Chapter 75

Where we'd teleported in was a broad pass that cut between two rock formations that made up the highlands that dominated the area. The pass was roughly a mile and a half long and it wound between the rocks, stretching from southeast to northwest. The caravan approaching us was coming up from the flats to the southeast and they were moving at a leisurely pace. I went and had a look at them with my binoculars and saw that we had ample time to set up an ambush. I also did a head count of what we were up against.

The caravan consisted of a dozen horses that were being used by mounted troops and over three dozen camels, all of which were laden with goods. That added three dozen plus drovers to the count of bad guys I needed to worry about. Naturally the slaves and their guards brought up the rear of the caravan. I didn't even try and count how many slaves there were. To put it simply there were more than plenty. What mattered were the guards who were driving the slaves along behind the caravan. They were all on foot and most of them were armed with swords and spears. Some however appeared to be armed with muskets. That took me by surprise and I knew I would have to take a few men prisoner after the ambush to find out how they came to be in control of firearms. Of the men with spears and swords there were at least two dozen, while the number of men with muskets was only twelve. In total I estimated that our force would have to deal with roughly seven dozen men of which only half were dedicated fighting men. It was going to be an interesting fight.

The first thing I did was to get Dr. Gauthier out of the line of any fighting. I put her and our mounts and pack animals on the far side of the pass hoping that she'd be safe. To make certain that no one got through the pass I went into my old backpack and found the sack of caltrops that I'd picked up in Stone Lodge months ago. I tossed these on the ground just past where I was going to spring the ambush. Anyone trying to force their way past that point would be in for a rude surprise.

I was going to take one side of the pass at that position and I put Luther Gant across from me on the other side. I then spaced out my men along the way on either side of the pass and I put Suzy Park at the end so she could bottle things up. We were fortunate because I had insisted that every one of us carry double quivers of arrows on this trip so I was certain that we'd not run out of arrows anytime soon. As I put men into positions I set the priority on targets telling everyone to deal with the mounted troops first since they were armed with short hunting bows and then to focus on the musket men in the slave guard. After that they were to take down any targets of opportunity that stepped in front of them. I did ask that they try and leave a couple of wounded for us to talk to when everything was said and done.

Things did not go as I had planned them. The caravan leader was smarter than most and he sent in his mounted force to sweep and secure the pass before he brought his caravan into it. Unfortunately the moment the mounted troops encountered the caltrops, everything was off and we were stuck improvising. Fortunately we were able to drop all the riders before they could wheel their mounts about and hightail it out of the pass. Unfortunately killing all the riders ensured that the caravan knew we were there.

Well I knew right off the bat that we needed to take the fight to the bad guys and that was what we did. I waved Luther towards the entrance of the pass and then I took off towards it myself. As we moved along our respective sides of the pass, Luther and I picked up the other men from Oak Hall as we went. It took some time and effort given the rough terrain. I had no desire to drop down into the pass knowing that I needed to retain the high ground in the upcoming engagement. Still we eventually made it to the end of the pass and when we did, it was just in time.

The caravan had halted on the hills leading up to the pass and whoever was in charge of it had marshalled his remaining troops to deal with us. I don't know if he thought we were brigands or somebody else but I did know that he obviously felt that he had sufficient troops to deal with us. With his drovers watching the camels and the slaves, the man decided to lead his remaining force up the slope and into the pass. Being a smart fellow he had split his men into two forces. He was sending one force into the hills to the left of the pass to engage Suzy Park and he was sending another force into the hills to the right of the pass to sweep it of whomever they found there. When we got there, we found the lead men of the left hand force in combat against Suzy who was doing her best to whittle them down with her longbow.

My arrival and the arrival of the two men with me proved to be enough to end any thought of rushing Suzy's position. She'd already dropped six men before we'd gotten there and once we got involved, the number of enemy dead increased exponentially. In seconds the survivors of our fire started to withdraw back down the hill. Amazingly they drew back in an orderly fashion.

The same situation occurred over on the right hand side of the pass where Luther Gant and three of his friends from Oak Hall were formed up. Luther and his companions reached the edge of the ridge in time to find the caravan guards trying to work their way up onto the rise. The leader of the force had sent the spearmen forward first, hoping that they could reach the top before they ran into any opposition. While the spearmen worked their way upward, the leader had his musket men form up at the base of the ridge so they could cover their comrades in arms. When the leader spotted my people taking up their positions he ordered his musket men to open fire. That effort proved ineffectual. The fact was that our bows could easily pick off a guard at a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards without much of a problem while the muskets were really only effective out to twenty-five to fifty yards at the very best. Besides filling the air with smoke the musket men did nothing but waste ammunition while my bowmen slowly and steadily thinned their ranks. After only a moment or two, the guards turned and fled, this time in a less than orderly manner.

The fact was that the bad guys were at a disadvantage against my force and weapons that we were using against them. To me it was clear that the leader of the caravan should either retreat or surrender and hope for the best. I could see the expression on his face as he too came to the realization that he was in trouble. As the remnants of his forces formed up about him, I could see him counting the number and shaking his head. My small force had stripped him of two-thirds of his original fighting force in the matter of minutes and while he couldn't be certain of it, I knew that he was wondering whether his men had even killed one of mine. Seeing that we were all now standing upon the rise overlooking where the caravan was stopped, it was clear that we were few in number but strong in bravery and audacity.

It didn't take long for the caravan leader to demonstrate to me that he was one of the smarter men that I'd come across since coming to Game World. With only a handful of spearmen and men with muskets left and the drovers who were now watching over both his camels and his group of slaves, he knew that he couldn't force his way forward to safety and since it was clear that he couldn't hold us off it left him only one option and he chose it. The man decided to retreat. Unfortunately that was where he made his biggest mistake. Instead of just turning and riding off on his camel, the bastard ordered the men that he had still within him to turn on the slaves. Like all greedy self-centred men he had decided that if he couldn't take the slaves with him, then no one was going to have them.

When I heard the first scream, I knew what was happening and I reacted instinctively. I dropped my bow and quivers and shucked my shield off of my shoulder and onto my left arm. As I did, I drew my sword and started running down the hill. A moment later the men from Oak Hall joined me. Suzy brought up the rear with her bow in hand.

The bastard in charge of the caravan had ordered his surviving musket men and spearmen to deal with the slaves while he and the drovers high-tailed it back down the hill. The guards did what they'd been ordered to do. Thankfully the muskets took time to reload and the spearmen were few in numbers by now. It was also fortunate that the bastards had kept an eye on their backs. The moment I started down the hill towards them, they turned about to face me instead of continuing as they'd been ordered.

The musket men fired well before I was even in range which suited me fine. A couple of balls bounced off my shield but that was it. The rest just kicked up dust and dirt in front of me. As those men hurried to reload their weapons, the surviving spearmen formed a wall in an attempt to stop me. By then I was pounding down on them at a fast pace and there was no stopping me. I took most of the spears against my shield as I slammed into the spearmen and the rest I knocked aside with my longsword.

My rush through the spearman's ranks put me in amongst the musket men and it was these men that I turned my attention to. While I dealt with them, the men from Oak Hall and Suzy Park dealt with the spearmen. Those that were knocked aside by my onslaught were just picking themselves up when Luther and the boys fell on them and any still standing were taken down by Suzy Park and her bow before Luther and the boys ended up close enough to consider themselves in danger. It only took seconds for them to hack their way through the spearmen and when they had they joined me against the musket men. By then very few were still alive and those who hadn't already fallen to the sharp edge of my longsword died upon the blades of the other men.

By now the caravan leader had fled. He'd mounted his personal camel and he was riding it off down the hill back along the track that he'd just travelled. A drover or two fell in behind them on animals that weren't heavily loaded. The rest of the drovers simply threw up their hands and surrendered. I welcomed that without saying a word. At the time, my eyes were on the dead slaves that were lying on the ground. Luckily there weren't many.

After binding the hands of the drovers and posting a guard on them I sent Suzy Park back for Dr. Gauthier. While she went off to do that I went with Luther and another man from Oak Hall to check out the wounded. We quickly found out that the spearmen and the men with muskets had only managed to kill six slaves. They had however wounded seven more people. While we waited for the good doctor to get there, I helped bandage up the most seriously injured. Hoped that the good doctor could take care of them and if not I'd have them teleported to the resort for treatment.

There were over three hundred slaves in total. The majority of them were men, all in their late teens or early twenties. None appeared to be older than thirty. All of them looked physically fit. The women were slightly younger in age but that was to be expected. Some were local women from one tribe or another but most were outworlders. They were the only ones with children. In total there were forty of them. There were also eighteen outworlder men. On identifying them I had them move away from the main group so I could talk to them separately. I wanted to give them my spiel without having to explain it to the locals. The outworlders hesitated at first until I repeated myself in several languages. After that I got the impression that they suspected that something positive was up. That was good because I had an idea that I wanted to put forward to a couple of them.

I started with the locals first. I walked over to where they were all sitting. They were huddled together on the side of the hill near the pass and they were all looking at me with trepidation in their eyes. I paused long enough to take a quick look at them before I even said a word. The majority of them were male and most of them were ethnically African. Those that weren't were a mix of either Arab-African or African-Indian heritage. All of them were dressed in loincloths and little else. Even the women were topless. I also noticed that while they looked to be reasonably strong and healthy it was apparent that they were tired and afraid. It was clear that they didn't know what was going to happen to them now. I decided to ease their minds.

I told them that they were all free now and that they could return to their homes and villages if they liked. I told them that any person wishing to leave would be given food and water from the supplies we'd captured from the slavers and that they could also take clothing from the dead and weapons if they wished. That caused a lot of grins and smiles. I also said that if they did not wish to return home, that I could use them either here with me fighting the slavers, or back at Oak Hall.

Almost every one of the locals chose to leave. I put one of my men from Oak Hall to work seeing that they got provisioned. The animals that hadn't run off were first searched and anything I thought we could use in Oak Hall was teleported away. The rest I left to whoever wanted it. I even allowed a few to take a camel with them when they asked for one.

One man and three teenage women chose not to leave. The man told me his name was Namur. He was a tall man in his early twenties who looked like a hunter. He was well muscled and in reasonable health. He said that his family had been killed by the slavers and his village burned to the ground. He wanted revenge and asked to stay and fight with me. I told him he could. The three women didn't want to fight but they had no homes to go back to so they thought going to Oak Hall was better than nothing. They were of mixed heritage and none looked older than eighteen. I agreed to send them there and left them to help the injured while the other locals set about to leave. I had Namur follow me once he had armed himself with a spear.

When I was done speaking to the locals and seeing to their needs I went back to the outworlders and gave them my spiel about where they were and how they got there. As you'd expect, none in the group took the news lightly. The women openly cried and the men glowered. It didn't even help when I told them that I had just defeated the bastards who'd kidnapped them and when people asked if I could send them home now, all I could do was to sigh and shake my head. That just started the women crying some more.

It was something I had asked Hope about and what she'd told me just made me angry. It appeared that some bright guy back in the beginnings of Game World had come up with a rule that had been maintained ever since. The rule was simple. Destroy all records. The bastard had programmed a subroutine in the registry system of the teleportation system to scrub the files every time a human was grabbed. Hope could tell me why he'd done it and why he had limited it to humans only but the fact was that there was no way to find out what world to send a person back to once they were on Game World. With an infinite number of worlds to choose from it would take an infinite amount of time to send someone home.