AN note: I am making a small change.

[Kaushik speech]

~ Mike Speech ~

“Other speech”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~ Now then, shall we start buddy? ~

Currently we are sitting beside the fire facing each other. Our weapons lay in front of us. By the way, those two eyes from before were wolves. Right now one has a hole on its head, another through its neck. And needless to say, I was the cause of those holes.

[Since we have a full belly and no threat around us, why not?]

~ You think chief burned us? ~

I widen my eyes in surprise. I know Mike is trying to analyze the situation and come up with a theory to explain how we ended up in this world. Even I am trying to do the same. But I didn’t expect him to suspect chief. But then I suppose no one is above suspicion.

[I don't think so. From my experience, he had many opportunities to eliminate me. If it was to tie up any loose ends, killing us sounds less problematic than teleporting us to a parallel world.]

~ True. But what if his plan was to send us to this world? ~

[May be. May be not. Can't say for sure. But considering my relationship with chief, I think it’s safe to assume that he didn't plan this.]

~ Uh huh. So chief's in clear? ~

[Nnnnnn... I guess that makes Atlas the main culprit.]

~ My thoughts exactly. Atlas was probably researching this parallel world jump. Question is, how did we initiate its activation sequence? ~

[Only one possibility comes to my mind. A glitch in their security protocol.]

~ A little explanation buddy? ~

[I think their developers wrote the firewall but didn’t had the guts to test it. Suppose one of their own employee triggered a lockdown by mistake. But after they cancel the lockdown, whole server room will be teleported into a parallel world. That would be utterly stupid right?]

~ I see ... I see .... Makes sense ..... Hmmm ...... Hmmm (Nodding several times to himself). So due to a security glitch, parallel world jump sequence initiated after lockdown sequence. But what was that white place? ~

[......my best guess is, that was some kind of tunnel connecting this world and our world.]

~ If that was a tunnel, why my gun started heating up and went poof? ~

[I don’t know.]

~ Take a guess. ~

[Well, remember what the system said apart from jump sequence initialization?]

~ I do. It said ‘sufficient energy source detected in the vicinity.’ ~

[And what our guns and ammo made of?]

~ Nano machines and laser ..... Oh I see ...... That tunnel used those as energy source to teleport us. Simply genius. Which means if we didn’t have those weapons we wouldn’t have teleported into this world. (Sigh) great. ~

[Yeah just great. All those energy... wait a minute. All energy? Oh shit.]

I hurriedly check my suit. No holographic display greeted me. I take off my suit and check the power cores. As I feared, nothing. Both primary and backup power cores are missing. My nano-suit just became an ordinary piece of armor.

I look at Mike to enlighten him on my new discovery but stooped myself. Mike is standing frozen with his sword unsheathed. A bit of black smoke is rising from the swords handle. Smoke? Is that sword what I think it is?

[Is that a high frequency blade?]

~ Not anymore. ~

Like I thought. Every power source, be it our guns or suit’s power core or sword’s energy module, is gone.

[Our suit’s too.]

~ What? ~

Mike sheathed his sword and proceeded to check his suit. After his inspection, he just sighed.

~ Really? We have just an armor and a melee weapon? No gun, no radar, no vision assist, no cardiac regulator, no enhancement, nothing? ~

[Yes. Until we get a power source, we got nothing except for an armor and a melee weapon.]

~ (Sigh) what is this? Is this some fictional story and we are main characters? ~ (I am afraid you are boy. So suck it up and do as I say. Muhahaha)

[Look on the bright side. At least we won’t be fighting naked and on an empty stomach.]

~ Yeah right. So what do we do buddy? ~

[Find a city or village I guess.]

~ And how are we supposed to do that? ~

[That guy hiding behind the tree should be able to help us.]

I point to our right towards a tree. Mike readies his stance to act at a moment’s notice. A guy wearing half sleeved shirt and pant reveals himself. Those cloths look a bit dirty but who can blame him. We are in the middle of a forest. He has two daggers on him.

“Sorry for not revealing myself before but I had to be certain you are not bad guys.”

~ How do you know we are not? ~

Mike nonchalantly asked. He was visibly taken aback but soon regained his composure.

“Call it a hunch.”

~ Who are you? ~

“My name is Rohit Sanyal. I work for Crimson Caravan.”

~ What do you want? ~

“We were taking a break near the river when our caravan head noticed a small smoke rising from the forest. Too small to be a wildfire. So she thought there were people. As it turns out, she was right.”

~ What are you offering? ~

“Well I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you, but it sounded like you are lost. If you want, you can come with us since we are going to the town.”

‘Seems too good to be true. But for now let’s wait and see.’

[Yeah we are lost, so it would be great if you help us get to the town.]

“No problem. Let’s head back to my group, then we can resume our journey.”

‘Group huh? Negotiations should go smoother if I offer them all the meats here. There’s enough meat for at least 20 people.’

[Wait a moment. Thing is, we have lots of meat with us but we don’t have any bags.]

“Meat? Where ... Wow that’s a lot of meat. This should help us restock our food. Let me handle it.”

He went to the pile of meat, took out a bag no bigger than a money pouch and began putting the meats inside. I expected at most 5 pieces of meat to fit in there, but to my surprise all the meat managed to fit. Mike is also surprised and asked.

~ What is that? ~ (Eyes sparking)

“You don’t know?”

~ No. ~ (Eyes sparking)

“This is a freeze bag.”

~ What is a freeze bag? ~ (Eyes sparking some more)

“Anything you put in it will shrink in size and will stay in a frozen state so the organic things like meat won’t rot.”

~ Wow. Where can I get one? ~

Mike’s eyes are now sparking even more. Anymore and it won’t be any different than a flash grenade. So I butt in.

[How much can you store in one bag?]

“Depends on the quality. This one can store up to 20 kilos.”

[Seems convenient.]

“This bag is actually pretty common. I am surprised you don’t know about it.”

[The place we come from doesn’t have anything like it.]

“I see. Please follow me.”

He haven't made any moves so far but I guess I will just keep an eye on him. I kept sonar switched on for some time now. I think I better keep it on in case of an ambush.

We walked for 10 minutes now and reached at a clearing beside a river. I see some people are practicing archery, some are sparring, some are cooking, and some are on the watch. One armored bus and four Humvees can also be seen. The man in front of me stopped and gestured towards them.

“Welcome to Crimson Caravan.”

I relax after seeing the group. They don’t exactly look like robbers. Still it’s too early to come to a conclusion.

“Please come this way. Alice is expecting you.”

~ Who’s Alice? ~

“She is the head of Crimson Caravan”

~ In that case, let’s not keep her waiting. ~

“Certainly. Please follow me.”

We again followed the man towards the bus. We followed the man inside. Inside the bus, it looked more like a warehouse. All kinds of goods can be seen there. There is also a bed. A woman is lying on it with her eyes closed. She age seemed in her forties. The man cleared his throat and spoke.

“Alice, I has updates regarding the smoke incident.”

She answered the man without opening her eyes.

“What do you have for me?”

“I found two people. I have brought them with me.”

She opened her eyes and sat up on the bed. Then she beaconed us for a minute and smiled towards the man.

“Thank you Rohit.”

The man bowed. She then stood up and spoke to us.

“I guess you already know who I am but again, I am Alice. I am the head and founder of Crimson Caravan Company. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

[I am Kaushik Roy and this is my friend Michael Smith. Thank you for rescuing us.]

“Think nothing of it. So where are you headed?”

[To the next town. We will be obliged if you let us travel with you.]

“Certainly we can. But what can you offer me in exchange for that?”

‘So this was her plan? What a shrewd business mentality.’

[In Rohit’s bag, there is almost 15 kilos of meat. Will that do?]

Her eyes widens in surprise and she looks at Rohit for confirmation. He nods to her and she spoke after a while.

“Well .... That ..... Certainly covers all expenses. But I will feel bad if I take that much compensation just for a ride .... Hmmm .... Tell you what, choose anything from my stocks. If your demand is reasonable, you can have them.”

[What do you have in stock?]

“Everyday necessities.”

[In that case, we need four freeze bags, some food and money and two metal backpack.]

“I understand your concern. Just to be clear, you will keep food in one bag, money in one bag, equipment in one bag, one bag for miscellaneous, two backpacks to store four bags not to hinder your movements during fight, am I right?”

~ (Whistle) Didn’t know you could read minds. ~

I am amazed. This woman is no ordinary woman. She perfectly understood my thinking process. Well considering she is the founder of a caravan, this much is to be expected.

[It’s exactly as you say. You see, we can’t keep food, money and swords in one single bag, so we need different bags.]

“Then let me offer you something better.”