March 7, 4000 BC, Berlin, Barracks, Late Evening

"Warriors; wake!"

I woke with the start at the sound of Alex's voice and jumped out of bed, seeing as he had been named our official leader by Lord Bismarck after Ralph returned. The others had done the same.

"Sir, yes sir!" We all shouted instinctively.

"At ease," he said. "Get dressed, grab your weapons; we're being deployed."

"Sir, with all due respect, why are we being deployed in the middle of the night?" Peter asked.

"Because," Alex replied, "We're going on a rescue mission."

March 7, 4000 BC, German City of Berlin, Palace War Room, Late Evening

"Earlier this evening, militia forces spotted a group of miners returning from the night shift early. When the miners reached town they informed the militia that Barbarians had attacked them. While that group had managed to get away, several other workers had been kidnapped."

There was a tense chill in the air as Lord Bismarck relayed these words to us.

"Based on the direction from which the Barbarians attacked as well as the direction they attacked you all from the ruins, our cartographers have hypothesized that their place of origin is in this general area."

He pointed to an unexplored area northwest of the ruins we found.

"Your mission is to recover the captured workers and, if you can, destroy the Barbarian's base of operations. Any questions?"

George stood. "Sir, what about defenses while we're gone?"

"We've halted all night shifts for now and imposed doctrine to all workers that in the event of a barbarian sighting they are to return to the city immediately." He hesitated before going on. "We are also training new men with the weapons we designed with the scrolls you brought us."

"You deciphered them?" Alfred asked, incredulous.

"Yes, two men named William Bow and Frank Arrow were able to figure out the device. Man named Clarence Archer tested the prototype yesterday. Now, get some torches and food from the supply room and move out as soon as possible."

March 8, 4000 BC, Wilderness, Early Morning

"I don't get why we couldn't begin this rescue operation in the morning. The journey takes a few weeks anyway," Peter wondered aloud, in a tone not quite complaining but not very enthusiastic either.

Alex looked ready to answer, but George beat him to it.

"Because we still don't know much about these barbarians, for all we know a few more hours head start for them could mean life or death for our workers."

Have I mentioned George was always the blunt one?

"Do we even have a plan for when we do find them?" David asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Joseph replied, "Go in, kill barbarians, get workers, get out."

"Oh good," Alfred said, "And here I was worrying the plan would be too simple."

March 29, 4000 BC, Wilderness, Late Evening

"There it is."

We all stared down at it. The Barbarian Encampment.

It was circular, the outskirts of it illustrated with large logs sticking out of the ground, with points carved, albeit crudely, on the ends of them. Within these primitive borders were the barbarians themselves, our workers, who were tied to a large tree in the encampment's center, and several hastily erected torches, illuminating the encampment and its immediate vicinity. Luckily for us, we were camped on a forested hill next to them, concealing us in the shadows.

"This is even better than I hoped," Alex whispered. "We have the element of surprise, which should give us a great advantage when we engage them."

"Sir." It was Otto whispering now. "Permission to speak freely?"

"Permission granted."

"What if we were to simply wait for the barbarians to leave the encampment again? Then we could very literally stroll right down there and free our workers, with no casualties guaranteed."

"A clever idea, Otto, but unfortunately we don't know if our workers will survive that long. As much as I would like to minimize casualties, we simply don't have the time."

"Yes sir."

"On the count of three, we'll charge them. Hopefully they'll be too shocked to react at first. Get ready."

I brought my club up and dug my feet into the ground. Speed would be essential in this attack, or our advantage would be null and void.

"One…"

I glanced at my comrades. They looked grim but determined.

"Two…"

I couldn't help but feel a little grim myself. Would there be any wounded after this battle? Or worse, would there be any-

"Three!"

With several shouts and cries, we rushed from our hiding spot into the open to face the enemy.

We rushed down the hill as fast as we could, swerving to avoid the pointed sticks that outlined the encampment. Once inside we engaged the surprised barbarians.

I ran up to one and swung my club at his stomach. He doubled over and I finished it with a swing at his head.

The next one was more difficult. He got the first swing, and I only narrowly dodged it. When I swung back he blocked with his club. We went on like that for a while, back and forth, until I finally managed to stun him with a hit in the leg, then came the killing blow.

As I backed up from the body I surveyed the area. Things had apparently gone well at first, with several barbarian bodies near the border of the encampment. As things moved inward however, the barbarians seemed to have gotten over their shock and started to really up a fight. One of our bodies was lain out across the ground.

I moved to see whom it was when a cry went out. I turned and saw Martin fighting off a particularly large barbarian. His left leg was soaked in blood, whether it was his or another's I did not know.

I raced over to him, but in my hurry I didn't notice the barbarian rushing toward me. He tackled me from the left, and I went down sprawling. I reached for my club only to find it was gone. Knowing my time was short; I punched the barbarian on top of me in the jaw and reached for his club. He seemed to realize what I was doing though, and we began a fierce tug-of-war to fight for the only weapon in our grasp.

Out of nowhere another club came down and collided with the barbarian's head. In an instant his body went limp.

I pushed the now-ragdoll form off my body and saw Lucas standing over me. He was smiling.

"Tsk, tsk, Erik, lying down on the job?"

I gave a grunt and took the hand he extended to me.

"For the record," I said, wiping the dust of my robes, "I had everything under control."

Lucas let out a chuckle. "Of course you did."

Suddenly the memory of Martin came back to me. "Martin! Lucas, we have to get to him! He's-"

"Relax," Lucas said, "George already helped Martin. While you were playing with your barbarian friend-"

"Playing?"

"-the battle ended. We won."

I turned and saw Joseph and Carl untying the ropes binding our workers to the large post. Alfred was observing one of the barbarian clubs. Ralph was going around making sure none of the barbarians were faking death. Otto and David were patching up Martin, who after being rescued by George was lying down in the grass, pale. Luckily though, his wound wasn't as bad as I originally thought.

"So," I asked, turning back to Lucas, "Who was the body sprawled out back a ways?"

Lucas looked at me, his face pale and laced with fright. "Body? What body?"

We bolted back to the sight where I saw the body. It was still lying there.

Lucas and I shared a glance and without a word we moved forward and flipped the body over.

It was Alex.