Report - W.Caravan - ... WIC edition

Chapter 4 - Improvements

The air turns an orangish yellow, the warm exhales of everyone outside begin to slowly dissipate. CL walks out and grabs a ladle and begins banging the soup pot. We do have bells although I will admit that that is louder. Let's hope he knows that bacteria cooks inside the pot.
"Everyone, wake up the sun has risen!"
"Hows bout you rise when competence shows up?"
"Or better yet when you bring us something more to drink because that bagger won't last a week"
Cl looks towards all the complaints behind the closed tent doors. His brow lowers as he shows signs of both anger and frustration for the time, perhaps he's gaining the sense of authority he needs.
"Get up. we have to make the most of the sun so that we don't encounter another scratcher"
"you mean so that you don't lead us into one mr.boss man?"
"Everyone up" It's quiet, they don't know I said it.
"Now!" and then they remembered who they had to fear.
Everyone runs and gathers around the cauldron in such an organized matter that you couldn't tell, that in in any normal caravan, all of them would now be hauling the baggage with bleeding fingers.
"Your leader, the one assigned to keep everyone in order, has something to say so that there's no surpsises and there are no questions"
"But aren't you suppose to lead us?"
"I am a bodyguard and a scout from  the WBTS not the World Binding Trail commanders, although I do possess unnatural forms of authority, there will be a day when I am not here and neither is a leader who has yet to have flogged you all for disobedience in a quadrant where a single average persons life expectancy drops by years with every quadrant they go away from the nearest garrison"
Cl has disobedience problems, but violence isn't the answer, not yet. These caravaneers are too weak, like CL, they wouldn't be able to handle it and at that point every single act of disbodience increases the likelihood of a merciful execution. It's faster and cheaper, and more likely with this crew.
Cl understands the situation and slowly raises his voice as he recites the plan, that I said yesterday, but he doesn't know anything better than the rest of them, at least he keeps a straight face that implies he understands what the plan is.
The plan stays. We go forward into the next set of quadrants, we camp, we repeat. We will repeat for around a week until we reach a road. When we get there I will determine if we take a diagonal path towards the crossing or not. Until then we head to the GSR.
"Morning ends, disassemble camp and equip yourself. We ride in 15 minutes," The best speech that so-called leader has made, and for the first time they obey.
The guards leave the walls and disassemble the palisades before heading to the wagons while the rest pull down the tents and store the tools. And in good time as well. The march resumes.
[day 2]
The weather has held up, which means it's shit. It rained here too and the path has yet to improve, but monsters are next to none. 50 meters none, 100 meters few, 150 meters few. CL manages this one better. With little to no involvement he watches over everyone, he calls for a pause when someone falls behind and he watches forward. The guards guard and the pushers push. Noon arrives soon, spirits appear high, higher, and then some more.
"Men rejoice, the path becomes drier with every 100 foot we take. If the sun is merciful then we'll be on dry ground by 5pm," The mood rises, but no one stops.
[2 hours later]
Well there's a plus side to unpredictable weather patterns as well. We've reached dry ground and a short pause is called. I don't think I've seen spirits this high yet. Everyone is happier than ever before, despite the exhaustion, and CL takes a break as well. I let them partake in the moment, partially to keep spirits high, but mainly so no one decides to swipe by the recreational provisions.
"Makes you wonder how much those whatchamacall star predicters are paid?"
"Hopefully not more than us"
"Why would some loser in a room with a scope be paid more than the men risking it all to deliver him his... whatever"
"Cus he's a smart loser that gets dumb idiots to deliver his drink and paycheck to him"
"Wait but some drivers do deliver letters across these roads, don't they?" I could see their faces turning pale even if I was blind.
"Oh lord, don't tell me we're doing all of this for some mail?!"
"If it was it's between the couriers and their offices," Hopefully I can calm everyone.
"But why don't the all-powerful messengers deliver it themselves?"
".....................Because they're smart enough to get the dumb idiots to risk their lives doing it"
"....................."
Seems I messed up. Everyone's staring and if someone doesn't do something then we are about to have a mental breakdown.
"...Sir... I understand you can't ta-"
"We're not delivering letters CL. All of you here are for a reason and I can confirm that the cargo is indeed valuable"
"So valuable that we can't know?"
"And that's how you know you've been chosen for an important task"
Not my best moment, but the situation appears stable. Breathing is returning to normal. Spirits have been lowered, but it's fine.
"CL, come here. Give me a rundown, what do you think of this situation"
"Uhh oh ye the 3 marks. Uhh fed yes, even if cold, but so far that's the least of our problems, tired yes, but they should be alright to go in hopefully 30 minutes and happy seems to be yes so I would say we're doing good"
As he speaks I look past at the crowd. His assessment isn't wrong, but there are a few individuals that worry me. 
"Dismissed, enjoy the break"
A shaky smile and a 'thanks'. It's nice to have these moments of rest, I'm not built like B1, but even he needs to sit down, despite the threats that will soon become apparent, but I suppose in that regard he has it worse. 
I haven't heard from him in a while. I'm becoming worried.
[8 hours later]
"We're here"
"Caravaneers, halt," Easy CL you might break your voicebox pretending to be me.
"We set up camp for the day, were done. Everyone repeats the jobs assigned to them last night. Any questions?"
And they all move. It's good that they're not exhausted just yet, but I will need a second to pass. When everyone has settled in I'll call up CL.

"You called sir?" That didn't take long.
"Yes, give me an evaluation"
"Well, nothing new. Food is being prepared and this time it'll be warm. Tiredness is more apparent, but the road quality has drastically improved so I hope we won't have similar problems and yet have enough energy to guard during the night. And happiness is still fairly high, but I think they're getting a bit restless about the lack of recreational amenities"
"So you know how to listen in"
"Yes sir, I've understood that I need to be more direct with reinstating my authority as well as being a bit discreet when gauging the situation," He stands straight, theres very few shakes in his speech. He's calmer than usually.
"Good, good. And I didn't even need to teach you that. Perhaps your boss knew something that I should have known."
"Well I uhh... thank you sir"
"But for now I have a job for you. You are correct they are getting a bit restless, but we can't let them get the materials just yet, it's important we have more than half of our provisions remaining before we reach the GSR"
"More than half?"
"One big weakness is that our success derives from that encounter you had last night. No one can lead a successful caravan off of fears of the outside and i'll tell you this - no good person in charge of any form of security, regarding the denizens of the MZ or anywhere else, works off of fears of failure alone. The more time we spend here the worse it'll get for this caravan and that's before we encounter more 4 eyes. So I need you to go to where most of them meet and I need you to join in. I need you to chat, laugh, sing whatever, but you must form a bond with these people and raise their opinion of you. I predict that in 2 days we'll reach the next set of quadrants and then your authority will be questioned again. Only then should we give them access to that wagon. Any questions?"
"Uhh no sir... uhh thank you for the information." The shakes are back, not surprising.
At least he trusts me, but I will also partake in watching over them. At this point internal security is a bigger threat than my sleep.
"Sir, may I ask a question?"
"Speak"
"Do you believe we'll have a dangerous encounter?"
".......................Define dangerous. Will someone die? Perhaps. Will we face some large group of crawlers or bitters or night terrors, you can never be certain that they're not following."
"....................."
"The better the caravaneers are the better our situation will be. Any other questions?"
"...Not currently"
[redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] To make it easier for them and me we're only going off of what they were taught in training and the horror stories
[day 3]
Not much of note. Dry-er roads, no crawlies coming close (closest was 150 meters few), but my predictions are starting to come through - morale is dropping. Shame, it seemed so fine, but I also knew this was gonna happen. Currently we are encamped at the end of the day. I have sent CL back into the tents, but today it was less successful, I will have to personally intervene. The exhaustion is getting to me so this night will be longer, but ahead of us lies a new set of quadrants and here the danger may get real. It should remind them. Hopefully all of that will come before the rain