Rom by Brown Kim

Author:Brown, Kim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Tugg ordered The Guard closed, and sentries were stationed in the surrounding woods, and at the gate. Three teams of three men each were dispatched south. They were ordered to spread out from the coastal area in the east, to the mountains in the west, choosing the most likely path for travelers.

If Li was found, they were to return with him along the fastest possible route. While they were gone, Tugg would prepare The Guard for another possible war. The weapons from The City had proven to be dangerous. If they would recharge at all, they often exploded, or melted in the users hands.

Tugg had already lost two good men to the faulty equipment, so training with more conventional weapons was redoubled. Everyone was on edge, but the training they received here gave life a purpose. The trainees learned tactics and theory that served them better than the blind fury embraced by the forces brought in by Ru. If it came to another war they would be ready.

The teams chosen by Tugg to seek out Li, left the stockade before dark. They knew it wasn’t likely they would run into Li this close to The Guard, so they covered as much ground as they could. After the first night, they traveled as fast as they could in the daytime making sure that no sign of Li’s passing would be missed. At night they built large campfires in hopes that if Li were near, he would seek out the source of the flames. All traces of Li’s path had been washed away by the storm that followed him south, and there were no signs of his having returned.

The trackers searching in the east found the first sign of Li’s passing. They weren’t sure what caused him and his men to stray this far from the path he planned to take. Watching for any sign of Li’s party, they found Trip, one of the soldiers from The Guard. He was half devoured, lying near a thicket. Fuller discovered his remains not too far from the carcass of a huge beast that had been picked down to its bones by scavengers. The huge ribcage stood up from the earth like a small grove of trees stripped bare. They identified Trip’s body from a belt lying near his body. His belt had often been the brunt of jokes at The Guard. He liked it extra wide to hold in his “girlish figure” he always said. They wondered what could have happened that caused Li to leave him behind.

They took time to bury him before starting west. They knew Li wanted to cross the river in search of derm, and the best crossing lay farther to the west beside the river. The men continued south until they found water, and following it west where they found an old campsite. It was too late to take a chance on the other side of the water where the deamons hunted, so they made camp where they were.

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