Note: Here is the second fanfic I initially published on the forum. It's a what I call a "canon-hugging alternate universe" so it's much longer than "Worst case scenario" and not finished yet.

Chapter 1

That radio call explained everything. And it was not good news. Torbj?rn, along with Trond and Taru, had insisted the boy was not ready, but his father had had none of it. For his twentieth birthday, he got his dream of visiting the Silent World, despite not being immune. His father had promised that he would be well-guarded, but even that promise had not been kept. Finding out who exactly their employer had hired to "guard" the boy had made them realize why he had been suddenly curious each time one of them had mentioned having a friend or relative in the military, when he usually couldn't care less about what was going on in his employee's lives as long as it didn't keep them from doing their job. Torbj?rn's own nephew, who had dropped out of academia to become a cleanser less than two years ago. A couple of Taru's distant cousins, one of whom had a suspicious skill overlap with the boy, down to the lack of immunity. The second distant cousin wasn't much better: if it weren't for the presence of the first one, he would have been unable to function with the rest of the crew according to Taru. Trond's acquaintances were better in those regards, but still substandard: a man that was hardly a real doctor whose real gift lied in getting fired and the command of the crew given to a troll hunter with a limited notion of long-term planning. Long term planning was never intended to be needed on this expedition. The only person none of them knew was the day scout, that could have been the person they hated the most in the whole world if it weren't for the fact she was now inside a troll's stomach, unfortunately along with the Grade A cat assigned to the crew. If it weren't for both their employer and the day scout underestimating the rest of the crew, the boy would have been that troll's dinner instead.
-How is he?
Torbj?rn had accepted to move away from Sweden to get this job in Iceland because of the money, but had come to care for the boy as much as for his own children back home. They boy's Norwegian teacher and the woman hired to train him for the day-to-day aspects of the expedition had a similar affection for him.
-He didn't get exposed, but he's in shock after what happened. Mikkel put him in the dormitory and told us to keep an eye on him.
Taru's cousin Tuuri sounded on the verge of tears again. The previous was when they had all realized that her presence in the crew was going to be used as an excuse to order everyone to continue the research, despite the "setback" of losing their employer's youngest son on the first day. This greatly increased the possibility that anyone who may have noticed something suspicious about the boy's death would end up dead themselves, by troll or by day scout. Sigrun's voice intervened:
-Sorry to interrupt your chit-chat, but we have a more pressing issue. What do we do now? I don't like the idea of going back to that boring Danish military base, and it's not only because the bridge broke.
Torbj?rn had to make sure he had heard correctly:
-Why are you asking us? I'd like to remind you that you reached this radio completely by chance, and that I just happened to be next to it because I had just been talking to my wife.
-Who else should I ask? I'm definitely not asking the actual boss anything anymore.
Torbj?rn turned in the direction of Trond and Taru, who seemed both in deep thought. Trond was the first to emerge from it, before grabbing the radio's microphone:
-Listen. I have enough connections here to send you a ship with quarantine facilities that will take you somewhere safe. But I'll get nobody to come get you right now. You'll have to wait until right before spring to be picked up. The most convenient place to pick you up from will most likely be very far away from your current location, so you might as well use that time to reach it. Tell me, how much supplies were you given? Supplying you as if he expected at least one of you to die early into the expedition would have raised a few red flags.
Tuuri answered:
-Reynir's father made him check himself to test his knowledge. Mikkel checked also, in case he had been deliberately taught to misevaluate things. Mikkel say we're good, but may need to do a little hunting and scavenging from time to time. The fact that we don't need to feed Helena nor the cat anymore helps also.
"Helena" had been the day scout. Taru emerged from her own thoughts:
-If you're going to have a long trip in the Silent World anyway, would you mind taking a few photos of your campsites? That alone would be precious data for some people. That will keep that extremely expensive assassination plot from becoming a complete waste.
Tuuri translated Taru's Icelandic for Sigrun, who was the next to speak:
-I like you guys already! We can totally do that! Will keep everyone from thinking of the old boss wanting all of us dead too much.
-"The old boss"? asked Torbj?rn, intrigued.
-You three are the new bosses now. If anyone asks, the radio broke in such a way that we can only reach you guys and can't contact the boring Danish base. I don't care if it's not actually possible, I think no one will once they find out what this mission was originally supposed to be and that we're the good guys in that story.
The more they thought of it, the more they realized they were in no position to refuse.