Chapter Thirty-Seven - Casting Shadows

Alice watched as Vasilisa came awake slowly. She had slept for a solid nine, almost ten hours, and Alice had encouraged it just a little. She'd also ensured that the girl's sleep was dreamless and as restful as possible.

If Vasilisa was Meagan, even if it was just a part of her, then... well, then Alice owed it to her to make sure that this part of her was treated well.

Her relationship with Fractured Time was interesting. For a time, Alice thought she was the only magical girl on Earth. She spent her time defending her little corner of the world while the rest of it shoved its head in the sand and pretended that the supernatural just wasn't occurring.

And then, some year or so after discovering what she was and grasping Dream Charter, she learned about Meagan.

Meagan had been half a world away, living in the Philippines with her family, going to school, solving murders and occasionally using her power for a bit of mischief and heroism.

Alice had flown over to her. By then she was relatively well-established as a Magical Girl. The government knew about her. They didn't know what to do about her, but that didn't matter. Alice had slipped out of the country, snuck onto a plane heading east. It took a couple of days to make it to Manilla, then a few more to find Meagan.

Their meeting had been... surreal. There was something about meeting another magical girl that made the hairs on her body rise until she really knew them.

It didn't help that Meagan was very fond of using and abusing her powers, and when those powers included perfect control of the flow of time around herself, things got a little strange.

Meagan had come off as too-perfect and composed. Alice later learned to pick out the ticks that hinted that Meagan had been repeating the meeting over and over again to get it all right.

They didn't become fast friends, but they respected each other, and it just so happened that a very large lizard monster was invading Japan and so they bonded over ruining the afternoon of some minor kaiju.

From then on, they'd kept in contact, and as more magical girls popped up and the world became a smaller place for them, they did grow closer.

Alice took on the role of the old, experienced mentor. Meagan... pretty much worked day and night to avoid responsibility and the limelight.

Which was strange. She was definitely one of the most physically obvious members of their team. Long, pure-white hair, bright blue clockwork eyes, and a propensity to wear hats that were absurdly large kind of made one stand out.

Oh, and she liked making cryptic predictions and releasing them to the world without checking in with the others about it first. Alice had had words with her when she once made that kind of prediction about a meme stock she was shorting just to make a heap of money. It didn't matter that it made an otherwise quite evil company go bankrupt, they were supposed to be moral exemplars.

Alice could safely call Meagan a friend. A close one, even. She'd go far to help her.

"Where? Oh," Vasilisa said.

"Hey! Welcome to the waking world," Crystal said. "I made breakfast!"

As far as Alice could tell, it was nearing six or so in the morning. The sky was still mostly dark out, but there were hints that the sun was coming up. Crystal had grabbed a few edible things from their meagre supplies and mixed them up on a crystalline pan over the fire. It looked... like food.

She handed a thin crystal plate designed much like the kind of plate Alice may have used herself when she was a child to Vasilisa, then scooped the rest into two more. Alice accepted hers with a nod of gratitude and ate.

Vasilisa did the same, picking away at the meal until she was done. "So... what's happening now?" she asked.

"That's up to you," Alice said, she tried to sound kind about it. "Literally. We want to go where you want to go. The centre of this Zone. We just don't know where that is, exactly."

Vasilisa stared at her plate, now very much empty. "I don't know either," she said.

"And if you closed your eyes, tried to think of where you want to go?" Crystal asked. "Is there anything? A tugging?"

The young woman squirmed a little on the mattress. "A little, I suppose," she said. "I feel like I should be moving."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Then let's get moving," Crystal said. She helped Vasilisa to her feet, and they were pretty much ready to go... except Vasilisa needed some time for morning ablutions and such.

Alice and Crystal waited for her for some time, and then when she returned properly ready to head out, they did just that, leaving the small camp and heading towards the nearby highway.

This one cut towards the north and west, which would either finish circling around the Zone, or would lead them right into it.

Alice noticed that there were more anomalies as they walked. Initially there were one or two along their path. A car that flickered in place, a puddle of boiling water on the road, a small circular area off to the side in the middle of a field where a hard rain of frogs pelted towards the ground for a few minutes, then stopped for a few more.

The more they walked, the more common they became, though Alice noticed plenty that were small and seemed harmless. They didn't have anything to worry about a place where the wind blew warm for no reason, or a spot where gravity was significantly weaker.

"Do you think we're heading closer to the centre?" Crystal asked.

"The growing number of anomalies suggests so," Alice said. "I think it would make a certain kind of sense if they were more common and stronger the closer to their source you are."

"I wonder if anyone charted it out," Crystal asked. "We saw some on the first day here, and that was like, a day's walk from Pripyat which is supposed to be way outside of the Zone, right?"

"More like on the edge of it, I think," Alice said. "Do you know how things are elsewhere in the world?" she asked Vasilisa.

"I... suppose that there are places where nothing is strange like this," she said. "But anywhere where the storm touches will have some anomalies. It crosses the entire world in a large band, so that's a lot of space."

"Interesting," Alice said. "But the number of anomalies, and I'm assuming their severity, is reduced by distance, right?"

"I think so. I've never been far from here," she said.

Alice nodded. That would fit with what she knew about the kind of magic that would need to be used to make this kind of thing possible. Probably. The magic here was twisted and distorted to a degree she'd never seen before.

They continued for a while, but Alice noticed that they weren't alone perhaps an hour before they would have stopped for lunch. The road was slowly turning from a highway carving its way through thick old forests into one that was surrounded by suburbia and small towns with a few farms along the path.

"There's some people ahead," she said, gesturing towards an underpass along their path. "Three of them."

"How can you tell?" Vasilisa asked. She gripped the strap of her gun tighter as she squinted at the underpass.

"They cast shadows," Alice said.

Vasilisa gave her a look at that, but didn't question her. Not that it would have mattered, she was being honest about it.

"Should we go around?" Crystal asked.

"No," Alice said. "Hiding is for those that need to hide. We shouldn't be forced to avoid confrontations that we know we'll come out on top of. It'll only slow us down. Besides, one of them looks like a scientist."

"How can someone look like a scientist?" Crystal asked.

"He's wearing a lab coat," Alice said.

"Oh... I guess that does make you look a bit sciency," she admitted. "What about the other two?"

"Guards, I'd guess," Alice said. "Modern armour, some assault rifles. They seem relatively well equipped compared to the average Stalker we've seen."

"Soldiers?" Vasilisa asked.

Alice shook her head. "No. More than half the Stalkers we've seen have had army-surplus. This is better. I'd gamble on them being mercenaries."

"Two mercs escorting a scientist... well, now I'm curious," Crystal said. "Let's go say hi!"

It didn't take too long for them to be spotted. Alice could see a man in the shadow stand taller when they came closer to the lip of the underpass. He turned and warned the others. The second mercenary picked up a gun and checked the safety, the scientist poked his head around and stared.

It seemed like they were in for another encounter out here.

***