Wendy is tempted but knows better. “No, thanks Diego. Once we identify the culprits and come up with a plan of attack, the weather angle will be up for grabs. But for now, we’ll wait until your abilities provide maximum impact. Plus, I want to try to avoid a rebound weather event, if possible.”
“I don’t know what all of you are complaining about. This is just a brisk wind with a bit of chill. Nothing to get all worked up about.”
“Hush, Vito. Not all of us are from Chicago where you eat this kind of weather for breakfast. And because you’re used to it, you are driving one of the vehicles,” Sully replies. “Who wants to drive the other?”
“I’ll do it,” Maddie says. “Toronto native here.”
“Great. Five in one vehicle and four in the other. Sepulveda and I will ride in opposite SUVs, but otherwise you can divide as wanted.”
Sully, Tewow, Diego, and Wendy ride with Maddie to the motel while the others follow in Vito’s vehicle. As usual, there is a period of adjustment in dealing with automobiles when she leaves the conservatorship. Most people in SWACon ride bicycles or walk, some ride public transport or even horses. The few vehicles there are electric powered. The GT is the leading country in Green Energy and their transportation reflects it. Flight crafts are the only fully combustible engines in use in the GT. As such, flights are limited and passenger planes are medium aircrafts, ranging from eight to twelve seats. The GT has a few heavier aircrafts that can seat up to 25 people, but those are usually used by the higher councils. Wendy’s party flew to Pennsylvania in a medium jet, though their baggage was limited by weight and the plane made a couple of stops for refuel. The plane and flight crew are staying at the regional airport until Wendy’s group is ready to return. No need to waste fuel flying an empty plane back and forth when the crew can just wait a few days.
It’s a forty-minute drive from the regional airport to the motel. On the drive, Wendy contemplates the forest situation. While the attack and subsequent illness of the four children are some of the most serious incidents from the forest, they aren’t the only recent occurrences. Despite it being winter, many animals have emerged from the forest instead of staying in their burrows and dens. Local pets and animal stock have become sick in the past year after eating forest shrubs, trees, and leafy plants. Frozen well water was discovered in various surrounding areas in the past month. While it’s common for well pipes or pumps to freeze in cold weather, wells are dug deep in ground and insulated from frozen temperatures. For well water to freeze is highly unusual. Tewow and Maddie are here to bespeak the animals and plants, which is welcome. However, Wendy wishes her party included a terra PsySapient to interact with the earth, but they’re the rarest of the PsySapients and of the few that live in SWACon, none were available for this excursion.
The nearest hotel is a thirty-minute drive from the forest, maybe even longer with this weather. Since they all agree that closer is better, they selected a motel only ten minutes outside the forest. As their party parks and enters the motel office, Wendy’s pleased with the appearance of the place, two stories with a parking lot treated to keep the ice to a minimum. Hopefully the rooms are equally pleasant.
“Good afternoon. How can I help you?” the desk clerk asks as they troop in.
“Hello. We have reservations for a block of rooms under the name Wednesday Randolph,” Wendy replies.
“Yes, we’ve been expecting you. Your rooms have been reserved for three nights with the option to extend at the same rate. I just need to see everyone’s identification for check-in, please.”
Traveling outside of the GT is interesting due to the status of Psycepts. Most Psycepts originally come from the US. However, to protect themselves from being drafted into service and being compelled to use their abilities against their will, many Psycepts applied for GT residency then renounced their US citizenship if accepted. Luckily, the GT issues provisional passports to its permanent residents. The original treaty with the surrounding countries at the GT’s formation granted limited travel to those that held travel documents provided by the GT. Standard duration of travel cannot exceed one week without prior approval from both the GT and the US. The US government also did not grant access to its federal land or buildings without escort. These stipulations are currently in effect and the GT uses the treaty for supplying Psycept aid to the US, Canada, and Mexico. It’s a good thing they’re going to a state forest with management support from surrounding counties. It’s much easier to work with a local government that requests Psycept assistance than the federal government that resents a presence they didn’t invite.
Wendy and the rest of the party provide their passports to the clerk for processing. Only Sepulveda and Tewow are GT citizens with the SWACon turquoise passport while the everyone else has the silver GT resident passport. Wendy’s forever amused that each of the eleven conservatorships have their own color passport instead of one GT national passport color. It was explained to her that since the GT is a coalition of many dozens of various tribes, items to represent the entire country are hard to agree to. The establishment of their standard 13-month calendar and selection of a common legal language was contentious enough that the memory lingers still. Therefore, passport colors and a national flag weren’t going to be the hill the GT dies on and they left it up to the conservatorships. SWACon, or the Southwestern Alliance Conservatorship, agreed to turquoise as it’s featured in art, song, story, and colors of many of the conservatorship tribes.
