This time most soldiers didn’t board any trucks and they most of them gathered around in a circle waiting.

Karspov and Jo walk up to Tom to talk to him.

Karspov is the guy that usually checks up on both Tom and Jo to see if they are well.

Karspov:”Ay! Tom! I know this comes out of the blue, but you need to pack your stuff! We got to go!”

Jo:”Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Tom:”Aight’! But where are we going anyway?”

Karspov:” Well that’s why everyone’s waiting over there! Our commander will tell us what we are going to do. So hurry up and pack your stuff!”

All Tom had was just the couple of sheets he slept in, a tooth brush, a knife and a water bottle.

He puts all everything into the sheets and wraps them on his back, making some sort of back pack and joins the others in the circle.

A few minutes later, a middle aged man walks in the middle of the circle and everybody quiets down.

That was their commander.

He clears his throat and looks around a bit to see if everyone was listening and yells.

Commander:”Everyone! Before I will say anything I want to clarify for the future that if your equipment is no good or if you’re feeling ill it is no shame to admit it and ask to be treated or given proper equipment, but if any of you will try to dodge responsibilities by faking illness or break intentionally to get new stuff you will be punished! Now, the main reason that I called everyone here is that we need to move 8 kilometers north and try to get a better hold of this forest. And I also want to make it clear for those that lack common sense that the two kids that are coming with us will stay away from gun fights and their single responsibility, for now, is to deliver food rations, ammunition and letters to everyone like they did till now and they will most definitely won’t fill up for anyone’s guard duty. ”

He stops speaking for a few seconds to see if everyone heard him and continues:”So everyone pack up were leavin’!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Not long after everyone had their baggage ready.

One thing that Tom noticed is that a few soldiers were staying behind with most of the trucks, but tries to keep up with everyone’s walking pace, but Karsopv comes, picks him up and puts him aside him and Jo on one of the two BT-2 tanks that were coming with them, so they won’t have to walk 8 kilometers on foot.

When they arrive they put up their tents and those on guard duty were already at their posts.

Tom helps with the unpacking of the medical equipment and Jo was helping the tank crews camouflaging the tanks with whatever branches and leaves they found around.

Night came and Tom and Jo put their now, on the ground, next to each other, since most of the tents were left behind and the ones that were there were put to better use.

The next day, after waking up Tom packs his sleeping bag around his shoulder like yesterday and goes looking for Jo who woke up before him.

He finds him around one of the tanks and was talking to one of it’s crew members.

After that he walks around a bit and sees that there was no sign that he will get breakfast that day, so he starts to wander around the camp to see if he would find something interesting to do and finds a river somewhere near there and sits down looking across it for a while.

When he get’s bored, Tom walks back and meets Karspov.

Karspov:”Ah! There you were! Look, I am busy and can’t talk much right now. Your task is to go around and check for all of these names, if you find someone that isn’t on this list go to the small green tent and tell the man dressed in grey that name and where he can find him or her, when you have checked for everyone on this list you can do whatever. Oh! And keep the paper with you afterwards! You will need it in the future!”

He hands him a piece of paper with loads of names on it.

Tom didn’t even get the chance to tell him something and he already sprinted away in a hurry.

Looking at the list, Tom gets discouraged after about 40-50 names that he had to look around , thinking that some of them are probably taking walks around the woods like he just did, making it difficult for them to find.

A few hours later he finishes and once again goes looking around for Jo.

In the mean time he realizes that on the list he was given both his and Jo’s name don’t appear don’t appear, meaning that in the case that they weren’t appearing in any other records too and somehow everybody there was wiped out by whatever enemy they could’ve claimed to be lost children. Kind of an a*s hole move, but what could they do in a situation like that?

Tom doesn’t find Jo till around 1 pm, when he found him with a bunch of other soldiers that managed to get a cow that will be their lunch.

Helping with the preparations with a friend of Jo’s. Tom witnessed fire magic for the first time, when after cleaning a huge pot and put it over some sticks and leaves, Jo’s friend creates a flame about as big as the flame of a match and lights the leaves.

After eating, Tom and Jo had nothing else to do,so they spend the rest of the day loitering around.

After going to bed Tom is woken up from hearing gunfire somewhere in the distance.