The Raven Adventures: Morning After Hell

[00Kevin]

Nepal, Morning

The Previous Night had been hell on earth, but Marion wouldn't know, she was in Nepal the whole time

The Adventurer's were back now, all except 00Kevin, who would not be back for this adventurer, nor the next.....

Marion received a notice that 00Kevin would not be back for a while, she was mad, but Mike conviced her not to be angry, and not to ask questions

She opened the Door of the Raven and switched the Sign to 'Open', although it didn't really matter, there were plenty of drunks in the bar who had stayed overnight, they always do

Marion Gots the Beer ready, it would be difficult without 00Kevin to cook and everything, but she could manage

"Hey Marion!" one of the Ravener's shouted "drinking contest"

Marion could not turn that down...

[Strider]

And so the contest began, Marion beat three men in one go quite easily, it all went without interuption until the door blew wide open, standing there was a tall man bearing a five oclock shadow and a large video camera bag straped to his back. This man's name was Strider. His face bore a large jagged cut that was bleeding horribly and he had a slight limp. He stumbled down into a chair.
"Ravenwood! I need to speak to Ravenwood!" Strider shouted.
Marion walked over to Strider.
"Yeah, what do you want." she said.
"Nazis... They wanted... they...", Strider's words were cut short. He fainted to the ground.

[Finn]

(Guys, what I heard, the policy is that adventures must be sticked to one thread with no new ones opened before the previous one is locked by the upkeep. *Checks watch.* This thread ain't gonna live for long. Do yourselves a favor and move back to the original.)

[00Kevin]

(bogus.....my glorious ending *sobs*)

(for the record, I was never informed until now, so It should slide ;))

Marion layed the man down and grabbed the Med kit, started working, trying to get him to talk "What? what did they want?"

[Tennessee R]

A young man of about 20, maybe less, walks over the threshold of the bar.
"My, the establishment shouldn't leave the door open on such a windy morning."
He is well tanned, very tall, and quite thin for such a rugged appearance.
"Well, at least it is still warm...Hallo, what have we?"
He bent his almost lanky frame down beside the fainted stranger.
"My name is Tennessee," he proclaimed to everyone, without looking up.
After slapping the strangers face, and watching Marion dress his wounds, Tennessee grabbed a cup of water, andslung it into the face of this fainted man.
He seemed almost to stir, and for a moment, he seemed to awaken.
"What's the difficulty with him. Assuming from his wounds, it's not just too much to drink?"

[Strider]

Strider stirred on the floor for another moment and then sat up very fast and drew a gun. As a procuation Tennessee drew one as well. Strider looked around in a daze and then lowered his weapon.
"Sorry." He said relizing where he was.
"Your Ravenwood?" he asked.
Marion nodded. Strider winced in pain. And put his hand onto his knee.
"Bullit wound. I was stopped by about six Nazis a few hours ago. They began to beat me up but..." Strider smiled. "Well bub, lets just say we have six less Nazis to deal with. I don't know what they were doing in Nepal but they mentained your name Miss Ravenwood."

[Tennessee R]

"I don't suppose you know German, Uhh..Uhh.. I don't believe I caught your name.
It'd be good to know what those Nazis were planning."

Tennessee had already cut a hole in the knee of the strangers pants, with his giant 12" long knife strung to his belt, and Marion had begun treating the bullet wound.

[Strider]

"You can call me Strider, everyone does. I know a little German but not much, the Nazis hate me for some filming I did in Berlin so I try to steer clear of them. I'm in the freelance video business. I came up here to shoot mountains for some film there doin' in Hollywood. Some of the stuff my clients make me do is dangerous but it's worth it for the dough. I'm wanted in China, Mexico, Egypt for tapeing 'sacrid objects'." Strider said with a grin, apperantly proud he had a price on his head.

[Strider]

"From what I did understand they were trying to locate Miss Ravenwood." Said Strider.
"You been havin' trouble with the Nazi's miss?" Strider asked Marion.

[Magda]

Back in Poland...

Ameera rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of frustration while her blond friend went on with her whining. It was beginning to drive her insane - if she already wasn't there.

"Seriously, Circe, shut up before I shut you up myself!" Ameera yelled over the roar of the rain and thunder.

A flash of lightning lit up the forest for a split second before blackness choked the light again. The headlights of the Jeep had flickered and gone out a moment before. She did not know about Circe, but Ameera couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face.

"Where are you?!" Circe shouted in response while the sound of movement through mud reached the black-haired adventuress' ears.

It was then that Ameera looked up at a sudden tunnel of light to see several weapons cocked down at them. Crap.... It looked like this simple excursion to Warsaw was getting complicated by the minute.

[Finn]

Finn was slowly moving further into the woods, every minute becoming more and more certain that no human eye would spot or ear to catch him through the darkness and rain.

He had, however forgotten that he was not below the wind. If he had looked behind, he might have spotted a thick-haired, cross-breed dog with at least schaefer and something else in it jumping off from the back of the truck and rushing into the woods. It was no further than a few meters from Finn when he heard the barks, just to find himself lying on the wet ground few seconds later.

The rough-looking man grimaced when he felt a set of teeth jutting into his calf. The dog was tightly on him and the growl escaping through its muzzle told that it was not going to let go anytime soon.

Finn reached into the small of his back and pulled out the only weaponry he had brought with him, a Browning Hi-Power pistol. He pointed it at the animal's head and was just about to squeeze the trigger, when he got second thoughts. Just couldn't do it. He didn't consider the people who had trained the thing as hostiles, so he simply lowered the gun and waited.

A man emerged from the darkness and rain with a weapon in his hands. Judging by its outlines, Finn reckoned it as M1 Carbine, a little dated but still very reliable American semi-automatic rifle. Already the fact that the weapon was not Russian or German made him feel a lot more comfortable, in fact as much as a man lying in a wide puddle with a dog on his leg just could. The man did not carry any kind of light source, so they were not able to make out each other's features.

"Hello," he said to the fighter and smiled, despite the fact he almost surely knew it was useless. "Could you please tell this mutt here to stop ruining my Sunday finest?"

[VP]

VP heard a voice. "Hey, who the hell are you? And what are you doing to my dog?"

[Magda]

"What's going on?" Circe asked as she waded around the Jeep to Ameera.

"How the hell should I know?" Ameera answered. "I'll tell you one thing though. Somebody more or less is going to kill us."

"Again?"

[Finn]

"It's more like what your dog is doing to me," Finn replied.

Oh well, at least the fellow spoke English. And with a vaguely familiar accent too. But the teeth clawing the adventurer's leg prevented him from taking the thought any further.

[VP]

"Get up, you little maggot" VP said. "And no fancy moves. Throw your gun to me, or Max will bite your head off. Now come with me."

VP struck the barrel to Finn's back and they both walked to the road.

[Finn]

Finn tossed his Browning to the fighter and they slowly started strolling back to the road. He was about to comment something about reading a book called "How to Gain Friends and Influence", but the realization that he was in the worse end of the barrel made him reconsider.

For a moment, he really thought about making a runner, he would not have to gain too many meters and he would be in cover of the darkness again, but decided against it too. He still wouldn't be too far away for the guerilla not to nap him by simply idly firing to the direction he had last time been visible. And he still really didn't think to be in grave danger.

They arrived to the road and immediately gained a better vision of things since the scene bathed in the illumination provided by the truck's headlights. The men present really seemed like anti-fascist guerillas who were just waiting for the German invasion, or "Idle Pessimists" as the world liked to call them.

Finn had already been able to tell that the passengers in the Jeep had been women, but now that it became clear to him what women they were, he was not going to buy it. <i>In that locale of the civilized world that seemingly appears most isolated...</i> they were probably cursed to stay together forever or something.
He flashed the famous rogue smile once more and said: "Hello, Ameera."

[Magda]

As soon as she heard the voice of another man, Ameera immediately felt exasperated. There was no way she would escape in a ditch at gun point, and the only person who could possibly rescue the two women happened to be a captive himself... and the person Ameera loathed most.

"Go ahead, Finn, you can tell them to shoot us now," Ameera shouted.

[VP]

"So you two know each other?" VP said.

[Finn]

Finn was guided towards the truck and roughly pushed sitting on the truck's footboard. The man who had brought him from the woods blended into the backround and another fellow, seemingly the leader or something came standing in front of him.

"Who are you?" the guerilla asked strictly.
"A friend," Finn replied, not able to come up with any other answer that would be more appropiate.
"All right, friend... why were you sneaking in the woods and not helping the ladies out here?"
"The ladies' had a pretty reliable-looking help already," Finn came back and made a quick eye sweep to the fighters around him. "And besides, I have a tight schedule."
"Ah, an important man trying to reach a meeting even more important, and he's already late." The man's voice was seeping sarcasm.
"Something like that," Finn admitted and nodded, realizing that giving noncommittal answers would lead him nowhere. "I was trying to reach the border."
"You mean the one to the west?" the interrogator glanced over his shoulder to his men and made a gesture that told them Finn to be either nuts or a really bad liar.
"I don't see any other borders nearby," the Finnishman replied.
The interrogator looked him like a guy from the cuckoo's nest. "And why in hell would a man want to go there by his own will?"
"I have something to do there... and besides, I was not going to show the border guards my passport."
Finn eyed Ameera. Despite the fact they didn't exactly be dearest friends, he had noticed more than often that they shared an odd bond that almost allowed them to sense what the other one was thinking. Her face was clearly asking <i>do you know how to get us out of this mess?</i> and she obviously got his reply by judging the more-than-grumpy look that appeared on her features. <i>No, do you?</i>

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Harry had a hard, thinking look on his face. He was trying to process the information he had gotten from the man. After a moment, he gave an order to VP.

"VP, keep an eye on this guy. If he tries to pull anything, you've got Max and a gun."

He gestured to Moshe and I, and we walked off just enough for us to whisper out of earshot.

"Well...I guess we don't have much choice but to take them to the village. We're all wet and cold. There's no use in grilling him out here. I don't think the women are going to be trying anything."

"Should we try to get the Jeep out?" I asked.

"Nah. They can try to get what they want out of it, but there's no use in trying to pull it up with the truck--at least not tonight anyway."

He took a look around at the situation. VP was watching the man, with Max trained on him with curled upper lip. The women still waited in the black ditch, the headlights having faded.

"Moshe, go get the supplies rearranged in the truck bed so that there's room for as many more as you can. You can just stack them up and tie it down. That's gonna be all we can do. It's already a crowd with VP and Max back there.

"Ben, you and I are gonna get those two out of the ditch," he said with a pointed thumb.

Just as Moshe started to head off to his task, Harry added, "Have the gentleman sit in the bed with VP and Max."

"You got it," Moshe nodded with a grin.

[Finn]

Finn was ushered into the back of the truck. The man leading him down didn't shove him around, but was not going to make it gentle either. Upon sitting down behind a couple of crates that effectively blocked him from doing mad dashes out of the vehicle to the back. The dog jumped up to the bed as well and sat exactly opposite him; Finn swore that the animal flashed him a grin. The handler came in next and sat next to his loyal friend.

Couple of minutes later, Ameera and Circe were pushed in and two more guerillas joined them in the back too. Finn then heard how the doors of the cab were opened and the remaining two most likely climbed in. Then the old workhorse for a vehicle started to move. Finn eyed Ameera, but decided to say nothing, not sure if the reason was the carbine one of the fighters was still holding, or the expression on the dark-featured woman's face.

Finn tried to think for the best way out from his current predicament. He really had nothing against these guys, they were just delaying him and, according to his inner compass, taking him to a direction away from the border. Now, if he just could get out and gain ten meters of lead in the dark forest, the fighters would never see him again.

Finn quickly shooed the thought out from his mind however, he would do no good out in the woods without his equipment. And his backpack was strictly under the arm of one of the fighters. His gun was really not an issue - he had it with him more as a precaution than anything else. If he had to use it, he'd already scuffered up.

And then there were of course the women. Ameera and Circe weren't too big concerns however, Finn was sure the guerillas would do no harm to them unless they suddenly decided to throw a Sieg Heil on them. Of course, the girls would be ticked off if he just fled and let them behind - and even performing that was hard enough.

He decided to just sit still and wait. His best choice seemed to be to convince these guys that he really wasn't anything they should consider hostile. How - now that was a completely different issue.

Then, suddenly, the truck skidded to a halt. They had driven with steady speed and according to the condition of the road, they were not in the village yet. It was something else that had stopped the journey. Finn stretched all of his senses to the brim to pick up every possible piece of info from the outside he just could.

[Tom Jones]

“Just what I need, more rain. As if my day can't get any worse.” The voice had come from behind the wheel of a borrowed Roles Royce as it barreled down one of the many dark back roads of Poland.

This had been one of the few times in his life that he had trusted his old friend Marcus Brody and it had turned into an absolute nightmare. And now as he sped down the slick roadway through the growing fog he cursed himself for not figuring out the whole scheme to begin with.

A few days ago the intrepid archeologist had made his way to an old mid-evil castle, the location of an exhibit of ancient art and literature. It was supposed to be a, “walk in the park occasion,” Marcus had assured. Just attend the showing and make sure everything went smoothly. But as soon as he arrived in Poland luck seemed to conspire against him.

Thunder roared outside while the rain’s light drizzle quickly turned into a strong downpour around the sports car as it sprinted on through the fog filled forest ahead.

“I need a vacation,” Tom Jones sighed as he reluctantly slowed when prone figures came into view from down the twisting road.

“Aw, Christ. Now what?” he muttered to himself through the booms of thunder and rattles of pouring rain above.

The group was standing in the middle of the road with their attention drawn to a truck pulled over to the side.

“Maybe I can slip past without them noticing too much.” Jones said aloud trying to reassure himself.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Harry had suddenly stopped at the sight of smoke seeping out of the hood. Now he had given the strangers permission to get up and stretch their legs. The drive wasn't too far at all, but they would be cramped in the truck bed the whole time, and now they were allowed to get up--with VP and Max right behind.

We ended up clustering in the middle of the road, watching Harry and Moshe fix the truck. I would've helped, but the two men had much more experience, and we needed to get to the village.

It was a bit awkward just standing there, tapping the mud with the toes of my shoes, watching the clearly irritated group of strangers who all seemed to have some connection. I was, therefore, grateful to get a diversion: two beams of light slicing through the trees.

"Hey, there's a car coming," I said, pointing in that direction.

I whistled.

A Rolls-Royce.

Harry looked up from the innards of the truck.

"What in the world's a Rolls-Royce doin' out here?" he wondered aloud. A brief moment of thinking. The car was getting much closer. Finally Harry came to a decision. "Everyone stay in the road. Guys, hide your guns. Let's see what this is all about."

[Tom Jones]

“Hey, you. Stop.” Jones heard these words faintly from inside the warm interior of the sky blue luxury car.

“Oh great, now I’m going to miss my flight.” Tom grumbled as he saw the reason for all the people in the road. A large Burk tree had just been struck by lightning and had fallen across the roadway and a group of men were trying in vain to clear a path onward. A truck was also smoking off to the side of the road.

One of the men had spotted the archeologist unsuccessfully trying to drive past but there was nowhere for the car to go. As the man came up to his window, Jones considered just flooring the car and drive right through both him and the tree in frustration. But he decided that that wouldn’t get him any closer to home then he would be if he just waited.

The man then tapped on the window and pointed to the tree blocking anyway further.

“What, do I look that dumb?” Tom asked himself in disbelief that the man didn’t know he’d seen the tree.

He rolled down the window a crack as rain poured in from outside. “What do you want, I see the tree.”

“Sir, I just came to tell you that it will be several more minutes before the tree is cleared.”

“That’s just wonderful,” Jones mumbled sarcastically. “Thanks.” He there for rolled back up the window and waited, deep in thought.

His eyes followed the whole of the tree and he shook his head. “This is the last time I a do a favor for Marcus. He can have Indy do it for him next time.”

That was when he saw the lock on the back of the smoking truck jostle up and down. He then took a glance at one of the men next to the truck and saw the telltale bulge of a M1 Carbine. That can’t be regular cargo they’re hauling, Tom thought as he grabbed his felt fedora from off the cushioned seat beside him. Opening the glove compartment he pulled out his own Smith & Wesson revolver. When he was sure none of the men were looking his way he slowly opened up the driver’s side door and plunged off into the darkness of the night.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"No sign of suspicious activity," Harry announced when he had returned from the car. "I'm still not comfortable about this. A Rolls-Royce out here?" With that, he just shook his head and sighed.

"So what did you do?" Moshe asked.

"Oh, I came up and told him it would be a few minutes before the tree was cleared. Got a good look around. Visually it checked out. Who knows what he could've been hiding, though."

It was only a matter of moments before I turned around in my aimless waiting to check out the Rolls-Royce from a distance.

That's odd.

I squinted. I took a few steps closer. The door was open, and the man was gone.

"Hey, he's gone!"

Harry cursed under his breath and ran up towards the woods.

"VP! See if you can find him! Don't go too far, but do your best! Ben, you can take over watch on the stranger here."

In a moment, VP and Max had started into the woods, and I was on guard duty. I turned to the man.

"Nice night, huh?"

[Finn]

In this completely new situation, Finn's head was quickly calculating the odds. With the dog and its handler with no less than a meter away from them all the time, running, or even trying to reach the vicinity of woods by "accidentally strolling" that way were out of counts.

Then the Rolls arrived. For a second, a thought of finding an unlikely ally in the luxury car's driver visited in his mind, but he soon came to other thoughts. He didn't want to mix an innocent trespasser into this, and he still heavily objected by going into a war against people he didn't truly consider as his enemies.
"Nice night indeed," he told to the young man now guarding him. "Nice, rainy night."

He had to find a way to win the guerillas' confidence on his side.
And then he suddenly knew exactly how to do it.

Pushing the dog and the man with the carbine, plus the young watcher somewhere deep to the back of his mind he walked with a determined gait to the two men scracthing their heads by the truck engine.
"Lemme see," he said, nearly pushing the other one of them aside.
Finn's father had been a policeman, and as a kid one of his favorite places had been the department carage, where the few rare vehicles there was to be found in Finland by that time were filled up and fixed. A car mechanic's job had not become a career for him, but up to his fifteenth birthday he had learnt a thing or two about all kinds of engines.
"Lend this," he said to the other man, grabbing a wrench off the man's hand.
The guerillas found themselves incapable to mouth out any kind of objection towards his doings. After couple of minutes' intense work with the engine, he turned to the other one of the fighters.
"Rev her up," he ordered.

The fighter climbed into the cab and turned the ignition. The motor didn't exactly purr like a cat, but judging by the sound coming from it, the job Finn had done was well enough to keep the truck moving.
"Now," he said, handing the wrench back to the hand of the man who appeared as the leader of the group. "We're not enemies. Actually, we have some common ones... And I'm going to cross that border there," he stated and pointed west, "sooner or later, preferably sooner."
Finn eyed Ameera and Circe gaiting around in the rain, wondering if he ever had stayed around the wrecked Jeep for that long if he hadn't realized its passengers as women.
"By the way," he continued, not turning to face the leader again. "When the dog caught me, I was armed. I could have easily shot the mutt and disappear into that darkness and rain without you catching a sight of me. But instead, I'm here now, far from where I should be. And why? Ask yourself that."

When he had said these words, he calmly walked to the back of the truck. And turned to the young man, even managing to smile. "Then again, this night could be a lot nicer."

[westford]

"Hey Marion!" called Westford, staggering over to the bar and trying not to bleed on the floor, "Got any tequila? Or whisky, I'm not fussed... Oh, and a bandage or two?"

"What the hell happened to you, West?" said Marion, smirking.

"Uh, well, y'know that cheap engine I got for my plane in India?"

"Yup," said Marion, sliding a first aid kit along the bar.

"Turns out there was a reason it was cheap," said Westford, struggling to open the med kit with broken fingers.

"Uh-huh, it cut out on you?" asked Marion, pouring a double measure.

"Erm, no... not exactly," said West, looking hopefully at the glass of whisky.

"So what happened?" said Marion, downing the drink and pouring herself another.

"Well, it kinda exploded and blew a hole in floor of the plane," said Westford with a sigh.

"That's not good," said Marion, passing the second whisky over.

"New lipstick, huh?" said Westford, looking suspiciously at the heavily marked glass. Marion grabbed it back, muttering something about an ungrateful wretch. Westford ignored her. "No, it's not good," she continued, "And the heap of rust fell into the ocean, so I can't even take it back for a refund."

"Heap of rust? Isn't that the name of your plane?" said Marion, sniggering.

"Mar, shut up and gimme a drink," said Westford, annoyed. "In a clean glass..."

[Strider]

Strider, now recovered from his injurys but still with a slight limp hobbled over to the bar.
"Another injured guy, heh heh, that seems to happen alot around here." he said.
"You have no idea." Marion replied.
Strider turned toward Westford.
"My names Stri-" But Strider was cut off. About seven nazis entered the bar.

[westford]

"Aw man..." muttered Westford, "Marion, I thought you'd given that job up!"

"I didn't invite them!" Marion snapped back. "Can we help you gentlemen?" she said, turning to the arrivals.

"They don't look very gentle to me..." said Westford to Strider.

[Strider]

"You can say that again bub." Said Strider slowly pulling out his revolver.

[Indy's_main_man]

They pointed to Leslie, sitting at the bar, and demanded a drink. "I don't work here" the words came out slightly slurred. "you do now" said the german, reaching for something in his pocket. He was about 5' 12 and he appeared to be the brains of the nazi operation. He pulled the object from his coat pocket.

[westford]

Spotting Strider's gun, a couple of the Nazis opened fire.

Westford clambered over the bar to shelter from the bullets while she tried to get her gun from its holster. "Useless broken fingers..." she muttered. "Why does this place always come under attack when I'm injured!?" She pulled some bandages off, and used her least broken hand to hold the gun. "I think you should know, I can't shoot for **** with my left hand!" she yelled to Strider before firing wildly at the Nazis.

[Strider]

Strider leaped behind a table knoking down a Nazi.

[Strider]

"I'll cover for you" Strider yelled back.

[westford]

"Hope you're a better shot than me!" said Westford, who was now out of bullets and hadn't hit anything except the wall and a bottle of gin which was dripping onto the floor.

[Strider]

"I've had experience!" Strider replied.

[westford]

Westford grabbed some cutlery from a box on the floor and started throwing it at the soldiers. "You got any better ideas?" she said to Strider, who was looking at her as though she was crazy.

[Strider]

"I got a couple!" shouted Strider, picking up a bottle of Gin and smashing it on the nearest Nazi.

[Indy's_main_man]

Leslie threw a soldier over the bar, his head smashing through a wooden keg

[Strider]

Strider picked up the fallen Nazi's gun and threw it to Marion. Reloading, he threw himself behind a table, firing all the way.

[Strider]

Seeing Westford's handicap Strider ran over to her and shoved a loaded machine gun into her right hand.
"Here a gun! Use it!" yelled Strider as a nazi came charging towards them with two pistals. Strider whirrled around and punched the nazi in the face.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

(I'm a little confused, now. VP and Max went out into the woods, VP being the dog. In order for there to have been two guys in the woods, Moshe would've had to have gone out there and gotten beaten up. Harry was at truck. If Moshe was either at the hood or with the women, he couldn't go out there, and I was guarding Finn.)

[Finn]

(Yeah, that's how it goes, Ben... 'cept Max is the dog and VP the man [and I listed there to be five guerillas a long time ago, so there could practically be two guys in the woods], but that's still one confusing post. We better wait for a while so Tom can bring this thing more understandable.)

[Ben Friend of Indy]

(Woops! :p Yes, Max is the dog. Okay. Well, I suppose I could write it that since you fixed the truck, Harry allowed Moshe to go get VP, and now I'm assigned to watch the women. Hm. I don't know. I guess we should wait for Tom.)

[Finn]

(Let's just do that. Little wait hurts no one. Patience, my young padawan.)

[VP]

(The Führer is not a patient man. He demands constant reports and he expects progress.)

[Finn]

(But you dare not to report about mess-ups to him. You better fix them first.)

[westford]

"Sorry about the mess Marion," said Westford, after they'd removed the bodies.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it," muttered Marion, lighting a cigarette.

"Any chance of a drink?"

"What do you think West?" replied Marion, glancing at the carnage behind the bar.

"Oh, right..." said Westford sheepishly, noticing the broken shelves and smashed bottles everywhere. "I guess I can't aim too well with a machine gun either..."

"Y'think?"

"I'll go get some more crates from the basement," said Westford, "Then we can fix those shelves." Marion cleared her throat loudly. "Actually, I'll fix the shelves, and you can have a drink and put your feet up," Westford added quickly, heading for the cellar door before Marion could respond.

[Magda]

Meanwhile

"I could use a drink right about now," Ameera murmured as she leaned against the truck and folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to feel comfortable.

Comfortable. Yeah, right. Her clothes were caked with mud and damp like an old soggy rag. She had been in worse conditions, but Circe seemed to be taking it worse.

Circe whispered something, her voice choked in indication that she was about to bawl again, and Ameera could see why. Her hair was dripping wet, specks of mud sticking to her face like a second skin while she trembled underneath clothes twice as wet as Ameera's. The blond haired beauty looked up and said, her voice audible, "I could use a hot bath, clean dry clothes, and a massage right now,"

Ameera rolled her eyes. Circe and her pampered ways - her standards were too high, as usual. With a bit of luck and persuasion the Egyptian woman, on the other hand, would be able to get a bottle of booze off of one of the goons in no time.

[Finn]

Finn was getting annoyed, too. The Rolls stood along the road, all abandoned. In his mind, he cursed the dog handler who had carried his big gun for all the people to see and made the fellow, whoever he was, flee into the woods.

He eyed towards the pitch black, soaking forest, but was not able to see the animal handler or Max, but he did hear the dog barking somewhere in the darkness. The four remaining guerillas seemed to be let him move more freely now that he had made the good deed of the day and used his youth-gained mechanic skills to fix their vehicle.

He took advantage of the fighters' loosened leash immediately as he walked to the spot where road turned to woods and shouted: "Time to leave! Let that damn rabbit run, and get back here!"

Finn turned around and went back to the truck and leant against it. The leader of the group gave him an odd eye which made him to predict that perhaps he had performed something that was yet little too bold for a man in his position.
"Could we now please leave and get to that warm and cozy torture chamber of yours?" he asked with a voice that expressed major annoyance.

[Magda]

Ameera watched Finn with amusement. He was using the wrong approach. Oh, the benefits of being a woman.

"Watch a pro," she hissed at Finn before whistling for the four goons to come over.

Circe's eyes widened and her mouth dropped in the meantime. What is she doing!?!? she thought. These thugs looked like they could break both of them in half, if not into fourths with their bare hands! She preferred to avoid them as much as possible. Ameera, of course, had to do things her own way.

"Ameera! Don't...!" the blond whispered.

"Shh!"

[Finn]

Originally posted by Tom Jones
All right I've made all the necessary changes and I’m sorry for all the confusion I caused you guys.
Thank you, Tom, but... did you read the PMs I sent to you?

There was an important lesson about god-modding, telling you not to describe any major actions of your fellow roleplayers' characters. Your fixes are a direction to the better, but it still contains this nasty little problem, so, as we see, have taken only the first post of that three-post serie into the "official" plot and let the others one be.

Sorry.

[Finn]

Finn leant against the truck hull and folded his arms. He looked down to Circe, the woman's blonde hair seemed to glitter even in a darkness like this.

"Now this is one lovely evening," he stated and looked down to the blonde, smiling wryly. "In a nice weather, in the most romantic setting ever, I am going to watch how my wife tries to break her record and charm four guys at one try."

[Magda]

"I already broke that record, sweet cheeks," Ameera said as she approached the four men dubiously stalking in her direction. Looking over her shoulder, she added, "I'm still never drinking alone with you again. You remember that, Finn..." Walking away, she said under her breath. "...It's the reason why I don't drink absinthe anymore. Jesus, if I did I'd probably end up with four kids."

[Tom Jones]

(Yeah I just read em. I deleted my last three posts and I've decided to take you're advice.

You're right in saying that I took things a bit to far. At some points I realized this but just wanted to have a really good action packed post. I shouldn't have been controlling other people the way I was and I'm sorry.

But now I've learned my lesson and will try to be less controlling, moving along with the plot rather then trying to change it every few posts.

Thanks Finn.)

[Finn]

(It's all okay now Tom. Thanks. Just play it nice in the future. Your skills are excellent.)

[Finn]

Finn sat on the truck's stepboard and tried to enjoy the rain, which he would have found refreshing under nearly any other circumstances. Now, however it was nothing but a pest, like was the dog still barking in the dark forest. He had fixed the truck back in a condition it could run, he knew that all they were waiting for was the dog handler to emerge again from the woods.

He didn't have a faintest idea what the fighters thought about him now. He had been a nice boy and even helped them a bit. Any guns were not pointed in his direction any more so he considered it a mark on the list under title "improvements".

"Now when I think of it, I should have knocked her up when I still had the chance," he muttered bitterly to Circe.

[Magda]

Circe switched her gaze back and forth from Finn to Ameera, who was currently holding a conversation with the four men. She had known the origins of their long nasty feud. It was funny, really, observing the adventuress now toting what looked to be a flask in her hand. It amazed Circe that she still even touched alcohol.

"Y'know, I think it's more of a cruelty towards the kid than to Ameera," the blond murmured as a soft smile played upon her sweet lips.

[Finn]

Finn looked into the group's direction. Somewhere, a small and faint source of light hit the flat metal object on his wife's hand. He immediately recognized it, finally getting an answer where the flask with silver engravings he had gotten from his father on his 17th birthday had disappeared.

He did have a good idea about the includings of the bottle as well. Ameera hardly changed her taste once she had gotten into liking of something. Well, men excluded.

"I think I should be flattered. She still favors my family's special brew," he uttered to Circe, as a faulty try to lessen the mood.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

(Just one note: it's three guys without VP: Harry, Moshe, and me. Now on with the story.)

At this point fairly confident that none of the group was going to run off, we had drifted toward the entrance of the woods, periodically calling out for VP.

Moshe turned and pointed. The dark-haired woman was headed in our direction.

"What the heck is she doing?" I asked Harry.

"I'm not sure, but keep your guard up, guys. We don't know these people, and who knows what they may try."

We called out to VP and looked back. The woman was getting closer. The man who had fixed the truck and the pretty blond were talking by the truck. After a moment, Moshe did a double take.

"Did he just say something about the woman coming to us being his wife?!"

"They sure looked cozy in the truck," I remarked sarcastically.

"All the more reason to be cautious. They may be in cahoots--but the question is are they for us or against us? Just be careful, guys."

[Kate]

I would add to the story but I am very confused. Please feel free to add me to the adventures. :)

[Ben Friend of Indy]

a) I would advise sending Finn a PM for details on what's going on. I'm in a rush, and can't give a synopsis or look up what page we started on (it started in another thread).
b) If we end up getting to the village (which I think we will), we could probably work you in there.

[Strider]

Meanwhile, at The Raven:
Things were settleing down again. Most people were drinking, talking, or sleeping. Strider was over at the bar talking to Marion, he had had far to many drinks since the fight.
"And then they told me...*burp*...Why video tape when you can eat...Ha ha ha!" he said drunkedly.
Marion took a good long look at Strider and then splashed him in the face with a bucket of water. Strider stood motionless for a minute and then looked around. A woman had just entered the bar. And walked over to the counter.
"Hello!" said Strider(now aware of where he was and what had happened)
"You ain't another Nazi are you honey?" he asked.
"No, my name is Kate." she replied.

[Strider]

(I can always go back and edit this if you would rather come in in a differant place Kate.)

[Kate]

Excellent, Strider, thank you! :)

[Strider]

:)

[Magda]

"I heard she won't touch anything that's even close to Finnish," Circe snickered. She brushed some mud off of her designer skirt and added. "She prefers Polish or Russian vodka above all else."

[Finn]

Finn shook his head and grinned. "I know exactly what's in that flask. She may not be drinking it herself, much, but I yet know her too well. She isn't stupid enough to give away a secret weapon like that."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

She was upon us. Harry was the first to speak up.

With sarcasm detectable only by Moshe and I, Harry asked, "Yes, ma'am?"

[Finn]

(Oh yeah, just for tabs: it really is four guerillas, not three.)

<i>Four guerillas, three fates to go, two damsels in distress and one husband on killing spree... Merry Christmas to all!</i> <small>...ahem. Continue.</small>

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I made an edit on my next to last post (it's on the previous page). Look at it before continuing.

[Finn]

Finn watched calmly as Ameera offered the flask to the man he assumed the leader of the group. But all his wife got was just a light shake of head in return.

He was getting bored. With the dog handler still chasing the Rolls guy in the woods, and his wife trying to pull off God knows what with the fighters, he was really stuck. Not unless...

<i>Of course, why not?</i>
Finn stood up and walked to the back of the truck. He climbed in and found his backpack sitting exactly there where he had left it the last time. He dug out his flashlight and checked the right direction from the compass and that all of his stuff in the backpack was still intact. It was just a precaution, since he hadn't really noticed the guerilla holding his bag to do any kind of search to it during the ride.

He climbed out of the bed and set the backpack onto him. Only thing missing was his gun - the dog handler still had it. But Finn considered it as a minor setback, since he was really intending to do sneaking, not shooting. He wouldn't feel quite as safe without the Browning, but that was more him than the situation anyway.

He eyed Circe once more. The blonde had not yet said a thing, but Finn was able to guess the question she was about to ask: <i>Where the hell you think you're going?</i>

"To the Reich," he replied shortly and started to head towards the dark line of woods before him.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

The woman was offering us alchohol! I knew there was no chance of that working on us, and Harry was handling the situation well. I looked off into the distance--wait! What was that?

Another runaway! Crap! No time to alert everyone now. This was a chance to prove myself! Without a word to anyone, I ran out there to the direction the man was running--hoping I wouldn't take as long as VP was. Hopefully, if I didn't slip, I could catch up to him.

Sure enough, I made it down the hill. He couldn't have made it in that far yet! I flicked on my handy flashlight and started in, trying to maintain as much of my previous speed as I could, despite the nagging claws of the forest trying to pull me back. I waved the flashlight around, and the light hit him several yards ahead. Hearing the sounds of my pursuit, he had begun running.

I intended him no harm. In fact, now that he had helped us, I wanted to make checks as quickly as possible to make sure he was an ally (or at least not a foe). If he was all right, then I surely I would prove that I was a man worthy of the others' respect by getting the man across the border and back! That was it!

"Wait! Hold on!"

He didn't slow.

"Stop! I can get you across the border!"

[Finn]

Finn had heard someone following him. Of course, he had actually awaited that. So that's why he had stopped at the moment he had made it down the hill and took just a couple of steps sideways from the place he had stood and hit the ground. Nearly thirty years' experience of moving on grounds like it were not going to fail him. He would just going to be easier to spot and catch if he ran and made noise.

It was the young man. He stumbled down, stood up and started waving around his flashlight, finally bringing the shaft created by it more stabile. Through his eyes already used to the dark Finn noticed movement in the direction the young gun was looking.

He slowly stood up. He was two steps behind the young man's back, who was indeed very very lucky. If the guerillas had treated them in a manner any worse, the last thing the kid would have felt during his short life was the Finnishman's arm breaking his neck.

"I don't think that deer is going to stop, no matter how hard you yell after it," he said, not having any intention to harm the boy.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I spun around, shocked. Who had been ahead of me?! I made a quick analysis of the man, and finally settled on what to do.

"Don't do anything, I'm just going to see if that's our missing man," I assured him, quickly.

The man nodded.

"VP?! VP?!"

No answer. I could only assume it had been the man who had run from the Rolls. I faced a nice little dilemma, but realized that I was better suited to just stick with this man. For one thing, I would have been as good as letting the man I was with off if I chased the other, and for another, the odds were not as good that I would've caught up with the other man.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, I turned back to the man who had fixed the truck. I decided to try bargaining with him, and hoped I didn't sound too childish and pleady--no matter how much it actually was.

"Look. I know this may seem bad to you, but we can't be too careful out here. I'm gonna pretty much level with you--I mean it's not like you haven't figured out who we are and all that. I need you to cooperate. If you're not a Nazi--and I'm pretty confident you're not--then I can help you. I just need you to cooperate with me. We'll get VP back and head to the village. We can get warm there, stock up, and take a vehicle up to the border. I know secrets that will make the way faster and easier. Just stick around, and you'll get there. I know this may not mean much now but you have my word on it. What do you say?"

[Finn]

Finn shrugged. It had been a wise move from the boy to check out who had moved ahead of them, despite the fact Finn's eyes that were already completely used to the dark had clearly made out the outlines of a deer.
"I say that turn off that flashlight," he stated finally. "In a place like this, it's not any use. Instead, you're making yourself a target."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I started.

"Whoa, right!"

The flashlight was off in a split second.

I stood for a moment, trying not to seem like a child waiting for someone to do something like tell them a surprise. The man was making no moves to run off, but he wasn't saying anything just yet, either. I made up my mind, though. I would have to wait and see what he said in his own time. At any rate, though, I figured--or, hoped--that he would be coming to the village. But that was all I could at the moment. Hope, and wait, as he just stood there, apparently thinking.

[Finn]

Finn pondered about his options. Now, he was certain of just one thing; he was not going back to the road. The kid instead was something completely different. He seemed not to find him a threat anymore, so maybe... but would he really be able to stand all the trouble dragging the boy with him would bring?

Then he remember certain another, unsure boy standing in dark woods, waiting for a command to follow the man with him across the small opening that separated two states from each other and blinked. The kid was not doing any good if still wrapped in cotton, after all.

Finn grunted. "Do you have a gun?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I grinned. My situation seemed to be beginning to improve.

"Right here," I said, pointing to my rifle, "and a pistol, too."

[Finn]

Finn held out his hand. "Good. Give that smaller piece to me."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I still wasn't sure of the man, although my confidence was fairly boosted.

"Why? What do you need it for?"

[Finn]

"I'm going to tuck it here in my belt, against the small of my back," Finn explained as it was the simplest thing in the world. "And if I find something that appears a threat to us, I may use the piece against it."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Wait a minute... now what?

"But I just told you, we can go back to the village, get supplies, warm up, and head out. You're not talking about leaving now, are you?"

[Finn]

Finn knew he had no time for any further detour. He was sticking to his original plan, which was to reach and cross the border on foot. He was not going to start arguing with the boy about the manner he would handle the task at hand.

"Now, listen up. It's fair to warn you about your options," he told the kid. "Inside the next minute, you can be lying there on the ground, out cold, and once you wake up I'll be nowhere in sight. Or... you can hand that gun over to me and follow me into the darkness. The choice is all yours."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Oh, crap. Now what do I do? I tried to think. I didn't want to abandon the others, but now I didn't have much of a choice. I still wanted to go, but...Oh, man. The dilemma was a harsh one, and I was freezing wet. All right. The man seemed reasonable enough. I would try one more thing.

"Okay, now don't knock me out just yet, okay? Look, I'm in good with the leader of the group, Harry, out there, okay? Could I talk to him? Try to work this out? Or...at the very least," I began to struggle, pausing..."could you let me sneak out there, get to that woman you were talking to, give her a message to give to Harry, and then we leave? I really don't want to have to do that, but if I absolutely must, I will." I looked down, gritting my teeth. I ha ted it coming to this point, but there was something about this. I knew I had to go--one way or the other.

[Finn]

Finn snorted. "Now, trust me when I say that I don't have the time or patience to do it this way. And my wife... if you really were watching after us, you know that she'll be better off without me."

Now it had been the time to do it, the kid had performed one more mistake by standing in an arm's reach from him, his pistol tucked away and the rifle slung on his back. But Finn didn't move in. Instead, he simply pushed past the young man and started walking down into the darkness.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

The man brushed past me and walked off, just like that. I looked back, then down. My lips trembled. A tear dropped to the ground. Oh, man, this was hard. My head hurt. Before I took my first step, I whispered, "Goodbye, Harry. Don't be too mad when I come back, okay?"

With that, I moved ahead, calling soberly and quietly, "I'm coming."

But then I paused, with the man continuing to walk on in the woods. Hmm... Did I dare?

"Would you hurt me if I asked you a question?"

[Finn]

Finn didn't turn or even stop, but simply kept on walking. Of course it was odd, he was hurrying from a minor annoyance to a major danger. But then again, that was him.
"I never hurt a man for asking a question," he called out. "However, if it appears not as a proper one, you might be left without an answer."

A wry smile played about his lips as he pushed deeper into the darkness, hearing another pair of boots coming right on his heels. <i>You don't have to follow me, kid. You can still feel free to go back.</i>

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Fair enough. I started to cheer up. This could work.

"What about this? Could I go back, leave the message, and come back to rejoin you. I don't expect you to wait for me, this is simply a matter if if I could find you."

[Finn]

Finn kept on going with his determined pace. "You couldn't," he stated, and knew that the kid was smart enough not to think otherwise. "You don't have more than two options now. You keep following me or you go back. To me, either way suits."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

He was now a decent distance ahead of me. I was stuck there, dumbfounded at the choice I was about to make. It felt awful to just leave the others like this. But I knew this was my chance, looking me in the eye. If I could get this man across the border and get back, on my own, without the support of any of the other guerillas, then surely I would earn some respect that way. Surely I would. Wouldn't I?

Finally I decided, speedily walking up to the man and pulling out my pistol.

"Here," I said, holding the pistol out with the handle facing him.

[Finn]

Finn came to a halt. The kid stood there, holding out the weapon he had requested with the handle on him. He took a grip of the gun and checked it. It was a Colt 1911 A, modified especially for the army by the American manufacturer. A good gun using 45-caliber rounds with surely enough stopping power. It was a little down that it wasn't a 9 mm, because now he carried a pair of useless spare clips for the Browning he had had.

He looked up to the young man from under his brows. "Do you have a name, kid?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Ben," I said. "What about you?"

[Finn]

"Now, Ben..." Finn started, then suddenly, with no warning raised the weapon and took the young man's head on his aim at a point-blank range, cocking the firing pin. "...never, ever give a loaded weapon to a man if you don't know his name or intentions."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

My heart began beating rapidly. I had to think fast. As quickly and fluidly as I could, shaking from the sudden scare, I grabbed his wrist with my left hand and twisted the gun away from me as I got behind him, pulling his arm back with the gun pointed at the ground. In this position, to avoid risk of him kicking me, I grabbed his other hand and leapt on him, forcing him to the ground. I was now on top of him, legs secured, with my head lifted up so he couldn't nail me with the back of his head, and the gun pointed to the left.

As I began to smash his gun hand against a nearby tree root, I said, "And you, my good man, ought to know better than to hold a gun at someone at that close range when their hands are free."

[Finn]

It was the second time Finn found himself lying on the wet soil during that night, this time however toppled down by a man, not a dog. But this time, the experience was almost pleasant.

He let go of the gun voluntarily, then quickly braced his hands against the ground as he made a sudden, jolting move reminding a push-up that shook the position of the young man who had braced himself on top of him. As a fluid continuation to the push-up, he bent his legs like a frog as his other hand took a grip of the gun again before he lept, shaking the young gun off him. He made a couple of quick rolls and ended up lying on his side, the weapon aimed at his companion again, this time from a safe distance however.

"And you should never get into a fight with a man who has better imagination than you do," he panted, obviously exhausted. "But I want you know to one thing. I had earlier in all three chances to make someone of you to kick the bucket. First when I was armed and the dog was on me. Second time when I was holding a wrench while fixing that truck, and your friend had bent over me. A little swing and... you know. My last chance came when I appeared two feet behind you in the darkness... I could have snapped your neck like a twig."

He rose on his knees, all the time remembering to keep his aim. "But I used none of these chances, so I want you to know that you can trust me. You have good reflexes Ben, and you're obviously a fast thinker. I find you rather an ally than an enemy. And... if I'm ever going to shoot you, it will happen so that we're both facing each other and be armed."

He had now risen all the way to his feet, then suddenly pointed the gun up, put the safety back on, tucked it into his belt and held out his hand for the young man to get up. "They call me Finn, by the way."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I grinned and clasped Finn's hand, and he pulled me up. I was taken aback at the character of this man, and that was what made me grin. I found it refreshing and uplifting that a man older and more experienced in the world than I granted me such compliments. This was certainly a far cry from the ribbing I had received among the guerillas. Still, I did wish for a proper goodbye, and to let Harry know what was happening. But I pushed those thoughts off as much as I could. I began to turn to Finn, when I heard from my left, "Freeze!" It was Harry. He must have come in after me!

"Harry!" I exclaimed, but then I realized what Harry's intentions would surely be. Without even looking to see what either man was doing, I yelled out, "Wait! Nobody shoot!"

[Finn]

Finn spun his head around and saw the leader of the guerillas emerging from the woods. He had just tucked away his gun and the thought of going for it didn't even visit his head full of experience on lower hand situations.

The night was wearing off; the darkness that had surrounded them just moments ago was now turning more and lighter in shades of the dusk violet, and the rain that had battered on them all night had reduced down to a minor drizzle, the early birds in the woods around them were already chirping out their joy of being alive.

Finn just stood there. He despised the idea about the crude forest trail to turn into a scene of death as passionately as the other two men present.

He said nothing; the ball was on Ben. He would sort it out. Or that was at least what he hoped.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I was glad to see that Finn wasn't taking any action. Now all that I needed to do was settle things with Harry, and that shouldn't have been too hard.

"Harry, this guy's all right," I said, trying to first calm Harry into getting the gun off of Finn.

"What are you talking about? I just came in as he trained the gun on your head!"

"It was just a lesson, Harry." A very unexpected lesson, but simply a lesson, nonetheless. "You don't have to worry about him. He could have offed Max, Moshe, me--but he didn't!"

"What?" He still had the rifle aimed at Finn, but his face changed from stone to perplexed clay.

"He had several opportunities. Calm down. He's okay."

Harry pondered this a moment, and then his arms dropped to his sides.

"Well, come on. We've got to find VP and Max and get to the village. Bring him with you," Harry said, turning to head back.

"I...I'm not going to the village, Harry."

"What?"

"At least I don't think so. We may stop for supplies, but I don't know if that's where we would stop."

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"I mean...I'm going with him. I'm going to help him get across the border. Harry, this is my chance. I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I have an opportunity that I will probably never have again. If I can get across the border with him and back, then everyone would see that I am capable and worthy of their respect. I have to do this, Harry." I hated to plead, especially after I had just won the respect and alliance of Finn, but... "Please, Harry. I'm going, but I would appreciate your approval."

"Ben, it's hard out there! What if you didn't make it?!"

"Then I won't make it! But I believe I will."

I waited for what seemed like an eternity and a half, though Finn's patience proved otherwise, and then Harry nodded.

"All right. Go. Don't get yourself hurt, Ben."

It was a tender moment. Harry and I moved in for a quick bearhug.

"I won't."

"Bye."

"Bye, Harry."

And that was it. Harry walked back out of the woods, and it was back to just me and Finn.

[Finn]

Finn gave an odd eye to Ben and saw that the young man was about to say something, when he put his finger up and spun around.
"I didn't see or hear anything of that," he said, digging out the compass. It was time to head west again.

He had a new set of worries, however. Ben had talked about supplies, and it had hit Finn that there was enough of them in his backpack to make one man stay alive in the woods.

But there was two of them now. He had to work it out somehow, but at the moment the best action seemed still to stick with the original plan. No detours.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I realized that we were going to be on the move. He had mentioned we didn't have time to stop. I didn't have anything on me except for my rifle, my clothes, and a pocketknife. I turned around.

"Harry!"

"Yeah?" He was at the entrance to the woods.

"When you get to the village, have them radio to all our checkpoints to get food, clothing, weapons, ammo, any supplies possible ready. We're going to be on the move."

"You bet."

"Don't worry about me."

I ran back up to Finn, already walking west. The journey had begun.

[Finn]

A sly smile was playing on Finn's lips as he trotted ahead. Perhaps the kid would be of some real use, after all. His clothes were all soaking wet thanks to the rain, the amount of rations was minimum since he was used to live with minimum for days, and the gun against the small of his back contained just eight rounds, seven in the clip and one in the chamber.

As they had walked for a while, Finn took off the compass slung around his neck and tossed it to Ben.
"Now when I think of it, perhaps we could afford one little detour. And somehow I dwell on it's you now who's better off telling the directions."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I smiled, not in arrogance, but just good-natured pride in the compliments that were being given me. I was feeling better about this by the second.

"All right. Do you want to head to the nearest village or make some more progress first? I can go without food or dry clothes a little while longer if you can. Your choice."

[Finn]

Finn kept on pushing forward, without even bothering to eye Ben behind him.
"Listen, kid, I can go all the way to our destination like this if I need to. But if you now tell me that there is a place somewhere we could pass by and leave with little extra stuff in our pockets... <i>and</i> it's no longer than two hours of extra trotting, I'm not going to walk past it."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I continued to walk, leading the way in a path going ahead and on a slight leftward angle as I explained the route. "Well, going on the road we were maybe 10 kilometers off. We'll cut the time by cutting through the woods. Takes off a good kilometer or two this way. We just go parallel to the road through the woods, heading straight on. The road curves around the woods before it gets to the village, and that's where the extra distance comes in. It's a major checkpoint for the militia--my hometown."

[Finn]

Finn stopped for a moment to dig out a chart from his backpack. He found the village on it he assumed Ben was talking about and nodded. "It's just about fifteen kilometers from the border," he stated. "We can visit there and still reach the crossing before nightfall. Okay, Ben. Let's go and see your folks."

Finn tucked the map back into his bag, threw it onto his back again and took the compass from Ben, checking the new directions.

In two hours, they got the first shanty houses in their sights.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

It didn't take us long before the few homes peeking through the foliage had turned into the considerably larger cluster of buildings that I called my hometown. There were several small houses, and across the village was an old, two-story brick building: our target. I pointed to it.

"See that? That's our main building. We have supplies stored there, we pickup and dropoff, our branch of the militia meets there, and there's shelter there--as if the townspeople weren't hospitable enough to have you stay with them, no matter how cramped, as long as you aren't a Nazi."

[Finn]

"<i>Alles klar, ich verstehe</i>," Finn said silently to Ben and grinned. "Now, let's just hope your friends back in the woods have arranged us a warm welcome. After you, my yound friend."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

We broke through the woods, and we started through the town. Though it was early, we passed the occasional suspicious, early rising guerilla or townsperson, but all I had to do was give them a reassuring nod and thumbs up, and all was well.

Finally we reached the H.Q. The door was locked, and so I gave a good sturdy knock on the door. It took a moment for anyone to reach the door, when I heard "Who is it?"

"It's Ben."

The door opened speedily. It was Harry.

"Ben! I didn't expect you here..." he feigned a look that seemed to say, "Oops," but he continued with a smile, "but I made the preparations anyway! Come on in!"

We entered to what looked like a regular bar: dim lighting, vacant tables and benches, wood decor, nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing revealing there might be more was a door behind the bar to the right.

I turned to Finn.

"You want a drink?"

[Finn]

"Yeah, I could use a glass of milk, if you have," Finn replied.

He was a friend of stronger stuff, no doubt about that, but preferred to keep his head clear as they were in the middle of an important job.

The gig was quite something, and kinda reminded the Finnish adventurer pretty good deal about his regular joint high up in the mountains of Nepal. Perhaps he was to take Ben to visit there one day.

The bar reminded him yet even little too much...
The silliest idea hit his head, as he suddenly gaited over the floor to the counter and hopped over it. He made a small series of heavy stomping steps and eyed Ben, who had a look on his face that was at least an odd one.

Then he suddenly leant down, felt the floor and found the small metal ring etched there. He yanked it hard and a trap door swung open. All too familiar.

He grinned. In the compartment before him, was a stash with enough weapons to start a war between two small countries.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"I'm impressed. How did you know about that?"

[Finn]

"Secrets of profession," Finn told Ben and grinned even more widely.

He reached into the compartment, and started to line up some of the minor contents of it onto the counter. He was not so interested in rifles, but he knew that if it came into the point talking was no longer an option, it could be useful to have a hand-fitting piece of iron or two in reach.

The weapons were obviously gathered from various places, as there were all kinds of them. Some Colts like the one he already possessed, German Lugers and a couple of Mausers, a Russian Tokarev... even a heavy Webley revolver. Finn spun its roll and checked the cocking pin home, finding it in battered, but still fairly usable shape. He put it back down and weighed a Luger in his hand, wondering if it would be useful to have a gun of German ware, just to throw off those who they were going to visit.

He finally decided against it and made a choice to stick with the Colt. Reaching back in he dug out a couple of small boxes with .45 bullets and and added them to the small pile of things he intended to take with him, already containing a British Fairbaurn commando knife and a small brown glass jar with a label saying <i>ÄTHER</i>. Some cloroform really might come in handy. To his disappointment, however, the stash lacked a Browning Hi-Power .38 to replace the one the dog handler had taken from him.

But it was really not going to matter that much.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

As Finn finished selecting his weaponry, I walked around the bar and reached in for a couple of handguns and ammo. First I got out a Colt, and after some filtering also picked out a Webley. I pulled out some ammo for both, and put it in a handbag concealed by my rags. I sifted a bit further to see if there was anything else I wanted, grabbed a similar knife, and then reshut the trapdoor.

I looked back at Finn and motioned to the door.

"You can get some milk and the other supplies upstairs. This way."

[Finn]

Finn followed Ben up the stairs and watched how the young man went down the narrow hallway and stopped behind one of the doors.

Before he managed to reach that far, something else caught his attention and made him stop on his tracks. He leant in against one of the doors that was cracked a bit and opened it even a little more. The lights were off and the curtains were down, but Finn was still able to make out the figures of two women dozing off on the wide bed located in the middle of the room.

Then Finn suddenly reached carefully in with his hand and silently grabbed another object of interest from the dresser by the door, then carefully closed it again all the way.

A satisfied sneer appeared on his face as he pocketed a small silver-engraved alcohol flask.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Finn?" I called. What was he doing?

[Finn]

"I'm right here," Finn told Ben, appearing in the doorway.

The room had a small fridge and a table plus lone chair, with one more man catnapping on it. Finn recognized him as the fifth fighter of the group, the one that had been left most distant to him.

As he dug out a small bottle containing white liquid from the fridge he turned to look at the man.
"How's the truck?" he asked, just to start a conversation.
"Runs just fine," the man replied with a heavy accent Finn was not able to place. "I guess we owe you some thanks."
"Listen, I was thinking that now we're here after all, we could use a ride that would take us about five kilometers from the border... just to save time."
"Mmm," was all the man answered.
"So if that truck runs..."
"The truck is away already. Sorry."
Finn shrugged. "Okay, I guess we'll have to hike then."
"Did I say something about walking?" the man asked, flashing a model example of bad teeth care and pointed to the window behind him with his thumb.

Finn went to the window, looked down, eyed the fighter who imitated a steering wheel with his hands, then looked back down just to check that the silver Rolls-Royce standing below the window hadn't been simply a mirage and shook his head with a smirk.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Haha! Excellent, Eli!" I said. This would make things significantly easier--on the way to the border, at least.

I looked over at a wardrobe, large chest and a chest of drawers over on the far side of the wall.

"Eli, could you step out for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure, Ben."

He unfolded his arms and slowly walked out of the room with a stretch.

"We have some dry clothes over there," I motioned to the chest of drawers. You can pick what you like out of the chest of drawers, first two drawers. Don't look into the other areas just yet. You can change in the bathroom if you like, first door on the left. I'm going to change in here."

[Finn]

Finn had some pieces to change in his own backpack, but he chose to favor some of the clothes offered to him, deciding not to change his coveralls though, consisting of heavy hiking boots, dark grey military trousers, a dark brown leather jacket and a woolcap of matching grey with the pants. They were all still a little wet, but he knew that they would dry off.

In about ten minutes he had however tucked a fresh set of underwear, socks of wool and a dark green sweater under his arm as he stepped out to the hallway and entered the bathroom Ben had pointed out.

After getting rid of his old underwear which he simply left lying on the bathroom floor, his eyes hit the mirror on the wall and he went into wonder if he should ask for some shaving equipment, scratching his jaw.

He finally judged it as unnecessary as well, since it was no more than just one and a half days old after all. He left the bathroom, feeling a lot nicer thanks to the dry clothing against his skin.

Now, all they needed was a little more rations and they would be ready to go.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

After dressing in a black sweater, my grey jacket, a set of light pants, fresh socks and boots, I opened the door and brought Finn back to the room, motioning for him to sit down at the table and taking a seat for myself.

"Uh, Finn, I need to ask you something. Just what exactly was your plan for getting in?"

[Finn]

Finn snorted. "I can tell you're a greenhorn, kid. It's really not that complicated. We simply hike in the woods 'til we reach the border, then walk across it... and make sure we're not seen in the process... it's the same kind of forest on the other side than it's here. We simply disappear there until we reach the point that's of my interest."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Huh! Greenhorn my butt!

"Oh, it's not that, it's just that we have some...resources, should you either 'a,' want to make things easier on the other side or 'b,' want to use an alternate plan. Look over here."

I walked over to the clothing area and speedily opened the wardrobe, chest, and bottom two drawers. They were packed with Nazi uniforms, including armbands, hats, and boots.

"We stole and made these, just in case we needed to get somewhere inconspicuously or needed a disguise. It's no fun wearing a swastika, but if you have to... We also have a couple of forgers. They can make I.D., passports, visas, you name it. I thought maybe we should each have a uniform and papers, just in case."

[Finn]

Finn walked over to the drawer and picked up an SS officer's cap, placing it on his head. Of course, these fellows were prepared. When the war would begin, these guys were not doing it out and open, but in shadows and behind the masks of innocense. He, however, already had a plan to follow.

"Now, Ben..." he began. "I appreciate all of these favors you've handed to me, but this one won't be necessary. I think you already know that we can't use these while crossing the border, since two German officers coming from Poland... that is not just normal these days." <i>Yet</i>, he didn't add.
"And once we're across, my primest intentions are to stay out of sight and it will do just fine enough the way we're off, since we'll be walking in woods and these guys favor roads." He took off the cap and tossed it back into the drawer.
"Actually my whole mission depends on that no one gets even a reason to suspect I've been there," he explained, making a note of Ben's face turning more and more puzzled. "I'd be more than glad to have rags like these, false IDs and such if I was to sneak in a heavy guarded compound. Heck, I would probably already be carrying them. But where I want to go... no man guards that place."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I was growing more perplexed at his mystic speech by the second. Just what was Finn's mission? Where could he be going in Germany that wasn't guarded? I shoved that aside, and picked up an article of each: top, pants, boots, hat, and armband. As I tucked the boots under my arm, rested the hat lopsided on my head, and grabbed the other pieces by hand, I turned to Finn.

"All right, suit yourself...but I'm going to have a uniform, just in case we run into any delays. That way, I won't have to go through the trouble of beating up some soldier who went down the wrong alley to steal his clothes--should anything happen." I gave a wry grin to let him know I was being partially sarcastic. That would be an option for Finn, if need be.

[Finn]

Finn stood up, reached out to Ben and grabbed the cap off from his head, tossing it onto the drawer.
"Now, kid, listen to me. Would you please trust in my experience and expertise? We're not going to need any of that," he said. "I promise. Leave 'em here for someone who really needs 'em to wear."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I sighed. Well...I suppose I would have to trust him. I pursed my lips, stood a moment, and then grinned.

"You do realize that if they shoot us because we didn't have disguises then I'm gonna kill ya."

[Finn]

"They're not going to even see us," Finn replied, watching as Ben put the fascist garb down there where he had taken them. "Now, the nature of this mission is very simple. We will cross the border line, hike in the woods for a while, pick up something the Krauts don't even <i>know</i> it's there and return."

As Ben turned to look at him again, Finn realized that the young man didn't even know what the business was he was going to get mixed into.
"I'm not going in there looking for any kind of trouble. I'm not a saboteur or a spy," he explained. "I'm a historian."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

What?! One heck of a historian!

"A historian?! Well you're certainly the most adventurous historian I've ever met! Can you tell me what we're going after, here?"

[Finn]

Finn shrugged. "Okay, but I'm not going to blame you if you're not going to believe me," he uttered with a slight grin. "It's something a Roman traveler left there nearly two millennias ago... and I was hired to fetch it out of there, because my employers - a certain quarter who don't like to keep noise about themselves - think that it would be a very nasty thing if it landed in the hands of <i>Der Fuehrer</i>."

He had a short pause. "...and yep, I really am a historian. PhD and all. If you ever end up Sweden, remember to visit the Uni of Uppsala. I'm a junior lecturer there."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I thought about it a moment. Stranger things had happened. I shrugged.

"Well, even if I don't believe you, I'll find out there. But, I don't think anyone would want to get into Germany for an imaginary artifact."

[Finn]

"You can be sure about one thing, Ben," Finn announced as he turned around and went for the door. "I'm not doing this for thrills."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I led Finn down the hall a few doors and to the right.

"We've got food in here. They should have it all ready for us."

It was a relatively small room, but we had it filled with food supplies. There were two tables and a sink in the room, one of which had three small sacks of rations.

"That's ours," I said, pointing to the sacks.

[Finn]

Finn went over to the sacks and had a peel in. Canned goods, dried meat, fresh water, raisins for vitamins, dark bread that didn't get bad easily - all good, unfortunately even little too good.

He grabbed one of the sacks and lifted it back onto an empty spot on the shelf.
"We'll only take two. All we have is two backpacks to fit in the stuff we take with us," he stated, surely knowing his drill.

He noticed a small barrel with three X's on it, walked over to it and carefully opened the spigot, wetting his fingertips. Clear liquor, he found out as he licked them dry.

He dug out the flask, filled it and tucked it back into his jacket. They were all set to go now.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I led Finn down the rest of the hall to a staircase that led down to a large room with kegs and bottles of various alchoholic drinks. Not all of them were actually filled with what the label said, though.

Harry was waiting down there, by an large, open, garage-style door. He held something that jingled in his hand.

"Here are the keys."

"Thanks, Harry. I'll probably see you in a few days."

"Take care of yourself, Ben."

"Thanks, you too."

Then I retrieved the keys and we walked out to the Rolls. We hadn't spent much time at all, but it was clear the sky was gradually brightening. It was now all clear, and a beautiful sight.

"Finn, who's driving?"

[Finn]

"Let's make that me," Finn replied, reached out to Ben and grabbed the keys from the young one.

He then turned to the fighter with whom he had discussed earlier and nodded his head. Eli lazily raised his keister from a chair and walked outside with him. Finn took a seat behind the wheel and the fighter climbed in beside him.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Hey! What's going on?!" I asked, my eyebrows lowered in confusion and potential anger.

[Finn]

"Kid, this is a Rolls-Royce," Finn stated, nodding to the back seat. "You don't leave it on the side of the road once you think you're ready to keep going on foot, somebody's gotta drive it back. Now drag your butt in or stay there."
"Besides, this no our car," Eli beside him mouthed. "The owner will not be happy if he finds it gone once we let him go from the ropes and cellar."
Now it was Finn's turn to knit his brows, but the fighter shrugged it off.
"We no thieves, we no ape men. We just borrow his car and let him go when VP can stand on his feet and walk again."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Oh...sorry about that overreacation. I'm just used to being...nevermind. Glad to hear we found VP and that guy."

With that I slid into that backseat and cleared my throat.

[Finn]

A sneer went on and off on Finn's lips. The kid still had quite a deal to learn about the surrounding world.

He turned the ignition and the 12-cylinder engine roared to life. Now, this was the kind of luxus he hadn't expected to run on this heist. <i>But any way, it is nothing but means of transportation</i>, he thought, returning back to reality.

The scenery chart Finn had had with him was nearly 20 years old and thus he had predicted it to be a little off. The guerillas however had had some more up-to-date sheets, which he had taken a moment to examine, so now he knew exactly where to ride.

Too bad that the maps didn't indicate such short-lived, temporary and random things as road stops. A beam built over the road and two men in Polish army uniforms stood guard, other one of them immediately taking a step ahead and raising his hand when he saw the fine car to approach.

Finn eyed Eli beside him, the fighter's face expressed slight worry.
"You want me to push through?" he asked and smiled lightheartedly.

Finn didn't wait for a reply, he already was pulling over and cracking open the door. He quickly eyed Ben on the back seat and grinned.
"Good day there, chaps," he said with his best British accent.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I tried to think...think, Ben, think!

I overheard one of the guards whisper to the other in Polish, "What is a Rolls-Royce doing way out here?"

"Suspicious," the other one said.

They both walked up to the car, and the first one said in accented English, "Do you have any papers?"

My mouth gaped, and I threw my head back, muttering, "Oh, Lord."

[Finn]

Finn smiled like Mickey the Dunce.
"Yeah, just a sec, chaps..." he said and dug into the passenger side feet compartment, trying to win all the time he could.
Finally, he had to pull out, but this time, he was holding something. "There you go my good men, <i>Gazeta Polska</i>. You can have it, I've read it. It's from... day before yesterday, though," he uttered, checking the ingress.
"No, no," the other guard said. "<i>ID</i> papers."
"Ohh, yeahh..." Finn said, and smacked his forehead. "You know, we don't have any."
"Why is that?" the guard asked with his heavily accented English. "The border is just an hour away!"
"There is a completely good reason to that," Finn replied, still smiling. "I'm a spy who's illegally on his way to Germany. These guys here are rogue fighters, you know, pessimists. This is a stolen car, with the original owner lying in a cellar back to the village, all tied up with hemp. And you ask us for papers?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

As I leaned forward to speak directly to the guards I whispered to Finn, "If this doesn't work, floor it."

Immediately I slapped him on the shoulder. "Arthur, how many times do I have to tell you?! Stop telling these crazy stories to the guards!" I looked to the guards, taking on a very indignant tone with a proper, slightly stuffy accent. "I'm sorry, this happens all the time. Always making up these wild tales.

"Can you believe it?! We've been robbed! Well, it was attempted, anyway. We were on a nice vacation, wanted to 'rough it,' though, you know? Pip pip! A-hah-hah-hah-hah!" I gave a nudging gesture as if it were some kind of inside joke. "These militia fools out there got a little power-happy, came up to us in this Rolls-Royce they had stolen, and tried to beat us up! Took our papers, and when we tried to get them back, they ripped them to shreds, can you believe it?! Tore the very clothes off our backs, and fortunately we were trained in fist-fighting, just in case, don'tchuknow, and we had to take their pitiful militia rags to keep ourselves warm!

"So if you could just let us on through, we would like to take this lovely vehicle on up across the border to see about getting it returned to its rightful owner, and getting a ride home. Lord, I'm dashedly tired from all this adventure." I knudged the back of Finn's seat, then ever so subtly, nodded to the door that my hand seemingly was using for support, then gave a quick, almost invisible push to reveal what I planned to do if we had to drive through. "So what do you say, my good men?"

[Finn]

The guards looked at Ben, then exchanged long glances with Finn, who could do nothing but shrug, acting as doumbfounded as they were.

Finally, the guard leant forward to the adventurer's ear and spoke like a conspiracist to another.
"For a moment I thought <i>you</i> were crazy."
"I'm sorry, but I'm just an Englishman," Finn replied nonchalantly and smiled sheepishly.
There was an uncomfortable pause, then Finn finally got off from the car and led the guards a little further. "Chaps, can I talk to you for a second?"

As soon as they were an ear's reach from the car, Finn asked quickly: "<i>Sprechen Sie Deutsch?</i>"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I squinted as if it would help me hear better, but it didn't. I could only look to Eli, who shrugged, eyebrows lifted as if to say, "I don't know, do you?"

I could only watch and wait.

[Finn]

"All right, kameraden..." Finn started after the guards had admitted that they speak the language to be used. "What do I have there in the back seat is a <i>very</i> dangerous mental ward patient who escaped the asylum in Krankenburg two weeks ago. He thinks he's some sort English gentleman spy on a very important mission, which is in fact just an excuse for him to run around the woods. I'd shoot the lunatic bastard with all joy, but that is against my professional ethics. Could you please let us pass now?"
"How come this man is in Poland?" the guard asked next, obviously irritated. "Your border leaks like a sieve."
"Why didn't you valiants stop him then?" Finn barked back. "Could have saved me a lot of trouble."
The guard's words came as bitter as Finn's. "Watch your words, my good man. We might take your patient there into custody and let you keep going without him... now, I haven't heard that the reward for failures in your side of the border would be very generous."
Finn pointed towards the car. "Do you want him? You can have him! I rather spend three hours in a dark room with three Gestapo agents than one minute in a same car with that nutcase!"
The guard's face turned very puzzled as he thought about the offer. "Just get out of my sight!" he spat out finally. "Go on."

Finn returned behind the wheel of the Rolls and watched how the beam was raised.
"There, I told you," he said with a smirk. "All too easy."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I blew air from my mouth in relief as Finn started the engine back up and drove on. The drive was very quiet for about a half an hour, and then I piped up. It may sound weird or corny, but I needed to get this out.

"Finn, I want to get something off my chest, here. The reason I acted that way when Eli got in wasn't because I was being stupid or anything--I had actually thought of someone driving the Rolls back to the village. I've just gotten a little...defensive over the years. All my life it's been 'You're so naive!,' 'You're such a little kid!,' 'You're too young!'... I was hoping that if I could pull off something like this, everyone would realize that I'm not like that, and I am capable. Granted, I know I've got a lot to learn, but I'm not some little rookie or anything. It's just that noone else seems to realize that--except maybe Harry. When I saw Eli getting in, everything faded out of vision except for the thought of 'Oh, no. It's happening again. I'm being ditched for being the naive, incapable little brat.' I didn't want it to happen again.

"Anyway, this may sound dumb or something, but I needed to get it out. And maybe it'll explain some of my behavior at times."

[Finn]

Finn watched from the rear mirror how the checkpoint fell behind them. He listened to his effusion very closely, despite the fact his face didn't give it away one way or another.

When he completely sure Ben had finished, he opened his own mouth.
"Ben, that gives away you still should be considered as a naive brat. Now, I don't know your primest ideals behind that you are here, fighting this war that has not even begun yet, and to be honest, I couldn't care a rat's arse. You have chosen yourself one risky profession, and if you manage to live up to my age doing it, you will hopefully know that you don't have to seek opportunities to prove your worth, they will seek you, don't you doubt about that."

Finn had a short pause as he watched the woods pass by. Then he kept on talking.
"If your only reason to be in this fine car is to convince people, yourself as the first on line, that you're more of your worth than it appears, I'm going to pull over, disappear into the woods and forget that I ever even met you. We're not Indians, and this is not a rite on the way to full manhood. This is serious business. This is war against evil."

He eyed the rear mirror, this time to check how Ben's features had changed after his scolding.
"And finally, you're not even the one who's judging the reasons for that you're being here and now. That's me. And this far, the only reason worth mentioning is that you didn't piss in your pants when I took you at gunpoint."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I took this all to heart. At least he wasn't talking down to me. I honestly appreciated him levelling with me and talking straight.

"Finn," I said, pausing a moment. "Thanks."

[Finn]

Then suddenly, without a warning, Finn merely pulled the car over, pushed open the door, grabbed his backpack, got off, hopped over the small ditch separating the road from the woods and started to push forward.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Whoa! See you later, Eli!"

I grabbed my pack and ran in the direction Finn had gone. I could see moving brush and called in his direction.

"What's the matter?!"

[Finn]

Finn took a couple of sidesteps and waited by a large bush of willow tree. Soon, Ben came rushing through underbrush and called for him again. Finn took the silent steps to his direction and placed his hand on the young man's shoulder from behind.

"You're disappointing me, kid. It's not even dark yet."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

My shoulders drooped, I shut my eyes, I gritted my teeth.

"Crap!" I whispered through my teeth. "I'm not going to worry about that right now--I would like you to show me how you do that sometime, though. Why'd you do that?"

[Finn]

"Because, there is a border separating us from a very nasty place only three to four kilometers that direction," Finn explained and pointed west. "And I'm saying, if you keep on doing a noise like that, we're not even going to get that far. I can't tell for sure, but the guards on this side of the woods might do patrols to this distance."

He had a short pause and examined his surroundings very closely.
"Now, you're going to walk exactly the same paths as I do, all the time keeping it exactly two meters from my heels... and unless something shows up you certainly think you should inform me, you will consider every possible to meaning to the expression 'silent as a grave' 'til the moment I say you can quit. Do you copy this all?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

My only reply was an earnest nod, and Finn began to walk ahead. Once the proper distance was between us, I continued at the same pace, following his path. I carefully calculated my steps to make sure the absolute minimum amount of noise came from my steps.

As I walked, I made a thorough scan of the surroundings, but I wasn't spotting anything. Wait, what was that?! I saw the clear form of a man walking in some direction, a good distance to my right. My eyes widened, and I looked to Finn, making a subtle clicking noise with my tongue to alert him, and hoping that the man to my right would assume it was some natural forest noises.

[Finn]

Finn, of course didn't have to even think about consciously scanning his surroundings - to him it was a second nature. At the moment they would not be alone in the range of three hundred meters, he would know it.

Finn sensed the new person's presence at the moment he was in range, but didn't react anyhow, simply kept on walking. Mentally however, he was counting seconds and vaguely redirecting his course into a more curving one. Then, suddenly his going changed back to that normal gait it had been a few minutes earlier. No shouts or anything were called to their direction.

Then, at a sudden instant Finn jousted his knees just a slightest bit and put up his hand to signal Ben to stop. He slowly moved his head from side to side and listened, carefully as an animal. If there had been someone with a vivid imagination watching him, he could almost have said that his ears quivered. Then he put up his hands again and barely noticeably twitched his fingers as a signal to Ben to move by his side.

This way, he moved on the last meters until he hit the ground and crawled under the thick, ground-sweeping branches of a majestic fir, practically into a camouflage tent made by the mother Nature herself.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Once we were under the tree I raised my hands lightly, asking in gesture what was up.

[Finn]

Finn didn't say a thing, but simply pointed through the thick brush that allowed only some sunlight to shine there where they lay. Right ahead, the forest suddenly ended. There was a completely treeless line that continued for three to four hundred meters dead ahead, and for several kilometers to left and right. It was as the God had made it with a huge sickle.

The empty line in trees was all man-made though. The border.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Maintaining silence, I mouthed, "How do you wanna do this?"

[Finn]

"If you noticed with that patroller back there," Finn said with a silent voice. "I can be practically invisible to an eye in a forest like this if I wish. Can't say what had happened if the man had had a dog with him though," he said with a thoughtful, lobsided grin. "That is not forest out there, so we wait 'til it gets a little darker before we even move from our current position to a direction or another. Then, we simply wait that no one trots out there. And <i>walk</i> over there where the forest begins again."

As Finn spoke, he had dug out binoculars from his backpack in the meantime. Now he raised them on his eyes.

"Let's see..." he muttered. "A lone patrolling border guard on the Polish side in nine o'clock, about two hundred meters. ...the German counterpart, two men patrol and a dog, two o'clock. Seven hundred meters. Three o'clock, five hundred meters two watchtowers facing each other. German one appears to have a searchlight, Polish one doesn't. We must examine their patrol routes carefully to get the length and duration... on night, it will most likely be double watch."

He lowered the specs, looked to Ben and grinned. "This should be fun."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

We waited uneventfully (although we made sure we stayed extra quiet when the Polish guard passed just behind us) and took in the routes and distances of the patrols. Once the guards were all back at the same place that they were when Finn first gave me the plan, I turned to Finn.

"You want to tell me what you've got and we can check that against what I got?"

[Finn]

It was still a couple or so hours to the nightfall. The daily routine around the patrol went going on, and some of the guards on the opposite sides even greeted each other, despite the fact they would soon be two opposite sides on a conflict that would write a turnpoint chapter for the whole history of the 20th century.

Finn didn't reply to Ben's question. He had turned over to his side, his head resting against his backpack. His chest moved calmly up and down as the breath body needed to operate in the resting phase moved back and forth. A barely hearable sniffle escaped through his lips.

Finn was sure that Ben had been given the basic warfare instructions and that had made him to allow himself to doze off in order to catch some well-needed shuteye.

The kid surely knew the drill about resting when you moved in pairs. If your partner was asleep, you were not.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Hm. Good for Finn. Well, I'd just have to keep my eye out for the patrol, watch for any changes in length, routes, and guard switches.

I knew that I couldn't go to sleep while Finn was doing so, but I was getting very hungry. Dark was still a little ways off, but not much, and I hadn't eaten a thing since yesterday before heading on the supplies mission. I knew I had to wait until the guards were out of earshot before I could rummage in my pack for the rations bag. So as I waited for that, I watched for the shifts in patrol. Once the guards were away, I pulled out some dried meat and chewed on that.

Once the bottom three-quarters of the sun were hidden by the trees, I calmly, quietly woke Finn.

"Finn, Finn, wake up. The sun's almost down, and I have some info."

[Finn]

Finn groaned slightly, blinked a couple of times and then sat upright.
"What you got, kid?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I took a breath. I had gotten a nice bit of info over the hours. "Okay, this is what I've got. It started taking about an hour for the guards to get back to where they were when we started. The patrol was about a kilometer from one side to the other.

"Starting about four o' clock, I saw a guard added to the patrol every hour on the Polish side--but the first one went back. They just brought in four batches of guards, each with a dog a little while ago for the Germans. That couple that we had before evidently went back in to some 'civilized' area. It's..." I checked the watch on my wrist, "twenty after seven, now, and we have a total count of four guards over here, and four couples of guards with a dog per batch on the German end.

"Now, both sides use the same method of patrol: The groups split up about evenly, and they go to opposite ends of the route--a straight line, more or less. Then they come back. Now it's taking two hours, and I imagine that means that the patrol goes two kilometers from one end of the route to the other.

"The tricky part is that when there's a gap on this side, the German couples are passing each other. So I would guess that we wait an hour from the time that one side is at the midpoint, and both sides should be half a kilometer from the midpoint, going one way or another.

"The German watchtower's light hasn't gone on just yet, so I don't know the range or anything--should be switched on any minute, though."




(I don't know jack about the patrolling habits of World War II on the border, so if something doesn't make sense, just send me a PM with your idea of more reasonable measurements, routes, et cetera, and I'll edit it)

[Finn]

Finn nodded a couple of times.
"Mmm," he said finally, eyeing through the tree branches covering them.. "So, we wait 'til it gets dark enough and walk across. And, Ben... screw those patrol routes. I told you to keep tabs on your <i>surroundings</i>."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I began to nod...wait...

"What?" I asked, my face scrunched in confusion.

[Finn]

Finn eyed Ben, his face clearly saying "you yet have a lot to learn, kiddo".

"Even if we had layers of barbed wire, mines, trenches and half the German Army between us and the woods on the other side, we'd still have to figure out a way to get through. Obstacles created by a man... they're always predictable, more or less. I'm talking about someone who can either work greatly in our favor... or become our worst enemy. Good old Mother Nature."

Finn pointed out to the sky, then thumbed the clearing.
"Firstly, if you haven't noticed, the skies are in full cloud again. I don't know if we're going to have rain like yesterday, but there will still be so dark that you don't see two feet ahead of your nose.
Secondly, the grounds we have ahead of us. It's grass and hay, perhaps some stumps here and there. And the ground is still wet. So there won't be any extra swish as we walk across as the case would be if the brush was dry."

Finn put his finger into his mouth, then sticked it out through the branching.
"Lastly... the wind's blowing from west. And only Krauts have dogs. So the chance of them getting a scent of us is when we're already in those woods on their side... which improves our chances to distract them so they're going to lose it."

Finn arched his brows and shrugged.
"Simple enough, no?"

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I soaked in everything he told me. This guy could teach me a lot. He was right: I did have much to learn. And it didn't really matter to me that I could not for the life of me recall him telling me to observe the surroundings--if I was going to do this sort of thing, it should be instinct to take notice of such things. So I simply nodded and absorbed.

It didn't take too long before the sun was down, and we saw the beam of light shoot from the German watchtower.

"Thar she blows," I commented quietly.

[Finn]

Finn watched how the searchlight to sweep slowly through its assigned area a couple of times, then stopped to light up one place. Of course, it would be used only if something came up - <i>like us</i>, he thought and grimaced - otherwise it would remain pretty much stationary. Counting out a few random sweeps now and then, simply because of will of responsibility, or idle boredom. After all, the ones moving it were just humans.

While trying calculate the threat it posed to them, he eyed the sky. He could still see the last darkish red rays of the dying day hopelessly trying to plunge above the horizon.
"We wait for a couple more hours, it will be completely murkity murky by then," he thought aloud. "Once we get to the other side, we'll find a safe spot, something more or less like this and lie back for a little while again. I can tell that you need to visit the dreamland too."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Okay, thanks."

It wasn't until I rolled over that I realized how tired I was getting. It hadn't been a lie when I told the guards at the road stop that. This clashed against my anticipation of getting across the border, and wondering what it would be like once we got across, out of the woods, closer to the location of this mystical artifact Finn searched for. It both thrilled me and made me a little nervous at the same time. It wasn't long, though, before my fatigue won out over my emotions and thoughts, and I was asleep.

[Finn]

Finn listened Ben to sniffle in his sleep for another hour as he kept his eyes trained on the searchlight and its manners. It was truly unpredictable, telling him that the men using it were not really waiting for some hard use to it.

Despite the searchlight and a few flashlight beams here and there the landscape was nearly pitch black. By using one's sight, there might have been the chance to tell that there was someone near you if he was within ten meters' range. It solemnly served their purpose, Finn thought... but it would also force him to stretch his senses to the brim just to be able to tell if the border guards were anywhere nearby.

Finn eyed Ben, still deep in sleep. He had waited long enough, and knew now that the kid would not snore. Or even if he suddenly began... well, it was worth it, he decided.

He slowly left the cover provided by the tree behind, stood partially upright and started to creep towards the German side of the border, disappearing into the darkness.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

The moment I stirred, the first thing I noticed was that Finn was not with me. I could only hope he was either on his way to the German woods or waiting in them for me. In the hopes that maybe I could catch a glimpse of him, I silently crawled to the front of the tree to look out. I couldn't see much of anything outside ten meters ahead of me--there would be no way he could see me, or I him.

I searched through my options. I could go back, but in this darkness I didn't want to try to get back through without falling in a ditch or alerting the Germans. Plus, there was still a road stop back there, and I didn't want to press my luck with whatever guards were back there. That was out. I could wait here and see if Finn comes back. I quickly ruled that out. Maybe I could trust him, but I couldn't ever seem to read him or predict him. My last option was to go across the border. Finn was either on his way or already there, so strength in numbers was there. There also was no potential for running into any road stop guards who had already seen me. Anything I did was pretty risky, but the knowledge that there was someone on the other side that was an ally between me and the next road stop gave me some confidence. That' what I would do.

I checked the light coming from the watchtower. It swayed here and there at no predictable intervals, simply on the whim of the controller, with no readable pattern. I would just have to do my best. Any flashlight beams poking through were mere needles of light off in the distance. They shouldn't be any trouble.

I took a breath, and then I headed across, going as silently as humanly possible--and striving for more. I didn't go too fast at all, controlling my emotions' urge to get to Finn ASAP. If I started running in the wet grass I would be heard, and very possibly slip. So at a slow pace, I went on, keeping my breathing low and my steps gentle.

It went on like that for quite a distance--I wasn't keeping track of how far, just in getting there undetected. Then I saw the sweeping blade of the watchtower headed right for me! Fortunately, there was a tall stump that I dove behind and balled myself up as tightly as I could. I looked to my right, the light beam held in its position over the stump, the light dimly illuminating the area to the sides of me. I looked to the right. The woods were in sight! This was my best chance to let Finn know what I was doing--if he was there.

I silently mouthed the message: "I," I pointed to myself, "am coming to," I gestured with my index and middle finger, "you," I pointed to in his direction. A moment later, the light turned away, and I got up to continue the last stretch of my walk across the border.

[Finn]

Finn had not taken a direct route across the border, in fact he wasn't even completely across at all. He had taken the route slightly leftwards, not straight, simply said towards the German watchtower.

He bolted across the imaginary line he assumed the beam was moving along, hoping that the Krauts would not suddenly start moving it up and down too in addition to the the left-and-right pattern.

When assuming to be near enough the tower so the light wouldn't bend he allowed himself to relax a little. The beams of the guards' flashlights were about hundred meters ahead of him, not quite the distance he had hoped, but at least they seemed to be going further from him.

If Finn had been moving alone, he would probably just have been in the German side of the woods now, pushing down towards his destination. The adventurer-historian however had a new companion he slightly felt responsible for, Ben was just not up to the league he could completely let him roam around without having at least some kind of leash on him. And that caused some issues, one of them crossing the border safely enough. So he had reckoned that a diversion and handicap could be useful.

And there he was, at the base of the German watchtower, setting his plan in motion.

Luckily enough, his eyes were again fully fit in the darkness and thus he was able to make out at least the outlines of the things in his sight of vision. And in his exact vicinity, there was an about waist-high object, his presumed point of interest. Someone might have taken it simply as a large rock in a pitch like that, but Finn knew better and he allowed a small smirk as he felt the canvas cloth the object was covered with.

At the same instant moment, the searchlight started yet another sweep along the landscape near the woods.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I finally reached the woods. I remembered that twice now Finn had stopped to the side as I ran ahead, allowing him to catch me. I didn't think he would mistake me for a German, but just in case, I chanced a whisper, ever so quiet.

"Finn? It's me, I'm coming, so don't shoot."

I crept forward, and turned to the right and the left. This continued a meter or two, and there was no sign of Finn. I began to mentally kick myself. There were two possibilities that came to mind right away: first, he had gone on without me. That didn't seem too likely at this point, so I shoved it out of my head. The second was that he was somewhere else on the edge of the woods. But where? I came back to the edge and scanned the verge of the German territory. Back and forth, I didn't see anything. Wait...what was that by the watchtower? There was someone there. I couldn't be sure, but I had to try. At this point my top priority was to get back to Finn.

The watchtower light was coming my way! I laid myself face down in the dirt, waiting for the light to pass. It wasn't focused directly on the woods, but there was enough residual light seeping into the forest that I could be spotted if just standing there waiting.

The light turned back. Barely within the forest, I walked in the direction of the watchtower, only slightly hidden by a single 'row' of trees. I wasn't sure, but I was beginning to think I might be in for another scolding when we met up--if we met up.

[Finn]

Finn removed the cloth and felt the thing that had been under it. Yep, it definitely was a generator. How else would the searchlight gain any power?

He felt the leg of the tower nearest to him and found a wire crawling up to it. Of course, the easiest way to shut off the searchlight would simply have been to cut it with his knife. But then he realized that he better not - if the Nazis found out that their power source was sabotaged and not gone off by natural reasons, they might count in two plus two and start searching the forest in hope to find some rogue crossers.

The adventurer-historian felt around the large device, finally finding the funnel gas was poured in, plus after little more groping the pipe on top of the thing that extra fumes used to get out.

Finn's first idea was to simply pour some sand into the tank and the exhaust pipe to make the thing go off. But he started to reconsider, wondering if there was any way he could also create a diversion, get a good deal of the German guards to gather around the tower? Then he could fetch Ben from beneath the tree and they could walk off while the Germans bit their nails several hundred meters off their location...

It seemed like an idea good enough, and by the time he had though it over, he also knew how he was going to pull it off. The Nordic rogue set down his backpack and dug out the other one of the ammo boxes he had brought with him. He picked six rounds, screwed the caps off, which was not an easy task under those circumstances. The clinks were barely hearable in fact, but in Finn's ears they sounded like church bells calling to Sunday mass as he dropped them down the pipe one by one. After that, pleased with his work, he returned to the original idea and scooped up some soil, knowing what it would cause when it ended up in the generator's works. Some sparks and then darkness.

Plus, the bullets he had dropped down the pipe would go off, causing some nasty bangs... and the rest would be self-explainatory. Only thing there was left was to estimate the amount of dirt he was going to need to finish off his sabotage. Finally, he decided to put in small scraps of it, simply to fasten the process.

He eyed around him, checking that the route back to the other side would be clear. The searchlight was sweeping along the treeline, opposite the direction he was going. Good.

He was not to get far though. At the same moment, the light stopped and Finn thought he spotted movement in the woods. At least the guards did, since about fifteen meters above his head, a strict debate about the subject had they seen something or not started to take place between the guards.

Of course, nothing was there now. Either it had been just some lost animal... or something or some<i>one</i> had hit the ground there, afraid to get back up. Finn eyed the big firtree on the Polish side and still found the latter opinion improbable. Ben was still there, sleeping... he would not have ventured to wander out without him... or did he?

[Ben Friend of Indy]

As I neared, it became clear that the man was Finn. Oh, no! He was about to go across! I moved faster, but still maintaining silence. He was in a position that made it clear he was ready to head over to the other side--to get me! Oh, if there was ever a time that I wanted the watchman to get just a bit closer to doing his job--not entirely, just enough--this was it, just to detain Finn long enough for me to reach him.

Almost there...almost there...Now! Just as Finn was about to start off, I walked out, next to the tower, reached out far enough to brush his shoulder and whispered, "Wait, Finn, I'm right here!"

[Finn]

The searchlight went off and Finn grinned. At the same moment someone touched him.

The Finnishman whipped his head around and saw the figure standing beside him.
"Dammit, Ben!" he hissed. Of course, it could have been better if he hadn't said a thing, but he couldn't help it escaping from his lips.

The first thought that hit Finn's head after Ben's appearance told him that the kid was still to naive. He had left him alone, and still he had come after him to join him again. Didn't the kid think it all he might have let him down? Of course, that was not the case. But it should have been his primary thought anyway.

But the base of the German watchtower, standing by a sabotaged generator, in the middle of the border-crossing process was not the time or place for another castigation.

And he was just about to get a nasty example of the fact he was a historian, not a physicist. The generator suddenly started a loud and awful revving, as he had thrown a wrench, not sand in the works.

And then he was standing in the light. He looked up and saw a German border guard looking down the hatch of the tower, illuminating the base grounds of it with a flashlight. Finn couldn't help but flash a nervous grin. The generator kept on revving, and at the same moment the sparkles hit in, then the bullets went off.

The sounds did create a very good imitation of a small gunfight, but at the moment Finn had a bunch of very good reasons not to feel proud. The guard had started to descend the ladder down to the ground level, but had frozen still about halfway down, seemingly shrieked, thinking that he was getting shot at.

But what made Finn real worried was now the faint source of light that poke out from his level... the generator was spitting out a tiny flame. <i>I have a bad feeling about this...</i> went through his head as he suddenly scooped up his backpack from the ground.

"Run, kid!" he bellowed and hit on the big gear.

Behind him, somebody yelled him in German and told him to stop, but it was no time to listen. Not even having time to check back and see if Ben was heading away from the tower, he scooted few more meters as fast as he could and threw himself to the wet bottom of a small ditch he came across.

A second later the generator blew up, setting the watchtower in fire.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Somehow, after running--barely into the woods--I automatically hit the dirt as I heard the explosion behind me. Still on the ground, I craned my head to see the watchtower going up in flames. The searchlight operator that had begun climbing down the ladder became engulfed in fire, let out a scream, jerked spastically, and dropped to the ground. He would no longer be a problem for us.

I got up on my haunches and addressed Finn. "They're gonna come see what's happening, let's go!"

We ran through the woods as fast as we could, at least I still attempting to maintain some semblance of quiet. Once the flaming watchtower was now not even a speck of brilliance on the horizon, we slowed to a stop. I had started running first, but I knew for a fact that Finn was running behind me. No animals this time! I didn't know how far behind me he was now, though.

At this point, I had seen my mistake. Man, if Finn doesn't chew my head off, I'll do it myself!

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I said in a whisper, not caring if Finn heard it or not. "I should've waited back there. I should've trusted his skill and experience! No way they would've caught him! He would've done whatever he was doing and gotten me--no stupid Nazi would've caught him!

"Man...I am such an idiot."

I felt a presence behind me. I didn't know if Finn had been right behind me the whole time, but he was now.

[Finn]

Finn had heard all of Ben's self-lashing but he really hadn't taken them as his primary thoughts at the moment. He knew well that it was him who had screwed up back at the tower, his intention had been to turn off the searchlight in order to create more darkness... not to turn it a fifteen-meter-high signal fire that practically screamed "unwanted visitors here!"

He knew well that Ben had nothing to do with the explosion. In fact, the young man's appearance had been a good thing. There was no way he could have gone back across with the flaming mass of a tower illuminating whole scenery if the kid had still waited under the fir.

He stopped behind Ben, placed his hand on his companion's shoulder, drew some breath and tried to find something to say.

"C'mon, we better keep moving. These woods will be swarming with greycoats before the first light. More distance we gain to the border now, the better."

He brushed past Ben, soon re-finding his usual travel gait.

[Ben Friend of Indy]

I was confused. He didn't seemed angered or...well, anything! Surely a proper thrashing was to come. Well, I couldn't worry myself about that right now. I did have a question on my mind, though. Keeping my pace up and my voice low--just to be safe--, I asked, "Where do we go from here?"

[Finn]

As usual, Finn didn't stop or even bend his head to reply. Walking forward as it had been the most crucial thing to do in the world - well, it was at least at the moment. After another fifty meters he finally answered.

"To the paths of the dead."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Huh?

"Uh...what are the Paths of the Dead?"

[Finn]

"Roads no man has trodden in two thousand years," Finn replied, still just pushing forward. "There are quite some spook stories associated to them, kid."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

"Sounds good. What do we have to do next to get there?"

[Finn]

A playful grin appeared on Finn's lips as he replied. Of course, Ben had no chance to see it.
"Why, we talk to the dead and plead for an allowance to enter their grounds, naturally."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Although irritated by Finn's vague remarks, I couldn't help but grin a bit. He was surely having a good inner laugh at this.

"Hm...well, then, lead on."

[Ben Friend of Indy]

Bump

[Finn]

(Ouch. Somehow completely forgotten this one. Well, guess I'll have to try and put something in here. Soon. But not now.)

[Ben Friend of Indy]

(Don't worry about it.)