An Arcane Engineer in Another World: Book I, Exile, chapter 7

The wind died down around dawn. The snow was piled up around the station, but I managed to force the door open and pulled my sled out, after making certain nothing was waiting for me.

I had one more heat stone, my two legs and…

Yeah. I’d better get to that town today. At least it’d have better shelter. Maybe people. Hopefully, no elemental possessed bears.

The first part of the day started out… decently. My clothes were keeping me warm enough, the breeze was mild, and the snow that had come down last night wasn’t too soft for my rigged up snowshoes. I had some jerky that had come with me, not as good as the broth, but something you’d eat while walking. I’d kept it under one arm so it wasn’t teeth-shattering cold, and it was…

Okay, it was jerky. Some water from my insulated canteen washed it down, and it kept me moving because I sure as hell wasn’t stopping in the open.

Forget bear-monsters. Nobody had stopped at that shop, nobody had come back to check on the dead in the vehicles.

And that meant it was very likely that the storms I’d seen weren’t the worst this place was enduring.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Lift foot, move forward, hear the crunching sound of the crust of ice before I pushed down into the snow. Behind me there was a long line of footprints that would last… well the light wind was already covering them over.

But the terrain was starting to change. Hills that had been invisible in the misty day were now appearant, and the road was starting to rise. I came to a sign:

TARLETON-TOWN, FIVE MILES.

Huh. I made really good time…

There were other roads, signs directing me to other towns and “Edwards Fantasy Park” whatever that was.

I didn’t need to worry about it. There was no sign of travel along those roads which meant they were either empty…or the people had stayed too long.

As the road started moving up to the hills, the snow got shallower, and I noticed a pair of metal tracks paralleling the road. The trains the atlas had spoken of. The road was still broad and you could see where they’d cut through the mountain, cliffs of granite. This had taken a lot of effort.

And they didn’t even have any mages. I could figure that later. I kept hiking, my legs starting to get sore, but I wanted to be in shelter, hopefully with some people to see, before nightfall.

I stopped at one little cutout, “Marie’s Diner” spelled out on the sign. Okay, I’d take some time here… I poked my head in, did a little search…

But found nothing of use. The food was gone. Plenty of glasses with lettering: “Genuine Marie’s Diner Glasswear.” Plenty of forks…

But everything you might need to stay alive was gone. And the place was locked up.

Another vote for most people knew what was coming and the dead I’d encountered had been delayed or refused to leave until it was too late.

I shook my head, and then blinked. Was the wind getting…

Yeah. I looked down seeing little flurries of snow being blown across the road, then looked back and…

Oh. Gods.

While I’d been in the diner, the horizon had turned dark, a titanic wall of dark clouds, shot through with lightning, covered the entire horizon.

Stay or run… I glanced back at the diner. Glass windows, some broken, broad doors…

It wouldn’t protect me. Not enough. I was only a few miles from the top of the road, and then it’d descend into the crater where they’d built Tarleton-Town. Where I could find people, or at the very least buildings big enough to shield me.

Right. And without any further hesitation I started moving as fast as I could.

The road kept climbing, a couple of switchbacks which wouldn’t be a problem except for the damned snow.  The tracks kept going straight, soon buried in a thick cover of snow, vanishing into  snowbank that ended in a cliff.

A tunnel. But even if it wasn’t filled with snow, I had no way to get through it.

And now the clouds were starting to occlude the setting sun, turning everything dark, the wind kicking up and the snowflakes were falling fast.

Flashes of lightning cast the hills into a stark relief, followed by rumbles of thunder—and the thunder knocked down chunks of snow from the slopes above me.

Really? Now you’re hitting me with fucking avalanches? 

“Find my destiny my ass!” I growled, by breath clouding with every exhalation. I threw the globe of light out in front of me. A little while longer and I’d be at the top of the hill and could look down into the city.  The hope gave me a burst of speed as I kept moving and… Almost there… the broad road was empty and at this point the snow was actually not that thick.

I paused, and looked down and…

Fuck.

The city was a looming mass in the valley. I could see the lake that had formed at the far end, the hills that surrounded it…

But no lights. No steam rising from the buildings, even the biggest one which looked to be about ten stories tall, the blocky, boring architecture strange. It was…

They left. They—And then the storm hit me like a battering ram. The wind was bad enough, but the show was roaring through…

This isn’t a natural storm… I shook my head, hood doing nothing to really shield me. Groping my way to the road’s guardrails, I started walking along them, my light barely letting me see a foot in front of me.

The fucking storm was just cutting through my clothing and…

I didn’t have a choice. I spoke the words triggering my working and moments later,the cold subsided. I wasn’t warm, there was only so much a working could do, but I wasn’t freezing.

But I could feel the drain on the magic. I had a half hour at best. At worst…

C’mon, Marcus, time to move!

I threw everything I had into the light, but it didn’t matter that much, as the wind driven snow caught the light and sent it back in a disorienting glow. Still, I wasn’t about to march forward in darkness…

The sled got harder and harder to pull and I heard the sound of rumbling avalanches around me. I didn’t slow down. If my luck ran out, I wouldn’t see the avalanche until it was too late. If one blocked the road, I’d die when my working failed. It was cold enough now that even with my clothing, I’d freeze to death in minutes.

This must have been the kind of storm that froze the trees, froze those poor people.

Is gonna freeze me unless I keep moving and find shelter before the working fails.

So I kept moving, one hand on the road rail as the road wound down to Tarleton-Town. I kept moving, even as the lightning started flashing nearly nonstop. Behind me, I heard a rumbling sound, tons of rock and ice thundering down.

Not gonna get back that way…

But I kept moving. Down, down, down and now I was just walking in a little globe of light and I could feel my working fading.

Finally I felt the road flatten out and…

Shit.  No more guardrail. I was in the city.

I pulled my compass out and now I could feel the cold just slicing into me. I kept my light going, looked at the arrow.

Right. Go straight. I have to hit a building sooner or later. I tried not to consider walking in a straight line down the middle of a road, dying within feet of shelter.

And then I ventured forth into the storm, keeping my eyes focused on the compass needle.

After only a few minutes, I was staggering forward, the light getting sloppy, dimmer, as I lost concentration.

Just one foot in front of the other, I thought. Gonna hit a wall. Gonna hit a door.

The working flickered out and now it was like I was naked in an ice bath.

C’mon! Don’t fall! Keep going!

And then I hit a wall. Good, not in the middle of the road. Now I needed a door, before I froze.

I kept feeling along the wall. I let the sled lines go. The sled wasn’t gonna help me, and if I didn’t freeze to death I could find it later.

I pushed alongside the wall, my fingers freezing through my gloves as they touched the cold stone, and then my light went out, and I couldn’t redo the ritual to get it back. I—

A door. Yes! I fumbled for the door knob and…

Locked.

Fuck. I was gonna die here. I was gonna die here a foot from salvation and—

Bullshit.

“Shovel will save your life boy,”  the memory of the guard’s comment resonated in my mind and I reached for where I’d strapped it to  my backpack. My fingers were fumbly, tingly, but I managed to wedge the tip of the shovel in the gap between the door and the frame.

“C’mon!” I shouted, the wind pulling my words away. I strained and… With the sound of cracking the door opened, and I forced my way in, past some hanging curtains. The place felt warm. A lot warmer. Dark though.

“Okay, I can—“ And that’s when something very heavy hit me on the back of the head and I was out like a light.

****

I didn’t know how much longer, but I woke up, sitting in a chair, my head pounding from the blow.  Not tied up. That was good. There were a couple of burning lanterns in the room and I could see through the dim light I had an audience.

There was a girl, a teenager, holding some kind of odd device, the two open cylinders pointed at me.

Probably a weapon.

And there were more… kids. Younger kids, looking at me.

“Hello?” I said. Maybe I can make friends.

“We’re going to eat you,” one little girl said.

Okay. Maybe making friends was a little optomistic.