I died in my sleep instinctively so when I woke up in a chilly lightly wooded area I was rather confused and even more so when my camping pack dropped right beside me with a thunk.
Looking over my pack I saw a piece of parchment paper pinned to it with a safety pin, beautifully done calligraphy was "Greetings, Adam! We are the council of Crafting Gods and you have been chosen to start civilization on Virgin Earth. To help we have given you an instinctive understanding of building, crafting, science, ext (Any thing requiring intellect) Good Luck.
P.S. do not worry about the population more will becoming."
All I could say was "Fuck!" And throw my hands in the air and rant for a couple of minutes to get the frustration out of my system.
Taking a deep breath and centering myself I then began to look through my pack; Bowie Knife, Space Blanket, Three Days of Food, Flint and Steel, and Steel Wire.
Not much but it will get me started I guess, looking to the sky I saw it was early morning so enough time to get a camp for the night. To survive, I need Food, Water and Shelter, two of these can be solved by camping near a stream.
So gathering my gear I began walking with my large Bowie Knife at the ready just in case and meandered my way down the slope of the hill I was on, looking closely at the forest closely and felt something buzz at the back of my brain.
It felt like the more I looked at each individual plant the more I knew about them and what I could use them for, from making cordage, kindling to start fires, to edible berries that I grabbed immediately.
I then did the same on the game trail. I realized I had begun to walk on, I began to notice each of the tracks and have a general idea of what animals walked these trails and it made me even more nervous.
Large cat- like paw prints dotted the trail and the area near it and I knew that this was far too cold to be Africa and my ability told me these were much more dangerous.
With this I grabbed a large sturdy stick and sharpened it to a point. I knew it could do little to help but it made me feel better, but with my new knowledge and berries I made my way to the low roar of a stream.
———
The Stream which was more like a decent sized river I immediately began to look for a spot for a shelter, along the cut bank I saw where the river had cut away around a set of tree roots that formed a canopy.
On the other side of the river I saw massive prairie with rather stocky Deer dotting the landscape, I the far distance I could make out rather large shapes that I think are Moose.
Nodding I gathered a bunch of branches to firm up my makeshift shelter and light a fire to hopefully ward off any curious predators or large herbivores.
Doing all of this I took most of the day as I didn't want to be sleeping and fall into the river bank or something, so as the sun set I sat with my legs hanging over the ledge of my shelter and watched the river flow. That was when I saw what I thought were moose earlier. A Mammoth herd had begun walking up to the river and drinking from the ice cold water.
I sat in awe at these giants, their Tusks were over Twelve Feet long and Three feet at where they connect to the skull they were like bulldozers pushing over trees as they crossed the river leaving a new clear cut path into the forest.
This made my situation even more clear as the Cat Paws and the Stocky Deer I was stuck in the ice age and probably the only human for miles and even if humans are near they would attack me on sight for not being their tribe.
Overwhelmed by the situation I added more wood to the fire to make it last the night, I then grabbed my makeshift door with large wooden spikes and layed down with my space blanket.
—TimeSkip—-Over—-One—-Year—
Looking at the wall of my new home I saw it was one year to the day of my new life here, over the past year I had begun to really make myself a home here.
My home or rather tower I had built to keep myself safe from the wilds that surrounded me; three stories tall on the top of a decent sized hill, the first floor is made of Rock I had gathered from some nearby rivers and deposits from Glaciers.
It holds my forge and metal workshop that I had started in the last month and began replacing my various tools with Steel or Bronze which has increased my productivity by several fold.
The next is my food storage, Clay pots filled with various dried berries, meats and foods I had begun growing in the fields surrounding my tower.
And the last is the living area/look out this area I have sunk quite a bit of time trying to make it as livable as possible, fur rugs lined the floor with various art projects lining the wall like painted Sabertooth skulls and even some paintings of various landscapes nearby.
Gathering my day to day gear; a Steel Hand Axe, Crossbow slung on my back and lastly my Dogs Well rather than Wolves, a couple months into my time here I found some Direwolf puppies surrounding their dead mother. I adopted them and have raised them since. A pack of six wolves now guarded me and provided companionship for me while I worked my fields and in return I provided them with a warm place to sleep and as much meat as they wanted.
Gathering the pack and barring the gate behind me I began to walk the fields of berries, edible flowers, Potatoes and lastly I had somehow found a thing of wild wheat and begun to grow a small field of it.
After checking for vermin like Ground Squirrels which the wolves like to run out of the fields, and practice hunting on while the wolves were distracted I went over to the Pheasants I had trapped and started to attempt to begin domestication it hadn't been going great but not horrible either maybe a couple more generations.
I then turned to look over the landscape and take in its changes, my tower, the small windmill that pumped the well into the fields for irrigation and a surprising one, a series of glints of metal from the hill.
Whistling I gathered my Wolves and began making our way to the glints and there I saw the remnants of a metal shed and what once was a man.
Feeling a sense of déjà vu at the face of the man I began to Dutch his body till I found his wallet, Jimmy Facloni and the name was familiar as was his city Lincoln Nebraska.
That was when my situation became much more clear, I was in the Outland Book series where a group of College students invent Dimensional Travel just in time for Yellowstone to erupt and they must flee to another dimension.
This man was a wannabe mobster as is his two companions who plan on raping and Murder two of the girls in the group, searching the area I found a handful of gold, two AR-15s and quite a bit of useful metal.
Looking over to my wolves who were sniffing around and the biggest of them, Ragnar brought a swatch of clothing not from the body, looking at it and considering what these men plan on doing I unslung my Crossbow and looked to wolves who noticed my change in demeanor and began to smile a literal wolfish smile with one word "Hunt" they took off into the wood myself right behind them.
————-POV—-Mobster——
Zeek and Carl
Zeek stretched and rolled his shoulders getting out the kinks from trying to sleep in a tree, but that was just a mild annoyance right now his mind is on murdering those kids for sending them into the past and for killing Jimmy like that.
He looked over at Carl who was eating his portion of the granola bars the kids had left them and rage seized him again, then it left him as fear took its place howls of wolves filled the forest.
He and Carl then went back against the tree trying to find the wolves so they could kill one to scare them off but he couldn't see them, just the occasional glimpse of fur in the bushes.
He looks at Carl who blind fires into the bushes and misses all the wolves, he grabs Carl by the arm and they begin to make a break for it back to where Jimmy died in the clearing.
With one last look at Carl he thinks for a second and trips him not even taking a second he keeps running towards the clearing trying not to hear the screams from Carl as the wolves tear into him.
When he reached the clearing he saw the remnants of Jimmy a body strewn across the clearing he then pukes seeing what happens to his underling.
Then the howls started again, quickly checking how many rounds he has left, one, one bullet he then pointed his gun at the woods and spun around multiple times only seeing the flashes of fur and he noticed wetness on his cheeks. Why were they wet?
Zeek then saw the wolves bigger than he had ever seen six of them walking along the tree line, he then placed his pistol to his head and with a middle finger to the wolves he pulled the trigger.
———POV——Adam——
I finished looting the mobsters Carl and was happy as the pistol had two shots left and he moved to the leader, a larger man and grabbed his pistol too.
Doing one last once over he pulled the leader's body into the woods for the wild animals to pick at and I made my way back to base as I had to prepare for guests and make a calendar as I knew the date finally July 19th six days till another Earth collapses.
——-
While Adam prepares for guests on another Earth a group of six college students were panicking seeing the body of one of the mobsters being picked at by scavenger birds.
Erin, a Geologist student puked into a nearby bucket while crying while the other looked shocked or determined by the situation.
Monica, her best friend and badass girl comforted her, "Erin, these men were barely people anymore they threatened to kill us over a handful of gold."
Richard the mountain of a man and leader spoke,"She's right Erin those guys threatened to rape Monica for defending herself." His voice was filled with barely filled rage.
Bill and Mat stayed silent but Mat pulled his friend into a hug and let her let out her emotions, after she had cried herself out she took a deep breath and stood up.
"You're right but it doesn't mean I like it, now let's get out of here and never get back."
The group loaded up there portable portable and went to their new warehouse area and unpacked everything into it.
After a day of organizing and preparing they activated their smallest portal and they were extremely surprised by what they saw.
Bill the comedian of the group and engineer, "Is that a courtyard?" Their Camera emerged into a courtyard about 100 square yards with various materials set aside and a tower sitting in the center.
They silently began to spin the camera looking at the area, seeing the front entrance out into the front gate with a path that leads out into a farm.
Richard looks to Kevin, the mathematician that devised the theory behind portals, "Kevin is this another Earth we connected too. Because you said the Earth was uninhabited by humans."
This scared them as they could have been exposed to unknown diseases or declared war on another civilization unknowingly.
Kevin began checking over the equipment and data trying to figure out what was going on, who was joined by Mat and Bill in trying their discussion began to grow in volume as they argued and discussed between the four of them.
Till Monica yelled at them, "GUYS look." They all crowded around a monitor as a man wearing heavily tailored furs for clothes and following behind him are six wolves pulling a sled carrying a Moose that had a large bolt sticking out the side of it.
The man dropped his rope he was using to help pull the moose and he was staring at the camera sticking out of nowhere, he then turned to his wolves "Home" and motioned behind the camera where a series of large Dog houses sat.
The man approached the camera cautiously, "hello? Are you with those mobster idiots? Because if so you should know they are all dead from Sabercats and the big one killed himself."
They all looked at each other not having expected this situation at all as there research and exploration had shown no signs of people anywhere.
Then they all turned to Richard to talk to the guy, "Uhh hi, no we are not with those Mobsters they tried to rob us among other things so we tricked them into going over. Speaking of going over, how did you get to the other Earth?"
The man went and grabbed a nearby stool and began butchering the Moose while speaking to them "I'm obviously not from here as you can tell no other humans at least in America, but for me I'm from another dimension and I'm from the USA. Oh where are my manners? I'm Adam. Welcome to my home I'd shake your hands but ...."
He then moved to the portal with his hand out for a handshake, Richard did the same and stuck his hand through the portal, "I'm Richard and if you don't mind we can open up a much bigger portal to allow us to talk face to face."
Adam gave them a large smile, "Of course please it would be wonderful to have company just give me some time to get some food and refreshments ready."
"We will be over in a couple of hours." With no noise the camera simply faded from existence and Adam got to work getting a small feast together along with some of his alcohol he had been brewing.
———
When the Group opened the portal after a couple hours of discussion and preparation they saw a different yard, now in the center is a long wooden table with various foods and drinks on clay plates and vessels.
Adam is wearing nicer(?) furs with a plate with a small loaf of bread and a small bowl of salt. He approached them with it in hand, "This is a tradition from my Earth that was adopted from various native tribes, the leaders of both groups will share Bread and Salt or some equivalent."
He placed the tray on the table and tore the bread in two and raised it for one of them to take.
Richard approached and took the bread and watched Adam dip it into the salt he followed suit and ate the bread. Huh potato bread that's a nice surprise and Adam motioned for them to sit.
"Now, with the bread in salt we now sit here as equals and friends to do harm intentionally or not is seen as the greatest sin or taboo on my Earth. As for the food I hope no one has allergies as I prepared a small feast, jams, pheasant, moose, wild tubers, herbs and some home made drinks."
He motioned for them to dig into the feast and they did. The food was delicious surprisingly as the wild herbs helped cover up the various game tastes.
Bill was the first to break the polite small talk, "Okay I can't take this, how did you end up here, where are you from and how did you survive?" The group looked at him in exasperated expression.
Matt, his best friend tried to help the situation, "Bill said it a little more forcefully than we wanted but he is right, how did you survive all as you must have been here for awhile now."
Adam cleaned his face and looked up to them, "Well I'm from a different Earth than this one and yours as well, I am from the USA and was working on our own portal device among other top secret devices which was interrupted by the eruption of Yellowstone and a series of other volcanoes throughout the world erupted soon after.
With only a few days to spare I was chosen as I have a neural implant giving me comic book scientists level intelligence and was tasked with jumpstarting civilization as more would come within the month but they never came.
So all I can assume is that my Earth has completely collapsed but I have some hope as the moon bases were required to be completely self-sufficient and have genetic data to restart civilization."
Erin the geologist's eyes widened and jumped to her feet and pulled her phone out for me to look at something, "Is this what was happening before Yellowstone erupted."
Taking her phone I read through the articles of the increase in earthquakes, lava tube changes, and mild eruptions.
It was different to read this in my actual home dimension but to see a world on the brink of collapse was very different. "Close but weaker than my own I doubt you will get sympathetic eruptions but Yellowstone is about to erupt and you have maybe five days at the most before eruption.
I recommend you get who you care about here now and as many seeds, equipment and supplies you can manage I'll welcome as many as you can get over.
I'd recommend your college if it has any people over there right now first as they have the most knowledge and skills.
And I know you want to tell the world that this is coming but understand they won't believe you and I am you can not support a population of an entire city I can support a group of 500 for a month before my supplies run out.
So get the college and family first and then worry about the town as many will leave immediately so don't worry about them, focus and long term survival."
They stared at me in silence as they took in the information and the first to jump through the portal is Monica calling her mother who was in Italy to come home immediately she was soon followed by the rest of the group sans Richard who was an orphan.
I look over to him, "Do you have any supplies in your warehouse that need to be moved? If so, let's get them over here now."
Richard, who needed something to do, nodded and we began to bring over the tons of goods Monica and Bill bought.
We worked around the others who were yelling or having quiet discussions into their phones. Monica was able to buy her family tickets home in the morning and would be here before the eruptions and her brothers who were home were making their way here now.
Erin and Matt were heading for her parents home to get them and all of their stuff as she had grown up poor and they had a variety of seeds for a decent garden and tools.
What I had heard from Mats' phone call was that his parents had changed their numbers and we're refusing to contact him, thankfully he didn't have any siblings.
Bill's parents had passed away some time ago so he was ordering a bunch of gardening, farming and hand tools to be brought to the warehouse overnight. He even ordered a small greenhouse for coffee beans and other more tropical goods.
When he had ordered everything I went to talk to him, "Bill, I need you to go to some hardware store and buy high quality gas masks and goggles, the ash and other particulates will kill anyone who breathes it in."
——Three days till Boom
By mid morning the next day Bill's orders came in and a very large tip for the driver to take the rest of the week off we began loading putting the rest of the orders into my storage buildings.
Thai is when the families began trickling in, first was Erin and her parents.
Erin's mother was a hard woman who had been working hard her entire life while the father was just the same as it looked like he worked construction for decades.
We welcomed them in and they were very confused and scared at the situation and the man wearing animal furs as I hadn't had time to change into the clothes the group were bringing in.
Erin was the one to explain, "Sorry to spring this on you like thai but Yellowstone is going to Erupt in the next week and we have a portal to another dimension to escape too, this is where we met Adam who is from a even farther away Earth that had a Yellowstone Eruption and warned us."
Erin's mother and father looked at one another as they knew their daughter and she would never make this kind of joke and the floating portal in the back where we were unloading supplies into my area.
Her father spoke first, "Okay hun what do we need to do." We pulled the camper Mat had rented on the way to them and set it up just on the outside of the wall.
After that her father was in charge of directing the building of the various shed and other pop up buildings Bill had bought.
[Two days]
By the end of the night the sheds were set up and half of the green house that is when Monica arrived with her very large family Six brothers and two parents they were also informed and were distraught but the dad was a prepper so he had a plan.
They went and rented a Uhauls and went to their home where they had more food and supplies to be brought over, the mom became in charge of logistics and managing inventory.
I went out to the rural areas with Bill to buy various farm animals. Most of the Pigs were just let loose to go feral, the chickens will join the Pheasants I had, rabbits were the same a lot of seed was bought as was hand equipment.
Matt was on power duty, buying as many different types of green power generators as he could Solar panels and wind power sadly he could only get enough to power the gates.
When night fell they all returned to the warehouse to rest as the next day the eruption would occur and they needed a night of sleep to be ready.
I was on escort duty for the College and their families as the eruption will happen midday and with this they can evacuate the college and their families.
I was riding with Matt and Erin as they were pretty well known and my wolves would act as good proof along with the portal. I was also in my full survival man get up with my furs and weapons with the wolves in the back of the Uhaul.
We arrived early about 7:00 and began pulling the gate out of the back and began setting it up with a small crowd gathered, among them was the Geology professor who had taught Erin and approached her.
Erin spoke quietly for a moment and the professor's face grew pale and he began calling his family and had them heading for the warehouse as fast as possible while he was going to be acting as support.
Erin then moved forward while I stayed on the other side of the portal waiting for my moment, "Okay everyone thank you for coming and answering the flier online. I'll make this quick: the Yellowstone situation is much worse than the government has said.
I and the professor think that at any moment Yellowstone will Erupt and it will be an extinction level event.
To survive this we are offering anyone who wants it to go over to another dimension, with this the portal opened and I walked through with three of the wolves which caused gasps from the crowd and many began taking pictures and making phone calls.
"This is Adam. He has been living on the other Earth for a year and has let us use his home as a starting point for a survival camp. Now those who want to come with us please gather supplies, anything you can carry and tell anyone to come here right now and if you do not want to come with us then fine but please head East fast."
Things moved quickly from there as people began to run for dorms to get supplies, some went for the Agriculture department for seeds and animals many were on the phone to there families to head for the warehouse in town where a portal was set up to allow them to drive through on the over side.
That is most of the group had stayed where a planned tent city had been arranged along with various cars and other relief areas.
By the time the alert went out that Yellowstone erupted 300 students and staff had gathered along with the Agriculture department with horses, chickens, pigs and a herd of 20 cattle.
Erin saw the alert as did her professor, "EVERYONE BRACE EARTHQUAKE IN FIVE MINUTES!" Like clockwork the earth shook underneath as a building in the distance collapsed and some came alight.
Matt took over, "Okay everyone let's get going through the portal it's only going to get worse from here."
With that we began our march, my wolves at the edges of the herd of humanity keeping a lookout, I was leading the way to my tower which I could see in the far distance.
——
While we marched at the warehouse/tower where a line of 15 cars and trucks were driving through the portal across to the other side where the Gate owner and there families were directing them into designated area and lookout for people making isssues.
Only two idiots being thrown out of the portal and told to leave and never come back were needed. After that things went pretty smooth and after the Earthquake the last of the vehicles came through and the portal was shut.
Then the real work began.Thomas began (Erin's Dad) began directing people to build outhouses, tents, anything they may need to set up a refugee camp.
Underneath a pole barn Estella (Monica's mom) was in charge of registering people and making sure families stay together and any food "donated" to the whole camp was sent to storage units and cataloged for the future.
Nearing sunset the refugees had been settled, watch's organizers with some of the police officers leading, and a communal dinner had been arranged.
During dinner when the college students arrived with the bed of animals behind them the two groups were filled with smiles and cheers as families were United and fears quashed as they arrived.
The Gate owners met and shared information, all together they had 500 people all together most were college age (20-25) their parents and siblings.
I had my wolves stay with the herd of cattle to keep the Cats off them and moved to a tower above my gate with a couple different people as we had set up a PA system to speak to the crowd.
I spoke first "Greetings everyone, my name is Adam. I am the owner of this tower and have been living on this Earth for over a year now. So I'm going to tell you all some ground rules, first do not leave the surrounding area by yourself. This place is stuck in the ice age so Sabertooths, wolves and many other predators will eat you. Second, stay out of the fields unless you are working with them as they will be feeding you in the future. Do not expect to be heading home after a couple of days."
Professor Colleens the geologist professor was handed the mic, "Mr. Adams is not wrong, I'm a Geologist professor and with the eruption this isn't going to end in a couple of days. Ash will cover the entire Northern Hemisphere and will be covered in ash and deadly poisons."
He passed the mic to Richard. "I'm Richard, the leader of the group who built the gate and let you over. Expect to stay here in the long run and this will be hard like frontier America hard, we will be organizing scavenging from Earth, expanding farming here, and any skill can be valuable here.
Also a council to help run things will be organized soon so anyone with experience leading and with a skill should meet by the gate tomorrow afternoon.
Now everyone try to get some sleep, we have a lot of work to do tomorrow."
With that the crowd dispersed and a mummer of discussion followed, went out to watch the cows with the wolves and planned on how I was going to help keep these people alive.
————
After a very heavy meat breakfast from the local wildlife we moved to the gate where a small crowd of 10 people of various ages had gathered.
After some introductions we had a general idea of the council after a couple hours discussion we had a loose council to lead the camp.
At the top is Richard, somehow his presence and no nonsense personality had ended up with him in charge. He will help break ties and keep the meeting flowing.
Logistics: Estella Monica's mom used to run a massive warehouse and has lots of experience doing this.
Construction: Thomas Erin Dad has been working Construction for over 30+ years.
People management: A Marketing Major named Merle who has already helped organize the refugees and kept tensions down
Health: A local doctor Howard in his 70s who had retired but is going to be teaching and directing the nurses and students.
Farming: A sixth generation farmer in her 20s called Morgan who had already started organizing the herds.
Police/Defense: Monica after talking with the various cops, military and security officers had won herself the seat.
Hunting: Amy a Canadian who was visiting town on a hunting trip has been charged with hunting and gathering.
Manufacturing: Adam, as I am the only blacksmith I am in charge of the various trades like carpenters, plumbers ect anything like that.
Engineering: Bill is in charge of the various architects, engineers of all kinds, anything more complex than a car engine in their preview and heavily focused on research.
With the council announced and most of the camp liking it we began working.