She turned, scanning the trees as they crept on through the sparse forest outside of Kamloops, their town. They moved in flawless unison, the diamond formation perfected from thousands of hours of training. The wild smelled of smoke, and so they knew to be on alert for other humans. Xander held his hand up and they all crouched. Silent, their eyes trained down the barrels of their guns as they watched for threats. The gray of the sky made it difficult to pinpoint objects moving in the deadened treeline, but they stayed vigilant, even through exhaustion. Xander pointed to smoke coming from over a hill. “Move up, stay low,” he whispered, and they continued on through a dried up river. Part of it was the hype of their first real patrol, but there was hardly a danger. Even renegade humans weren’t much of a threat to even a new Beacon cell. Most would avoid a Beacon patrol, for they were well known throughout the region.
