It's bitterly cold when you leave. The air promises a terrible winter, though the trees are red-gold in the pale moonlight. Little remains of Broad Brook's glory, but as you start to walk your bike, pale fires dance across the flowing water. You follow them to a row of crooked stones that lead across a river, then down to a wide trail that edges around the defiled Broad Brook, which opens suddenly into the parking lot between Walmart and Planet Fitness. A useful shortcut, though a melancholy one, as you imagine that it is only a pale remnant of the paths that once existed where the People of the Map could not find them.
I buy a laptop.
I pay some money to keep the cops off my trail.
I need to buy more clothes. I go shopping.
What else can I learn about the fate of the Deer Cross Pack? I ask Elton if he knows anything.
What else can I learn about the "Neo-Albion" group that guarded Everlite?
I ask Melodie how we can repair those brick prisons we saw in Hadley.
I head back to the cabin and see how Podge is settling in.
I see if I can track down Nin.
I text Nomi about that date.
I find Roscoe's van.
I visit Hobland at his compound.
I visit Lucinda at her studio.
I head into the deep woods.
I return to the barrows.
I head to the urban blight.
I check my phone.
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