Roland Owins's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Roland shouldered his pack and stepped outside the SuperMart. The morning air bit at his whiskers. He needed to find the second surveyor post to narrow down the cache location. His paws gripped the map carrier at his side. The highway stretched east, cracked and overgrown with weeds. He started walking, his boots crunching on loose gravel. Every few minutes he stopped to scan the roadside with his binoculars. Rusted cars and fallen signs dotted the landscape. After an hour, a glint of metal caught his eye. There, half-buried in dirt, stood another post with numbered rings. Roland knelt and brushed away the soil. He pulled out his notebook and wrote down the coordinates. Two posts found. One more to go. Back at the SuperMart, Roland spread the map across the table. He needed official records to confirm the third post location. The Ivanpath Department of Land Management stood somewhere in the village, a brown and white building from before the war. Pre-war survey records would show every marked point in the region. Roland grabbed his pack and headed down the main road. The office building appeared after twenty minutes of walking, its green wood trim still visible beneath layers of dust. Inside, metal filing cabinets lined the walls. Roland pulled open drawer after drawer until he found survey maps from sixty years ago. The third post coordinates matched a location near the old radio tower. Roland hurried back to the SuperMart and pulled out his red tool chest. He loaded it with rope, a shovel, and spare batteries. The chest's black trim gleamed in the afternoon light. He needed to set up better communication before venturing farther out. Behind the SuperMart, a tall radio antenna tower rose into the sky, its metal framework still intact. Roland climbed up and checked the relay equipment. With repairs, he could send signals across the valley. The tower hummed to life after an hour of work. Roland tested the signal and got a clear response. Now he could call for help if needed. He marked the third post location on his map with a red circle. Tomorrow he'd hike out and find it. Three posts would give him the exact cache position. Five years of searching was finally coming together. Roland locked the tool chest and headed inside. The sun dipped below the mountains as he climbed to his command center. One more day, and he'd have his answer.