Finally, as Danielle and her room group got back to level road and drew closer to the end of the hike, the guide started telling them about where they were actually going. “Your Sending Base is in a ruined town, where we took over some old buildings and started maintaining them. Someone with crazy high Skills might have built some of them, a long time ago – you’ll see, there are a whole cluster of really similar buildings, and it seems like too many for one small town. Regardless of origin, that’s what 'the Rooms' is, and that's where you’re going to. This one is called Camp Constanza. There are others, we don’t put new Sent in with older groups if we can help it. Anyway, we’ve got a limited water and sewer setup for each building – water from the pump well comes in one side of town, septic drainfields go out the other side. There’s generator power for each building too, as long as none of you Sent mess it up, but if someone does it won’t get repaired until next year.” Danielle frowned; that was a sobering thought for certain.
“We left a few things in your room for you. A few weeks’ worth of preserved food – try not to go through it all right away. We don’t give that out at the Dome because we’ve had problems with past groups stealing from each other before everyone even gets to the base. There’s one full size shovel and four campers’ spades, which we don’t give out at the Dome because nobody wants to take them (especially not up Geardump Hill), but if the utility setup gets wrecked or you have to bug out from the base because of mana-murder problems, you need ‘em for digging latrines.
“Finally, there’s a set of books, that we don’t give out at the Dome because big books are stinking heavy and not all Sent are really good for a two and a half mile walk their first day to begin with. Frankly, those generally don’t leave the rooms until someone in the room has a boti bag. Some of them are survival references, some are critical for kick-starting certain Classes like Crafters and Mana Casters. Don’t knock ‘em, they’re more valuable than you think. The room also has a bathroom attached, and a supply of toilet paper in a closet, but please hear me on this: it’s not supposed to last the whole year, but make it last as long as you reasonably can, for the sake of your septic system, OK? You’ll get a new lot at Fall Fair.
“Your room can only be accessed by you four, unless someone holds the door open for someone else. Don’t do that. Trust is a scarce commodity during the early seasons of a Sending, don’t waste whatever trust you’ve got built up between you. Keep your room secure for the four of you. Don’t mess up the place for everyone else, especially not the bathroom. That’s your only source of water – if it breaks, you gotta hike all the way out of town to the west to use the crank-bucket at the well.”
And then they were at the town. Ruins in varying states of destruction and/or decay lined the roads, which also exhibited varying states of destruction and decay. The maintained road passed a number of blocks of buildings in varying states of collapse, from roofless to ‘was that a foundation there?’ They knew when they reached the cross-street they needed because the street was intact. They turned south, and a few blocks later, came to a group of long narrow buildings in functional condition; each one had three floors above ground, and one dug in half below ground level. Altogether there were eight buildings; four facing the road, and four more were each placed behind one of the road-side buildings.
“Here we are, ladies! The Rooms at Camp Constanza – your new hometown. There are eight buildings, creatively numbered one through eight. Odd numbers face the road, even numbers are behind. We’ve got guys starting out in buildings three and seven, on the west side of the road, and girls in one, five, and of course six, on the east. Ah, I think there might be one floor of guys in building one, also – I’m not sure, I haven’t personally guided any of them, but I know it was under discussion. Anyway, you will have noticed that your room number is four digits. First digit is building number, second digit is the floor.
“There isn’t really any inside to these buildings except the rooms they’re named after – just two back-to-back rows of rooms, each with their own bathroom attached. For some reason, odd numbers are on one side of the building and evens on the other. Just remember, odd numbers face the road; you’ll find your way around easily enough with some time to get used to it!
“The area right around the Rooms is kept clear by an old ward, and the rest of the ruins we’re walking through have some kind of protection too, helping keep the forest from reclaiming it. You’ll notice that ends just south of buildings five through eight, though. We Rangers are still keeping out the worst of the mana-altered wildlife, but respect the forest here; mana has been having its way with things for a long time now. You’ll see everything from evergreen trees that are actually mana-violet to predatory vines, from rabbits that can literally disappear to cats that can still chase them when they do. If something seems like it might be dangerous? Don’t play around with it, it probably is dangerous.”
The Ranger led them left between two buildings – east, towards the fence, Danielle reminded herself tiredly. Between the buildings was a large paved area with no obvious purpose Danielle could see, bordered by two relatively narrow patches of grass that ran the length of the buildings. They followed their guide across the pavement to the center of the building, where metal stairs ran up to the three higher floors, and concrete steps led down to the lower one. They went down into the walkway – of course, floor zero, Danielle thought.
The stairs faced a door labeled “Janitorial” with a metal name plate. To the right and left, there were a row of doors with metal numbers near the top, identifying the rooms. Each door also had a hand-wide metal plate running across the full width of the door at the level of the lever-type handle; in fact, the handle came through it. It looked like it even wrapped around the ends. A wider plate was bolted on at the bottom, but didn’t wrap around the same way. That feature, at least, Danielle had seen on doors Inside. They walked along the higher-numbered side of the hallway, counting up the odd numbers – 6015, 6017, 6019 – Danielle remembered that the highest number in the field was 6025. “We’re on the very end, aren’t we?” she asked.
“That’s right – last room in the back row,” the Ranger confirmed.
The corner room on the back side and forest end of the half-basement level. It was, Danielle supposed, ideal access to the forest, but as far from the center of the Rooms as one could get. Finally, they turned the corner and walked past the end of the building, very much its shorter dimension, and found their door – last from a certain point of view, but the first door they encountered on this side of the building, coming around the south end.
The guide put her hand on the door handle, and declared “As the duly authorized representative of the government of Firmitatem, I open this unit to install new renters.” There was a click and the handle rotated down, allowing the guide to open the door and step into the room. “Come in, but stay by the door a moment – I know it’s a bit crowded, but I need to teach the door to recognize you,” the Ranger said.
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Everyone rearranged so that the Ranger was holding the door handles on both sides, and two girls squeezed in on either side of the door. “OK, I need you each to put your palms flat on the brass,” the Ranger instructed, indicating the wrap-around plate, which Danielle could now see was wrapped all the way around the door, with the handle coming through it on both sides, as well as the bolt. They all touched the plate, and she continued, “Yes, like that – good. OK, here’s the magic. By my authority as a duly authorized and instructed representative of the government of Firmitatem, I hereby install these four members of organizational Firmitatem as duly authorized residents of this warded space, Unit 6024 of The Rooms at Camp Constanza, a fully owned property of the government of Firmitatem. I authorize each of these four persons to use this room for as long as she lives and retains the status, “Exile of Firmitatem.” For so long as even one resident continues to meet these conditions (or until they renounce rentership), let no others enter here without aid of a resident in good standing. So mote it be.”
The entryway was a bit small, almost a hallway – Sadie and Heather were now standing in a space that almost looked like it might have been a wide, somewhat shallow closet with the doors missing. To the right, opposite the not-closet, an open archway revealed an area with a sink and mirror; beyond that an actual door opened into the bathroom proper, with a toilet and a curtained bathtub.
Past the bathroom, the hallway opened out into a rectangular room. The floor was tiled in rather boring little cream-colored tiles throughout, and the walls were tiled in larger, flatter tiles of a similar shade. A half-wall separated off a relatively narrow area lined with a U-shaped set of counter tops, also tiled, in the same tiles as the floors. Danielle mentally dubbed it the kitchen, although there was no stove, nor any other obvious appliances. Four counter-height wooden stools were shoved under the half-wall side of the U, while a large box took up the corner of the counters against the bathroom, where the two full-height walls met. Opposite the open end of the U, a folding door covered a shallow closet full of toilet paper rolls in paper wrappers.
Beyond the kitchen, the rest of the Room was a large rectangular open area. Four simple single beds were arranged in pairs against the long walls, footboard to footboard, with the footboards at the centerline of the bedroom space. At the headboard of each was a wooden footlocker with brass banding around the opening, and a clear quartz set into the latching mechanism. Four panels of thick manufactured quartz protected electric ceiling lights, the stone set flush into the ceiling. There was one above the sink, one above the toilet, one centered over the kitchen counter space, and one larger panel centered between the beds. In the center of the short wall at the back, a short but fairly deep bookcase held a double line of dark leather-bound volumes with titles embossed in white. The lower shelves were empty, but the handle of a spade leaned against one side of the bookcase.
“OK, one more bit of move-in business. If you’ll slide back to the main area please?” the Ranger requested. “Pick your bed, and put your hand on the latch of the nearest footlocker.”
Danielle was already most of the way there. She moved out of the opening between the kitchen and the bedroom section, and moved to the footlocker wedged between the nearer bed and the back of the kitchen counters. She glanced around to see what everyone else was thinking, but she didn’t have any competition; Heather bee-lined for the other bed on the same side of the room, which was the furthest one from the door and the entry hall. Akari and Sadie traded glances and shrugs, and Sadie posted herself by the footlocker nearest the door, while Akari moved to claim the bed in the corner on the door side of the room.
They all put their hands on the latches of their chosen footlockers, and their guide did another “By the authority vested in me” speech that ended with each footlocker opening for only the girl that was touching it.
“OK, now you all have your safe bedroom and your personal storage. Your food and your camping spade are in the footlockers – go ahead and check that out for me while I talk. The box on the counter there is a cold storage box, keep it clean and closed. Your box dinners are stacked inside, and here are your hiking snacks – we don’t usually do this, but some of your classmates are going to get to the Rooms here really late.” The guide unpacked four brown paper bags from her own satchel. A glance inside revealed an exact copy of the lunch bags - a wedge of cheese, a chunk of summer sausage, a bread roll, an apple, and a juice carton. “Between you and me, I recommend keeping them for tomorrow, since you have the option to go to bed early.”
“One more round of advice, and then I’ll get out of your Room! Here it is: you kids – ah, you newly advanced adults, are unusually young to be Sent, so you’re not going to have as much camping experience, individually or in groups, as most Sending groups do. Even for older Sent, there’s usually a serious temptation to try and hunt big stuff with bows and swords, when they don’t have the experience for it. Your arrows are limited, and they can break, and even if you recover the arrow heads, making good shafts and fletching is a challenge. So, the advice: read that survival guidebook, and especially the part about making traps and tying snares, and the stuff about different methods of fishing. Oh, and cord making, you’re probably gonna need that – if not you four, then certainly your neighbors, you know?
“Plan to trade in survival equipment for a while; right now it’s the second most valuable thing in your world. Food is first; food is everything. Your emergency rations have absolutely no variety, and once they’re gone, they’re gone until Fall Fair at least, and that’s five whole months away. You do not have five months of emergency rations, so start on food right away, ‘cause there’s no guarantee you’ll get it on the first try. Don’t give up, and definitely don’t let anyone make you completely dependent on them for food.
“Cook everything thoroughly, but do it outside – your room is tiled for fire resistance, but it’s not very well ventilated, and frankly, you don’t want to catch your furniture on fire even if the room itself would survive. If you absolutely must, get a cooking brazier from the trade fairs or the System Store at the Access Points. (System Store stuff costs mana and lots of it, but come winter it might be worth it.) Oh! Your room will keep itself kinda warm in winter, but you should know in advance, it’s survival-warm, not comfort-warm. Most people find it worthwhile to learn how to cure hides to pile on your bed in cold weather. Not to mention that you may still need to do some camping in winter, and then the extra insulation stops being optional! So practice camping while it’s warm out, and practice tanning hides with whatever hides you get, even if they’re small. Doing it the mundane way is smelly and nasty, but once you pick up System Skills it gets better. But food first! Fish, snare, trap, learn to hunt bigger game once you’ve got a backup system. OK, I’m done. Come out and show me you can all open the main door, and I’ll show you how I can’t, and then I’m off.”
All the girls had checked out their footlockers while she was talking. Danielle found a slightly odd-looking little shovel, complete with quartz chip hammered into the socket that seated the wooden handle, and two very plain leather sacks. One contained pemmican in wax tubes, and the other had metal tins of hard tack, with wax seals around the rims of the lids. Each girl also found a ceramic coffee mug in a different color – Danielle’s was blue! She gratefully placed all her bags into the footlocker, and still frankly had plenty of space.
Following their guide back out to the walkway, they took turns closing and opening the door. To them, it seemed as if it was unlocked, but when the guide tried it, not only did the handle not turn, but the door wouldn’t even rattle in the frame when she leaned back to pull on it.
“All right, contract’s sealed in and active then! Very last thing: For everyone’s safety, we’re requiring you to go back in and stay inside until morning’s light. I’ll be using my admin skill one more time to seal you in – sorry, but fair’s fair, so if we seal in the Career Predators, we gotta seal in everyone. We do recommend you all have a meeting in the morning and agree on some camp rules (and by recommend I mean we’re going to show up and make sure it happens), but not tonight. Tonight, read those guidebooks some, and make a plan to build up your food supply, ok?”The guide stood back to let them have full access to their Room. “Good luck ladies! Live and prosper, and rejoin us when you can.” She waited for them to enter then did a “by the authority of…” speech that ended, “I seal this door until dawn next rises,” and the door was sealed.
They were safely locked away from whatever horrors lurked in the woods (or the next building) for one more night. What the next day might bring, Danielle was too nervous to allow herself to guess – and yet, they did need a plan, and now that someone had finally made an attempt to tell them something useful, she thought they had a chance.
She turned to her new roommates and asked, “Well. What now?”
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