GM: Paul
Players: Bill-Chet
Game Date: April – December 2018

When winter became manageable April of 2018, Chet Orlowski had enough of his isolation. The long, hard winter had gotten to him and he decided it was time to leave his retreat north of Merrill. He packed as much gear as he could on his two horses and began making his way southeast. He had relative in the Menomonee Falls and Mequon area so that seemed like a good destination. He had a solid 5 months of travel time which seemed reasonable for that distance.

By the beginning of June he had made it about 10 miles southeast of Plainfield. It was a beautiful sunlit morning. The light glistened off the dew covered grass field that he was crossing. About half way across the 40 acre field Chet noticed that his horse was experiencing some distress. He reined up and suddenly the horse faltered and fell over. Chet was able to roll off the horse in time not to be pinned under it. He stood and brushed himself off just in time to see his second horse fall.

He rushed to the horses and looked them over. He could see that they had small paper cut nicks on their legs. He also noticed that there was a slime on them. That was not dew on the grass. He retrieved a bottle of whiskey from his belonging and proceeded to wash off the slime. Chet too began to feel woozy. He grabbed his go bag and rifle to try to make a dash for the edge of the field. When he stood up from grabbing his gear the toxin hit him like a train. He passed out on top of the horse.

As Chet faded in and out of consciousness he thought he saw someone on the edge of the field.

Brief consciousness again; all he could see was sky. He was being carried in a wheel barrow or wagon.

______

Bryna had been out on her usual walk around the farmstead when she noticed some fool in the middle of the dew-grass field. She quickly ran to get her hip waders, raincoat, rubber barn glove and face protection on. After ensuring the duct tape had all the seams sealed, she grabbed the wheel barrow and hastily made for the person in the field.

It was not a good scene. Two horse down and one man. The man and one horse were responsive. She took two epidural pens and injected the responsive horse. Then she quickly loaded the man into the wheel barrow and made her way back to the house as fast as she could. She was glad to see that he responsively swallowed the herbal tonic mixed with antihistamines that she kept on hand. She stripped him down and washed him off. Then she applied another herbal paste to his legs, arms and face. Given that it was a warm day she left him lying there as she put her gear back on to try to save the horses.

When Bryna got back to he horse the one horse was definitely beyond saving. The other horse she duct taped trash bags to his legs and was able to coax it back to standing. She led the dazed horse back to the farm where she, once again, performed the same ritual she had done on the man.

She hauled the man back into the house and put him to bed where he stayed sleeping for 4 days.

_______

When Chet awoke he could hear someone in the kitchen. Every joint in his body felt like it had been hit with a hammer and his nerves were on fire. It took all of his effort just to sit up. He could see his cloths on the dresser next to him. He tried to stand to dress himself but that was not happening. Instead he just called out to the person in in the kitchen. Bryna, a nice looking woman in 40s or 50s, walked over and stated “It is good to see you up and around”. As they talked Bryna explained that it would probably be a couple weeks before he was full strength and ready to travel.

As Chet recovered he got to know Bryna. By the time he was full strength they had talked about and agreed to move on together. Bryna was also tired of the isolation and Chet seemed like a good person.

The last week of June the two packed their provisions and belongings onto 4 horses and began to make their way for southeastern Wisconsin.

The trip was slower than they had anticipated and by mid September they were about 20 miles northwest of Hartland. They thought it best not to push their luck and they began scouting for a home they could winter over in.

Eventually they found a great house. It had one of those giant fireplaces with a cooking swing arm already in place. The two spent the next couple weeks gather wood, food, and scavenging supplies that they would need for the long winter.

In the early hours of December 6th Chet and Bryna awoke to a fire in front of the fireplace. An ember must have popped over the safety screen and landed on the floor starting the rug on fire. The fire was already beyond a manageable state. They could try to fight it and chance loosing their gear or they could just grab their gear and get out safely. They chose to get out.

Hartland was only 20 miles away and they could easily last for 7-10 days on the move. The deep snow was hard on the horse and they only made a few miles each day before finding a building they could use for shelter.

By the morning of December 11th they had made it all the way down highway 83 and were near highway 16. The winter silence was interrupted by a call for help. Bryna noticed a slight movement on the overpass in front of them. They plowed their way through the snow toward the calling girl as Chet readied his gun.

At first glance the two noticed a young woman dangling in her backpack by a piece of rebar. As they got off their horses and got a closer look they could see that there was also a young man who had fallen to highway 16 below and was impaled on a piece of rebar sticking out of a chunk of road that had fallen sometime before.

Blood covered the scene below and time was critical. Not able to use his horse to drag the woman up over the edge of the hole (due to the rebar and other sharp hazards) Chet positioned himself next to the hole and attempted to pull her up. He grabbed her backpack and pulled. She was just about to safety when her nylon backpack began to slip out of Chet’s snow covered gloves. Bryan seeing what was happening and grabbed the pack. This allowed Chet to get a better hold and they two pulled the young lady over onto the overpass.

Chet and Bryna then ran around and down the snowy embankment to the road below. The young man was bleeding out. After quick assessment they pulled him off the rebar and Bryna began to apply first aid. Chet could see she was having a hard time of it. As Bryna caught his look she said “What? This why I do herbs and acupuncture.”

Out of the corner of his eye Chet noticed movement. He looked east down highway 16 and saw 3 people on horses making haste toward them. They stopped about 200 feet away and called out. “Are you guys OK? Do you need any help?” Chet responded with “We could use whatever help you can give.” With that they began riding forward again.

When the new arrivals got the the overpass they hopped off their horses. The group was made up of two women and a man. The lead woman quickly slid off her horse and threw the reins to the man. She jogged over the the injured man and began pulling items out of first aid bag. She obviously knew what she was doing. She mentioned to Bryna that she had done good work but needed to do a couple of adjustments. After doing a bit of repacking of the wound the woman stapled it shut. “That should hold until we get him back to our base.”

On the ride back Chet and Bryan found out that the young man and woman were Lisa Sabre and Mark Leonard and the three on horse were Michelle Bacallao, Gracie-May Middleton, and Farid Sargsyan. They rode next to Gracie-May and she filled them in. Michelle was the group leader and a member of the Menominee Tribe. She and Farid had joined up with this group over a year ago. Then she dropped the SciFi on them. The base was actually set up by aliens. There are three species at the base. The Talolan, the M’ket, and the Cotyledian.

The group arrived at the base just after sundown. The base was built in the middle of the Ironwood golf course. You could see the complex by the rising moon and it was amazing.