From the position of the sun, it looked like late afternoon so he didn’t make it very far before it started to get dark. He couldn’t go very fast because of the rough road and he didn’t want to drive after dark, so he pulled over into the grass. Chuck spotted a dead tree so was able to get some kindling without going too far into the forest. It was unnaturally quiet, with no birds singing or bugs buzzing around which made him nervous. The 12 gauge slung over his shoulder made him feel a little better but not much.
He started a fire and decided to skin and eat the rabbits since he had no way to preserve the meat. Luckily, he had a few spices in his pack to make them taste a little better. Once the sun set, the forest came alive with horrific sounds of howling and roaring which made Chuck grab his shotgun tightly and swore. “I don’t want to meet whatever those are.” He didn’t think his guns would be a match for whatever was making the spine tingling noises. To his surprise, he didn’t see any moon and the stars in the sky were different colors as well. There were blues, reds, purples, and other shades - he assumed they were stars anyway and not planets. He slept inside the pickup, although the noises from the forest kept waking him up.
Chuck still felt tired in the morning but nothing had attacked his vehicle during the night. He grabbed a granola bar and bottle of water from his pack for breakfast, relieved himself in the grass, and headed down the dirt road. He was a little concerned since he only had a couple bottles of water left, so finding more water would be a priority. The scenery hadn’t changed much, but about mid morning he saw dust in front of him along the road. He stopped on top of a small hill and reached behind the seat for his binoculars.
Through the dust he saw what looked like a covered wagon from the old west. That’s where the similarities ended as it was covered in spikes and was being pulled by something that was definitely not a horse. It was black and looked almost like a giant snail but instead of a shell, it had chitinous armor like an ant. It was moving a lot faster than any snail and was maybe even faster than a horse. Chuck whistled in appreciation as the wagon raced down the rough road. Its suspension seemed to be even better than what was on the truck. He couldn’t tell who was inside the wagon and decided to shut his truck off and wait.
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As it got nearer Chuck got out, making sure to take his shotgun with him. He kept it pointed down and waved his other arm, yelling for them to stop. The wagon stopped about 100 feet in front of him but he still couldn’t make out who was in it under the cloth covering. Chuck was debating on whether he should walk toward it when two short, dark green creatures jumped down. They started yelling something at him and gesturing for him to move. He wasn’t sure if it was a language or not as it sounded like a bunch of growls and hisses. They seemed to be wearing leather armor and had short swords strapped to their hip. He instantly thought goblins.
In all the shows he watched, goblins were always the bad guys so he gripped his shotgun a little tighter but didn’t point it at them yet. He yelled back that he didn’t understand and they yelled gibberish back at him. This obviously wasn’t getting them anywhere. They continued to motion for him to get out of the way and climbed back into the wagon. He reluctantly stepped aside. Chuck got a closer look at the wagon as it went past. The two foot long spikes were attached to the sides and back appeared to be some sort of metal, although he couldn’t tell how they were attached to the wood structure of the wagon. As it continued on its way he saw more goblins looking curiously at him from out of the back of the wagon. “Well, that didn’t work.” He sighed to himself. Wasn’t the isekai protagonist supposed to be able to understand the language or have some super powers or something. He had even tried chanting “Status” last night but nothing worked and he just felt silly for even trying.