"Into Ironfield"

The five volunteers were given a beat-up old truck to drive to Ironfield, and Neva was chosen to drive it.

"Oi! This hunk of junk is not worth driving in!" Neva shouted as he stepped in.

"It's the only think we got man!" said Erik as he hopped into the bed of the truck with 2 of the other volunteers.

"What're your names eh?" asked Erik as he sat down.

"I'm Tuel, and this is my brother Ramer, we were picked up outside of Yaltos a month or two ago. The guy in front is Collin, a cousin of ours"

"Well, I'm Erik from Kingcaster, and that fellow driving is Neva, from Norstead"

Neva shouted up from the front seat "Oi Mumbasa! I hear you speak my name! I hope only good things are coming from your mouth!"

Erik yelled up to Neva "You don't gotta say that everytime I say your name Neva! You know I love you man!"

"I know, I know!" wailed Neva in his thick African accent, "I love you too Mumbasa!"


The air was cool and crisp as it was early morning, and they set out towards Ironfield. The road was rocky and rough, but the pickup truck took it nicely. They continued aways down that road until they parked the car and set out on foot.

"Why are we walking?" asked Tuel.

"We dont want to alert anyone that we're here" Erick said, "This MIGHT be Black Serpent territory, but I'd rather not take my chances"

The group went one by one, ducking and diving behind anything that could be used as cover making their way towards Ironfield.

After doing this for quite some time, Ramer asked "What about when we find the supplies? How're we getting it back to the truck?"

Neva spoke up, saying "If we find the supplies and nobody is there, then we'll just back the truck up to the supplies and pick it up!"

Erik was point man, leading the group from piece of cover to piece of cover silently. He stopped behind a stone barricade outside of Ironfield and stopped suddenly.

"Shh" Erik hissed, "Look up there real quick, I see two guys walking around the sign into town"

Tuel and Ramer both looked at each other with shocked faces, and both asked Erik the same thing ; "Are they Black Serpents? or Infected?"

Erik peeped his head over the barricade again, then ducked down quickly.

"Definitely Black Serpents"

Collin's face looked pale, and Neva asked if he was alright, only to get a reply of "I think I'm gonna throw up..."

Collin let out whatever was currently in his stomach out with a loud "Ughhh" following it. The Patrols looked toward the stone barricade, and they sent one of the guards to check it out, with the other covering him from a left position.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit" whispered Erik to himself. He looked back at Tuel, Collins, Ramer, and Neva and said "Alright, when that guy gets here, I want you to take him out Neva, I'll pop out and take out the other guard"

Neva readied his rifle at the top of the barricade, but was loose enough to swivel to either side just incase he decided to come around the barricade. A few moments passed before a curious shrouded figure's head popped over the barricade, only to be promptly shot off. Erik locked onto the other patrol and pulled the trigger a few times. The guard dropped, but not before popping off a few shots of his own, hitting the stone wall next to Erik's face.

"Get up!" shouted Erik, and everyone got up immediatly.

They looked out towards Ironfield, and saw at least 12 figures moving towards them, all armed to the teeth.

"Oh fuck! We're fucked, we're fucked! I'm getting the hell out've here!" shouted Collins as he ran towards the truck. He managed to make it about 25 feet before he got blasted in the back by a sniper rifle.

"Sniper!" yelled Tuel.

"We gotta get back to the truck!" screamed Erik, "You two go! Me and Neva will cover you!"

Tuel and Ramer ran from their cover, and Erik + Neva laid down suppressing fire for them. Both of the brothers managed to make it back to about 75% of the way to the truck.

"We're coming now!" yelled Erik, as him and Neva got up and ran to the brothers.

A few shots sailed by Neva, and Erik ran as fast as he could to the cover where the brothers were. Both of them mantled over the barricade, but Erik was grazed by a stray bullet in his left arm.

"Fuck!" he yelled in pain as he grasped his elbow.

"Fight through the pain Mumbasa!" said Neva encouragingly.

"We have to make it to the truck!" said Ramer.

"One final dash?" asked Tuel.

"One final run!" said Erik as he got up.

All four of them ran to the truck with bullets flying everywhere. Every once in awhile one of the four would turn around and fire blindly, just to distract their enemies. They made it to the car, and Neva started it up relatively easily. Ramer and Tuel hopped into the bed of the truck while Erik went to the passenger's seat. Neva popped it into drive and drove back towards the convoy.

"Are they gone?" yelled Neva to the brothers.

The brothers both looked out towards Ironfield and saw dust coming up from its city limits.

"No..." they said in unison, "They're coming after us!"