It's night

You tell Miss Spetznaz not to freak out, but there's a high probability of a tiger about twenty feet behind you. She just says that she is well aware and asks what you intend to do about it. You tell her that she's got the only gun between the both of you and that you're going to need cover while you get a ways up a tree. She nods. You down change your pace but rather your direction from horizontal to vertical as you grab onto a tree and start climbing.

Below you hear a roar and the sound of flesh tearing. She had a gun. Why didn't she fire it? Why don't you hear eating? What's going on? You look back down after you're sure that the tiger would need to begin climbing to get you rather than simply leaping. Miss Spetznaz is standing there looking awful unimpressed in the dim glow of the fading fluorophores. There's a young tiger limping off into the distance and the scent of blood rising from the scene. She tosses your knife back at you and tells you to keep a better eye on your weapons and that she had practice with bears before she begins following you up the tree. The knife, luckily ends up in the tree. You have no idea when she got that. Maybe... she's a little better than you thought. When she's on a branch at the same level as you she asks what the plan is now that you're out of light.

The plan is to rest in shifts and leave at daybreak. She tells you that you should change your bandages after the jaunt through the river. You agree and ask her if she has any bandages. She says enough as she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a sealed package of beige gauze. You thank her and start swapping them out. She tells you that you're doing it wrong. You tell her that it's good enough and that you'll take the first watch. She tells you to move up a branch to where you can sit together. When you ask why she says that people roll in their sleep. You agree and not five minutes later she's napping on your shoulder.

Under different circumstances, you'd probably be pretty pleased with all of this. But at the moment you need to figure out where you're going next. When sunrise comes you should...

[] Try to remember the train route.
[] Try to remember the nearest town.
[] Keep heading NNW.

 

Keep heading in the same direction, NNW. Look for any recognizable scenery, or peculiar scenery, that could lead to a town or something else on the way. Tell Missy that she's cute when she's asleep too.​

 

All three, and if there's nothing worth deviating from the NNW path, continue on in that direction.

 

The next day you wake up alone. After a quick look around you find why you decided to wake up at the crack of dawn if you were alone. The answer was a rock plinking against your helmet and a somewhat tired looking Russian woman telling you that the sun is almost up like it meant something. You gingerly climb down the tree and ask her how her leg is. She shows you the bruise blackening her shin and says she'll hold up. Your leg actually feels a bit better so you thank her. She ignores you and asks which direction you're going to go. You tell her that she was much cuter while she was asleep. She asks you again, this time without looking at you. She's either bashful or about to shoot you for bringing up irrelevant stuff. You're not about to push your luck and find out.

You tell her that you don't remember much about the train route, but there is a small town several miles west of the next stop. Extrapolating how far you've come through the forests and the fact that you've just crossed a river, you should be able to find it before noon. From there, everything else should come together. She frowns at you and says she didn't see any town on the map she was debriefed with. You tell her that you've been here before and you stayed at the town before. She shrugs and asks which direction. You tell her that getting away from the river was important last night to cover your tracks and make it harder to follow but now looking for a tributary is the way to find the town. She looks south and starts walking.

It's nearly an hour before you're back at the river. A much different part of it from the looks of things. It's at this point that you ask how she got the knife off of you while you both stop for water. She looks almost surprised that you're asking, but doesn't miss a beat when answering. She said that she pulled it off of you while you were climbing. Makes sense given when you remember last having it. She said that it was preferable to drawing attention with the gun. True also. It seems that she expects the same kind of tacit acceptance of her actions that you asked of her. You don't really like it. Within five minutes you're walking again, this time against the current of the river towards its mouth. You're not much of a woodsy type, but you've actually done more than a little work out here clearing drug cartels for the locals. This river is the only landmark you've recognized since entering the forest and you're going to have to make some use of that.

The tributary you're looking for is pretty easy to spot, it's going to be a large stream with a broken down old shack with a couple of bones in it just away from the banks. You're not exactly proud of your work, clearing with a grenade and then confirming the kill by waiting for some animals to notice the corpses and start eating. The shack should still have some supplies and should still be secret since everyone who knew about it is either you or dead.

It's less than an hour before you find the tributary you're looking for, you should...

[] Bring along Miss Spetznaz when you go look for the shack nearby.
[] Go to the shack alone.
[] Bypass the shack and head straight for the town.

 

Search the shack with Missy, if you find it, and then keep heading for the town.​

 

Stop by the shack together for ten minutes TOPS and then gtfo of there towards town as quick as to make up for lost time.

 

You may not like letting her follow you to where the guns might be before being totally sure that she's not gonna kill you the second you're within sight of civilization but she's all you've got and leaving her alone would be even worse. So you take her to the shack with you and tell her to keep an eye out the windows while you look around. There's really not much there. A few boxes of bullets and a slightly damaged hunting rifle on the weapons side of things and some combat rations on the food side of things. It seems that everything else either got taken by some scavenger or decayed in the tropical heat. You don't bother checking for anything else and leave with the rifle over your should and the ammo in your vest pockets. It's better than nothing and you're in the business of working with what you've got.

As you progress Miss Spetznaz asks you how far the town is, what it's like and if you'll be able to get medical treatment there. You say that it's still another two hours if you travel cautiously and no there won't be medical treatment straight away. They'll have a car though and you've got enough stuff to trade for a few hours with it. The town likes you for killing the drug runners but they're not sentimental folk and won't be above haggling with some injured strays. It's at this point that she asks you why you're a mercenary. That's a flag, like she's trying to justify killing/not killing you to herself. You tell her that it's a long and painful story and you don't like telling it. Besides, it'd be a distraction when caution is most important. She agrees and apologizes and says that she might be cracking a bit early.

You tell her that she's been walking on a broken leg for a day and a half and taking orders from the guy who told her to betray her country, she's holding up fine all things considered. She says she's still going back to Russia if she gets out. You tell her that you'll respect that but you didn't work this hard just to let her sentence herself to death. She remains silent. You continue on to say that you once had a country, a home, a cause, but it's kind of irrelevant. Countries won't do anything for you in the end, they're just another group of people who want you for your job and not for who you are. If you want to please them, go ahead but if you want something more for yourself you need to get out of the petty regionalistic mindset and start thinking of the world at large.

She doesn't seem to know how to respond. You should...

[] Stop talking.
[] Keep talking.
[] ???

 

Stop talking, let her think about it, and make it like those deep scenes in movies.

 

Let her think over what you said for a bit before continuing.​

 

[✓]

 

You were trying to avoid talking about why you're a mercenary. You were trying to be the good soldier and think of the group for a change. You were trying to get everyone out of this alive. So you shut your mouth and get back to it. You tell her to keep going straight north while you leave to set some new tracks. She nods. You're never more than a few hundred feet from her, but you're worried now. She wasn't lying when she said she might be cracking and leaving someone like that alone too long... You rush back over to her as fast as you can without messing up your tracks.

She looks pretty much the same when you walk up and announce your presence. She nods and keeps going. You'll be at the town in another half an hour probably. There's not gonna be the need to split paths again. You remain behind her though, occasionally covering your tracks and checking to see that you've still got all your gear.

Ten minutes left. A word hasn't passed between you for a while, you know she won't the the one to strike up a conversation and you don't really want to bleed any information to her that you don't need to. Looks like trusting people is still not your strong suit. Snow and Sour would be so fucking proud to see you walking behind her with you hand on your rifle thinking of ways to counter her turning and shooting at you. One sleeps with a gun and treats everyone else like their objects and one keeps more live explosives in his living quarters than a suicide bomber to keep everyone else out of his bag of clothes and live explosives. In all honesty, you wish you could see the world as simplistically. Hell, you'd be Leadfoot or Shotty before you'd be yourself. But that's not a choice you were given.

You're at the town. Miss Spetznaz seems a bit ill. You...

[] Tell her that she did well and deserves a rest.
[] Tell her that you're not out the woods in anything but the literal sense.
[] Princess carry.
[] Stay silent.

 

Offer to give her a piggyback ride if she's too tired or ill. You're not completely safe just yet either, so be sure to remind her of that.​

 

[✓] I CAN'T THINK OF AN IMAGE OR VIDEO TO GO HERE BUT TELL HER SHE'S EARNED SOME REST #combo broken

 

The ***** needs rest. Give the ***** rest. Rest for the rest of the group(me/you/him/us), too.

 

It seems she wasn't going to kill you after all. No guarantees, but she's looking less and less dangerous by the minutes. She asks you if this is the right town. You say it is and then she begins walking forward again. You couldn't tell over the sounds of the forest and the attention you paid to followers in the forests but she's really sounding bad. You don't imagine that you're too great a sight either but you've seen that look on dead people. You sigh and walk ahead of her. Your leg is throbbing again but you're not too worried about it. You've had worse probably. You ask her to stop for a second. She does and asks what the hold up is. You tell her that she's earned a break and you know just the place for it. You adjust the rifle and take a knee. You can only imagine the expression she makes when you tell her to climb on. You think it's somewhere between "get a load of this kid" and "please let me kill him" until you feel her weight on your shoulders and her voice in your ear. Thanks.

In a few minutes your leg is killing you and you're sitting next to Miss Spetznaz in the back seat of what is probably a WW2 era Jeep running on the souls of lost children. You can't really say that you think you're safe yet, but you're not visible and she really is cuter while she's sleeping. Up front is the guy who hired you to take out the drug cartel initially. He was willing to take you guys as far as the train stop you left yesterday and no further. It wasn't ideal, ideally you'd just keep heading out of the country and hit up a medical practice on the way through Kazakhstan. It's fine though. There's never an ideal getaway though. As things are, you're pretty pleased with your results thus far. You've got some time to kill. You...

[] Do the time warp again.
[] Be the other guy.

 

BE THE OTHER GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

Do the time warp. Again.​

 

tiebreaker

 

It's late. You're not one for sleep anyway. You're one for action and in this case action means following the guys with the guns and head bag. You're aware that this is hardly considered a dignified entrance, but it's not a part of your line of work to care much for dignity. You've never been in a fight and you've never had an ounce of blood on your hands, not even your own. It's a good clean feeling being a broker for keeping people alive rather than killing them. You've met the boors and clods that make up the body of the workforce and the nuts that make up the head. But when it all comes down to it, you've got plausible deniability and they've got the weapon they fired in a big old case in their safehouse or basement or whatever. You can hardly help but laugh at the futility of it all.

When the lights come back on and the scent of sweat and hemp is out of your face you find yourself in a very lavish office. Upscale, clean and above all other things, pricey. It must have cost a fortune to have this place decorated. Your entire career couldn't pay for the drapes and you get paid a lot to do what you do. Some say that you're the best. "What is it that you do?", the camera may ask if it were indeed watching as the ever present eye that you imagine it to be. Well that's simple, you're a hostage negotiator. But that's a temporary gig. Your real deal is closing. You were a used car salesman at one point and a CEO at another. Nothing ever sticks because it's all too easy. You need something with a little more zazz, like that desk. Teak or mahogany? Porque no los dos? Or those floors, or the chair that you're in? Oh, you could die here happy.

Anyhow, the guy at the top of the operation has been talking for the past while and you've been kind of listening. What you've got so far is that you're being kidnapped to do a job of some sort, easy. This is the kind of thing you live for. You tell him to get it in writing and get a fountain pen. He slides a contract across the desk to you and you flip through it. Eidetic memory is something that a lot of people claim to have, you call it bull. You trained for years to pick up on how to read quickly and memorize things and you still need to try to make it seem natural. When that fails you just rely on guts. It's a gamble but you've never gone down in Vegas. You wonder what country you're in for a second before remembering transport back to Kyoto should come courtesy of the head baggers. Even if i isn't she wasn't that pretty anyway. You sign and slide the papers back across and ask for a clean bag this time.

Back in Japan you're carrying a case with nearly a million dollars in it with someone else's name on it. What a shame. You should...

[] Spending spreeeeeeeeeeee~
[] Head to the addressed location.
[] Buy some pantsu.

 

buy pantsu then go on a shopping spree with said pantsu on your head