User:MatthiasRat/Not Quite Alone
 | [[:Category:Paradise|Paradise]] story universe |
[[Setting::Paradise| ]]
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{{#if:Nuvola apps bookcase.png|}} | Works by MatthiasRat on Shifti |
This is the third story of Christopher's life in the Paradise setting. New material will be added to the end unless otherwise noted.
{{#ifeq: User |User| Not Quite Alone | Not Quite Alone}}[[Title::{{#ifeq: User |User| Not Quite Alone | Not Quite Alone}}| ]]
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Friday nights, the furry club of Virginia Tech, known as SOAP, met to play games, chat, and in general have a good time. Christopher loved the camaraderie, even if he still had to be careful. High-fiving his friends often ran the risk of severe laceration, or at least really sore palms. He chuckled under his breath as he remembered the way Rob had cradled his paw that first night a little over month ago.
SOAP met in Squires on campus, and most of the others would drive and park wherever they could find a spot. Not so Christopher, who walked from his apartment down Tom's Creek all the way to campus. Not only did he hate finding a parking spot on campus, but he hated having to squeeze his three-hundred pound ursine body into his Saturn. Besides, wearing a v-neck shirt with wide collar and shorts, the brisk evening air felt good. It would be even better when he walked home after the sun had set.
Despite his bulk, especially around his middle, his bear body seemed quite able to handle the hike without feeling any exhaustion. He panted some, but not enough to feel self-conscious. He hadn't even bothered with a bra. It was too nice to worry about his breasts jostling around.
So early in the academic year, the campus was still busy at that hour. Cars circled the Drillfield, and he saw a ROTC squad jogging in formation and identical clothes. Past the War Memorial Chapel he could see a group of students throwing frisbees and footballs. The leaves hadn't begun changing colors yet, but they would in a month. Christopher wove his way through several groups of students as he made his way down to the arch. As he passed beneath the most recent architectural addition to the campus, he saw Rob pulling up in his Matrix. Nick was with him.
"Hey Chris," Nick called, waving as he climbed out of the car. "Did you walk again?"
"I love walking," Christopher replied, smiling. "It's only twenty minutes, and it's good exercise."
Nick chuckled. "It doesn't appear to be helping."
The bear patted his belly and shrugged. "Winter hibernation, you know?"
"So you're serious about this bear thing?"
"Yeah, Chris is very serious about that," Rob said as he slammed his door shut, backpack hanging from one shoulder. The skunk grinned, short little fangs poking out from behind his lips. "You've seen the way sh... he's been eating lately."
Christopher glared at Rob. The skunk had barely caught himself this time. He was the only one who knew the bear was really female. Well, him and this bull character who'd contacted them two weeks ago. The initial excitement had worn off after a few days. Now it had settled into a vague impatience. The bull, who'd never identified himself by name, had not contacted them again after that first night. He'd instructed them to wait, promising them that he would bring them into the know, and now nothing. Christopher had tried calling the number he'd given Rob three times, but the line had gone dead.
"Yes I have!" Nick said. "We're going to have to start buying twice as much whenever you come over."
"Sorry about that," Christopher replied, even as the three of them turned towards the doors at the rear end of Squires. "I've just been so hungry lately. And Rob is a good cook. Hard to resist having thirds and fourths!"
Squires was the main student center at Virginia Tech. It had convention space, offices for various clubs, a few fast food joints, an eight lane bowling alley, pool tables and arcade games, music practice rooms, display cases featuring trophies or snatches of Tech history, and even a dance hall. The three of them climbed to the third floor. Here they found the small meeting room in which SOAP took place, far removed from the regular Squires activity.
Trevor and Brett were already there, as well as Patrick, Audrey, and two of the new members of SOAP. The room contained two long tables pressed together. Trevor sat at one end with a pile of Ironclaw books, character sheets, and some dice. The others sat nearby with character sheets of their own. Patrick, thin and dark-haired, complained, "Why can't we play Jadeclaw? They have dragons in Jadeclaw."
"I don't have Jadeclaw," Trevor replied. He smiled when he saw the trio enter. "Greetings! We're making Ironclaw characters for this year's game. Here's character sheets." Trevor slid three sheets down the table.
Rob sat next to Audrey, who leaned over and kissed him on the nose. Nick settled in next to Patrick and Christopher took a seat where he would have plenty of room to stretch. He smiled to everyone, and waved to the two new members, trying desperately to remember their names. He'd met them only once so far, and despite the fact that one was tall and the other short, he hadn't been able to keep them straight.
"Good evening, gentleman," the tall one said.
"Hey, Randall," Rob replied. The skunk stared at his character sheet for a moment, and then turned to Trevor. "So why are we playing Ironclaw?"
"Chris said it was one of the best furry games out there, and I agree."
Christopher nodded. "It's very medieval. It won't have the unrealistic action and gothiness of Werewolf. Hey, Trevor, do you have any other books to pass around? It'll make character creation a lot easier."
"I have two extra books, so you'll need to share."
The other newcomer, Randall, and Brett shared a book, as did Audrey and Rob, and Nick and Patrick. Christopher knew the system well enough that he started adding a few details to his character sheet. He smiled and turned his head to one side and glanced down at his breasts. They were resting comfortably in his shirt. But it did give him an idea for his character. For race, he wrote in bear. Now all he needed was a female name.
If Rob thought he acted like a momma bear, then he would do so. In their game at least!
"Hello everyone!" a new voice said. Stepping through the doorway was a stout freshman dressed in a black kilt with combat boots. "Sorry I'm late. ROTC wanted to do an extra march around the Drillfield."
"Hey, Isaac," Chris said, waving him to a seat. "You're just in time to make an Ironclaw character. Well, once we have another free book."
"I'm sorry about that, I only have three copies," Trevor said. "Ironclaw character creation is easy."
"I have a few questions about making my character," Randall said. "If I make a bull alchemist, could I store my methane and make bombs? It's just a matter of simple science."
Everyone stared at Randall. Trevor grimaced and said, "No, I don't think you should be able to do that."
"Aww, but it's just science! A good alchemist will know some chemistry. And they'd know a lot about fire. Methane plus fire equals nifty explosion."
"Well, I'm not going to allow it."
"Aww," Randall whined, but he had a fiendish grin on his face. Christopher suspected that getting what he'd asked for hadn't been the point.
Isaac chuckled next to Chris, "Oh Randall, stop trying to powergame."
"I'm not powergaming, I'm just using the rules to make the optimal character."
"That's powergaming!" Rob said, long tail twitching.
"You're no fun," Randall moped and returned to fiddling with his sheet.
Christopher finished writing down the stats that he knew by heart, and set his pencil down. He stretched his claws and glanced about the room. Almost everyone from SOAP was there already. "Does anybody know if Cindy and Van will show up?"
"They will not be making it," Trevor reported, still in that level cheery voice. "Van had to take a job that has him working Friday nights, so they've asked to be excused from our game."
"Oh, that sucks." Christopher had specifically asked for Friday night's off when he'd started working at Target. Much to his delight, he'd received it.
While waiting for one of the books to free up, he chatted with Isaac. Isaac, like most Virginia Tech students, had come from northern Virginia, and was escaping the hustle and bustle of the DC suburbs. When asked about the kilt, he admitted that he didn't actually have any Scottish heritage in him, he just liked kilts. Chris wondered if that might not be a good solution for some of his furry forms. It'd save him the trouble of sewing tail holes in his pants.
Rob's cell phone began ringing, and the skunk nearly bolted upright in his seat. "You okay?" Audrey asked.
The skunk glanced at the number on his phone, and his eyes flicked briefly to Christopher. The bear sat up straighter, his chair groaning beneath him. "Yeah, just caught me by surprise. I'll be back, gotta take this." He rushed out the door as he pulled the handset open.
"Rob has been pretty jumpy lately," Nick said after the skunk was gone.
"Heh... have you seen his room?" Brett asked. "He keeps it clean."
"Well, at least something in that apartment is," the other new member replied sarcastically.
"I try to keep my side clean!" Brett objected.
"I seem to recall seeing laundry lying on your side of our dorm room, Aaron," Randall pointed out. And there was the last one's name. Christopher tried to fix it in his memory.
"Whatever," Aaron grumped.
The door opened and the skunk stuck his head in. "Hey, Chris, can you come here for a minute?"
Christopher nodded, heart pounding. It had to be the bull. About time too!
Once in the hall and the door closed behind him, Christopher leaned down, head next to Rob's with the phone between them. Rob said, "Okay, we're both here."
A gruff voice replied, "Chris, I need to hear your voice."
"I'm here too," the bear said, knowing that his growling female voice would be unmistakable.
"Thank you. I apologize for making you wait so long before contacting you again. I know you both have attempted to contact me in the interim, but you must understand how careful we have to be before exposing ourselves. Now that we've had some time to learn more about you, we would like to meet."
"As in, face to face?" Christopher asked.
"Yes. You may decline, but unless we meet, you will not have access to the Changed network."
"Of course we want to meet!" Rob practically laughed, his long tail dancing behind him, "When and where?"
The bull did not sound satisfied, but that may have been the phone. "That is all arranged. Tomorrow, we will meet at a small restaurant southeast of Pittsburgh. From Blacksburg, this is at most a six hour drive, so you can easily arrive by one o'clock."
"Hey, we're college students. We like to sleep in on Saturdays." Rob's tail no longer danced as happily.
"I assume a small break in your schedule will not hamper either of you."
"What am I supposed to tell my wife?" Christopher asked, rather disturbed at how sudden this had come. There were so many things to consider and plan. What would he wear? Where would they stay?
"Tell her that you are going to the Pittsburgh area to meet with friends. She is aware of your Internet contacts, is she not?"
Christopher grumbled. "Yes, but—"
"Good," the bull declared. "I have booked a room for you at a Holiday Inn off the Pennsylvania turnpike. I am paying the bill. I will send the directions to your email accounts after we hang up."
"But," Christopher growled, "we don't even know your name."
"I am Changed like you. When we meet tomorrow, I will tell you my name. It will do you no good to know it tonight."
"We'll feel a lot better about driving six hours tomorrow," Rob pointed out. "You know our names. We ought to know yours."
The bull was silent but for heavy breathing. After nearly ten seconds he said, "Lundh. My name is Walter Lundh. Will you come tomorrow?"
Christopher rubbed his paws over one another. "It's so short notice..."
Rob's tail flicked the bear's backside. "Yes, we'll come, Walter. See you tomorrow in Pittsburgh."
"Very good. Have a good evening, gentlemen." The line went dead.
Rob put the phone away and stepped back a pace. "I hope you didn't have any plans this weekend."
"I was hoping to spend time with Leslie before she goes to work tomorrow evening."
"Well, buy her a souvenir or something. I take it I'm driving?"
The bear straightened and stretched, toe-claws scratching the tiled floor and paws brushing the ceiling. "A six hour road trip? We better take your car! I'm liable to be one surly bear anyway after being cramped that long. If you make me deal with highway drivers on top of that, it'll be worse."
Rob grimaced, long tail drooping. "Great, now I have to set my alarm." He looked at the door. "What do we tell them?"
"Why not the truth? We need to meet with somebody in Pittsburgh this weekend, but we don't know what it's about."
"A job opportunity perhaps?"
"Works for me." Christopher grinned. "So what race is your character going to be?"
Rob laughed. "Skunk of course."
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Six o'clock came far too soon for Rob. He smacked his clock off the side table and crawled out of bed. He had a half hour to brush his fur and dress. Chris had suggested he pack and set aside clothes before going to bed. As his mind blearily tried to discern up from down, he was very glad he'd listened to her advice.
His tail fur was still frazzled and there was an irritating knot on the back of his thigh by the time he climbed into his car. But he was awake. The roads around Blacksburg were quiet. He only saw one other car on his way to Chris's place. Irritatingly enough, Chris was waiting for him on the steps outside her apartment with a huge thermos of coffee in her paw, and a large suitcase next to her.
She smiled as he drove up, her fangs gleaming in the soft morning light. She'd opted to dress in a blue button-up short-sleeve shirt, the top two buttons of which were left undone, and matching shorts. She hefted the suitcase as if it were a pillow and walked over to the trunk. Rob climbed out of the car and stretched out his tail. "What in the world are you bringing? It's just for one night!"
Chris shrugged and tapped the trunk with her claws. "I always overpack. And don't make any girl jokes. Are you going to pop the trunk?"
"Right." After the luggage was stowed, Rob and Chris climbed into the car. It sank a couple inches as soon as the bear settled inside. "That coffee smells really good," he said. "I need to get some gas. Could you go inside and grab me some?"
Chris nodded. "Sure. Do you take cream?"
Rob tapped the black fur on his arm with one claw. "Better make it that color."
The bear chuckled.
Ten minutes later, they had gas, they had coffee, and they were heading west on Route 460. Chris put a straw in her thermos and sucked on her coffee. She then picked up the map and traced the roads with one claw. "Have you ever driven 460 all the way to West Virginia?"
Rob shook his head. "How far is it?"
"Forty-five minutes to West Virginia, an hour to I-77. Some beautiful mountains along the way. Did you bring a camera?"
"No, didn't think about it."
Chris smiled and tapped her window. Rob nodded, and the she-bear rolled down the window to let in the cool morning air. She jerked one claw over her shoulder. "I have two cameras with me, my Polaroid for sharing pictures when we meet this Walter Lundh, and my SLR for anything we want to turn out well. I took a look at the map last night and we'll be passing the New River Gorge. I thought we could stop for a short break there."
Rob grimaced, "Didn't Walter says he wanted us there by one?"
"Yes, but the speed limit in West Virginia is 70 on highways, so you'll be able to make up some of that time."
The skunk grinned, steering carefully around the mountain bends, all the while letting the speedometer inch upward. "What do you think of this guy? He seems a bit secretive to me. What's with not wanting to tell us his name?"
She sucked on her coffee again and shook her head. "Makes perfect sense to me. You don't just go telling people you're a bull, a bear, or a skunk. And if you have to, you don't tell them who you are unless you know they have reason to believe you."
Rob's tail tip flicked across the top of his seat. "He saw my picture. He knows I'm a skunk. I told him you're a bear."
"True." She leaned back in her seat and let the wind run through her cheek fur. "He sounded older to me. Maybe his job requires him to be secretive. And maybe he's been like us for a while. The only reason I risked exposing myself to you back in August was because you were a friend, and I had just changed again. If I didn't know who you were, I'd be pretty nervous about revealing myself."
Rob scratched the back of his head with his claws. He'd learned to scratch gently in the last five weeks, and the scars from his latest hard-way lesson were all healed. He almost felt like he knew what he was doing in his skunk body. "I want others to know," Rob said. "Well, my friends that is. I still don't like the idea of some scientist getting their hands on me."
"You were alone like this for maybe six hours," Chris pointed out, her tone arch. "You only know what its like to be alone this way because I've told you." She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And how did Walter find you, anyway?"
Rob glanced at those four-inch claws. Chris had trimmed them yesterday, so they were blunt at the end. He chided himself; Chris was his friend, she'd never hurt him like that. "You know that furry roleplaying forum you like to hang out on? I took a picture of myself and used it as my user icon."
Chris set her coffee down and snapped, "You what? I told you not to reveal yourself! You don't know who else might have seen it!"
"Hey now!" Rob slowed the vehicle as they passed through Pembroke. He pointed to the turn off to the Cascades Trail. "It was only up as long as we were up there. I posted it just before you invited me to go, and I took it down as soon as we got back. Besides, I thought you said nobody could see you were furry and female in your pictures."
"Nobody had! But that doesn't mean there aren't some people out there who could."
"People like us who we want to meet can, and did."
"But there might be others, some still human who can see what we really are. You shouldn't have taken the chance."
Rob found himself getting irritated. Chris was slipping back into momma bear mode and lecturing him like a recalcitrant cub. He was tired, groggy, and only a half hour into a six hour drive to meet a mysterious bull. He was not going to put up with this! "Look, Momma bear, if not for what I did, we might never have met anybody else like us."
Chris growled a bit, but settled back in her seat. One paw brushed over her breasts, and then she stared out the window. "It just makes me uncomfortable. You knew that."
"You're my friend, Chris. Not my mother."
"But you put me at risk too. I don't care if something good came out of it."
Rob sighed. "Hey, mind if I put on some tunes?" She waved her paw, eyes watching out the window as they drove into a light fog bank.
Neither of them said anything until they'd finally left the fog bank shortly before they reached I-77 in West Virginia. The road had passed through a series of low hills, another couple small towns, and along the side of a steep mountain slope before passing into the steady green hills of West Virginia. All the while the fog had surrounded them, making driving difficult. Rob had put on a movie soundtrack, but he hadn't really heard any of it.
When they came along the crest of a rise and saw several buildings along the side of the road, and the very first traffic light since they'd turned onto Route 460, Chris pointed to the right. "Here's the turn onto I-77."
"I assume we want North." Rob said as he pulled onto the exit. By now they weren't the only ones on the road, but the highway seemed sparse without a single semi in sight.
Chris fished in her shirt pocked and pulled out a roll of quarters. "We'll need this for the tolls along the way. Since we're getting off on Route 19 in about thirty miles, we shouldn't use too much of this here."
Rob nodded. "How often have you driven up this way?"
"Well, back before there was SOAP, I was looking at this University in Ontario called Waterloo. Things had been real tough for me that year, and I wanted to go some place with a good Math program where I wouldn't overheat all the time. I even had a few furry friends up there. Furry like SOAP that is."
"So why didn't you?"
"Waterloo didn't offer enough money. Being a bear is expensive, not to mention being three other types of fur too, depending on the year!" She sighed and rolled her window up. "Okay, that's cool enough for now. It all worked out in the end. What about you, why did you choose Virginia Tech?"
The skunk and bear continued to talk about school, trading stories of High School, where they grew up, and their families. All the while they sipped on their coffees, both of them using straws to accommodate their muzzles. By the time they left the highway, after paying a dollar and a half in tolls, they'd finished their coffee and were laughing and enjoying the music.
That is until Chris started shifting uneasily in her seat. "Hey, careful there," Rob said, noting the way she placed her claws on the seat's edge. "What's wrong?"
"I think the coffee went right through me. Could you find a place to pull off?"
Rob looked at the mountains of green forest on either side of the road. "Along the side of the road?"
"No, a gas station or restaurant or something." She grimaced and growled, shifting her legs against each other.
"Sure, just hold it okay." Rob picked up some speed, hoping they'd find some place soon.
"Hurry, please!"
A few miles up the road they found a gas station and convenience store. As soon as Rob pulled to a stop, Chris undid her seat belt and squeezed out of the car. She walked stiffly and quickly inside, not even bothering to brush out her paw prints in the gravel. Rob swore under his breath and jumped out to do it for her.
When Chris returned five minutes later, she couldn't stop rubbing her nose with the back of one paw. "That was disgusting! They haven't cleaned their restroom in weeks. I should have let you just pull off the side of the road. And that seat!" She shuddered and growled. "I broke it just trying to put it down. Let's get out of here."
"Suits me," Rob said. "Are you feeling better?"
"Much better now, thank you." She smiled and took a long sniff of the air, and then snuffled again. "Forgot the gas fumes. Oh, can you pop the trunk? I want to grab my camera."
The skunk did so, dragging his paws through the dirt and gravel to hide the prints. Now that she was calm again, Chris did the same thing. While Rob waited, the she-bear opened her suitcase and took out the larger of two camera cases stuffed inside. Rob observed tat she had packed at least three outfits. He'd stuffed a single change of clothes, his claw trimming kit, and some shampoo in his backpack and considered himself in good shape.
"Okay, let's go," Chris said as she climbed back in the car, her camera bag resting on her knees.
Rob shut the trunk, slid behind the wheel, and pulled out of the station lot. He read the gas price as he drove past. "A buck fifty for the cheap stuff! I paid a buck thirty back in Blacksburg!"
"Yeah, gas in West Virginia always seems to be more expensive," Chris agreed. She unfolded the map and traced her claws over the roads until she found where they were. "Looks like the New River Gorge is another fifteen to twenty miles up the road. Mind if I leave the window down? I can still smell that bathroom."
"Sure, go ahead." While the bruin enjoyed the fresh air, Rob put on the soundtrack to The Matrix. Driving a white Matrix, he'd tried to get the license plate "NOSPOON" but somebody had beaten him to it.
Route 19 reminded the skunk of 460, except more mountainous. Every ten miles or so they would pass through a small town with a traffic light or two. The rest of the time it acted more like an Appalachian highway passing by dense forests, curving along mountains, dipping through valleys, and scaling tall peaks. The air was fresh with trees and grass, but also the inevitable automotive stink. Thankfully, he smelled no dead skunks, but there was the occasional whiff of deer and other wildlife he couldn't name.
Chris was right about the New River Gorge, and as they started across the bridge, she took a few pictures. The bridge had no superstructure above, and with traffic on either side, there wasn't much to look at. "There," Chris said, pointing to a road on the right at the end of the bridge. "That's the park office. Pull in there."
Thick woods surrounded the park office and parking lot on all sides. After climbing out of the car, Rob and Chris stretched again, the bear straightening her shirt. Rob saw one of her bra straps just behind her collar, but she pulled it tight and covered them up. "Okay," Rob said, "we're here. Now what?"
"I want some pictures of the gorge and the bridge. There should be a trail somewhere nearby to both."
At the end of the parking lot next to a small meadow for picnics they found an asphalt trail to an overlook. Once in the trees the asphalt became an M.C. Escher amalgamation of wooden platforms and steps that led down the gorge slope. The shade felt cool, and a breeze ruffled leaves and their fur. Chris began taking pictures, rumbling in delight. Everywhere the could smell moss and grass, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and several larger creatures. A faint aroma of an egg and ham muffin lingered at a bench halfway down.
The final platform jutted out from the ridge wall overlooking the gorge. The gorge was hundreds of feet deep with train tracks and even a few homes clustered at its base next to the New River which flowed serenely by. Everything was adorned in summer green. To their right, they saw the massive steel arch holding up the bridge. Supports several feet thick anchored in the valley walls in multiple places. Chris snapped several pictures while Rob read the sign. "The longest arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. Yeah that's pretty big. Much better from down here."
"Oh, I know!" Chris focused the SLR lens carefully between her fingertips, making sure her claws never touched any part of the camera. "Here, get in the shot. I want a few of each of us in front of the bridge."
"You know the guy at the photo shop will see our pictures. Unless you develop your own film."
Chris snorted. "Like I could afford a dark room or the chemicals! Besides, I've been going to the same photo place for years. It'll be fine." Rob stood with his back to the bridge and stared at the bear. She fiddled with the lens and said, "Could you lower your tail? It's blocking the arch. Okay, much better. And smile... that's not a smile! I know you can do better than that. Thank you." She snapped a few photos, then made him take some of her.
"I don't know how you manage this with your claws." Rob had enough trouble with his own, and they didn't even go half an inch past his fingertips!
"Lots of practice," she replied. He handed her back the camera which she put away. The bear patted her belly and growled. "I'm starving! I'm going to grab some snacks form the park office. Do you want anything?"
"No, I'm good. I'll meet you back at the car."
Chris returned with an armload of pre-packaged pastries and a few bags of chips, with two bottles of fruit juice to wash it all down. She shared some of it with him as they continued north on Route 19, but she ate, as Rob put it, the "bear's share."
They reached interstate 79 a little after ten o'clock, and shortly thereafter Chris asked Rob to pull off someplace she could use the restroom again. Similarly, after merging onto Route 119 in Pennsylvania, Chris had to make another pit stop. Rob did his best not to say anything, but it was almost impossible to think of Chris as a guy at that point. When he mentioned it, Chris changed the subject to football.
When they finally turned onto the turnpike just before twelve-thirty, only thirteen miles from their destination, Chris asked, "So what do you think this Walter's going to tell us when we meet him?"
"I think he's going to tell us the same stuff you told me. How to hide this, how to live with it. And he said something about the Changed network. It sounds to me like there's a bunch of folks like us out there already and they've organized. This Walter is probably a contact or something for newbies."
"I'm hardly a newbie. I've never heard of any Changed network, and I've been searching for such a thing for years." The bear almost growled the words, but there was no menace in her voice.
"You showed me how you searched. It didn't work. They probably have their systems on proprietary networks, and the whole thing password protected. You'd never find it in a search engine."
Chris growled a bit more, but then said, "Pittsburgh seems an awfully far way to go. I'd hoped there would be more like us a little closer to home."
"Me too. Maybe he's in charge of this region? There can't be that many of us, or we would have seen others before." Rob glanced at his fuel gauge and clicked his tongue on his teeth. "Good thing we're almost there. I'm almost out of gas! What do the directions say?"
Chris grabbed the directions and scanned them with one claw. "At the Irwin exit, exit number 67, get off the turnpike and head west on Route 30. Drive four and a half miles, and turn left onto Lincoln Way. Another two miles and McCardle's is on the right."
"Sounds easy enough," Rob replied. While Chris studied the map, Rob kept his eyes open for the Irwin exit. They'd passed beyond the Appalachian mountains when they'd left West Virginia, and now traveled through rolling hills, spotting the occasional tree with yellowing leaves. Even the trees seemed shorter. The roads were decidedly worse, replete with pot hole sand shoddily repaired cracks. Every few seconds one would jar the car and set Chris's breasts and belly jiggling. The bear did her best not to complain about it.
Rob found the exit easily enough. Route 30 had a lot more traffic than they'd seen throughout the day, and it led past several restaurants, shopping centers, and a pair of car dealerships. Both bear and skunk kept their eyes peeled for the next turn, but they still nearly missed it. Rob had to take a sharp left to make it to the turn lane in time. Lincoln Way led past a graveyard before entering a residential area. Rather abruptly, hills rose up on either side of the road and they ducked and wove back and forth between them.
As they came around a right bend, Chris pointed and shouted, "There it is!" The restaurant was set back in an alcove in the hill, the McCardle's sign prominently displayed at the road's edge. The parking lot was paved with several large pot holes. A dozen cards parked in the lot, most with Pennsylvania plates. Standing before a dark blue Sedan with Ohio plates was what could only be described as a bull in a business suit.
Rob parked the car and swallowed, eyes never leaving the bull, who returned the stare with equal intensity. "Well, we're here."
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