The Waystation Ch.36 (Patreon)

Chapter 36

The Way Back II

The figure leaped into the air, clearing the walls in a single bound. Their feet slammed down, leaving little craters as they landed.

“Bert J. Hudson! Get your ass out here right now!” The voice called into the night.

Bert growled as he rolled out of bed. He was sure he remembered getting more sleep at some point in time. It seemed a long time since he had woken up without screaming, panic, or a massive hangover.

He kicked open the barn door as Bell came buzzing down from her loft.

“Who’d we piss off this time?” She asked sleepily.

“No idea,” Bert sighed. “It’s always someone.”

He strode forward into the gloomy, overcast night. Before him was a lithe figure with one arm seemingly much longer than the other. The legs seemed to be strange as well.

“Bert!” The figure blurred; he flinched but was wrapped in a hug instead of the expected blow.

“Um, hi?” He said in confusion.

“It is so good to see you!” The figure leaned back as Bell cast a little light.

“Martha?” Bert said, surprised. The woman had changed a lot in the short time since they had been this way last. She was no longer gaunt looking, muscles shining in Bell’s mage-light. Her arm looked green and healthy, with the bone poking through the thick vines here and there.

And her legs… They were wood and bone almost completely. They were also longer, with the knees reversed and ending in large, hoof-like plates.

“Wow, you look… different?” He said, “But good.”

She laughed. “My scouts saw the Waystation coming, and I didn’t want to chance you driving past!” She hugged him again. “You have to come and see the new town!”

“New town?” Bell asked. 

“Well, the other one had an accident,” She said to Bell, and they both laughed.

“Not sure we would be welcome,” Bert said.

“You have no idea!” She laughed. “They practically built a statue of you pair.” 

Two shadows shifted, Reed and Lowes revealing themselves. 

“It seems everything is in order here, so we shall return to bed,” Lowes said.

“Nice to see you again, Martha,” Reed smiled as they faded into the shadows again.

“Wow, they are supper creepy,” Martha said. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

“So, the town still in the same place?” Bell asked.

“Noo! That would get us killed.” Martha said, “The guild would definitely try to claim it again. The new Mayor would never allow that.”

“Would that be you?” Bert asked.

“Yeah!” She laughed. “I’ve moved the town to a new area.”

“Quick work,” Bert nodded. 

“Well, calling it a town might be pushing it a little.” She grinned. “Camp might be a better term.” She looked embarrassed. “But it’s big, and we are free!”

“Want to give us directions?” Bell asked.

“I was hoping you would ask!” She grinned. 

Morning’s first light found the Waystation cutting through the forest on its last leg before arriving at the town. The trees fell, were gathered, and absorbed by the Waystation as it cut its way through the dense underbrush.

The last trees fell, and the Waystation stopped a few feet from a crude wooden wall.  

Inside the rickety structure, a series of… well, huts was being generous, made up the only buildings. There was a large amount of tenting, mostly made up of old clothes and bits of hide. It was certainly large, covering a significant area, but that was all you could say about it.

Well, you could say other things… sad, pathetic, plague-bait, rat-infested shit hole. But that seemed rude to say out loud.

Martha led them down the drawbridge, where a cheering crowd was gathering to greet them.

“Bert,” Bell whispered to him.

“Yes, Bell,” Bert whispered back.

“We have to help them,” She whispered back. “I feel bad.”

“We will,” He smiled at the pixie.

“And we have to wash them,” She said. “They are NOT coming onto Way Way in this state!”

Bert tried not to laugh.

Or Breathe. These people were ripe!

“We have done it all ourselves!” Martha said proudly. “This whole place.” 

“I’m surprised people are so happy to see us,” Bert admitted. “We were expecting more lynch mob and less welcoming committee.”

“You forget that all these people were basically slaves,” Martha said. “We’re poor, filthy, and we stink. But we are free.”

“Oh, thank the Gods,” Bell sighed in relief. “I wasn’t sure if you knew!”

“Bell!” Bert winced.

Martha just laughed. 

“What?” Bell said innocently, “She said it!”

“All the ones who actually ran the city, built things, all left to go back to the Guild. They were mostly nobles and such.” Martha shrugged. “We are hard workers, but we don’t have any experience with this kind of thing.” 

“You’ve done incredibly well,” Bert said, hoping the pixie would stay quiet. She gave him a look but said nothing.

“That’s kind, but we haven’t.” Martha looked them in the eye. “I was hoping you could maybe help us out with that.” She grinned. “You did knock most of the old city down, after all.”

“Can we build you a town somewhere less smelly?” Bell asked brightly.

“Fuck sake! Bell!” Bert chuckled.

“Yes,” Martha laughed. “Anywhere we can be safe would be great.” She thought for a moment. “But it can’t be too far away for people to walk to.”

Bell nodded vigorously. “And upwind!”

Bert groaned, but Martha just laughed.

“Is there anyone left at the old town?” Bert asked.

“No,” Martha said, “They declared the land to be cursed and abandoned it.” 

“Cursed?” Bert raised an eyebrow.

“Touched by the unclean,” Martha said bitterly. “They meant you, by the way.”

“Well, that’s rude. Bert is very clean. He washes and everything!” Bell said indignantly. “I would not stand for a dirty Caretaker in MY Waystation.”

“That’s not what they mean by unclean,” Bert chuckled. “They either mean because I’m friendly with orcs or because I am Fae.”

“They say the Fae are unclean?” Bell asked.

“Yes,” Martha said. “But really, they mean any non-humans.” 

“That’s brave,” Bell giggled. “When the other Fae get here, they might just have to eat their words… or their own genitals, depending on which Fae hears it first.” She giggled.

Martha looked skeptical. “Are the Fae really coming back?”

“Oh, yeah. Soon too,” Bell said. “I can feel them getting closer.”

“Really? I can’t.” Bert said, puzzled.

“That’s because you're still just mostly Fae.” She giggled again. “The baby Fae.”

“Fuck you!” Bert laughed. 

Martha looked back and forth in confusion. “You REALLY are Fae?”

“Seems that way.” Bert shrugged.

“We have work to do!” Bell said, clapping her hands. “Bert, you take the Express and get us some stone from that town, and whatever else isn’t nailed down. I’ll find a place with access to water. Lots of Water. Because they stink. Really bad,” She beamed. “In case I wasn’t clear… they smell.”

“Yes, Bell! We get it!” Bert growled.

“Okay, touchy! Geez. Go play with your toy.” She shooed him and Martha away.

“What’s the Express?” Martha asked curiously.

============

Bud unhitched the last of the towing cables from the back of the Waystation, freeing the Express. Bert ran his hands lovingly over the controls of the Hudson Express. He had missed this.

Martha leaned out of the window and cheered as they rolled away. She loved the Express in the same way as him. Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw it. He pushed both levers all the way forward, watching the trees blur by as they followed the path cut by the Waystation. 

“It should make a noise!” Martha yelled, still hanging half out the window. “It should growl and roar like a bear!” She laughed.

“It should!” Bert beamed. It was nice to have someone who got it. 

The Hudson Express cleared the last of the trees, and he followed the tracks left by the Waystation when it had first fled the town. It was easy to follow, leading them directly back to the old town.

“So, looks like you have got used to the new limbs,” Bert noted when Martha finally brought her head back inside the cab.

“Yeah! They are fantastic and can even be changed… did you see?” She asked.

“I did; they look awesome.” He smiled.

“Does your arm change?” She asked.

“Yeah, It can do a few things.” She looked at her. “I noticed it seems like your limbs have grown a bit. I’m sure you had more leg left than that.”

“I did,” She shrugged. “But I wanted more of a balance. It was simple to expand the new limbs over the old.”

“You were comfortable with that?” He asked, surprised.

“Oh, very.” She beamed. “I would cut my other arm off in a second, but people like a human hand to shake.”

Bert quickly filed that comment under creepy as hell and changed the subject.

In a few minutes, the remains of the city came into view. It was worse than he remembered. He shook himself, refusing to feel guilty. They had started the fight, and it could have been much worse.

Martha gasped as the pedals brought out the giant mandibles that would handle the demolition and gathering of the materials. Driving through the sizeable gap in the walls left by the Waystation, he got to work. The explosives in the central tower had done a massive amount of damage. Everywhere they looked there was nothing left standing. A few walls here and there and a lot of rubble were all that remained of the majority of the town. The Express made quick work of clearing the wreckage, gathering and absorbing it as they went. In a few hours, they drove back out, the Express’ dimensional storage full to the brim with wood, stone, and various other materials. 

When they returned to the new town, they saw that Bell had been busy. A path led deeper into the forest and, following it, brought them to a large empty area. The Waystation sat in the exact center of it, with Bud and the orcs working to drive the Waystation’s spikes into the ground around the outside. 

Bert dumped the contents of the Express, turning the massive garbage truck around and heading back to the wrecked town as fast as he could. The day passed as they went back and forth, completely clearing the town's interior with the powerful Express before they turned their attention to the walls.  

Martha came in handy, using the ballista on the roof to fire long steel harpoons into the walls and the powerful Express to pull them down. The mandibles would then scrape the rubble up, breaking it where needed into smaller chunks before sweeping it into the storage.

They kept going well into the night, finally calling it a day long after midnight. 

Bert slept in a little, only to wake up to the gong clashing again.

He sighed.

One day, he would wake up without some form of alarm. 

It would happen.

Bell greeted him with a bowl of porridge and a list of demands. The Waystation had managed to take control of the land in the area she had designated and was now expanding downwards in search of water. Bell estimated they would reach the water table by dusk that evening and expected him to be ready to start building.

That meant he couldn’t spend all day ‘playing in his toy.’ She scowled at him, apparently having decided he had left her all the real work to do. 

“Want to trade off?” Bert asked with a yawn.

“What?” She asked suspiciously.

“You take the Express for the day, maybe take Bud and the orcs as well; I’ll look after things here. Get a jump on the building.”

“I can drive it?” She asked. 

“I don’t see why not,” He shrugged. “You’ll have to use magic to move the controls, but that’s not a problem for you, right?”

“No,” She admitted.

After breakfast, Bert took her for a spin to teach her how to drive. After five minutes, she declared the controls ‘basic’ and stupid.’ After ten, she declared the entire Express stupid. She was very used to having Way Way do the more difficult bits of the driving for her. 

The turning point came the first time she drove it into a tree. The tree was slammed aside, splintering with the force of impact. She beamed. 

An hour later, Bert waved as she drove off with a squad of very scared orcs gripping tightly onto their seats. Bud was waving too.

“It was a nice thing,” Bud said sadly.

“She’ll bring it back fine,” Bert slapped him on the back. 

He left Bud staring forlornly out of the clearing as he climbed the tower to the control room. From here, he could see the entire area. It was not a circle, as he thought. It was oval. The land fell gently away from the oval, a slight rise giving the area natural drainage. He nodded and lay back in his chair, the stone chair again flowing into a reclined position.

Within minutes he was able to drop into the vast mana-tides of the Waystation. The oval appeared in his vision, cleared and prepared. He could sense the layers of dirt, rock, and a long way down… water. It was a perfect spot. 

He turned his mind to what he knew of city building. It was amazing the things a gamer picked up as they played games. In his mind, he could see the things a town would need. He knew that something like the layout of roads, drainage, and even the placement of industry could make or break a town. It was also important to have a clear plan before starting. He got started with a mental thanks to all the city-building games he had played. The first thing to do was to decide what went where. He decided to have half the city dedicated to housing, with a quarter for industries and the rest to storage and market space. He also had to consider that the Waystation had to leave without destroying the place. 

The Waystation was dead center, with the widest part of the oval to either side. He mentally designated the area in front of the Waystation as the main gate. A wide path would allow the Waystation out, and the same path, plus the area the Waystation took up, would be a perfect Market Square.

Mana-hardened stone rose beneath the Waystation and in a wide path in front of it. It went all the way up to the edge of the cleared area. The Waystation now sat on a stone square that would not crack or break as they moved the Waystation out, as long as they were careful. Next, he laid out roads; using the oval shape as his guide, he created roads, three on each side, to create a logical layout. A straight road up the dividing line of the quarters completed the basic design.

He was about to continue when the Express crashed through some trees, broken branches flying everywhere and crushing the new roads. It spun in circles, materials flying in all directions as manic giggles carried on the winds. As soon as it ran out of materials, it slammed into the nearest trees and was gone.

Bert sighed. 

He repaired the roads and continued his planning. There were a lot of people who needed housing, and this space was smaller than their camp. The answer was apartments, but they had no plumbing in this world, and he didn’t know enough to change that.

He groaned when he realized what he had to do. One by one, tall and narrow houses rose in terraces. Living in England had given him a deep and abiding hatred of terraced housing, but the situation demanded it. Each terraced house had a kitchen on the ground floor and outhouses out back. He even put in fences between properties. He had lived in so many of them he didn’t even need to concentrate that hard; the design was hard-wired into his brain. He put a small park in the center of each row of terraces. It killed him to realize how close to the very places he used to hate he was now creating. He went out of his way to make sure that each road was lined with trees, wanting to keep the greenery in amongst the stone and wood of the houses.

Moving on to the next quarter, Bell and the Express returned. It once more spun in place before coming to a dead stop. Bert chuckled as the doors flew open and orcs scrambled out as fast as they could. 

Bert began to plan the next area, getting as far as making a place for a blacksmith, a tailor, a leatherworker, and a couple of others before realizing he had never asked what they needed. 

Bert rose from the tides, feeling the weakness that always got to him when he was building with the Waystation. It never really went away. The difference in the size of the mana tides between him and the Waystation was just too large for him to manage easily.

He found a pixie sitting on his chest.

“Hi!” The Multi-Bell chirped. “Bell said to tell you they don’t have anyone to make anything, really. Just make whatever, and hopefully, they will learn. Also, she said the orcs couldn’t go with her anymore because they screamed and cried too much, which was annoying. Also, you should take a break and eat.”

Bert nodded blearily. The Multi-Bell hovered in place expectantly. 

“Now, please!” She said happily.

He rode the platform down to the tower's base while the Multi-Bell hummed happily to herself. When he opened the tower door, Bud was waiting for him.

“She’s terrified my poor orcs!” He growled. “They said she wouldn’t let them out! And Mic threw himself out a window to escape! He is still walking back here!”

“Hello, Bud,” Bert said tiredly.

“Why did you let her drive it?” He pleaded. “And to suggest she takes them with her….”

“Yeah, not my best idea,” Bert admitted. 

After a quick meal, a drink, and a nap… Bert got back to work. He ignored Ric’ali, who was leaning against the tower and muttering to himself. How bad could Bell’s driving really be?

Once he got back to work, he made a snap decision. There was no telling what they would need. He certainly didn’t know enough to make that decision for them. Instead of a dedicated building, he made a collection of buildings with a shop out front and a large, open work area behind with plenty of ventilation. Next to each one was a reasonably sized yard, enclosed in a wood and stone wall. They should work for just about everything.

He filled the last quarter of the city with barns, silos, and warehouses. Each one had an attached office to help keep everything organized. At the very front of this quarter, facing the large market square, he placed a three-story building full of offices and large rooms with ornate stairs. This would be the Municipal building, including one large hall with plenty of seating.

He came up from the tides again, finding another Multi-Bell waiting for him.

“She says she is going to clear an area around the walls for you,” She grinned at the loud crashing sounds moving in a slow orbit of the oval. “Which you can hear for yourself. Also, she says nice job.” She giggled, “Also, she says you forgot the walls, you bloody idiot.” The Multi-Bell disappeared with a sound like a soap bubble popping.

“I’m getting to them,” Bert grumbled.