IC- Chapter Three: Lone Wanderers

[welsh]

Zoe considered Ibis's instructions and worked through the night to do as he had said. At the foot of the bed where Ibis lay, next to Grim, lay the big dog Cerberus which was reluctant to leave it's companions side.

At one point in the night, Ibis let out a long sigh as the last breath left his old lungs. Then he didn't breath no more. Cerberus, next to him, whined once and then raised its mouth for a long mournful howl. Then the big dog got up and walked out of the medical ward.

By that time most of the ward had been cleared, only Isabella remained and that was because Zoe wanted to keep an eye on the pregnancy. Isabella opened her eyes when she heard the dog's howl.

"What happened?" She murmured.

"Don't worry, your child is fine." Zoe responded.

Isabella nodded, closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

Zoe continued her work, now moving faster. Organs needed to be changed. She checked the hoses that drained Ibis' blood into Grim's. The blood was still flowing.

Later, after Zoe had closed the last of stitches, Grim's eyes fluttered opened. He was about to speak when Zoe whispered, "Sleep, I will speak to you tomorrow." But Grim's eyes had also closed and he was again unconscious.

Zoe looked at Ibis's still body and touched his hand. His normally pale color had begun to look even paler, almost a blue. His normally cold touch was colder yet. Had he been a man at all? Had he ever really been? She hadn't known him long enough to understand.

Tired, Zoe got up and walked away from the makeshift hospital ward and out. The caravaneers and the De Silvas, those that remained, had found sanctuary in an old mall. Parts of the mall had fallen to the elements, but much of it remained standing and many of the shops had not been looted. Those inside were helping themselves to the treasure trove and replacing old supplies.

She climbed up to the roof of the building where she found Talon, looking south, where Virgil was still working on the bomb.

He nodded when he saw her. "How's it going."

"We lost Ibis." She said, "But Grim should be ok."

Talon shook his head. Ibis had been with them a long time even if he didn't know the man.

"Now what?" She asked.

"We wait. There are people still at the University and maybe they are making it back. There are also people missing." He said.

"From the battle."

"Yes, a few. We lost Tyler. He disappeared after the battle. McReady too, but we have been missing him before the battle. Virgil too. But at least we got the DeSilva riders back."

Indeed, outside of the shopping mall, a large herd of horses was grazing in the grass, reunited with the rest of the De Silva clan.

"They will be ok. I have never seen such beautiful animals." Said Zoe.

"Nor I." Said Talon, "But they will have to protect them as well. People will be willing to trade and buy them. Fast as they are and strong. Good for caravan work, maybe farming, but also for war. And that's the problem. What can be bought can be stolen and taken."

"Will they stay with us?" Asked Zoe.

"I doubt it. That Montoya fella is raising a fuss about moving on to better ground. Saying the Oprezki will come back and they have to use this time to move further away. Maybe he's right. SOme of the riders escaped. We're going after them but that doesn't mean we'll get 'em. Besides, the posse they sent out is mostly to after horses, not the men."

"Why don't we go with them?" Asked Zoe. And it was the smart thing to do, really. The safer thing.

"Because we got a job to do." Said Talon finally. "One of the things Ibis told me was that this caravan had to get through to Grey Cliffs or else darkness would fall on all the land. And Ibis was a man who knew things. I think you understand."

Zoe nodded.

Talon continued,"I don't know why or what's ahead in Grey Cliffs, but I do know we are running guns so I figure it's going to be hot. We've replaced much of what we've lost with what we captured from the battle, but we still need to get it through."

"But the caravan has so few." Said Zoey.

Talon thought about those that they had lost. The plague and swept away half their number and the battle of the mission had taken more. He thought about Jim, who they didn't have time to bury, and about Virgil.

As if hearing the thought of Virgil, there was a brilliant flash of red on the horizon. It grew fast, like a new born sun, and stayed, flashing through the dark night. Had they been closer perhaps they might have seen the mushroom cloud rise behind it.

"Virgil?" Asked Zoe.

Talon nodded.

"SOme fireworks, hunh?" Said another voice.

Both turned to see the ghoulish visage of Virgil. Never could either remember being so happy to see such a twisted and ruined face. The old ghoul, his eyes barely in the societs, his skin rotten and teeth gone brown, smiled. "I couldn't disarm it, but there is a timer. Since the weapon was already armed and the failsafe removed, I couldn't deactivate it. But I could delay it."

Further away, the fireball consumed all the ground around it, pulling the mission fortress and the bodies that lay there into it's fiery embrace.

 

[welsh]

McReady was much closer to the blast.

He was outside the blast radius when he first saw the light. Fiery orange on the ground, and the warm feeling of the blast even at this range. Then the roar that had nearly deafened him. He had felt the air pulled into the blast. The air being pulled into the fireball rising behind him. It had forced him back a few steps, before he had been able to resist. Then the back blast had hit him hard. The blast of wind and fury and come from behind, carried him across the grass and thrown him to the ground. The wind from the blast had pushed him into the ground. He could feel the fire against his skin, the warmth. He could hear the thunderous roar behind him, and when he turned he could see the fire ball climbing into the sky and the mushroom cloud forming.

He had watched Virgil from a distance, using his telescope to get a better look. He had thought they would want him to get the item, but they told him to observe. When Virgil had left, he had been told to leave as well.

He had been on foot and observing the battle near the fort. They wanted him to watch. They wanted to learn. And he was powerless to refuse.

He had seen Gabriel ride past, heading in the direction of the University. He knew that was the direction Gabriel was going because that’s where they sent him. The slayer assassin had almost ridden him down.

There was something going at the University. Something essential. He had been thinking about that when the blast had occurred. In that moment he thought he would die, finally.

He thought he was supposed to have called in the strike on the Mission and die in that moment. Perhaps kill two crags with one stone, but he had been unable to get close enough. The riders, the Oprezki had surrounded the fortress. So instead he had watched, and they had been satisfied.

He remembered the feeling of warmth that had been transmitted, how it soothed him and calmed him, even as the Oprezki rode easily within range. It had relaxed him, calmed him, taken the nervous jitters away. McReady had hunkered down and watched. Used his skills to survive.

The Oprezki had been all around but McReady was smart and skilled. He always had been smart, even before they had taken him.

What hadn’t been smart was to go beyond Big Easy. They had told him about the vaults to the east. Big vaults that had sprung towns, cities even. Rich vaults with lots of tech to export. All they needed was to get on the caravan routes going West. And McReady had thought he was being smart.

Smart McReady, get to the vaults ahead of the other companies, know the routes in, the best routes. That’s where the money was for a scout master, to find the best routes and to go where no one else had. He had heard the stories about the rich Eastern vaults, and the more he heard the hungrier he became.

Taking advantage of a break in the caravan trade, he had decided to go East when the company went west.

And find the vaults he did. And what he had seen! Only a few of them. The furthest west, the frontier vaults. But he had seen much. He remembered that. The specifics of what he seen though, that was all gone now.

They had left him with the memory of an impression, but not the picture itself. What exactly he had seen and experienced had been washed away.

No memories of that. No. He had found himself in Big Easy again without a memory of how he got there. He had found the scar in the back of his head, and he had felt the presence.

They had put something inside of him. Something in his head, deep down in his skull, something cold and mechanical. It itched sometimes, but of course he couldn’t scratch it. Sometimes it gave him headaches, painful headaches.

And sometimes they used it to hurt him.

Pain. They used pain to get what they wanted. He would try to disobey them, he tried to do what was right. But the pain was too much. Stinging, terrible pain. More varieties of pain than he could imagine. And the more he disobeyed, the more pain they delivered.

Once he had tried to kill himself. But they knew it. Somehow they read his thoughts. They had allowed him to prepare the noose, had even let him get atop the stool. But before he could slip his head in the noose, they had hit him hard. SO damn hard it knocked him off the stool and left him on the floor for days.

And the messages, loud. How they berated him. How they humiliated him.

The voices were usually silent. Usually they let him rest. Even if he felt the presence inside his mind, normally the voices didn’t speak to him. That was better. He could at least sleep.

But sometimes, even in his deepest sleep, the voices would come. Shouting, demanding. If he tried to ignore him, they would sting him until he woke up.

And now they were telling him to go back to the University.

He thought they were through when they had launched the strike. But maybe they had something else in mind.

 

[Zoe]

The Grey Cliffs...
Zoe took a moment for herself in a quiet place and checked her pipboy.
There was a long travel ahead, still, untill they got to the Grey Cliffs.
Ibis' last will...

What would possibly happen if they did not go there? She had no idea why the place was so important, but if Ibis said they should go, he probably had a good reason. Maybe indeed an excelent reason.

She put the pipboy away and decided to go talk to Virgil.

"Say, Virgil, what can we expect to find at those Grey Cliffs?"

 

[Gruug]

In the battle, Gruug had been knocked to the ground by a bit of the wall where he was crumbling, but he had taken it in good heed, and had proceeded to spray the area with bullets. The last thing he remembered was having a horse collapse on his head.
Then he had gotten up. No idea how long he had been out. He wandered around, and found a scribble on a wall: "Heading to abandoned town" it said, and showed some directions.
"Well, Gruug old buddy, looks like we got a bit of walking to do." Gruug said to himself.
He had been within eye sight of the town when the bomb went off. However, luckily for him, he was outside the radiation and blast wave. All he got was a warmth, and a bit of a windy push that would of knocked over and average human. But that Gruug was not.
So he kept on trudging. He was stopped by a patrol, but let through, as just about everyone had seen the supermutant. And a supermutant is not something you will most likely forget. Gruug asked a nearby person where Talon was, and he grunted and pointed to the roof of the mall.

So that was where Gruug went. When he finally arrived up at the roof, he saw some of the caravaners.
"What a sight for sore eys..." Gruug mumbled.

OOC: Sorry I have not been really active, but I've been caught up in the back to school mess, and have not had much time. Settled now, so you should hear from me more regulary.

 

[welsh]

Talon was glad to see the mutant back. He had thought the mutant had gone down when the Oprezki had broken through the walls. That surprise had cost both the De Silvas and Caraveneers too many good men. There were others missing. McReady, their scout, for instance.

Which made him worry about the others. Gabriel was out there somewhere, Nat too, what of them?

Virigl was telling Zoey how he knew little of Grey Cliffs. "I've been heading South to get out of the cold, so this is all new territory for me." Said the old ghoul.

Virgil had told many of them the stories of Alaska and the war over the campfire. But it was good that Virgil sounded at peace. He had made friends with Jim on the trip and now Jim was no more.

How many more would we lose?

"I hear Grey Cliffs is a bunch of hills all mined out, and that they grow some funny mushrooms up there. But I hear lots of stuff. East of here, probably near as you can come to Big Easy." Said Virgil.

Close. They were very close to Grey Cliffs now. Maybe a week, maybe less. But it didn't matter. The battle and the damage caused would mean that they would have to recuperate. Many were wounded and would need time to heal. THe De Silvas were unlikely to travel until many of their wounded had recovered. In the meantime, their new herd would graze peacefully as they made their plans.

Talon's concern turned to the South and west, where others of their company lie. What had befallen them? Are they delayed? Did they get the hospital supplies.

"Zoey, how are our medical supplies?" Asked Talon.

Talon had easily taken command of the caravan, a surprise considering his less than noble past.

"Not much. We found some here, but it won't last long." Said Zoe. "If we had more we could perhaps heal faster, but with what we got, it would be dangerous to move the caravan again."

"How long?" Asked Talon.

"Without supplies?" Said Zoe, musing over the possibilities, "Maybe as long as a three weeks, a month. At least two weeks if you want to move in strength."

"Same for the De Silvas?" Asked Talon.

"Perhaps even longer. They are moving children and old folks too." Said Zoe.

It would take perhaps two days by horse to get to the University. Retreive the supplies and come back. They could get moving soon and the sooner this caravan trip was over, the better.

But that wasn't it at all, not really.

Talon was worried about the people still unaccounted for, and their fates weighed heavily on his mind.

"Isabella?"

"Recovering." Said Zoe.

"Tomorrow I am going to speak to her and suggest that we send a group back to the University to find out what happened to the others and maybe fetch supplies. We will need both. I want the rest of you to rest. Tomorrow we will probably take to the road."

"Back to the University?" Said Gruug, who had refused to go back once already.

"That's right. You don't have to go if you don't want to. But we have people back there and I want them back."

 

[Zoe]

The UNiversity... A place for knowledge, a place Zoe heard a lot about while in the vault's equivalent to that, where she made her studies to become a doctor and where she started researches. Was it possible that there still was information in the university about the researches
people made there? Maybe it still was active untill little time ago... Zoe was tempted to check about it.

There was time for that, since the caravan would not be able to move till the wounded were better, and since it would not be good to go ahead at all without more supplies.

And there were people to be rescued, friends of her new friends.
It was not hard to make up her mind! With a smile, she looked at Gruug and the others then looked at Talon.

"Talon, if a group goes to the University, I wanna be in that team."

 

[welsh]

The shaking of the ground and awoken Grim. He opened his eyes to the darkness and was vagually aware that there were others breathing. He turned to look at Ibis, but clearly Ibis was no longer breathing air.

Quietly he stood up and look around. The ward was empty except for the cot that held Isabella. She must have been wounded in the battle. Below Ibis's cot he could see Cerberus was sleeping, one of the three heads now stirred awake and observing Grim.

He swung his legs around so that that his feet met the floor and tried to stand up. He felt tired, worn down. He could feel stitches, just as he could feel the itch of his skin quickly healing him. To think, I might have bled out. But no. Death had once again escaped.

He looked at Ibis. Old man, you died for me didn't you?

But the blood inside told him what must be done. Quietly Grim got to his feet and limped over to where Ibis lay. Cerberus wolf's head, alert, now appraised him with a warning growl, awakening the others. Grim reached his hand to the mutant dog that sniffed. The animal's tail wagged. Perhaps he smelled something familiar, perhaps the blood of Ibis in his veins.

No matter.

Using his knife, Grim cut through the skin and removed the organs he needed, placing them in the pouch where he kept the other meat. Then quickly he sewed up the body, roughly, and wrapped it up like a shroud.

He could feel himself regaining his strength fast. It was the strange blood that had infected his system. Health and everlasting life and half death all mixed together.

He lifted the nearly weightless body of Ibis to his shoulder and, Cerberus following, left the hospital ward.

It was dark, the others sleeping or drunk or screwing or otherwise occupied. None bothered Grim as he left the ruined mall.

Above, Zoe saw Grim moving out, carrying the body of Ibis. "Is that Grim?" She asked.

Rogue, who had joined, watched for a moment through her scope. "Yes, I think he means to dispose of Ibis's body."

The others didn't speak. Each had learned something of Grim's secret and none felt comfortable speaking of it. Instead they turned their attention to their journey.

Grim walked until he found the ruins of an ancient house and scrapped together dead wood that he collected into a funeral pyre. Upon this he placed the body of Ibis, and then lit it with a match. THe dead wood cracked as the fire spread and soon Ibis's body was consumed in the flame.

Grim stepped away, reaching into the bag to take Ibis's liver which he slowly began to chew. He continued to eat the rest of the bag's meat while the fire spread and Ibis's body slowly burned away to nothing. It was the way. The body had to be disposed of so that it's remains would not be the food of rodents or insects that could transform into some new form of life.

When it was over Grim turned away and walked back to the mall. Cerberus, who had followed, lay down near by funeral pyre and remained.

 

[Gruug]

Dreg had gone with the caravan to the mall, and once they had all arrived, he had went from group to group, listening to their conversations. He had then went up to the top of the mall just in time to catch Talon saying that they needed a small group to go back to some university. Dreg had healed quite a bit, with his strange concotion of herbs and liquids. He could run again.
He saw Grimm carry Ibis and burn him. He also saw Grimm eating human liver, which he gathered was Ibis's own.
It did not disgust Dreg in the slightest, you had to do whatever you had to do to keep alive. Even eat your best friend if need be.
Another reason why noone ever tried Dreg's concotions, as you could never tell what was in them.
Cannabilism, Dreg smiled as he mouthed the words. But he turned away from those thoughts.
He was here, now. And he was bloodthirsty. That was the best thing about fighting man to man, the blood clung to your clothes like a bad smell, and after a time, you could actually smell blood.
But never mind.

"If there is to be a journey to the knowledge, I would not mind being part of it." Dreg said, and awaited the response as the others muled over it.

 

[Zoe]

Zoe watched in silence as Ibis old body was comsumed by the flames of the fire that his friend Grimm had set. And she saw what Grimm did - he was eating human flesh, the same kind of thing she had seen Ibis do.
She could not honestly say that did not shake her: as a fact, she could not feel indifferent to that. A mix of disgust and the scientific curiosity - the same scientific curiosity she had when studing a bit of forensics while making her medical studies.
And looking at Dreg, she saw the look in his face... That indifference was weird to her. Was he too hardened by life to find cannibalism something comon? Was he too shaken from the battle to be able to show any feelings? She did not know. Zoe just felt, suddenly, very very tired - as if all the stress of the batlle and the torture by Oprezky and her escape from them and the escape from the vaults was at last taking its toll off her.
She sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes. And yet, she wanted to go to the university. She wanted to help the caravan reach a safe place, she wanted to be.. Safe again, and continue her researches. But would she ever be, again?

 

[Gunslinger]

IC-

Sam was hard at work in his forge in Grey Cliffs. The Blades had just returned from their raid of the League encampment. No one would say it outright but the League would likely retaliate soon.

Scattered around the spacious smithy were casts, scrap metal, and workstations. The Blades were clever people and had brought with them many schematics filled with war machines. The art of gunpowder had not been lost to Grey Cliffs but fierce and clever machinations were almost unheard of. The smith had spent long hours flipping through the leather bound Tome of War, admiring the grenades, mines, and other lethal inventions. For nomads, they were well versed in destruction.

Now, Sam’s smiths and apprentices were working overtime, hard-pressed preparing Grey Cliffs for war. Alchemists were busy reloading empty brass cartridges, careful measuring gunpowder loads. Workmen were melting the lead ingots still found in the mountains, forming bullets. Heavy steel, a rarity, was being stamped into removable machine gun barrels along with the heavy shells for the recoilless rifle.

Nearly everyone was busy that night. The Blades, after dropping off their wounded elders inside the town, returned to their posts at the gate camp. Volunteers were helping them reload magazines and an impromptu band of militia townsmen were patrolling in their stead. In the town, Grey Cliffs people were doing everything they could to nurse the forty Blade elders. Every family took it upon themselves to carry a dirty, old, ragged Blade home, with little protest from the elder.

The Blades were exhausted but had to ready themselves for possible retaliation. They had spent an in hectic gunfire and had made the long trek home in under another hour. And, amazingly, none of the Blades had been lost. The Elders were worst off, none being fit for any fights in the foreseeable future.

Troubles were coming upon Grey Cliffs and people were anxious. The supply train from Tabis had long been delayed and their relied troupe of mercenaries had never come save for a few. In short, they were on their own.

Sam stepped out of his hot, busy workshop to get a fresh breath of air. There was smoke in the air, but much worse, the premonition of coming doom upon his small town. And no matter how many bullets he could recap, grenades he could piece together, or shells he could manufacture, Sam did not think that Grey Cliffs would survive. Even with the eighty Blades altogether, the future looked grim.

The blacksmith regarded his smithy, building and churning its munitions futilely, the Blades, preparing for a fruitless battle, and his neighbors, working pointlessly, and his heart nearly broke. He loved his town, which had been home for a man who knew nothing but had intimate knowledge of his hands and craft.

So Sam did the only thing he was taught to do when the situation was too far out of his hands; an itinerant Baptist preacher had showed him the way. There was a mysterious pipe the width of a man poking out of the ground besides his smithy. The manhole covering it was securely welded on and nothing Sam could do would open it. And it was there at the sealed manhole that Sam Walker, the Baptist blacksmith of Grey Cliffs, prayed.

He signed himself, incanting the Holy Trinity. Then, falling onto his knees, he propped his elbows on top of the manhole and pressed his hands together.

“Father,” he began, and then stopped. He had been taught that prayer worked and he believed it truly. But it was hard to pray to a God that had never answered his prayers. So he searched his heart, finding the pure and genuine longing and anguish there before he began.

“Father, you know in my heart that I am true to You,” he prayed. “I read your Book and practice your laws. I have been the best man I can be.”

He furrowed his brows, thinking how this would sound to an omnipotent being who would theoretically know what was already being asked.

“Now, I fear for my town and my neighbors. The enemy that besets us must truly be Satan’s servant, not the God-fearing men and women of your gracious town.”

He closed his eyes again, taking in a breath for what must come next.

“So I ask you, loving Father, to save my town and neighbors. I ask this only so that your loyal servant can serve you. Amen.”

He waited there in the praying penitent position, eyes closed. He waited, not expecting and answer but still waiting. And he waited for a full five minutes in vain for a sign or anything.

Sam got up and sheepishly dusted off his blacksmith apron. He looked around to see if anyone had seen him before starting towards his shop.

As he entered its threshold, he heard a thin, rasping noise against the manhole. Sam stopped, listening. He heard it again and cautiously turned back.

The thin rasping noise, the sound of a finger nail scratching against metal, became evident. When Sam knelt close, it became a loud clanging noise.

The blacksmith had tried to open this manhole before and to no avail. Still, it did not stop him from removing tongs from his pocket and setting to against the rusted lid.

Before he could even exert himself, a rusted screw began spinning from the base of the manhole, slipping up along its threads. Sam hastily pocketed his tongs and grasped the ungainly manhole lid, hauling it off the pipe.

And, to his surprise, an ancient cowboy stepped out, brusquely pushing him aside. The lanky gunslinger reached back down the drain and bodily pulled up a dark, bearded man from it.

Sam Walker’s prayers of deliverance were answered for Caleb Rutgers had entered Grey Cliffs.

 

[welsh]

OCC- Ok, this part of the chapter is over. I am locking it down and allowing the last of it to continue in Chapter 3 (part 2). Least till we feel ready to start Chapt 4. Gunslinger, if you want to start Chapt 4 sooner than we finish, go to it.