"You wanna know what I do when I'm sad, or scared?... Fucking nothin, cuz I'm not a fuckin pussy." - Soldier Boy, The Boys
Somehow, Gray knew the lyrics to the song '100 bars' by Rio Da Yung Og & AK Bandamont.
Gray, Mike, John, Will, and I were on our way back to our hometown from a failed hunting trip we chose to go on. It was mostly an excuse to drink beer, smoke joints, and shoot illegal guns.
Gray is our group's chief, prodigy wrestler, and all around pizza-boy. He's tanned, 5'11," skinny while being fit, and has brown eyes with brown hair. At the moment he's wearing a bright green shirt with a picture of a dinosaur on it, light brown work pants, and some blue and grey sneakers.
Mike is the computer wiz of the group who happens to have experience in construction, metalworking, and woodworking. He's tan-white with long dirty blond hair, mostly blue turquoise eyes, and is the shortest of the group at a staggering height of 5'9." At the moment, he's wearing a red and black flannel, with dark brown work pants, blue and white Vans, and a blue trucker hat.
John is a bear-like caveman of a teen. Even while shorter than me, he is still quite an intimidating guy. Being the oldest of the group proves to be both a hassle and the way of life for him. Kinda why I sometimes call him 'Johnold.' He's 6'0," has brown eyes, hair, and a thin, light brown beard slowly growing. At the moment he's wearing a dark blue coloured sweatshirt with brown work pants and rocking some leather brown slippers that are obviously weathered.
Will... is a mysterious fellow. While not being known as the one to vocally say what's on his mind, usually grunting and humming in public, he will talk every now and then. The only way I could get him to yell or anything was if we weren't face to face or if it's really important. He's 6'1," white, blond, and has ethereal blue eyes. Presently, he's wearing a dark green hoodie with a black gaiter neck on, brown cowboy boots, and blue jeans on.
The times we'd play 1v1's on Fortnite with our Xbox consoles had been the most fun I'd had with him.
"I'll kill you, you fucking ni-"
Yeah. Fun times... Anywho.
With a couple miles still left away, and no service to help us find our way back through GPS, we decided to stop for the night at a nearby motel in the middle of nowhere. I don't know the name or why it was so shitty, but it's better than sleeping in the truck with a bunch of guys squished together. Yeah, fuck that.
Gray and John go in the motel for what seemed like hours (though to be honest, it might've been the weed that fucked me up). But after a couple of minutes, we were finally able to get into the room and rest for the night, at that point, too tuckered out to even have a conversation, especially because of the amount of hours we have all been driving on the windy road of 101.
...
Before I knew it, it was morning.
"Time for me to take a shit, boys." I whisper, smirking at the others' sleeping faces, hoping to get a kick out of not only waking them up, but by stinking up the bathroom for (what's probably) going to be 30-45 minutes.
After flushing the toilet with what was: a big dookie; I take a look at myself in the mirror.
I have long black curly hair that's out of my face and points up on the sides, a bushy chin beard with thin sideburns, and a growing moustache. I'm 6'3," brown skinned, slightly overweight, and I have a small scar on the middle of my upper lip. My clothing before going to bed consisted of a brown sweatshirt with a purple t-shirt underneath, baggy dark-green tactical cargo pants with knee pads, black Nike combat boots, and I usually wear a silver chain with a cross and a dog tag with the words 'Tiospaye' over a picture of a buffalo with a singular swirl in the torso.
Now, after waking up, I'm wearing only my blue underwear and a maroon Champion t-shirt with the logo being in the color orange.
Flicking the light off and opening the door for courtesy sake, I see Gray and John chose the left bed, with Will and Mike atop the bed on the right. I, however, decided to sleep on the couch for the night for the sole reason that I'm usually the first one to wake up on these kind of trips.
Make no mistake, when I get comfortable in a place after a certain period of time, I start to sleep longer. But when on trips like these, I try to wake up extra early to 'scout out the area' so to speak.
Putting some black sweatpants with splotches of red paint on and slipping my croc's in casual mode, I steal a keycard from the middle nightstand and go back to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
Now finished with my morning routine and fully decked out in proper clothing, I go out of the room with the keycard and make my way downstairs to the lobby, hoping to find at least some edible food.
It wasn't edible whatsoever.
The milk was was chunky; the cereal was stale; the eggs were soggy and had eggshells in them; the meat looked like it was left out for a couple of days; and the juice had mold in it.
I had better luck going through the truck we came in with, considering we stacked up on a shit-load of snacks and drinks. Mostly beer and edibles... but that's besides the point!
Surprisingly, I hadn't seen anyone else in the motel nor any other cars parked out front.
Placing that thought aside in the back of my mind like every other useless tidbit of knowledge in my life, I went back to the room to try warn the others about the food before it was too late.
Keyword being try.
The keycard didn't work, making the door handle blink red. Flipping it upside down to make sure I'm not just hungover or god forbid high still, I see it still doesn't work. Going back downstairs I ring the bell on the reception desk and wait for a employee to come by.
No one came.
Sighing, I make my way back upstairs and knock on the door a couple of times, before hearing shuffling and a couple of steps. The door swings open with unnatural ferocity that I almost shit myself. There, I see it's John who, while still in his clothing from last night for some reason, was actually glowing blue.
"Gabe?" He groggily asks, rubbing his eye and forehead with his right hand and arm, the other hand still holding the door for me.
"Nope." I answer sarcastically, pushing the door open.
"Where'd you go?" He asks, still groggy, but awake enough to have a small conversation.
"I went downstairs to see if they had any food down there. Quick answer: they didn't." I tell him, sitting on the couch.
"By the way, the keycards don't work at all, so..."
"Why are you blue?" I ask abruptly, quoting the infamous fictional character Walter White.
"Huh?" He wakes up completely at that point, searching for any blue paint on his person.
There was no paint on him, but as he looked to check and see, the illumination of 'John The GlowStick,' in the somewhat dark room, had then unexpectedly stopped.
"You had, like, an Aura-thing going on." I comment, thinking back to that one anime I used to watch as a kid. Rewubby, was it?
"What are you talking about?" He asks, genuinely confused.
"It...it's nothing. I must just be high still." I joke, him chuckling only made me hope what I said was true.
Checking the clock on my phone tells me it's 10:03.
"Let's wake up the others since it's starting getting late. It'd be better if everyone was awake in 30 minutes."
Both John and I slapped the shit outta Mike and Gray.
"Ow, fucker!" Gray exaggerates the pain, taking a hit off his vape.
"I'll kill you..." Mike mutters, still sleepy.
"..."
Will woke up due to the noise but didn't comment or make a fuss about anything. What a lad.
Now with the others woken up and getting ready for the day, I take a few moments to read up on some fanfic I had downloaded, listening to music as I do so.
'Hmm.'
'Oh damn.'
'Nah, for real?'
'On god?'
'No kizzie?'
Finished with that short fanfic that had multiple twists and turns, I check the time, 10:33 exactly, then I turn to see everyone waiting on me.
"What!?" I snap at them.
"Nothing, we were just about to ask you if you were ready is all."
"Oh." Scratching my head in embarrassment, I answer them after a moment.
"Yeah, I'm ready."
But right as they are about to open the door, I remember to tell them about my findings, grabbing my things from off the ground and placing them in my duffle bag as I do so.
"Oh, yeah." They stop, me grabbing their attention and waiting for explanation as to why I stopped them.
"There doesn't seem to be anyone else around, you sure this place isn't abandoned?"
"Uh, yeah, we saw this old dude manning the register last night." Gray puts on a thoughtful expression, before continuing, "Though, now that you mention it, he was pretty sketchy with the way he acted. Almost thought he was a tweaker."
'Hmm.'
"Oh, well." We all shrug, leaving the room slowly, carrying our luggage with relative ease.
Packing the bed of the truck with the cover over it, there's nine cases of guns(four rifles, one shotgun, and four pistols), three duffle bags full of either contraband or extra clothes, an ice chest with only water and a couple of drinks; five backpacks with everything meant for a day or so, three different ammo boxes for shotgun, rifle, and handheld firearms; three canisters full of gasoline for the truck, four individual fishing poles, and three folded cots stacked atop one another.
Now in the car driving north/northwest, we see the road starts to turn into a dirt path. Still continuing, I end up not seeing any other signs that tell me as to where we currently are. Checking my phone for any signal, I see I have no service.
Sighing, I ask the the guys in the front if they could put on some music while we travel.
"I don't have any downloads."
"I only have free SoundCloud."
"Bruh."
Connecting the car with my phone via Bluetooth, I start to play a banger I love.
[Cowboys From Hell - Pantera]
It was then we came to a sudden stop. In front of the truck, was what can only be described as a 'demonic elephant' that, once seeing our vehicle, started to charge straight at us.
The elephant, if you can call this twisted version of the African species, had a mostly black body with a white facial mask having red patches on it. It had white, boney protrusions sticking out all across its body, red eyes, and where the spine would have been, it had a Godzilla thing going on, with massive amounts of protrusions on its back sticking out like a porcupine.
"What the fuck!?"
"Shit shit shit shit!"
Backing up, then doing a skilful turnaround, John books the truck as fast as possible back towards the direction of the motel with Gray screaming bloody murder about how he was going to die without getting to tap some girl he knew.
Turning my head around to see if the demonic elephant is following us, I see that it is. Looking at the others I see Gray is still very vocal about our situation, Will is silently frightened, and Mike is still asleep somehow. Me though?
"Fuck, that's a Goliath!"
"What?!" Somebody yells, as we swerve to dodge one of the tusks of the Grimm.
"Someone get the guns!" I screeched like a hawk, but with all the adrenaline pumping I didn't even care.
Mike, while in the back seat with Will and I, abruptly woke up, slipping into the back of the truck on his own accord, loaded up one of the rifles with .308, and immediately started shooting the damn thing.
Three shots rang out, while one may have have missed the elephant by a mile away, he ended up killing it pretty quickly, the elephant dissipating into thin air as it toppled over, leaving this plain of existence as if it were never there.
Skidding to a halt, almost making me fly into the windshield due to not wearing my seatbelt, the others all jumped out of the truck, then proceeded to start interrogating me, possibly rupturing my eardrums as they did so.
"What the hell was that?!" Mike yelled accusatorially, with Gray now going on a rant about how he won't become manager at his dad's pizza place.
"Why would I know what that is?" I pretend to be dumb.
"Because you literally told us the name of that fucking thing!" Damn, I was caught.
Looking at the ground at my croc equipped feet, I begin to contemplate, also having an internal conversation with myself.
'Rub it in their face that they should've watched RWBY with me.'
Deciding it was best to not leave them completely in the dark on events that have transpired and possibly will take place, I choose to tell them a short, poorly explained version of the new world we seem to have found ourselves in.
"These black, demonic looking things are called Grimm. But don't worry, super-powered, multi-coloured people kill them with farm tools for a living."
Not that poorly!
"Okay, not what we were wanting, but what does that mean?" John asks, being the responsible one of the group, looking after us like a unpaid babysitter or a bunch of kids he didn't want.
"We..." I start, conflicted on how to tell them. Us guys have families, girlfriends, jobs; how do I tell them they're possibly never going to be able to go back home?
Best way to do it, is to rip off the bandaid as fast as possible.
"...I don't think we're on Earth anymore."
...
It's been a day since we came to this accursed world.
Our truck ran out of gas once, so we're trying to find some other resource to make our vehicle function more appropriately. With no fossil fuels due to this world not having had dinosaurs before, I came to a conclusion that finding this worlds energy source would be a better alternative for the long run. The only problem?
They're rare to naturally find, partially due to the overconsumption throughout the ages of Remnant, but mostly on our part for not being in the right ecosystem for it to naturally, or shall I say magically, appear.
Luckily, we have three extra canisters full of gasoline incase something like this ever happened.
In other, more important and positive news, we have superpowers!
Well, an aura, but it's only a matter of time before we unlock our semblances.
Johns color of Aura is blue, Will: orange, Gray: green, Mike: turquoise, and mine: purple.
Whether it was a coincidence that our Aura reflected our favourite colours didn't matter all that much. It was a manifestation of one's soul, right? Meaning, whatever colour you took a liking to before you unlocked your Aura would-
Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself.
As of now, we decided it was best to hide the truck in the middle of the forest we found ourselves in, while taking what was needed on our journey to the nearest village. Hopefully we can get some help, but if not, find some way to get back to the truck some way.
Will was in charge of direction and holding the compass, making a shrewd mapping of the area while we adventure into the depths of Remnant, following the dirt path we found ourselves.
Later though, it proved to be useless.
...
"How long do you think this shit is gonna take?" Mike whines, struggling to carry his duffle bag full of contraband and 'ingredients.'
He's wearing a red and black flannel, cargo pants, a tool belt attached, and his signature blue trucker hat.
"Here, let me help you." John says, picking Mike's duffle bag up and hefting it over his left shoulder, the other hand holding a .308 rifle in a gorilla grip.
John is still wearing his clothes from yesterday.
I only have a backpack, .308 rifle with a bayonet attachment, a combat knife for reasons I won't go into, and a 9mm pistol.
Noticing the difference between me and everyone else, considering my size and strength, it almost makes me feel shitty for having Mike carry the duffle bag the entire time. Almost.
My outfit for the day is a dark green Carhart t-shirt either a breast pocket, my dark green tactical cargo pants, my two necklaces, a bracelet made of green and pink emergency rope, and a black beanie.
Looking at the pixel map of Remnant I happened to have downloaded on the photos app on my phone, I silently pray and hope we're somewhere west of the Kingdom of Mistral and not some other place like Menagerie or, God forbid, Vale.
I don't want my group to have to deal with Ozpin.
The closer we get to a village of some sort, the closer we'll get to surviving this shitty Anime world.
"What's the plan after we find a village?" Gray asks.
Looking in his direction, I see he's wearing a camouflage jacket, brown worker pants and a black beanie with the words 'Humboldt' on it over a picture of a salmon.
"The plan, if you can call it that, is to find a map in the nearest village, find where we are, steal a car, come back to the truck, then after settling down, make our way to the nearest major city. Preferably some place like Haven or Atlas. Since we're not Faunus, we shouldn't worry about any discrimination by other humans-"
"What are Faunus?" Surprisingly it's Will that interrupts my explanation, asking a fair enough question the others may not know the answer to.
"If you've ever played a fantasy game or saw a fantasy show, they're like Demi-Humans. People with animal-like characteristics. Tails, extra ears, maybe wings? Whatever." I ask myself, before continuing on, "If you come by a Faunus, don't stare too much or you'll risk both offending them and risking our lives."
Here's to hoping we don't make fools out of each other.
While not as eccentric as we usually are, I'm hoping as a group we start to get comfortable over time, lest we go down the rabbit hole of angst and drama.
...
Two hours have past.
Over that time period, we haven't stopped for a single second, only drinking water from our water bottles and canteens, eating snacks we brought (we got faded) and talking for the remainder of the trip.
There were little encounters with the creatures of Grimm, but those that did come into our sight were swiftly dealt with, having only had a couple of seconds to live before we cut them down with bullets, faster than the Flash fucking.
...Not the best at being descriptive, but at least I tried.
Taken out of my thoughts by the sight of houses, I almost started yelling and screaming in joy. Almost.
Most of the houses were toppled over, others were missing their roofs or doors, and some were straight up burnt to the ground.
Taking a look at the others told me they were in similar states, if only saddened by the fact people probably died here.
Finding ourselves at the entrance of the village told us the name was 'Yugure.'
"Sigh. We're gonna have to split up in order to find what we need. Who wants to come with me?" I get two raised hands, Will and Mike.
"Alright. You two," I look at Gray and John, "Look for any food, brightly coloured Dust canisters if there are any left, or anything that may help us survive for the week. Maybe we can jury-rig one of their cars, if they have any."
And with that, we went searching.
Stepping into the leftover of a house without a roof, I see a skeleton of a small child underneath the toppled roof.
'Damn.'
Walking to the left side of the room, away from the front door, I look for a map, finding a weathered and beat up one on the wall, then begin my search for any canisters that may hold Dust. I end up not finding any in the living room so far.
"Hm?" Looking down the hallway showed me an interesting looking room.
After walking through it I find it's an armoury, filled with an ammo station, a box full of Dust cartridges, an ivory coloured, mecha shifting sword with black engravings, and a brown sheath for said sword.
"Neat."
Flipping a switch on the handle shows me it isn't just a regular longsword, but is in fact also a black spear with white engravings as well.
"Even neater."
Collecting the Dust ammunition, the .13mm handgun after a closer look, and the spear, I make my way back outside to show and tell the others on my findings.
"You guys find anything?" I ask, flipping the switch on the spear to make it into a sword, seeing Will with a metal black bat and Mike with a two white and black daggers.
"Ooh, ooh, watch this Gabe!" Mike connects the daggers together and they form a white longsword with black engravings.
Looking at Will, I see he uses the black metal bat to create balls of fire that shoot out from the tip, the fire hitting the ground a safe enough distance away.
"Nice." I look around to se if the other two are nearby, ultimately not finding them.
"We should probably get back to the others. I think we have enough Dust for now." Will nods along and Mike continues to excitedly talk about his newfound weapon of choice.
It never occurred to me that taking these things had ever been considered morally wrong. The way I saw it,
The dead wouldn't need it for where they're going.
...
Now back together, with John finding an electric electric blue shield that shifts into one meant for, what seemed like, riot control, and a .357 Dust revolver. Gray finding an crimson red and dark grey axe that is also a mecha shifting shotgun.
I'd say our finds were a great success.
Most of us ended up finding a map of some kind, all of them having the name of the village, 'Yugure,' pointing west of Haven. The only problem?
We're on entire different continent than Mistral!
Why the fuck is it named in Japanese if it's not even-
"Argh!" Mike yells in momentary pain, having been nicked by one of the Grimm's claws.
Our first encounter of Beowolf's (or Beowulf's) proved to be a hassle more than anything when involved with this worlds weaponry. They're absolutely dog water if I have to say anything about it.
"Fuck this!" Gray yells from behind John, reloading his rifle with Earth powdered ammunition, and John covering for him by distracting the Grimm with a .357 revolver.
Will surprisingly starts to float in the air while carrying his Earth shotgun, looking like a character from Saga Tanya of Evil, and absolutely blasts the group of Grimm to oblivion.
Guess we found out his semblance.
...
Two days later.
This entire time we have been living in this village; it being two days so far; I hadn't come across any sort of modern technology like a scroll phone or tablet.
We were able to come across a vehicle that takes Dust, with it having surprisingly some juice left, but without a steady source of Dust, or frankly, any idea of how it ticks, we plan on not using it for moment.
John and Mike are studying on this worlds version of automobiles with some books that were lying around, while Gray and Will work on trying to reload Dust ammunition in some of the armouries we came across.
I currently am writing every detail about RWBY that I can remember off the top of my head, and recording it in a journal for the others to read.
It probably won't be the best. In fact, it might be pretty shitty compared to what other people may know the story, but at least it's better than nothing, no? And besides, If I ever run out of ideas, I'll just reread a fanfic I believe is canon adjacent and note down anything remotely interesting.
While in the middle of writing a sentence about Tyrian Callows, I hear shouting, a couple of shots ranging out, then deafening silence.
"Let's hope nothing bad happened." I mutter a quip, continuing to write about how Tyrian's weakness is hand to hand combat.
For a Faunus with a scorpion tail, you'd think he would at the very least be one with a shtick of close quarters, but, no. Instead, he relies too much on his speed, flexibility, and dodging abilities.
"Hey." Gray calls out, stepping into the broken doorway of the humble abode I decided to 'rent out,' interrupting my thoughts on the sadistic scorpion Faunus.
"What's up?" I ask from the couch I decided to laze on, my left foot atop of my right foot on the armrest.
"The sky- no, really though, how have you been? You've been holed up in this house for the past couple hours, you good?" His concern was evident and rightly placed.
It was, however, not the only reason he came here.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just peachy. You?" I question, mindlessly twirling the black ballpoint pen in my fingers.
"I... I'm fine." He reluctantly says, rubbing his left shoulder, waiting for a moment as I finish the last sentence in the journal.
"How's that going for you? The journal."
"It's going good." I absentmindedly dismiss him.
"You... you want to talk about some stuff?"
"No, but I'm fine lending an ear for you though. I know when you start to get antsy, so you might as well spill it."
Taking a moment to collect himself, he continues,
"I think I unlocked my... Semblance, was it? I'm honestly not too sure. It's just.. a feeling I have. I didn't know if it was okay if I can test it."
"What?"
"Y'know? Since you're our leader now and have the final say?"
"First time I've ever heard of that."
"Well, you kind of know everything about this world, you might as well be our bootleg guide, y'know?"
"I guess... What's this feeling you have?"
"I think I can teleport."
"Oh."
"Oh? That's it?! What's with that!?"
"I honestly expected you to have a fire semblance of some sort."
"What do you mean by that, huh?" He gets right in my face, before backing up and chuckling.
"You wanna test it out?" I ask cautiously, knowing the implications of such a power.
Will he get splinched if he loses concentration? At what distance can he teleport? Is there a limit for how many times? If so, what is it? That kind of stuff.
"Sure."
With that, we went experimenting in the just outside the house. First: does it work with eyesight as the major function? Second: how many times before Gray runs out of juice? Third: can we teleport to places he's been? Fourth: can he teleport objects? And last but certainly not least: can he teleport other people with him?
The first test was answered when he tried to teleport on top on the hood of a Remnant car and failed miserably by scrunching his face in concentration, farting at some point while looking like he was constipated.
The third experiment worked. He teleported behind me in the house, then proceeded to teleport back and forth between each destination nonstop for a couple of minutes.
The second was answered with the third test, having not stopped for what seemed like three minutes going back and forth.
The fourth was answered when he teleported with all his clothes in tact. Thankfully. Didn't want a Hughie Campbell moment to occur.
The last test was much harder to grasp apparently. It took a lot out of him compared to just teleporting himself. Saying, and I quote; 'It feels like trying to get out of handcuffs with your hands being rock solid.' So, we'll be using that with caution and starting a training regimen involving the rest of the group.
Today, I'd say, was a productive day.
...
Huddled around a campfire, not singing a song song like SpongeBob would make you think, we were instead having a short meeting full of eating food, listening to music with a portable speaker we brought, and every now and again checking for any Grimm that might be lurking.
[My Mind Playing Trick on Me - Geto Boys]
The menu for tonight was: medicated rice crispy treats with 20mg each, protein powder in the water with Vitamins C and D, a rabbit one of the guys caught, and fish from the bay we found ourselves nearby.
Don't ask what kind of fish Will caught, I wouldn't know.
The fire crackling in the dark, the intoxicating smell of freshly cooked food, and all around good vibes going around; if I hadn't known we weren't in another world, I'd say we were still on that camping trip.
"Remember that time in 7th grade, we had a sleepover at Gray's house, and Gabe woke John up with a moldy banana?"
"Ah, I remember that! Haha!"
"Ew, don't remind me."
"Heh."
As of now, I'm taking a break from the long day I've been sticking my nose in that journal and my phone.
I had to take a break, otherwise my phone would've died. At that point, it was about time for us to cook anyways.
Picking up a three pieces of kindling, I toss them into the fire, making some of the logs of charcoal to slowly break and crumble.
Standing up, then grabbing the journal I've been writing, I pad it onto the person on my right, Will. He reads it, taking a moment to skim through some details, probably the names, then passes it to his right, it being Mike.
While they're checking my hard work, I begin to go through my backpack to find my 'medicine bag.'
Taking the bottle of antidepressants, one of the bags of a cartridge full of watermelon flavoured cannabis oil, and a bottle of sleeping pills, I get ready for bed, changing into my 'sleepwear' by taking off my combat pants to put on my black sweatpants with red splotches on them.
Looking at the others tells me they're really trying to grasp the information of the journal. While I'm no Ford Pines, I did my very best in trying to write all the details on certain characters to look out for.
"So, John," I catch his attention away from the journal, "How's the car going?"
"Hm? Oh. Yeah, it's going fine. We finally were able to figure out how to fill it up with Dust, so we'll be able to make a walk back to the truck, drive back, and change the wiring by making a makeshift adapter for our phones in the Dust car."
"Who's Old Man Shopkeep? And why is it only a description of what he looks like?"
"He's like a god at merchants in this world. Not actually, but he might as well be by the amount of people seen him."
"That's good that you guys found a way to cram knowledge about this worlds automobiles. What about you guys? How's the ammo station working?"
"The same as back home. The only difference is the amount of propellant we need." Gray answers, before continuing, "While it's just a little bit compared to gunpowder, we don't want to end up using our entire rations of Dust for just ammo."
"Alright. How much Dust do we have?"
"Around a crate full of it."
"Dammit, man. Why are you making it seem like we're broke as shit?"
Chuckling at Mike's comment, I see Will went to the nearby well with a large metal teapot he found in one of the houses, fills it up with some water, then proceeds to hang it over the fireplace to boil.
"You guys find any coffee for the mornings?" I ask, hoping to get my fix in the morning.
Since we ran out of coffee during our camping trip last week, we haven't been able to make any sweet succulent black coffee in a while.
Plus with most of our group being nic addicts for the better part of many years, they had no problem waking up with just cigs or vapes.
"Nah. Who needs caffeine when you have nic?"
"True dat." Gray says, taking a hit from his Elfbar, before passing it around to John, who, kindly refuses.
"Bitch."
Thinking about any other concerns the others may have, other than the obvious 'never meet Salem,' I don't have much to go on other then the questions they might have in the future. Taking a metaphorical step backwards, I go back to the topic of tomorrow.
"So tomorrow we'll take a quick trip back to the truck, then drive our way back here?"
"Ye." John answers.
"Oh yeah." I think out loud, before suggesting another alternative, "Gray, why don't we test if you can teleport one of us with you?"
Reluctantly, he agrees, after John insists it'll take at least 7 hours for us to just get there, and with me pushing him forwards saying it'll be a good chance as any to see if he has a limited range to his ability as well.
After brushing our teeth, and drinking some water that was boiling for an estimated time of fifteen minutes, we say our good nights, then go off to bed in our own individual houses.
...
The next morning, we're packing John and Gray's backpacks full of emergency supplies, double check if we have everything needed, before sending them off.
"Water? Check."
"Emergency Medical Kit? Check."
"Extra food? Check."
"Ammo, both Dust and gunpowder? Check."
"Anything else?"
"No, I think that's it, alright. We'll see you guys later." Gray says exasperatedly, completely done with my mother hen like preparedness, before holding John's shoulder with his left hand, then blipping out of existence with a green glowing screen of smoke after a few moments."
3 hours later, we came across the noise of a sputtering exhaust pipe from the big ass truck Gray and John were in.
Not much happened within that 3 hour timeframe, other than me worrying about how they're faring without the rest of us to watch over them, Will and Mike having a friend spar session, and is having a small lunch. But John and Gray pulled through in the end eventually, with no scratches on their persons whatsoever. Kind of.
John might've dented the truck at some point during their way back here, but who cares about that?
The car we found in the village was a minivan-like thing with a horse trailer, with what was once a sleek blue beauty, was now a rusted, dented, claw riddled vehicle with two of its six windows cracked and with holes in it.
It just needed cleaning, little maintenance, and lots of dust to fill it up. After a couple of hours, minus the windows, everything else seemed fine and ready for the guys to get to work.
Here's to hoping our next adventure won't be dealing with bandits any time soon.