They started by gathering whatever supplies they could find. The Wild Pack gangsters had raided the Harbor's kitchens and stolen most of their food supply, along with almost all of their weapons and ammunition, but they had left behind several bags of potatoes, a few jars of pickles, and some other odds and ends; Lucky also found a half-empty box of .45 ACP ammunition, which he gave to Stu. Stu loaded the clip and slammed it into the Midnighter, grateful to have a loaded gun again.

  Stu also found a much better knife than the one he had been using -- this one had a deadly-looking seven-inch blade -- along with a nice leather sheath for it. He also discarded his clothes, replacing his torn-up t-shirt and soggy jeans with a fresh set of clothes he found in one of the apartments. He decided to keep the black jacket he had found in the subway -- it fit him well -- although he did he attempt to wash the smell out of it.

  He also found a belt, to which he strapped the knife, and a backpack to replace the duffel bag he had been carrying around. Lucky, meanwhile, found some ammo for his railgun -- it used steel pellets, shaped like cylinders, rather than traditional ammunition -- and a couple of grenades which he had apparently been hiding under his own bed. "Found 'em in Lawrence Park," he explained. "Thought they might come in handy."

  The three of them -- Stu, Lucky, and Jessup -- had lunch in a building Lucky called the garage, which also happened to be his home; he lived here with his sister. "Luna's a mechanic," he told Stu, as the three of them munched on pickles, carrots, and baked potatoes. "She fixes things around Harbor. She even managed to get a glider working, although she doesn't take it out all that much. It's been getting harder and harder to find dynamo fluid lately."

  Stu was hardly listening; he was too busy stuffing his face with potatoes. He hadn't eaten in close to two days, and he was ravenously hungry. Jessup had also supplied them with several bottles of water, which Stu drank down greedily.

  "So where did you come from?" Jessup asked him, eyeing him a little suspiciously.

  "He's from another world," Lucky piped up helpfully, before Stu could answer.

  Jessup frowned. "Another world? What are you talking about?"

  "He didn't know anything about zombies or gangs or Meku City or anything," Lucky continued. "He didn't even know what planet we were on. I had to explain it all to him."

  "Did you lose your memory or something?" Jessup asked.

  "No," Stu said reluctantly. He would have preferred to have kept this a secret; he didn't want everyone he met thinking he was crazy. "I really am from another world. Some men kidnapped me and brought me here against my will." He bit into another potato. "Not that I'd expect you to believe any of that."

  "He's pretty good in a fight, though," Lucky said. "He helped me kill the Brute, like I said. He threw a knife at it, hit it right in the eye."

  "That's...impressive," Jessup said guardedly. "Well, whoever you are, and wherever you came from, thanks for helping Lucky. He has a tendency to look before he leaps."

  "I do not," he protested.

  "Are you going to help us look for Luna?" Stu asked Jessup.

  The teenager shook his head. "I'm going to find a boat and try to get to the Big Green. My family probably thinks I'm dead. I don't want them to worry." He looked up and sighed. "I wish I could do something about Hal and the other Harbor Guards. But I can't take them to Enforcers' Field and bury them all by myself."

  "We could help," Stu offered, albeit a little reluctantly. Although he understood the necessity of it, the prospect of collecting all of the bodies, carrying them to this field, and digging graves for them, was not exactly appealing.

  "No," he said, shaking his head. "You should look for Luna. Who knows where she might have ended up? With the Wild Pack on the rampage..."

  "He's right," Lucky said firmly. "We have to find my sister first." He stopped for a moment, giving Stu a thoughtful look. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

  "No," he said. "I'm an only child."

  "Do you have any family at all? Are your parents still alive?"

  "They're alive," he answered. "They're probably starting to wonder what's happened to me."

  "My parents are dead," Lucky said quietly. "Luna's the only one I have."

  "We'll find her," Stu said, as reassuringly as he could. He wasn't sure he believed his own words, though -- Meku City was full of zombies, gangsters, and who knew what else; it was probably a miracle that Lucky had managed to survive on his own for as long as he had, after getting lost in the subway. Would Luna fare any better? Lucky had mentioned that she was quite a bit older than him; hopefully she had a little more sense.

  They finished their meal, such as it was, and packed as much additional food and water as they could carry. "What about a map?" Stu asked.

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  "A map?" Lucky snorted. "I don't need a map. It's all up here." He tapped his head.

  "I might need one," Stu said. "What if we get separated? Besides, I'm curious. I want to know what the city looks like."

  Lucky shrugged. "Let's go to the library, then." He led Stu into one of the warehouses, through another series of long hallways, and into a single, unfurnished room, no bigger than Stu's attic bedroom back home. There were perhaps two or three hundred books here, lying haphazardly on a series of shelves lining the walls.

  "This is the library?"

  "That's what we call it." Lucky started riffling through the shelves, looking for a map, while Stu examined the titles of the books. There seemed to be plenty of fiction -- books with titles like "The Alchemist's Lover" and "The Sword of the Giant" -- but very little non-fiction. "Do you have any history books here?" Stu asked.

  "I think there's one here somewhere," Lucky said. "But I thought you wanted a map."

  "I don't know anything about this world. I'd like to learn a little bit about its history."

  "Whatever you say." It took him a while, but he eventually managed to find a map of Meku City -- a cartoony tourist map, printed on a folded-up brochure -- and a thick textbook called simply "World History." Stu immediately unfolded the map of Meku City and started examining it, eagerly.

  He had had a vague idea that Meku City was some kind of analogue of New York, but looking at the map, that did not appear to be the case -- there was no Manhattan or Long Island, no Statue of Liberty, no Empire State Building. The map showed other landmarks instead: Lawrence Park, Timely Heights, the Basil River, and the Silver Skylighter, which was apparently some kind of tall building. It certainly didn't look like New York City, or Boston, or any other big East Coast city that he was familiar with.

  Intrigued, he opened up the history book. Thumbing through it, he soon stumbled across a contemporary map of the world...and started.

  Stu had been under the impression that this world he had arrived in was some kind of alternate Earth, with a different history and different countries, perhaps, but with essentially the same geography. He had been mistaken. According to this map of the world, there were only five continents, and none of them looked anything like Africa, Asia, Australia, or North or South America. There was no Antarctica, either; however, there was a huge polar continent on the upper portion of the map, called Polaris, and a large island that sort of resembled Greenland near the bottom of the map.

  The names of the continents, and the countries occupying them, were also new to him. One of the larger continents was called Ashwen; the only two nations occupying this continent were the Astrian Union -- a huge, heart-shaped nation which stretched from one coast to the other -- and the Northwestern Authority, which occupied a smaller territory on the northwest portion of the continent. Meku City, Stu noted, was on the eastern side of the Union, while Lon Halos was on the other side.

  The other countries were just as mysterious. Rurik? Jizhou? The Holy Republic? Serra Hidalgo? "This isn't Earth," he muttered.

  Lucky looked over his shoulder. "Of course it is."

  "There's no America," he protested, pointing at the map. "No China, no Russia, no Europe. This can't be Earth."

  "Well, it is," Lucky said, a little annoyed. "Are we done here? We need to get moving."

  "Yeah, I guess," Stu said, also annoyed. He wanted to stay here and study these documents a little longer; he felt like they might give him some clue as to how he might have ended up in this situation. But Lucky was right; he couldn't stay here all day. So he stuffed the tourist map and the history book in his backpack, for his later perusal, and followed Lucky back outside, where they met with Jessup.

  "Are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself?" Stu asked the teenager.

  "Yeah," he replied. "I'll be heading out to the Big Green soon, anyway." He gave them both a nod. "Good luck, you two."

  "Good luck yourself," Lucky said. And with that, they parted -- Stu and Lucky left the Harbor via the Red Gate, once again headed for Meku City's subway system.

  "How do you know she went this way?" Stu asked.

  "I don't," he said. "But if she was looking for me, and if she took the glider out, she would have had to follow Jane's Street down to the intersection before she could get to the Wide-Open." He frowned. "I wonder if she ran into Sike."

  "What's Sike?"

  "Sike's a who, not a what. He's an old guy who lives by himself on Jane's Street. He's got a good view of the street from his place; he might have seen her glider go by. We should ask him."

  Stu shrugged. "You're in charge."

  So they turned south at the next corner and started making their way down a wide boulevard, which, like virtually every other street in this town, was cluttered up with junk cars, twisted shopping carts, and the occasional skeletonized corpse. Stu kept an eye out for anything that looked useful -- tools, weapons, and so on -- but this area must have been picked clean long ago; there was nothing here but garbage.

  At least the weather was pleasant. Was it summer here, in Meku City? He suspected that it was, from how high the sun was hanging in the sky, but this was a totally different world, with different continents and oceans and everything; they might not even have seasons here.

  How could this world be so different, and yet so similar to his own? It was strange. Everyone he had encountered so far had been speaking English, and all the signs and lettering he had seen had been in English, but how could there be an English language if there was no England in this world? It didn't make sense.

  Well, maybe the history book Lucky had given him would provide him with some answers. He resolved to sit down and read it as soon as he had some spare time.

  "Sike's place is right down here," Lucky said, pointing out an eight-story building which towered over the approaching intersection. "He's usually not--"

  He was interrupted by a sudden shout, coming from somewhere up ahead: "Ah! Get off me, you son of a bitch!"

  "That sounded like Sike," Lucky said. "Come on!" And he ran ahead, weaving through the junked cars, with Stu following close at his heels. Concerned that the kid was once again failing to look before he leaped, Stu shouted at him to slow down, but to no avail.

  Turning left at the intersection, the two of them practically collided with a zombie -- a tall, pale, blond-haired zombie, with blisters on its face and silver-red blood leaking out of its mouth. Stu's ICON system helpfully provided a designation for it: "Level 3 Zombie."

  But it wasn't the only zombie on this street; there were three more of the undead about twenty feet away, trying to grab for an old, bearded man in a heavy green coat who had climbed up on the roof of a car to get away from them. He was kicking their heads like soccer balls, as they reached for him, all the while trying to draw a gun from the holster on his belt.

  "Sike!" Lucky shouted.

  The old man recognized him. "Lucky! I could use some help here!"

  The Level 3 Zombie had already turned its attention to Stu and Lucky. It made a kind of jabbering noise, blood and spittle flying from its broken mouth.

  And then it attacked.