“You’re sure? Like, absolutely sure you saw it?” Nowak looked to Summers.
“Yes, I’m fucking sure.” As soon as Summers had gotten back, he’d told everyone else what he’d seen. Without Asle, and forced to stick with the group, he’d been unable to do much more than gawk at the guards hauling in the weapons. “They looked pretty beaten up, too. If I had to guess I’d say they were salvaged.”
“Just like ours, then.” Cortez noted.
Their own wagon had more weapons than they could count, most were in working order, but a few had been more or less destroyed during the attack. Those were being used as spare parts.
“Could be another platoon, or what’s left of it?” Logan speculated.
“Ain’t that bad for us?” Cortez asked. “If they got wiped out then there goes our shortcut home.”
“No.” Logan started. “We got to the city as fast as we could, there’s no way whoever took the town and the people they got these guns from were one in the same. That squad’s still out there at least.”
“Gotta agree, but that’s good. It means that whoever’s here was committed enough to send a lot of people. That could mean they had an exit strategy.” Nowak looked at Synel who was yelling orders to the rest of the caravan. They were getting ready to head out after the guard’s agreement to let them into the city. “Summers, think you can get Synel to ask around? See if any of the locals know about the guns?”
“I can try. You think they might have another one of those gates to our world around here?”
“Maybe.”
Summers looked at the city in front of them. It was a monster compared to where they’d come from, rivaling even a smaller, modern city. The walls were thirty feet high, and regular patrols walked its length. Given the size of the gates they’d be headed to, he had doubts that they’d be able to shoot their way out like they had in their last city. At least, it would be a whole lot messier.
“Asle, you going to be ready to head out soon?” Logan looked to the girl who was fastening a harness to the cow, she nodded.
Summers sighed.
“Guess we’re doing this thing.”
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Summers sat at the head of the wagon, watching the crowd. Guards had been sent out from the gate, clearing a path for their procession, making things significantly less stressful for the small group. Now that he didn’t have the threat of being torn apart hanging over him, he got a chance to survey the crowd.
He saw guards keeping the peace, a few had tied up a man, hauling him through a heavily guarded side door in the cities’ walls. More were even handing out some kind of hardtack as a few of the refugees followed them around.
At least they were actively trying to keep people from dying on the cities’ doorstep.
Asle had her head poked out over the top of the wagon, watching the crowd just as he was. Summers hadn’t seen Beorn’s family, and with a group this large, they could look for a week solid and still end up missing them. But he wasn’t going to stop her. Something told him that she’d just blame herself if something else happened to the family.
A shout caught Summers’ attention. By the wall, a group of young men were being rounded up, huddled beside the mass of guards blocking the gate. Most looked content to be there, however their families had apparently taken exception to something, and a fight was brewing.
Summers realized that the guards hadn’t been handing out food, they’d likely just been paying off families. Probably in exchange for volunteers. One such guard led a teen boy towards the others as the family shouted something back.
“They’re recruiting.” Nowak observed. “Smart. I mean, better than waiting for the riot.”
Then from the mass of guards a man stepped forward with a young woman by his side. Even from a distance Summers could see something was wrong with him, half his face was a ruined mess.
Summers’ wagon passed through the gate, and the man turned to regard them. His eyes met Asles, and he waved. The girl waved back, and the man paused.
Then a shout came from the crowd, a man stepped towards the line of guards shouting something. Seconds later, a guard shoved a spear through is chest.
“Jesus.”
Summers watched as the man fell. He didn’t get a chance to see what happened after that as they passed under the gate to the city.
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Screams still sounded in the distance as the wagons came to a stop. He did his best to ignore them.
Summers started to turn when he found Synel at his side, hand outstretched to him. He took it.
“Appreciate it.”
As Summers hopped to the ground the huge gate behind them slam shut, the guards almost immediately moved to inspect the wagons.
It was at that point that Summers realized their mistake.
“Sarge, we may have a slight issue.”
If they’d remembered what the last city was like, he’d have realized that they checked their wagon coming in. That hadn’t been a problem since no one recognized a gun or even a grenade for what it was. It, however, was a big problem right now.
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“Shit.” Nowak watched the guards checking the wagon in front of them, they were moving fast. “Right.”
His eyes immediately went to the very big, locked gate at their backs.
Summers’s scrambled for a solution when he saw Synel watching him, a deadpan expression on her face. That was probably the most emotion he’d seen her show.
“Uh.” Summers tried his best to think of how to phrase what he was going to ask. “Can’t. Look.” Summers gestured to the wagon.
Synel considered him a moment before she moved closer, reaching behind Summers to their coin pouch, she fished out a single “stone”. “I will take care of it.”
“Uh.” Summers didn’t quite know how to react as she moved to the guards who were finishing with the wagon beside theirs.
He watched as the woman spoke with the guards for a moment. They seemed to get riled up, something that the caravan guards beside Synel noticed, standing straighter themselves.
Synel waved a hand, calming her own guards as she reached to the man in front of her, placing the single stone in his hand. Then, she nodded to Summers. The man walked over to their wagon, glancing at it only a moment before ordering more guards to move on to the next wagon in line.
Summers let out a breath of relief as Synel strode back to him, pressed her lips against his, then turned away, heading off.
“What…“ Summers wasn’t sure how to process what just happened, but he noticed Synel’s eyes briefly flit up to the top of their wagon.
“…Did that bitch just try to mark her territory?” Cortez hopped down, she still had one hand on the butt of her rifle, hidden behind her cloak.
“Territory?” Summers asked.
“Forget it. Apparently, your girl’s the jealous type.”
“Oh…” Summers coughed into his hand, he’d done his best to convince Synel that he and Cortez weren’t a “thing”. As it turned out, she hadn’t fully believed him. Summers watched as the guard he assumed was a captain continued to wave others on from their wagon.
Well, jealous or not, it was nice to have someone working on their side, at least.
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The port was busy, or rather it was a clusterfuck. Ships of all sizes covered the docks, but still they weren’t having much luck.
“He said unless you have an order from the… ying, he can’t take you.” Asle looked to Summers.
“She means council. I think. Like a group of people that call the shots.”
The man said nothing as Asle spoke again, they’d decided they could pay double if that’s what it took to get them where they needed to go, and out of whatever war was on their doorstep. The man only shook his head in response before turning to leave. That left them with no options whatsoever.
“Well we can try stealing one.” Cortez observed. She was eyeing a ship on the dock that was being built, it seemed like the city was ramping up production in response to the coming war. It looked reminiscent of a longship, only much bigger than he would have expected.
“Do you know how to sail? Because I sure as hell don’t. And we still need food.” Nowak looked back to the city.
“What do we do now, then?” Summers asked. “We can’t wait here while there’s an army on the way.”
Nowak just sat in thought a moment.
“One problem at a time, we’ll find some food, failing that some way for us to forage. Bait for animals, maybe fishing gear if it’s not too expensive. I’m not giving up on finding a ship, there have to be at least a few traders still in the city.” Nowak gestured to Summers. “You talk to Synel?”
“She’s looking for a way out of the city herself, and she said she’d keep an ear out for wherever those guns went.”
“Good, we’ll play this by ear. If it means getting out of here, it might be better to just ignore whoever’s operating nearby, if those guns came from casualties it wouldn’t surprise me if they were already headed back home. If there are word on survivors, or any intel we can use, we’ll deal with that then.”
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Back at the wagon Summers tossed a pair of notched pegs to Nowak and Cortez.
“No luck on the food, Synel did manage to find some rooms though. So, we won’t have to sleep outside.”
“Thank god for that.” Cortez grabbed the first peg. “Sarge please tell me we’re not doubling up on guards again, the caravan’s people are going to be here for the most part. One of us should be enough.”
Nowak sighed. “Fine. We need some down time anyway, for as long as that will last.”
Cortez almost smiled before catching herself. “Asle, you ready to turn in for the night?”
Asle looked up at the group in response. “…I wanted to visit someone.”
“Who do you –“ Summers started before remembering Beorn’s family was in the city. Right, of course she’d want to check in with them.
“Could you go with her, Summers?” Logan looked down at Summers. “I’d rather she’s with someone who can help explain things, if it comes to that.”
“…If that’s okay with her?” Summers glanced at Asle who only nodded in response.
There was a good chance this was going to be incredibly awkward.
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“…How do you know my brother?” The man in the door stared down at Asle, she was more or less fumbling her way through the conversation.
“I…” And she froze. It wasn’t that she couldn’t think of a lie. A boy had stepped out, his face looking so familiar that her thoughts came to a grinding halt.
Summers must have seen her hesitate, he stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“We’re merchants, apologies if they’re not here we’ll stop by another time.”
His accent was atrocious, but the man in the doorway seemed to accept it all the same. He probably assumed that Summers was being intentionally cryptic, hiding some debt that his family owed. In truth, that was probably the most conversation Summers could manage without help.
As he hustled Asle away, she got one last look at the boy behind the door.
They looked nothing alike. She was being stupid. She had to be better.
A few minutes later Asle was still silent, staring at the ground as they made their way back to the wagon.
“Asle there’s no way they’d have made it into the city. You knew that, right?”
Asle nodded.
Summers eyes showed a pained expression. She still said nothing.
“All right, how about this. We’ll write a letter, attach some cash, and let them –“ Summers gestured back to the house, “know that their family might be waiting at the gates. After that, they can try to bribe someone to get in or figure something else out. That work?”
She nodded. That was probably as much as they’d be able to do for them. But it was still a hope. And it was better than doing nothing.
“Thank you.” She replied.
Then Summers stopped.
Asle looked up, seeing that Summers had stopped in his tracks.
“What –“ Asle started but Summers cut her off.
“I smell gunpowder…”
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Summers rounded a corner, Asle close behind. They’d followed the trail of the scent more than a few blocks. Soon, they found themselves at the inner wall of the city.
Then a man’s voice rang out in front of them.
“Fire!”
Summers instinctively flattened himself to the wall. But nothing followed.
The voice was speaking English.
Carefully, Summers moved towards the large open gate of the inner wall, he could only see a glimpse of what was happening inside, but it looked like a training grounds of sorts.
A line of Elves were knelt to the ground, aiming M4’s at the wall in front of them.
Even from this distance, he could see they have any magazines loaded. Summers recognized it as a dry fire exercise. That was a basic, army drill.
Then Summers saw the scarred man once again, he strode passed the gate, watching the line of elves carefully. They looked half starved, much like the “recruits” Summers had seen him collecting.
“Fire!” The man yelled, and the group pulled their triggers once again.
Summers saw the man move to a recruit, correcting form.
“Let’s go.” Summers whispered to Asle. “We should tell the others about this.”
As they moved off Summers took one last glance back towards the gate.
Only now, he saw a young woman standing on the wall, staring directly back at him.
That probably wasn’t good.