Roch Toussaint sat up. It had been a long three days of cross country marching. Their flight from the confused fighting around Kalizs felt like it was weeks in the past rather than seventy-two hours. Looking over the low, grassy knoll he had been hiding behind, he checked the bridges over the Oder River. Last night he had seen NATO vehicles, HMMWVs and a light truck from the direction of Kalizs had crossed the river.

At a guess, they were US 5th Infantry. Not much else they could've been. Sleeping behind the knoll had been easy as tired as he was, but it also left him knotted up. He needed to stretch, to eat a bit, and drink some water. But, then, some coffee and baguette would be great, too. As he watched a pair of locals, Germans on that side of the river, walked out and met two other men from the area the trucks had laggered in during the night. It seemed friendly enough.

But, habits were habits, so he checked the range with his laser rangefinder just in case. It was five hundred eleven meters to the group. As he watched them another man walked up. He too seemed to be a member of the military. But, why was he coming from the other side of the road?

Roch stretched his sore muscles as best he could while on his stomach, watching the group. Five hundred meters was easily in range for Agathe if he would need her, he knew and felt the familiar weight of his sniper rifle beside him. Even if the scene looked amiable enough he still hesitated to approach the group. Better to wait and watch. Get his bearing straight, if it was possible in times like these. His mind was still reeling and he wasn't really sure about what his next step would be, not really. Maybe find a ride to a safer place.

He picked up his binoculars and surveyed the surroundings. There might be others here, watching like he did. He looked for obvious hiding spots, carefully and patiently searching the area for signs of people hiding.

Toussaint's position put him near the railway bridge. It gave him a good view of the highway bridge and into what was left the town. Several homes had smoke trailing from chimneys, there were a handful of people in little gardens, and he was sure that at least one man was tending a still. But, if he wanted better details there was not choice but to get closer. And that meant crossing the Oder.

Roch sighed, made up his mind but first made himself some breakfast, leftovers from the night before, had some water and packed up ready to leave. He made his way towards the railway bridge, crouching and moving from cover to cover to keep out of sight from curious eyes.

OOC: If I spot something that might be a threat along the way I'll stop an hide but the goal is to cross the rive by the railway bridge without being seen, if possible. I'll take it slow and careful.

Toussaint slipped across the bridge and into the nearest stand of weeds. Crawling along until he reached the road. It occurred to him, too late, that it would have actually been easier to sneak across that bridge instead of the rail line. He sighed.

Up ahead were the five men. Three wore uniforms sporting patches for the Canadian and British contingents of NATO. They were speaking in varied flavors of English and seemed to be meeting for the first time. Using his binos to follow their interchange of words, Toussaint noticed that two of the men wore the patches assigning the to the US 5th Infantry. That meant they were survivors, like himself, of the fighting around Kalizs.