Free Back to the Dream Sequel 2 Dreamland by Felicitas Ivey

I knew I could kill someone.
    We were better armed and armored this time, with replicas of broadswords, bows and high-tech “primitive” armor, lots of supplies, and a couple of maps. We just had to figure out where the hell we were.
    Wolf was looking around and smiling. “This place reminds me of home."
    "Boston?” I asked, wondering if he had gone nuts. The place was wide open, covered with grass. There were woods and a couple of rolling hills in the distance, but nothing in the way of people or buildings. The place smelled nice, no pollution. This wasn't Boston. Not even the Arboretum looked or smelled this good.
    "Norway,” Wolf said. “My grandmother lives in Oslo, but we also spent summers in the country."
    McGann smiled sadly, and I bet that she was thinking of home, too, but not in a happy way. I had noticed that she didn't mention family too much. Not that any of us did, but sometimes, some of the TCs weren't that cut off from their family. Not as close as Murphy was, but enough so that they talked to them.
    "Which way do you want to go?” Logan asked.
    "North?” McGann suggested.
    "Sounds good to me,” I said. “But before we really go anyplace, what's the plan? I don't want it to be like the last time, when Murphy was the only one with the plan."
    "It won't be like the last time,” Wolf said roughly.
    He was in charge of this mess. If he had any brains, which I knew that he had, he'd listen to McGann. I'd just be keeping an eye on Logan. Not that I didn't trust him; it was just that he was barely two steps away from being a lab rat. He needed someone to make sure he didn't get munched on by a nasty.
    "We're supposed to be someplace in the Mayan Empire,” McGann said. “That's why Dr. Sawyer's here with us."
    "And why do the Trustees think these people are going to talk to us?” I asked. “Weren't they like cannibals or something?"
    "Mayans weren't cannibals,” Logan said. “I think that you're thinking of the Aztecs."
    "Whatever,” I told him, not really caring one way or another. He made a face at that. “But it still comes back to why these people would want to talk to us? Our track record with this shit ain't too good."
    "I don't think we're going to make the same mistakes we did last time,” Wolf said.
    I noticed McGann was still looking good, so she might not be have the trouble she'd had last time we came to the Dreamlands. Something about being a ‘path and being here had messed her up. But it could also be that we were still alone. Or it could also be that she wasn't trying to herd fuckin’ cats now, since Murphy and Anya, the ones who had caused her the most trouble with Tamazusa, weren't here.
    "I think the question should be why do a Central American people have an afterlife, for lack of a better term, that resembles this?” McGann asked. “That is, if I understand what the Dreamlands are exactly."
    "Mayans and Aztecs lived in the jungle. This isn't anything like that,” Logan said. “I doubt that this is a landscape they would be familiar with."
    "So that means we don't know where we are,” Wolf said, sounding really frustrated.
    I really couldn't add anything to that, and I managed not to laugh my ass off at the fact that we were screwed again, because we had no clue where we had been dropped, again !
    * * * *
    We headed off north. We hiked for a couple of hours before we ran into people. We were on a leisurely stroll, almost, with Wolf in front, McGann and Logan in the middle, me as tail-end Charlie. We were found by about a dozen really big guys, bearded and long-haired, wearing woolen tunics and pants with boots. They smelled of beer and a bunch of other things. They were downwind of us. I figured it had been a couple of days since they'd had a shower. They all stopped short when they saw us and stared at us for a couple of minutes before someone shouted something out at us. Wolf shouted back at them in what sounded like the same language.
    "What are they saying?” Logan