2063
| | Mar/Apr 2063 |
|
The panther snarled at her, a deep growl like tearing canvas. Its eyes flashed blue in the forest's late-afternoon gloom over a muzzle splashed red with blood. It shifted and dug its claws into the bleeding form at its feet, the whimpering mass that had been Robert, one of her father's guards. The bitter iron scent of blood stung her nostrils, and she slowly bent to pick up the gun which had landed at her feet when the panther had dropped out of the tree onto the guard's shoulder. She hefted the revolver and awkwardly pushed her finger into the trigger guard. Abruptly, the gun wasn't a revolver anymore, it was a double-barrelled shotgun with silver filigree inlaid on the barrel. She brought the gun up to her shoulder, pointed the barrels at the panther's chest, pulled back the hammers with her thumb, and yanked the trigger. Nothing happened. The panther bent over Robert and tore off a strip of flesh off with its jaws. A hissing from her gun drew Brooke's eyes. The stock of the shotgun had turned into a brown-and-silver snake with flat black eyes, coiling around her forearm. It eyed her, flicked its black tongue at her elbow, and then lunged, its jaws open wide enough to swallow the world. Brooke snapped upright on the bed, a scream dying to a moan as it passed her lips. She rubbed sleep from her eyes, then looked up at the bright morning light streaming through the room's clerestory window. That was a dream. A dream, Brooke. Calm down. She jumped at a soft growl, before realizing that it had come from her stomach. She chuckled, swung her legs off the side of the bed, and rummaged in her bag for her packet of provisions. The last of the mutton and fruit didn't fill her, but it quieted the unhappy little growling sounds from her midsection. When the food was gone, Brooke put her pack into the metal box at the foot of the bed, pulled Daisy's holster onto her shoulder, and stuck her head out into the hallway. It was empty and deserted, curtains drawn shut over every doorway. She glanced the other way and noticed that "CRIDDLE" had been freshly painted on the plaque next to her door. Down past the end of the hallway she could hear voices, the words rendered faint by distance. Brooke walked down the hallway, trying not to feel like an intruder in this new place. She suddenly felt a wave of homesickness for the stone walls of Criddle Hold. You miss the walls, but do you miss the work? Do you miss not being good enough every second of every day? She quashed the mental voice. She'd made her decision, and now she had to live through it. She'd survive the gang the same way she'd survived the Hold after Mellie had left. And, she thought with a reassuring touch to Daisy's stock, I can run away again if I have to. The thought wasn't entirely comforting, but it helped. ### She followed the echoes of voices to a small room with a window looking out onto the compound's yard. Two men sat at a large round table with steaming cups in their hands. One was one of the men from the desert patrol, a desert-tanned man with a shaved head and a narrow face. The other was younger, unscarred, with a thatch of ragged blond hair and a beak of a nose. He looked up at Brooke's entry, and his face creased in a smile. "Brooke! Mellie told me you came in yesterday. How are you?" Brooke hadn't seen Roger Hanlin in almost a year. Each Hold in the Haven Valley kept itself to itself, except for the yearly Harvest Festivals outside Haven Market. He still had the Hanlin nose, though his tan seemed darker than before. The other man waved her to an empty chair. "Good morning, Criddle. Hungry?" Brooke nodded. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't catch your name?" The man laughed aloud. "I'm a 'sir' now! You farm kids are so polite. I'm Lonnie Deweese, but you can call me Devil." "Yes... Devil." Brooke sat in the chair and looked around the room. "Do you know where I can get some food?" "Strang's out getting breakfast. There'll be plenty for all of us," Roger put in. "Oh, thanks..." Brooke cast around for a topic of conversation. "Um... what do I do now?" "Training." Roger shoved his chair back from the table and put his boots up on the table. "You'll be over at the Training Center. Sounds like you'd make a good gunner, but they'll figure out what you're good at, and give you all the basics you need." "So what do you do?" "I'm a gunner too." Roger grinned and dug at his teeth with a metal toothpick. "Trying to work my way up to driving. The Legion takes drivers seriously." "If you look at the kind of cars we run, it makes sense," interjected Deweese. "Mostly fast muscle cars, heavy on engine and light on killware. You need really good drivers for that. We don't have a lot of sedans or SUVs. Most of our drivers start off in our merchant line, running food down to Texan, through the Badlands, then fuel and cars back. With Badlands pirates shooting at you, you either get good at going fast or die trying." He snickered evilly. "I got good. Others got eaten." "What about Mellie? Did she go down to Badlands?" Brooke asked. The Badlands were a distant, evil place, cursed by the Evil One, populated by pirates and mutants and demons. The idea of kind Mellie driving through the Badlands twisted Brooke's stomach. "Yeah, she did." Lonnie laughed. "Not for long. She got good fast. Then again, she had reason to come back quick." He laughed again and trailed off into chuckles as he stared at the ceiling. Brooke blinked, feeling the conversation shift under her. Combined with Commander Orth's veiled hints at Mellie, she had the feeling that the Mellie out here, the one who carried a rifle and drove a car, and hunted pirates in the wasteland, was entirely different from the Mellie she'd known at Criddle Hold, who'd herded goats and shelled nuts with her. "Sir... what do you mean by that?" The two men looked at each other, then Deweese waved at Roger. "You're the farmboy, Hanlin, you get to explain it." Roger grimaced at Deweese, then dropped his feet off the table and turned to face Brooke. "You know that..." His hands waved and spun, and he seemed to search for words, "There are women who take women as lovers. You remember Father Terrethel preaching against them." Brooke nodded, not seeing Roger's point. Then understanding dawned, and all Orth's strange comments in the Haven Market inn snapped into focus. "Mellie? And Orth thought... Mellie and me?" She heard her voice going shrill with shock, and clamped her jaw shut. Deweese chuckled. "Not quite. And we know you and Mellie aren't involved, Mellie's lover would kill her. And you." Roger explained, "She has a lover in the Gray Riders, a local bounty-hunter gang. Lorna. The Gray Riders don't allow that sort of thing, so they keep it a secret. Mellie hasn't told the rest of us about Lorna, so we pretend that we don't know, 'till she decides to tell us." Brooke felt her eyes crossing at the layers of deception. "So... you all know Mellie has a... a woman-friend... and you all pretend that you don't know, while she thinks that she's concealing her... lover... from you all?" "Yup." Roger nodded. "You get used to it after a bit." Brooke's response was interrupted by the creak of the door, and she glanced up in alarm. A figure stood silhouetted in the doorway, half-hidden behind a large canvas bag. He took two steps into the room and set the bag onto the table, revealing a face out of a nightmare. Yellow-orange scales covered a face dominated by two fist-sized red-orange eyes with slit pupils, over a puckered red mouth. Finger-sized dark brown projections ran in rows across his skull and down his neck. The thick-fingered hands protruding from the sleeves of the dark blue coat were covered in the same yellow scales, and tipped with sharp black claws. Adrenaline surged through her veins like bullets through a barrel. Brooke shrieked, kicked away from the table, and pulled Daisy. Her shaking fingers found the triggers and took first pressure. Roger stepped between her and the mutant, whose hand was at his belt. "Hold on, Brooke, he's a friend!" "A friend?" Brooke asked, her heart pounding in her ears. "He's a... a mutant!" The mutant's shoulders sagged, and it gave an odd, low whistling sound. After a moment, Brooke realized that it had sighed. "So you're the new girl. Put the gun away, please." Brooke looked from the mutant to Roger and back. Slowly, she slid Daisy back into her holster and pushed herself upright. As she gained her feet, she saw the Fifth Legion badge pinned to the mutant's coat. "You're - with the Legion?" The mutant nodded and blinked, translucent yellow eyelids sliding over inhuman eyes. One of its hands dipped into the canvas bag and emerged with a paper parcel, which it held out to Brooke. "Elisha Strang, Legion Mercantile Department. Want a burto?" Brooke hesitated, then took the parcel. "Brooke Criddle. I'm... sorry. You startled me." Her hands started unwrapping the burto, and she looked down at it, so as not to stare at the mutant. "I do that a lot. I'm such a beautiful man that people can't help but feel threatened." Strang ran a hand over its - his, Brooke corrected herself sharply - scalp-horns, then reached into the sack for another burto. Brooke carefully sat down as the other two men took burtos from the sack, then bit into hers. Flatbread wrapped around a filling of meat and vegetable paste, burtos were common workaday food throughout the North. She'd made more than a few for her fathers' farmhands. She chewed and swallowed, then asked, "Where did you get this? This food?" "There's cookshops all around," Strang shrugged. "So, Brooke, are you from Criddle Hold in the Haven Valley?" Brooke nodded. "I am. Have you ever been there?" Strang shook his head. "No, that region isn't healthy for someone who looks like me. But I know where it is. Your pecans and wool fetch a good price down south." Brooke didn't know what to say to that, so she applied herself to her burto. The men made small talk between bites, all about people she didn't know. When she finished her meal, she balled up the paper wrapper and tossed it into the sack, as she'd seen Roger do. "So... um... training?" "Sure." Roger pushed back from the table and stood up. "Let's head over there now." Brooke stood and followed him out of the room. Once in the courtyard, in the long shadows cast by the compound walls, she said, "I can't believe... that..." She gestured back at the door. "Elisha scares almost everyone when they first meet him, but he's loyal as hell to Orth. Orth and Quick apparently picked him up on some mission down in the Badlands, and they love him for scouting jobs. They've had him escorting fuel and cars down from Gateway to here, which means they trust him. Giving Strang trouble is a good way to end up in both their Bad Books." Brooke nodded. When she had pictured being in a gang in her head, it hadn't included eating with mutants. Mutants, the sinners who wore God's punishment on their flesh, the heathens that were fit only to be cast into the torments of the Evil One. Brooke could hear, in her mind, Father Terrethel's angry sermons about purging the mutant with fire and the sword. But I'm supposed to be past that now. Right? She stopped and watched as Roger worked the winch of the compound gate, opening a man-wide path onto the streets of Somerset. As she walked out onto the street, people walked past without even looking at her, or only giving her the single glance required to identify her as a ganger. If I'm not past where I was, then where am I?  Susan Derosa of Highway Hellriders died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Andrew Sawyer of Highway Hellriders died at Somerset Rally Circuit. John Myers of Overlanders died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Dario Fitz of Overlanders died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Elsie `Lazy` Lara of Traction Action died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Lakesha `Freebie` Bradford of Traction Action died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Debbie `Left` Fielder of Blood and Iron died at Somerset Rally Circuit. `Tiki` Takisha Traverso of Blood Roses died at Somerset Rally Circuit. `Doctor` Jerome Pepper of Blood Roses died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Pete Ripple of Rabid died at Northern Farm Land. Robert Howell of Caesars Ghosts died at Gates of Somerset. William `Bad Ass` Mercado of Joels Bastards died at Gates of Somerset. Gary Muff of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Gates of Somerset. Edward Mercer of Fist of Steel died at Road to Elmsfield. Denise Johnson of Gutter Punks died at Sandy. Georgia Walker of Iron Company died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Jane Weimer of Caesars Ghosts died at Somerset`s Junkyard, Race Track 1. James Gross of -^-HellRazors-^- died at Deadman`s Drop. Albert Voss of Joels Bastards died at Ring of Death Arena. Pei Campbell of The Mighty People Of Armadillo died at Lost Trail: Broken Ground. Christopher Williams of The Mighty People Of Armadillo died at Lost Trail: Broken Ground. `POPPA` David Finklea of Justifiable died at Forever Yellow Skies. Julie `Ann` Norris of Justifiable died at Forever Yellow Skies. Joan Wells of TotalCarnage died at Northern Farm Land. Jo Vanarsdale of TotalCarnage died at Northern Farm Land. Petra Garcia of TotalCarnage died at Northern Farm Land. Carlos `Mr. Big` Wang of finger3 died at Double Down Arena. Landon `No Carbs` Atkins of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Jordan `Drinking` Sherry of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Elizabeth `Nicolai` Hollowell of Blood Roses died at Highway to Hell. Alice `Rabbit Hole` Lopez of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Tricia Mitchell of KRU died at Lost Oasis. Robin Brown of sunset samurai died at Somerset`s Junkyard, Race Track 3. Vikki Jones of Blood Roses died at Road to Somerset. Joanna `The Shark Fan` Gallegos of Justifiable died at Gates of Somerset. `Porn Star` Bree Olson of SwordStroke Enterprises died at Ring of Death Arena. William Pippen of 5ive Crew died at Northern Farm Land. `Deadeye` Donnie Garcia of Caesars Ghosts died at Gates of Somerset. Keith Jones of Golden Warriors died at Highway to Hell. Kelsey `Penn` Fenn of The Dark Knights died at Lonesome Highway. `Big` Willie Howard of The Dark Knights died at Lonesome Highway. `George` Michael Howard of The Dark Knights died at Lonesome Highway. `Bigguns` Bernice Bradford of Caesars Ghosts died at The Pit. Thomas Burton of Caesars Ghosts died at The Pit. John Roberts of Caesars Ghosts died at The Pit. Calvin Coffey of TotalCarnage died at Southern Plateau. Robert `Peter` Gunn of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Emanuel `Bengal` King of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. `Lo-lo-lo-la` Lola Marsh of KRU died at Lost Trail: Broken Ground. `80 Proof` Johnny Walker of finger3 died at Northern Farm Land. Robert Blackmon of Coolerheads died at The Pit. Chuck Bassham of Coolerheads died at The Pit. William Riley of Coolerheads died at Gates of Somerset. Anna `Buddy` Holley of Justifiable died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Wm Vangorder of Bandicoots died at Gates of Firelight. Michelle `Biter` Tyson of Caesars Ghosts died at Northern Farm Land. `Downtown` Larry Brown of Blood and Iron died at Gates of Somerset. Brooke `Spitting` Lamas of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Sue `Super` Powers of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. Frank Chu of Justifiable died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Dianne Brown of Deathgods died at Somerset`s Junkyard, Race Track 3. Clarence Vaughn of Gutter Punks died at Lost Oasis. Ronald Jackson of TotalCarnage died at Pathway to Darkness. Jolene Rodriguez of Justifiable died at Gates of Somerset. Flora Caputo of McFailstein died at Road to Elmsfield. Daniel Peden of Caesars Ghosts died at The Dunes Race Course. Herbert Stoner of TotalCarnage died at Gates of Somerset. `Walkabout` Willie Palmer of Caesars Ghosts died at Pathway to Darkness. `Jammin` James Peterson of Caesars Ghosts died at Gates of Somerset. Arthur Smith of Caesars Ghosts died at Gates of Somerset. Michelle `Scraps` Dickerson of Rabid died at Telegraph Road. Curtis `Easy` Breazeale of Hellz Accountantz died at Gates of Somerset. Darrell `No Neck` Schreiner of Hellz Accountantz died at Gates of Somerset. Marty Snyder of Caesars Ghosts died at Highway to Hell. Eric `Destroyer` Dawson of Caesars Ghosts died at Highway to Hell. Arthur Smith of Caesars Ghosts died at Highway to Hell. `Cap`tain` Spencer Ramos of Blackbeards died at Somerset Arena. Patricia Lee of KRU died at Via Rupta. Danica `Forgetful` Fuller of Mungos Men died at Northern Desert Circuit. Salvador Reed of The Ghosts died at Gates of Somerset. Simon Judd of Gutter Punks died at Road to Somerset. Christopher Young of The F-Bombs died at Double Down Arena. Lee `ZOMBIE` Demeo of Longos Merry Men died at Ring of Death Arena. Ernest Evans of Road Rifters died at Gates of Somerset. Betty `Rubble` Lopez of Justifiable died at Highway to Hell. Tabetha `THAT` Stevens of Justifiable died at Highway to Hell. Frances `Cocka` Roach of Blood and Iron died at Northern Farm Land. `They Call Me` Bruce Leroy of Justifiable died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Michael Gwin of Bandicoots died at Serpentine Road. Lloyd Gwin of Bandicoots died at Serpentine Road. Garry Jackson of Bandicoots died at Serpentine Road. Marci `no mercy` Evenson of PA Racers died at Salt Flats Canyon. Earl Christensen of TotalCarnage died at Road to Elmsfield. `Cabbage` Donald Cubbage of Golden Warriors died at The Pit. Jose Major of The Mighty People Of Armadillo died at Northern Farm Land. Bill `Apricot Boy` Burdett of Rabid died at Once Upon a Town. Stephen `Bloody` Hart of Longos Merry Men died at Ring of Death Arena. Peter Helton of Renshai died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Tamara Schaaf of Blue Giants died at Somerset Dirt Racing Track. Mary Anderson of Road Rifters died at Once Upon a Town. John Garcia of Road Rifters died at Once Upon a Town. Javier Johnson of Road Rifters died at Once Upon a Town. Paula Spears of Coolerheads died at Northern Desert Circuit. Michael Noga of The Autumn Wind died at The Pit. Sharon `Blazing Mopar` Santana of Raging Scavengers died at Lost Oasis. Kendra Randles of Collision Force died at Lost Oasis. Annie Evans of Blue Giants died at Somerset`s Junkyard, Race Track 1. James `Divvy` Dinsmore of The Dark Knights died at Oil Slick. Pete Stone of Gutter Punks died at Lost Oasis. James `Hoagie` Carmichael of Fifth Legion died at Highway to Hell. Daniel Daniels of BBiscuts died at Never Plains: Sand Storm. `holeshot` Drew Bowden of Blue Giants died at Somerset Dirt Racing Track. John `Max` Payne of No Aiming Just Shooting died at Once Upon a Town. Jimmie `Tinkerbell` Hill of Collision Force died at Under a Bloody Red Sky. Charles `Yobson` Yarbrough of Collision Force died at Under a Bloody Red Sky. `The Only` Juan Valdez of Port Kar Renagades died at Burning Skies. Jennifer Sprague of Blue Giants died at Somerset Rally Circuit. Joseph Marson of Collision Force died at Once Upon a Town. Bradley `Indian` Castaneda of Collision Force died at Once Upon a Town. Ellsworth Marshall of Caesars Ghosts died at Acid Land. Kevin `Hoppy` Hopkins of 69th Battalion died at Somerset Arena. Robert `I`ll Be` Bach of No Aiming Just Shooting died at Gates of Somerset. Alberto Henson of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. Lawrence Kelly of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. Anna Slaton of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. Zane `Ed` Zebrowski of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. Zachariah `Ted` Zang of Rabid died at Gates of Somerset. `Prophet` Elijah Hall of Hot Trax died at Gates of Gateway Truckstop. Kenneth `Gunnery` Steger of 8ounty 8astards died at Rocket Flats. James `Rum` Morgan of Maxxed Out died at Somerset`s Junkyard, Race Track 2. Timothy `T-may` Martinez of Scarzams Dragoons died at Blown With the Wind. John `Enchelta` Quesada of finger3 died at Under a Bloody Red Sky. Maria `Bomb` Shell of Blood Roses died at Gates of Morgan. Charles `Widowmaker` Thompson of Dolce Gabbana died at Gates of Morgan. `The Scout` Sherry Luna of Dolce Gabbana died at Gates of Morgan. Janet `Emilia` Estevez of Justifiable died at Road to Gateway Truck Stop. Patrick Harp of Roads to Madness died at Forever Yellow Skies. 1. WarGasM (Somerset): $770. |
 The current leaders of Evan`s major leagues are as follows: Evan Race Ladder - -^-HellRazors-^- In addition, the leaders of the minor leagues are: Circuit of Evan Wilderness Rally I League - -^-HellRazors-^- A well-known activist from the Evan Reds was preaching from his soap box again about arranged betting on arena events. Locals caught on and stopped betting. This caused great loses to the mafia. The activist was later found dead, a bullet to the head. Relations have deteriorated.  |