[ WP ] Dragons exist on Earth , but humans are still the dominant species . Write realistic stories about how life would be different .

The van was really bumpy, all our armour and padding weighed down on the suspension. Lights were out, running on periscope. The night-vision was keeping us on the road, but we would occasionally veer off. As long as we did n't hit a booby trap it'd be ok until we had to go in. 
 
 Marcel, John and Joanna were in the back with me. Franz was driving. I looked at Joanna and hoped she did n't do anything stupid. I liked her, but she had a chip on her shoulder in wanting to prove herself. I understood why, but she had gone too far on our last trip. She'd had a kid of course, luckily she had a son. 
 
 Meanwhile, Marcel had a daughter who was about six. I worried about him. I'd seen someone freak out when we brought out the bait. We had had to shoot him in the leg and tie him up to let things go on. One of the other syndicates had rules about people with young daughters. I thought they were right. 
 
 The car began to swerve “ Car one hit something. ” Franz yelled in his Austrian Accent. 
 
 We all grabbed onto the arm-rail made for this purpose. I crunched up against Marcel who was in front next to me, seated closer to the front of the van. Our padding helped protect us, but it was still hard to breath. 
 
 He came to a stop. 
 
 “ 18 Kilometres from lair. Up wind. Go. ” Franz yelled, annoying bastard still used kilometres. The light inside the van went totally dark. 
 
 John threw open the back door of the van from the other side, I pushed it open on mine. As I got out I clicked on my night-vision. 
 
 I jumped out, pulling my AR-15 with me, modified with scale-piercing armour of course. It was good to be steady out to 2 miles, then another 500 feet as a needle. It was as illegal as it got and was nowhere near what we really needed to take one down, but every bit counted. I'd been on a mission where we lost artillery and some old Russian who's name I forgotten has had a dozen of us line up and fire as a volley. He said he'd learnt it in Afghanistan. 
 
 Joanna followed me. I could only tell it was her because she was shorter. The armour meant that she was virtually invisible in the heat spectrum, as was I. We all gave off a very faint flow in green, which was their worst night-vision perception. It was also what the Fish and Wildlife service had their drones looking for, but they were only secondary. The people who paid us made sure that they were never funded enough. Their drones could n't really cover the entire territory, even ignoring that fact that half a dozen got eaten every year. 
 
 The first van had stopped about 30 feet ahead. A man from it had run over to the side of the road. “ Yeah, fucking stripper mine. ” It was Tony, Car One ( really Van One ) driver. 
 
 I looked at the van. Its front wheels had gone flat. These roads were just dirt tracks forged by F & W. They laid some mines when they went. It was a policy that the mine locations were only known to the people who were going to drive the road, it never made it back to Washington. On the ground the Paladins were a lot less susceptible to access than their bosses or their computer systems. 
 
 “ We're ditching the van. ” Tony yelled from the front. The front van was usually sacrificial anyway. It only held a driver and the bait, each carefully running on their own filtered air loops. 
 
 “ we're doing it here. Spread out. ” Came a voice. It was Boris. Another bloody Russian. But he was boss this mission. We did as we were told. 
 
 To the right and left was a Forrest. It had been through a fire about ten years ago, I could tell from the tree growth. Car Four peeled off to the right. It would go about 200 feet before deploying. Car five went the other way. Were were going to stay in the middle. Or at least the bait was. 
 
 Car three and six followed the others into the Forrest. They had n't disgorged their personnel. They would be there to target and combined fire from both sides. Someone slammed the doors of car two behind us and it drove off to the right. 
 
 “ Bring the bait. ” Boris yelled. He was the only one from the other cars left. Just car one and us were left. 
 
 I tried not to let this bother me. 
 
 The rear door of car one was opened and two cages were brought out. 
 
 In the old days they used to just use one. But we were 18 kilometres, a bit over ten miles away. The booby traps had gotten better, so we had to be ready to send out the scent when we were far away. 
 
 They both screamed. 
 
 One was about eight. The other was nineteen. I read in the olden days they'd given them white robes before they were left out to be eaten. 
 
 Nowadays they just kept them in a van completely naked and slowly cranked up the heat until they were sweating terribly. They had n't been allowed to shower all week. Now they were left in their cages, naked. The sweat would quickly vanish from their bodies. It would be swept into the air and flow downwind. 
 
 The young one was of course both a virgin and pre-puberty. The other one was probably not a virgin like the old tales said they needed to be. But she'd never had a child, and she was n't on birth control. Once upon a time, no child had meant a virgin 
 
 They liked both flavours. Two together would bring the one in the lair a dozen miles away right here. 
 
 The Dragon would come. 
 
 The wind was pretty fast. One of the vans had a wind-speed meter on it. “ 45 kilometres per hour. 15 to 20 minutes. ” Boris said. 
 
 We took up our positions. 
 
 The little girl was crying. I tried not to know their names, but I always learnt them. This was the problem with having two. They talked to each other. 
 
 “ Laura! It's so cold! ” the girl yelled. 
 
 Laura looked at her. The cages were about 4 feet apart. So they could n't touch each other. I could see Laura was already shivering herself. But she was n't crying. 
 
 “ It's ok sweetie. Remember what I told you. It's cold, but be happy. Happy happy! Nothing to be afraid of! Remember. ” Laura said, a fake cheerfulness in her voice 
 
 “ Happy Happy! “ Repeated the little girl, some mantra that they had practised in the back of the van. 
 
 “ If we do n't kill the dragon. You'll be dead. ” Tony said to them both. 
 
 “ Jesus Christ Tony! ” John said. 
 
 “ Just get in positions. ” Boris said. 
 
 Laura began yelling. They always lost their cool, it was just a matter on when. But she was different. 
 
 “ What is wrong with you people? ” She yelled. She was n't scared, but she was furious. 
 
 “ When we get out of here, I'm going to kick all your asses! ” she said. 
 
 We ignored her. Bravado was something we sometimes saw, not this much though. 
 
 We all moved until we were about 50 feet from the side of the road. Even that far away I could hear them both shivering. The girl was repeating to herself “ Happy Happy. ” Laura sometimes said it too. As if the reduction in their stress levels would make an appreciable difference to their sweat levels. No one had ever worked out what it was about women who had never had children that made them irresistible to dragons. But it was something. 
 
 
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