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“You gonna blast me to bits like those poor lads?” Jan didn’t smile. She marched past the Nomads towards the fallen.

After a cursory inspection she rose and started back toward her vehicle.

Julian rolled his eyes.? “I’ve got idiots firing off antique black powder weapons.? I don’t know how many there are, and I don’t know what’s burning out there.? If you follow along, I can’t guarantee your safety, and I won’t have to ‘blast’ you.

“But, whatever, chica.? Do what you will.”

He hated arguing with Townies, but he didn’t have much time.

Jan stopped in her tracks and turned on whom she assumed was the leader. “You going to recon a target without any intel? Why don’t you send in a drone first?” Without even thinking the ex-ranger had squared her shoulders and brought her heels together. She knew he had some military training. She could just feel it.

?Just what I need, Julian thought.? Another ex-soldier…

“We can’t send the drone in as far as we want, because there’s interference,” Julian commented.? “There’s a chance we’ll lose contact if it gets too far—”

“础肠迟耻补濒濒测, jefe,” Lucia interrupted, “whatever’s causing the interference seems to be subsiding.? Hell, I even have a couple of bars on my cell.”

Now she tells me, he thought dourly.? Well then…

“Well, send it forth,” Julian said.? “A half mile shouldn’t be a problem.”

“My apologies sir,” Jan said with a straight face. She was being a prick but then the circumstances were so weird. She considered her disheveled appearance and lack of attachments to any local militia and let it go. She was just a pub now and these go-to grunts could ferret out whatever was lighting the new world on fire.

“I have some intel if you care to hear it...sir,” she added reluctantly.?

Oh, why not, the veteran Nomad thought.? It’ll take a bit for the drone to get in position anyway, and you never know where the next clue might come from…right?

“Sure, I’ll listen,” he said.? “What’s your name?”

“闯补苍别迟.”

She sized him up from head to toe. Not bad. A little scruffy maybe.?

“I just came back from the airport off 231. There was a fire there, a plane or something. The road ends not much further. I investigated. Troy, the area has seemed to have replaced the matter that was here before it. By that I mean I saw no evidence of squashed earth below our perimeter. I’m calling it that because the distance to the end of our old haunt is the same in that direction as it is here. The pavement was sheared off as if cut by a fine laser.”

It wasn’t me I swear, she thought abstractly.?

Jan coughed theatrically, leaned in very close to Julian and spoke in a whisper, “Say if some have crossed into our zone isn’t it safe to assume there might be more transgressions? If the tender citizens of Troy are not prepared...”?

She fell back a step ready for about anything. Some leaders didn’t like advice. Especially from some no name lackey who made outlandish claims. Like the one about the city and surrounds being thrust into some other world. Like a pie being put in the oven.?

“If they’re not prepared, then bad things will happen,” Julian concluded.? “It looks like we might have two types of interlopers though.”

He grabbed up his cellphone, and what do you know—three bars.? Either the interference was really dying down, or someone back in town was a wiz with RFID.? Regardless, he brought up Mayor Reeves’ number.

“Hey Julian,” the Mayor’s easy voice came on.? “Good to hear from you again. What’s up?”

“Hey Will,” Julian said.? “Well, I can confirm forest here, but we have another problem:? People.”

“You’ll have to be a little more detailed.”

“We have people coming from out of the forest,” he explained.? “Some seem to be like refugees, but others are soldiers.”

“Soldiers!?” Reeves’ voice went up an octave.? “Julian, I’ll have to let you know: Fort Rucker didn’t make it with us.”

Of course it didn’t, he thought.? If it was, we could just deploy real troops in powered armor to patrol the perimeter.

“On the plus side, they appear to be poorly armed,” Julian continued.? “My people here tell me they’re using weapons and armor that haven’t been in use for at least 500 years or so—crude black powder weapons and plate armor.? I’d suggest getting up whatever drones the Sheriff has and putting them on patrol—particularly in the fields.”

“I’ll do that, thanks,” Reeves said.? “What about you?”

“We’re about to find out what’s burning—”

“Oh my God…” It was Lucia’s voice.

Julian grimaced.? That didn’t sound good.? “I’ll have to get back to you.? We might’ve found something.”

“Okay, keep me posted when you can,” was the last thing Reeves said before hanging up.

Julian walked over to his favorite nerd.? “Talk to me, Lucia.”

She didn’t talk, she simply let him look at her screen.? What Julian saw made his stomach turn a bit.

The drone had obviously come below tree-top height, but it was the silent type so it could do that.? It was using its telephoto lens to pick up on a manmade clearing, which contained a small?

About 5 feet behind that, a tied up older man being made to watch the horror.? Given the look of anguish on his face, he was probably the girl’s father. Two more soldiers were with him.? One was beating down the old man every time he tried to stand up or look away. The other was yelling at him.? The audio on this drone was poor, so there was no chance to hear what they were saying. Based on what one of the earlier guys yelled at him, Julian was pretty sure he wouldn't understand anyway.

Another ten feet further behind, there were three men, and…oh my God.

Julian was a soldier.? He knew brutality happened, no matter how stern the leadership was.? Sometimes though, the leadership encouraged such crimes. This seemed like the latter to him.??

Three men…taking turns with a woman who was probably the old man’s wife.? It looked like they had the pattern down pat…like they’d done this before.

There were a few others—three or four, he wasn’t sure.? They were in between tossing the area looking for whatever, and setting the house on fire.? Well, there was his smoke source. He looked up, and saw that many of his pack had gathered around.? Each of them had the same grim look on their faces.

“Children,” he said in a low, gravelly voice, “I may not know everything that’s going on, but I know I can’t let this happen during my watch.? We’re moving in.”

“What’s the plan, jefe?” asked one of his people.

“Simple:? We take out the trash,” he said.? “We go in, and we kill anyone wearing a uniform, unless they’re surrendering, and quite frankly right now I’m almost in a ‘no prisoners’ mood.

“Lucia, you come with us, and keep the drone on ‘em.? We’ll split into three teams, use the underbrush to our advantage.? Any questions?”