Maria walked behind Frank, thinking. It’d been easy to cry. It still was. This whole situation made it easy. If her brother and mother had gone through this, she didn’t have high hopes. Just think of that, and it came out. When she thought that the person they’d left behind might not be her dad, that made it easy too.

He was probably getting up and following them right now. If he’d asked her to stay behind she wouldn’t have been able to make herself leave. He didn’t though. That meant he was confident. And hopefully that it was actually her dad. She had made sure the knot on his wrists could be easily loosened. It was one he’d taught her, so he’d have noticed it immediately when he tried to get his hands free. He’d have been up within a minute and grabbed the knife and potion. Tailing silently behind them was child’s play for him. Frank was good, really good even, but her dad was still better in the forest. If Frank did notice him, then it probably wasn’t her dad.

Frank hadn’t figured it out. She hoped. She didn’t understand him at all. If he’d noticed what she’d done and ignored it for some reason she wouldn’t be surprised either. Part awkward nerd thrust into the lead, part ruthless killer. He didn’t make sense, and if she were honest to herself, he frightened her almost as much as everything else going on did. However, she’d accepted he knew things that she didn’t, and they were probably going to be important. She didn’t want to be left behind to fend for herself blindly. He was the strongest person here and he offered to help, no strings attached.

What’d she’d gained already made her stronger than anyone in town would be. He’d given weapons to Rina and Bill, basically for free. Nothing he’d done had been a threat to her, but his erratic actions left her worried he might do something later. Her mind told her to stick around if possible. So she did, pushing back the fear she had towards him. Another part of her told her to get far away. She’d seen the approval in his eyes when she abandoned her own father.

***

Frank got them moving as fast as he could. It was getting into evening, and the sun would be quite low before they arrived back in town. Maria making such a hard decision, and doing it so decisively, was the only silver lining to come out of the trip back. Given that he didn’t really have an effective way to verify more people without delaying his departure, he wouldn’t leave her behind if she chose to come along.

Skinwalkers were a disaster. It’d be foolish to think they hadn’t already infiltrated the town. He’d take a look, to see if any were obvious. They seemed to be easy experience, if he could root them out. He thought about Hugo, left behind. He felt bad doing it, but he just could not risk it.

Nothing else interrupted them as they made their way back to the highway, then headed into town. The first thing he did was find a place to grab food. There was a gas station at the edge of town, serving people leaving. He led the group to it. It was unlocked and empty. No one had the opportunity to close up.

“Everyone can relax now, we can just bar the door while we are in here and be safe.” Frank said, tension leaving him. He put down his things and started looking around for food to eat. His eyes wandered to the chest freezer by the door, and he was struck by a thought. Ice cream would be trashed in a few days. Even unopened freezers would eventually warm up. He might never get any again.

He walked over and took a look inside. That it was all starting to thaw was expected, but at the cost of sticking his hand in melted desserts, he procured two intact ice cream sandwiches from the bottom. A roll of paper towels snagged from a shelf was enough to clean himself up, and then he dug in.

The cold made his teeth ache, but the flavour was a kind of nostalgia he had rarely felt in the preceding decade. The first one was gone in moments, followed by the second. Bill gave him a weird, uncomfortable look, but Rina and Maria were getting themselves settled and hadn’t been paying attention.

He finished eating them. He’d get a full meal after he spoke about what he was doing next. He could tell no one in the group was comfortable with him, but he wasn’t sure how to deal with that. Next time he had to make a hard decision, the same thing might happen.

“I plan to leave tomorrow afternoon. In the morning, I want to find bicycles to use, and gather supplies. As well, I am going to check out how everyone else is doing before leaving. There might be skinwalkers, and if I can root some of them out before I go, that’ll give them a better chance. As will explaining the situation.” Frank looked around at the other three, who were sitting and resting. Bill and Rina were listless, while Maria looked worried but was also expectant. Frank wondered about that.

“If any of you would like to leave with me, I recommend it, given the current situation. I’ll take you all to Seattle with me.” Frank told them. “If you have any questions about today or tomorrow, I’m all ears.”

Rina spoke up immediately. “Why did we leave Hugo?! We could be leaving him to die! He knew!” Her voice was almost a shout.

Frank looked at her. “Do we know that skinwalkers don’t get the memories of their victims? We don’t. I don’t even know how to figure it out. The only way I know of positively confirming someone is not a skinwalker is to see them show up on a system message. How could we do that without putting ourselves at serious risk?”

“But if he is Hugo, then you’ve left him to die! And he knew the memories and the one impersonating Ghulam didn’t!” Rina sounded deeply offended.

Frank looked at her. “Then why didn’t you stay? I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

Rina looked downcast. “What am I supposed to do? You’re the one who took out those things like it was nothing. You’re the one with the ability to do something. How am I supposed to help him by myself?”

That phrase hit him. It matched his own insecurities too well. “I’m one person. What happens if that wasn’t Hugo? Then we could all get killed. If we ran into another group, would any of you three be able to deal with the situation? I’m not asking whether you are capable of holding your own, could you even attack something that looks human? Not just hit it with a small stone?” he responded.

“So you just left him there? Why did you help me then? Wouldn’t the potion have made you safer? Why did you help Bill then? Why did you rescue everyone who’d been captured? You could have been safe the entire time.”

Rina’s voice got quieter as she continued. “Everyone was already looking out for themselves or jockeying for influence or just completely in denial. They told me you scouted the area out alone, found us, then led the rescue mission, handled the most dangerous part yourself. Then you parted with that health potion. I felt what it did. It didn’t just heal my wound. My abdominal wall recovered. It fixes everything. You were helping everyone, and I thought it was just because you were a good person. You even brushed off Greg and Sasha and said it was because they could still help others. I just don’t understand how you can do all that, and then this.”

Rina finished speaking, and walked over to the opposite corner of the station. Frank let her. He thought about what she said for a few moments, and decided to consider it over in detail. Before he could ruminate, Bill had his own question, perhaps emboldened by how Frank handled the conversation with Rina.

“What’s the plan?” He asked.

“Leave for Seattle as soon as feasible.” Frank said.

“I mean like long term. Not next week. You’re basically the fucking protagonist, unless there are other people travelling back in time. What’s the deal? You’ve got some save humanity plan going on, since apparently we all died last time?” Bill asked.

Frank didn’t respond right away.

Bill looked at him. “I don’t want to sit around and be a little bitch-ass just trying to survive. What’s the fucking point. I coulda done that before all this. I thought I felt like shit when I woke up after getting clocked, but I feel worse about this than that. I could have stayed, ya know. But I didn’t. I figured if you made that decision it’s because you have something important that needs to be done. Something so important you’d decided to say sorry bud, can’t risk not getting it done.”

“I need to spread as much information about what’s going on as possible. And I need to be prepared to deal with other time travelers.” Frank said after a moment. “That’s why I’m going to Seattle. To spread as much information as possible. Hopefully I can get it out at least as far as Portland and Vancouver. It’s also the best place to get stronger.”

“Fuck man, is that really it? Like think about it. You are probably the strongest person on the continent, unless there’s some hidden martial arts master with a staff just waiting to step out. How could you possibly have been sent back in time if that’s all there is to it?” Bill asked, half assured, half hoping for agreement.

“I don’t have any way to save humanity that isn’t more than an if. All I can do is help as much as I’m able.” Frank said, finally.

Bill looked disappointed at that. His energy faded. “You at least know what could be important, if you could figure it out, right?”

“Yea.” Frank said. “My first priority is to deal with what I know I can do though.”

Bill went silent. After a bit, he spoke once more. “What could save humanity, if you figured it out or pulled it off.”

Frank didn’t have to think to answer that. “Figuring out magic. Figuring out how to get around the system restriction on technology. Finding a powerful enough ally or allies. Raising the strength of humanity as a whole enough that we can defend ourselves.” He paused. “All ifs, though.”

Bill nodded at that. “Why help me then? Or Rina? Or Maria? But not Hugo? I don’t get it either.”

Frank hesitated for a moment, but decided to just say what he felt, honestly. He could tell how leery everyone was of him. He was no good at lying, so he’d have to hope some frankness could help. “Hugo was a threat. None of you were. At worst, you were just people I’d leave behind. I don’t think it’s possible for me to succeed on my own. Even something as simple as sleeping at night is super dangerous without a watch. With the skinwalkers being around, it was even more important not to risk any of you. Until I figure out a better way to identify them, you three are literally the only people I can put any trust in without a lengthy and potentially dangerous process. Anyone else could be fake.”

He looked at Bill. “I just need help.”

Maria chose to speak up then. “Would a skilled woodsman who could successfully follow us out without being noticed by you help?” Her voice had some anger in it, but she also seemed to be genuinely asking. She was looking past Frank.

“Yea.” Frank responded.

“Well then you should go find an enemy to test him, because I watched my dad walk by a couple minutes ago.”