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---

Algernon quickly came to realize that he didn’t appreciate the work Frieda was doing when she was captain. While he had simply worked as an engineer making sure that The Dragon held itself together, he didn’t notice the vehicle‘s movement any more than he did when he lived on The Providence. The steamer went from point A to point B, and he only needed to worry about it breaking down along the way.

He had quite forgotten that someone needed to actually steer the vehicle. It turned out that while Frieda was locked away in the wheelhouse for most of their journey, that’s what she was doing. At first he had considered handing that duty off to Senta, who was more than eager to commandeer the wheel, but thought it might look better if the captain was the one to be the helmsman. Algernon still wasn’t entirely sure what being the newly appointed captain meant he should be doing, but if this was what Frieda did, so would he.

It turned out that steering a steamer was difficult. Even though he saw firsthand how the infrastructure the precursors left behind was crumbling, he imagined that the roads would be straightforward to travel. Algernon was confused at first with the speed Siegbert had set The Dragon to since it was quite slow. Navigating out of the valley, even with how cumbersome the steering wheel was and with the breeze flowing directly through the missing windshield into the cabin, didn’t pose too much of a challenge to the possum. It was once they turned back on to The Devil’s Road that obstacles started to present themselves.

The main road was littered with debris. Algernon often had to frantically turn the wheel to veer out of the way of loose asphalt, fallen road signs and abandoned vehicles. The meandering speed made a lot more sense considering he would have rear-ended several of the sitting vehicles otherwise.

He also felt bad about jostling the crew whenever he ran over bumps and holes in the concrete. Although most of the other hybrids didn't pay him mind, whenever Senta came in to check on him there was judgment in her gaze. Harper, who for some reason rappelled off the side of The Dragon during their stints of travel, occasionally swung over to the open side of the cabin to heckle him. Whereas he was sure Senta preferred a smoother ride, the skunk insisted that he hit more potholes to make the drive more exciting.

Avoiding other steamers on the roads proved to be another point of contention amongst the crew. The debris made some stretches of road bottlenecks that only one vehicle could pass through at a time. Senta had left the sightglass they’d found in the wheelhouse which allowed Algernon to determine if there were potential conflicts ahead at these intersections, and in every case where a vehicle was approaching from the other direction he commanded Siegbert to shift down a gear to give them enough time to pass. Senta and Harper were in agreement that he should show a bit more dominance against the other scav gangs. Given his current anxiety levels trying to keep the vehicle on the road, it seemed like it was going to be a struggle for him to not pass out again when antagonizing a rival group.

Whether or not he desired to engage in conflicts like that, Algernon didn’t have a choice. As The Dragon approached another section of The Devil’s Road that thinned, he spotted a steamer approaching from the other end. He was about to yell to Siegbert to slow them down again, before a detail on the other vehicle caught his eye; they were flying a black pennant. They were on the hunt for salvage, and his crew was their prey.

Panicked, he went with his first instinct: Run. “I-Increase speed! Increase speed!” he yelled to the engine room.

He felt The Dragon pull forward underneath him. Quickly glancing through the sightglass again Algernon saw a turret much like the one atop their own steamer rotate towards them.

Looking down at the bottleneck in the road, he tried to determine whether or not they would hit it before the other gang did and fly past them. It was difficult to say.

Algernon scampered back behind the wheel to commandeer it. In his periphery he saw Harper poke her head in from the exterior. “Those ones ahead aren’t friendly,” she commented. “So don’t, like, rush directly at them.”

His teeth were grit and he was too scared to answer, so Harper blew him a raspberry and ducked back. With his eyes set on the choke in the road and trying to estimate the distance between it and the approaching vehicle, Algernon’s knees started to tremble. They weren’t going to make it first.

Over the roar of The Dragon’s engine and the wind a metallic thunk drew his attention. A long nail was now embedded in the deck in front of him. When he realized that it had come from their attackers, Algernon immediately ducked down. He squealed in terror as another nail fired from the other turret and embedded into the wheel above his head.

He crawled to the side of the wheel to check the situation. His eyes widened when he saw that The Dragon had angled towards the sidewalk. As fast as he could Algernon spun the steering wheel to correct their course. Their steamer veered towards the other one, which was in the middle of the bottleneck.

More nails punctured the metal plates of the floor. Algernon spun the wheel the other way to counteract their movement, but impact was inevitable. He put his back to the wheel and braced.

The Dragon shuddered as it fishtailed into the other vehicle. Screeching metal and sparks filled the cabin. The colossal THUD of a vehicle impacting the concrete sounded. He expected to be flung bodily into the wall, but nothing happened.

He opened his eyes and turned forward. Only an open road was ahead of them. Activity in the rest of their steamer passed through the walls into the wheelhouse, and shortly the door was flung open. Senta entered and saw him cowering behind the wheel. She eyed him curiously, but for once didn’t seem upset with him.

“Siegbert, slow us down,” she commanded through the vent in the floor. She then walked towards the front of the cabin, noting the nails shot through the floor, then sticking her head out the hole in the room to look behind them down the road. Senta pulled her head back in and gave Algernon an appraising stare. “Good job,” she stated begrudgingly.

His heart was still hammering as he gaped at the rat. “Wh-what happened?”

“When you smashed into the other vehicle, you rocked it enough to capsize it. Would you like to turn around to scavenge from it?”

Algernon shook his head, still stunned. He wanted to get as far away from that vehicle as possible.

Harper’s gleeful visage popped back in from the outside. “That was epic! Our previous captain never did anything as exciting as that!”

The possum idly thought that if the skunk had been hanging on the other side of the rig, then she would have become a smear when their two vehicles collided. With shaking legs he stood up. He’d had enough captaining for the day. “I-I think that... I mean, you are n-now in charge of the wheel,” he told Senta.

Her eyes lit up and she regarded the station hungrily. “Of course.”

---

In his opinion, operations went a lot smoother once Senta was at the helm. Without that duty to occupy his full attention, Algernon was able to attend to the tasks he was more comfortable doing.

With how close the enemy gang had been to perforating him, he felt it was high time to work on reconstructing the wheelhouse. Over the course of the day he was able to construct a waist-high barrier around the edge of the room. It wasn’t much, but it offered a modicum of protection and at least meant he wouldn’t accidentally fall off the side of the steamer.

When they turned off at another watering hole Algernon inspected the damage he’d caused to the side of The Dragon. On the outside there were immense scrapes on the metal body, but only subtle dents on the interior walls. He figured it might have caused damage to the wallspace, but none of the rats made any comment on the matter. It was just another addition to the tapestry of dents making up the rig.

During the late afternoon he heard the roar of another engine approaching theirs from behind. Before Algernon could even take a look through the gap in the cabin he heard the report of compressed air from their turret. The drone of the other vehicle quickly faded away.

Shortly after Peach opened the door to the cabin. “More scavs were gunning for us,” she noted.

“Oh, uh, th-thanks for taking care of that,” he said, bewildered that they had been targeted twice in the same day.

The badger ducked out and closed the door behind her. Algernon looked to Senta, who was still manning the wheel, but she didn’t seem to be much fazed.

“Do... Do you think those were from Seb?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “They wouldn’t be so easily cowed if they were, and they wouldn’t just send one steamer either. We saw very little resistance on the approach to Seb’s; this is more expected.”

Rattled by the attacks, Algernon made sure to keep a better eye on their surroundings as he worked. He checked the sightglass whenever another rig appeared on the horizon, but the ones they passed as evening bloomed only flew green or orange flags. By the time they settled for the night there weren’t any other incidents.

His obsessive checking of the road ahead was what made him the first to see the strange group at the field ahead. There were several rigs parked at the side of the road and hybrids were congregating around a collection of fabric pavilions. A technicolor banner with a circular symbol with lines running through it flapped in the wind.

“Senta, what does a rainbow flag mean?”

The pale rat gave him a confused look from over the top of the wheel. Indicating that he take the helm, they swapped places so she could peer through the sightglass. “I haven’t seen one like this before, but all of the steamers are flying green. It appears to be some sort of temporary trading post,” she said, looking back at him.

He pursed his lips. “Could it be a trap?”

She raised a brow. “Scavs take banners very seriously. No one would fly a green pennant to trick someone. That would be unseemly.”

Once again Algernon doubted bandits would care about that kind of frivolity, but he decided to trust Senta’s instincts on this. Remembering how excited the crew had been arriving at Seb’s, he reasoned they could do with a morale boost after the week they’d gone through. “Let’s take a brief stop, then.”

The rat nodded. “It would be good to stretch our legs for a bit.”

He called down to Siegbert to switch off the power. As The Dragon approached the side of the field he turned the vehicle alongside the other ones, and Senta pulled the brakes.

The whole crew was gathered in the main hall as Algernon exited the wheelhouse. “Alright everyone, there’s a small trading post here. We’re not staying too long so don’t wander off, and if you want to get something...” He realized that he wasn’t sure how that even worked with scavs; the idea of them buying something instead of just stealing it was foreign to him.

“Notify the captain or I if there’s something you want, and we’ll consider trading for it,” Senta added.

The scavs grunted in affirmation. Peach and Siegbert remained behind to keep watch over The Dragon, while the rest exited the vehicle. After closing the hatch behind them, the music drifting on the breeze immediately caught their attention. Algernon didn’t know what type of instrument was making the ethereal sounds, but it did its job of mesmerizing them and drawing them towards the stalls.

Whereas Seb’s was a madhouse, there was an almost lethargic air surrounding the trading post. Several other hybrid groups were milling about but none were acting rowdy, just perusing the wares calmly. Part of the relaxed atmosphere likely had to do with said wares; As Algernon’s crew drew near the fragrance of incense drifted towards them as well as other exotic scents.

Some sort of spices were displayed in jars at the nearest stand, where some of the smells were coming from. Nearby were candles, but of sizes and colors that he hadn’t seen before. These too were in specially-made glass jars. Harper lifted the lid on one to sniff it, and immediately sneezed at the overpowering scent.

Other strange items were scattered around the stalls. A group of moles were perusing a basket of translucent rocks. At another stand were vials of vibrant powders. Yet more had pins and patches of the same circular symbol that flapped above the central pavilion. Algernon’s crew quickly lost themselves in the maze of oddities.

Senta grabbed his sleeve. “We should find the leaders of this caravan,” she said to him.

“Wh-what for?”

“We’ve never been out this far, it would be beneficial to have a map of the region. I doubt we’d be able to find one amidst all of the other useless junk on display.”

Algernon nodded. Anything that would help them not get caught up in any more trouble would be advantageous.

They walked over to the main pavilion, where the entrancing music was loudest. Fabrics and bizarre outfits were on its outskirts and became denser the farther in they went. They had to brush them away in order to enter into the inner sanctum.

Inside was a low-lit, hazy den. Illumination came from more novelty candles, their flowery fragrances overwhelming, making his head swim. More smoke came from the center, drifting from a pipe held in a rabbit’s mouth. The lagomorph was lounging on a pile of cushions and was dressed in the same kitschy clothing hung on the racks surrounding them. A large hybrid, a doe, lay behind the rabbit. She cradled a stringed instrument in her long arms, plucking at it with hooves.

Algernon and Senta stopped before the circle of cushions. It took a minute for the rabbit to notice them, but when he did his mouth drew up into a lazy smile. The rabbit plucked the pipe out of his mouth and blew smoke out the corner of his lips. “Well now, you must be new journeymen ‘round here! What can I do ya for?”

“We’re looking for a map of the area, are you offering any?” Senta asked.

The rabbit took another puff from his pipe. “Nah, we don’t got no maps, right Cynthie?”

The deer hummed in response, not breaking from her music.

“Right on. Maps aren’t our vibe, they’re too structured. Sometimes you just gotta go in the direction that feels right, ya hear?”

Senta crossed her arms, clearly irritated by the answer. “Are you at least familiar with the area?”

The rabbit nodded. “F’miliar enough, ‘least with the land ‘round Uranus.”

“And Uranus is...?” she broached.

Algernon heard a cackle of laughter nearby. He looked over and saw that Harper and Teddy were scouring through some of the clothes at the fringes of the pavilion. The skunk was finding something hilarious, but he wasn’t sure what.

“It’s a town a few hours down the road from here,” the rabbit said. His eyes dilated as he realized something. “Say, I bet they have one of them maps, if you’re wantin’ for one!”

The rat muttered something under her breath that sounded like an insult of some kind. Out loud she asked, “Who runs the settlement?”

Scratching his cheek fluff, he replied, “They’re independent I think, but them folks from the Path have started investin’ in the operations.”

Senta turned without any kind of thanks. She flicked her tail at Algernon to follow her to the side of the space. “It would be good to get a map from this settlement, but they’ll have guards watching who comes and goes,” she said quietly once they were out of earshot.

“Like the one at Seb’s?” he said.

“Yes. I’ve never heard of the Path before. That probably means they aren’t associated with Seb, but there’s still no guarantee there won’t be those who would be interested in us.”

Algernon recalled how the gatekeepers at Seb’s checked that their crew was on the guestlist, so to say. If the ones at this settlement knew that Seb was after them, he imagined that could turn ugly. “Is it even p-possible that the hybrids running that place would know who we are? To the ones here, we’re just some more travelers.”

“The ones here have their heads in the clouds. Also, this isn’t a major settlement; Most of them have radios to communicate with other towns. Seb has one. If he’s serious about ending us he’d probably broadcast our bounty.”

“M-maybe we should just go around? It sounds too risky.”

“The map isn’t the only reason to go. I want to see if we actually need to be running. If they have a bounty board, we can check.”

That’s something Algernon hadn’t considered. He didn’t remember his conversation with Seb at all due to his inebriation at the time, so the only proof that they were being hunted was Frieda’s word. “If you d-didn’t believe we were in trouble, why did you rush us to repair The Dragon?”

She fixed him with a cold glare. “Because I’m not stupid. Even if there’s a small chance what Frieda said is true, we need to expect the worst. But if it turns out there is no need to live on the run, I would like to know. So let’s find a way to slip inside this settlement.”

“Can we try these on?” Teddy called out on the other end of the pavilion. He was holding a garish outfit with lots of tassels on it.

The rabbit craned his neck over to the raccoon. “Uh, yeah! They’re there to be worn. S’long as you barter for it before taking it with you.”

Algernon and Senta looked at each other. The rat let out an exasperated sigh. “I suppose that is an option...”

---

Trading some of their spare flashlights and other nicknacks, the crew procured enough costumes from the caravan for all of them. Sascha was especially excited about the plan and insisted they get a veritable wardrobe of outfits in order to give them options to work with.

Seeing the energy the calico rat had, Algernon let him do his thing after they took the bundles back to The Belching Dragon. Sascha instructed Teddy to bring a vial of reddish substance down to the bathhouse, and sent a befuddled Peach down after him when she came in to see what the commotion was about. Meanwhile, the rat tore through the pile of clothes and separated pieces out for his fellow rodents.

Algernon picked through the fabrics, not really knowing what he was meant to be doing. His ears fluttered when he heard someone approach. He turned and saw Harper behind him, flashing one of her mischievous smiles.

“You know, I still need to reward you for rescuing me,” she said with mock innocence.

His eyes bulged. “I-I really don’t... This isn’t th-the time to -”

“Oh no, you have it wrong! Your outfit, it’s not very captainy. I’ll help you fix that.”

The next half hour was a whirlwind as Harper pulled him into numerous clothes in order to achieve some sort of style. She had no concept of personal space as she slipped him in and out of the various articles, but he kept reminding himself that it could be worse, especially considering his last encounter with her.

When she was done, Algernon looked at himself in a plastic mirror they had scavenged from the valley. Or at least, he tried to. He picked at the eyepatch Harper secured over his right eye. “I-I can’t see very well in this...”

She batted away his hand. “It makes you look like a leader. If you’ve lost an eye, people will respect you more!”

Not wanting to actually lose an eye, he let the matter rest. He looked over himself with his left eye. The tricorn hat, flamboyant jacket and buckled pants made him look like a fop. His outfit looked a lot like Frieda’s now that he thought about it, which is why he didn’t voice his opinion that it made him look ridiculous.

The other scavs had also put on various clothes to mask their appearance. Harper was now wearing a vest festooned with tassels and a bandana around the top of her head. The getup made her look like the owners of the caravan, but without any of the charm.

Senta was standing at the side looking sullen in the vibrant cloak she had been put in. “Sascha, you couldn’t have made us more conspicuous if you tried.”

The calico rat grinned, wearing his own multi-colored attire. “That’s the point! Bounty hunters will be looking for hybrids trying to stay hidden, so they won’t pay us any mind if we look like this!”

She looked to the ceiling, vexed. “We’re doomed. They’ll find us, and we’ll all look like clowns as we’re beaten to death.”

A series of bangs and heavy footsteps from below drew their attention. “Harper!” the voice of Peach bellowed up to them.

The skunk grimaced. “I didn’t even do anything this time, what is she -”

When Peach rose up from the stairs, Harper broke down in hysterics. The badger’s fur was now a reddish-pink from ear to heel. She stomped towards the skunk.

“No! No, ahaha!” Harper got out between peals of laughter. “I’m not responsible!”

Peach pulled the skunk off her feet by the front of her shirt. “You’re the one who told Teddy to put dye in the tender, aren’t you?” she growled.

Harper was still grinning ear to ear in the badger’s grip. “I couldn’t have, I was out here dressing Al! Sascha is the one in charge of disguises!”

She whipped her head over to the rat, who was smiling sheepishly over at her. Peach dropped the skunk and strode over to him. “I ought to pulverize you,” she threatened, looming over him.

Sascha cowered away from her. “This was the best I could come up with, honest!” he said, waving his hands in front of him. “Intimidation is your most recognizable feature, so we needed to hide it!”

Slowly the anger left her body, leaving behind discomfort. Peach looked at her pink paws with disdain, then glimpsed her reflection in the mirror. She stared deeply at it as though trying to ascertain its meaning. “This is unbearable.”

Still grinning madly and shaking her head, Harper patted her on the arm. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the coloring will wash out.”

Algernon looked over at Sascha, who wore a nervous expression. “Th-the dye, it’s not permanent, right?” he whispered.

The rat looked at him mortified. “I don’t know what was on the label, I can’t read!”

For Sascha’s continued wellbeing, he hoped it was the temporary kind. “A-anyways, everyone back to their stations! We should be able to make it to the settlement by nightfall!”