August 18, 2018 AD
Tent Raid on the Singleton Military Warehouse
In the early hours of the morning, Eli Smith and Brett Wilson emptied a military storage warehouse at Singleton of enough tents, cots, and stores to house at least 250 people, passing it all through Eli's portal to Paul Smith and Aaron Smyth in Bixbus. Brett drove the last load through in a military truck and entered Clivilius for good. Eli escaped on foot as the alarm went up. The stock became the founding canvas of the Bixbus Tent Community.
Eli Smith reached the agreed meeting point outside the Singleton Military Area at 1.55 in the morning, having left his hire car several blocks away. Brett Wilson met him on the inside of the perimeter fence five minutes later, dressed in black, and led him through a gap in the wire hidden behind a large bush. Together they crossed the few hundred metres of dark ground to a storage warehouse, where a small door on the eastern wall showed a line of light beneath it.
The man who opened that door appears in no record by name. Brett paid him in cash, and in return he gave them one hour inside and a warning to take very little. With no vehicle of their own nearby, he expected two men to leave with whatever they could carry.
The warehouse held military-grade tents enough to house at least 250 people, with their cots, poles, pegs, and stores. Eli opened his portal in the clear space at the centre of the floor and resolved to take all of it. Before the first load went across, he warned Brett that stepping even partway into the portal would carry him into Clivilius with no way back.
On the Bixbus side, Paul Smith and Aaron Smyth took the first load. When Eli told them how much more was coming and how little time there was, they called in every settler they could find to keep the ground in front of the portal clear. For most of the hour Eli and Brett ferried stock across in a steady stream, and the pile on the other side grew faster than the helpers could drag it away.
By the forty-five-minute mark the warehouse floor was largely bare, and Eli set Brett to loading a military truck parked in the far corner. Eli took the final load through himself, had the receiving ground cleared, and returned to the warehouse. At 2.55 Brett started the truck and drove it through the portal, entering Bixbus for the first time and for good.
Eli closed the portal the moment the truck was through and ran for the door. The engine had raised the alarm. By the time he reached the fence the warehouse was fully lit, and the voices behind him were already searching for a missing truck. He made it through the gap and back to his hire car unseen, opened the portal once more, sent the car through into Bixbus, and stepped back out onto the street alone. He closed the portal and walked back to his hotel.
The tents that came through that hour went up in Bixbus the same day.
