Cheezus knew he was being followed. An hour earlier the Misfits had left the island that had been their home for the past several days via a portal in a series of caves. They were reasonably confident that the portal would take them to San Francisco because Deathberry had seen a rundown version of the Bay Bridge – or at least he was pretty sure it was the same bridge that he used to cross all the time when he used to live in the area as a kid. Cheezus on the other hand had grown up in Detroit and had never been to San Francisco. Nonetheless, he was their best bet to scout the area and determine if they were actually where Deathberry suspected they were.

When they had first arrived, Deathberry had looked around and confirmed that he was sure this was the place. Still, he’d looked very disturbed. Clearly, it was no longer the home he’d once known. Gone were most of the residential buildings that should have been where Cheezus stood. Instead, residential and office buildings lay in rubble and the forest had taken over in a startlingly short amount of time. Deathberry suspected that they were in South San Francisco based on what he could make out from the remaining landmarks in the area. The Misfits had no idea what was here – did San Francisco still exist or had it too been reduced to nothing? Mr. Tiel hadn’t provided a lot of information about where exactly he would be and Aeon refused to provide them with any guidance. Unfortunately, Laura had never visited the other bunker and she and Mr. Tiel had only met once for a face to face meeting.

That meant it was up to Cheezus to scout the peninsula and determine what hostile and friendly forces existed. Cheezus worried that the hostiles definitely outnumbered the friendlies. Of course, he could be wrong about that but the chill running up his spine gave him enough pause to try to throw them off his trail. Even if they were friendly, watching him this way without announcing themselves certainly wasn’t neighbor like. Cheezus concentrated again on his stealth ability and focused on using some the metagame knowledge that Deathberry had been talking about. He knew that whatever was following him had to be using one of its five senses and if he could just mask himself to each of those it would improve his ability to pass through the area undetected. While whatever was following him was also pretty sneaky, Cheezus had a good perception ability and had heard the creature several times. That made him think that it was likely that it didn’t have a good ability to hear him that well. If the creature could have detected him by sound then it was likely it would have been a lot quieter. Therefore, he needed to focus on masking his other tracks. He had a hunch that whatever was following him had a good sense of smell. Being a humanoid, Cheezus knew that this was one of his weaknesses and it was probably the thing he was least able to mask just using his built-in rogue abilities.

Crossing a small stream, Cheezus had a bit of an inspiration. He’d seen some old movies where a man who was being tracked in the forest lost his pursuers by leaving some footprints seeming to indicate they were heading upstream while they in fact went downstream and doubled around to flank their opponent. While it wasn’t any sort of special ability, Cheezus thought this might have a shot at working. Hopefully, whatever was chasing him hadn’t watched the same movie. Cheezus doubled back to the stream and began walking upstream. After about a quarter of a mile, he took off his shoes and waded out into the water.

The stream was freezing cold and he saw his stamina bar starting to drop. He was going to have to make this quick. While his character didn’t have a swim ability per se, Cheezus had grown up going down to the pool to swim with his brother. He held his breath, dove in, and let the current plus his own momentum take him downstream. With his chest under water his stamina dropped at an alarming rate and he just hoped he could hold out until he could get a bit further downstream.

Eventually, his stamina dropped to dangerous levels. He made his way cautiously to the streambank, hoping that he hadn’t been seen by the creature as he travelled downstream. Finding a place where there were some cattails, he waded out of the water and made his way to shore, carefully choosing rocky spots to avoid making as few footprints as possible. If everything worked out, he would be able to lose the monster and be on his way with no further delays.

Luck was with him and he eventually made it to the edge of the city without any further encounters. Whatever had been chasing him in the forest had lost his scent at least long enough for him to get away safely. As Cheezus entered downtown San Francisco he was struck by how well kept it looked compared to the rest of the surrounding areas. Buildings here were relatively untouched and the place looked like business as usual. The only thing that was different was that instead of normal citygoers, Cheezus saw all sorts of humans, mutants, and monsters wandering the streets, seemingly in perfect harmony. What the heck was going on?

He made his way to a market area where hundreds of vendors lined the street. Walking up to one merchant he inspected the strange man’s wares. The merchant himself was a short fellow with a wide face that reminded him somewhat of the gnomes they’d encountered on the island except he was stouter, thickly bearded and when he spoke he had a gruff voice. “What can I help you with today,” the vendor asked. Cheezus looked at his inventory and saw that the stout man had a wide variety of axes. Not exactly his favored weapon but still he noticed that they were very finely crafted.

“I’m new to the City. Can you tell me where I can find an inn?” Cheezus asked. Usually, the local tavern or inn was a good place to pick up information and that was the commodity that he needed most at the moment.

The man nodded, his thick red beard bobbing, “Certainly, go down two blocks along Market and hang a left onto 3rd,” he said. “There is a place called the Tavern on the first floor.”

Cheezus thanked the man and went down the street as indicated. He made his way through the strange marketplace taking in all the sights along the way. He saw several NPCs he’d never seen before and he also saw some unique name tags. Were there other players in the game other than themselves? If so, that had tremendous implications. Cheezus thought about approaching one of the other players; however, he wasn’t entirely sure what he would ask them. By the time he’d thought about what to say they had passed down another street.

He made his way to the Tavern, went inside, and ordered a drink from the bartender. While he knew at some level his real body wasn’t experiencing it, he couldn’t help but appreciate the freshly made beer. Cheezus asked the bartender about it, “This is really good. Do you make this here at the Tavern?”

The large mutant man responded, with a smile. “Yep, made downstairs. We get the malt and hops from farmers over in Oakland.” Pretty amazing that all this commerce had sprung up in the last couple of weeks. How fast did things move in AO?

Cheezus asked the bartender about the city and its inhabitants. Apparently, since the apocalypse, some areas like San Francisco had been sheltered from the majority of the fallout and wandering monsters. When Cheezus asked about some of the creatures he’d seen in town, the bartender explained that they weren’t wild monsters but rather they had come to trade in the city just like everyone else. Cheezus pondered the implications of that. Toward the end of their conversation he also asked the large barman about Mr. Tiel. The owner had never heard the man’s name but he said that if you were looking for someone in the city or nearby he ought to talk to Robert, who was a mercenary that hung out at the Fat Cat Inn down the street. Cheezus finished his beer and walked out.

Before he started exploring things further he needed to get the Misfits up to date and it seemed like a perfect place for a little R&R. The crew hadn’t had much downtime recently except for a day or two on the island and even then, they had been grinding levels and fighting things nearly the entire time. Cheezus saw some pretty interesting looking restaurants in town and he was really hoping to take Thag there for a date.

He wasn’t exactly sure when he’d started being interested in her but there was some new connection they’d made in the last week that had never been there when they strictly played Champions together. Perhaps he’d buried it since he knew that Emmy had been dating Kevin. Hopefully, he wasn’t just the rebound boyfriend since he was starting to think about her more seriously. Talking about things outside of a game setting would have been ideal but there was nowhere to go in the small bunker in the middle of the Australian Outback. Looking around at the shops and other interesting things to do in town, he couldn’t wait to take her.