The Tank Crew

landslide

On the next morning, everything seemed like nothing had happened. They all packed their stuff to get ready. thomas gets into the divers hatch with his upper body sticking out while Mike does the same with the commanders' hatch. Joseph and james sit on the fron let and right of the cannon.
"R1 ready" calls Mike into the radio.

"R2 ready."

"R3 ready"

The three tanks start moving again
The road starts to get higher. They are now between two mountains. One of them so large that the snow far up there is visible. Joseph looks up in amazement at the mountain. He has never seen such a beautiful sight. A massive grey mountain towering with its steep slopes. So high the clouds hug the mountain and so high the tip is white with snow.

It reminds him of a book he read about the southern mountains,"a mountain range that is unpassable and massive, with mountains as pointy as a bayonet. That mountain range is also used for the southern border." he quotes in his thoughts.

Mike notices that james is zoned away and gestures to james to tap him on the shoulder. James taps Joseph on the shoulder, and joseph suddenly ripped away from his thoughts and looks around at james. James points at Mike, so joseph turns to look at Mike.

"Welcome back to the war," Mike jokingly says.

Joseph sighs. "Can you blame me? I mean, look at that mountain. "

Mike follows josephs gaze to the mountain. "No, i can't. That mountain is a marvel, but still, we have to stay vigilant."

Joseph nods.

After a few minutes, thomas calls, "Hey boss, we got a problem!"

Mike looks up and sees the problem.  Large rocks and some melting snow are in the middle of the path. Mike commands all tanks to halt and gets out of his tank.

"Looks like there was a landslide here. We have to clear the path." Mike says with a sigh

The other two tank commanders join Mike. The commander of R2 sighs, "i guess i will have to get my crew on it then. I will also report this to the convoy."

Mike nods. "Good thinking,"

Mike then looks over at james, who is walking over to them.
"Hey, short king, get some pickaxes and shovels. we'll have to clear the path."

James nods and turns around to get the tools. Joseph and thomas silently do the same.

"Well, i guess we'll clear the way then!" Mike calls out trying to sound optimistic. But he knows that it will take hours. Hours which they may not even have.
Every hour, the enemy could fully breech the north and encirle them.

Thomas, who isn't excited at all, calls out annoyed, "Can't we just shoot the rubble out of the way!"

Joseph sighs "nope that could cause another landslide. This will have to be manual labour."