The next morning the three woke up early as they went to bed quite early. They ate food while the notice of the gate being ready followed them like it was glued on their back.
Anna Gale and her sisters calmly ate food and got ready to leave when she thought of something. "Map of this world."
*We can only open the map as you travel. Not possible to open a map more than given.*
Travel?
Suddenly a truth hit her hard. "You want us to explore this world?"
*Even though we have all information about this world, the map you have is all we got from it. It would be preferable if you could travel far and wide so we could get a better picture of this world. With your help of course. If you travel to the next city, another part of the map of the same size will be open and you might get a present."
Huh?
"Are we in some kind of game? "
She was stunned by the situation as she played games before that had similar simulations.
*No game. We traverse billions of worlds from far galaxies, but can only open maps as much as the gatekeepers travel. And the maps change every couple hundreds of years so we have to reset maps. I chose you as you are young and might get a chance to travel for a long time. Of course, as a child it will be hard doing so, so we will wait until you are not big enough. It is of course only optional. If you chose to stay here for the rest of your life, we will help you open the gates whenever is not dangerous until you die.*
Anna Gale calmly accepted his words. "What is the present? "
*Gate to storage that belongs only to you.*
"What if someone opens the door?" Alice was not even wondering anymore.
*Impossible. Only owners of the room can use the room. Unrelated people, including blood relatives, are unable to touch the things in the room.*
Alice started pacing. "What if they break the wall or window and enter it?"
*Impossible. The room I am talking about is an abandoned shelter that is impossible to reach as the upper floors are broken after the earthshake.*
Alice became silent and then asked again.
"What if Earth shakes again so strong and destroys those rooms?"
*Impossible. The earth shake was caused by the meteorite that hit the shelter directly. Even if someone wanted to reach down, it would need decades to do so. And not many knew about this place. Those that knew abandoned it as there was literally nothing important inside for them.*
Anna had an idea. "You said we have to travel to another city?"
*Correct.*
She glanced at her two sisters and chuckled. "Let's walk today. If we get the room to store food, we don't have to bring down all those things and will be able to reach for it when we need it."
"But the trip will be far. Map." Alice pointed at the map and sighed.
"Not if we get transported to the border of this place... here. I want gate there." She pointed at only the street going out this map.
*Request accepted. Gate will be open for thirty minutes. Any request about the time between the gates?*
Anna Gale calmly refused. "Same as yesterday. Open the gate."
She checked her sisters and her own clothes, packed a backpack with some dry food, a few fruits and a big bottle of water and grabbed their hands. "Let's go."
The day was actually beautiful but rather cold. Luckily they wore nice warm clothes and walked carefully around big puddles that were in holes in the unpaved street.
"Sister, why are these streets so full of holes?" Michelle was wondering as she has never seen so many holes in one street. And those were so deep that if she stepped into it, water would reach her knees.
"Streets building was costing our country every year's billions. Do you think ancient people have such an amount?" She spoke like that to explain the two stunned girls, but she was personally flabbergasted.
One thing so not paving it with stone, but the other thing is that street had such deep holes that any carriage might break their wheels if they fall inside.
She shook her head and glanced at the map that slowly opened up, but only how much they walked.
"Sister, we are already traveling for one hour, look the notification came." Michelle was tired.
She felt less tiered in that mall when they gathered food than now.
"Gate, do we have to pass right away or can we do that a bit later?" She asked casually and gotta timer. She had one minute to make a choice and would waste the chance. "In that case open the gate straight to the store and in mid of store, not outside."
She thought about it and saw their curious gaze. "We can just gather things for the rest of the time and continue travel tomorrow. Gate didn't say we have to travel today all the way to the city."
*Map Is already recorded. You can continue traveling from here or any other part of the open map you want.*
She nodded and went tough the gate. "Open another gate from the store to our home and close this gate after we pass."
*Request accepted.*
The gate opened right in the middle of the isles filled with all kinds of cans and they went through it.
Behind them, the gate closed and the gate to their house opened.
"Open the gate to Mrs. Stevenson's living room." She grabbed the two carts that were empty and just started placing cans of food inside.
After filling both carts she pushed them and then rushed to grab another bunch of carts while the two girls rushed towards the money counter to each bring a stack of the paper bags to fill with various smaller things.
"Fill the two carts with seasonings and then go to the other side and find the flashlights and batteries. I think I saw it there." She pointed at the faraway store with all kinds of appliances. "And look for solar lights."
She planned to gather solar equipment anyway of they will get a new room and use it in their house during sunny days.
That and a bunch of other things they will need in summer. Like electric mosquito and bug protection, a smaller fridge or cooler and many other things.
Her eyes swept over a sports store that was not far away and had hoped to find camping gear for them.
She had a feeling that they will have to leave this place early or later anyway. So traveling without a tent and camping gear was not an option...