A village that wasn't supposed to be there.
It wasn't on any of the maps they purchased.
Not in any of their routes.
Ali Baba frowned.
"That... that's not right."
Malik did the same.
"No, it isn't. Why did they hide this?"
The answer, whatever it may be, sounded like a problem.
But that wasn't the REAL problem. That? Well...
"Who did this?!"
The village wasn't just "wrong."
It was gone.
Burned to the ground.
Blackened ruins stretched before them, houses, surprisingly made with wood, reduced to skeletal remains, nothing but cinders and soot where life had once been.
It reeked of smoke. Rot. The kind of smell that told you bodies had burned here.
Layla clutched her baba's sleeve.
"What... what happened?"
Dra answered in his stead:
"Slaughter."
Ali Baba ran a hand over his face.
"Shit."
Another scout, Bashir, spat on the ground.
"Boss, you can guess what happened here, right?"
Ali Baba said nothing. Neither did Malik.
