Snippet #1511183

Even with the brief stop caused by the former-Slotmachine's body slam into the floor of Wagon 3, it took the caravan but a few more minutes to enter the sparse woods, and but a minute after that for the shrubby trees and half-dead brush to thicken into a formidable barrier against the eyes of Fjord troops. Unfortunately, the trees do little to block the sound of the second wave of Fjord troops hitting Blacksburg, or the smell of thick, oily smoke, and it's hard to pretend it's safe again, even as the trees grow thick and leafy enough to block out the blistering sun.

It takes the old caravan leader a few minutes more, until the sounds of possibly mutated mockingbirds (that isnot a pitch birds should be able to reach) drown out most of the gunfire, to stop shaking and start to slow the party down. There's no point in exhausting the mules further, when two-and-a-half miles* are already between them and the battle. At a steady walk, they'll be in West Virginia by tomorrow at noon, and that's good enough.

Dropping his own horse's gait further, he falls back along the side of Wagon 3, to check on his clients. With how his day's going, he's surprised to see no one (organic) caught a stray bullet.

"Bit of a rough start there, eh?" Hogan asks, barely succeeding in hiding the residual fear left over from the incident. "I've never seen the Fjord this far west," he begins, pausing to take a deep, less-than-calming breath, "but, I'm sure it'll be under control soon, and that's why you're leaving this city anyway." He's trying to calm them, he really is, but he's pretty sure it isn't helping, and that this isn't something that'll ever be under control.

It's about then that he squints hard, into the semi-darkness of the wagon, and remembers the android is missing. He sighs, and more to the Prefect-mercenary than anyone else, he begins talking again; "He was a good man, Dyradin was. Saved our hides, he did."

Hogan was never the master of mourning, especially when it came to androids he didn't know, but he'll be damned if he isn't going to try anyway.