Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 47: Evacuation

Soldiers scanned the perimeter, conducting roving patrols of the ridge. Eric didn’t like it. Not at all. He stood on the slope, the snow piled up around him as he squatted down on a rock. "If we are to make it down to the vehicles, we will need to go very slow." He groaned. He looked down the treacherous path. Mountains were not easy to traverse. At any point, avalanches could fall, rock slides could happen, or the aristocrat could change his mind.

"Alright, i want three teams escorting the civilians. Have them spread out as much as possible. I will take the lead, while Delta takes the rear. This path is not wide enough for us to do a full wedge formation, but we can make it work. Move slowly."

Eric then approached the civilians. Now that their initial meeting of each other and families were together, panic and raised voices were echoing out from the abandoned lot. They had just been dumped in the middle of god knows where, and the collective crowd was getting hostile. Eric walked slowly but surely, his posture welcoming as he had a smile on his face. "Hey!" He shouted, revealing himself.

The crowd went silent. Two hundred people turned. English. They recognized that language. For the first time since coming to wherever this was, someone not in the group had spoken their language.

An old man at the front of the gathering saw Eric’s uniform and rank. He was wearing a "retired army" hat, with a grunt style T-shirt and jeans with boots on. His eyes narrowed as he approached Eric. "Master Sarn’t, what the hell is going on here?" The man said, his voice shaking. "I was on my way to the mall when the next thing I knew, the road vanished and the entire neighborhood was in these mountains."

Eric stood stock still as he heard what the man said. "Neighborhood...?" He looked at the man’s hat again, noting the rank. "Well Captain." He said quietly, responding in an even voice. "You are not on earth anymore."

The captain wanted to call Eric a liar, he wanted to cuss him out like he would his old soldiers, but he knew that he couldn’t. "Very well." He responded as he looked up, two suns shining in the sky.

"Are you recruiting?" He said with a grin. "I just retired last year, and my wife has been itching to get back into it too."

Eric sighed as he looked at the gung-ho Captain."just enjoy your retirement old man." Eric wanted to say, but knew he couldn’t turn down the offer. "You will have to speak to the Battalion commander on that, sir." He then turned towards the remaining civilians. "You said your entire neighborhood came here?" He responded. His inward shock exploding. "Roger. Those goons came up to our houses within a week of us being here, and rounded us up. I never experienced being a prisoner of war before, but I must say that our treatment was better than I expected."

Eric nodded to the man while gesturing to the group. "So it’s safe to say you know these people sir?" The captain nodded. "Yep. Most of these guys are either affiliated with Fort Hood, or they decided to stay in Killeen after retiring."

Eric proccesed the information as he looked up at the sky. "First the gas station with the beaver, now a neighborhood with vets and current soldiers. Am I being pranked?" He thought before turning back to the Captain.

"Well sir, we have a fully operational FOB. The plan is to lead you guys to the FOB and then come back to reclaim these mountains. Can I trust you to talk to the group and get them to follow?"

The Captain nodded before turning to a group of men that had been standing out in front of the rest of the group. An intense discussion with raised voices followed as the men talked. Eric stood there silently, watching the antics while holding onto the collar of his IOTV. The conversation didn’t seem to be going well at first, but the voices quieted down and slowly became more grounded. The men started spreading out, heading to the rest of the group while the captain jogged back over to Eric.

"Yes, we will follow you. The fellas and I realized that the only real hope of living in this world is to follow you. Give us some time to have everyone collect themselves, and we will follow you. I assume you have an extraction plan." Eric pointed up to the sky in response. Drones were flying overhead. "That works." He said with a grin. "Captain Esil." He said, holding out his hand. "A pleasure to be working with you." Eric took Esil’s hand, shaking it. "Likewise, Captain. Let’s get you guys out of here."

The trek down the path was measured and slow. Eric had to step twice to move forward once, ensuring the ground wouldn’t cave in. The path narrowed at spots, making it to where people were hugging the ledge. When they arrived at a spot the slope started to even out, Eric breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright! Spread out and maintain vigilance." He said to the soldiers. "We are almost there, but do not get complacent."

The attack he had been somewhat expecting never came. The aristocrat had kept his word.

A row of vehicles stood idling in front of Eric. Columns of LMTV’s and Humvees stood idling while they moved the civilians into the trucks. Once a truck was loaded, it moved. Each non armored vehicle was escorted by an armored one, mounted .50 cal machine guns scanned sections of the forest as they mobilized. Once the last vehicle was out of sight, Eric sat down on the hood of his truck. He sighed and unbuckled his ACH. Michael joined him. "That went well."

Eric sighed in response. "Yeah, almost too well." The memory of a village burning flashed in his mind. "Thank God."

Back at Hood Hill, the newcomers were being documented while some were sent to the hotel at Freedom Township. As for the others...

A group of men stood in front of Milano. Captain Esil stood at the front, his gaze sharp as he met the younger man’s gaze. "You could use us, sir." He said, arguing his case. Milano grumbled inwardly before donning a poker face.

Milano stood up and placed his hand on Esil’s shoulder. "You’re right, Esil. However, the fact remains that you are not my soldiers. What happens for the active duty soldiers who are assigned to other units? If their units cross over as well, I would have to waste manpower and hours re-assigning my other men to ensure all operational gaps are covered." He paused, thinking for a moment.

"As for you and the other retirees’, you’ve already served your time. If you absolutely insist, then maybe I can find somewhere to place you. But, for the moment, I can’t do that. All of my officer slots are currently occupied."

Esil finally relented, nodding to Milano. "Very well. How about this then, we can offer to do security for the township, or guard areas of necessity." Milano thought of that solution, sitting back down as he looked at his reports. It was true that he could use a few more soldiers guarding the gates of Freedom Township. "Alright. We can work that out. Get with Captain Stuart. He is in charge of the company at Freedom Township. I’m sure he can integrate you guys with the guard rotation. You would not be on your own though."

Captain Esil nodded, smiling. "Yes sir."

After dropping his gear off at home and taking a hot shower, Eric was complaining about his recent mission to Mia while she sat on his lap feeding him grapes. She hadn’t stopped giggling as he exaggerated the details.

"And then the sunavabitch actually went to Milano himself! I swear, he was like Kamer’s twin". A horrifying thought came to his mind. "Mia, under no circumstance can we let Kamer and that old captain meet." She laughed while kissing him, stroking her fingers through his hair. "Its too late, love." She replied.

"Those two men are already plotting your demise as we speak. They are planning on how best to make your job even more of an ’adult babysitting daycare’." She teased. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Eric groaned and placed his head on her chest. "I’m doomed. Let me just sit here for a few moments while I pray to the Goddess for a good afterlife." Mia continued stroking his hair. "You know if the guys saw you like this, all your ’hard, war face badassery’ would go out the window, right?"

Eric sighed while looking into her eyes, smirking. "That’s why only you and our future daughter will be the only ones to see it." He said calmly, kissing her.

She nodded back, kissing him and hugging his head. "I think it will be a boy." She teasingly pushed back.