Stacked Odds

Moving scared people into the hole was like herding cattle into a pen, well it was similar of a sort, cattle would just go in, no questions asked. People, on the other hand, asked questions constantly.

Is it safe there?

Will we have something to eat?

Are there no enemies there?

Will there be water to drink?

Is land there farmable?

.

.

.

Each person that walked towards the wall was skeptical, but after going through they would find the vast barren piece of land on the other side. Silva was like them at first, he didn't think that there was a method of travel like that. But seeing as he was still alive and breathing, he didn't bother keeping track of who was right or wrong.

The truth of the matter was, this was the right choice, at least if they were here, they would be moving farther away from the enemy. If they were lucky, they would be able to shake them off for once.

"At least the kid was right," Silva muttered underneath his breath. The cold was starting to creep upon him, with the sun going down, they would need to make camp soon. And with camp, meetings with the others would have to be convened again.

He didn't like taking orders from someone younger than him, but Curtis, no, Red had a certain air around him, he couldn't deny that. The boy didn't speak much, but when he did, his commanding voice wasn't to be taken lightly, he spoke with logic, with certainty, with force.

Silva couldn't help but recall the conversation he had with the two older guards before crossing the portal. He, Royce, and Carter had a discussion after Curtis had gone to survey the canyon.

Curtis' shock and awe effect on the three had faded by the time they arrived at the Miracle Canyon. He had made a spectacular entrance to their town, saving them and pulling them out of death's jaws. Silva himself was defeated in combat, while it may be true that he wasn't at his 100%, so was his opponent. He had been beaten fair and square, and after the fact had taken charge of their entire command structure.

Silva knew the boy's intention, at least he was sure that he wasn't an enemy, but if he was a friend? That was still up for debate, he wasn't a smart man, he prided himself in being able to tell if a person was reliable or not, hell he even trusted his instincts more than what his eyes could tell him, and the boy was good in his books. But he couldn't deny that he wasn't sure if the boy was being truthful to him. His prior experience in their discussion in his soulscape wasn't a final indicator of the boy's alignment towards good.

"You said you two talked in some sort of mystical place right? And you are sure that he is a friend, not a foe, right?" Carter voiced out their concern, he had known what the other person was thinking but he can't really afford to cause discord in their current situation.

"Yea, we talked n' he calmed me down. I do believe that he's a friend." Silva explained what they had talked about and what he had seen or what he was shown when they had their talk. The two old guards listened in focus as what they were hearing would give them clues if they could trust him. For Silva though, it would have to be enough to clear their suspicions of Red.

Curtis had explicitly told him that they should refer to him as Red, Silva didn't really think much of it, he found out his name, but it didn't matter to him, De Leon or whatnot, he didn't even know or heard of the name prior to this day.

"I trust Red, you should know that I'm not wrong that often." Silva stared down the older guards.

"Alright Silva, we'll take your word for it. Especially since Clara and Dean are still out for the count." Royce sighed and finally gave in.

"The boy exudes confidence, but that doesn't mean we should just follow him. Right now we are in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, if he doesn't pull through and find a way for us, we're doomed." Carter added.

Silva let out a defeated sigh, it was partially his fault that they were here. He just needed to hold out hope that they would be able to survive this, and only then would he be able to relax.

~~~

With the exodus through the portal going well, Curtis went on to check on the other matters he had assigned. Hundreds of people were slowly scaling the cliff face, towards the hidden portal that would land them in a place where hopefully Chaos wouldn't be able to follow them.

Pulleys were built on top of the cliff, it was sued to lower the bigger pieces of equipment they had carried, horses, carriages, and the injured. Slowly but surely they were lowered to the bottom of the canyon, wherein they were slotted into the cave and moved onto the other side of the portal.

Curtis had to personally make a few trips to and fro the portal to make sure that everyone kept to the plan.

After entering they would need to rush towards the forest on the far side of the portal, they needed cover and the forest would hide them from whatever is native to this land. The guards would then secure the perimeter and cut down a few trees to make a temporary camp in the outskirts of the forest. Wherein they would stay for a day or two while they scouted the area to find a suitable place to settle in.

With the plans on the other side of the portal settled in, Curtis then moved to check on other things. The main concern he had was the riders who went south, the scouting party they had sent to look for them had come back empty-handed. They weren't even able to find a piece of hair from their friends who went south.

Them not being here might mean a few things, they were lost and weren't able to find the way back to the main group, or maybe they were just running late, they might have got caught and were dead, and lastly, they might have just run away, this was the ideal option. They were scared for their lives and just straight up and ran away, hoping to escape from Chaos' grasp.

Curtis could accept all the other options, but not if they were in the first or second scenario. Chaos likes to play with its food, it was like a cat in that sense, it was playful, it loved to play with its food, the prey might get the false sense of freedom, but in truth, it was just playing in its puppeteer's strings. It was entertaining it, it was giving it joy, but in the end, it was still fated to die.

Curtis rode his horse to a point they had designated in the desert as the meeting point, it was an old dried up oasis. One of the few unerasable landmarks in the desert. For some reason the oasis didn't get eaten up by the sand, its trees still stood although dry.

"Where are they?" he thought out loud. Although it was ideal for the patrol to be lost, life was still as valuable as it can be. If the patrol was lost, it was one less loose end for him to try and clean up. The only people alive who knew where their group was going were the ones already in the portal or those few riders who went south.

Chaos was a cat, but it was also a dog, a good hunting at that. It was common for places that were raided by Chaos to be fully decimated, no life would be left to sprout in those places as Chaos would make sure that nothing that breathes is left alive.

On one of his trips outside the city, Curtis had seen first hand what would happen if Chaos was allowed to run rampant in a town. They had tracked a Chaos horde towards one of the more remote mountains of the regions outside the Candelabra portal.

Curtis still remembered the smell of desecrated flesh in that place. The Chaos horde had stumbled into a rare mountain stronghold that had held out in the wild, of course, that town had defenses in place in case they were found, but the horde had contained a few elite leaders. The stronghold stood no chance as the elites had forced their way in and played with their protectors like gods. The whole stronghold was annihilated, leaving nothing left alive as they were burned alive.

It was a loss that the people in their party had felt to their bones. It was estimated that the stronghold had at least 10,000 people living in it. Most were just normal people, but Chaos doesn't give any quarter.

They had been too slow, when they arrived, the last life in that stronghold had just been snuffed out. With red eyes, they launched their attack against Chaos' horde. Slaughtering them to their last breath.

One sword pointed against chaos is still one sword on the side of life.

As Curtis looked out in search of the riders, he saw one lone figure riding a horse, galloping towards him. The number of riders who went south was 7 if he recalled correctly. For a group of seven to be reduced to one was definitely the work of Chaos.

He can fight to the death with Chaos

He can put down the hammer and squash Chaos.

Hell, he had even decimated hundreds of Chaos spawn.

But bad things stacking upon him was not really an ideal start to his return to the continent.

"Shit."