He opened the front passenger seat door for me, the gesture half playful, half respectful. "You can have the front. I doubt you'd want to squeeze in back with the rest of them."
I nodded, silently thankful. He was right. I didn't want to ride shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of tired, unfamiliar men. I climbed into the front seat while the others—Leo, Ake, and a couple of the strangers—hoisted themselves into the truck bed at the back. Soon, the engine rumbled to life, and we were on our way.
The drive took nearly an hour. During that time, I found myself staring out the window, my thoughts wandering. I kept wondering how those people had even made it to our base in the first place. It wasn't a short journey, and certainly not an easy one. The terrain was unpredictable, the cold still biting despite the season, and the roads—if you could even call them that—were mostly buried under snow and debris.
It was insane. But maybe, for them, it wasn't.
