07/18/01:

                Olias and I said our good-byes to the acolytes this morning and met the rest of the group for breakfast back at Colonel Nightshade's camp. It was unanimous; we were ready to leave. Olivia had changed Scooby's fuel from gasoline to grain alcohol, so we wouldn't be taxed on it. We were set.

                I thanked Nightshade for the hospitality and gave her the messages to be sent to Vegas. She promised that she'd give them to the next group headed that way that she felt she could trust. I asked her what would be a fair price for the delivery and got the money for her to pay them.

                By the time we actually hit the road it was about 9:00 and Leo was fretting about the late start. Alfred volunteered to drive and as soon as we hit the road I realized how tired I was. Judging by his yawns so was Olias. So we each claimed a bunk and crashed.

                We were awoken almost immediately as we had just started the trip down from the crest of the Cathedral Range. Alfred abruptly stopped Scooby and called out, "Hey everybody, come up here, real quiet!"

                There, in the middle of the road, was a unicorn! He was beautiful. He was facing us with his head lowered ever so slightly. Then out of the trees came a mare leading four foals - all with tiny little horns! They were so cute!

                They crossed the road and worked their way into the trees - all but one, that is. The littlest one stopped to turn and look at us. The mare reappeared from the trees and shooed him after the others. Once they were all safely in the trees, the stallion in front of us blinked out of sight.

                Olivia wanted to go pet them, but Leo told her, "I think this is one of those things best kept in our memories." Alfred started us up again, Olias & I went back to sleep, and the trip was uneventful for quite some time.

                We were outside Bridgeport when we came across a group of people headed towards us in a wagon train of sorts. They had some camels hauling an assortment of old pickups - some with camper shells and some with fabric tops, like you would see on an old Conestoga wagon. Riding out front and trailing behind were two men on horses. As we got closer we could see there were some Changelings with them. Olivia woke Olias & I up, just incase things got interesting.

                As they neared us, we could see that they were eyeing us quite nervously. Olivia turned on the PA system and hollered out to them, "Where are you folks headed?"

                They kept going and Alfred asked, "Do you want to talk to them?" Sure, why not? So he pulled over and stopped. The man who'd been riding behind the group stopped as we got out to talk to them.

                "Nice wheels," he commented.

                "Thank you."

                "So whatchawant?" he asked.

                Olivia said, "We were just wondering where you were going."

                "Over the hill."

                "Okay," she persisted. "Where are you from?"

                "Everywhere. Some of us started out from Billings. We thought we'd try Southern California. No snow."

                "No! You don't want anything to do with Southern California!" I blurted out.

                "Why?"

                So we explained that most of Southern California is controlled by Ka.

                "Who's Ka?"

                Turned out they knew what Orcs are but had not heard of Ka. They'd spent the last 6 to 8 months in Reno. "Trying to earn enough to get these vehicles. The Boss we were working for suggested that we might try Southern California."

                "Really, we can't warn you strongly enough - don't go there. You'll have everything you own taken from you and you'll end up as slave laborers."

                "Well, thank you for that warning. We need to have a group meeting. Would you all mind waiting a few minutes?"

                "Of course not."

                He whistled the rest of the group to a stop and while they walked back to us we got some maps out of Scooby.

                Sven said that he would stay inside.

                "No flame-throwers! We're going to be out there, too!" I told him. Leo agreed to stay with Sven and keep him out of trouble.

                Now that we could see the rest of the group, we could see that there were very few Changelings - almost all of them were Humans. A man stepped forward and introduced himself as Micah; he seemed to be nominally in charge of the group. We showed them on our maps where the different groups held power and told them what we could of the groups.

                New Ectopia was ruled out immediately. Micah said, "We tried there before Reno. Do you know it's illegal to be a Christian there? I'm telling you, it's Sodom and Gomorrah up there."

                A woman began to cry, "We can't go back to Reno. What should we do? Tell us."

                Someone tried to comfort her and Micah said, "Back when the Rapture happened ("oh no!" I thought to myself.) and the Faithful were taken, we were not in a state of grace. And like so many others (That was directed right at us) we were left here to deal with the Devil's work and the mutations - no offense!"

                "There was nothing for us in Billings. I thought it was all a sick joke that the Mormons of all people were saved. Satan set them high in His service. Your vehicle made us nervous; we've seen others like it, but never with your kind in it. Well, anyway, we thought we'd try the Pacific Coast. Maybe try our hand at fishing, but it sounds like that, too, is Satan's playground."

                "We thought Reno would be safe, lots of water, not too many people, but it had been handed over to criminals."

                "Yeah, we heard," I said, "prison escapees."

                "When we got to Reno, we were offered a choice. We had three days to pick which 'Boss' we wanted to work for. You're not allowed to remain neutral. You must pick a 'family' or move on."

                "And once you've made the choice, they give you lots of things so that you're beholden to the family. And then you have to work it all off. It took us eight months."

                I asked them about Carson City.

                "Some of the lesser criminals moved in there and are trying to imitate Reno."

                "Did you have trouble getting thru?" I asked.

                "We had nothing worth taking," he said with a jerk of his head towards Scooby. "So they didn't bother us."

                Olivia asked how the place was armed.

                "Lots of hand weapons, vehicles. Some larger stuff. The strongest Boss - Vincinzo - he likes to be called 'Godfather' or 'Patrone'. They're all nothing but a bunch of cheap hoods that saw the movies too many times. They're not even good Catholics, not that there is such a thing as a 'good Catholic'."

                I glanced over to Olivia who seemed amused by my glare. "If you stay on this road," she told them, "you'll end up in Yosemite. You'll be allowed in, but the area is a sanctuary for the followers of Corellon."

                The man nodded, "A demon."

                I was fuming now! Corellon save me from ignorant, sanctimonious, bigoted Born Agains!

                Alfred moved to put himself between the guy and me and said, "Well, I don't think you'll like Vegas much either."

                "Which is too bad, since that's your best bet," I said, leaning around Alfred.

                So we started throwing out other options.

                "There's President Ventura."

                "He's dead!"

                We explained that he is not. That he's alive and well and in Nebraska. We didn't bother to mention that he's now a Klingon. That would probably just upset them.

                "And then there's Kansas."

                One of the women spoke up excitedly. "Kansas? I'm from Kansas City - tell me!" So we explained the situation there.

                "A militia took over? That sounds promising. Some good Christians?"

                Whatever.

                "But how do we get there?"

                "Go east?" I said. "But do your best to avoid Denver. The Dragon who controls it is pretty formidable."

                They didn't like the sound of that at all. "Would you take us there?" someone asked.

                "Um - no. We're going northwest and you need to go east," I said.

                Another woman asked, "Tell us about Vegas? It is the closest. And God will provide. Who's in charge there?"

                I said, "Oh, you're just gonna love this! Cats run the place."

                "Cats?"

                Olivia asked them, "Do you remember Siegfried and Roy?"

                "The sodomites? What of them?"

                So we tried to explain how the city of Las Vegas is dominated by large, bipedal, sentient Cats, but I don't think they believed us. "They're vastly more intelligent than most people we've met recently," I said and Alfred poked me in the ribs for it.

                Olivia explained, "The Cats (or Overlords as they like to be called) each have a domain in their control and have taken the names of the hotels they inhabit. Some of them are very deceitful, but others are quite nice."

                "Lords Bellagio and Excalibur are our favorites," I said.

                "Technologically speaking, they are the most advanced," Olivia said. "They've got electricity, TV, and cable."

                "And food and water," I said. "Hospitals and medicine." I didn't mention the other forms of Healing.

                The same woman said, "Maybe we can find someone to travel with."

                I said, "Go to Yosemite. The Demon loving Elves there will help you, maybe even find someone they trust for you to travel with."

                Micah said, "We have nothing against your brethren, but…"

                I cut him off, "No buts. Save it. Go ask - they'll help you."

                Olivia warned them of the 'welcome' they would receive at the border. "And then they'll use some Magic on you - but it's not anything that'll harm you, so just go with it."

                Alfred went back into Scooby and came out a few minutes later with a small piece of paper rolled into a scroll tied with some string. He handed it to Micah, "Here. Take this but don't open it. Go to Vegas, look around, ask around, and if you decide to stay - take this to the Excalibur. But don't open it. Give it as is to whoever's on duty there." Then he said to Olivia and I, "We need to get going."

                Micah took it, looking as if he expected it to bite him, "Umm, thank you."

                Alfred put his hand out and as Micah shook it he said, "Consider this a test of faith."

                "Thank you. What should we call you?" Micah asked.

                "Demons?" I suggested.

                "Samaritans," Alfred said.

                "Jazz's Posse?" Olivia said brightly.

                "Huh?"

                Alfred pointed my way; "She's Jazz. We're her posse"

                Micah was grasping for something that made sense, "So when we get to Yosemite, we should tell them that Jazz's Posse sent us?"

                "No!" I exclaimed.

                "But they like you there," Olivia said. "Okay, seriously now - tell them that Jazz, Olivia and Alfred sent you."

                He nodded and asked; "Do you mind if we pray for your safety?"

                "Of course not," said Alfred.

                I was feeling bad (but only a little bit) for being so impatient with them, "And we really do wish you luck and hope that you make it to Vegas."

                "Yes," said Olivia, "and we recommend the Excalibur. Nice rooms, great service, good food and a nice pool."

                "Just ignore the dragon - she's only a baby and would never hurt anyone," I said.

                "But don't call her a baby - she hates that," Olivia cautioned. "But she does love chocolate."

                A few people sighed longingly and one woman said, "Chocolate?" I exchanged a look with Olivia and we agreed so she got some chocolate and handed it to them.

                As she did she asked, "If you don't mind my asking, what brand of Christians are y'all, anyway?"

                "Brand?"

                "Flavor? Franchise!" she tried.

                "I think the word you are looking for is 'denomination'. Church of Christ," Micah answered.

                We wished them luck again and we all climbed into our respective vehicles. As we did we noticed that a woman was very carefully breaking the chocolate up and making sure that everyone got a piece.

                As Leo got us going again, I said to Alfred, "What was it? Come on, spill!"

                "Well, before I left, I gave Allison some instructions."

                "Yeah…and?"

                "And a list of General Orders."

                "So what was on the paper?"

                "A number '6'."

                "What?" He was having way too much fun teasing us.

                "General Order Number Six, a discount for citizenship. And I tied it with a special knot. Allison knows that if the knot isn't correct or not there at all, then it's been tampered with and they won't get the discount."

                "Ah! Very clever."

                "Hey Leo," I said. "Did you hear much of that out there?"

                "Most of it."

                "Can you find us a different route? I really want to avoid trouble."

                So we checked our maps and decided on 395 to the 108. The 108 to 49 at Sonora and then the 49 to the 16 which should take us right into Sacramento. "But it'll all be back roads," Leo warned.

                "I really think that would be best, don't you?" I asked. There was a general agreement and off we went.

                The going was slow - the roads were in pretty bad condition in a lot of places and there were quite a few places where we had to deal with mudslides, just like Slash had warned us. Anyway, we didn't reach Sonora until sundown.

                There weren't many people visible and the damage wasn't as extensive as we'd seen in other places. There were lots of fires burning, but they were fires for warmth and cooking for a change. All the exits leading from the road to populated areas were blocked with the usual stack of wrecked cars and some of the blockades had armed guards as well.

                "Let's ask if there's someplace we can stop for the night," I suggested.

                Olivia agreed, "It's getting too dark to be travelling these roads in their current conditions."

                Leo slowed down and that got their attention! Olivia opened the side door and said, "Is there any overnite parking available?"

                The guards looked at each other and one said, "Wait a minute." He disappeared behind a stack of cars and reappeared a few minutes later with another man carrying an assault rifle.

                "Overnight parking?" he asked.

                We explained that we were just passing thru and wanted somewhere to park our vehicle so we could get some rest.

                He gave Scooby a long look and said, "Well that thing is making our people a might nervous; they'd be happier if you just kept moving. But a mile, maybe a mile and a half past the far side of town, there's a turnoff to the old county airport. There's not much out there anymore. That'd probably be a good bet for you."

                We thanked him and Leo started us up again. We heard one of the guards ask, "What the Hell was that?"

                "I don't know, but, damn!" his friend replied. A third said, "I think I saw it in a movie once...Tom Cruise was in it, I think..." The conversation faded and they watched carefully as we headed off.

                Olivia said, "It didn't seem like a set-up to me." We agreed and with a minimum of trouble we found the road. It was pretty well covered by an old mudslide, but Leo managed to get Scooby up and over it all. 10-wheel drive rules!

                The airport itself was the mess we've come to expect. The buildings and all the planes were nothing more than burnt-out, looted wrecks. Interestingly, there were three very precisely placed craters in the runway. Leo looked them over closely and said, "Someone wanted to make sure that no one uses this airstrip ever again. But they're very old craters, no worries."

                So we broke out some MRE's for dinner (mmmm yummy! I swear you could use the chicken and rice to lubricate something!) and Olivia volunteered for the first watch. I took the second and Leo the third.

07/19/01:

                During Olivia's watch last night, we were awakened by the sound of the turret rotating, followed by Olivia's voice on the external PA system, "I suggest you go elsewhere," she said.

                "What is it?" Leo demanded. "Report!"

                "Heat scope - five people moving through the bushes towards us. They all stopped moving when I went on the loudspeaker. Oh, look, they're getting stupid."

                She keyed the PA again, "Get out of here or I'll strafe your asses." A couple of them took the advice but three others decided to stay. Olivia fired a few rounds from the driver's side Brownings into the dirt near them. That did it - the rest took off, too. After that the night was quiet. The next time we woke it was to the smell of the coffee that Leo was brewing to go with the breakfast he had fixed for us all. MRE ham loaf & cheese omelets - well, at least the eggs were real…

                When we were done with breakfast and morning 'duties', Olivia wanted to go search the bushes where the people had been last night.

                "Why?" Leo asked. "The urine will be all dried up by now." She made a universal gesture of familial affection & went off to the bushes. She poked around for a few moments but found nothing.

                Alfred asked, "So, do we want to look around or just assume that all the good stuff's gone?"

                General consensus was to hit the road.

                Alfred followed the track that Leo had made last night back to the road, where we found two people waiting for us. Both were human, a young white girl and an older black guy, both carrying backpacks.

                They waved to make sure we saw them. We stopped and the girl asked, "Can we hitch a ride with you? We need to get away from here. It's important."

                "Why?" we asked.

                "Ever hear of Romeo and Juliet?" the man asked. "The town isn't happy about the whole black / white thing. We keep telling them that 'inter-racial' means something completely different now, but they won't see reason." I could see Olivia fighting to hold in a wisecrack about Othello being a more apt analogy. Her common sense won out and she kept it to herself.

                "Well, we're going to New Ectopia," I said, "with a stop in Sacramento."

                "That's just fine with us," the girl said. "Can we go - now? My parents will notice that we're gone soon."

                Olivia asked, "Are they going to come chasing after us with heavy weaponry?"

                "Not if we leave soon," the man said.

                "Oh okay. Get in," Olivia said.

                They introduced themselves as Bethany and Tyrone, she was 16 and he was 20. "And we both want this," Tyrone said. "We've known each other for six years now." Olivia confirmed they were being truthful.

                Tyrone went on to say, "I feel bad that we have nothing to offer you as payment for the ride."

                "Company!" Alfred yelled.

                There were three pickups with maybe six to eight people each coming up behind us. Olivia got on the P.A. and told them, "Back off! You do not want to fuck with us."

                They started shooting.

                Sven triggered the flaming oil jets. The vehicles themselves were out of range, but the road was now covered. One of the trucks managed to stop short of the oil. The second one veered to avoid it and flipped over - right on top of the flames. The driver of the third truck floored it and they zoomed right thru the flames and continued to chase us.

                "This is your second warning and it's all your gonna get," Olivia told them.

                They opened fire again. So Olivia fired back and when the smoke cleared the front of the truck was gone and it slowly coasted to a stop. Then we saw the first truck had worked its way past the flames and was catching up.

                Leo yelled, "Olivia! See this rock overhang ahead? After we pass it, drop some grenades on it."

                "But not too many!" I yelled.

                "No, three or four should do it," Leo said.

                She launched the first three no problem, but the fourth jammed in the launcher and detonated inside it.

                The blast knocked Olivia down out of the turret. She landed with a loud thud and was quite a bloody mess from all the shrapnel. I rushed over to help her and she looked up at me and said, "Ouch."

                As I was healing her, Leo climbed up with a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. He came down and reported that the launcher is history and the electronics are all fried. And looking up into it as the smoke cleared, you could see blue sky through a gaping rent in the turret armor.

                Olivia asked Bethany and Tyrone, "How did they know you were with us?"

                Tyrone said, "You're only the second vehicle to come this way in the last six months; not too hard to figure it out."

                Leo said, "We're going to have to stop in Sacramento for repairs."

                "Did we lose anything that we have to go back and pick up?" I asked. He shook his head.

                "My chair is broken," Olivia said.

                So we continued on. Leo took over for Alfred and as evening got closer we hit the junction with highway 16. There was a squatter's village there. A BIG one, and the people moved to block the road by standing in the way. Leo slowed some and used the P.A. to warn them, "We will not stop. If you stand in front of us you will be steamrollered."

                They didn't stop and he hit the brakes. "Bastards!" As he tried to move in reverse I could see that some people had moved to stand in front of the wheels - holding babies and small children. He realized that he couldn't back up either, so he stopped and asked, "Suggestions?"

                "What do they want?" Olivia asked.

                "Everything we have," I said.

                Leo said, "We can't go forwards or backwards and we can't use the turret." Olivia took offense. "That's not an accusation Olivia, I'm just reviewing facts."

                "Wait!" Olivia said. She opened a window and leaned out of it. She shot off some fireballs, right over the heads of the crowd.

                Most of the people fled, including the people with the children in front of the wheels.

                "Floor it!" she yelled.

                Leo didn't exactly floor it, but he got us moving again. There were a few diehards who stood their ground and got squashed for their troubles and as we passed, some people threw some Molotov cocktails at us. Two of them missed and a third really missed and ended up landing in a campsite.

                Leo continued to pick up speed and they were soon behind us. Olivia was going to say something to Leo, but took a look at the warface he was wearing and thought better of it.

                A few miles later we passed another camp. It was much smaller and the people just watched as we drove past them. But on the far side of the settlement we saw a line of motorcycles and a number of people moving towards them.

                Leo punched it and sped us up some more. Maybe a quarter of a mile later he heard (and felt) an explosion on the right side of the road - and something hit us, hard. The force knocked everyone off their feet, and we fishtailed wildly as Leo fought for control. There was a screeching, grinding noise like sheet metal being fed into a wood chipper coming from the right side, and smoke & flames were pouring out from underneath us. Warning lights and alarms flashed on, indicating a tire was gone and our number 3 axle was having problems. Leo cut drive power to that axle and kept going. The screeching faded, but the grinding remained. We could see headlights gaining on us.

                "We're hit but we can't stop," Leo said. Duh! Those SEAL boys, always on top of the latest breaking news!

                Olivia said, "Sven, wait until we say so before hitting those oil jets."

                Alfred gave him the go ahead and it was 'bye-bye motorcycles!'

                We rounded a curve onto an open stretch of road and could see Sacramento ahead of us. Alfred looked out the window nearest the problems and reported all he could see was smoke and flames.

                Leo said, "I'm pretty sure we can make it to town, but we need to put that fire out."

                Olivia told him to keep a firm grip on things; she was going to summon up an ice storm to put the fire out. "No! Don't," he said. He slowed us down as much as he could and put Scooby into low gear, "I don't want to stop completely for fear of not getting it started again. Somebody grab an extinguisher and hop out."

                Olivia gave me her wand of fireballs. "Cover me," she said as she got the extinguisher. Alfred helped her out and then back in when she was done.

                "Fire's out," she reported. "It had been in one of the storage compartments." She also told us that the tire was completely gone and it looked like the axle had been bent. "And there's a steel plate at least two feet square lodged in the wheel well. That's what hit us."

                Alfred said that the storage compartment that had burned was one with spare parts and electronics for Scooby.

                "It's not all that bad," I said. "Leo says we can make it to Sacramento. And that's what? An hour and a half from San Francisco? Well, we have it from a reliable source that at least one of the area military bases, Onizuka, is still functioning. Well, we just happen to have Jesse's very own ambassador with us. They have to give us parts."

                "We'll see about that when the time comes," Leo said. More lights were turning red and amber on Scooby's status board, so Leo cut drive power to axels 4 & 5. The grinding continued, though.

                As we got closer to Sacramento, the highway was lined with razor wire barricades to keep traffic moving only one way. A sign proclaimed, "Welcome to Sacramento - Be Prepared to Stop." We came upon a heavily guarded gate and as Leo pulled to a full stop he muttered, "I sure hope I can get this thing started again."

                A guard approached, "Good afternoon, the purpose of your visit?"

                "Well, originally it was to get papers to visit New Ectopia, but now it's that and repairs."

                The guard nodded in a good approximation of sympathy; "I have to charge you an entrance fee, no matter the purpose. One Util per person - or the equilivalant."

                "Ka?" I asked.

                He sneered, "No."

                "Vegas?"

                "Sure. 1,250 Vegas chips per person." We paid him and he gave us visitor passes. "Keep these on your person at all times. The good news is, unlike Vegas we don't charge you to buy things."

                He gave us a good long look and added, "Go to exit 26 and then to the Ramada. Tell them that Gregory sent you - they'll give you a deal."

                We thanked him and Leo managed to get Scooby moving again.

                "Forget the Ramada!" Olivia said, "He was lying thru his teeth!"

                We were just creeping along and the grinding noise was getting louder. Leo yelled over it all, "Ladies? I'm open to suggestions here!"

                We went on for a few more miles when we saw a horse drawn wagon. The man driving it looked like an honest laborer (I try not to use the phrase 'simple' laborer anymore) and sitting next to him was a gold Elf woman with a lap harp in a worn fabric case. In the back of the wagon there were some more laborers and a few more musicians, all of them mixed races.

                "Leo, pull over. Let's ask her for a suggestion," I said.

                He stopped and so did the wagon. I got a closer look at the woman and her harp and noticed the patches on her harp case. It was the crest for the kingdom of Caid!

                "You're Caid?" I yelled, "We're from the Outlands!"

                "Oh my God!" the woman yelled. "You've got to be kidding?" Olivia, Alfred and I got out to speak to them.

                "The woman said, "We were supposed to go to Estrella for the war, but had car problems and never got there." We asked her if she knew of anyplace where we might be able to stay until we got Scooby running again.

                "We've got a place, you'd be welcome there." Then she asked if we could take them there.

                We found safe places for all their instruments and then squeezed them all in. The Elf woman said to the man driving the wagon, "Bye! See you next time." He waived to her and said to us, "Hey! Take your ride there down to 3rd and Elm, 'Dos Perros' auto repair. My brother Jorge owns it. Tell him that Enrique sent you - he specializes in big rigs." He paused to wipe his brow, "There's a 'magic' word but I am so hot and thirsty I can't seem to remember it."

                Olivia got a bottle of Jack Daniel's and handed it to him, he took a big swig and said, "Now I remember the 'magic' word. It is 'El Corazon de Mi Madre'."

                Olivia gave me a big nod and we thanked Enrique for his help. He took off one way and the woman directed us another. Then she introduced herself as Lisa.

                "I remember you!" I said. "I used to hang with the musicians and I remember that you used to win a lot of the competitions." She seemed flattered that I remembered and assured us that their place was only a few more miles away. Good thing, too, Scooby was sounding worse and worse.

                "Turn here," she directed Leo. It was a shopping mall. The Arden Fair Mall, according to a fallen sign. It was walled in with smashed cars stacked high. Lisa identified herself to the guards and we were allowed to pass. As Leo was parking Lisa said, "I hat to ask this, but do you guys have any money? You're gonna need it."

                Olivia said, "We've got Ka, Vegas, a little bit of Aztlan, trade goods and some gold, plus Kingdom currency, of course."

                "Kingdom?" Lisa asked.

                "The Kingdom of the New Outlands," Olivia told her.

                "You're kidding!" she said. "Later - after dinner, you'll have to tell us. People will want to hear everything. We don't get much news here."

                We all got out and took a good look at the damage.

                "Damn," Leo said. That pretty much summed it up. The tires Scooby uses were made for monster trucks, or large pieces of heavy equipment. Three Right was just gone - only hub fragments were left. Scooby's hull is Lexan-backed Kevlar plate on a titanium frame - and a huge section of the lower, cargo storage deck was crumpled and broken like a beer can at a frat party. The cargo bays were still smoking.

                Walter nodded and said, "A regular car would have been cut in half. Back in my day, there were some assassinations done like this. They used a trip wire to launch that sheet of metal."

                Leo said, "I studied them, but never actually saw one before. What a mess."

                Olivia reminded him that there was a good chance that she and I could mend anything that still had all its parts. He nodded and started crawling around underneath with Alfred to get a better look.

                They reported that the spare tire was just fine, "But we should try to get another one to replace it. And the axle is screwed; it'll need to be replaced. May be some drive shaft damage, too."

                When they were finished Lisa invited us into the Mall. Her group had staked a claim in Macy's. As we walked thru we saw other groups spread out, also. There were quite a few Franklin stoves with chimney pipes leading up into a retrofitted ceiling. Each 'camp' had several areas sectioned off to make smaller, more private areas.

                Lisa was just introducing us when a man wearing a mall security uniform appeared.

                "I noticed you have some guests. Can they pay the rent?"

                "Yes they can," Olivia said.

                "What kind of currency are you carrying?" he asked. "The rent is 500 calories per person."

                "Huh?" Olivia asked.

                He kind of laughed, "Two and a half utils."

                "Nope. Come again," I said.

                "1,500 Vegas chips," he said. Olivia nodded to Alfred and he paid the man. Then he explained the conversion rate to us. "1,000 Vegas chips to a util, more or less. Traders about to leave the area will give you the best rate. We'll give you a break on the conversion rate until you've had a chance to get settled."

                He took the money from Alfred and said, "Okay, have your privy buckets in the mall by 10:00 am. The water wagon will be here soon. You get two gallons per person per day. Those are what you just paid for. That and protection for your vehicle. You don't have to worry about any midnight requisitioning."

                He gave us a stack of buckets and left.

                Lisa asked if we'd be joining them for supper. A man was stirring a large pot of stone soup on a stove.

                I whispered to Olivia, "Do you think we should help?"

                "I think so."

                "Lisa? Is it all right if we pitch in?" I asked.

                "Sure, if you'd like to," she said.

                Olivia made an appeal to Crom while I was appealing to Corellon. And when the food (quite a bit of it) appeared, Lisa took a look at it and said, "Shit!"

                "We hope not," I said. "It should certainly taste better than shit."

                But Lisa was ignoring me; she and the rest of the people in her camp were looking around nervously at the neighboring camps.

                "Did we just put our foot into something?" I asked.

                "Yes," Lisa said. The other camps were clearly angry.

                Lisa stood and said (loud enough to be heard by them all), "They're guests. They're new. They're not aware of how things work around here. If you'll all send a representative - we'll share."

                "Of course we will," I said, but Lisa hushed me.

                People immediately came from the other camps and Lisa handed food to all of them. Most of what we had summoned, matter of fact. As she did she kept saying, "It's all right - they meant to share with all of you."

                After they had all gone back to their own areas Lisa explained, in a low voice, "It's not a law or anything, but camps that experience good fortune - the others get angry. And then things get done. Things like pissing in cook pots, blanket parties, small 'mystery' fires. We appreciate your help, really, but……"

                I said, "Food is food. Would they have gotten that upset if we'd brought supplies in from the vehicle?"

                "It's just not fair," Lisa said. "They go out and work and scrounge for food all day, and then you just ask for it and it appears. It made them angry." Not fair? I almost asked what her basis of comparison was, but thought better of it.

                "Is there no clergy around here at all?" Olivia asked.

                "Not much, and what there is, almost all of them work at the city hospital."

                Olivia asked, "Are they forced to work there?"

                "Oh no! They're paid and given someplace nice to live, near the hospital."

                Olivia said, "But, we would have made more food."

                "Lots more," I said.

                "No! That would just cause more trouble. I know this all sounds stupid, but it works for us. And we have to stay on all these groups' good side. We're warring with JC Penney and we need allies."

                "Warring with JC Penney?" Leo asked.

                "I know how it must sound to you," Lisa said. "But it's for real, and I couldn't even tell you how it got started. The people who started it all are long dead now, but the fights go on. It's a real Hatfield-McCoys thing.."

                About then a group of people arrived. They were carrying several strings of fish and as they walked thru the area they were handing some of them out to the other groups. They made there way to 'our' camp and one of them asked Lisa, "Who're the newbies?"

                Lisa started to explain but was cut off by a man at the stove, "That's enough! Wait until after supper, then they can tell us their story." Everyone seemed to agree.

                One of the new arrivals, a young woman, took all the fish they had kept for 'our' camp and put them inside a little bar fridge. Then she closed her eyes and with quite a bit of work, summoned some magic to fill it with ice. When she was done, she was clearly exhausted by her efforts and someone helped her to the common area where the food was being distributed.

                Lisa introduced everyone all around and when she was done she said, "That's it, that all of us. The Macy's Shoe Camp."

                I looked around and asked, "Have you ever thought of leaving here? Not that this is so bad," I rushed to add, realizing how rude that must have sounded. "We've seen so many people doing so much worse."

                Someone said, "Where? New Ectopia isn't for us and we sure as Hell won't go to Ka."

                "There are other places."

                We were interrupted by a member of a different camp, who had just returned with a bag of berries. He stopped at each camp to give them their share, and then he went to join his camp, Macy's Misses. I was finding it all a little surreal and was hard-pressed not to start laughing at it.

                While we were eating, Olivia pulled out the Foo Foo Umbrella Cone of Silence and used it to make everyone in camp a daiquiri. (She was very careful to hide what she was doing, so other camps would not notice.)

                A man took a sip and sighed, "That is so good! Where did you get that thing?"

                "Vegas. It was a gift," Olivia told him.

                "Vegas?"

                "There are lots better places than this," I said. "If you can get to one, I recommend it."

                The man lifted his drink, "To our guests!"

                Lisa then explained that they have a tradition, any camp with visitors, has people from the other camps join them to get all the latest news, so they can go back and share it. "You understand?" she asked.

                "That you're all nutsos?" Olivia asked.

                Another man said, "Hey! We're trying to have a civilization here. It's not much, but we're trying." Then he asked, "Can that thing make six more drinks?"

                Olivia asked for and received an old beer pitcher and the umbrella filled it just as the representatives from the other camps arrived. One of them declined a drink; another Friend of Bill. Olivia asked her if she wanted a soda instead.

                "I'd love some hot chocolate," she said.

                So Olivia filled a glass with water and tried to change it into hot chocolate. She got the chocolate part, but not the hot.

                "That's okay," the woman said. "It tastes like a Yoo-Hoo."

                Lisa got everyone's attention and asked that we start with what happened at Estrella.

                "It actually started on the way to Estrella," I said.

                We all took turns telling our stories. Much of what we told was new to both Leo and Walter. I'm not sure if Leo was appalled at some of Olivia's deeds or if he was proud her.

                When we were finally done, Lisa asked about some SCA friends. Some we knew some we didn't. A few were at Martinez Lake, and some had died during the Aztlan occupation. She took the news pretty well. There were a lot of questions about Vegas and I was really pushing that as a good option for them. I wanted to see them get out of that stupid shoe department.

                Olivia suggested to them that they get ready to leave while we're in New Ectopia, "Then we can come back thru here and caravan you people out of here."

                "But that's a real problem," a woman said. "We don't have the resources. We work all day for food and have no time or energy for anything extra."

                A man said, "There are lots of vehicles to be had, but nothing useful. And no gas, anyway."

                "That's not a problem," Leo said

                "We can handle that," Olivia added.

                The gal who had used the Magic spoke up, "If we went somewhere else, would they make us do things? I came from New Ectopia, and they made me do the one and only thing I can do - make the ice appear. I like to sew - I'm good at it, too. I make really good clothes and in New Ectopia, that pays well. Five, maybe six thousand calories a day. But they wouldn't let me do that."

                "And they never taught you how to do anything else?" I asked her.

                "No! They never did, unless you count people standing around yelling at me. Telling me that I was squandering my 'gift'. Then they would get angry, because I couldn't Make something permanent to create the ice."

                I said, "I see why you left, Olias. You've never taught you're students like that, Olivia."

                Olias shook his head; "It sounds as if it's gotten even worse since I left."

                The girl said, "The Law says, 'Thou shalt not harm anyone, including yourself' and they insisted that I was breaking that law. They said as I was harming myself by not realizing my full ability."

                "They were making that argument when I left, but they've taken it to a whole new level," Olias said to her.

                Lisa said, "I guess we could get vehicles, that would be easy. We might even be able to make them run."

                Olivia said, "It's your choice."

                "We will discuss it," she said. "How long will you be in New Ectopia?"

                "The more we hear, the shorter it gets," Olivia said.

                The people from other camps thanked us for the news and returned to their 'departments'. Watching them, I started feeling homesick for Vegas. I miss room service, and hot showers...and looking at the privvy curtain and the row of buckets waiting to go down to the Mall in the morning, I really missed flush toilets.

                I said, "I'm going to sleep in Scooby tonite. I know what the security guy said, and I trust you people, but shit happens. And as you saw, we've had enough shit for one day.

                Olivia seemed upset, and I guessed that she wanted to stay in Scooby tonite with Alfred. "You two can have it, that's fine. I just want someone to stay out there tonite."

                Alfred asked, "That umbrella, it does something else doesn't it?"

                "Yeah, it creates an area of silence," Olivia told him.

                "Okay then, I'll get us a tent to pitch in here, add the umbrella and we have privacy!"

                Leo said, "Um. Are you… Would you? I mean……"

                I just what he meant, but for some perverse reason, I was going to force him to actually say the words.

                Finally! He managed to spit out, "Would you like to stay in Scooby tonite, with me?"

                "Sure Leo."

                Olias had his arm around the little mage girl. That's when I noticed she was kind of cute, in a Winona Rider / Beetlejuice kind of way. If you like that look, I mean… Olias said, "Hey Jazz, we're gonna be over there. Okay?"

                "Umm, sure," I said. "Would you like a tent, also?"

                "Oh no, Ovsanna's got a little place of her own, over there."

                So Alfred and Walter walked Leo and I out to Scooby. They got a couple of tents and some other items to take back inside.

                "Goodnite y'all," Walter said.

continued