As it turned out, the crossroads the group had passed a few miles back was another route to the city. And the smoke he’d seen was from a merchant wagon behind them. They’d tried to get an early start in hopes that they’d outpace the group, but for one reason or another they appeared to be in a rush. Which was why Summers was crouched down beside the Humvee looking at it through a pair of binoculars.

“Lot of guards.” Summers noted.

There were in fact, nothing but guards. Summers didn’t know much about history, but he was fairly sure merchant wagons were typically run by merchants. Everyone around the small wagon was wearing armor of some kind, with shields and spears in their hands.

“We can hide the Humvee and let them pass.” Adams suggested.

That was Summers’ first instinct too, which was why he was surprised when Nowak shook his head. “We’re going to have to make first contact sooner or later, this might be a good opportunity for a practice run.”

His Sergeant had a point, armed as they were, he could only spot about twelve guards in total. And they were bringing spears to a gunfight. In a stand-up fight, they weren’t anything close to a match.

“Asle, what do you think?” Logan prompted.

The girl shook her head in response. “Not sure.”

“I can probably get up that ravine.” Cortez nodded to slope in the distance, overlooking the main road. “If things go south, I’ll at least have a decent angle on you.”

“Take Adams with you.” Nowak gestured to the private. “Wait, how often were you hitting the range at base?”

“Range?” Adams asked.

“You watch her back and do not shoot anywhere near our direction, you hear me?” Nowak pointed at Adams for emphasis. “And no explosives.” Nowak turned his attention to Cortez.

“Why not?” Cortez actually looked hurt.

“Because we can’t see in that wagon. Could be a travelling orphanage for all we know.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

Nowak looked to Asle, “We’re going to try it, are you up to translating for us?”

Asle only hesitated a moment before she nodded.

“How about you Summers, you good?” Nowak looked at Summers with concern.

That annoyed him, but Summers kept his face neutral. “I’m good.”

Nowak smiled, clapping him on the shoulder. “All right, you’re with me on point. Logan you make sure no one gets too close to our translator.” Nowak smiled. “Let’s go say hello.”

Summers walked alongside the others down the dirt road, Nowak called Asle over and started asking about some basic phrases in her language, which she apparently called “Mal”.

Logan bounced along beside Summers on his new leg. He still hobbled a bit, but he was surprised the man was able to keep up even with their slow pace.

“Hey Logan, can I ask you a question?”

Logan glanced over, “Is it about the leg?”

Summers noted the tone in the man’s voice, probably a touchy subject. He’d have to file that possible landmine away. “Uh, no?”

“Then go for it.”

“Asle was doing this… thing earlier, I kind of got the impression it had some meaning I didn’t catch. Something about a thousand thank you’s? You know anything about that?”

“Did you accept it?”

“Accept what? The thank you?”

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose, “Christ, yes. You have to accept it.”

“I did.”

Logan looked over at Asle, she was a good distance away still talking with Nowak. “She did the same for me, after I woke up. It’s… I think it’s sort of like a life debt thing. She says thank you, and if you accept it, you’re acknowledging that you don’t regret what you did. It’s like telling her you think her life was worth whatever you sacrificed.”

“…Oh. Oh shit.” It occurred to Summers he’d almost made a mess out of that. He should really start asking about local etiquette before they got to the city.

“Yeah. Just keep in mind she’s still a kid. I get the impression our situation is a massive overload for her and things like this are just her way of trying to ground herself, make things a little more familiar.”

“Huh, that’s a lot more psychology than I’d have expected from you.”

“Oh, I’m actually a licensed therapist.” Logan smiled back at him.

Summers couldn’t hide his surprise. “No shit?”

“I think that’s why the paired me with her.” Logan’s smile faltered for a moment. That made a sort of sense, the military no doubt saw Asle as an asset. They’d want to make sure she was adapting to whatever situation they put her in.

“You’re not uh… analyzing all of us, are you?”

“It doesn’t work like that.” Logan laughed, “But if you did want to talk…”

“Nope. No offense but whatever is inside my head was put into a dark corner for a reason. It does not need to see that light of day, thank you.”

“All right, just an offer.” Logan held his hands up in mock surrender.

“Get ready.” Nowak called over, Summers looked up to see the caravan in the distance. He lost the smile, moving up to stand beside Nowak.

“Right hand up, palm facing towards you. That’s apparently a wave.” Nowak said.

“How will we know if they’re friendly?” Summers looked at the quickly approaching caravan. It was being pulled by something that looked like a cow who’d eaten nothing but a mixture of steel cut oats and anabolic steroids from the moment it was born. It was jacked.

“If they wave back that’s basically permission to approach. If they come at us with their spears that’s typically their way of saying ‘I don’t like you’.”

“Noted.” Summers double checked his weapon as they continued down the road.

Nowak smiled as he “waved” to the group. They halted for a moment before waving back.

“Don’t bother with the shit eating grin. Watch their shoulders, not their faces.” Summers had spent enough time with Asle to know that, whether it was cultural or some genetic difference, her people weren’t big on facial cues. And from the placid looks on the guards’ faces, they were the same.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with my face then?” Nowak asked.

“Just copy the kid.” Summers nodded to Asle who was looking a little tense now that he was paying attention.

They walked towards the wagon and Summers noted the relaxed posture of the guards. Some even looked curious. That seemed off to him, hell the few times he’d interacted with locals in his world even the sight of a few soldiers was enough to put them on edge.

As they approached, one of the men stepped forward, he was wearing something that resembled scaled leather armor around his chest, with leather belts securing metal plates to his arms and legs. His helmet was a long and straight grey iron, covering well below his jaw. The man himself was stockier than Summers would have expected. He yelled something that may as well have been Chinese, but it had an enthusiastic tone to it.

“He asked what business we have.” Asle called over.

Nowak considered for a moment.

“Tell him we’re travelers from far away, we saw them and were hoping to trade for some supplies, if they can spare them.”

Asle said something in her own language. Summers looked around at the men in front of them, there was something off about the group. Their armor was in excellent shape, but it looked haphazard on a few of them. And it wasn’t uniform, hell one guy was wearing two different sets of leather greaves. And there was something else…

“He wants to know what you have.” Asle gestured to their packs. They’d been over this and settled on selling some of the random crap they’d found in town. They had of course washed it of the fog’s residue first.

“Clothes, metal instruments and a few small blades.” Nowak provided.

Asle nodded and relayed the message. As the man replied Asle tensed.

“…He asked if I’m for sale.” Asle stepped a little closer to Logan. The spearman gave a look to the others beside him.

“Tell him no. And if he asks something like that again let him know we’re going to have a problem.” Nowak was now holding his gun a little closer.

Asle spoke again, it clicked in Summers head that he was smelling blood. It was old, but it didn’t smell like the wolves, more like Asle. He’d have to parse the implications of being able to do that later. For now, he took a second look at the people in front of him, mismatched clothes, blood…

“Sarge think these guys are criminals. Bandits or whatever this world’s equivalent is.” Summers said quietly.

Nowak nodded. “All right, fucking wonderful.”

“What do you want to do?” Summers flicked his rifle’s safety off.

“Nothing. They haven’t done shit to us, no reason to start shooting.” Nowak answered.

He was right, Summers was still too eager to get into a fight, he could feel a little of the giddiness from the fog creeping back as his adrenaline spiked. He’d have to watch that.

“Asle ask them how far it is to the city. Once they answer let them know we’ll be on our way.”

“We’re heading the same way, Sarge. We leave we’re going to lead them straight to the Humvee.” Summers reminded him.

“Shit. All right just –“ Before Nowak could get the words out the man lunged with his spear aimed directly at Nowak’s chest. Summers didn’t think, he acted. It was as if his entire body was a loaded spring, waiting for this one moment. He fired one quick burst into the man’s chest before his arm could fully extend, allowing Nowak to get back in time to avoid being skewered. Summers snatched the head of the spear up with his free hand, pulling the man’s soon to be corpse forward and blocking the second thrust from the bandit behind him. Nowak put that guy down the very next instant.

As he looked up, Summers noted the others around the wagon hadn’t moved, they just stood there in shock. Oh. They didn’t know what guns were. They might have thought his group were unarmed. Well, their mistake.

Two of the bandits snapped out of their fugue and rushed Summers, he fired into the first man’s chest, the expression of sheer terror on his face was satisfying in a way that genuinely worried Summers. The second collapsed before he could fire. The distant bang an indication Cortez and Adams were paying attention.

It was over in seconds, Summers looked around to see every one of the bandits were either dead or dying at his feet. The man Cortez had shot was trying to get his legs under him. Apparently, his shield and armor had taken the brunt of the impact.

Summers leveled his gun on the wounded man. There was a voice inside him screaming for him to finish it, but he refused to give in to that. Not out of any sense of right and wrong, he was just stubborn.

“Asle, tell him if he surrenders we’ll let him li-“ The man lunged impossibly fast. In one fluid motion he stabbed his spear into Summers’ chest. He felt the steel tip scrape against the ceramic plate underneath his Kevlar.

Summers unloaded into the man before he could move again. Between him, Nowak and Logan, the previously injured man now had a mostly liquid consistency.

“…Nevermind.” It should have occurred to Summers that those who’d survived in a world with the kinds of monsters he’d seen wouldn’t be easy targets. He’d have to be careful not to make that mistake again.

Summers dragged another body away from the wagon and into a ditch at the side of the road. He was hungry and doing his best to convince himself it wasn’t because of the smell in the air.

Apparently, he had the nose of a goddamn bloodhound now, and certain smells set off fireworks in his brain. It wouldn’t be a problem for him, hell it might even be pretty damn cool, if he weren’t salivating over the smell of a person’s corpse. He tossed the body into the ravine with a grunt and moved back to the wagon, skirting past the absolute unit of a cow idly grazing beside it. He’d expected it to run off but so far It didn’t seem terribly concerned with the death of its companions.

“Great first contact Sarge!” Cortez yelled, she and Adams were coming down from the hill that was their vantage point.

Nowak was busy looking through the wagon which was filled with spices of some sort. He still managed to yell out a ‘fuck you’ to Cortez.

Summers was looking at one of the spears from the bandits. It seemed well made, and well maintained. He admittedly didn’t know much about weapons like this, but he did know what it meant to keep steel clean and oiled. And this spear was sharpened and shined to perfection. He saw an inscription at the base of the head.

“Hey Asle, what’s this say?”

Asle came over and glanced at the spear in his hands.

“Don’t know. It’s a… signature?” She nodded, “Soldiers weapon.” She pointed to him.

“They were soldiers?”

“Deserters, maybe. No soldier’s going to be hauling around random shit like this.” Nowak called back, tossing a back of something metal to the ground.

“Do we have any idea what these guys were doing heading to the city?” Summers asked. “If they were bandits, it’s not like they would just let them in, right?”

“Maybe.” Asle said, “They have badges.” She held up a small medallion at the lead bandit’s hip. “Probably kill traders. Want to sell in city, then leave.”

“I don’t think we were their only victims.” Nowak called out. “Some kids toys too, I’m officially not sorry.”

“So, why would they bother? Besides trying to rob people like us on the road?” Summers looked back at Asle.

“Cities like traders. Let them in easy. And they might have a…” Asle paused trying to think of the word. “Price? At the gate. Some cities expensive. Traders don’t pay.”

“A toll?” Logan asked.

Summers looked at the wagon. “Huh. Hey Sarge, what were we planning to do with the Humvee?”

“We’re going to have to stash it somewhere once we get close, we can’t go into the city with it. Well we can, but I don’t trust someone wouldn’t try to screw with it.” Nowak poked his head out of the wagon. “Why?”

“Because the guards might start asking us questions that we really can’t answer. Might not be a problem but I don’t think we should stick out any more than we have to.”

Summers looked in the back of the wagon, their food wasn’t going to last forever so they’d agreed making a pit stop in the city was a necessity. “So how do you feel about being traders?”