Marcus is nestled at the top of a large hill looking out at the area around him. The grey and brown grass stretch out for miles with the occasional patch of sinkholes, and stagnant pools of water dotting the landscape. An old dirt road leads east disappearing into the horizon.

Looking through the scope on his rifle, Marcus spots the silhouette of a creature hiding in the tall grass near the side of the road about 200 yards away. Judging by its size he can tell it's a sphinx.

Sphinx's are mutated felines that specialize in ambushing their prey. They are roughly the size of large dogs with a set of two large, razor sharp claws on their front paws. Sphinx prefer to lie in wait near roads, letting prey approach them before making one lethal strike.

Aiming at the sphinx, Marcus steadies his breathing before taking his shot. The bullet goes right through the sphinx's eye, and out the back of its head in an explosion of gore, and viscera.

As Markus makes his way back to the bike his senses scream at him to dodge out of the way. Without a second thought he throws himself to the ground just in time to see a figure leap out of the grass, and fly right past we're he was just walking.

Rising to a crouched position Marcus quickly draws his glimmer knife, and laz pistol firing at the sphinx that tried to ambush him. Scrambling to turn around, the laz shot hits the sphinx in the shoulder blade causing it to recoil in pain.

With a burst of strength Marcus swiftly tackles the sphinx to the ground, and thrusts his blade past the ribs and into the heart of the mutated beast. The sphinx yelps in pain as it tries to throw Marcus off trying to save itself. It's power soon wanes as its life starts to leak out of its body, forming a pool of blood on the floor that quickly seeps into the dry earth.

Marcus gets off the body then searches the surroundings for other threats. Finding none he haphazardly plops down a few feet away from the sphinx to recover. Taking long, deep breaths he slowly starts to collect himself.

'I still can't get used to how much energy my new muscles use when I get into a fight. I'll definitely need a stamina augment, ASAP.' Marcus thinks.

After a minute Marcus stands up and contacts Rain using the HUD's comms function.

"This is Viper, next ten miles are secured."

"Copy that Viper. Just hang tight there, we're going to settle down for the night."

"Understood."

Marcus straps the dead sphinx to the back of his bike, and makes his way down the hill were the other sphinx is. He watched the sun slowly sink into the horizon, depriving the wasteland of its scorching heat. After about 10-15 minutes the caravan pulled up next to Marcus.

Loading up the two sphinx corpses into the truck, Marcus leads the caravan to a campsite he scouted out earlier. About a quarter of a mile away from the road, the small caravan starts to set up camp.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

They formed a loose perimeter using the vehicles, dug a deep fire pit, and started preparing dinner. Eventually they decide to eat the sphinx's since fresh meat always tasted better than rations. Marcus checks them for gene seeds, but unsurprisingly neither have one.

After winning rock-paper-scissors Marcus was one of the first to eat. As he was getting his portion of sphinx stew, he saw the guard that was riding in the back of the cargo truck come out.

Grabbing a bowl of stew they sat down near Marcus who was keeping warm by the fire. Taking off their helmet, he realized the guard was a woman. With long brown hair tied into bun, and emerald green eyes, she was quite beautiful, at least by Marcus's standards.

"So, must be pretty boring sitting in that cargo truck all day. Did they at least give you something to read?"

The guard gives a surprised look, as if they didn't consider he would strike up a conversation with them.

"Uh, yea I brought a book, though it didn't last me long."

"Well do you have to regularly log the status of the cargo? Maybe check its straps, make sure it's secure? Those sorts of menial tasks can make time fly if you don't have anything else to do."

"No, nothing like that. I just have to be ready in case someone tries to break in."

"Ah, I see."

They watch the fire for a while in awkward silence before Marcus speaks again.

"You must be new to this whole guard thing, huh?"

She looks away from Marcus shyly before nodding her head

"Yea, I am. How could you tell?"

"Well there were a few dead giveaways.

First, you look like your in your early twenties, yet don't have a single scar, or blemish on your face.

Second, you follow orders too closely; finding things to do in between tasks is common practice. Finally you let your guard down far too much. You left your weapon in the truck, took off your helmet to eat instead of raising your visor, and you sat next to me of all people.

While Red Scarfs do have friendly relations with New Craven, we are still mercenaries. Sitting near your fellow guards would have been a safer bet."

"Oh."

Turning from the fire to look at the inexperienced guard, he realized his mistake. She practically had her head between her legs in embarrassment.

"Shit, sorry about that. Don't take my words to heart. I have a tendency to overanalyze people when I first meet them. It's a habit I picked up living in the outskirts when I was young."

Marcus hears a small laugh escape her lips before she sits upright smirking.

"It's alright, i'm only a little upset."

'This little...' Marcus shakes his head

"Right, i'm Cass by the way. What's your name?"

"Names Viper, pleasure to meet ya."

"Oh, c'mon not your callsign, your name! It's not like I introduced myself as 'G-86 of squad 3' now did I?"

After thinking a little bit, he relented.

"Fine, fine. My name is Marcus."

"Marcus... Well Marcus it was nice talking to you, but I better get some shut eye. Got morning shift for lookout duty."

"Alright, have a goodnight."

With that, Cass got up and went back inside the cargo truck. Finishing his stew Marcus gathered up his gear and made his way to the top of the cargo truck as a vantage point, and took first watch as lookout.

Marcus watched the north, Scorched watched the south from their armored truck, and two merchant guards watched the east, and west.

As the night went on Marcus was watching the north for any sign of movement, seeing nothing. At around 1:00 am he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Turning around and looking south, he could barely make out a faint dust cloud in the dark.

Raising his rifle he looked through his scope. In the distance he could see the dark outlines of at least a dozen different vehicles approaching their camp at breakneck speeds.

Marcus quickly switched on his comms, and connected to his entire squad.

"CONTACT, CONTACT! SOUTH SIDE!"