So you won…against what?
You never even saw what attacked you, though you can still smell hot leather and steel.
Now for the next problem: your clothes are blasted all over the field, like someone got raptured while watching his kid's baseball game. You look around for your stuff. Your coat is fine, but you have to spend a few minutes assembling scraps to cover your lower half. At least you have an extra pair of boots. A few people watch you with disgust as you head for the shuttle, but no one dares say anything.
The church down the street is a black spire in the growing darkness. Students hurry out of it, back to the shuttle. You thought you had more time, but the students are already leaving, and you don't want to be stuck in this town when the light fades. You hurriedly join them, and the shuttle carries you back across the Connecticut River to Northampton.
The temperature plunges, but you've made plans this time. You retrieve some free newspapers, cut through a garden that hasn't been touched in decades, hop a chain-link fence, and approach an abandoned ranch house across from a boarded up daycare. Despite previous signs of occupancy, no one has squatted here for weeks. You dig around under the porch and retrieve some dry wood, then kick out a board, crawl inside, and use the newspapers to start a small fire. The air is smoky and the fire doesn't offer much warmth, but you're able to curl up in your stained fleece and get a few hours of sleep.
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