CHAPTER 24

“What do you see,” came the very concerned whine of an enlisted person that Nate shared a certain amount of sympathy with, at the moment. It was still annoying.

The tree that Nate had managed to climb up was a lot smaller than the standard fare in this neck of the woods. It’s base was actually small enough to get his legs around and not the size of a few city blocks. They had been getting higher in elevation for some time and he had noticed that the trees got smaller as they went. This one looked mighty pretty with it’s branches being low enough for him to grab, so, he took advantage of it and climbed on up. Then he had to listen to Thompson who had no compulsion to follow him.

After sweeping the area with his binoculars, a piece of modern electronics that thankfully worked out here, Nate slid back down the trunk and caught his breath. His pleasure was only disturbed by the sour look of his very small command. Nate began storing his gear as he asked, “you never climbed a tree as a kid?”

Angie sneered and was even confused, “why would anybody do something as stupid as that?”

“Deprived childhood Specialist,” Nate replied as he finished his task and then took a sip from the rubber hose of his backpack canteen. He then asked, “tree house?”

“No,” Angie replied with horror, “I lived in a regular house.” This was also a topic she was currently not interested in, “is the coast clear, finally?”

Nate looked rather pleasant and satisfied, almost happy, as he replied, “hell no. They’re still back there.”

That caused Angie to stomp her foot and pout, “goddamn it! What’s wrong with those bastards!”

“Fair question I suppose,” Nate told the little girl, “they don’t look all that fast. In fact they’re not moving as fast as we are. Yet, they’re catching up.”

“How?” Angie was not scared any more. Now she was just plain pissed off. The Captain and her had been almost moving at double time, for a couple of days now, and that damn Orc Patrol was almost meandering along at a snails pace. How were they catching up!?

“Only thing I can figure,” Nate replied as he snorted, wiped at his nose, and then finally replied, “is they’re not stopping like we are. Only thing that makes any sense.”

That news was worse than when they found out the Orcs were on their trail in the first place. The only thing that had kept Angie going was the thought of the next break. Angie was not about to give that up so she grabbed for other straws, “can we loose them?”

That was not a topic that Nate wanted to get into with the girl. The simple fact was that they had already tried to do that. Nate had simply not bothered informing Angie of this. He had tried every trick in the book that he knew, along with a few that he had made up, and so far the Orcs were still on them like glue. That option was dead. So was fighting them. There were, at least, thirty or more in that patrol and Nate was not even sure if their two Ak’s, some seven hundred rounds of ammo, eight grenades, a couple of packets of C-4, and his Swiss Army Knife were enough. After all that, Nate planned on spitting on them and the sad truth of it was, he was not so sure that his saliva wouldn’t be as effective as anything else he had.

Instead of discussing tactics, something they had no time for, Nate pointed to the high ground that was not so far away. It had slopes, overhangs, smaller trees, and a cliff or two. The Orcs did not look like they were particularly coordinated animals so why not give them a few obstacles. At the least, he’d find out some more intel on their climbing capabilities. He told the specialist, “we’re going that way.”

As her Company Commander took off at a good pace, Angie moaned in frustration and then took off after him. The first signs that something was different was not readily apparent to her. All that Angie knew was that, when they stopped on their next break, she was a lot more out of breath than she had been. Nate let her know, “that’s cause we’re going up hill.”

That made no sense! Angie didn’t see anything that looked like a hill, at least not where they were. She did see something else though. From this spot, they had a fairly good view of some nearby terrain and, it looked funny. She pointed it out to Nate who quickly scanned it with his binoculars. “I’ll be damned.”

“What?” Angie tried to snatch the binocualrs away from him. Her military discipline was currently lax since she really did not figure she was going to live long enough for anybody to yell at her. “Let me see!” Nate surrendered the binoculars and let the girl have a look. When she dropped the binoculars she had a similar reaction, “damn.” When she handed back the gear she asked, “is that a building?”

Nate started pulling himself back to his feet and told her, “more to the point, I think it was. Looks like’s it’s been deserted for a good long time.”

Taking his cue, Angie got to her feet but, kept looking back towards the ruins, “maybe there’s people or somebody there? Maybe the elves know about it? Don’t you think we should go there? Maybe we can get help?”

Despite the fact that Nate was moving with purpose and enthusiasm, the truth was that it was all an act. He was a good five or six years older than Angie Thompson and, due to this factor, was pretty sure the girl could out run him on his best day. He was not about to let her know that. Her problem was not her body, it was her confidence. She was scared and showed it. Nate was only just scared. He had to make her think he knew what he was doing, even if he really didn’t.

“I’ll take point and you grab the rear,” Nate told her as he started climbing over the next little rise. Every one of those ridge crests kept getting steeper as did the angles of the inclines that led up to them. Even Nate had to admit, to himself at least, that he had not expected it to be this tough. The hills looked further away and, in reality the peaks were. The land leading up to those peaks were not so far, nor so flat. Nate just had to hope it was effecting the Orcs more than it was them.

As they grew near to yet another crest, Angie stopped for a second and said, “really Captain. I mean…”

Now it was time to get her mind off things so Nate used the next card in his bag of management tricks, “call me Nate.”

“Huh?” It seemed to work. It confused the girl and she started moving again despite the fact that she didn’t seem to realize it. She also protested, “I don’t think I could sir, it… just doesn’t feel right.”

“Why not,” replied Nate as he started his last bit of climbing, “I might be a Captain but, it doesn’t make me any less human.”

Angie surprised him by scornfully replying, “you’re not getting in my pants ether.”

“Um,” Nate had to think about that one and then replied, “no I just mean we’re… you know…” He finally gave up, “never mind.”

At least the girl was still moving as she complained, “really, there could be help back at that place we saw.”

“Girl,” Nate told her as he pulled himself up to the peak, “there’s just us. There’s no help for miles and miles so…” When Nate got over the last peak he did not find what he had expected. All of the others he had crossed had always dropped off on the other side. There was usually a short down hill march followed by an even longer and higher ascent.

This time things not only leveled out but, there was a good deal of brush, small trees, and all the stuff that made for excellent concealment. There was a small rocky path too. That would have been a relief in itself except, it was currently being used! Nate surprised the guy in front of him about as much as he was. That was how it looked anyway. There were two others with him and they had a line of small unicorns with them that were all harnessed up and being led by file down the path. Each of the animals were pretty laden with big bags.

There was no time to worry about all of that. Nate raised his weapon in a threatening manner and it was clear that he got the closest guys attention with his weapon. The other two looked like they wanted to make some kind of move but Nate let them know in a hurry, “I wouldn’t do that!” He then yelled out, “Thompson!”

The little Ranger rolled out of the bushes down behind this caravan and came to her feet with her weapon pointed at the unknowns. She also held up her left hand and gave Nate a thumbs up while saying, “got your back sir!”

“Way to go trooper,” Nate sounded proud when he said that. Now he had to figure out what to do next. These three were all rapped up in scarf like clothing that was purple, red, and another color that was kind of mauve, maybe? It was pretty neon compared to their surroundings and Nate found it almost stylish in a Middle Earth kind of way. He still needed to see who they were and, in this case, what species. It was clear they were either human or elf but, which? The only thing on their faces he could see was their eyes.

The front one kept his hands to his sides and jerked a little when Nate cautiously raised his non weapon hand in a gesture that he tried to make as friendly as possible. He talked to the guy as he pushed the scarf like hood back, “you guys wouldn’t speak English would you? We’re not here to hurt anybody and..” This guy was a woman? He, or she in this case, was actually a pretty cute one at that. She was also human. Nate made a funny face and an unimpressed, “huh.”

The woman did not seem to be as amused and, in fact, she was definitely not that happy about having her hood pushed back. She did nothing about it though. She just stood there, with her hands out. Still, there was something that Nate was not comfortable with here. The one thing that Nate had not seen in this woman, not even in her eyes, was fear. That made him nervous so he yelled out to Angie, “check their packs.”

That got a reaction out of the woman. She seemed more disturbed about that than she did her hood. Still, she did nothing, said nothing, and neither did the other two that, Nate was starting to think, were women too. Angie gestured for the others to move away as she stepped up to one of the bags. One of them looked like they wanted to jump Angie but, she threatened that one with her AK. It worked. After taking a peek in one of the bags, Angie reached in and scooped out some of it’s contents for her Captain to see. Angie just shrugged while this substance sifted through her fingers. She said, “it’s just dirt.”

Once again, Nate just gave a confused and unenthusiastic, “huh.” This new revelation also left him in a bit of a spot. He had no idea what to do now. They couldn’t stay here long and had already lost more time than he would have liked. Could he just let these three go on their way? Would they turn on him once he lowered his weapon? Would they go back to their village or whatever, and then put a human war party on him too?

Nate tried the simple approach first, “look, we’re not here to hurt you, we don’t want to hurt you. We’re Americans, from Earth, you know that other place that… uh… Dell? You know Dell?”

There was no reaction so Nate tried another line, “we got these bad guys, you know, Orcs? You know Orcs?”

At least there was a reaction this time. The woman looked concerned when she heard that. Nate jumped on his breakthrough and pointed back in the direction he came, “lots of Orcs, um,” he made a pantomime as he told her, “coming this way.”

The woman dropped her hands and Nate went back on the defensive with his weapon. This time she did not seem to care that he had a loaded automatic weapon pointed at her. She began speaking some language that Nate did not know. The other two began moving with purpose and no matter how much Nate threatened them, they paid him no heed. Finally he just said, “um, does anybody care that I’m standing here with a loaded weapon?”

The woman, with her hood down, pulled a large caliber weapon out from under one of the mounted bags. It looked like a bolt action rifle with an extremely large caliber bore on it. The shell proved to be pretty big as well. She loaded it up and walked right back up to Nate. Her English was accented but, very understandable, “you moron. You led them right up here!”

Nate waived for Angie to relax and then he told this woman in an accusing tone, “so you do speak English!”

“Of course,” the woman acted insulted by Nate’s surprise. When Angie tried to nervously say “hi” to the others the first woman said, “they don’t speak English.” She then looked back to Nate, “who sent you?”

“Uh,” Nate thought about it, “well you see that’s a long story. How about, the president of the United States?”

The woman rolled her eyes at him and then yelled out to her comrades. Those two were now similarly armed and ran off into the bush as if they had just been ordered to. Nate kind of figured they probably were. He was now just slightly confused by all of this, “um, what are we…”

As the woman began to walk off in another direction, she told Nate, “we does not include you.”

Nate watched her vanish down the hill he had just finished climbing. He had very little else to say until Angie joined him and asked, “what do we do now sir?”

“I think they got this in hand, Specialist,” Nate told the girl. He flinched when he heard the first cracks of weapons fire. Then he told Angie, “what we do is, don’t stay here. I think this road goes somewhere and I suggest we find out where.”