Team Plan

(KENNY POV)

*Click*

The last bullet that could fit into my mag was put in. The mag that had around a quart of it's ammunition shot out was now filled back up. I wanted to make sure I had as many full magazines as possible, so in the end I took out some bullets out from one that was only filled up to around half to fill it in.

I still had some of the images of that man dying before me. I saw as his strength left his body when he fell over on his back. The man still seemed to cling to life as he tried to get up off the ground. He clutched his bleeding chest that was soaked in a bright red color. Looking into his eyes at that moment I saw as the man who was once alive in front of me die off; the lights in his eyes fading and dulling until he stopped moving altogether.

Raising my head a small campfire was in front of me as our group was slightly scattered around. The two bandits we managed to capture alive were both bound and gaged near a tree probably a little terrified about us and what we would do to them.

They did have a good amount of supplies with them on their bodies, some of which we used to start the little fire. As I was the only one who could even remotely communicate with these people I'd have to take up the mantle for every single interaction we might have. Everyone else was doing their own thing so I so try and do something useful as well.

Heading over to the captives to speak with them and ask for some information. I squatted down in front of them as I took out the gags that were just some cloth from their mouths; they coughed a little before looking over at me, a little fear could still be seen in their eyes. One of them was shaking a little as he looked at me. I felt like I had to calm them down before I could really gain any reliable information.

"It is ok. We no kill you if you, but you must us, ok?" I said, slowly trying to remember more of the language from my memory.

"H҉o҉w҉ ҉c҉a҉n҉ ҉w҉e҉ ҉trust you?҉"

"You, no choice, but accept."

The men looked at each other for a moment before turning back to me "How long?"

"...Two weeks."

'Is that enough time? Probably, should be enough for a while.'

The man a little hesitant asked "..Where are you people from? Are you from one of the other kingdoms?"

After finally understanding a full sentence from the man I inadvertently let out a smile.

'Whoo! I didn't have to think about what he actually meant when I only heard a few words from him before.'

The man seemed a little startled by my smile so I answered his question to try and distract him while wiping my smile away.

"Yes, It some thing like that. You have any more questions?"

"No."

"Hey Kenny get over here! We need to talk." Turning around while standing up I saw the others near a tree signaling for me to come over.

"What do you guys want to ask?"

"We need to discuss what to do now. Those two over there confirms some kind of civilization is in these lands speak the language of the middle kingdom. We'll do a vote as to what to do. We probably need to make it back to our country now the time of the border opening isn't close yet. So that means we won't be getting any assistance until we return. When we get back we can even become guides for the new expeditions that go out from this experience. Our current objective is still just to find a way home. As the only person who can even try to understand the locals is you, you'll have to be our translator the entire way if we run into any towns or that sort that is." Johnson spoke up as soon as I neared the group.

"Ok, so what kinds of plans do we have right now?"

Williams answered this time "While you were speaking to those natives we came up with a few ideas. We could use them to navigate our way back, try to go back to that beach and follow the shoreline to see if we'll make it back that way, or see if we could find a ham radio or something similar at the boat to contact home for help."

"We can do that?"

"Yeah, but it seems no one was thinking straight and thought of it at that time. It was quite a long journey to get here though and considering the animals that attacked at dusk it's a dangerous choice if we make it especially since we have to conserve our limited amount of ammunition."

"What about making a defensive structure over there with some of the trees while using the melee weapons and bows from those bandits over there to save our ammo."

"What about that walk then, it was a huge pain in the ass and we didn't even know when one of us was taken away from our group." The girl said, it had actually been a while since I heard from those two and the first thing she said wasn't an angry complaint.

"Don't forget that this plan of yours is based on the fact that the radio is still there and it still works since the crash up till now. Who knows it could've even been when the ship was ripped in half was when it went out." William added in

"Well we do have these two prisoners for two weeks, so maybe we can gather some information about the topography of this area. Since we're out here maybe we can gather some intelligence about this nation before the our borders open and expeditionary forces are sent out."

"But how are we even going to return when we don't even know where we are?"

"It's simple." As I said that the other four who were mostly silent seemed to have perked up their ears as they looked at me with interest

"Oh, please do tell?"

"Let's enter their cities and towns to do so."

The other four had a slightly blank look, but William looked a little agitated by what I said.

"If we go into their civilizations you'll be the only one among our group who can even have a little conversation with others. What happens if they speak to us and how will going to a place that doesn't even know of our country's existence help help us find it?"

"Look we don't have many choices here okay? We don't have enough information about this world to make any conclusions this is the best I can think of alright? We can only hope for the best!"

"He's right, at least it's better then going at it blind through the world like we are now. We might also be able to get a place to stay or food with the currency we found on those guys." Buck spoke up to try and reason with William.

"Then its decided then we'll start our journey to one of the nearby towns to gather information. It seems the Middle Kingdom's language will be a requirement for this place's expedition team to have or at least a translator." Johnson said before heading over to gather his supplies.

***

We stomped out the fire and gathered the necessary items from the fallen bandits to continue our journey. We simply all wore cloaks with hoods to hide our clothing and equipment along with our faces. We all took a weapon from the corpses even the two civilians did as a self-defense weapon incase we get attacked again. We made sure the two bandits from earlier had no weapons before untying them so they could lead us to a town they knew of.

We made sure to threaten them with our magical instant death weapons incase they tried something. Although we were currently being led by them somewhere if it wasn't a town we could've always just found a road like before to follow. Those usually lead somewhere good right?

Exiting a forest our group sees a town up ahead.

'Well that's good, at least they didn't betray us.'