foundation that was poking out of the ground. Weeds had grown up over the crumbling brick and what had once been a big chimney stood like a monolith.
'Looks like it burned down a long time ago,' the cabbie said. 'You want me to take you back?'
There was a strange smell in the air when Faye stepped out of the cab. It was kind of fishy but not too offensive. It took her a moment to realize that she was actually smelling the ocean for the first time. This couldn't be it. This had been her only clue from Grandpa. She started to wander toward the ruins.
'Lady?'
There had once been a fence of iron bars around the property, but whatever had engulfed the house had been so hot that the metal had softened and bent, and now the fence just looked lopsided. She ran her fingers across the bars and they came away orange with rust.
'Hey, lady! Pay me,' the cabbie growled.
'Oh, sorry,' Faye mumbled as she returned to the cab and carefully counted the money out exactly. The cabby looked at it in disgust before driving off, and it was only a moment later that she remembered Gilbert warning her that people in the city also expected tips.
The gate was lying in the weeds. The grass was hip deep on what had once been a lawn. Faye thought that she could just barely smell the ash as she gingerly put her weight onto the charred boards of what had been the porch, and it reminded her of another, more recent, fire. She noticed that somebody had etched strange symbols into the crumbling floor, and she stepped over them carefully.
There was nothing else there.
Somehow she knew that something bad had happened here, something worse than the fire. Lives had been lost in this place. Death was in the air.
'I'm sorry, Grandpa. I didn't expect this,' she said as she slowly turned around. 'I thought maybe somebody around here would help me.' She had been so certain that the address would hold the answers that she had not thought about what she would do next if there were no answers to be found. She was on the outskirts of a strange city, had no friends, and no idea what to do. She picked out a pile of bricks and sat down.
Why am I here?
Faye wasn't sure. Grandpa hadn't even really given her any last words, he'd just choked out half a sentence before dying, given her some weird metal thing, which she'd managed to already lose half of, and now she was just alone. She wanted to cry, but she felt like she'd already cried all her tears, and now she was just all dry and hollow inside.
A fat brown squirrel crawled up onto a nearby board. It cocked its head at her curiously, as if wondering what this strange human girl was doing sitting on some ashy bricks in the middle of its forest.
'Hello,' said the squirrel.
Oh, great, now I've gone crazy.
'Hi,' Faye responded.
The squirrel just kept looking at her, twitching nervously like squirrels do, and for a minute Faye thought that maybe it had just sounded like the little animal had spoken. Grandpa had always said that she got her brain spinning too fast sometimes and that if she spun it too hard it might break. The squirrel examined her for what seemed like an abnormally long time, and Faye started to doubt that she'd heard anything at all, and felt stupid for talking to it.
'Nice ring,' the squirrel said. Its voice didn't seem to match, like the sound wasn't coming from the animal, but through it. It had a deep, scratchy, male voice. 'It set the ward spells off. Where'd you get it?'
'My Grandpa gave it to me,' she answered, holding up her hand to show off the black and gold band. She could have sworn the squirrel nodded thoughtfully. 'He gave me a list with some names on it. I'm looking for somebody named Pershing. Could you help me, little squirrel.'
'We've got a live one at the old place,' the squirrel said, like it was talking back over its shoulder. Faye looked into the grass for other squirrels but didn't see anything else hiding in the grass.
'Are you okay, Mr. Squirrel?'
'You ain't from around these parts, are you, kid?' asked the squirrel.
'Is it that obvious?'
'Well, yeah, actually…' The squirrel twitched and swiveled its head back toward the road as it sensed something. A large black automobile was coasting to a stop on the road. Its whiskers twitched violently as the doors opened. 'Shit! If it ain't some Imperium motherfuckers!' exclaimed the squirrel, then it swiveled back to her. 'Damn it! Hide, girl! Hide! Go!' Then it leapt off the board into the grass.
Faye watched the profane little animal disappear, then switched back to the car. Three men had gotten out and were heading straight for the fallen gates. They reached into their coats and came out with guns. She scrambled behind the pile of bricks and ducked down low. It was just like what had happened to Grandpa, and she realized that she was shaking uncontrollably.
She could hear the crunching of the grass as the men moved. They were obviously city folk, not hunters, loud and clumsy. She risked a peek around the side of the bricks, and the closest was going to be on the porch in seconds. And there, right in the soft ashen wood, clear as day, were her footprints, leading right to where she was hiding.
'Psstt. Over here.' The squirrel's head poked up out of the weeds. 'Stay low.'
It was either follow the squirrel, or Travel before they found her, but she didn't know where to Travel to, and if she appeared in front of one of the other men, they'd shoot her dead just like they had done to Grandpa. Faye crouched down, bunched up her dress so she could crawl, and hustled after the squirrel. The animal was gone by the time she got there, but there seemed to be an indentation in the grass. When she pressed on it her hand went right through into an empty space.
There was a footfall a few feet away. With no time to think, Faye shoved her head through the grass and found herself staring down an ivy-coated chute. There was only a foot of light before everything was masked in shadow. She kept going, scooting down a gentle slope. Spiderwebs hit her in the face and insects skittered across her body. A second later her hands landed in soft dust, and she pulled herself into a tight black space. A few spikes of sunlight pierced the darkness from holes in the floorboards above. Every time one of the men took a step, ash cascaded through the light. Something furry and warm pushed past her lips and she almost screamed.
'Easy…' the squirrel said softly.
'Where are we?' Faye whispered.
'Coal cellar… Hurry up, Francis. Imperium assholes right on top of us.'
'I'm not Francis. Who's Francis?'
'Shut up, kid. I ain't talking to you,' the squirrel hissed. 'Move your ass, boy.' There was a thud directly overhead and one of the men shouted something. They'd found Faye's tracks. 'Shit… They're gonna find us. Never a grizzly bear or a moose or a Doberman around when I need one… Hey, girl, you got any Powers?'
'Yeah,' Faye whispered. 'I'm a Traveler.'
The squirrel sighed. 'What? Son of a bitch. I was hoping you had super strength or shot lightning bolts out your eyes or something because these Imperium goons are gonna find us any second.'
'My name's Faye.'
'Did I ask for a life story? We're about to get killed here…' The squirrel let out a long sigh. 'Aw hell… My name's Lance. You just scoot for the woods. I'll hold them off.'
She wasn't sure what exactly the squirrel, Lance, was going to do to fight off three men with guns, so she reached into her pocket, and pulled out her little revolver. She cocked the hammer as slowly and quietly as possible. The squirrel rubbed up against her face again. 'Are you daft? The only thing you're gonna do with that little thing is piss them off. What is that? A.32? Jesus, you ain't hunting squirrels. Gonna use that to put us out of our misery?'
There was a sudden crash. A pile of ash broke loose from the ceiling, obscuring the tiny shafts of light. Then another crash, and a much larger shaft of light appeared as one of the men smashed a hole in the floor with his boot. 'Go!' Lance shouted. The furry shape left her face, bounded up into the light, and launched itself into the air.
One of the men screamed. 'It's crawling up my pants! Kill it! Kill it!'
'Quit being a punk, and step on it, Al. We've got business.'
There was a commotion, shouting, and then one of the men started to laugh at his companion's problem.
