The last traces of sunlight begin to fade on the horizon, beckoning the start of the night. Taking a knee in the middle of the road, I grit my teeth feeling the action agitated the wound in my side. I notice that the road has been recently traveled on. Inspecting the footprints I recall my search-and-destroy training. The prints look like they should belong to an adult humanoid. Seeing that night was drastically shortening my vision, I resolve myself to pick up the pace.
I reach into my pack and pull out an energy bar. Tearing it out of its wrapper I quickly eat it in several large bites. I return the wrapper to my pack, to help keep a low profile. Grabbing the silencer off my plate carrier I affix it to the end of my rifle with a loud metallic clunk."Best not to draw attention to myself if I run into another one of those things." Resuming my hike I let go of my rifle allowing the sling keep it in place.
Reaching up to my helmet, and taking ahold of the GPNVG-18 panoramic night vision goggles I fold them down over my eyes. With my right hand I turn on the device hearing a slight hiss as the unit warms up. Adjusting the brightness, then with both hands changing the focus, I grin feeling satisfied being able to see as well as I could during the day, albeit with a slightly restricted field of view. I let my eyes adjust to the amplified light revealing the road and forest with an eerie green glow. Taking hold of the rifle I push the selector into full auto with a faint click."Just in case." I mumble to myself, continuing on my hike for a couple of hours.
The forest begins to thin out along with a small incline to the road and a signpost where the trees stop with a few planks of wood with names on them. Moving in closer for a better view at the top plank I see what looks like the word "Vale" Written on the sign in what appears to be English, but with a unique font, and below that a smaller sign facing in a similar direction "Beacon." Looking out on the horizon I see what appears to be farmland with several small buildings. My goggles flare up from the light coming from inside them about a mile out from where I stand.
I consider how I should make my move through the farmland and into the city. Almost instinctively, reaching into my back and pulling out a thermal monocular with my right hand and lifting up my night vision goggles with my left hand, I bring it up to my right eye to take a peek and see the ambient heat from one of the few inhabited buildings. I then scan the horizon for anything else but see nothing outside of the building showing up in the sweep. "Guess everyone has packed up for the night." I say out loud to myself. Turning off the thermal monocular and returning it back to my pack, then flipping down my goggles, I look at a semi-remote house in the distance. "Gotta find out exactly what I'm dealing with here."
As I step off the road and into the fields I spot a small trail leading to the nearest house. I move as quickly as stealth will allow me. Methodically covering the distance, checking for traps or creatures, along with any other obstacles, I cautiously progress, but don't want to take any chances. Moving through the field I take notice of what is being grown and reach out to inspect it going over the stock and leaves of a plant that resembles corn. My left hand moves from the rifle to the husk and opens it to reveal that it is indeed corn. I smile at the familiar sight. So the vegetation is similar here in Vale. Letting go of the husk, and taking my rifle in a low ready, I close in on the opening which surrounds the house. Crouching down and taking a look at it from my vantage point I see that most of the lights are still on and spot movement inside. Feeling my heart race not knowing what to expect I check the rest of the openings only seeing a small solitary shed near the end of the clearing at my 3 o'clock and the house in front of me with a waist high fence surrounding it.
Reaching up to my electronic earmuffs I turn up the volume on the external microphone, hoping it will make eavesdropping a little bit easier. Moving to the fence quickly I vault over it, raise my rifle, and take aim at the windows covering them. With my right hand on the forend of my rifle I push the activation stud on the IR laser seeing it appear on the window through my night vision goggles. I approach the side of the house, taking a knee by one of the lit windows. Pulling my left hand from my rifle and turning up the volume even more on the earmuffs, I hear what sounds like an adult male voice.
"With the vytal festival around the corner all of the restaurants and grocery stores I sell my crops to have been buying up all I have. We can really get ahead and buy the new farm equipment we've needed for a good while and have the Lien to spare to put quite a bit into savings".
I then hear what sounds like an adult woman respond.
"That's great honey it feels good that all of our hard work pay is paying off."
Another pause. I hear what sounds like furniture being shuffled around on a wooden floor, then the male voice speaks again. "I'll be in bed shortly. I've gotta grab something out of the shed." Leaning out I take a peek at the shed. "Shit." I think to myself. I turn around moving to a prone position and feel the cool earth through my fatigues. Taking cover by the edge of the house to get a good view of the shed I hear the back door of the house open with a loud creak.
Leaning out just a bit further, I see the man walk into view and keep my rifle trained on him, the IR dot menacingly drifts over his upper back. I look over his attire which matches the profession of someone who works the land seeing his heavy and worn pants and a flannel long sleeve shirt with the sleeves folded up just at elbow length. "Well he looks human enough to me." Estimating he stands about 5 ft 10 inches tall, and weighs about 200 pounds soaking wet. "Alright, time to go." I think to myself. Digging into the ground with my elbows and knees I crawl backwards, shift into a crouch, and slowly move around to the opposite end of the house. I make a beeline back into the crops until I feel I have gone far enough, and finding a small berm I take a seat on the ground. I unsling my rifle and place it on my left side, then pull off my pack and place it opposite to my rifle. I reach into it pulling out a blanket and wrapping myself. I take off my helmet, and place it behind my head to make a terrible pillow but a pillow nonetheless. Checking my watch, I set it to go off at 4 a.m., or at least what I think 4 a.m. is.
I look up at the sky seeing the stars and looking for any formation that looks even remotely familiar. Scanning the night sky, my eyes wander until I come across something strange. "Wherever I am has a moon... Wait, what?" Standing up from my resting place, I stare at the sundered moon. It looks like a good one-third of the moon has been broken off and is now orbiting the largest piece. I jump slightly. "If gravity here works like what I'm used to I bet the moon does all sorts of weird things to the tides, assuming there are oceans."
Reflecting on the discovery, I return back to my resting place, and think back to what I think the husband and wife were talking about. "So there is a big event coming up the Vytal Festival, and business has been good, and they have been making some good money 'Lien', I believe they called it." Reaching into my pack I pull out my wallet looking at the useless 100 dollar bills folded into it and shrug. "Maybe they will honor the almighty US dollar here." Chuckling lightly to myself I rest on my helmet once again and pull my blanket around my body before closing my eyes and trying to get some sleep.
