[T: 1 Day 19 Hours]

People are already awake and ready when the two squads of soldiers gather up early in the morning. The Corporal checks his watch, which says 0500, whistles and shows it to the Sergeant who merely comments in a rigorous tone, “Well… they Must Be Excited!” Large crowds have already gathered, multiple groups previously separated from each other the day before, now all clumped up into one group, waiting, expectant. Many sit, while others stand, and watch the two squads with eyes like a hawk; observing, ready to react. Most new arrivals, those who have arrived between the time the 1rst Lieutenant addressed the glade and those who are arriving even now, have managed to understand the situation, with the understanding that they too would be escorted to the new location, eventually, as they waited in line for their turn.

One of the soldiers see’s the amount of people within the crowd prepared to make the journey, turns his neck and murmurs to one of his squadmates, “... There’s too many of them… I don’t think we can take them all.”

His squad mate whispers back, “ We have to… we’ll have a riot… that’s how badly we need this water… Better to let them take the risk willingly than to risk the peace. It’ll be on them if things go wrong. This way we won’t have to take the blame and responsibility for something we have no control over…”

Another man joins the conversation, he too whispering, “ All we’re trying to do is keep them safe. But if safe makes them start dying of thirst… fuck… Yeah it’s better we just try to carry all of them to the water and leave them there…” He thinks about what he is about to say for a moment. “What I’m worried about is food. We have water. We just have to walk there. But I think we’ve just about run out of our own stock of food. How many MRE’s do you guys have? I only have enough for today now.”

His buddies answer similarly, “Same I got enough for breakfast and lunch, but no dinner.”

“I have enough for the whole day and tomorrow's breakfast…”

“Why didn’t we ration?”

“Situation man… No one was in command.”

“We didn’t know that this was literally foreign territory with no bases established… I at least thought we’d somehow make it through. Maybe there was a base nearby, was what I thought…”

“Man, are we screwed…”

The Sergeant takes a few steps around, walking with measured steps, “Alright ladies, cut the chatter. We’ve got a change of plans.” Every soldier pauses and turns only their necks towards the Sergeant, attentive. “As you all know there simply isn’t enough of us, this rope and all those other ropes to escort all these people. Instead…”, the Sergeant raises his voice at the word "instead ". "WE ", he raises his voice again at the word “we”, emphasizing it. “We”, the Sergeant repeats, “ are going to be the ones carrying the rope. We are going to have this giant mass of people smack in the center and we are going to be on the outskirts, WITH THIS ROPE”, he thunders. “We are going to carry this rope, in a line, so that they”, he jabs a finger at the mass of civilians, “do not get lost. We are going to herd them, like we are the shepherds of the Lord Almighty and they are going to be herded like the lost sheep they are. WITH THIS ROPE”, he thunders once more, “We are going to save the MANY”. The Sergeant finishes his rousing speech and walks off, leaving the men to look at each other.

“Didn’t know church was in session…”

“I didn’t bring my bible…”

“Hey, mom I got a new job… I’m a shepherd now. But I herd people instead of sheep.”

The men chuckle a bit. The man who previously commented, “Man, are we screwed…” leans over to the man next to him, “Hey… who do you think came up with this plan, last minute?”

His buddy turns and looks at him, “The 1rst Lieutenant?”

“No, no no.” A shaking of head occurs in response. “He’s already satisfied with his previous plan. This new one came last minute, right after we all saw that there was too much people.”

The man thinks a bit, his eyes glancing towards the sky. “Well the 2nd Lieutenant, he doesn’t seem to have the capacity to plan this. Emotionally that is. He’s more of that “I get the job done, I get the job done, EFFECTIVELY and EFFICIENTLY”, you know?” His comrade nods in agreement and he continues. “ Then we have that female 2nd Lieutenant and the 1rst Sergeant and that Master Sergeant. Any of those three could have been the ones to come up with the plan. Of course it would have to be approved by that female 2nd Lieutenant, since she’s in command…”

The female 2nd Lieutenant, who the two soldiers were just talking about, turns to face her two squad leaders as they approach her. They both salute her and she salutes in return and all three lower their arms at the same time. The Master Sergeant reports, “Ma’am, we’re just about as ready as we’ll ever be. The sun’s coming up and looks like the civilian population is ready and eager to go as well.”

The female 2nd Lieutenant nods, “Good work. It was more than we expected, wasn't it?”

La Fonte comments steadily, “A few hundred people.” He glances at the Master Sergeant. “It’s more than half of the population I think. It wasn’t as crowded when we first got here.”

The Master Sergeant confirms, “Yeah, there was only around maybe eighty or so when we got here. That light keeps bringing more and more people here.”

The female 2nd Lieutenant has a sort of sorrowful look in her eyes, but the expression on her face is indifferent as she looks at the Beam of Light, which even now has brought a fresh group of refugees through the portal. “It is rather alarming and I don’t know how we are going to be able to handle such an impending exodus of people appearing here. But,” she looks back at the two men, “that’s a matter for a different time. We will have to focus on our current mission. Escorting these people safely to water.” To the two men, the female 2nd Lieutenant looks serious and calm, yet willing to do what is necessary for the safety of her people. To them, it looked as if she felt that this mission was the most important mission at the time, and that it needed to be accomplished at any cost. Even if the mission was just a simple escort mission.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

[ T: 1 Day 20 Hours ]

Civilians that wish to make the journey are asked to gather together. The people obey the request and once they have gathered together the soldiers form two columns at their sides, each soldier holding a part of the one hundred and fifty feet rappelling rope, effectively becoming a human train, creating a rope barrier, on either side of the human crowd.

The Sergeant stands in front of the crowd, between the starting point of both of these rope trains, held up by a column of soldiers. “Everyone”, he shouts, “I don’t know if you can hear me, so maybe the people in the front will have to pass on the message or something. Or… you know what?” He taps his radio and the radios of all the soldiers holding the rope bleep. “Ah… testing… testing… GOOD”, the Sergeant declares.

“Now”, the Sergeants voice is cheerful and chirpy, yet you can almost see the falseness of it, much like a mischievous goblin is cooking up a soup of rotting human flesh, ready to serve its deliciousness to its customers. Many in the anxious crowd can sense the darkness; the sarcasm, but the dark sarcasm is slight and the chirpiness is overpowering. Chirpy enough to simply ignore it. And there are other concerning things to worry about. Like getting across the forest.

The Sergeant continues, “We of the military would like for everyone in the civilian population to stay within these”, he indicates to both the column of soldiers holding up the rope, “two rope barriers, held up by these wonderful men. This is to ensure safety… for you…”, he smiles darkly. “Both of these ropes are one hundred and fifty feet long”, the Sergeant declares again. “Each rope will be held by a soldier around every ten or fifteen feet. That’s more than enough room for everyone within this civilian population to keep up and stay within the designated area.” The Sergeants eyes glints up and his gaze turns malicious, “If anyone fails to stay between these two ropes and somehow, in some way, gets LOST.” The Sergeants pause conveys his displeasure, as well as the gaze he glowers with, as he scans the crowd. “THAT, is not our problem. We have over two hundred of you to babysit. We barely have enough men to hold up these two ropes. We Do Not Have the Time nor People to look for you. You’re on your own.” The Sergeant gives one last dark scan over the crowd before he smiles that false cheerfulness and chirpily tells the crowd, “Now we will be starting momentarily, so be ready. If you are a parent, hold onto your child. Because we won’t be doing that for you. Thank you.”

In the crowd, a child in a frilly dress with a ribbon clutches onto their mothers pants. The mother, a woman a bit plump, wearing glasses with hair that reaches up to their neck, shoves the child away. The child staggers back and looks up at their mother, who doesn’t even look at them, pretending that they don’t exist. The child, as if growing conscious of invisible gazes looking at them, looks down at the ground. As the soldiers start to march forward, with the crowd attempting to follow, the plump mother walks forward, leaving their child behind, showing no intention of safeguarding her child. The child anxiously follows their mother, making sure to follow at a distance, as if afraid that following at a much closer distance would somehow anger the mother.

[ T: 1 Day 21 Hours ]

An hour has passed since both civilians and the military escorting them have left the glade. The mood is quite positive, as many have now found a goal they could move towards. When they were in the glade, they had felt restrained; constrained, being slowly left to die, without being able to fight. They had felt suffocated, being unable to move even though they had two legs and two arms. They felt slow; dumb, even though they had a perfectly functional brain. Yet with the change in direction of how to proceed they felt more alive. They had a purpose, they had a goal and that goal solved a discomfort. Even if it was only walking thirteen and a half kilometers, around eight and a half miles, just to reach a lake, the mood of the crowd brightened up, and they treated this as an adventure, a hiking trip, a picnic. Even though, their circumstances and situation left them in dire peril, they were quite optimistic. Well, most of them.

[T: 1 Day, 23 Hours]

The Sergeant marches along the outskirts of the rope line outpacing the crowd and his men. His legs stomp onto the ground deliberately as he marches. He reaches the front of the line, where his squad leader, 1rst Sergeant La Fonte is keeping pace with the Master Sergeant and the female 1rst Lieutenant.

The female 2nd Lieutenant turns to look at the crowd following along and coolly comments, “I see the pacing has slowed down a bit.”

The Sergeant strongly replies, “Yes ma’am, it looks like some peoples feets are hurting and their legs are trembling. We’ve had to have the men slow down even.” The Sergeant grimaces and turns away, his arms at his hips, glancing at the crowd once before turning his grimacing face towards the canopy of the trees presiding over them. The Sergeant then adds, while still looking up at the canopy, “We’ve only walked like three klicks, in about three hours.That’s less than a mile for every hour we’ve walked. I’d also imagine we’d be needing to give them breaks in between.”

The Master Sergeant makes the point that, “Sergeant these people haven’t eaten or drunk anything since they arrived here. And they aren’t fit, nor trained like us.”

“Yes, Masta-Sergeant, I understand. But…”, the Sergeant shakes his head, still with that smiling grimace, “At this pace we’ll reach that lake of yours at 19:00. Yet, if we take into consideration that the pace is also slowing down…”, the Sergeant looks at all three of his commanding officers, “I’d imagine we won’t even reach it by tonight. And I doubt any of us is willing to risk marching in this forest at night, nor would the civilians have the energy to be force-marched.”

The female 2nd Lieutenant asks, “So Sergeant, you are suggesting that we would not even be able to reach our destination by tonight?”

“Yes”.

“I agree.”

“Ma’am?”

“I’m in agreement with your assessment Sergeant. These people are not used to the long treks we are used to, much less hiking in the forest. They are not adequately fed, and are in danger of dehydration. It would be folly to assume that they could match our physical capabilities. I’d expect that we’ll reach our destination by tomorrow though. Or rather, we will have to reach our destination by tomorrow. Or many will not survive the journey.”

The Sergeant looks into the eyes of the female 2nd Lieutenant. The eyes that stare back convey nothing. “I understand Ma’am”, he says, “I will do everything I can so that we can reach that lake by tomorrow.”

The female 2nd Lieutenant nods, “I think it’s time for a small break for these people”, she looks with a glint in her eye. “I do believe it’s been established that we will not reach that lake tonight and the need to force-march these civilians is unnecessary as well. A three hour hike in the woods is more than enough to warrant a small break.”

“Yes, ma’m. I’ll grind the train to a halt.”

“Thirty minutes, Sergeant. No more, no less.”

“Yes, ma’am.”