Chapter 3: Departure
The preparations were complete, and everything was here. From the book on wilderness farming, with accompanying small seed bank, to the reloading equipment, to the second-hand Russian NV goggles and clothes for any weather imaginable. All strapped to the Polaris 570 sportsman and its trailer. The little vehicle would be his trusty steed and home probably for the foreseeable future. To say he was nervous was a damned understatement, but if anything he was even more excited. He was fully kitted in his old uniform and he looked like a damn action hero. He had bandoleers of 45-70 around his neck like fucking Rambo, twin revolvers, and a belt full of .44 magnum, and rifle in hand. The short-dot scope and long rail attachment made it look pretty tacticool too.
As the whole circus rolled out into the courtyard of the small country house, Tom was pretty proud of himself, even if he couldn't stop thinking about the sheer amount of boom currently in one place. The 6 jerry cans strapped to both the bike and trailer didn't help his fears, though the combined 138 liters of petrol should see him through at least 2000 kilometers on decent roads, even with a trailer, and he hoped around half that on off-road trails. He had packed 3 weeks worth of food and 1 worth of water. He should have plenty of time and range to find civilization... if it exists that is. He still hadn't decided if he had over or underprepared, though honestly under probably wasn’t possible in this situation. What if he had missed something? It was statistically certain he would be cursing himself for something he forgot at some point in the future, but there was not much to do about that now.
“Well I see you have been busy.”
Tom stiffened for a short moment at hearing the voice before relaxing again. That was pretty difficult to get used to.
“You said I should prepare for anything, so I did. Now is it time to get this party started or what?”
“You sound a lot more enthusiastic now than you did a week ago, shame to waste the motivation. Let's get started. It should be fairly simple. On my mark, you charge the opening. It will only be open for a short while, ohh, and be sure to hit the middle. We don’t want any part left behind, now do we?”
“Certainly not. Guessing I should duck too, huh?” Tom mounted the quad bike and fired it up and it purred like a kitten. As the familiar dot appeared a few meters in front of him it quickly grew to around 3 meters in diameter this time and descended into the ground a bit. The weird voice sounded in the back of Tom’s head, “You better get going now.” He jammed the throttle, powering into the unknown, kicking up dirt and gravel. As he hit the portal, he got the feeling he was being one hell of an idiot this time.
The feeling of passing through whatever that portal thing was certainly wasn’t enough to sell him on the idea that this was, in fact, a smart move. It felt like running through an ice storm in his underpants while being hit by rocket exhaust from behind. As his vision went white and he gasped in pain, he squinted and held up his hands, shielding his eyes from the bright white light for a second before his vision returned. The pain faded just as fast as it had arrived, but he still felt like shit. Coasting to a stop in the lush undergrowth of a seemingly grand forest, he fell off the Quad Bike. He just managed to pull down the bandana he had for his mouth before puking on the ground as he thought to himself, ’Well this isn’t the most auspicious arrival ever.’
He felt like he had been through a washing machine; his head was spinning as he tried to get to his feet. He could barely make it onto all fours, swaying from side to side. In the end, he just crawled away from the puddle he had made and rolled over onto his back, staring up into the treetops. As he looked up he suddenly felt pretty damn small. The trees looked like giant redwoods only they had leaves? Huge leaves in fact. And they stretched for what seemed like forever up into the sky. ‘god that must be a hundred meters at least’ He thought to himself as he kept staring. Around him smaller trees were scattered loosely in between the tall monsters, those seemed to like fairly normal trees though. He recognized a few birches and an oak here and there. ‘Okay,’ he thought to himself, at least some of the flora seems familiar. That's good, not completely alien.’
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As he laid there admiring the view of an alien sky through the treetops of an alien forest, his head slowly stopped spinning, and as he moved to get up he felt the thickest soft moss he had ever felt beneath his hands, it was almost like foam. ‘Well, sleeping is going to be comfortable at least,’ he mused to himself. Getting up, he was still a bit unsteady on his feet as he looked around. The scene was truly breathtaking. It was definitely a forest but not dense like one would expect. It felt almost like being inside a huge hall, with trees and bushes scattered loosely around the place. It felt open and airy; it was kinda weird actually. You shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth though, and this terrain would make travel a lot easier than he had feared. Maybe he should have brought a 4x4 instead anyway… Oh well, no turning back now. As he began to walk around a bit, curious as he was, he noticed his steps were lighter, a lot lighter. Everything was. His backpack felt like there was almost nothing in it.
As he made an experimental jump, he went way higher than he would have expected “The gravity?!” he exclaimed. As he landed he took another jump, this time pushing off with all that he had, and he made it more than a meter off the ground in full combat gear! Of all the things he had been expecting this was not on the list. He thought to himself, ‘Right I’m gonna need a game plan here first and foremost, bearings.’ There was no way he could climb one of the giant trees, even if gravity was on the light side, and the forest floor seemed flat, so there wouldn’t be a vantage point. He pulled up his compass and blank map book. To his relief the compass seemed to work well enough; it was at least pointing in a direction. He marked down a point on the brand new map of who knows where. “First explorer Tom Colombus coming through,” he laughed to himself.
With that, it was time to get moving, even if it was pretty as all hell here, there wasn’t much of interest around. Picking west, he set off into the unknown, his trusty steed thumping along at a decent lick. The lighter gravity didn’t do traction any favors, but that is what four-wheel drive is for. As the hours rolled by the scenery didn’t change much. He found a watering hole and spotted his first piece of fauna, a rabbit-looking thing, drinking in the far side of the little lake. The thing had little deer antlers though. Tom was sure he had heard about something like that, even if he couldn’t remember what the little buggers were called. Besides, it quickly scampered off, likely scared by all the noise. He stopped for a cold refreshing drink and a lunch break, spending the time admiring the terrain, trying to work out what time of day and season it was. His watch claimed 12:34, and the sun seemed high in the sky so it wasn’t off by too much. As he sat for a while and continued to admire his surroundings he thought, ‘Perhaps this was a good idea after all.’ He marked the little lake on his now very detailed map, containing a whole two points of interest and a line between them which marked course and distance. Then he packed up to continue moving.
As the hours went by and the light began fading, Tom made camp for the day near one of the massive trees. He set up his little tent and dug a small fireplace. He was gonna enjoy his first evening in an alien world with the small amount of fresh food he had brought, specifically steak. As he settled down he found himself staring into the now dark and gloomy forest, listening to the woods. All the weird sounds had been drowned out by the sound of the quad bike. Now he had the time to appreciate just how alien the soundscape was here. There was a little bird song and a bit of rustling here and there. Some kind of colorful hedgehog came barreling along the forest floor at one point, probably looking for an evening snack. A strange cooing echoed between the trees, probably another bird of some sort. It sounded almost hauntingly beautiful, almost like the sound Tom would expect to hear from a ghost singing opera. As he tucked in for the night he laid his rifle beside him, just in case, and wondered just what this place had in store for him.
As morning broke and he got himself ready for the day, Tom thought to himself, ‘I should do some exploring on foot if I want to see what kind of wildlife this place has to offer besides weird rabbits and Hedgehogs.’ As he packed for the day he grabbed just his weapons and a backpack with what he would need if he ended up camping out for the night. His spirits were high as he checked his compass. He was going to be heading north today to avoid doubling back when he went west again later, but as he pulled out his compass to take a bearing, the little red tip for north was nearly lined up with the westward course he had been taking yesterday. “What!?” he shouted at the uncaring forest, thoroughly confused and glaring at his compass. How could this be, had he fucked up yesterday?