189

When you can no longer see the highway for trees, you rise to your feet and scurry deeper into the forest. Here the air is heavy and still, and the heat is stifling, but at least the trees protect you from the midday sun. For two hours you ascend the pine-clad slopes of the Pedregosa Mountains, wending your way steadily westwards towards peaks that are hidden from sight.

Throughout your weary trek, you exchange less than a dozen words with Marine Knott. The grief and the shock you feel play on your mind, and no matter how hard you try to shake them the images of your companions’ final moments keep repeating in your mind’s eye. Eventually you come to terms with your sense of bereavement, but you cannot escape the ever-present fear that the sniper is somewhere nearby.

By mid-afternoon you discover a trail that cuts through the scrub growing in abundance on the higher slopes. The trail is a welcome discovery, for the scrub is twisted and tough, gnarled, and deep-rooted, and difficult to climb. You have been following the trail for less than an hour when it starts to ascend very steeply towards a rugged outcrop of rock.

Pick a number from the Random Number Table and add to it your Field Craft skill total.

If your total score is now 7 or less, turn to 94.

If it is 8 or more, turn to 62.