“Are you absolutely sure about this Sarge?” Summers watched as Cortez strapped a duffel bag, quite literally full of grenades, to the top of the Humvee.
“No, but if we run into more shit like that thing you killed, then it’s worth the risk.” Nowak responded.
On one hand Summers could see the logic. On the other, they had approximately a fuckload of ammo, grenades, and guns strapped into and on top of the Humvee they’d be driving through rough forest terrain. Anything from the camp that wasn’t nailed down, they were trying to take with them. He couldn’t help but worry that one bump would spell a loud and colorful end to their little excursion. Cortez had also mentioned two bricks of c-4 being lodged in there somewhere. He took some solace in the knowledge that if something did go wrong, it would be so quick and brutal he’d hardly even need to worry.
“What if we just stayed here?” Adams asked. “They gotta come back some time, right?”
“You’re assuming they know we’re alive. Or that they care. Near as I can tell they only had the two machines and Summers blew one to chunks.” Nowak responded.
They’d actually found pieces of the machine that had opened the way to this world mixed in with the bodies. Summers was not optimistic about whatever remained of the 63rd fixing it. Or wanting to fix it for that matter. Losing an entire platoon and a goddamn General was probably a mess they’d spend months to recover from.
“And this plan of yours is solid?” Summers looked over to Nowak, “I don’t want to hump It through all this shit just to find out there’s nothing waiting for us in Nevada.”
“The General talked about the similarities between this world and ours. Which was a huge breach of security, but then again, I doubt anyone else would realize what he was talking about without knowing about this place.”
Nowak flipped the journal over, showing Summers a haphazard string of nonsensical messages. “These guys had a whole checklist of shit they were looking for out here, minerals, some kind of classified drug, I didn’t really understand it. But topography was one of the reasons they came to our base, to confirm it was the same… And in case something went to hell.”
“Think they’re covering up what happened?” Summers asked.
“Definitely. No way is a word of this shit making it out of that base.” Nowak responded. Summers wasn’t quite sure that would hold true. From what he could tell the base had been a favorite dumping ground for guys like him, people that other people wanted to get rid of, but couldn’t do it outright. He had no doubt one of the survivors would be telling anyone who listened what they saw, the only issue was if anyone believed them.
He saw Cortez step forward with another fuel can. There had been two other Humvee’s they’d found, neither in as good of shape as the first one. They’d decided to siphon what fuel and parts they could for the road. Cortez tossed the cannister onto the pile, Summers heard something underneath it shift and froze for a long second. He was pretty sure that had just been the ammo. Christ sake they were going to leave behind a crater the likes this world has never seen.
“So, what are we doing with all the crap we can’t fit?” Adams asked, snapping Summers back to reality.
“I don’t like the idea of those zombie things with guns. I say we dump them in a lake somewhere.” Summers responded.
“Skeen.” Asle corrected. “Monsters are skeen.”
“Skeen? Oh, you mean skin?” Summer asked, pinching the skin of his forearm for emphasis.
“I said skeen.” Asle mimicked the gesture. “They are only skeen.”
Nowak threw Summers a shovel. “You’re right, we should probably make sure no locals end up with all this. How deep you think is deep enough? Six feet?”
Summers groaned internally at the idea of burying all that gear, let alone digging a hole big enough for it. But it was the smart move.
“What about the bodies?”
“You want to dig a grave big enough for ‘em be my guest.” Nowak responded.
“More skeen if not buried.” Asle added. That was news to them.
“What, are they going to eat our dead?” Summers didn’t like the idea of leaving them, quite literally, for scavengers to eat.
“No. They be skeen.” Asle said, pointing at a corpse off in the distance. “Oh. Oh fuck those things were actual zombies?”
Asle just tilted her head at that question.
“Dead people that get up and walk?” Summers amended.
“Oh. Yes! Skeen eat dead, lay egg, then wear dead. Trick people to coming close, then eat, make dead, make more skeen. Only mother smart though.”
“It’s like a parasite then?” Cortez asked from atop the Humvee.
Asle tilted her head once again.
“We’ve got to teach her more words.” Summers said after a few seconds.
“They sound like skinwalkers.” Adams said. “They’re a Navajo thing. Creepy as shit. Talk in your voice, just like these things did. Not sure about the dead part.” He explained.
“Okay then, everyone in favor of not having an army of zombies behind us say aye.” Nowak raised his voice slightly for emphasis.
It was unanimous.
“So, ideas on how we accomplish that?” Nowak asked the group. “I don’t know if we have the manpower to bury it all.”
Cortez beamed, “I got an idea, Sarge.”
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Boom!
Even from a distance Summers could feel the impact from the explosion in his bones. Cortez had mounted every bit of boom she could to the Humvee, but they still had some of the larger ordinance left over.
So, the solution they’d settled on was to dig a pit, then blow it to hell, creating a larger, more accommodating pit. Rinse and repeat. Once they’d finished their pit, they tossed in a few thermite grenades to ensure nothing was getting back up or being used ever again.
Summers stood with the others as they finished their mass pyre, hoping the burnt barbecue smell wouldn’t linger in his memory too long. He’d picked out the face of the private who had, in a fashion, given his life to save Summers and his friends. He said a silent prayer for the man before they turned to finish packing up the camp.
That had taken care of all their problems in one fell swoop, as explosions tend to do. Say what you want about the army, but when you need something blown to hell, accept no substitutes.
“Got the helmet?” Nowak asked.
Summers handed over a helmet full to the brim with dog tags. Those they’d taken off the bodies. Nowak nodded and started heading back towards the Humvee. Pragmatic as they were, they still felt some level of respect for the dead. If they lived long enough to make it back home, at least the families would have something to bury.
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The Humvee was hard to see at this point under the sheer mountain of ordinance strapped to it. Some quite literally strapped. With duct tape. Summers looked over at Cortez who was securing even more crap onto the increasingly ridiculous looking pile.
“Almost done packing your toys?” Summer asked.
Cortez just beamed in response. “I’m going to get to blow up so much shit, I can just feel it.”
“I appreciate the optimism.” Summers smiled back.
Cortez hopped down, her smile dimming.
“So, how’s our boy doing? He said anything yet?”
“Nothing coherent.” Summers responded. She was talking about Logan, it had only been a few days since the fight but his condition wasn’t improving. They’d managed to wire him up to an IV and get some new blood into him. Summers’ blood, actually. Turns out he was the only O- in the group, so he’d be acting as the resident blood bag for the foreseeable future. Which was just dandy.
“Nowak knows we’re not going to be able to do it on the road, right? Why’s he dragging his feet? Cortez asked.
“How’d you feel if you woke up missing a leg?” Summers responded. They’d hoped that Logan would have been awake now. His leg had taken a turn from “terrible” to “godawful” to “Jesus Christ” in the span of a few days. They needed to take it off, but Nowak didn’t want to do it without some consent from Logan himself. Which was proving more difficult than anticipated.
“But you’re right, guy’s not going to last much longer.” Summers responded.
Cortez gave him a long, even stare. “Fine, we’ll talk to Nowak. If it helps him sleep better at night, he can blame me.”
“How about this, we’ll put it to a vote, all right? If Logan has a problem with it, then he can blame all of us.”
“…Fine.” Cortez agreed. With a sigh, Summers headed back to the cave’s entrance.
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The vote was unanimous, even Asle agreed once they’d explained the situation. The poor kid had done her damndest to stay at Logan’s side for as often as she could manage. Nowak worked quickly after that, they managed to stitch up Logan’s leg below the knee. He didn’t scream, didn’t react at all. Which was in some ways more worrying than the alternative.
After they got him settled and ensured his stitches wouldn’t be popping open in the back seat, they loaded up in the Humvee and took off due south.
“You sure he’s not going to wake up?” Adams asked. He glanced at Logan in the back, he was propped up on a makeshift bed of ammunition and a briefcase Summers only assumed was something equally deadly.
“Sure as hell hope not, we gave him enough morphine to kill an elephant.” Nowak called back. He was riding shotgun while Summer’s drove.
In the rearview Summers noticed Asle’s fidgeting. “That’s an expression. He’s just going to be asleep for a while.”
Her expression didn’t change, but her shoulders relaxed. He’d noticed that happened a lot, maybe elves, or whatever it is she was, were more expressive in body language than anything else. Which means that she could have actually been terrified after that ordeal earlier and none of them noticed. Just one more guilty fact to file away into the dark recesses of his mind and never revisit ever again.
Nowak looked over a journal with scribblings of rivers and maps. The idea was they would head due south until they hit the coast. Lacking gps, or any map more detailed than what they could copy from the few laptops and personal phones that had survived the initial massacre it was their best bet to find recognizable landmarks.
It was almost a given that they’d hit a snag somewhere. Maybe the coastline was different, a mountain wouldn’t exist, or a river took a slightly different turn. More likely, they’d run into some monstrosity that would put an end to their little roadtrip. All in all, it was a slim hope, but it was still hope.
THUMP!
The Humvee kicked up for a split second, Summers slammed on the brakes. That was odd, he could have sworn the path was clear. He checked in the rearview to see a small lump in the road. It was… bleeding? Shit did he hit an animal? He hadn’t even seen so much as a deer so far. Then it picked its head up, it was one of the skin walkers.
“Shit, got more of those… skin walker things up ahead.” Nowak said. Summers saw small groups of the pale creatures coming from the tree line around them.
“I got ‘em.” Adams said as he popped the door to the Humvee and stepped out. The creatures made no move to attack, something told Summers they were starving, they were always thin, but their movements were sluggish compared to what he’d seen before. He even saw a few bullet wounds in their sides, survivors of the battle?
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Adams let loose a burst of fire into the closest skin walker. It toppled over without much trouble. He moved on to the next with similar results. After a few more like that he dropped the barrel of his gun, then stepped back into the Humvee.
“You know we could have just rolled on by.” Summers called back.
Adams thought that over, “True. Counterpoint, fuck those things.”
“Fair enough.” Summers said as he shifted the Humvee back into gear.
As Summers passed the corpses, he noticed their ears were pointed like Asle’s. He should have seen that before. But even as he looked, they were taking on a rounder shape. Or at least that was true for the few still breathing.
“Hey Asle, you said these things come from corpses, right?”
“Yes. Dead.” Asle said.
“So why aren’t they, you know, why do they look like us?” Summers asked.
She quirked her head at the question, “I said they copy. Speak. Face. Body. All copy. Animals too.”
“But they were people like you? People that lived around here?”
“Yes.”
“And they died? Somewhere around here?” Summers looked in the rearview, Asle was fidgeting again.
“Yes. Lots.” Asle said.
“So… what killed them?”
“Don’t know.” There was a definite tension in her voice.
“Great.” Summers said, with all the sarcasm he could muster.
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They made camp that night in a clearing by a cliff’s edge. The idea was that they’d have somewhere to put their back to, Adams later pointed out they had no idea if predators here could fly, climb, or phase through the damn floor. With that little revelation they decided to leave two on watch at all times. Summers didn’t like to sleep much any way.
The “camp” used a mishmash of what they’d been able to cobble together from the remains of the 63rd, mostly standing tents and sleeping bags. They’d assembled it around the Humvee which Adams had managed to rig up to some LED lights and heaters that charged with solar batteries. Which was useful since it meant they could go without a fire. He didn’t trust having an open flame near the Humvee. It was cold, but unlike his base back in Alaska it was nothing life threatening. Maybe it was a “mild” winter on this world. Whatever the explanation, he was happy to make do with a bit of discomfort if it meant they avoided blowing themselves up.
Nowak was on watch with Summers that night. Summers had found a little spot on top of the Humvee that didn’t shift when he sat on it, they were using it as an “elevated position”. Which is to say they had planted their asses in the softest spot they could find. Far down in the valley below, there was a fog rolling in through the forest. It moved almost as if it were alive.
He looked down at the others in their sleeping bags. He looked at the miles of forest ahead of them. He thought about that strange machine that stranded them there. He’d been playing what happened in his head over and over again. That was a habit the military drilled into you. Learn from your mistakes. But every time he ran it by, he couldn’t see what he could have done differently.
After a while Summers heard the quiet snoring of the rest below them.
“Hey Sarge,
“What it is it?” Nowak answered.
“I really am sorry about all this.” Summers looked at Nowak, trying to gauge his response.
“All right, why?”
That wasn’t the response Summers was expecting.
“Because I’m the reason we’re here?”
“Really? You order us here?” Nowak responded, side eyeing him.
“I stranded us here, man.”
“No, you made a decision in a shit situation. We weren’t getting back into base, not without casualties and I sure as hell wasn’t going to make the run with a civilian and wounded with us.”
“But - “
“The only way we were getting into base was if those monsters chased the rest of the guard topside. Then we might, MIGHT have been able to sneak in. Then what? We’d get hunted one by one. That thing wasn’t going down to anything but heavy ordinance, nothing we had on hand.”
“Okay, but - “
“How about you shut the hell up and stop feeling sorry for yourself?” Nowak said, Summers looked to see he had a smile on his face. “You want to make it up to us, help everyone get back home safely, all right?”
Summers considered his Sergeant for a long second.
“Yeah, okay.”
“Good.”
Summers let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, then tensed at the sound of someone approaching. It occurred to Summers he no longer heard snoring below them.
“Please, for the love of all that is holy.” Cortez said from below, “Shut the fuck up before I do something I’m probably not going to regret.”
They were silent after that.
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Summers stifled a yawn as they packed up camp, their first day “roughing it” in the wilderness wasn’t terrible. But there was definitely something unsettling about the alien forest they found themselves in. It had taken him most of the night to place it, but he eventually realized what it was.
it was quiet. Too quiet. Normal forests are sources of constant noise, he hadn’t seen anything but a few rodents and some flying creatures all night. He’d hesitate to have called them birds, more like dragonflies. Whatever they were, they didn’t make any noise.
Which is what made the gunfire that broke the silence even more jarring.
“Weapons!” Nowak called up. Summers let the tent he’d been carrying clatter to the ground as he went for his M4. He swiveled on the source of the fire and saw Adams holding his gun to the woods behind them.
“Wolves!” Adams shouted.
Something resembling a howl came from the woods in front of them, it was picked up by a half a dozen others just like it.
“Left!” Nowak yelled.
“Got it!” Cortez answered, picking off something that looked like a wolf, minus the fur. It had been trying to circle around camp and get in their blind spot.
Summers saw three more directly in front of them. He quickly picked off all three. Or he thought he did.
He’d put half a clip into the three of them but somehow the damn things were still moving. Or rather, crawling towards him. That stopped when he put a round into two of their heads. The third had to wait while he reloaded.
It looked like a furless dog, a leathery red hide covering its entire body. Even as it bled out there on the ground, it was still doing everything in its power to kill him. Still crawling forward on one good leg as Summers chambered his next round. He watched the angry, blood red eyes staring up at him.
He ended it as quickly as he could, looking up for more targets. There were none.
“We clear?” Summers shouted.
Nowak had jumped onto the Humvee which Summers belatedly realized was probably a smart plan. Dogs weren’t really known for their climbing skills. He took a second to scan the area around them. “Think so.” After a beat he made his over to Adams. The private was sweating bullets, still looking at the dead wolf-thing in front of him. Nowak gently placed his hand on the private’s shoulder.
“What is it Sarge?” Adams said, half surprised to see the man standing there.
“You shot first, what was it doing?”
“Just came straight at me. I just looked up and it was already charging.” Adams said. Summers had only just noticed that Adams’ wolf was practically on top of their camp, he must have been seconds away from Adams himself.
“From now on we’ll have one person keeping watch at all times, even when we’re all awake. We got sloppy. I don’t want to make that mistake again.”
Everyone agreed.
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They had settled into a comfortable routine by the end of their second day on the road. Wake up, drive for eight hours, set camp. And shoot anything that looked at them funny along the way. They hadn’t actually seen any native life besides a few more of those strange wolves, burrowing creatures, and some birds that had flown high overhead. And those were few and far between. It was as if the forest were abandoned.
Summers was busying himself setting up a tent, he glanced up as he saw Asle trying to feed Logan. They’d started rationing his pain meds, so he’d been talking for most of the day. Mostly cursing, and in his more lucid moments directing it at Summers’ driving. Bumpy roads probably weren’t a pleasant experience given his condition. Logan groaned a bit louder.
“How you doing over there, sleeping beauty?” Summers called over.
“Fuck you.” Logan responded.
Summers nailed the tent in, then headed over to check on the man. Asle looked up as he entered the standing tent they were calling the infirmary. “I’m serious, how is it?”
“I’m fine.” Logan said.
Summers redirected his attention to the young girl at his side. “Asle how is he?”
“Breathe hard.” Asle said. Summers nodded in response and started to change out the man’s empty IV bag.
“Is it just your leg or you feeling lightheaded?” Summers asked.
“Just the pain. I’m fine.” Logan said through gritted teeth.
“I can give you something now, but I think you’re gonna want to wait until nightfall or our supply isn’t going to last.” The truth was Summers couldn’t really do anything but keep the guy comfortable. Nowak was in charge of bandages and Asle was helping with the less… glamorous parts of medical care. The extent of Summers’ medical knowledge was “don’t rub dirt in it and the blood belongs on the inside.”
“Save it...” Logan responded.
“Suit yourself.”
“Summers. It’s Summers, right?” Logan asked. “Be straight with me, what are my odds here?”
Summers considered that, his leg had been cleaned and tied off, his stitches were holding, and he wasn’t showing any signs of a fever.
“About the same as the rest of us. So, you’re probably screwed. But you’re more likely to get eaten by something than die from infection at this point, if that helps.” Summers answered without a hint of sarcasm.
Logan just stared at the man, trying to decide if that was good news or not.
“Hey, you’re the one that asked for no bullshit.” Summers said.
“All right. Fair enough.”
Summers smiled in response. He saw Nowak leaning over the Humvee to hear. They’d been wanting to ask Logan a few questions, and now was as good a time as any.
“Since you’re feeling so chatty, think you’d mind answering a few questions?”
“You want to know about the 63rd?”
“More or less.”
“I can’t tell you much, brass just sends us in to guard the civilians. All I know is this place is dangerous.” Logan said after a moment. Well that was about as helpful as Summers was expecting.
“It true there’s another one in Nevada?” Nowak called down.
Logan looked up. “No idea. I know we got some experienced people transferred to our detail. So, they had to come from somewhere. Look they’re big on the “need to know basis” crap. If I’m going to be honest, this here was my first trip to this world. And no one else talked with us rookies about it.”
“Great. Anything useful you can tell us?” Cortez called over.
“My job was to watch Asle. You want to know more about this place, ask her. Best thing I can tell you is how the General likes his coffee.” Logan said after a pause.
Another wave of pain must have hit the man, he closed his eyes in a look that screamed frustration and general anger at the world itself.
“All right fine, you know if the forests are usually this dead? Either of you?” Summers asked. He tried to keep the edge out of his voice, but his patience was wearing thin.
“No. Something eat everything.” Asle replied helpfully. “Or something kill.” She added.
“Same thing that killed those people, the skinwalker things?”
She shrugged in response. Great. She knew how to shrug.
Summers stood. “I’ll be back before night for your pain meds, if you can soldier through for now, we can ration them for sleep.”
“Thanks. For everything. Seriously man. But could it kill you to avoid some of the bumps tomorrow?”
“I’ll think about it.” Summers said as he turned, heading back to work on the tent.
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Summers swerved to avoid a fallen tree. He heard a curse rise up from the back but chose to ignore it. You just couldn’t please everyone. It had been two days since Logan woke up, he was doing a lot better, which was good because they were lower than he’d expected on morphine.
“Hold up.” Nowak said. He had a pair of binoculars in his hand, leaning out the window.
“What is it, Sarge?” Summers asked. He had one hand on the butt of his rifle. If Nowak saw the kind of trouble bullets wouldn’t put down their job was to lead it away from the Humvee. In part to make sure it didn’t charge the jeep and blow them all to hell. But mostly to buy Cortez time to grab something big enough to kill it.
“Two o’clock, I think I see a road.” Nowak answered after a beat.
“You sure?”
“No, so start driving.”
It was a road. An overgrown, poorly maintained dirt road, but it was definitely man made. Or elf made. Whatever.
“You know what this means?” Cortez asked.
“Yeah. There’s a town nearby.” Nowak answered.
“Do we want to risk meeting the locals?” Summers gave Asle a quick glance. “How do you think they’d react to people like us, Asle?”
Asle shrugged. She was getting a lot of use out of that. “Don’t know. People different.”
“You think they would attack us?” Logan asked. Asle seemed to consider that for a long moment.
“No. Asle talk good.” She nodded as if that solved the matter.
“We appreciate it.” Logan said, smiling down at the girl.
“What do you think, Sarge. We going to risk it?” Summers looked to Nowak. They’d been grilling Asle about what her people were like for the last few days. They typically only dealt with arrows, poison, and spears. So, they’d imagined some kind of medieval or even tribal society. If it came to it, they’d probably be able to handle any problems that came up, but that wasn’t something he’d be looking forward to.
Monsters were one thing, people were another. He’d killed people on his deployment, sure, didn’t make it a pleasant experience.
Nowak knelt down to Asle. “If we meet people, do you think they’d trade for food and supplies?”
Asle thought about it. “Yes. Guns very good.”
Nowak held a hand up. “Not guns. I don’t want to start handing out weapons. Like, clothes. Or MRE’s. Maybe some the medicine we have.”
“…Probably. But guns best.” Asle finally answered.
“I agree with the kid, guns best. But I’d also prefer not arming someone who might come back to bite us in the ass.” Cortez said.
Nowak stood, “I think it’s worth trying, any objections?”
There were none.
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The road was a welcome change for just about everyone in the Humvee. It may have only been dirt, but their progress became markedly faster. Not having to dodge rocks, debris, and the occasional horizontal tree meant they had to backtrack far less often.
It wasn’t long before they came upon some kind of town. They saw the spiked wooden fence from a distance, with only a few of what they could assume were homes rising above it. Their roofs were curved, and as they got closer it seemed like they ran straight into the ground.
“What’s the plan? We wait out here until they get a welcoming committee together?” Summers asked.
“That’s about the speed of it.” Nowak answered.
And so, they waited. And waited. And waited some more. About two hours after they parked their big Humvee outside the town’s gates, they determined nobody was coming. And they hadn’t seen any activity inside the entire time.
“No one there.” Asle said in her most polite “you people are idiots” voice.
Nowak considered the scene for a moment before he popped the door to the Humvee and stepped back inside. “We’ll head in slow. First sign of trouble I want you to gun the gas, we’ll head out the other side.”
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They made their way in past the gates ponderously slow. They had Cortez on the roof, rifle in hand and looking for trouble. They didn’t find any. It didn’t take a genius to tell the town had been abandoned a long time ago. It looked like whatever happened took out the town as they were building it, some structures were half finished while others were caved in and overrun with weeds. There were signs that, at some point, there had been a fire that took out a good chunk of the west side.
Only the sturdier, larger buildings in the town looked safe enough to set up camp. Nowak directed them to the town’s center, a building there actually reminded Summers of a Norse Longhouse, only with more stone and sharp sticks jutting out from it. The grass covered roofs were at least in line with his expectations for what elves should live in. The animal bone shrines were not. And there were a lot of them.
“Asle, what are those supposed to be?” Summers asked, indicating the pile of foreign looking animal bones decorating the front of the longhouse.
“Good luck. Make evil go away.” She answered.
“Uh huh.” Summers said. He already knew better at this point than to ask her to clarify. Then again, he was probably asking too much of her, she was still just a kid. The fact that they could even communicate was impressive in itself.
“There’s a well, there. Think we can trust the water?” Adams asked, looking at a stone circle not far from them.
“We’ll find out. Should be able to boil it if it looks clean.” Nowak responded.
“We planning on staying here, Sarge?” Summers didn’t like the idea of setting up camp in a place the natives themselves had left.
“Maybe, maybe not. I want to get a look around first. Adams, watch the Humvee.” Nowak indicated the longhouse in front of them. “I do know I’d rather have a wall between me and anything this world can throw at us. And I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing my ass off.”
“Yeah.” Summers consented.
“It’s cold.” Asle added.
“There are probably some supplies left over if these people moved out in a hurry.” Cortez looked over the few remaining buildings.
“Logan, think you can watch Asle and the Humvee?” Nowak asked.
“…Prop me somewhere high up we’ll see what happens.” Logan responded.
Nowak smiled. “All right then, let’s head out.”