Escape From Remnant: A Tarkov X RWBY Crossover

Chapter 54: Jaeger

The sun was setting. The sky was now a deep orange, and visibility had become greatly diminished. Floridaman grunts in frustration as he puts down his binoculars and removes his gloves to rub his eyes, which had grown dry after straining them for so long trying to look for targets.

"Fuck...what the hell are we doing here..." Floridaman mutters out before he continued.

"It's already evening, and we haven't found any more scavs! Fuck!" He buries his face into his hands in frustration, wondering what course of action they should do next.

"Weiss tell me, should we just go back to Jaeger?" He looks at her waiting for a response eagerly. In truth, he just wanted to go back already but wasn't sure of it completely. Having a second person back up either would help put his mind to rest and find peace with the action he would take.

"Im not sure... but if there really is nothing, I guess we could head back." Floridaman simply nods and packs his AXMC up. He gets up, puts his bag on his back, and slings the rifle around his body before holding his M16A4 in his hands. Weiss did something similar in slinging the mosin around her body and then keeping her Kriss Vector in her hands.

"It's dark, watch your step..." Floridaman reminded not just Weiss but also himself as he slowly navigated the rock formation. He went slowly. He couldn't use a flashlight because it would be the equivalent of painting a giant glowing target on their backs that was essentially a massive 'shoot me here!' sign. By the time they reached Jaeger's camp, it would be already pitch black in the dead of night. There's just something about being alone in the forest at night that's just so fear inducing.

Maybe it was man's natural instinct to fear the dark, an evolutionary trait that had been passed down for generations from when humans were still monkeys. Or maybe it was that weird shit happened in Tarlov's isolated places at night, rumors of cults and packs of wolves made their rounds around tarkov nowadays, and woods was a prime focal point. To avoid any danger once on the ground, Floridaman and Weiss quickened their pace greatly. The slower they were, the more of the trip to Jaeger's camp was gonna be in night-time darkness, which they wished to avoid.

Ironically, Floridaman and Weiss proceeded to extract from the northern UN checkpoint. Near where they were previously camping, it would have been a brutal twist of fate if someone had been waiting in silence at the checkpoint and had taken them out. Thankfully, that was an imagination only, not a true reflection of reality. Their extraction from the raid was without problem, and both Weiss and Floridaman began to make their way to Jaeger.

Contrary to popular belief, he didn't run everything out of a shanty camp situated around a campfire. Indeed, it was a camp, but it was larger than normal. Jaeger had some friends around to help him run things, especially with selling stuff and guarding the camp. These helpers were practically hired scavs, but Jaeger doesn't want to admit it. He couldn't even entertain that line of reasoning because it would undermine his philosophy and values that he'd subscribed to. Every now and then, though, he'd leave the camp, usually to visit someone else.

Walking through the darkening forest, they saw a speck of yellow and red light in the distance. Floridaman knew they were in the general location of where the camp was, so they started heading towards it. Just to be sure, though, Floridaman kept his rifle at a low ready position. Every step they took, the fire got bigger and brighter. Soon, the silhouettes of tents became visible, and a voice then spoke up to them from the woods.

"I know you're there, tourist. There is no need to fear this is Jaeger's camp." Floridaman and Weiss spun their bodies around to the side where the voice had come from in an instant. Emerging from the darkness was a well equipped scav who was part of Jaeger's entourage. He was one of the more experienced but older scavs with silver strands of hair dotting his beard and head every now and then. An experienced hunter and survivalist, his capabilities have only grown with the addition of military weapons such as a spetsnaz sniper hood and hyper modified SKS slung around his person.

"It's...you...jesus don't creep up on us like that." Floridaman puts his rifle around his body, seeing they were finally at their destination and that there was no harm.

"Haha, I can't help it sometimes. Come, Jaeger has some deer soup ready." The scav put his arm around Floridaman and guided the both of them towards the camp. Nearly everyone in the camp sat around the central fire on tree logs, including Jaeger and his German shepherd sitting calmly next to him.

"American." Jaeger simply nodded while greeting Floridaman, watching the both of them sit down across from him.

"There is much deer soup. Help yourself to some servings." One of his men handed Floridaman and Weiss some bowls, there was a pot above the campfire, inside was some deer soul that had been simmering for awhile now.

"Thank you very much." Weiss smiles to the man and receives the bowl from him. She gets up and takes the ladle in the pot to pour herself a good helping of the soup. Floridaman was more hesitant. He wished to get into business immediately rather than dilly dally about with other things.

"I know what happened. Partisan trouble?"

"I- yeah, we overstayed our welcome in woods..."

"Unfortunate. Not even I can stop that man. Maybe he can find peace doing this."

Floridaman didn't respond after his statement. Instead, he was just staring at the pot of simmering deer soup.

"Anyways..." Jaeger scratched the skin under his beard before continuing on.

"You got quite a decent amount of scavs, but I guess it wasn't to be after that. The gang you killed the most out of was a different one, but those scavs will be sure to think twice, knowing someone is hunting them."

There was a flaw in his logic Floridaman instantly caught onto. Scavs die a lot, like all the time. It's basically a duck hunt for them in places like streets of tarkov or ground zero. Mercenaries especially killed scavs in droves, but this wasn't time to correct his words this was a time to collect their prize and go.

"So...can we have our reward still?" Jaeger looked Floridaman dead in the eye and then turned his head onto Weiss. She felt his gaze fall onto her, which made her feel uneasy.

"Yes. The girl needs it in a place like this." Calmly, he states, and under his mask, Floridaman forms his mouth into a wide grin. Jaeger whistles and then snaps his fingers. One of his helpers gets up from the tree log seat and disappears behind a tent. He then reappears and hands Floridaman a bag he has both his arms wrapped around. It was a school bag, the kind used by elementary school kids. Inside the bag was filled to the brim with food. There was no money, however, in a total reversal of the deal.

"I'm sure you can understand the derails of the reward changing. You didn't get enough scavs, so that's what you get. I'm only doing this out of pity for the girl."

Even though it wasn't what was agreed on previously, Floridaman decided to just suck it up. He understood why he'd changed it, and this was still an acceptable outcome indeed since they were going to use the money to buy food anyways. It was also mostly non perishables, too, canned food, and MREs were in great supply inside.

"It's fine, Jaeger....we were going to use it to buy food anyway."

Jaeger grunts while nodding his head in acknowledgement, leaving Floridaman to transfer the edible contents of the school bag into his own back for easier transportation since it was so small.for him.