We traveled down the same route that we used the day before. Of course, there was the same amount of complaining and grumbling, but the way was easier than the first time because we had cleared a lot of the vines and shrubs the day before. Like the first time, the subject had turned to “Why’d you join the military?” me and Alexei just rehashed the same stories to Walter. But when Walter’s turn for story time came up, he talked about growing up in a military family in Germany.

Apparently, his family goes all the way back to the siege of Vienna in 1529. As he put it, “My family has been fighting 200 years longer than your country has existed.” this comment was followed by some light-hearted insults and jokes from the rest of us. So Walter had been ‘pre-enlisted’ in the jerry armed forces, pretty much since he had been born.

When Walter was a kid, his dad and grandpa used to take him hunting, so when he joined the army, he noticed that there were lots of little extra training camps that would increase his pay. When Walter saw there was tracking and field training, he signed up on the spot. At this point, Walter went on a mild rant about how bad the instruction was when compared to years of hunting and that they could have just given him his certification without it.

I didn’t really know how to respond to a ranting, heavily armed German. So I just shrugged and looked over at Alexei for help, just in time to catch a tree branch to the face. Alexei and Walter chuckled at my expense, ‘well, I guess that's what I get for not paying attention to my surroundings.’ I thought as I pushed the tree branch away from my slightly more scratched-up face.

When we had finally reached the burned field again, we had collected about a dozen minor scratches and bruises between us on the trip. The bodies of the goblins we had killed yesterday were still laying where they had fallen. They had started to bloat up and get all grody. So, I decided to do something about it.

I didn’t think I had to do anything because, well, I am the ‘leader’; I have to lead or something. So I told Alexei and Kazamir to move the bodies away from the supplies. They both looked at each other and then at me with a ‘your serious’ look. I sighed ‘well, I guess I can’t get away with getting out of work just yet.’ So I stopped my stuck-up officer impression and helped out with the chucking of bodies into the woods.

While me and Alexei were disposing of bodies, Walter had finished jamming as much stuff into his backpack as he could and was now looking around for the tracks of the raiding party. After a few minutes of looking around, he came over to the rest of us.

“I found the tracks of the raiding party. I don’t think you’ll need my help tracking them, though.”

“Show me,” I said as I tried to wipe my hands clean of grime and blood.

Me and Walter led the way, with Alexei and Kazamir following slowly behind us. When we got closer to where Walter found the goblin’s tracks that led into the trees. I saw more and more small things like crushed weeds, dried blood, and broken arrow tips as we got closer to the tree line. The goblins might be a little bit more numerous than we first thought. There was a… well, the best way to put it is ‘trail,’ but I don’t know if that does it justice. It looked like a hole was carved into the landscape.

“Well, Walter, I don’t think we’ll need your help tracking them.” I said while observing the ‘trail.’

The machine gunner replied, “if you do need my help after this point, then I think you should have a blind man’s cane and a service dog.”

Kazamir looked questioningly at Walter, probably wanting an answer to what a ‘blind man’s cane is or a service dog for that matter. Walter flatly Ignored Kazamir’s look and continued on talking, “Well, since I am no longer needed here, I’m going to get on my way back to camp.”

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“Hey, one more thing before you go,” I said, interrupting Walter’s exit.

“What,” Walter said in the exasperated tone of someone who is getting asked to do too many things at once.

“Give me your helmet and NVGs.”

Grumbling, sighing, and grudging acceptance followed this statement as Walter handed over his helmet and NVGs.

“Well, unless you have anything more you would like to strip off me. I am going to head back to base.”

With that said, Walter speed walked away before I could do anything.

“Well, I guess we better get to walking.”

____________________________________________________________________________

“These boots are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do. One of these days, these boots are gonna walk all over you.”

I softly sang to myself. I quickly glanced up at the ever-darkening sky, then over to Alexei and Kazamir. We had been marching for most of the afternoon. Alexei looked like he could keep going for a couple more hours, but, Kazamir was looking pretty rough even though he had refused to stop multiple times. The poor bastard looked like he was going to march himself to death, but nothing I could say or do would stop him.

Looks like nothing was gonna stop him from getting revenge. Ah, well, if he wants revenge, then that's his problem. I got enough stuff on my plate as it is, being the commander of a multi-national force stuck in a fantasy world sent by god to fight. Damn, when I lay it out like that, it really is fucken crazy. I guess it's good that he sent military guys and not a bunch of high schoolers because we are used to shit being crazy and not making any goddamn sense.

Alexei poked me in the shoulder, pulling me from my head and back into the present. I opened my mouth to question Alexei, but he shushed me and pulled me to one side of the trail. I looked around to try to find what Alexei had spotted when he whispered in my ear so softly I could barely hear him,

“Three contacts front.”

I whisper back to Alexei, “let’s pull back, wait for dark, then cause some trouble.”

Alexei softly called over to Kazamir and told him to fall back. Me and Alexei crawled back through the heavy foliage. We crawled under vines, over fallen tree logs, and around thickets of bushes. Went I judged that we were far enough from the contacts not to be seen, I got up and started looking around, trying to catch a glimpse of Kazamir through the failing light.

I couldn’t see jack shit of Kazamir, though. I shrugged and kept moving through the densely packed nets of vines and cutting my way through the natural barbed wire of bushes and dead tree branches.

When we had moved back up the trail enough were it would be highly unfucken-likely that any pickets would spot us. I moved back out onto the trail, hoping to see Kazamir. I scanned the dark foliage for him when a small figure stepped out of the darkness.

I waved him over, he nodded and started slowly walking over. I started explaining our activities for the night,

“Get some rest now, 'cause when it gets dark enough, we're going to strike. We’ll surround them as best we can. Then take’em out.”

I said in my most commanding voice. Alexei burst out laughing.

“What's so funny?” I asked, the now only chuckling soldier.

He responded while clearly trying to hold back laughter, “That felt like a cheesy action movie line.* chuckles* it’s not even that funny, but I guess the tension just made it that way. I mean, we are about to assault an enemy position in the dark after marching away from a village full of corpses, and you pull out a cheesy action movie line. It’s so out of place it is hilarious.”

“When you put it that way, it is pretty funny,” I said while rolling my eyes. ‘Fucken Ruski.’