Ukko stared at the truck’s roof above him. He wondered if the pain would go away faster if he wasn’t constantly bouncing all over the place. He wondered how long it was going to take to get out of this desert and onto some smoother roads. Or, Ukko thought, should he get some of his soldiers to tie him down until he can’t move a muscle?

            Going out west would be a dangerous journey for The Stragglers. Ukko knew that at least a quarter of his current troop wouldn’t go. They would call it quits and head back to their homes.

            The west side of the continent was mostly radioactive craters and natural barriers galore. They would be traveling through The Alley’s territory up until they reached The Serpent’s Ridge. It used to be a massive mountain range that spanned the continent, but large chunks of it were literally blown out of existence in some battle or another. Now it looked like the back of a serpent dipping into the craters and then rising to insurmountable peaks, hence the name.

            Ukko had heard there were only a handful of crossings. Nicer valley’s cut between the mountains. They could just head through the craters, but the radiation was still high enough that conventional military assets couldn’t get through. The MACs would be fine, but the MACs on their own can’t exactly travel far without the logistics and support to back them up.

            There was only one crossing in the northern section they would be heading for. It was a place of legends that warriors passed on to one another in bars across the land. Ukko had heard a few of those legends. Trees taller than MACs. Forests that had grown completely unchecked. Terrain that couldn’t be navigated without a couple dozen logging companies in tow. And at the end of it? A rocky mess of a coast. Not exactly the beach he’d like to be on.

            The real crème de la crème of the rumors, however, was a recent one. Normally, the land up that way was small communities fighting amongst one another. Apparently a few enterprising mercenary groups took their MACs out that way and tried to stake out a country for themselves by sheer overwhelming firepower. As the rumors go, they were entirely wiped out.

            And now? Now you hear about a couple of warlords up that way, but more importantly you hear about these MACs becoming a normal part of their territorial squabbles.

            It would be a real mess. Ukko had no doubt his group couldn’t actually conquer the territory. They wouldn’t be able to hold onto anything. Guerilla forces would tear them limb from limb and cut their supply chain to bits within days… maybe hours.

            But that wasn’t the contract. They just had to cut their way to the coast. The Alley probably hoped that the biggest and baddest would gravitate toward The Stragglers as they made their way to the ocean. Then they can swoop in with their proper army after the fact and get to pacifying.

            Ukko would have liked to turn this one down. But, as he had now learned, the negotiations weren’t quite as favorable as he thought they had been. The Stragglers had no choice but to take this job.

            Ukko closed his eyes and tried to ignore the searing pain.

            He was crossing his fingers for a good dream tonight.

            But he wasn’t holding his breath.