Way Out West - Volume 1: The Journey Begins

"Way Out West - Volume 1: The Journey Begins" plunges into the gritty reality of 1872 Brooklyn, where John Whitlock, a man weathered by ceaseless labor at a butcher shop, finds himself trapped in a life of monotonous exhaustion. He dreams of a different future for his wife, Clara, and their children, Matthew, Ellie, and Charlie-a future beyond the city's suffocating grasp where opportunities for growth are scarce.

Fueled by the promise of the Homestead Act and land grants out West, John and Clara make the momentous decision to leave everything they know behind. Their departure is not a grand spectacle, but a quiet, almost unnoticed whisper of defiance against the life that has bound them. The journey begins aboard a hulking iron train, a symbol of both escape and the daunting vastness they now face.

As the Whitlock family travels through Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, the landscape steadily transforms from familiar fields to endless stretches of prairie, mirroring the internal shifts within John. The train itself becomes a microcosm of their new life: a test of endurance where soot clings to their throats and the days blur into a rhythm of weary travel. In St. Louis, a bustling in-between city, they encounter both the kindness of strangers like Hattie, the boarding house keeper, and unsettling warnings about the untamed West from a man who has lived there.

Yet, beyond the practical challenges and the ever-present threat of the unknown, subtle hints of something far stranger begin to emerge. John experiences a profound sense of being watched on the prairie, and later finds strange footprints around their camp that vanish without a trace. Ellie, his artistic daughter, begins to sense "the ones behind the trees", "the ones that don't walk like men", even claiming "They know I see them". The family encounters unsettling occurrences like strange, warm "rain" that leaves no wetness but a tingle. These early encounters foreshadow a deeper, mysterious layer to the land they are venturing into.

As "Volume 1" concludes, the Whitlocks prepare for the final leg of their train journey to Abilene, Kansas-the very edge of the tracks. Beyond that, there is only dirt, vast space, and whatever waits beyond the limits of their known world. This initial volume sets the stage for a compelling family saga rooted in the American West, but imbued with a growing sense of profound mystery and the unsettling presence of ancient, unseen forces.