A while after he fell unconscious, he wakes up to something wet on his face. He barely manages to open his eyes to verify what it was.

[The wolf seems to be back finally. And I don’t feel like I’m dying. It appears I was lucky that the remaining nanites were enough to deal with the cut open stomach.]

Once again remembering what he saw at the end before loosing consciousness, he turns to the south to find that there is still a small column of smoke, with an orange glow below it, amongst trees. It is already dark and well into the night.

[It seems the fire wasn’t my imagination and it does seem to be man-made. Then, why did they not send someone to get me yet? Did they run away from seeing the wolf close to me? They could have very easily scared off this one by firing a gun into the air. That is bothering me a bit, but I think I’ll survive regardless. It does seem like it’s a fair distance away from here. Maybe they didn’t want to risk moving through the wild in the dark? I wouldn’t blame them if that’s the case.]

Turning to his side, he sees the wolf sitting right beside him and sulking even more than the last time. With some difficulty, he lifts his right hand to put it on its head to comfort it.

“Don’t worry my friend. It’s fine. Everyone has their own issues. Besides, we’re almost there. I will get you fixed up soon.”

Whether or not the wolf understood him, it seems to have stopped sulking and rubs its face against him, affectionately.

“Hahaha! Enough! Don’t tickle me. I’m hurt!”

Once that was settled, he feels both hunger and thirst as the nanites work full drive to fix his injuries. He beacons the wolf to get the water container and the fruit bags to him.

“No not that! The one besides it. That one. Yeah that! Good boy!”

With some food and water in his stomach, the tiredness once again over comes him.

[So, was that weird Deer my imagination too? That fire certainly wasn’t. Well, now that I think about it, it was probably just some Albino creature. Although, it is kind of weird that it survived with such a striking colour and grew up to be that big. That doesn’t matter right now anyways. I’m finally close to getting out of here.]

*The next day morning*

Waking up a little late in the morning, he notes that the wounds on his skin seems to have closed up. Initially, he thought he may need to take some more Antibiotics and maybe another nanite capsule but was very surprised to notice that he not only didn’t have to do that, but also had been healed much more than he anticipated.

[Wow! That’s nice! I guess not moving and agitating the wound helped it heal better and quicker. I might even be able to sit up or even stand! But…]

After briefly considering it a bit, he decides to stay lying on his back, but puts some support behind his neck to tilt it just a little, to get a better view of the south, hoping to see people coming to his aid now that it is day.

But after waiting for a couple hours, he frowns as he comes to the conclusion that nobody seems to be coming to his rescue.

[Well, maybe they have their own trouble of some kind or they are some civilians out on a camp and hadn’t spotted my fire somehow. I guess I’ll go there myself.]

[I should be able to move by the end of today but I’m not sure risking this another night, relying on the wolf’s figure scaring away things, especially in this state is a good idea. After all, I have been burned by it twice already.]

After finishing the last of the fruits and a bit of the smoked meat, he gets up slowly trying to notice any signs of the unhealed wounds. He slowly makes it to the bank of the creek uses the water container to lightly wash off the blood, Keeping an eye out for any snakes and alligators.

[Well, I cleaned the best I could. I hope I don’t have anymore in places I can’t see.]

Using the very last piece of clean clothes he had, apart from the silver white under suit, to dry himself and wipe away any remaining blood stains, he puts on his under suit and his right exo-skeleton arm. He tries to carry the remaining stuff but finds it is very difficult in his weakened state. He discards all but 1 spear and most of the tree vines and some of the twine. He keeps the long rope in case it might come in handy.

All prepared, it was around 2 in the afternoon but as they were about to set out, an idea pops into his head as he looks at his companion. He reinforces the harness he had tied to the wolf and he tries to sit on its back and see if it can stand and walk with his weight. He is no small man. About 190 cm and weighing 220 pounds but the wolf seems to have no issue carrying him. On the other hand, it looked very enthusiastic, wagging his tail all over. He feels stupid for not thinking sooner but soon realizes its not as simple as it seemed at first. The wolf, unlike a horse is much harder to ride and he almost falls off a few times before he decides to lay on his belly and clutch on to the wolf’s neck. He manages this only up to the halfway point and by then, even the wolf seems to not be over enthusiastic about the idea of carrying about more than half his weight. He decides it is time for a break at that point.

“Thank you, buddy. I think we’ll just walk slowly from here on.”

By now the surrounding scenery had once again changed from sparce trees with lots of grass to thicker woods with out much grass on the ground. But these woods seem to not stay that thick beyond the location where he saw the fire coming from.

After 30 minutes of rest, they’re on the move again and this time, they are each walking on their own but most of the luggage is on the wolf, with a firm rope tied from its harness to the man’s hand. It was 1 hour before the sunset by the time a watch tower comes into their view.

[A watch tower?! So, it is some sort of forest rangers’ outpost? Then why didn’t they come to me? I refuse to believe they didn’t notice it. Well, no matter. I guess I’m here now.]

About 100 meters away from the watch tower, the trees have already given way to more open space and he even found a human walking trail. That’s when he finally sees the first human in days.

[Ahhh! The first human contact in over a week! And he looks…..looks weird?! Huh?]

The man looks to be a young adult, wearing a full set of dark green leather clothes. He even has a spear on his back and a very long knife, hanging to his waist. As soon as he spots them, he instantly notices the wolf and brings out his spear, tense. But doesn’t panic.

[Oof! It’s good he is not panicking. That’ll make it easier to explain. But something is off about his whole demeanour. And where the hell is his gun? Did he just forget it when coming to meet me? Or maybe he didn’t notice the wolf before.]

“Hello there! It’s nice to see a fellow human after so long!!”

He shouts a warm greeting at the man, trying to ease him into the details about the wolf. But the young man freezes at his words, without any reply.

He shouts back after a moment but in a language the man has never heard before. He frowns but it is clear neither of them can understand each other. After some gestures, he at least communicates that the wolf is his pet and is safe. It also helped that the wolf seems to be in its best behaviour. After that the young man turns around and shouts for someone. Another, slightly older man in a cloak comes out from behind a tree, farther behind the younger one. He quickly says something into some black thing in his hand and they both beacon the man and the wolf to follow them.

[Seems like they communicated to someone. Hopefully someone who can speak English.]

Soon, they were beneath the watch tower and another well-built middle-aged man comes down to greet him and unfortunately, it wasn’t a hello.

“Do you also not understand me?! Okay what language are you speaking?”

The man looks taken aback, almost shocked at his words but answers his question with another word that makes no sense to his ears. Frustrated, he just shouts,

“Which way to people? Come on! Just give me a direction!”

“Sir-Direction-I-give.”

Speaks out the one in charge. Nearly hugging the man with joy, he replies.

“That’s good! Very Good! You can understand me yeah?”

“Very-little-sir. You-What-Happen?”

“Oh, a long story. I accidentally crashed somewhere north east from here. All my comms are down and I was stuck. I work for the UN. So, no need to be afraid. And this is a weird wolf I am tasked to take to some facility before we crashed.”

He lied. The officer in charge seemed like he lost him part way through.

“Oh! I-see-sir. Need-help?”

After considering using the probably very unsecure radio they have access to and considering that he is out of the loop of what is going on outside, he decides against it.

“I just need you to point me in the right direction to the nearest town or city.”

After considering his words and calculating something in his hand, he replies,

“I-see. This-path-15-Kilometer.”

He points somewhere south with his hand.

After hearing his words of how close it is, the man rejoices, but thinks what his next steps are.

[15 km to the nearest town is very good but Even if they can’t see anything wrong with me, I’m not healed inside. Also, without knowing the situation out there, it may be reckless to expose myself carelessly. I think I will recover for a day before going. Still, what’s with these people’s weird gothic style(?) I’m not even sure. Well, not my worry.]

“I’m tired and need to rest for a day. Also, I need some food. All my food is finished. I only have a little bit of smoked meat.”

“Oh-food-noproblem. You-rest-for-2days. I-send-guide-with-you.”

“That sounds great! I think 1 day and a night should be long enough. We will set out the early morning of the day after tomorrow.”

After nodding his head and giving instructions to his people, he takes them to a small tent set up on the ground. It is not very big, but it had a small bed inside. A table and a couple chairs beside it. Seeing the bed nearly bought tears to his eyes. He leaves the wolf outside of the tent, but he made sure to tie it to his hand and wrap the thread around the small bed to be safe. Measuring the radius where the wolf can move without disturbing him, he warns the 3 three to not come too close.

An hour after the sunset, they deliver some food, hard bread, some meat stew, spicy roasted bird of some kind and some bloody chunk of meat for the wolf.

[Wow! After eating bland roasted meat for so long, just some salt and pepper is making me drool. Poor wolf. I think I will have to cook it for him. Hmm this stew is pretty nice!]

“Don’t look at me like that. I’ll cook it for you after finishing my food.”

He finishes the food while ignoring the staring wolf. Once done, he roasts the meat of the wolf with some borrowed salt sprinkled on it. The men stare at him briefly but don’t seem to care too much.

[Something is off about these people. They seem normal except for how easily they accepted the giant wolf being my pet and me cooking for it with salt and pepper. Not to mention their fashion sense and the lack of firearms. They are using some bows or crossbows instead.]

Shaking away the irrelevant thoughts, he enjoys the wolf hungrily eating its food.

*After roughly 36 hours*

[I’m feeling fantastic. I’m not sure why the nanites worked so good at the end but they did a good job, but it seems they left a slight scar on my stomach when they stitched it in a hurry. Small price to pay for survival. Okay time to go the last stretch!]

Along with the now healthy man and the wolf, a guide, the youngest one at the camp, set out to their final destination at first light. It seems this stretch is very devoid of any big predators. Perhaps because of the outpost. On the way on one of the rests, the wolf almost drags away its master when a wild cat, barely the size of a medium sized dog scares it.

[If I had any doubts before, its official now. You have an affliction of cowardice. I can only hope you won’t be this ridiculous once I get you fixed. Actually, I didn’t give you a name even after all this time.]

After some thought, an amusing grin is plastered on his face.

“Your name is Black Courage from today onwards. Black Courage, the cowardly dog. Hehehe.]

Amused at his own clever naming, he fails to notice a faint change in the Beast’s gaze.

He is distracted by the confused shouting of their guide who has come back from chasing away the wild cat that tried to steal their breakfast. Who is now gazing at the wolf in a weird way, probably confused about its behaviour.

“Ah Don’t worry. It’s just…training! Yes Training!”

Lies the man, trying to cover for the associated embarrassment for his companion. Somehow the man seemed satisfied with the words.

After finishing the breakfast, or what remained after the raid by the wild cat, they start moving again. With the energy from both the excitement of getting out of the wilds and their full stomachs, they keep up a good pace till they finally come upon a long line of people. It seems they have a different entrance for all the vehicles and this looked like a checkpoint verifying identities of new people. Which is understandable considering the times.

[Checkpoints are good. Whoever is in charge is a cautious person. As they should be to be able to survive so far out here. Only, why do they have some horses along with people? Wait the roads looks so…old. Do they not have Cement or Asphalt? Wait, what’s with everyone’s clothes?]

“Huh?”

Most of the people are waiting in the line. There are guards in armour made of the same dark green leather but no visible guns on them. Every person is searched, and their papers checked before being let through the gates.

[They technically don’t need anything more than a handgun to keep peace here, but I would have expected them to carry something big to remind people of the security. The weirdest thing is all these people have weird clothes not just the guards. Is this what I think it is?]

With some visible dislike and condescending look in his eyes, he follows the young guide to a door on the side of the town wall.

[Wow! They even wasted this many resources to build this stupid wall for such an idiotic activity? I heard Frank mention about these ‘Fun’ places before. People would organize a fake town or village in the middle of nowhere and play dress up, living there for a week, pretending they’re in a fantasy world. I never thought these things would be in full swing only 10 days after the green heads were repelled. I’m sure there are plenty of issues to be fixed with the little resources we have and there are idiots wasting them on such things.]

He even spots a couple dark skinned people with fake pointy ears, Feeling frustrated at his fellow humans fooling around at such dark times, he tries to ignore them and turn to the guide who is almost done with his explanation to the man in charge. He raises a hand to greet the man.

“Hello mister! I suppose you’re part of the administration here?”

“Yes sir I am.”

“Oh, you understand me well! That’s good!”

“I only understand very little of your language sir.”

[Even though he has a very heavy accent, he does indeed understand me!]

“You’ll do. I need to meet who ever is in charge here for security. I’ll need access to secure comms ASAP.”

He says that as he holds up a badge of some kind that says UN Special Forces and the whole thing has a pale violet shine to it.

The man looks confused to a moment before speaking.

“I will take you to the city lord sir but I do not know what you meant after that”

Hearing the man still not breaking his role playing, a twinge of anger rises deep within him, but he calms down and decides to play along for now. He nods and is taken through some corridors going straight through the walls from behind his office and his dog was taken care of by special people who are there to take care of pets specifically. Eventually, he is in a room with some middle ages looking wooden furniture, decorated in some gold and silver looking metals. Scoffing at the absurdity of it all, he waits there for about 15 minutes.

“I truly apologize for keeping a fellow noble in distress, waiting for so long”

A man comes into the room wearing extravagant, middle age clothes and even a small crown on his head. That pushes beyond his tolerance and he snaps.

“That’s it! Stop with the stupid fucking pretend play! I have some important duty here. Get your head of security here ASAP!”

The crowned man looked absolutely stunned, completely stopping in his tracks.

-To be Continued