement and deduces that the basement is half the size of the hanger above it, only going to half of its length though it is still as wide. Boxes and barrels of who knows what only makes the space smaller but still more than enough space to accommodate everyone. He gets Karl and Marvin to go up with him to lock down the place.
 
In a couple of minutes, windows, shutters and doors are closed except for the small people door next to the main hanger door. The three of them step out and look about, seeing the hail as big as fists fall out of the sky. The winds blow things around in a large circular pattern.
 
“We’ll be safe downstairs?” Karl asks.
 
“Yeah. We will.” Hondo says. He adds in speaking to himself, “Don’t know about the rest of the town.”
 
The sound of several freight trains can be heard in the distance, though it was not freight trains. It was a tornado making landfall just at the highway outside of town and begins winding its way into town. They can see things that were on the ground being lifted up into the air even from that distance.
 
“Time to go downstairs now...” Hondo tells them sternly. They do not argue and quickly go downstairs. Hondo locks all the doors behind them as they make their way to the basement. Looking at the group, he says to them, “We will be safe down here. Go finish eating.”
 
“What is going on?” One of the children says.
 
Minerva answers before Hondo could, “It’s a Purging Storm outside.”
 
“Purgin’ Storm?” Hondo asks.
 
“Yeah, a Purging Storm for it tears up trees, houses and anything not underground.” Minerva says before asking, “What do you call it?”
 
“Where I come from, it is called a ‘Tornado.’” Hondo says. But he quickly adds, “Either way, we are safe down here.”
 
“Where is here?” Macey asks.
 
“The hanger’s storage basement from the looks of thin’s.” Hondo answers, signaling to Minerva to follow him to the wall with the door on it. Tracey, Miniya, and Abigail also follow. He opens the door and steps out into the area. “Is this part of the sewers under the town?”
 
They all look about with Minerva eventually nodding. She then points to a set of rungs on a brick wall, “That is where the manhole cover is at.”
 
“OK then.” Hondo replies. He then asks, “You think we will be safe down here under the hanger? I think we would.”
 
“Yeah.” Minerva says.
 
“Alright. Keep the children calm and we should be fine in a couple of hours. I need to go upstairs to check on a few things.” He tells them as they go back inside the basement. He then goes upstairs, though he hears the storm roaring outside. In the middle of the hanger he takes out the portable radio, “Are you out there, Medic? Come in Medic.” He repeats himself one more time, “Are you out there, Medic? Come in Medic.”
 
A few seconds Fernando answers, “I’m here, righteous Cowboy. Any problems?”
 
“No problems, we are hiding in the basement of the hanger. Found some supplies down there, need to inventory them tomorrow or so.”  Hondo explains.
 
“Basement? Is the force field holding up?” Fernando asks.
 
“It’s up and holding. But just in case they fail we got a safe place to be in.” Hondo explains. He then asks, “How are things on your end?”
 
“We are holding up as best as we can. Our force field is holding up as well.” Fernando explains.
 
“You are going to have to show me how to do that.” Hondo tells him.
 
“In time. Call if there is a problem.” Fernando tells him.
 
“I will.” Hondo replies.
 
Silence fills the radios as they get put away in their respective places.
 
Hondo looks around, hearing the storm raging outside but relieved that things are going to be fine as long as the force field bubble holds up. He is more relieved that they have a place to take shelter as the storm passes. But how long as the storm going to last and who will it effect the most when it is over are the questions to be asked. To him it looks like a F3 or a high end F2 tornado. Small but they can last for hours. For now he goes back to the basement to see what else can be done. It seems to him that these kids have been through it before though Minerva seems to be a nervous wreck.
 
As the light fades into inky blackness outside, the raging storm soon falls to a mild thunderstorm and after that a gentle rain. Once he deemed it safe, Hondo returned everyone upstairs. They had been down there for several hours by now and were all glad to be free of the cramped space.
 
He stood at the door and looked out into the inky darkness, glad the hanger had it’s own generator, as part of the town that had a communal generator was pitch black. As he stood there, he debated whether to go see if anyone needed help, or if leaving would put too much risk on the others. Fernando’s shield had been lowered but he had not contacted them again, and since there was no emergency here, Hondo felt he should not call out in case Fernando was busy. He was not sure what the right answer was, to stay or go, but he felt that unless he heard otherwise he needed to stay, at least for the night.
 
 
 
(to be continued …)

[Around 1030 hours, In the Mountain Dirt Roads above Furusato Mountain Village, many miles from Mitsuminejinja Shinto Temple Shrine – Japan]
 
At a certain point the two on their motorcycles stop and like at the temple, shut off their engines to disconnect their ignition and silently coast down the mountain. Using momentum, they continue to coast to the gas station in town and stop at the pumps where they reconnect their ignitions. A mechanic dressed with a work apron approaches them, wiping down a large wrench with a rag. Both riders get a look at the individual approaching them.
 
The lone figure reaches out and shakes the mechanic’s hand “Renosuke, how are things?”
 
“That incident you told me about, about the local toll gang being killed, is bringing unwanted spirit attention, and not for the reasons you would think why.” Renosuke says.
 
“Oh?” The lone figure asks.
 
“Those who the toll gang tried to demand a toll on were spirit connected though they are into all sorts of illegal trades. They are, how do you say it – ‘playing two against the middle?’” Renosuke tries to explain.
 
“I see. Renosuke, you remember Hondo?” The Lone figure says.
 
Renosuke nods and Hondo nods in return. Renosuke then says, “What can I do you for?”
 
The lone figure takes his two empty five gallon fuel jugs, handing them to Renosuke. “Me – fill these up with some high proof sake for the ride here. My friend needs a mix of gasoline and high proof sake, 4 parts gas to 1 part sake. And fill his tank with this stuff here. I know gas is expensive and traceable, but do not worry about the cash. I’ll pay the price, you just have to deal the paperwork.” The lone figure then points to the fuel pump they are by.
 
Renosuke nods as he takes eight empty five gallon jugs from Hondo. He then takes them inside to fill them up.
 
As Renosuke is filling up the jugs in his shop, his wife steps out, handing them a small bag and a paper cup of green tea. The lone figure nods at her before saying “Thanks.”
 
He quickly drinks the green tea and puts the bag in his jacket, handing the paper cup to her. Hondo was a bit hesitant on drinking the tea but seeing the lone figure wolf it down made him think that it is safe to drink. Eventually he drinks it and hands over the paper cup to Renosuke’s wife, putting away the small paper bag in an inside large pocket in his trench coat.
 
After getting the second cup from Hondo, with a worried look Renosuke’s wife speaks, “Walker-San. If I can ask, the Marino and Mori families have gotten sick, you know they live on the edge of town by the river tending to the rice paddy fields. And the well has begun to tastes funny but we distill it before we use it for cooking and drinking. I hope it is something natural and not those stupid spirits poisoning the river. Could you help them and check it out? We would owe you greatly if you do.”
 
“Sayuri, I’ll be back later before dinner time to investigate the situation and give any help I can.” The lone figure tells her.
 
 Sayuri folds her hands together and bows down to him, saying repeatedly a few times “Domo Arigato.” She then gets up and goes away into the shop.
 
“So, you gonna help them?” Hondo asks.
 
“Got to. If something is going on that I can fix, I will fix it.” The lone figure says. “Besides, the Marino and Mori clans are the biggest rice growers in the area. Any meal you eat with rice, it is more than likely their rice you are eating. Anyone trying to tamper with our local food source needs to be stopped. Anyone I catch poisoning the local food source I will have their blood and dead flesh fertilize the soil. Also, Ichi does not know it, but the Marino Clan is her distant relatives, as part of them moved to America in the 1980s and she came from the American branch.”
 
Hondo nods before he asks, “Need help wit’ this?”
 
“I may. But first let’s take are what needs to be done and then we can return.” The Lone figure tells him.
 
“Alright then, I’ll be there for ya.” Hondo says.
 
In about a minute Renosuke returns with a couple of mechanics hauling the jugs of fuel, pointing out which jugs go to who. One of them walks to the pump and pulls the hose to put into Hondo’s tank. It gets filled up with gasoline in a couple of minutes. Fernando reaches into his saddle bag and pulls out a couple of brick sized wads of 500-yen notes, handing then to Renosuke. They both nod at each other as the hose is pulled out of Hondo’s filled tank. Hondo puts the gas cap on the gas tank.
 
“I guess we will you around dinner time?” Renosuke asks.
 
The lone figure nods before saying, “Yes I will be.”
 
“Good, and thank you.” Renosuke says to him.
 
“No, Thank You!” The lone figure says as he hefts the fuel tank lashes together with a rope before securing them to the rear seat of his ride. He then turns to Hondo, “Ready when you are.”
 
“Ready.” Hondo replies.
 
They both turn on their vehicles and slowly ride away, taking the dirt road that leads to the mountains.
 
Reaching the highest point of the area, the lone figure stops and shuts down his ride. Hondo does the same but wonders why. The lone figure reaches into his jacket and pulls out a small Yeasu VX-2 series handheld portable.
 
“Ichi-Min answer me” The lone figure says into his portable radio.
 
A few seconds later a female’s voice answers, “Min here. What’s the situation?”
 
“Unless something happens on your ends, things are safe here. I’ll get back to you on the details. Be there soon.” The lone figure says.
 
“We will be waiting.” Min replies.
 
The lone figure then turns off his radio and then puts it away in his jacket, turning to Hondo. “Disconnect the ignition and then coast down the mountain to the temple. Once close to the temple from the main road, use the electric starter to get you the rest of the way.”
 
“That’s fine, but aren’t you worried about the spirits catching your signal?” Hondo asks.
 
“We have the radios set to low power, so to them we are just above the static but to us we can hear each other loud and clear. It does limits our distance but for a few miles this should be fine. Even at high power of 5 watts, we would only spike above the static. Spirits are searching for anything 25 watts or more, which would fist through the static. That is why I stopped here – on top of this mountain on low power can get you pretty far.” The lone figure explains.
 
“I see.” Hondo says.
 
Reaching down into his engine, the lone figure disconnects his ignition wire and looks at Hondo, “Ready to go?”
 
“Isn’t it kinda far to run silent?” Hondo asks.
 
“I’ll shave a few miles by teleporting us closer to the temple.” The lone figure says as he lifts his cane and spins the crystal. His thumb goes onto the crystal and presses it against the cane. They are teleported to the top of the ridge near by the temple. They both look down from the ridge and see the temple complex below. Thunder echoes in the background from the location of above Furusato Mountain Village.
 
“Ain’t the Spirits gonna locate us ‘cause of the teleportin’?” Hondo asks.
 
“Only if it is done without a distraction. Since it is always storming without notice in these mountains, the thunder and lightning will hide our teleport signature with an EMP Spike from the lightning. I had to tell the cane to do one and then the other within microseconds of each other.” The lone figure explains. He then says, “Down the ridge in neutral then once on the main road use the starter to drive into the temple.”
 
Hondo nods. The lone figure pushes off his motorcycles with both his feet and rolls down the ridge. Hondo does the same and follows the lone figure down the path until they get to the main road to the temple and use the electric starter to drive the motorcycles in. They continue driving into the rear area of the temple complex where the guest and visitors quarters are at and take their vehicles back to the underground vehicle area. Soon they are parking their rides where they had them and started to put back their packed items back on their bikes. For the Lone Figure, that meant reconnecting the sidecar back on his motorcycle, which were just three nuts and bolts to connect their frames. He then put his things back on the motorcycle and sidecar while Hondo packed up his motorcycle as like before.
 
As Hondo finishes up his repacking, “What’s the plan for tonight?”
 
“We go, we check things out, we fix what we can and we track down the bad guys and make sure they do not pollute the environment again. If all goes well, we go home and feed the ladies.” The lone figure says.
 
“’Kay then... I’ll finish up over and pack up the fuel. Then I’ll be in the room to rest up.” Hondo says.
 
“I’ll see you later then.” The lone figure says.
 
 
[Flight Town – 10 hours behind due to Time Zone lag and another 3 hours before; 9:30PM]
 
It’s been some two hours since the storm ended. Though there are calls for clean up for both Wessen Town and Flight Town, most of the work was for surveying the damage they can at night and take note of it. Survey for survivors show that the casualty levels are low and damage to business structures and living quarters are minimal. They were lucky. But many are still running scared. The winds blow in a different direction, cold from the top of the mountains.
 
There is a knock on the electric camper’s sliding door. Fernando pushes off Ichigo and puts on a robe to cover himself before he opens the door part way to see who it is. Mae, April and June stand there trembling from the cold air, for some reason in their bunny suits, gym shorts and sneakers. They were carrying a rolled up blanket and a pillow rolled up in the blanket with them.
 
“Can we come in?” Mae asks with hot breathe smoking from her mouth.
 
“Before you do, where’s Kiah?” Fernando asks.
 
“She’s locking up our camper.” Mae answers before Kiah shows up behind her.
 
Fernando opens the door wider for them to come in. As they get into the camper, they take off their sneakers and gym shorts, tossing their blankets and pillows onto the bed before climbing on it. They unroll the blankets and put their pillows beside where they see Fernando’s pillows are set at. The blankets get piled on each other making 4 layers on top of the 2 layers Fernando had on the bed for him and Ichigo. Mae was taking Fernando’s blankets and adding them under the 4 they had brought in.
 
Fernando closes the door and pops the pop-up of the camper before turning on the propane heater.
 
He asks, “Why are you girls here, when you have your own camper to sleep in?”
 
Ichigo lets out from under the blankets. “It’s a Bunny Pile!”
 
“I’m not going to ask what a Bunny Pile is, but you ladies have your own camper to sleep in.” He tells them.
 
“I’ll say it then – we are scared, of the storm.” Mae begins to explain.
 
“And they cannot sleep! And if they cannot sleep, I cannot sleep...” Kiah lets out in explanation.
 
“You’re just as scared as we are!” April lets out.
 
“Oh shut up! When you guys took the blankets, it got cold, so wherever you guys go for warmth, I’m going there too!” Kiah complains before going under the blankets.
 
“I will allow it only for tonight. But this is not going to happen again because there is no room for you guys when my daughter is here. I need my sleep and there is barely enough room for us all as it is.” Fernando tells them.
 
“We can all fit in here!” Kiah says loudly from under the blanket.
 
“You mind stop squirming around!” April lets out.
 
“It’s not me!” Kiah says loudly.
 
“Kiah – cut it out.” Mae tells her before ordering the others, “Relax, all of you and make room for him before he decides to kick us all out.”
 
It was easy for April and June to put down their pillows and settle in. Mae sits up and waits for Kiah to settle in before she lays her head on her pillow. With six layers and five bodies for warmth, Fernando closes the pop-up top of the camper and turns off the propane heater. He then opens the windows of the camper just a bit to allow airflow but it is cold. From the front seats he looks at the bunny pile on the bed and thinks what is he getting into if he goes into the blankets with them. In the darkest recesses of his mind he day dreams about having sex with each and every one of them all at once and alone and one at a time. But such thoughts are kept in the dark before he steps to the center of his camper and takes off his robe until he was just in his bare briefs.
 
From the under blanket bunny pile a wolf whistle is heard.
 
“Cut it out Kiah!” Mae lets out.
 
“Maybe I should just get dressed and leave on patrol.” He says loudly but to himself.
 
Mae gets out of the bed and grabs onto his arm, saying “NO! Don’t leave us!”
 
“Let me go, Mae, or else.” He tells her.
 
Kiah gets up and sits on the edge of the bed ready to join Mae on the arm pulling when she says “Or else what?”
 
Fernando turns to face her, “There are two ways to leave this convoy. One is to leave it on your own accord. The other is to be kicked out of it, which means you lose everything given to you.” He then turns to Mae, “Don’t make me want to kick all of you out. Let me go... Now!”
 
“Let him go, Mae. You do not want to make him angry.” Ichigo tells her.
 
“But...” Mae starts to say.
 
“Let him go, Mae. It is not worth making him angry.” Ichigo tells her.
 
Eventually Mae lets go of Fernando’s arm but stands looking up at him.
 
“Get to the bed. NOW...” He tells her.
 
“Ooo... he likes his girls submissive and subservient.” Kiah lets out, throwing in, “Well, he ain’t getting that from me.”
 
“Kiah, shut up! This is no place to be making jokes.” Ichigo tells her while Mae goes back to the bed.
 
Mae added, “Kiah, don’t go there. Now get to your spot so I can get to mine.”
 
Not wanting too, Kiah does as she is told and goes to spot of the bed she was on and gets under the blankets. Mae soon follows and gets on the bed and crawls into the blanket to her spot. Fernando gets to get dressed quickly and before leaving the camper.
 
Ichigo tells them, “Now you’ve done it. You got him angry.”
 
June quietly throws in from under the blankets “I knew this was a bad idea.”
 
To some it would be cold outside, to others it would cool despite one being able to see the steam out of their breath, it was just a few degrees above freezing.  The winds coming from the top of the mountains say that the storm moved onto the other side, but in doing so is bringing in cold air from the mountain tops down onto Flight Town.
 
From what Fernando is gathering, Flight Town is a former military based used as depot and distribution point of supplies and troops. The area was empty, none of the guards were posted or making their rounds. The defensive storm shield was up until morning as he had set it. He walks to its edge and walks through it. He could walk anywhere he wanted too, but instead of heading into town, he walks to the biker gang encampment.
 
The place was a mess. Though the vehicles were lashed together so that their accumulated weight kept them from being blown away, a lot of loose personal property was scattered everywhere. He uses his cane to clean up the area and restore lost items that were blown away by the wind. Walking around he sees that there is nobody at the camp. He thinks that they would not abandon it, that they would at least find some shelter from the storm. Looking about he finds a manhole cover, one of two or three in the area. Using his cane he moves it to open it. He then shines his flash light into the manhole and yells into it, “It is safe to come out now!”
 
Members of the biker gang community gather by the manhole above them and begin to climb out with Fernando helping anyone that needed that extra pulls to get out of the hole. In a few minutes everyone is out of the manhole, with the Elder Leader and his Right and Left hand men stepping up to him.
 
The Elder Leader pokes at Fernando’s chest, “Don’t think we owe you anything, for we don’t owe no one nothing!”
 
Fernando steps up to him a half step closer to him, “I do not care about you owing me anything. I’m here to check to see if things are alright with you. The whole town is going about surveying the damage and looking for stranded or injured victims of the storm. I’m just doing my job on that, nothing more.”
 
The Elder Leader just scowls at him.
 
Fernando interrupts him from saying thing, “Just get me a headcount and tell me if anyone is missing, we will go looking for them in the morning.”
 
“You get this straight – We take care of our own with help from no one.” The Elder Leader tells him.
 
“Then have it your way.” Fernando tells him before he turns around and walks away.
 
The Elder Leader yells at him as he leaves “Keep walking! We don’t need your help around here!”
 
Fernando makes his way half way down the highway. He stops and looks around. He holds back his anger from going back to the biker gang and kick some serious as over there, even at 120 to one, it is easy to beat them when they are standing still. But he decides that they are not worth the time or effort in giving them the whoop ass that they rightfully deserve.
 
He continues walking down the highway, trying to let every step he takes to chip away at his anger. It is one thing to help people in need. It is another if they take advantage of one’s generosity or is told off that their help was not needed after the fact of having taking that help. He does not know which is worst. Nor at the time does he not care. He thinks as to what needs to be done to get everyone out of this misbegotten place in 96 hours or less. The camper needs at least a day or two of charging if the sun is bright, if not he will need to run his generators to do the charging.
 
He thinks about the next few hours needing to feed everyone in the camp. Looking outward towards Maddie’s Place, he can see that the sign is not there. Though passable, the roads were a mess. He decides to teleport from the building roofs until he gets close to examine Maddie’s Place.
 
The damage to the place was minimal but the sign was down, and its face broken into small pieces. The area was a mess of trash and overturned vehicles. There were people walking about surveying the scene, with many busy at a collapsed temporary building somebody thought it would be best used permanently, looking for survivors. Fernando takes his came and concentrates on the sign. Press on the crystal sphere on the cane, the sign comes to life, broken pieces going into place and fusing together. It rebuilds itself as its construct is shifted backwards through time. It then rises from its fallen place and back onto its pillar foundation, repairing itself as it goes backwards in time. The area around Maddie’s Place gets a clean-up treatment as things are moved back through time to where they were before the storm.
 
He looks at the area around Maddie’s place and nods to himself. He then focused on the collapsed building. Despite the many crawling about the collapsed structure, Fernando presses on the crystal. The building slowly rose from its rubble and rebuilt itself; those inside who were injured were healed though their healing was unintentional. The crowd stands around and looks about the restored building before a brave few venture in to pull out the survivors. During the day they will discover that the building has been restored to its pre-storm collapse condition but it being night and unable to properly check things, they are weary of the structure that seemed to have righted itself.
 
 
[Wessen Town, Wessen Hospital]
 
Wessen Hospital is a small clinic type medical center with about 10 beds for the serious injured, operated by those of various experience though they are not educated medical professionals. The Wessen nurses are from other towns who moved to Wessen Town many years before, the doctors and surgeons were medical assistants who taught themselves during their work at what former hospital they were in. Other doctors are experienced grandmothers who use various herbs and field plants to use as medicines, and advise on what treatment should be given to what ailment or injury. At most there are about 8 staff members not including building maintenance staff which consists of 4 individuals who clean and repair various building issues like replacing blown lights. Many study from a field medical manual, which several were found and kept in storage except for when class is taught. Outside of major surgery, at best they can do is what American Civil War Field Doctors can do for their wounded patients. They cannot treat for everything, in the worst case scenario all they can do is make a dying patient comfortable until it is their time to go.  Most young teen girls undergo some basic medical training to use on friends and families for when they get married, if they live that long. Abby started this program before Hector started another one of his rampages about only the purist of Wessens can stay in Wessen Town, though Abby and her sister are pure recently transformed Wessens, Hector questioned their origins. “How can one sister be a cat and da other be a rabbit?!! You think I’m blind?!!”
 
Morning comes and one awakes up feeling heavy in his bed, and realizes that he is in a bed and not on a sleeping bag or a tent.
 
“Owww...” He says softly to himself, trying to move but find it painful to move. He lifts up his arm and sees it wrapped up between two wooden boards in a white bandage. “Whe... where am... I?”
 
He hears a voice, that belonging to an older woman, “Good. You’re alive. Don’t move. We’re trying to get a doctor to heal you, but that might take a day or two. First, what is your name and second, where’s your people?”
 
He looks around but sees no one nearby though he can hear that whoever is with him is somewhere nearby. He throws back, “What happened? Where am I?”
 
“What happened? You and your buddies fell out of the sky during the storm, and were brought here. You got several broken bones. One of your friends was found dead with you and the other. The other is not in good shape and may die if we cannot find a doctor to try to heal him. Until we find a doctor for you two, we will do our best for you to heal. You just got to lay there, relax and let us do the work.” The elder woman tells him.
 
He lets out a defeated sigh.
 
His biker gang jacket gets thrown onto his chest.
 
The elder woman continues, “We know who you are with and we know you prefer to harm us than to help us. But we are following the teachings of the Time Walker and help those in need, the infirmed and injured. You’re hurt, your friend is near death and your rides are destroyed. Let us help you. We will tell your friends you are under our care and bring your leader here to see you and your friend.” She walks close to him, revealing herself to be a large black bear Wessen in a nurse’s uniform. She reaches out to take hold of his chin and look at both sides of his face, “Those scars may go away over time. You should be riding in no time once you start walking again.” She lets go of his face and asks, “What is your name?”
 
He has a scared look on his face and wants to scream. But opening his mouth, nothing comes out.

[Outside Maddie’s Place]
 
“Yeah.” Fernando replies. He then adds, “That is all on my end. Anything from your side?”
 
“Nothin’ really. Just your Hamster Girl is Flighty and Jumpy, but nothin’ I can’t take care of.” Hondo says. He pauses for a second and looks about the skies, “Since the weather looks stable, I’ll have her and her friends brin’ the kids out of the basement and into the rooms upstairs durin’ breakfast. Where shall we meet to gather the whirlybirds?”
 
“I can pick you and the others up at the hanger and then head to get them.” Fernando replies.
 
“Fair enough.” Hondo replies before Fernando starts to enter the restaurant with Hondo following him. They head back to the table they sat before and take their seats.
 
“What you two spoke about outside?” Minerva asks.
 
“That is personal between Hondo and I, so do not ask of it ever again.” Fernando says.
 
“Oh. I’m sorry then.” Minerva says softly.
 
“A Wessen should know their place.” Maddie says.
 
Fernando turns to face Maddie, raising a pointed index finger to her, “OK, Maddie. You want proof that Wessens are humans, consider this... When 2 humans have sex, they end up with a child. When two Wessens have sex, they too end up with a child. If a Wessen and a human have sex, by natures’ laws there should not be a child, like if a human has sex with a dog; they are not going to have puppies. But those Wessen and human unions produce children, and that can only happen if Wessens are humans in some way. And Wessens are humans, like I said, transformed in a lab by the spirits to be sold as slaves after they have been purged from their family and homes.”
 
“Some men are sick and have sex with a Wessen when they cannot take a real woman.” Maddie says.
 
“My grandfather was human, though my grandmother was a Wessen, who was taken by slavers and rescued by a group my grandfather made to take on the slavers, but they had turned my human grandmother into a Wessen along with many others people. My grandfather is a loving and caring man, and continued to love and care for my grandmother even though she was turned into a Wessen.” Minerva tells her.
 
“Let me tell you this, Maddie. This is The United States of America, before The Happening and The Chaos, there was no slavery. Taking on slaves was illegal then as it should be now, and when I leave of this town, as it will be. Wessens are humans, and slavery of humans is not allowed. Therefore Wessens are free like humans because they are humans.” Fernando tells her. He pauses for a second before continuing, “I am a rescuer, and I am rescuing people from their situations, including slavery. I do not care who they are, how old they are, or what they do for a living. If they are in some form of life harming danger, then I will do something to help them out of their situation. I or my people will not take any reward or payment for my work. And no one is going to stop me from doing my work.”
 
“You sound like many of those pretending to be the Time Walker.” Maddie tells him with a slight tinge of anger and disgust in her voice.
 
“I’m not claiming to be anybody. But if you should want to know, there was a rematch between the Time Walker and The Lich in Fight Town in the past weeks. Go find a copy of a newspaper with the story of that fight, and then come back to me after you read it.” Fernando tells her. He turns to look at her kitchen, seeing that much of the order is done though he does realize a mistake he made. “Maddie, I forgot one thing in the order.”
 
“Oh? What it is?” Maddie asks.
 
“I need two – 5 gallon jugs of juice. It does not matter what flavor you have, but it is something for them to drink.” Fernando explains.
 
“I think I have a couple of Orange Juice jugs. You can have them.” Maddie answers.
 
“Thanks.” Fernando says. “Let’s settle the bill. And do not undercut yourself for me.”
 
“Well, let’s see. Since you usually over a hundred sandwiches for around $350, Give me $600 for all of them.” Maddie tells her.
 
“Sounds a bit low but alright.” Fernando says as he takes his sack of gold coins and pulls out seven $100 coins. He hands them to her.
 
She counts the coins and sees that he over paid by $100 and tries to return it.
 
He tells her, “Keep it. Consider it a tip for an excellent service. Just give me a receipt for the food and service.” Fernando tells her.
 
Maddie nods as she goes to the cash register. In a few seconds she was handing Fernando the receipt. He gives her a nod as he puts the receipt in his pocket, saying “Thank you.”
 
“No, thank you. Without you, this place would be boring and meager in profits. Furthermore we would have been killed off and destroyed when the Wessens attacked. You did more for this town than anyone has for as many years as I can remember growing up as a little girl here long ago.” Maddie explains.
 
“Like I said, I rescue those in need.” Fernando adds in.
 
In another 20 minutes, Fernando, Hondo and Minerva took the bags of sandwiches and jugs of juice to the jeeps outside. Putting the items on the hood of Fernando’s medi-jeep, and sort out the bags where Hondo would take the majority of them to the hanger while Fernando took the rest to the camp for Ruth and Val to give out to the convoy camp members.
 
They look at each other, packed their jeeps and were on their way. Fernando gets to the convoy camp in under five minutes. Parking the medical jeep in front of his camper, he steps out of the jeep and gathers the food items in the bags, taking them to the entrance of Hondo’s Camper. He knocks on the door and waits.
 
Ruth walks to Hondo’s Camper from the rear, ready for getting breakfast together. She sees Fernando already there with a bag but not knowing what the bag it.
 
“Good morning Mister Fernando. What is in the bag?” Ruth says and asks.
 
“I managed to get breakfast for the camp. The kids in the hanger already have their food there. So except for giving the food out, there is not much to do.” Fernando tells her as he holds onto the bag of food.
 
Ruth nods at first before she knocks on the door. Val opens the door of the camper. Ruth reaches out to Fernando and takes the bag of off from him before handing it to Val.
 
“If you see the bunny girls, tell them to come over and help out.” Ruth tells him.
 
“They have been in my camper all night long.” Fernando answers.
 
Val sticks her head out of the camper, “How dare you take advantage of those girls!”
 
“They have been with Ichigo all night. I have been patrolling outside all night long. So excuse me, I have things to do the whole day before getting any sleep.” Send my share for two to my camper, Ichigo should be there to get it if I am not there.” Fernando tells her. He then looks at Ruth, “I’ll see you ladies later in the day.”
 
Fernando starts to walk away.
 
“He’s probably been screwing them girls all night long.” Val says to herself as Ruth steps into the camper.
 
“What makes you say that?” Ruth asks.
 
“All the noise coming from his camper all night long, sounding some wild party going on. He was not out on patrol as he said, he was taking turns screwing each and every one of them!” Val says to her.
 
“Well, let’s see what he got us today...” Ruth says as she reaches over to the bag.
 
 
Fernando walks to his medical jeep and around to his camper, opening the sliding door to go in. As he steps in, the bunny girls were sitting on the bed getting dressed, though there was not much for them to put on: gym shorts and sneakers. After putting on their shorts and sneakers, they rolled up their blankets and pillows.
 
Kiah opens her mouth, “Now he comes... Too bad mister, the store is closed! You should have been here last night!”
 
“What is that supposed to mean?” Fernando asks, before immediately throwing in, “In fact, do not answer that! I don’t want to know. Besides, Ruth wants you ladies in Hondo’s camper to help deal with breakfast as fast as you can get there.” Fernando tells her.
 
“Alright right! No need to be grouch!” Kiah lets out.
 
“Kiah. Calm yourself down!” Mae tells her.
 
“I’m just playing with him, that’s all!” Kiah replies loudly.
 
“Let’s go and stop your playing around.” Mae tells her, almost literally pushing her out of the bed and leads her out of the camper’s side door.
 
April was next to follow, stepping up to Fernando and telling him “Sorry.” before stepping outside.
 
June followed after April, stepping up to Fernando and giving him a hug, saying “Thanks you.” before she steps out of the sliding door.
 
The girls can be heard going to their camper with Kiah being the loudest. Fernando reaches over and closes the sliding door.
 
“Thank god they are gone.” Ichigo says from under the blanket.
 
“You need to get up and get dressed yourself. I got a lot to do today and I may need you around with me. So do me the favor and clean up around here and bag up the dirty clothes so they can be washed sooner or later. The bunny girls will be here to hand you our breakfast. I’ll be right back.” Fernando tells her.
 
Turning to the back of the camper’s driver’s seats, he takes the three duffle bags that were there that are for the lion girls and David. He then steps to the sliding door, opens it, steps outside, and closes it before heading to the Medi-jeep. He puts the bags into the passenger seat before getting into the Medi-Jeep and drives it to the medical tent. He gets out of the medi-jeep and takes the three duffle bags with him into the Medical tent. Going past Dr. Marcos’ office and straight to David’s ward. He walks up to David’s bed and nudges him on the shoulder.
 
“Hey, David. Time to wake up.” Fernando tells him as he nudges his shoulder.
 
David slowly wakes up. He sees that it is Fernando and slowly sits up. Fernando hefts up a duffle bag onto the bed.
 
“Put on the clothes you have here, I got you a few things for you in this bag.” Fernando says as he opens the top of the duffle bag and pull out a pair of Kung Fu slippers for him to put on before closing the bag.
 
 
Fernando waits for David to get dressed, which is only about a minute at best. David hops off the bed and steps up to Fernando. Fernando gives him a pat on the shoulder.
 
“Looking good.” Fernando tells him. He then points to the duffle bag on the bed, “That is yours. It has clothes, blankets and a few things for you to have. But first I need you and a couple of others to come with me as this is no longer a safe place to be in. Take your bag and carry it with you where ever you go, which is in most places I take you too.”
 
David nods in agreement. He begins to follow Fernando to the other room. They stop at the two lion girls’ beds. Fernando reaches over and wakes them up one a time. They slowly wake up, unsure of where they are or why they are there.  
 
Fernando puts a duffle bag on their beds, telling them as he takes off their minor bandages, “Girls. It is not safe for us to be here. In the bags are some clothes for you to put on. Quickly get dressed so we can get out of here. I’ll explain everything on the run.”
 
They both look at him like he is crazy.
 
“David, turn around so you do not see them. I will do the same.” Fernando tells David. He then says to the girls, “Hurry up and get dressed. We do not have time.” He then turns around with David, “We will be right here while you get dressed. Hurry up and tell us when you are done.”
 
The twin girls look at each other for the moment before one of them goes into the bag and start pulling out things to check them out. The other sees what her sister is doing before going into her bag and pulls out a few things. Though there is enough to get dressed, there is not much in variety but at least they would be covered and protected against the elements, they pull out a set of underwear, gym shorts, skirts and a polo shirt, then a set of sox and Kung Fu slippers, getting dressed quickly.
 
Fernando is paying attention to what they are doing, and keeping an eye on them through every reflective surface. They eventually get dressed in under five minutes, pack up their duffle bags and get out of the bed. They walk up to Fernando and David.
 
“Let’s go and follow me.” Fernando tells them as he starts to walk out of the room.
 
They follow him as he walks to the exit of the medical tent. As they approach the exit, Dr. Marcos comes out of his office and stops them.
 
“Where are you going with these patients?” Dr. Marcos demands for an answer.
 
“Nowhere that is none of your concern, despite you knowing the danger of having them here. So I am taking them to a safe place.” Fernando tells him.
 
“They are my patients under my care.” Dr. Marcos tells him.
 
“Since when? I brought them in. I gave them medical care. I did all those things they needed. All you ever did was complain about having non-military personnel using the facility despite my work I did for the army in this place without payment or reward for my actions. And now that there is a major threat to these people, and I am taking them out of danger, you want to complain and say that they are your patients? I’m getting tired of your bitching and complaining like some spoiled child who does not get it their way. Now lead, follow, or get out of my way. As you are not leading or following, then get out of my way.” Fernando tells him.
 
“We’ll see about that.” Dr Marcos says before he storms out of the medical tent to look for Major Moynihan.
 
Fernando looks at David and the lion girls, “Let’s go quickly. I do not want to deal with his asshole mentality.”
 
He quickly leads them to the medi-jeep and has the girls sit in the back seat, and David in the front with their duffle bags on their laps. He puts the jeep into gear and drives off out of the parking lot camp area. Once past the Blimp holding area outside of the parking lot camp area, Fernando slows down before hitting the side path parallel to the airport runway. He pulls out his Yaesu VX-2 from his pocket and turns it on.
 
He presses on the Talk button and says to it, “This is Medic calling for the Righteous Cowboy. Come in Righteous Cowboy...”
 
Hondo immediately answers, “This is Righteous Cowboy. What is the situation, Medic?”
 
“I’m on my way with the precious cargo. I’m going to need 3 meat meals with egg and juice for them if there are any. And I need you, Minerva and Abby to meet me by the entrance when I get there.” Fernando explains.
 
“I will have that done for you. What is your ETA?” Hondo says and asks.
 
“Five minutes. I already have you in sight.” Fernando says.
 
“See you in five minutes then.” Hondo says.
 
Fernando turns off the radio and puts it in his pocket. He then says loud enough to be heard, “My friends and people will take care of you until it is safe. Just listen to what they say and do as they tell you because it could save your life. I have to go out and take care of things, but I will be checking on you all from time to time.” In the time he tells them this he drives up to the front of the hanger. “Stay inside until I tell you to step out.” He says before he steps out. He walks to the hanger and meets with Hondo, Minerva and Abby. They talk for a moment before they go back to the medi-jeep.
 
Fernando opens the door, telling them, “These people will help and hide you from the dangers. Hopefully things will return to normal soon enough.” He waits to see their reaction before he adds, “This is Hondo, he is my best friend. My other friends are Minerva and Abby. They will help you with the others.” He then turns to Hondo, Minerva and Abby, “You got their meals for them?”
 
“The food is upstairs with the children.” Minerva says to him.
 
“Good, take them upstairs and I will talk with them later.” Fernando tells her. He then turns to the girls and David, “Ladies, David – I have to go on an important trip to take care of things but I’ll be back this afternoon to see and speak to you all. Like I said, listen and do what they tell you to do and they will keep you safe. I’ll be back.” He then turns to Hondo, “You ready to go?”
 
“Yeah, meet me out in front. I’ll be there soon.” Hondo says.
 
“I’ll see you then.” Fernando says as he steps outside of the hanger and heads to his Medi-jeep.
 
Hondo goes out to the back and gets into the SUV and trailer that had David in a caged box. He had already emptied out the SUV and box trailer, storing what could be of use and throwing out everything else including the cage David was found in. He drives it around the hanger and pulls up to the corner of the hanger, and yells out the window, “I’m ready, let’s go!”
 
Fernando puts his medi-jeep into gear and begins driving through the runway to the other side to the east side of town, getting onto the main road and turning left to head north. Fernando drives slow to look about the side. In a couple of minutes they find the clean up where he found them and parks the Medi-Jeep before stepping out of it. Hondo parks behind the medi-jeep and walks behind him. They walk to the piles of stuff on the floor.
 
Fernando leans to Hondo and say softly as he points to the items on the floor, “Don’t say anything about them being recoverable, but that it is junk parts that we can use for other things.”
 
“Definitely...” Hondo replies.
 
“Here they are. We can use all this pre-cut metal for the jobs we do...” Fernando says out loud and points them out.
 
“Interesting.” Hondo replies as the short pudgy man in his 50s approach them.
 
The man says out loud, “Soo, Joo bahk too geht diss juhnk?”
 
“Yeah.” Fernando says. He pulls out five $100 gold coins to hand over to the man before he starts folding up one of the helicopters and then puts it into the ripped up duffle bag. He then lifts up the duffle bag and hands it to Hondo, “Here, put it in the box.”
 
Hondo takes the duffle bag to the trailer box and put it in as Fernando packs up another helicopter. This continues five more times: Fernando folds up the copters and puts them in their travel duffle bag, Hondo takes them and puts them into the small trailer box behind the SUV. They then walk over to the autogryos, finding that they are foldable up to a point. Either way when they are folded, they roll them to the trailer behind the SUV. The smaller one man craft can fit into the trailer box but the other 2-man autogyro could not. Together they lift it onto the trailer box and tie it down with some rope and bungee cords they have.
 
Fernando goes back to the pile of stuff and looks around. There was a the remains of two gliders several feet away but it looks like they had a serious accident and was more wrecked and broken junk than what one could do with. Hondo walks over to him and also spots the wrecked gliders.


 
“Worth saving?” Hondo asks.
 
“Even if I say yes, where would we put them? They 12ft (4m) long, and 18ft wide (6m), even if the wings were detachable, that’s 9ft (3m) per wing section. We just do not have the space.
 
“I’ll keep them in the hanger for now.” Hondo says.
 
“You sure?” Fernando asks.
 
Hondo nods. Though Fernando is interested in them, their immense size would make them difficult to carry. He did not think that Hondo would be interested in them too to impulse buy them.  
 
“What’s his name?” Hondo asks.
 
“I’m not even sure. We never exchanged names.” Fernando replies.
 
“Let let me talk to him then.” Hondo says.
 
“If you are going for the gliders, just say that you need them as parts to fix other things. This way he will sell them to you as scrap parts and not as repairable gliders.” Fernando mentions to Hondo.
 
Hondo nods before he steps into the clean up area. He sees that it looks like a hanger was destroyed by the tornado, with a couple of destroyed private planes crushed by the collapsed building. Planes that have probably not flown since the last races.
 
Hondo finds the man as he stands there and watches the clean-up of the area.
 
“’Cuse me, sir.” Hondo says as he steps up to him.
 
Startled, the man slowly turns around and looks at him with the scowl he’s been having all day. He asks Hondo, “Voo-at joo vahnn?”
 
Hondo extends his hand, “Hondo’s the name.” He then points to the mess of the two wrecked gliders, “How much for that mess?”
 
The man looks at them, “Voo-at joo vahnn dem fur?”
 
“Like my friend said, parts to fix things with.” Hondo explains.
 
“Dings? Leye-k?” The man asks.
 
“Our campers and trailers constantly break down, and long parts are hard to find.” Hondo explains. The man looks at him and then at the pile. Hondo asks, “How much?”
 
The man asks, “Hah-ow Joo fix?”
 
“Do I fix?” Hondo asks, throwing in “The campers and trailers?”
 
“Yeehss.” The man replies.
 
“Well...” Hondo begins, “Welding with a car battery and melting metal and making a new form.”
 
The man walks away into the rubble pile. He comes back soon carrying a banged up yellow box, taking it to Hondo and putting it by his feet. Hondo looks at it, seeing that it is some sort of electric welder, but the outside case has been mangled by the building collapse and the inside is unknown.
 
“Dare. Joo fehx dat, joo Vehl-d better.” The man says.
 
“Hmmm...” Hondo replies as he looks at it. Cables and hoses seem intact but who knows if it will work. He already has one in his trailer. He then asks in reference to the gliders, “How much?”  
 
“Tayhk Itt.” The man says as he points to the welder at their feet.
 
Hondo points to the wrecked gliders, “But, what about that?”
 
The man looks at the pile before answering, “Tayhk Itt.”
 
“Huh?” Hondo replies.
 
“Tayhk Itt. Tayhk Itt Awl...” The man says as he waves Hondo off and starts to walk away.
 
Hondo stands there dumbfounded before he picks up the welder and starts to walk back to Fernando, thinking how he just acquired two wrecked gliders for free, which Fernando could do his Temporal magic and restore them as new.
 
Fernando had walked over to the gliders to watch what Hondo was doing and sees him coming back as he was carrying something. Fernando says out loud to be heard, “What happened?”
 
Hondo got closer to Fernando, stopping by the wrecked gliders, “Don’t know, but he just gave them to me alon’ with this messed up welder.”
 
“Then let’s start packing them...” Fernando says, going to the glider and lifting open a small panel behind the canopy. He reaches inside and there were two loud “pops” heard and the remains to the wings droop down even further to the floor. He pulls his forearm out of the panel and pulls on the wing next to him until it disconnect from the body, disconnecting a couple of cables still connecting the wing to the body, which controls the ailerons and flaps on the wings. He carries the bend up wing away from the glider and to where the helicopters were before going back to the glider and removes the other disconnected wing which he carries to the first wing. He then grabs the tail of the gilder and pulls on it, moving the glider’s fuselage to the disconnected wings, dragging it on its belly. The rear section was bent with a slight fold but the nose cone of the canopy was smashed into the rest of the cockpit.
 
Hondo sees what Fernando is doing and follows what he did, disconnecting the wings, separating them from the main fuselage, and taking the parts to where the helicopters were.  The fuselage he was dragging looks like its bottom was crushed in from a hard landing and its tail book bent downward. With the welder and the gliders away from their area, Hondo takes the welder to the trailer box and puts it inside, Fernando was not too far behind bringing in the wings of the first glider. He places them by the trailer for Hondo to put away as he goes back for wings of the second glider. In a couple of minutes, Hondo and Fernando were lifting the glider fuselages onto the top of the SUV’s roof and tie them down with some rope. They were soon heading back to the hanger to put away the aircraft they had acquired.
 
Hondo takes out his little Yaesu VX-2 and calls out for Fernando, “Hey Medic, I forgot to ask, You gonna restore these things with your cane?”
 
Fernando takes out his radio and answers, “I’ll do that when we put them away in the hanger. We will need them when we move out and need to get some small motorcycle engines for the helicopters. Though I would restore the Autogyros, I would like you to look at them after they are restored.”
 
“Gotcha.” Hondo replies as they approach the hanger.
 
They stop in the front gate of the hanger. Hondo goes inside to get Marvin and Karl to help out, explaining what needed to be done. Together the four of them empty out the trailer box and remove the larger autogyro from the top of the trailer box and the glider fuselages from the top of the SUV, putting the items into a corner workshop of the hanger.
 
Fernando walks up to the pile while he spins the crystal on his cane, points the tip of the cane towards the pile. Pressing on the crystal against the cane, a flash of light from a bolt of lightning hitting the items lights up the room for a second, with all the items places into the space in near brand new condition. He then walks away from the space, telling Hondo, “restored like new.”
 
Hondo asks, “What’s next?”
 
“Come with me to the Wessen hospital and we’ll see what is going on there with the bikers. Leave that SUV here so we can take it to Center Town to fill up the box trailer.” Fernando explains.
 
Hondo nods, with a tilt of his head. Fernando signals him to get into the passenger side of the Medi-Jeep. Fernando gets into the driver’s side to drive to Wessen Town.
 
The drive to Wessen Town was uneventful. They make their way to the main square of the town where a group of Wessens, including the bear and fox that visited Hondo were there. They were armed with rifles, shotguns and assorted firearms. They walk up to the Medi-Jeep as Fernando and Hondo step out.
 
The Bear Wessen says, “Good, you come with the Medic. We were about to go to your place to get you.”
 
Before Hondo could reply, Fernando says, “We are here. Where are these bikers?”
 
A Cougar Wessen steps up to them, “Before we go see them, we want you to see these things.” He signals them to follow him. Hondo and Fernando follow the Cougar Wessen with the rest of the group behind them. Left from the center of the main square the cougar points to a gouged out area of packed ground dirt and then up to the sky, “They landed here.”
 
Both Hondo and Fernando look at the shallow hole on the ground and nod. The cougar then takes them to an area behind the Wessen Hospital and shows them the three wrecked motorcycles, all beyond repair. Hondo and Fernando look at the wrecked vehicles. They both wonder how anyone could have survived from what is shown of the wrecked motorcycles, and yet two out of three somehow survived.
 
“I have seen enough. Take me to the men.” Fernando tells the group of Wessens.
 
“We will take you to the deceased one first, then to the survivors.” The Cougar Wessen says.
 
Fernando does not want to be in an argumentative mood, thus he signals them to take them there. They lead him and Hondo into the hospital – a small building that may have been a small hotel in another time but now is helping the injured, sick and infirmed. They are lead to the basement where they have a makeshift morgue. They walk into a walk-in refrigerator and one of the Wessens of the group point to a blanket covered slab hiding a body underneath the blanket.
 
Fernando walks to the slab with Hondo behind him. He grabs the corner of the blanket and lifts it up. The poor guy had no chance of surviving his wreck, though most of his face was intact but slightly deformed, the blood on his nose, mouth and ears says he had a major skull fracture. The torn scalp above the hair shows brains underneath. He did not feel the rest of many of his other bones breaking on impact as death was instant for him. Fernando puts the blanket to cover him again.
 
“Where are the survivors?” Fernando asks.
 
The Cougar Wessen signals to follow him. Several flights of stairs they are on the third floor, heading to a room at the end of the hall. A couple of Wessen Guards with arms stand at the door. The Cougar Wessen nods at them and the group is allowed to go inside. The Wessens stand at the wall by the wall as Fernando and Hondo walk to the beds. One of the two men looked like he was sleeping but was really unconscious. The other was fully awake and scared as hell. Fernando glances at the unconscious one first and takes his pulse at the side of his neck. He turns to the conscious one.
 
Putting a finger to the man’s lips, Fernando tells him, “Shhhhh... You relax.” Fernando then goes into his jacket pocket. He pulls out a folding leather surgical tool set, pulling out a hypodermic syringe with a silvery rainbow liquid inside. He turns to the unconscious one and gives him half of the dose from the syringe before giving the conscious man the remaining half. He then points to the man’s face, “Consider yourself lucky that they found you, or you and your friend would be dead like your other friend is. Now, from what I seen of your wrecked rides and hear from the witnesses, you three were taken up by the twister and then rode the winds until you three crashed not too far from here.”
 
He just nods.  
 
“Look, I’ll bring your leader here to check on you two the next day. But you give these people all the respect of people helping you because they are. You are in no shape to fight, argue or make a scene. You are to lay there and let them help you so you can heal. Then you can go home with your friends in a couple of days.” Fernando explains to him. He then says to him, “Do you understand what I said?”
 
The man in the bed nods.
 
“Alright then, I’ll be back tonight or tomorrow morning to check on you two. Behave yourselves, and this will be an easy ride for you both.” Fernando tells him before rolling up his surgical kit to put away and signaling to Hondo.
 
Hondo looks at the two men, making sure the conscious one sees him as he nods to him, and then they walk away from the bed. A female bear Wessen in a nurse’s uniform walks to the bed of the conscious patient.
 
“Alright big boy, relax while I check on you.” She tells him before putting on a stethoscope to her ears. She puts the stethoscope end onto his chest. “Now, breathe in as deep as you can but stop if it hurts and then let it out.”
 
Fernando walks to the Wessens at the door. Going into his pocket he hands the Cougar Wessen a small sack of gold coins.
 
“Give these two the best care you can afford with that. The medicine I gave them will help out with their injuries and pain so I could take them out of here in a couple of days. I will be here tonight or tomorrow morning, it depends if I finish the other things I need to do for the others in the camp.” Fernando tells him. He turns to Hondo, “Let’s get out of here.”
 
Hondo follows Fernando to the hall where the Wessens that were by the wall walk past them and stop them by blocking their path. They look at each other for a moment.
 
“We have one more thing to do before we can let you go.” The Cougar Wessen says to Fernando and Hondo.
 
“What is it? Another dying person in need of a treatment?” Fernando says to them.
 
“If it were that easy, I would say yes. But it is not.” The Cougar Wessen tells him.
 
“Then what?” Fernando asks.
 
The Cougar snaps his finger and holds out his hand palm up. A fox Wessen behind him puts something on his palm covered with a very smooth handkerchief. The Cougar Wessen extends his arm to Fernando closer to him.
 
“What is this?” Fernando asks.
 
“A test.” The Cougar Wessen says to him, “Take it.”
 
Fernando takes the handkerchief off what it was covering: a mixed up Rubix Cube. He takes the cube in his left hand and looks at it while he spins the crystal on his cane with his right. He then taps the crystal of the cane onto the cube, activating the cane to fix any issues with the cube. He dare asks the stupid question, “What am I to do with this?”
 
“Put all sides as one color in less than 10 minutes.” The Cougar Wessens tells him as he shows a stop watch to him.
 
Fernando holds the cane standing on the floor, “Tell me when to start.”
 
The Cougar Wessen looks at him, putting the stop watch into his palm and the thumb on the trigger. He presses the trigger, “Now.”  
 
Fernando lets go of the cane and rotates the cube within the 27-move solution that would solve it, doing so in about half a minute. He holds out the cube in his left hand as he grabs the cane with his right before it begins to fall.
 
The Cougar Wessen presses the stop button on the stop watch as Fernando puts the cube to his face. The other Wessens behind him gasp and makes statement of disbelief and denial of what they have seen.
 
“Enough!” The Cougar Wessen tells his entourage. He then takes the cube to examine it, finding all the sides as each its own single color. He then looks at Fernando, “So it is you.”
 
“Me as in who?” Fernando asks.
 
“The Time Walker. You are the Time Walker.” The Cougar tells him.
 
“Before I ask questions, big deal. Now who is the Time Walker and why is he so important to you?” Fernando tells him.
 
“He is important because when he comes there will be many great changes here before he leaves.”  The Cougar Wessen tells him.
 
“The signs are already there!” A (different) Fox Wessen holds out an open leather binder with two newspaper front pages, one from some many years ago and the other just a few days old, “Time Walker Defeats The Lich!” with photos of the event.
 
“Ask if I care, because I don’t.” Fernando tells them. He then throws at them, “Along with that puzzle, there is a treasure that the Time Walker left. Where is it so I can be on my way.”
 
“Hector De La Cruz took it long ago, saying that he would keep it in a safe place until the Time Walker returns but then claimed that there was no treasure, just an empty box even though it was heavy when it was carried and gold coins can be heard sliding about inside. But then he was getting things, new things, big things – a new house, expensive clothes, vehicles, weapons, and many things. He paid off people to make friends, get power and control of Flight Town and divided it into Flight Town and Wessen Town. He created an army called ‘Os Animas’ and ruled over Flight Town and Wessen Town. He ruled Flight Town until the Merchants hired the Law Men to deal with him and his army. Then he used his power and money to get young girls he would then rape, abuse and in many cases, killed them.” The Cougar Wessen explains.
 
The Fox Wessen with the leather binder throws in, “It is said that when the Time Walker returns, the Evil Ruler and his men would try to kill him three times before he and his people run away to hide.” After a brief pause, “We know you chased Hector and his people out of town. You are the Time Walker.”
 
“From what I was told, there were several others that came by and said they were the Time Walker.” Fernando points out.
 
“Hector had three of them killed. The cold blooded one cut off their heads, and the heads are in a secret room under City Hall. The other two failed to meet the challenge and failed the test that you just passed and ran away when they were supposed to fight Hector.” The Cougar explains.
 
“It is said that the Time Walker would arrive with a great army to take down the evil that has taken this town and continues to take it.” The Fox Wessen with the open leather binder tells him, adding, “You came with a great army, one that defeated Hector’s Os Animas Army. We heard you took on the Cold Blooded Killers and cut off their heads.”
 
“I only cut off a couple of their heads off. My right hand man here also took off a couple of their heads off, so I was not alone in cutting off their heads.” Fernando explains while pointing his thumb towards Hondo.
 
“It is said that in the fight Time Walker and the evil ruler would have, the Evil Ruler’s Right Hand Man would be killed.” The Fox Wessen with the open leather binder tells him, adding, “Though it is not a ‘Man’, we hear that you have Hector’s Right hand in a pickle jar.”
 
“Let me ask, where are you getting all your information?” Fernando asks.
 
“We have ears everywhere. We have Wessens who look human enough to be with humans, and look and listen to what is going on and report to us with what they found. They told us all that they found and we need to know.” The Fox Wessen tells him.
 
“So you the Time Walker or not?” The Bear Wessen steps from behind the Cougar Wessen.
 
Fernando sighs, turning to Hondo for a second and then back at the crowd. He then points to each and every one of the group, “I am not the Time Walker you think I am. I maybe the Time Walker you want me to be in the future but now I am not that person.”
 
“Explain yourself then.” The Cougar Wessen demands.
 
“The Time Walker you know has went through time and done these things across the land. I did not go through all that, neither was my right hand man. We were snatched out of time and brought to here by the so-called Spirits, so all those things the Time Walker is supposed to do, I did not do. If I can get the Spirits to return us back to our time, then I and my right hand man will do those things that you know we did. You understand that?” Fernando explains.
 
“Then you are the Time Walker, as you are walking through our time to go back to your time.” The Cougar Wessen tells him.
 
“It is said that the Time Walk would put a million in gold for capture of the evil ruler. You put a million in gold for Hector’s living tail.” The Fox Wessen with the open binder tells him.
 
“Where is all that coming from, all those things that are to be and has come to past?” Fernando asks.
 
The Fox Wessen with the open binder starts to flip pages in the binder, “It is all here, written by the Time Walker’s hand with this pen.” He then pulls out a Mont Blanc pen from a side pocket of the binder.
 
As the Fox Wessen flips through the pages, Fernando reads them with his quick read ability. But then he grabs the open ends of the binder and shuts it. “Enough! No One Is To Ever Know Of What The Future Holds. Not Even The Time Walker Himself!”
 
Fernando then steps around the group, “Come on Hondo. We need to prepare to leave in four days.”
 
“Just like it is said from what it is written... The Fox Wessen with the leather binder says.
 
“Shut The #$@! Up! I Do Not Want To Hear It!” Fernando tells him before he starts to walk away. Hondo follows behind him. The building was a simple maze which Fernando remembers where things are for him to get out.  They step out of the main entrance of the hospital which faces away from the direction of the main square but Fernando figures out the direction he is to go. Hondo follows him without saying a word until they get to the Medi-Jeep.
 
They both get into the Medi-Jeep, Fernando turns on the vehicle and puts it into gear to drive away.
 
“What upset you back there?” Hondo asks as Fernando drives at high speed out of Wessen Town.
 
For the moment Fernando remains silent, more focused on driving than on anything else.
 
Hondo calls to get his attention, “Well, Jefe...?”
 
Once out of town Fernando slows down his driving before giving his answer, “No man is to ever know his future, or else what was predetermined by the powers of creation will be altered by his actions to speed up such outcomes or improve on them. From that I,...” He pauses for a second to let out a pent up sigh, “I mean we, need to get this convoy out of there as fast as we can.”
 
“Somethin’ bad gonna happen?” Hondo asks.
 
“We will get stuck here if we do not leave after a week.” Fernando says.
 
“I see.” Hondo says as he senses Fernando is holding something back. But he thinks along the line of bad thing happening if they do end up staying there.
 
“Let’s go get that big SUV and trailer box you got from the slavers. We are going to fill it with supplies for our trip to the next town.” Fernando says.

 
“You said that you need Marvin and Karl to help out?” Hondo asks.
 
“I’ll get a couple of teens, and maybe the Bunny Ring Girls to help out.” Fernando says. He then asks, “Are there any shelves in that trailer box on the Slavers’ SUV?”
 
“There are some small shelves on one of the sides and the back. What you have in mind?” Hondo says and asks.
 
“Just thinking, if we put a table or two in there to add layers of storage space inside.” Fernando replies.
 
“I see.” Hondo says. He adds “If we had another driver, we could give the Slavers’ SUV for them to drive with an added camper and the trailer box.”
 
“I prefer if there was a driver and a back up driver for each vehicle. Though the Teen boys promised that they would take in David if he leaves with us, I could zap him with memories and skills to drive the SUV but he would be driving it alone and that is not good without a backup driver.” Fernando explains.
 
“And you said that the Hamster girl and her friend will be getting’ two campers and the medi-jeeps. And I have the two mechanic jeeps on top of that.” Hondo points out.
 
“The Mechanic Jeeps can be stored up on the moon with the motorcycles so we would have spare rides if we need them. Worse comes to worst, we can put the SUV and trailer on storage on the moon with the other vehicles. But for now we can use them for shopping and moving things around. We cans also put the gliders and autogyros in storage on the moon as well, but I have a feeling that we will be spy-copters soon enough. Just need to find some small motorcycle engines for them, 50cc or so will work great on them.” Fernando says.
 
“Doesn’t Jerry or Marco in Center Town work on motorcycles?” Hondo asks.
 
“I forget. Anyways, put one of the helicopters in the trailer to show them what we need for them need and maybe they can put something together for us.” Fernando says as they get on the side road parallel to the runway that goes to Hondo’s hanger.
 
“OK.” Hondo replies. He then asks, “You coming back to get us?”
 
“Go to the Blimp Parking area outside the parking lot camp and wait for me there.” Fernando answers.
 
“Got it. We’ll be waiting for you to come.” Hondo says.
 
 In a couple of minutes Fernando drops Hondo off the hanger to get Marvin and anyone else willing to help out and put one of the helicopters in the trailer box. Fernando drives off to the convoy camp while Hondo readies the SUV and has Marvin to go with him. Minerva was pretty adamant on going with them, thus Hondo tells her to put on her EMT jacket and hat and not to cause any problems during the trip. Fernando gets Madison, Patricia, Mae and June to go with them, and puts his pull cart in the back of the Medi-Jeep. The girls pile into the back seat of the Medi-Jeep while Madison takes the front passenger seat. Fernando gets in and drives the medi-jeep out of the convoy camp to the blimp parking area.


 
Hondo drives into the Blimp parking area and drives around to line the SUV up with the Medi-
Jeep. Fernando can see that Minerva is with him and Marvin. He does not dare question why she is with them as chances are she was being difficult in order to be with him during the day. Fernando takes the microphone from the dash of the Medi-Jeep and signals to Hondo to pick up his.  Hondo turns on his CB Radio and switches the radio to channel 18, their usual communications channel.
 
“Can you hear me Medic?” Hondo asks on the radio.
 
“I can hear you, Righteous Cowboy.” Fernando replies on the radio. They both nod at each other before Fernando throws in on the radio, “Let’s go to runway and I will teleport us to Center Town’s parking lot from there. Then we will go to Marco and Jerry’s shops and ask questions before shopping.”
 
“Alrigh’, let’s go.” Hondo replies.
 
Fernando pulls out in front of them and Hondo follows. They get on the runway and travel down on it for a bit before disappearing in a flash of light.
 
[Center Town’s parking area]
 
Two vehicles appear out of nowhere in the parking lot: a white jeep set with a medical emblem on it, and dark green, nearly black 4-wheel drive large SUV towing a small box trailer (about 4ft tall, 5ft wide and 7ft long) behind it. There were a couple of vehicles in the parking area but the place was empty of people. They drive out onto the main town road with the SUV following the Medi-Jeep. They continue down the road towards near the end of it where a couple of large hanger type buildings were where a couple vehicle repair and modification businesses reside. A camping, hunting and firearms business shares the space with one of these vehicle shops in the first building.
 
The vehicles park outside the entrance of the two hanger buildings. Three guys come out of the hangers, each wiping a down a large wrench with a rag. Those inside the vehicles come out and present themselves to the three men.
 
“Yo Tom, Jerry, Marco! How are things?” Fernando says to one of a gathered group.
 
“Fernando – Medic! What brings you here?!” Jerry steps up to Fernando.
 
“You guys remember my main man Hondo. These others are with the convoy with us, we’re here to buy some supplies for the convoy, but I decided that it is a go for those two campers I asked about the last time. In fact, one is going to this vehicle, and the other is going to another just like it.” Fernando explains as he points to the Jeep that he and others came out of.
 
Jerry looks at it and takes a few measurements of the rear end of the Jeep. He then asks, “How soon you want them?”
 
“Is 5PM today possible?” Fernando asks.
 
“That is a bit tight but we can manage it.” Jerry says.
 
“If we come by at 5 and have to wait for it to be finished, that would be fine with me.” Fernando explains. He then adds, “If you need the Jeep inside for measurements, take it in, we are not going to need it for a couple of hours.”
 
“I took the measurements that I need, so we should be fine.” Jerry says before he asks, “Anything special with them?”
 
“Naw, same as before: rebuild, clean up, generator, CB Radio, Solar Panels if you have them and all that other good stuff as before.” Fernando replies. He asks, “How much for the two?”
 
“$400 for the two.” Jerry says.
 
Fernando takes out a sack of gold coins and hands over 6 $100 gold coins for him. “Here. Lunch for the crew is on me, I just need a receipt for the two campers.”
 
Jerry nods before going into the hanger building to do the paper work. Fernando turns to Tom as he goes to the rear of the jeep and pulls out the pull cart and handing it to Madison.
 
“Hey Tom. Got any more small but powerful firearms for one with small hands?” Fernando asks him.
 
Tom thinks about it for a second before asking, “Small hands, like for children?”
 
“Not really. It’s for these girls and a couple of their friends. They are full grown believe it or not, according to their doctor I spoke with, they have ‘Little People Syndrome’ and that is as big as they will ever get.” Fernando explains.
 
“Oh I see. We got a few ‘Little People’ here in Center Town. So come on in and let’s see what we have for them.” Tom explains.
 
“Hondo, take the others shopping with you while I finish up over here.” Fernando explains as he tosses a sack of gold and silver coins to Marvin, Madison, Patricia and Hondo.
 
“Alrigh’. Let’s go shopping.” Hondo says. He then asks Marco if he can leave his vehicle where is it. Marco nods at him before Hondo takes the group out to the market area. As they walk away, Minerva runs into the hanger after Fernando. Hondo sees this and shakes his head.
 
In Tom’s Camping, Fishing, Hunting and Firearms, Fernando looks over the various arms. Fernando asks for 12 of small .22 boot/ankle revolvers as a starter and 8 belt buckle small guns. Tom pulls out a set of various larger revolvers from .22 to .38 in size as well as a few 9mm pistols. Minerva comes into the shop as Fernando, Tom and the girls look over the fire arms. Fernando and Tom look at her as she enters.






 
“What is going on, Minerva? You are to be shopping with Hondo.” Fernando says loud enough to be heard.
 
Minerva walks up to him, taking his arm, “I prefer to be with you. It’s been awful hiding from those Wessen Haters who want to kill us.”
 
“Wessen haters?” Tom asks.
 
“Yeah, there is a group of Wessen Hating Bikers in Flight Town taking, raping and killing Wessens where they can. I’ve been hiding her and her friends along with our Wessens from them.” Fernando explains.
 
“I see. That can be a problem.” Tom says. He adds, “Do your Wessens have fire arms?”
 
“My Wessens have firearms, but not the group I saved from the bikers: a group of young adult females and a few children.” Fernando explains. He adds, “I did not give them fire arms because they do not have any firearm training or knowledge. So as to not have accidents, I did not give them firearms yet. But a couple of those that I am buying today will be given to them once they learn how to properly respect and treat a firearm from Hondo and I.” He takes Minerva’s hand and puts it on the counter, “As you can see her hands are just slightly bigger than these ladies’ hands. So I’m buying for all of them.”
 
“I see.” Tom says.
 
“Price is no problem, so give us your best.” Fernando says to him.
 
Tom nods.
 
“On top of the guns, do you have ‘Bear Spray?’” Fernando asks.


 
“Hmmm... I think I may have some but they would be old.” Tom says.
 
“Don’t worry about that. Show me your stock and I’ll fix them right for you.” Fernando says.
 
“Alright then.” Tom says. He goes to the back and comes out with a box of Bear Spray canisters, putting them on the counter. Though the canisters were new looking, the box was old with dried water stains and wrinkles on the cardboard. He pulls out a couple to show them.
 
Fernando examines them, nodding his head as this is the item he was looking for. “How many boxes of this do you have?”
 
“I have about 12 boxes. And 12 canisters come to a box.” Tom explains.
 
“I’ll take 3 boxes, and bring them all out so I can fix them up for you.” Fernando says to him.
 
Tom nods at him before disappearing to the back of his store. He comes out with a hand truck with the remaining boxes of Bear Spray stacked up in them. Fernando signals him to put the box on the counter and the canisters on top of the others.
 
“Ladies, I need you to turn around and cover your eyes. Especially you, Minerva.”  Fernando tells them.
 
“I’ll do it but why?” Minerva asks.
 
“Because there is going to be a very bright light and as a Wessen your eyes are sensitive to light. Just do as I ask and do not question what I need you to do.” Fernando tells her.
 
Minerva does as she is told, as Mae and June have already done. Fernando spins the crystal on his cane, focusing his attention on the pile of Bear Spray boxes and their containers. He presses on the crystal against the cane. A bright light flashes as a bolt of lightning hits the boxes and canisters from his cane. The light fades to normal and the boxes on the hand truck appear to be like new.
 
“It is safe to turn around and uncover your eyes.” Fernando tells them as he puts his cane back on the ground. The girls turn around as Tom is putting three boxes on the table for Fernando’s purchase. Fernando continues, “Don’t under-sell yourself because I did you a favor. Whatever price you sell these for, I’ll pay it like I will for your guns.” He looks at the pile of guns to select from. He grabs Minerva by the wrist and takes the NAA-32ACP and puts it into her hand.

 
“How does that feel?” He asks.
 
“Heavy?” Minerva says unsure what to say.
 
He takes her hand and molds her palm and fingers around the firearm. “There. How does that feel? Do you have to stretch and reach your fingers to hold it? Do you have to hold it hard and tight to keep it in your hand? Is your hand relaxed while you hold it? You should have a tight hold on it, but not so hard that it hurts your hand.”
 
“It feels... OK, I guess.” Minerva says.
 
“Alright then.” Fernando says and takes the firearm from Minerva and hands it to Mae. Like with Minerva, he takes Mae’s hands and molds her fingers around the weapon. “Hold does that feel? Can you reach the trigger?”
 
“It seems to feel OK, I guess. I can reach the trigger.” Mae says.
 
“Good. Alright then.” Fernando says before he takes the gun from Mae’s hand. He then steps over to June, putting the gun into her hand, and moves her fingers to grip it and put the finger on the trigger. June seemed a bit nervous, in having her hand held by his though the gun was in her hand.  “You OK, June?”
 
June replies with a nervous “Yes.”
 
Though he can feel how the pistol fits into her hand, he wanted to know from her how it feels. He lets out a sigh before asking, “Hold does that feel? Can you reach the trigger?”
 
June just nods with her eyes closed, not saying a word.
 
“June?” He calls to her.
 
She replies with a nervous “Yes?”
 
“I asked ‘Hold does that feel? Can you reach the trigger?’” He says to her.
 
“It... It feels... Fine...” June answers nervously.
 
Fernando takes the gun from her hand and puts it on the counter, “Give me 12 of those if you have them, if not, as many as you can get me. And 4 boxes of ammo for each gun or as many as that you got.” Fernando tells Tom.
 
Tom nods as he gathers the fire arms from the counter and puts them away in the display case below. He then goes into the back of his store to gather the order as Fernando stated. With help from his staff he was able to assemble the order in less than five minutes. He puts the 10 guns, 30 boxes of ammo and the three boxes of bear spray on the counter along with them.
 
Fernando looks at the pile before he asks, “Where are the ankle/boot and belt buckle guns?


 
“Oh, did you order them?” Tom asks.
 
“I’m sorry, I asked for them when you were putting out the display. You must not have heard me when you were busy, my fault.” Fernando tells him.
 
“Ok then, how much did you want of those guns? You said the ankle/boot and belt guns?” Tom asks.
 
“Yes,” as Fernando points them out through the display case, “12 of the ankle/boot guns and 8 belt-buckle guns. Oh yes, and 2 boxes of ammo for each gun.”
 
“I’ll bring out what I got.” Tom says before he goes to the back with his staff to assemble the order. It only takes him a couple of minutes to assemble the order and put them on the counter: 12 ankle/boot guns, 8 belt-buckle guns and 40 boxes of ammo.
 
Fernando look up at Tom, “Now, how much for everything? And do not undercut the sale. You should make the money you and your service is worth.”
 
Tom counts the items and does the math in his head. Though the figure was going past the $1500 mark, he tells Fernando, “Give me $800 for everything.”
 
“Sounds a bit low, but here...” Fernando says as he counts out 10 $100 gold coins from his pocket. He then tells Tom, “Keep the change, get lunch for your staff on me. I just need a receipt for everything.”  
 
“No problem. Just give me a minute.” Tom says. He walks to his cash register counter and draws up an itemized receipt for the items on the counter. He walks over to Fernando, taking the hand truck with him and gives Fernando the receipt. He then starts stacking the boxes onto the hand truck.
 
They go outside to Fernando’s Medi-Jeep. Fernando opens the rear door and window to the Medi-Jeep and starts stacking the boxes of his purchase into the back of the Medi-Jeep behind the rear seats. It takes a couple of minutes to put everything in and still have space for the other things that they will buy. Tom and Fernando shake hands before Tom goes into his store and Fernando closes the rear of the Medi-Jeep.
 
Fernando turns to the girls, “You ladies eaten breakfast yet?”
 
Mae and June nod their head while Minerva shrugs her shoulder.
 
“Did you eaten anything?” Fernando tells Minerva.
 
“I don’t eat much.” Minerva says.
 
“No wonder you’re flighty.” Fernando says to himself.
 
“Hey! What is that supposed to mean?” Minerva asks.
 
“When a person does not eat much or not eat at all, they tend to be bouncy after they eat and exhausted when they have not eaten after a long while. You not eating and making you do things you might not even be aware off.” Fernando tells her. He then looks at Mae and June, signaling to the three of them, “Follow me. I need to eat something.”
 
They walk about the main market street to its far end near parking lot, where Fernando remembers there being a few delicatessens that can make a decent meat, egg and cheese sandwich and a coffee which is not really true coffee but something similar to the real thing. It was good enough for him to fill his stomach with. He goes to the closest food stand on the right of him, a bakery that also makes sandwiches and other food items, and looks over the display area. Once he has decided, he calls the counter person for his order.
 
“How can I – hey! You have not been around for a while! How are you?” The counter-person, an elder woman in an apron says to him.
 
“Been busy saving the helpless on the highways.” Fernando tells her.
 
“The world needs more people like you. I seen your cowboy friend with a group walk by about a half hour ago pulling a cart with food supplies on it.” The counter-woman says, pointing to a direction, “They went that way.”
 
“Thanks. But I’ll catch up to them later. Right now I need something for me and my friends here.” Fernando explains.
 
“Then what shall it be?” The counter-woman asks.
 
“For me, I would like a roast beast, egg and cheese sandwich on small bread” Fernando explains as he points out the bread he wants and the size it should be with his hands, adding, “These glazed donuts for the girls here with a  bottle of sweet water each and a large coffee for me – milk and 3 sugars.”
 
The counter woman nods before going out of view to make the orders. The sounds and smell of meat and eggs momentarily fills the air as his sandwich is being made. Then the counter woman comes back with a bag of donuts and sweet water juices, handing them to Fernando. Fernando distributes the donuts and bottles of sweet water to the girls. In a couple more minutes the counter woman returns with Fernando’s sandwich and coffee.
 
“How much for everything?” Fernando asks.
 
“$3 for everything.” The counter woman says to him.
 
Fernando goes into his pocket and pulls out a $5 silver coin, putting it on the counter, “Keep the change.”
 
“Thank you!” The counter woman tells him.
 
Fernando signals to the girls to follow him as they walk through the merchant area while they eat. He points out to the girls to remember where certain items are in case Hondo did not get them, continuing onward at a relaxed pace to catch up to Hondo.
 
[To Be Continued]

The deeper Fernando, Minerva, Mae and June go into the merchant area the more he noticed those around them were whispering among themselves. Moments before while they were getting their food, a military jeep drove past them with a pair of men in handcuffs, which Fernando did not give attention to other than getting out of its way. As they walked, they find a merchant selling hand carts of various shapes and sizes at various prices. Knowing that they only had one cart between all of them, Fernando decides to buy at least one pull cart. He walks over to the carts with the girls behind them, and eyes the larger Radio Flyer carts.
 
“Every camper in the convoy has one of these to use when they go shopping or when they need to carry heavy stuff.” He tells them. He then throws in as he looks at Mae and June and then at Minerva, I’ll get one now for you girls, and two more with the campers being made for you and your friends.”
 
But as Fernando looks around, he only sees one of these Radio Flyer carts but a bunch of the smaller carts.
 
Minerva points to the smaller fold-away carts, “How about these?”
 
“They are not good for heavy carrying and they do not carry much.” Fernando tells her. He then looks around, seeing an older woman with an apron eyeing them from the store’s entrance. He calls to her as he points to the Radio Flyer Cart “Excuse me, Ma’am. Do you have any more of these?”
 
“That’s my only one.” The woman says to him.
 
“How much for it?” He asks though he seen a price tag on it for $50.
 
“Give me $200 for it.” The woman says.
 
“You’re joking, right?” Fernando says to her as he holds the cart’s price tag and points at it.
 
“That was when I had many of them to sell. As my last and only one, the price went up. I doubt you will find another one like it.” The woman tells him, eyeing him and the girl.
 
Fernando slowly gets up from his hunched over position over the cart and looks at her, “We can do without it then. Not at that price. That is four times than what price tag says, and it is not even in the best condition. There is rust on the axles, one axel is bent, the wheels got cracks, paint it chipping on the tub and there is rust on the chipped paint areas. $200 if it were new but not in this condition.” He turns to his girls, “Let’s go.”
 
As soon as he takes his first step, the woman says, “Give me $150 then.”
 
Fernando turns around to see her and then the cart, “$50 or I walk.”
 
The woman throws in, “$100.”
 
Fernando throws in “$55, and a receipt for it so no one can claim that is stolen.”
 
“$75.” The woman says. Fernando steps over to the Radio Flyer, and shakes his head. The woman says, “$65 and no more.”
 
“Start writing that receipt.” Fernando says as takes a $50 gold coin with a $10 silver coin and a $5 silver coin. He shakes the coins in his hands as he waits for the receipt. When the money and paper is exchanged, he points to Minerva to take the cart.
 
They start walking away with the cart behind Minerva with its wobbly wheel and rusted bearing squeaking away. As soon as they were a couple of store doors away from the cart merchant, Fernando twists the crystal on his cane and zaps the cart from behind them, putting it into a near new condition. The cart stops wobbling and squeaking, making Minerva stop and look back at it, seeing a new cart behind her.
 
Fernando steps up to her, “Don’t ask questions and just do as I say. Let’s keep going...”
 
Minerva nods before she begins walks with them again. Like before Fernando points out to the various food items that they would need to buy and put into the cart but first they need to verify with Hondo of what he had already bought.
 
 
[8:00PM, Mitsuminejinja Shinto Temple Shrine – Japan]
 
The lone figure, cowboy, Min and Ichi were sitting on the floor, finishing their dinner. Raven was somewhere outside the room, visible by the open door panel as she looks at the stars outside on the open desk on the side of the building. Though the men were in their full day wear, the ladies were in nothing more than just t-shirts and panties, ready for their nightly ritual baths before going into bed.
 
“No calls from the outside, Jefe?” The cowboy asks.
 
“Nothing yet. Could take days, could take weeks. But the order is out for a supply to get more of that anti-Spirit drug and I doubled my offer for it. Somebody is bound to call sooner or later.” The lone figure says to him.
 
“I see.” The cowboy says.
 
“You might as well relax and clean yourself up. It is going to be a while before we take long rides to nowhere again.” The lone figure throws at him.
 
“I got my own leads to follow on top of yours.” The cowboy says as he looks towards Raven, thinking that something with her is not right.
 
“Well, take a couple of days to rest up and make sure you are in as good as in condition as you put your ride into.” The lone figure tells him.
 
“I’ll be fine.” The cowboy growls.
 
“Let me remind you that every time we go out, it could be our last time. And let me remind you that we both had a very close call with the last mission. So do not go half-cocked into the dark room to go find a black cat that is not there. The spirits are entrenched in most parts of the world, but the world had enough of them and wants them out as soon as possible. But the Spirits are giving those willing to keep them here money and power over the population. We do not have that to give, but we are willing to do our part in eliminating them one way or another.” The lone figure tells him.
 
“If it weren’t for your Lolita-Moppet wife of yours siding with them, we would not be in this mess in the first place.” The cowboy scowls at him.
 
“Jeanette had very little to do with the spirit take-over of Earth, they were already in the hearts, minds and pockets of the politicians of the time some several decades before it all blew up in everyone’s faces. Why did you think the Marines fought off the aliens in Dulce Base, or in Area 55 and 56? But too many politicians had given them too much power and by the time they realized how much were given to them, it was too late. WWIII happened when they started to bombard the earth with asteroids and we tried to fight back. Now they think that they have much of the world enslaved, that they think they rule the world. Jeanette had nothing to do with that. She was just a pawn in their game to try to get to me and those I am with that have Time Travel technology. They can have my Chrono Staff when they can pry it out of my cold dead hand.” The lone figure tells him.
 
“Still. She made a Faustian Deal with them. For what? She can forever be an immortal child? That is a joke. It probably took her a long while getting’ used havin’ a grown man poundin’ her little ass all the time.” The cowboy throws at him.
 
“Let me remind you that during the time she was a child during our marriage, we never had sex like I have with Ichi and Min here. The most I ever got from her was a blow job and that is because she forced the issue about it. The one pounding her elementary school aged ass was that child-loving Wilbur and it is good that our younger selves helped us in killing one of his temporal clones, turning her into a young teen from the child she was. Four more to go and Jeanette can be an adult again instead of the 13 year old she is now.” The lone figure tells him.
 
“I still say we should round them all up and kill’em all at the same time.” The cowboy says.
 
“Everything in its place and in its time. That is the number one rule of being a time lord. Don’t you forget that.” the lone figure tells him.
 
The cowboy just scowls at the lone figure for a moment.
 
 
[Mid morning, around 10AM, Junk Town 98357, near what was Salt Lake City, Utah]
{Note: This is South and West of where the Convoy it at and not in the direction the Convoy is heading, which is South and East.}

 
Humans in tattered clothing worked the piles of junk with chains around their ankles and metal collars around their necks. They are covered in filth, making look dark in skin color though not having been able to shower to bathe in months and in some cases, years.
 
A group of Avian Wessens lead a chain of clean human individuals out of a blimp to a rickety shack of an office, some 20 in all though there was one two Wessens dragged in faced down by his shoulders and dropped him at the steps of the doors. A Wolf Wessen steps out of the office and looks at the body.
 
“What is this?” The Wolf Wessen growls at Avian Wessen.
 
“He tried to escape and had to be taught that escape is bad for one’s health.” The Avian says to him in a high pitched (Mike Tyson like) voice.
 
The Wolf Wessen looks at the line, seeing nothing but men and boys on it, and complains, “I told you I need girls here! I have enough men and boys to mine the piles. I need females to clean and cook for them and provide us with special services. And Pretty ones, not ones you gathered from a whore house or mutants you gathered on the side of highways!”
 
“Girls bring up the price, you know that!” the Avian Wessen argues.
 
“We got a contract. No girls, no money. If my miners are not fed, they die in the mines. Dead miners do not bring in money, money I would be paying you! Got that?!!” The wolf Wessen pokes at the Avian’s chest.
 
In the background there is some yelling and then a death scream that fades into the background as body falls from the end of a crane arm that has its pulley stuck and tangled. Both the Wolf Wessen and Avian Wessen watch the end of the fall as the body goes with a sickening “THUD!” as it hits the ground some 70 feet below. There is a scramble to the body to gather what valuables it may have until there is a gunshot fired into the air. Everyone stops and drop what they had gathered.
 
“Anyone taking from the body before I do will be joining him in the pit of bones!” The Wolf Wessen tells the crowd around the body. He then signals for a Fox Wessen and a Rat Wessen to gather the body’s things and the body to take it to a makeshift medical tent, if one can call it that. It is nothing more than some supported fabric over a suspended wire with a bench under it where the sick and wounded are bandaged up and send back into the mines.
 
As this is going on, on the far side on the furthest pile of the field a lone figure was pulling out various items and throwing them into a cart. He was also putting various other parts on a several piles. A young teen girl (about 13 in age) in a tattered school uniform goes up to him with a bucket with a ladle in it and something wrapped in dirty paper.
 
“Here Francisco.” The girl hand him the wrapped paper.
 
He leans against the side of the cart and unwraps it: a small cheese sandwich on stale bread. He pinches off the Black and green mold off the crust before eating the rest. After eating the sandwich he then drinks a couple ladle scoops of water from the bucket.
 
Putting the ladle back into the bucket, he leans over to the girl and kisses her on the forehead and reaches behind her and gropes her ass lightly under her skirt, “Thank you, Maria.”
 
“The master would shoot you in the head if he saw you being nice to me.” Maria tells him.
 
“Give me a few more days and we will be out of here. I promise you that. I almost have everything ready to go. I just need a couple more parts before we can go.” Francisco tells her.
 
Maria looks down at the floor, holding back tears. He puts his hand under her chin to make her look at him.
 
“I promise that we will escape from this place or die trying.” Francisco tells her.
 
Maria tells him before she walks away. Francisco looks at her as she walks away. It is at least 50 yards as she approaches another pile of junk when another man comes out of the pile and grabs onto Maria. She scuffles with him for a moment. Francisco reaches into his pocket and gets a junk made sling shot and puts a metal bolt that was on the floor into the throwing pocket, He pulls the elastic band as far as he can and takes aim. The bolt flies across the distance and hits the man on the side of the head, knocking out the assailant. He lets go of Maria as the rest of his body goes taut before he crumples onto the floor.
 
“Maria, run!” Francisco yells at her as he trots over to the knocked out attacker.
 
Maria runs away to safety though several of the attacker’s friends run to her and Francisco. Francisco pulls out a handmade blade about 2ft in length and stand in their way. Two of the attacker’s friend go up to him and drag his body away.
 
A third man steps up to Francisco and pulls out a similar handmade blade, “You do not rule here. This is my pile, not yours.”
 
“Only the master owns the piles. You owe nothing Nicolaz. Any of your girly-men or panty-boys touch Maria again while she is out here doing her job, I will gut everyone one of you and make your pile fall and crush your bones.” Francisco tells him.
 
“Dream on.” The pile leader tells him.
 
“Go #$@! yourself, your panty-boys and your girly-men.” Francisco starts to walk backwards to his pile. As soon as he sees the pile leader walks away, he turns and trots back to his pile.
 
Nicolaz yells as Francisco nears his pile, “Watch your back!”
 
Francisco picks up a few things and throws is into the bucket trailer of the small tractor he is about to get on, and then starts driving to the sorting area where his pickings will be checked and weighed, to earn his bed and room. He tries to save his credit and money, what little he can get, by eating lightly and sleeping outside during most of the year in good weather. He gets his card filled and pockets it, before going to the meal tent, he walks further to the master’s office. Seeing another line of newcomers being brought in he stands where he can be seen. He eventually is.
 
“Franco! What Da #$@! You Doing Here?!! GET OUT BEFORE I BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!” The master yells out.
 
Francisco raises his hands and says out loud to be heard, “Master, Sir. I’m Sorry To Bother You... Nicolaz and his boys tried to take Maria... again!”
 
“WHAT?!!!” The Master yells out, walking to Francisco. The Avian Wessen follows the Wolf Wessen as he steps to Francisco. The Wolf Wessen Master pulls his gun and puts it to Francisco’s head and hissed at him, “What was that you said?...”
 
“I am sorry to bother you, sir. But when Maria – the water girl, came to give me my drink, Nicolaz and his boys tried to take her.” Francisco tells him, adding, “I picked up something small but heavy and hit one of them in the head and they ran off.”
 
“HMPH...” The Wolf Wessen lets out through his nostrils.
 
“How you know he ain’t lying?” The Avian Wessen asks.
 
The Wolf Wessen turns to the Avian, “I can trust him not to lie. He does not cower to having a gun to his head when answering questions. His words do not change. His voice does not shake.”
 
“You can talk to Maria about what happened. She will tell you everything that happened.” Francicso tells him.
 
“You brought in your mining?” The Wolf Wessen asks, then says, “Show me your card.”
 
Francisco pulls out his card, handing it to him, “I’m sorry it is not much, sir.”
 
The Wolf Wessen looks at the card, 120 kilograms (250 pounds) of scrap iron and steel was recorded being brought in. He shows it to the Avian Wessen, saying, “Not Much? You did your quota! You need to rest, you been working out in the sun too long!”
 
“Eh?” The Avian Wessen replies.
 
The Wolf Wessen puts away his gun, taking Francisco by this shoulder and turns him to the Avian, “What this slave does on his own is more than most pile teams do with six men! That is why I have him out in the outer fields, something is out there, he will find it! He is the best slave I have. Strong, honest, does a hard day’s work, never complains. This is how slaves are to be!” He turns to Francisco, “You keep it up, I might make you into trainer, and teach these damn lazies how to do a good day’s work.”
 
“Thank you, sir. But I prefer to work alone.” Francisco says.
 
“Don’t be so modest.” The Wolf Wessen tells him. He then turns to the Avian for a second and then back to Francisco before giving him his card, “I’ll take care of Nicolaz and his ass humping panty-boys after I have a talk with Maria. Just watch your back on the piles. I do not want my favorite miner hurt because of them.”
 
Francisco nods but does not move until the Wolf Wessen lets go of his shoulder. Once the Wolf Wessen lets him go, Francisco starts to walk away. Eventually he gets onto his small tractor and drives back to his pile. Once in his pile, he continues with gathering bits of iron and steel and throwing them into the bucket on his tractor. Once he has the floor covered, he goes out to check on a smaller pile further out on the field. He drives the tractor behind the pile to hide it before he goes out and walks for a bit. He goes into another pile, though it is hiding a shed no one knows about. He goes inside and check out what was inside: an old custom build motorized tricycle based on a VW bug frame and a small tear drop trailer. He turns to a workbench and tosses a few gathered items onto it. He gives the trike and camper one last look before he goes back outside, sliding some garbage to cover the hidden door of the shack.

 
“Just a few more things and a few more days.” Francisco says to himself. He goes into his tractor and drives back to his pile. With the sandwich Maria got him, he had not need to go to the meal tent for food.
 
 
[CenterTown, Merchant Area]
 
Fernando and his group catch up with Hondo and his group. He looks into the cart he gave them, seeing it half full of various food items and supplies.
 
“Slim Picking?” Fernando asks.
 
“Just making sure we get a little of everything and a lot of what we need.” Hondo stated, adding “Besides, We ran into a bit of trouble.”  
 
“What kind of trouble?” Fernando asks.
 
“A merchant tried to accuse Marvin of stealin’ money and killin’ somebody for it. He would have shot him if I had not stepped in.” Hondo explains.
 
“Where is this merchant so I can speak to him?” Fernando asks.
 
“Lieutenant O’Reilly, and her men took them away.” Hondo explains.
 
Fernando nods then turns to Marvin, “You OK?”
 
“I’ll be fine, sir.” Marvin tells him.
 
“Good.” Fernando says as he looks into the cart Hondo’s group has. He then says, “I’ll get four shoulder hams and some hanged sausage and salami, and eggs. It does not matter if we copy our loads, we need to get what we can. Speak to Moro about storing the perishables in her refrigerated trailer.”
 
Fernando points to a merchant who has several burlap bags of assorted grains, telling Minerva, Mae, June, Marvin, Patricia and Madison, “Go there and wait for us. I need to ask Hondo a couple of questions.”
 
They nod at him and walk ahead, as Fernando waits with Hondo.
 
Hondo asks, “What you want to ask?”
 
“You look awful. You OK?” Fernando asks.
 
“It’s just stress Val is puttin’ me through. Nothin’ more.” Hondo tries to lie about his condition.
 
Fernando turns the crystal on his cane, “Then excuse me for doing this. You need boost whether you want it or not. I can’t have my right hand man sick to the point he is going to pass out on me.” He then raises the crystal of his cane and points it to Hondo, pressing it and zapping him with a bit of temporal rejuvenation and a boost of Bio energy.
 
Hondo stands there feeling better but for who knows how long, but angered about it being done to him, “If I want’d yur help I would have asked for it!”
 
“Let’s just get these supplies, and come back around 5 to get the campers. We got a long day, and you looked like shit warmed over. If you’re sick, tell me. I am a doctor though medicine today is least to be desired. Might as well get the Wessens to dredge the ponds for leeches and put a few on you.” Fernando tells him. Hondo just scowls at him for moment. Fernando continues, “Tomorrow, I need you to help me with one of my batteries. I think I have a bum pack I need to change out. But at 150 pounds, it’s no easy carry and it is in a hard place to get too.”
 
Hondo still miffed but goes with the subject change, “Gotta a replacement pack?”
 
“No. And I checked with the merchant where I got it from here, and he has no more.” Fernando says in half truth.
 
“We’ll figure something then.” Hondo replies.
 
Fernando starts stepping, “Let’s check out those grains.”
 
“I already got some oatmeal and flour.” Hondo says.
 
“How about some barley, rye and stuff? To brew our own beer and moonshine? Tomorrow I got a honey-bee keeping lady in Flight Town coming with some mead I showed her how to make with her honey. This will be her first batch and she will give us more before we go.” Fernando says.
 
The idea of making his own hooch got Hondo thinking. Yes he does have his own private stock, but that is not going to last for too long if the convoy trip goes into months or a year. He starts walking, thinking of some moonshine recipes and plans of making a still though he has one it is rather small for the intended purpose.
 
“We’re gonna need some yeast to make our own brew. I have some but not a lot.” Hondo points out.
 
“I gave Ruth some when we were here but that was for making bread. We can get more later on.” Fernando says.
 
Hondo nods as they catch up to the group.
 
 
[Harris-Layton Ranch]
 
Russell brings in some mish mash meal of grains he found and boiled in water to make them edible. That and a shared bottle of wine, completed their meal for the day, Russell needed to find more. Tammy, Jenny, and Jessica were able to clean up one of the burnt bathrooms to use the toilet and sink for some minimal hygiene use.
 
During the day Russell gathers a few found items into the Hay cart for the girls to have some comfort, camouflage and protection from the elements. He checks on the fuel situation and other needs for this multi-day trip they are going to do on the run. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. He managed to gather some loose ammo for the firearms her has. But he wants to do the run now though somewhere in his Wessen mind is telling him that he is not prepared and ready to do such a run. He keeps scrounging for food and things for the run for much of the day.
 
For them the day drags on before it turns into night.

[Mid afternoon, around 3PM, Junk Town 98357, near what was Salt Lake City, Utah]
 
A Wolf Wessen, an Avian Wessen and a couple of Fox and Rat Wessens walk about the mounds of junk accumulated over the dozens of decades since before The Happening. One of the Rat Wessens cracks a whip towards a pile, yelling “Stop Ya’ll Lala-gagging an’ Git Yo Ass To Wok!”
 
The Wolf Wessen and Avian Wessen continue walking while the Fox and Rat Wessens impose “proper work ethics” to the pile teams. They make it to the far end of the yard where Francisco and Nicolaz work their piles. Francisco is seen inspecting a few items before throwing them into trailer box on his small tractor. As he goes back to his pile, one of Nicolaz’s team is seen sneaking up to Francisco’s box trailer and taking things out to put into their box trailer. A Fox Wessen sneaks up to the trailer box and hits the thief with his whip, making him drop what he was stealing and jump up ten feet into the air. A Rat Wessen pounces on him and whips him a couple more times, eventually wrapping the whip about the thief’s boy. “Got’em!”
 
The Wolf Wessen with his Avian Wessen friend looks up onto Nicolaz’s pile before he yells, “Nicolaz! Get You and Your Pile Team Azzez down here! NOW!”
 
Nicolaz and his team climb down the pile and gather about the Wessen Masters.
 
Nicolaz tries to turn on the ass-kissing charm with a shit eating grin and a bow to the Wolf Wessen, “Yes, Master! What do you need?”
 
The Rat Wessen brings in the thief to the group and makes him kneel, while the Wolf Wessen inspects Nicolaz and his men. He finds one of them with a bruise to the side of his head. He pats him on the chest with the back side of his hand, and a couple of Fox Wessens going up the pile tem member and pulls him out of the line and makes him kneel with the trailer box thief.
 
“Nicolaz, you know what the penalty for stealing from another man-team’s pile.” The Wolf Wessen growls at him.
 
Nicolaz nervously answers, “Yes... sir.” But then he tries deny any thievery, “But no one been thieving here.”
 
“BULLSHIT!” The Wolf Wessen yells at him, “We Caught Your Man Stealing From Francisco’s Box!” He then pulls out his pistol, a large handgun – a .50 Dessert Eagle; aiming it to the thief’s head.
 
Francisco hides behind his pile, pretending to do work as he listens in. Instead of expecting to hear more shouting, there is a loud gun shot heard followed by the sickening thud of a body hitting on the junk laden floor. Then there was more shouting.
 
“Another Thing! No One Messes With The Water Girls! No One! One Of Your Panty-Boys Tried To Mess With Maria! No One Messes With The Water Girls! No One!” The Wolf Wessen shouts to Nicolaz and his men.
 
Another gunshot is heard echoing among the piles, followed by another sickening thud hitting the ground.
 
“I SEE OR HEARD OF YOU OR YOUR PANTY-BOY TEAM OF STEALING OR MESSING WITH THE WATER GIRLS, YA’LL DEAD!” The Wolf Wessen is heard shouting.
 
Francisco comes out of hiding to put a few more items into his trailer box, picking the items the thief dropped when he was caught and puts them back into his trailer box. Nicolaz turns to see Francisco but is smacked across his face by the hand and gun.
 
“DON’T BE LOOKIN’ AT FRANCISCO! FRANCISCO IS DOING HIS JOB ALL BY HIMSELF AND YOU GOT A TEAM AND I GET NOTHIN’ FROM YOU!” The Wolf Wessen yells at him.
 
“But Sir! This Pile Is Shit Poor!” Nicolaz tries to point out.
 
The Wolf Wessen goes to the bottom of the pile, reaches to it and pulls out the remains of a PC and drops it at Nicolaz’s feet. “Dat’s Steel, Aluminimum, Copper, and Gold! And This Pile Got Plenty For You To Pull Out And Separate Dem! But You’re Not! You Hording From Me? You Stealing And Selling My Stash? I Catch You Hording, Stealing And Selling My Stash – You Dead! Hear Me? YOU DEAD!!!”
 
Nicolaz nervously nods his head, holding back his tears as best he can, as he is trying to hide some of his pile’s stash and take them out at night to sell to a secret seller for a higher price.
 
The Wolf Wessen finally says, “You better bring in a full box in the next hour if your want food to fill your belly tonight.” He then picks up the PC before he begins to walk away to check on Francisco and his trailer box, “Leave the bodies where they are.”  
 
In a few seconds the Wolf Wessen and his entourage were at Francisco’s trailer box, eyeing the contents inside. The Wolf Wessen nods, “Now this is how it is done, and Francisco works alone.”
 
Francisco walks to the trailer box and puts on a few more items. He looks at the Wolf Wessen and his entourage.
 
“Francisco. This is your last pile of the day. You earned your rest and your meals.” The Wolf Wessen tells him.
 
“But there is more to do.” Francisco tells him.
 
“Don’t worry about it. You make me more money by yourself than most teams do.” The Wolf Wessen., adding, “My boys will be around to make sure Nicolaz and his panty-boys will leave you alone.”
 
Francisco, though welcoming the protection, he sees this as a disruption to his escape plans. For now he accepts the situation as it is and has to deal with it. He tells the Wolf Wessen, “I’ll finish filling this box and then I’ll take my rest.”
 
“Good. That is what I want to hear.” The Wolf Wessen says. He signals to his entourage and walk away from the piles.
 
Francisco turns to look at the area. He can see Nicolaz arching his thumb around his neck under chin, a threat against his life. But he does not care, his only thoughts are to get fuel and supplies for his escape vehicle for both he and Maria. A stash of money also in his plans, as he knows the slave cash used in the piles is not what is used outside. He knows he has a safe he found and has it in hiding with his escape vehicle, trying to figure out how to open it. It would be easy if he had a few power tools like those in the machine shop. He plans to sneak out at night and try to cut open the safe with a few blades he scrounged around from the machine shops with the excuse of “I need something that will cut some large metal frame pieces into small pieces so they can fit in my trailer box.”
 
4:30 comes and Francisco drives his tractor to the scrap dump and sorting site. 300 pounds of mostly iron and steel with few tens of pounds of copper wiring came out of his box. He gets credited accordingly and marked on his card. With this being his last load of the day, there is nothing for him to do. He needs to make himself scarce until the late afternoon slave community meal.
 
As he walks around, one of the many water girls, Tamara (age 14) runs up behind Francisco calling his name, “Francisco, Francisco, Francisco...”
 
Francisco stops, turns about and looks at her. “Yes, Tam?” He asks.
 
“Is it true that the master shot a couple of pile team guys out in the field?” Tamara asks.
 
“I do not know as I did not see it. All I heard was a couple of gunshots and that was it. I did not see it happen and I did not see any bodies, so I know nothing.” Francisco explains.
 
“Oh. I thought you may know who it was or saw what had happened.” Tamara says.
 
“Nope. I was behind the pile, not on it, so I did not see anything. Only heard two gun shots.” Francisco points out.
 
“OK. Well... Maybe I can get what happened from somebody who saw something.” She tells him before stepping up to him. She leans to him, putting one hand on his chest and the other cupping his balls and shaft through his pants, “I heard you made double your load today... maybe you could give me a little something from it if I gave you a little something in return?”
 
“Maybe later. Right I can’t, the master wants to see me about signing off on it, because, you know – you cannot bring in a double load and expect to be paid for it.” He lies to her, hoping that she would take a hint.
 
Tamara steps back from him and looks at him, “Oh... so you have nothing?”
 
“Master took my card and wants to see me before meal time.” Francisco lies even further to convince her.
 
“Oh... Well... let me know when you get it back.” Tamara tells him before running away.
 
Francisco looks at her running away before shaking his head. He starts to walk to his place, a locked room in a barn sized shed in a corridor of doors of other rooms. He passes by Ross, an old miner who has worked the mines for too long and though can no longer work in the mines due to fading health and old age, many trust him to keep an eye on the rooms to make sure no one breaks into somebody else’s room and only The Master has the keys to all the rooms and can go into them anytime he so wishes. Though many share their rooms with a trusted roommate, Francisco ‘lives’ alone, and prefers it that way. The females have their own dorm building, and so call married slaves had their marriages ended one way or another, including death. The Master has deemed that sexual interaction between human males and females is not allowed though some couples snuck around until caught and then they were killed. It is a risk for them to undertake with the price of their lives if they are caught. The Master deemed that all female humans when they are not tending to support services for the slave camp are for his sexual toys for the taking and doing as he wishes with them.
 
Francisco goes through his private bag of his things, mostly clothing. Everything seems to be there. In a smaller bag was more clothes but for a girl, escape clothing he gathered for Maria by taking the occasional clothing item from the drying line when nobody was looking. He thinks that he need to get Maria’s bag to the escape vehicle as soon as possible, sometime between now and later at night. In short, having nothing to do is driving him mad.
 
He steps out of his room and locks it up, and goes into the open air men’s room, which is nothing more than a trough where guys would urinate against the wall and down a trough. Occasionally it gets cleaned with a spray of water from a hose but this need to be done several times a day and not the two or three times it actually happens.
 
Other than Nicolaz, Francisco gets along with most of the pile team members. Most give a nod gesture as they pass by each other. There is an occasional question about what to do with certain unknown things that were found, which Francisco giving what answers he can give. He walks about the camp, though it is rare that he does this but now he has this time he looks at activity of the camp and the placement of the guards.  He notices that it is very different from what he observes of the night crew. The Day guards tend to do a lot more walking about and there are a lot more of them – more than five times more guards, while the night guards tend to stay within the lighted area and there are a lot less of them. There are guards in the four towers but no spot lights as they were never replaced or repaired from when they were destroyed long ago; as he can see there are two guards in the towers, like there are at night. But one thing that is common to both is that the guards do not venture out into the piles.
 
Francisco looks about and sees the Slaver’s blimp by the Master’s office shack. That would be a major issue for his plans of escape. In another life Francisco would have been an engineer or mechanic but life in the Chaos is a hassle and a constant fight for survival. Thus he had designed a few things for himself, including a small but powerful crossbow with a lever loading system, and some 6 and 9 inch rockets with some flaming powder he had found and stashed away with the motor-tricycle. He decides that during the night he would make more rockets and ammo for the crossbow.


 
Then again he hopes that ship will be leaving soon though chances are after selling and gathering slaves, the blimp will stay for a few days as the crew usually goes to the nearby town to gather supplies and fuel for the blimp and crew, as well as R&R (Recreation and Relaxation) for the crew themselves. Either way, he needs to avoid the town and the next couple towns as news of escaped slaves travel quickly along the wireless. If he had some sort of radio, it would be great to listen in. Any radio he finds would likely be broken, like the many he has found thus far. Even the most intact radios found in some of the vehicles in the plies that could work with some minor repairs were impossible to repair because basic electronic tools needed to do the repairs do not exist in the piles and slave dorms. Most of the radios found in the piles are collected regardless of condition and piled up in a check room with certain other equipment to be examined and if simple repairs are needed or work as is, are put into a pile to be sold as working equipment. He would have to go in, figure out which is a working radio set up, steal it and set it up on his ride before he makes his escape.



 
He does have a couple of working batteries he made disappeared before others could claim them. He also has a small 800 watt generator, which he does not know if it works but if he needs, he could probably sell it. Even if it does work, he does not have much to connect it too. A small dual burner camper stove inside the rear of his tear drop camper along with a plastic and Styrofoam cooler to keep things cold though getting ice is not a problem being in the mountains.




 
He thinks what else he might need. He already has some blankets he stole which somebody else got blamed for and he does not care as it is in the camper, and he’s taking his pillow for when he escapes. He thinks and plans for the escape within the next day or two. He continues to walk about the camp thinking.