February 6, 4000 BC, Ancient Ruins

A few minutes later they showed up. Men in fur coats with spiked clubs and helmets with horns. They charged us with unprecedented savagery.

I could hear Alex yelling something but couldn't understand what. My mind had given in to instinct, and with a shout I charged to meet my enemy on the battlefield.

I was vaguely aware of others following me, but I couldn't focus on that now. Not if I wanted to win this battle.

I raised my club and swung at the nearest enemy. He grunted as I hit him in the leg and went down sprawling.

The next one was smarter than the first. He sidestepped my first swing and swung at me. Luckily I dodged it and smacked his head clean off. To a normal man the gore might have been sickening.

Not to a Warrior.

Time lost all meaning as my comrades and I beat our enemies into submission. Except they didn't submit. Not until our last opponent fell for good did I seem to regain my former senses.

Most of us had gotten through with nothing but a few scratches, Carl had a couple of cuts in his left arm, but who we were all looking at was Ralph.

He had a deep, vertical gash that stretched almost the entirety of his lower left leg. The ground around him was stained red with blood. Even Lucas, who always had a wisecrack ready, was speechless.

Otto, who had the most medical knowledge out of all of us, was wrapping his leg with cloth. Ralph simply moaned.

"How bad is it, Otto?" Alex asked, not taking his eyes off of Ralph.

Otto wiped his hands off in the grass and stood up. "We need to get back to Berlin," he said, "Ralph's lost a lot of blood, and he needs proper medical attention."

"How are we gonna get him back?" asked David, "He can't walk on that leg."

"With this."

Alfred stepped forward, clutching one of the scrolls from the ruins. He laid it on the ground and pointed at one of the illustrations. It looked like a large piece of cloth with two sticks pushed through loops on each side.

"We can lay him in the cloth," Alfred explained, "And simply carry him back to Berlin."

"You think there are others?" Peter said to no one in particular, "Like the ones we just fought?"

"Undoubtedly," George affirmed, "Which is why we need to set about to building this device and be on our way."

The journey back was fraught with worry. With four of us carrying Ralph, only seven of us were ready for combat at a moments notice. We made it point to travel by night instead of day, to help cover our tracks. Even, Martin, ever the optimist, was caught looking over his shoulder every once in while.

All this caution led to the journey back taking three weeks as opposed to the two it had taken us to reach the ancient ruins. Even then we didn't relax until we caught the first glimpse of German territory.

February 27, 4000 BC, Outskirts of German territory

One of the farmers was the first to spot us. He ran up to us grinning.

"Hey, we didn't expect you guys back until –"

His face paled as he saw Ralphs sleeping form on the cloth.

"I-Is he -"

"No," Alex answered firmly, "Go back to work - we need to get to the city."

The farmer nodded and, pulling his eyes away from Ralph, headed back to the fields.

A militiaman walked up. "Anything I can do to help, sirs?" he asked. While the militiamen and ourselves were technically the same rank, they all considered us their superiors seeing as we had trained them.

"Yes," Otto replied, "Get to the city as quick as you can, tell them to prepare a medical station."

"Yes sir." The militiaman saluted, then turned and ran toward the city.

"You really think they can help him?" David asked Otto.

Otto shrugged. "Doesn't really matter; they're the only help we got."

February 27, 4000 BC, Berlin, German Palace, Medical Wing

We all sat outside Ralph's healing room in silence as the healers worked on Ralph. Only after what felt like hours did one of them emerge. Several of us stood but she answered our question before we could ask it.

"Your friend's fine; he just needs a few days bed rest and he'll be good as new."

I let go a breath of relief that I hadn't even know I had been holding.

"Thank goodness," Joseph said.

"Can we see him now?" Alex asked.

"No, but there is someone else who'd like to talk to you."

Lord Bismarck appeared behind her.

"At ease," he said, before we could even salute.

"First off I'd like to give my condolences for Ralph's injury; undoubtedly a situation most unpleasant. And while I hate to take you from his bedside, so to speak, I would like to be debriefed on our new enemies."

February 27, 4000 BC, Berlin, German Palace, Bismarck's Office

After we had finished telling our story, Bismarck gave us our new orders.

"Alright, here our your new orders. Alfred, take those scrolls down to the science wing. Fair warning, things might be a little crazy down there; they're preparing to move into a new building in a few weeks. The rest of you I want garrisoned in the city; you're free to do what you want until further notice. Dismissed."

"Sir, yes sir!" We saluted and left Bismarck's office.

"What are you all going to do in your free time?" Martin casually asked as we made our way to the palace's exit.

"Well, I think we all know what Joseph's going to –"

But Peter didn't get the chance to finish. Joseph was already chasing him down the hall.

A/N: Sorry about the delay on this one, you can blame writer's block and school. Not to mention it takes time to write a terrible action scene. I also have some review responses.

ChocolateTeapot: Thanks for pointing out those errors; I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

Kirosha: I too hope to make the chapters longer at some point, I think it should be easier in later eras when society is much more complex, happy you find the story interesting and hope you continue to think so.

Overall a big thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story, it's good to know some people are enjoying it and constructive criticism is always good.