Well that's interesting...

She steps onto the platform.

The world twists around her, and then she's somewhere else. Same giant-ass tree aesthetic, different giant-ass tree. This one has a much larger platform, ringed with teleporters. The trunk is hollow, and holds a large multi-purpose plaza, accessible through an archway carved out of the wood.

After a minute, Kate follows her through, looks around for a second, and points to one of the teleporters on the far side of the platform.

Sure, Naomi can follow directions.

It's too bad Agartha's gates don't correspond to their geographic locations at all. If they did it would probably be significantly easier to find a place you'd never been before. Kate looks around the platform, kind of wanting to impress her student(?), then gives up and cheats by looking it up on her phone. Directions in hand, she leads them to a third platform, unattached to anything, with three portals on it. Looks like they want the left-most one.

It's significantly darker on the other side of the portal, even with the light from the World Tree shining through. She steps to the side and waits for her eyes to adjust.

Naomi wishes she could cover the entire surface of the planet in a network of tiny Clay tunnels already. She misses that broad map of the surrounding landscape a ridiculous amount considering she's barely had time to get used to having it in the first place. But, ridiculous or no, not being able to orient herself in relation to a network of living Clay feels as unsettling as being constantly unable to point out which way is down.

They're in the wreck of some kind of Viking longboat. ...Well, okay then. Who knows why there's half a Viking longboat a solid mile inland and buried in the side of a cliff, but Kate suspects it has something to do with the Agartha gate in the middle of it.

Her head feels clearer, now that she's not as close to the source of the Buzzing. She takes a breath. The air smells of rotting fish. Oh, right, they're on an island. Great. She hops out of the longboat onto the ground, then turns to see how Naomi is handling it. There's something weird about her, but Kate can't figure out what. It could be that whatever she has trouble with hasn't come up yet.

She thinks she might be able to tell which direction the rest of herselves are in, but on the other hand that might just be wishful thinking. If they're in Maine now, then the closest network is Montreal, west-ish. So is west that way, or is she imagining things?

She shakes her head, wrinkles her nose, and jumps down next to Kate.

Kate's gotta agree with her on the nose-wrinkling. Presumably she'll get used to it, but until then... ugh, it's only barely an improvement over cloying honey.

There's someone by a campfire nearby; Kate walks over, figuring that anyone this close to an Agartha gate and not dumb enough to go in probably has some idea what's going on.

Naomi tags along. Kind of awkward that the member of the expedition who has any idea what's going on is not the same as the member of the expedition who can talk, but eh, Kate's apparently been managing this on her own for a while, it'll probably be fine.

Apparently the guy by the campfire is used to nonverbal strangers approaching him, because as soon as Kate plants herself in front of him, he touches a hand to his cowboy hat and says in a Midwestern drawl, "Been waiting for y'all to come around. 'lluminati?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "They got a hand in a lotta things on this island. Don't like half of it, don't know about the other half. Better send ya on down to Sheriff Bannerman, she could use the extra hands."

A cowboy. Why is there a cowboy.

He catches Naomi's expression and laughs. "No, y'ain't gone back in time, I was just born in the wrong place." His gaze shifts over her shoulder and he picks up his rifle from where it's leaning against a tree. "You wanna know what's wrong on Solomon Island?" He aims the rifle. Approaching the campsite is a stumbling person, looking maybe drunk in the dark. They're making rasping noises, as if they're having trouble breathing.

Cowboy guy lets the person get close enough to the fire to illuminate their crushed ribs and loose intestines, then fires. "That. Ain't right. Clear some of 'em out on your way up the road." He gestures to indicate which way. "The dead should get their six feet and rest, same as the rest of us. See if you can't pick up some supplies on the way. Far as I know most people are holed up at the police station. Not that there's much policing to do anymore."

It's probably strategic to pretend she's normally as nonverbal as Kate, but she can't resist a mutter of, "Cowboys and zombies and bears, oh my!"

Kate and Cowboy Guy shoot her the exact same look, an even mixture of what the fuck? and who are you even. Kate recovers first, snorts, and unslings her rifle, starting to walk in the right direction, alert for oncoming undead.

Naomi follows, paying attention to her life-sense. Zombies aren't picked out in bright shiny non-colours like properly living things are, but the 'sight' of a corpse walking around with its dim faded smudge of ex-life is definitely distinctive if she looks for it. And she would like to know if there is any other gross supernatural nonsense in the vicinity to look forward to.

There's some kind of four-legged carnivore with knees that shouldn't bend that way off in the woods to their right, but there's a rock wall between them and it, at least for now. Down the road is just more zombies, and of course the normal humans in the police station.

Kate fires into a pack of zombies. One falls over. The other three charge.

Naomi gently discourages the zombies with blood magic.

Kate's discouragement is more emphatic, and involves a grenade. The rest of the zombies fall over and stop moving. She looks at Naomi and shrugs, maybe a little pleased at getting to show off.

Halfway down the road there's a pickup truck with several ammo boxes in the back.

Oh, the showing off is cute.

Naomi and her sigils and her Fireball Friend aren't going to get much out of ammo boxes; are they any more useful to Kate?

Not in and of themselves, but the people at the police station would probably appreciate them. Kate picks up a few, realizes that this leaves her with no free hands, realizes belatedly that she's supposed to be letting Naomi practice her own skills, then figures that these problems pretty much solve each other and we'll just pretend that was on purpose, shall we. She waits for Naomi to start forward again before following her.

Onward! To the police station and the ordinary living humans who are in it!

A barrier of chain-link fencing and cars has been hastily assembled around the station and its small parking lot. There are a handful of people on the roof of the one-story building, firing down at the zombies who are ineffectively trying to shove their way through. Even more guards, some of them cops, some of them civilians, are at each "gate," if the breaks in the fence can be called that. One opens to the road; the other provides access to the town.

The survivors apparently have practice telling the good guys from the zombies, because nobody shoots at them as they make their way inside. It's pretty much just one big room. A small triage center has been set up in the corner with the jail cell, and someone is getting medical attention on the other side of the room. There are boxes stacked haphazardly behind tables and most of the light in the room comes from emergency floodlights. There's a tired woman standing at a desk, looking between the computer screen and something in a logbook in front of her. Behind her is a whiteboard with a crude map, several names, and logistical notes in (presumably) shorthand.

Of these things, the map is most interesting at first glance.

It shows an overhead view of the section of town they're in, centered on the police station. The streets are named and there are Xs, circles, and arrows in various places. Hopefully it makes more sense to the person who drew it. Also, this town is tiny.