You know, I just went back and read chapter 2 and realized how ungodly awful it was. It made me cringe.
I'm planning to go back and rewrite it sometime, so yeah.
Chapter 19: Field Trip
Joshua Graham felt an unnerving feeling flowing through his body. He felt alive again, a feeling that had become so foreign to him that he began rejecting it. Perhaps it was just the simple idea of not having to live in a war-torn land, maybe it was the lack of legion assassins, but something made Joshua feel like the young man he was many years ago, spreading the word of God throughout the wastes. They were some of the better times, tough sadly they seemed to sit at the very back wall of his mind, many less favourable memories taking the spotlight. His descent into the Grand Canyon was a nightmare that simply would never die.
The Burned Man had been cleared for a 'field trip' with Glynda Goodwitch's first year students the previous day and had spent the rest of the daylight planning and preparing for the worst possible outcomes of the outing. He didn't feel it necessary to be on the receiving end of somebody's sword should easily preventable accidents occur. Of course, most injuries or accidents of any kind would be the fault of the students, as was the essence of the trip.
After Six's sudden departure and outbreak, Joshua Graham had immediately decided to prepare himself and any others he could for the worst. Looking at the students he had decidedly concluded – judging by physical interactions, general knowledge and all-around interactions – that they were most likely not ready to survive on their own should any such situation arise. Although Joshua knew little about the fauna in this new land, he certainly knew the lay-of-the-land and could certainly adapt to the wilderness in Remnant if he were in a perilous situation. Looking at the students though…
Most of them looked like they had lived either a life of luxury or had a strictly urban upbringing, neither of which could prepare them should worse come to worst.
In complete honesty, Joshua Graham didn't really see much to gain from teaching the children survival tactics, but at least it would be something to keep his mind occupies whilst he contemplated how exactly he wanted to go about the current situation at hand, that situation being summarized nicely by the title 'Six'. His religious demeanour meant that leaving Remnant to the Courier's whims and travelling back east was out of the question. He was a missionary at heart and still felt it necessary to spread the word of God, especially when the chance to be civilised presented itself before his eyes.
As he loaded 'A Light Shining in Darkness' he couldn't help but feel somewhat unprepared. A sinking feeling rose in his gut but he quickly suppressed it in his mind. He slid the sidearm into its holster on his waist and made to leave the dorm room, now only housing two of the previous three Wastelanders.
Flying was something completely foreign to The Burned Man. He had seen Vertibirds once or twice throughout his past, mostly when he had spent his time donning the title of the 'Malpais Legate', but had never boarded one. He never had the opportunity to fly, nor the necessity, so being airborne for a prolonged period of time made him sick to his stomach. Joshua did not know whether this was common during flight, but he hated it.
He had boarded a Bullhead with a team of first year students he was unfamiliar with, though he recognised one of them to be the wild west looking boy he had fist seen a few days ago who had fought against the girl with red hair and bronze armour. Pyrrha Nikos and Ivan Kiss, he recalled their names were. Fortunately for him, Goodwitch's first years congregated to a relatively small class, requiring only three Bullheads (one transporting a pair of teams and the second containing Joshua and one team whilst the third contained another team – apparently the last team took up quite a lot of space, so a third transport was necessary).
The destination set for them was a place Joshua had eyed on a map; a forest by the name of the 'Tallbreak Forest' which was known for its lush greenery, tall trees, dense animal population and low Grimm population. It was located on the western coast of Vale, directly west from the city of Vale.
When Joshua Graham had first laid eyes on a map, however, something struck him like a hammer. The land formations mapped out showed Vale surrounded by five other land masses, none of which were connected directly eastward to the land mass labelled Vale (where the Wastelanders had supposedly ended up), but the Wastelanders had walked west, through NCR territory, and had never once encountered a water body large enough to be labelled as an ocean, just a few lakes and rivers. Were the maps wrong? No, that would be highly unlikely in such a lively, active and advanced society, especially when the map was in a school.
Joshua was broken from his thoughts when somebody spoke on the Bullhead, cowboy boy, Ivan, asked, "None of us were told what this trip is about." He looked over to his teammates, a pair of girls with long black hair and blue eyes – twins – and a smaller girl who looked about five years younger than she was meant to be.
"Survival." Joshua replied curtly, somewhat cryptically, though nobody questioned.
The Bullhead touched down and Joshua hopped off hurriedly, the washy feeling in his gut dissipating as he anchored himself to solid ground again. The place they had landed was a large clearing where the forest seemed to start. The forest seemed to be rather tame and spacious, but as Graham looked further down he could spy the forest rising into the sky as an abundance of trees and greenery. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, like a beautiful desert oasis compared to the Wasteland he had known his life.
The other teams joined himself and the team he was with as their two Bullheads touched down in the clearing before the forest – four teams in total. He recognised one of the teams and was sure he had seen a couple of the other students around the school sometime.
Two of the Bullheads took off again, the aircraft Joshua had arrived in staying grounded.
He shot a finger at one of the teams, "Team name and individual names." The all-girl team he had gestured abruptly to shot each other quick sideways looks.
'They don't trust me at all' The Burned Man freely and comfortably observed. It was painfully obvious to see.
"Teeeeeam RWBY!" The red one, Ruby (if he recalled correctly), jumped, shooting a balled fist into the air enthusiastically. "I'm Ruby!" She seemed giddy, enthusiastic almost.
"Weiss." White huffed, hand on hip and turning her head quite curtly Snobby, spoilt.
"Blake." She seemed almost bored.
"Yang!" That was a confusing expression – a cross between anticipation and worry. She still shouted her name fairly enthusiastically though.
"Next." He pointed at the next team.
"Team JNPR!" a scraggly blonde kid put his fist to his chest, an air of confidence radiating from him. It seemed misplaced to the Burned man. "Jaune Arc." He even had his eyes closed. He wouldn't be doing too well in the days to come.
"Nora!" The girl in pink seemed much too energetic for Joshua's liking. Such energy would get you killed in the Wastes – unless you were dosed up on Psycho, in which case few people would pick a fight you.
"Hello! I'm Pyrrha." That was an odd introduction for Joshua Graham. It seemed overly-friendly and Joshua was definitely unfamiliar with such… casual personalities.
"Ren." The boy in green simply stated. He seemed to have a serious air about him.
"Next." He pointed at the next team from them.
"CRDL." The taller boy amongst all the students stated in what Joshua depicted to be a hostile tone, his arms folded. "Cardin."
'He should be careful with that tone; God knows where it will get him.' Joshua mused
"Russel." He sported an unusual hairstyle, but seemed within an acceptable confidence range.
"Dove." He seemed normal enough.
"Sky. Lark." None of them seemed over or under confident. Good.
"Next." Joshua Graham pointed at the final team.
"Team INTT*." Ivan, the cowboy boy, said as he constantly unholstered his pistol, twirled it around his finger, and holstered it again. Such style would get you nowhere when the need to survive became prominent. "Ivan Kiss." A couple students snickered, presumably at his surname. Yang was one of them and Joshua shot her a glare before Ivan's team continued naming themselves. Knowing her team was not completely confident with trusting the shabby looking man, Joshua Graham has only shot a glare at Yang to see her reaction. He caught no visible reaction, but he was sure there was one. Ulysses may have been able to spot it, but not Graham.
"Neal." The smaller boy gave a bow. Joshua was unsure if it was some sort of common courtesy here, but he had only seen people bow before superiors. That superior was always Caesar.
"Tina." The first twin said.
"Tiara." The second said.
There was no way he would remember that.
"Very well…" He muttered to himself under his breath. One student heard it, the rest were oblivious – they couldn't see his mouth, after all.
"From this day," Joshua Graham started, standing deadly still with a hand on the holstered handle of A Light Shining in Darkness, "I will address you not as students, but as people. There is no point in putting another beneath you if you intend to work in tandem with them.
"For the next week we will be living off the land, surviving in the Tallbreak Forest." Many of the students' attitudes visibly dulled and the excitement in the air died, like someone had taken a gun to a loud bird.
"Whaaat!?" Ruby seemed visibly shattered.
"It is a skill that will be useful should situations turn south. Being stranded without communication is a likely possibility considering your chosen line of work; so you must learn to survive. If I were in complete control of this outing, I would have you stripped of your weapons and armour, but unfortunately I have been told to avoid going to such 'unnecessary' lengths."
Joshua produced a flare gun from his belt, "You have all been given flare guns. These are to be used in case of emergency only. Your scrolls will be available, but you will have limited battery life – use it wisely."
He holstered the flare gun, "I will not be on hand to help, only in emergency situations. It will be up to you to learn how to survive for the next week."
"So… get back in the Bullheads, we're going deeper into the forest."
"Uh… are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Of course. Just remember, it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. So respond to change, Neal." And at that, Joshua booted the boy out of the aircraft, screaming as he plummeted through the canopy. Ivan just shot him a look before he and the rest of his team followed suit, dropping into the forest. As far as Joshua had been informed, the regular initiation process involved them being catapulted off the side of a cliff into a forest. This was quite tame compared to that.
As the rest of the team disembarked and the door slowly closed, Joshua joined the pilot in the cockpit.
"Have the rest of them dropped?" Joshua asked, leaning over the pilot's seat
"Yep." She replied coolly
"Alright, take us to the camp then."
*INTT is pronounced Initiate. They are secondary characters and have only been introduced to add more student interaction.