October 31, 2020 - Nolan Acreage, Near Nevada, Iowa

It was mid morning when the laden horses rode into the dooryard at the Nolan acreage. Gwendolyn and Jes were sitting on the porch swing, waiting for them. Jes was up off the swing as soon as the horses were visible, running toward them with Rowdy hot on her heels. She wasn’t wearing bandages and her scars were on full display, she stopped as Rock dismounted, revealing the soldier that was seated behind him. Rowdy, on the other hand, continued to surge forward.

Leading the horse, and the mounted soldier, Rock closed the distance.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” She said, her voice carrying more than a hint of caution as her bicolored eyes took in both soldiers and the sweaty pair of horses.

“I wish there had been a way to let you know what was happening.” There was an awkwardness in their conversation that hadn’t always been there. A sense that neither of them were reaching into the heart of what lay between them.

“I have some ideas about things. I’ve been thinking about how we could maybe fix some things.” Her expression was wary as she glanced over the soldiers. “What’s going on?”

“We found soldiers.” Rock stopped about five feet from Jes, taking in her crossed arms and closed expression. There were so many words he wanted to say, but none of them came out. Instead he said, “The rest of them are coming tonight. We should get ready.”

“It’ll be good to get more people here. It’s not like there isn’t room around. Ma and I left breakfast for you. There’s probably enough for these two as well. How many should we expect tonight?”

“Exact numbers aren’t something you should know. We’ve got supplies for ourselves, don’t worry about it.” Jump, the female soldier, said.

Hadrian dismounted and offered the woman a hand-down. “I’ll see to the horses, Rock, if you’ll introduce everyone.”

“Sure. Come on up to the house,” Rock handed the orckin the reins.

Rowdy bounded around the strangers, sniffing and wagging his whole body. Jump smiled down at the dog, dimples flashing. “What’s his name?” She asked Jes as she fell into step next to her.

“Rowdy.” Jes’ voice was guarded as she answered. For her part, Jump’s eyes traveled over Jes’ scars only once before she was looking forward toward the house.

“I’m Rachel.” The soldier said. “Jump. Rachel Jump. You should probably call me Jump. What’s your name?”

“Jes Nolan.” She glanced at the soldier. “I’d say it was a pleasure meeting you, but given the state of things..” She trailed off.

“How is the state of things? You’ve been here the whole time, right?” Jump asked. She had automatically fallen into step with the other woman.

“There’s not a lot of people left around here. We’re really all that’s left outside of Ames. I’ve heard there’s a lot of people over there, but they’re on the other side of the Empire and that’s an anthill we’re not poking sticks at. Hadrian says they’re scouting around and taking territory.” Jes sighed. “I’ve heard a lot about them from him. They sound like absolute assholes.”

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“How far are they from here?” Jump asked.

“About ten miles. South and west from here. I’m sure we could go out there and scout it if you wanted. It’s not too far, really. This is my mom, Gwendolyn Nolan. Ma this is Sergeant Jump. Hadrian and Rock found the military. They’re here. They’ll be here tonight. We could probably put them up in the Waterson’s cow sheds if we have to.”

“Hell, we could set them up in town.” Gwendolyn said as she rose to shake Jump’s hand.

“How have you guys been doing with the virus?” Jump asked.

There was a beat of silence as Jes and Gwendolyn exchanged a look. “We forgot.”

“Forgot?” Jump sounded astounded. “It’s almost all everyone is talking or thinking about.”

“With everything that has happened, it didn’t seem important.” Gwendolyn said, sitting back down on the swing. “None of us are sick or have been sick since this whole thing started.”

“Good, good. We’ve all been tested and quarantined for quite a while, just so we weren’t at risk of carrying it anywhere we needed to go.” Jump sat down on the porch steps, looking out over the dooryard. “I sure as hell didn’t expect the action I saw to be in fucking Iowa.” She admitted.

Rock and Miller stepped up to the porch and Rock introduced him to the Nolans. All of them settled on the porch. There was a moment of heavy silence before Jes spoke.

“All my life I’ve felt like Iowa was a safe place. I was really young back in ‘01. Ma said that was when America started feeling not-quite-safe to her.” She said. “I barely remember it. Things have changed a bit in the last few years, but America was always safe, you know? All the bad shit happened way over there. Somewhere else. Even the shit that happens here in the US, it doesn’t happen in Iowa, you know? Mud slides, earthquakes, forest fires, riots, hurricanes. Hell even tornadoes mostly strike some other town. It’s never my home, my backyard.”

“It isn’t. Until it is.” Jump said. “I’m from Peoria, this feels like my backyard.”

“What can you tell us about the situation here?” Miller asked.

Jes couldn’t help it, she laughed. “It started the day I hit a unicorn with my car.”

Rock and Gwendolyn joined her, but the other two just looked at her. “I’m dead serious. I hit a unicorn with my car.”

“I picked her up from the hospital to bring her here, we were there when the Rift opened and the Empire came through. It was later that everything quit working. We were watching on TV, the police were in a standoff with them when something changed. There was an explosion and the TV shut off. Everything shut off.”

“Since then we have no idea what’s happened out there.” Jes picked up the story again. “Most of the people around here headed to Des Moines. We decided to stay. Hadrian is from the other side of the Rift, he knows the Azmaelans. How they fight and such. He wants to help.”

Jump glanced back at Rock and asked. “Is he really not human?”

“He says his kind are called orckin. He’s apparently the only one who came through the Rift that wasn’t with the Empire.” Rock answered. “The empire is made up entirely of elves and elfkin, or so Hadrian says. We haven’t seen too many of them outside of the walls of their fortress, but according to Hadrian all we’ve seen so far are actual elves. We think they’re just consolidating power right now, preparing to expand. Hadrian believes they’ll start expanding before too much longer.”

“I legit thought he was a cosplayer or something.” Jump said. “He’s fucking green!”

“The day it happened was so crazy to begin with, I guess we just got used to him.” Jes said.