[b]12 July, 1951
00:36
Near Eswick (Just south of York) [/b]

Charlie was hit with a wave of relief as the two military jeeps appeared and began driving down the lane between the tree-lines and towards the cottages. He was overjoyed to speak to another human being and had to hold back the urge to run out; they might be there expecting to meet up with the squad, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t get spooked and shoot at a figure running from the trees. 

The jeeps stopped roughly level with where Charlie was camped and were facing the town with Charlie to their right. The front jeep then flashed its lights four times. That was the signal he was waiting for. Climbing to his feet he gave a whistle before going towards them, knowing that (to the best of his knowledge anyway) that the Chimera couldn’t whistle. The gunner atop the jeep spotted him and waved him to hurry up. “It’s so good to see your beautiful faces” laughed Charlie as he climbed into the jeep and grabbed the cheeks of another soldier. The soldier only gave him a bewildered look in response.

“Where are the rest?” asked the unfamiliar face in the driver’s seat, “I thought there’d be six of you.”

“Either KIA or MIA. Drive and I’ll catch you up. Where’s Captain Land? And why’s there only three of you?” replied Charlie noticing that there was only a driver in the jeep behind. Charlie felt a knot form in his stomach as he began to realise that the Chimera had clearly made some more progress in the few weeks that he’d been on Operation Archer. The driver did not need to be convinced to drive off, and so the tiny convoy quickly began heading North-East. 

“Captain Land was killed two weeks ago. I don’t know how much our superiors know about your operation, but we were ordered to come out here and take your squad back to our base just outside of York. The Americans have arrived and we’re now launching another Operation; best I leave the explaining to someone higher ranked than myself” explained the private.

“Right,” said Charlie rubbing his face “well Operation Archer was a small scale recon mission. We were sent into Nottingham to investigate some sort of Chimera digging project. We never even got close to our target location…” 

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[b]12 July, 1951
01:48 
Entrance to the York Base[/b]

Charlie followed the soldiers in a single file jog along tree lines, shrubbery and the odd cottage, until they reached an old derelict pub in a wooded village. Charlie had a twinge of nostalgia at the sight; the memories of a similar pub back home came to mind, although the one standing before him was in much worse condition. The soldiers had parked the jeeps about a mile away from the pub and hidden them under some ghillie nets, supposedly as to not draw attention to this location. 

The village seemed void of all life and was overgrown with flora, with the few visible sections of buildings having taken structural damage. Charlie had seen towns like this in the past, where the Chimera had lunged forward and raided the smaller towns in the early stages of the invasion; these towns seemed to vanish and very rarely did those in the bigger and ‘safer’ towns even notice. “Not really the right time for a pint is it lads?” Charlie asked as they made their way into the pub’s sheltered garden.

Inside the garden were two guards manning the pubs back door. They nodded to each of the arrivals in turn without saying much. The inside of the pub was not as ruinous as would have appeared from outside but was still quite torn. There were various pieces of furniture wedged against the doors and windows (this was not noticeable from the outside due to the plants). The soldiers led Charlie around the bar and opened up the cellar door, leading him down into the series of rooms and corridors hidden beneath. “Welcome to the York Base Lieutenant Morgan. I’d give you the grand tour, but me and the lads need to hit the hay. You’ll find some answers in the briefing room at the end of the hall” said the private pointing to a couple of figures standing in its doorway. Charlie nodded his thanks with a furrowed brow; it had been a while since anyone had referred to him by rank and it caught him off guard.