The doors opening, her shotgun found no target waiting for her.
Peering outside to find a long corridor running down, she stepped out and followed it slowly. Two doors either side and windows trailing after them before the corridor ended in a T-section, she snuck along one side and peered into the opposite room. Dead consoles and empty, peering above into the other room she saw what was a mess hall of some sort. Two guys sat there and were talking while eating. She was hungry but not yet. Sneaking beneath the windows she made her way to the end of the T section, to the right ended in a dead end and only another door leading into the same computer room. To her left were a couple of doors, one on the left and one straight.
Backtracking first, she got closer to the window so she could listen in.
"Reckon Tom'll be right?"
"With that chick's rifle? Yeah he'll be fine, way better than that shitty .308 he's been using. Bossman was right to leave it with him, with a weapon like that we can at least take turns on shift having a feed. Always get hungry around this time of morning."
"I just wanted to get a feed before the other bastards get up, never leave anything for us on nights. Did they find anything else on her that was good? Bossman was saying something about maps."
"Yeah, she had this map on her from out Oregon way. There are other settlements out west we've not dealt with yet, a place called Eureka which is where I'm guessing she's from."
"She was pretty well armed, think the rest of them are like that?"
"Maybe, or maybe she's one of those types who has decided to wander and they all arm up like that. Either way we can sell her off after we've talked to her."
"Just talk?"
"When was the last time you had a woman that you didn't take or had to pay for?"
". . . fuck you."
"You don't have the caps."
Sneaking about to the door as they laughed, she readied herself. These two weren't the one that was meant to be here, they were meant to be on watch up top. That meant that there were at least three on this floor, one of those two doors led to the third guy.
The door slipped open and she was running hard. She'd already made a couple of steps before they even really turned to focus on who it was and several more before they even started to get to their feet. The blast from the shotgun took the closest on the full and the second who was behind him pinwheeled like a dreidel before the first crashed into him, both falling to the floor. She didn't even take out her other guns as she skidded over to the second and started laying into him with the butt of the shotgun. It took a few hits before he was still and no longer breathing.
Dropping the gun, she slipped the 9mm's from her belt and sprinted for the door and the corridor, heading down to where she was before she'd decided to backtrack. Doors hadn't opened yet.
Sneaking across quickly so she was at the far door, she waited with pistols in hand even as she heard the pounding of feet.
Door flashed open and he was ou-
Crack!
Down he went, combat shotgun spilling from his hands as he clutched his leg. Swinging around the door to check and finding no one, she turned her attention to the man on the ground and kicked him over onto his back.
"You!" She replied with a second kick before she holstered one of her guns.
"Yes, me. You're the leader of the Tomahawks?"
He managed to spit at her, ugly man. "You'll fuckin' burn for this."
"Maybe but you'll go first and I'll take that for a yes. How long have you been out here for?"
"Fuck you."
Taking aim at his other leg she put a round through that. The resulting cry and him in agony actually made her feel pretty giddy. Considering what was going to happen to her if she had not gotten free, she was feeling an immense satisfaction at this point. "I have the ammo to keep doing this."
She didn't like the way he was painfully glaring at her while taking shuddering breaths. It seemed that he understood at least because he was no longer swearing at her. "How long have you been out here and why are you out here?"
"I brought us here a few years back. We wanted to get things working here, things that hadn't been salvaged already. The generator had been locked up tight and no one had cracked it till us, with a few parts we got it going again. We could range from here and raid what we needed, was dangerous but then we had a better idea."
"Better idea?"
"Parma lets us know when people are travelling by, we don't attack them. They send people out this way like you, on one errand or another, we sell them off to slavers up north. Money helps us pay for things to fix this place up."
She now knew why deep down she'd hated Parma. Those rat fucks, not just that Sheriff but Ellen as well. Totally taken in by her, but wait, this didn't make sense. "Then why did they attack the bridges?"
"Didn't need us anymore, they want to start selling people themselves so they screwed us. You were our last and with all the people we lost we were going to head out further west."
He was losing a bit of blood at this point, she wasn't going to have him for much longer. "Where is my stuff?"
"In that room just there." Pointing to the other door she hadn't tried, he asked, "I've told y-"
Crack!
Peering outside to find a long corridor running down, she stepped out and followed it slowly. Two doors either side and windows trailing after them before the corridor ended in a T-section, she snuck along one side and peered into the opposite room. Dead consoles and empty, peering above into the other room she saw what was a mess hall of some sort. Two guys sat there and were talking while eating. She was hungry but not yet. Sneaking beneath the windows she made her way to the end of the T section, to the right ended in a dead end and only another door leading into the same computer room. To her left were a couple of doors, one on the left and one straight.
Backtracking first, she got closer to the window so she could listen in.
"Reckon Tom'll be right?"
"With that chick's rifle? Yeah he'll be fine, way better than that shitty .308 he's been using. Bossman was right to leave it with him, with a weapon like that we can at least take turns on shift having a feed. Always get hungry around this time of morning."
"I just wanted to get a feed before the other bastards get up, never leave anything for us on nights. Did they find anything else on her that was good? Bossman was saying something about maps."
"Yeah, she had this map on her from out Oregon way. There are other settlements out west we've not dealt with yet, a place called Eureka which is where I'm guessing she's from."
"She was pretty well armed, think the rest of them are like that?"
"Maybe, or maybe she's one of those types who has decided to wander and they all arm up like that. Either way we can sell her off after we've talked to her."
"Just talk?"
"When was the last time you had a woman that you didn't take or had to pay for?"
". . . fuck you."
"You don't have the caps."
Sneaking about to the door as they laughed, she readied herself. These two weren't the one that was meant to be here, they were meant to be on watch up top. That meant that there were at least three on this floor, one of those two doors led to the third guy.
The door slipped open and she was running hard. She'd already made a couple of steps before they even really turned to focus on who it was and several more before they even started to get to their feet. The blast from the shotgun took the closest on the full and the second who was behind him pinwheeled like a dreidel before the first crashed into him, both falling to the floor. She didn't even take out her other guns as she skidded over to the second and started laying into him with the butt of the shotgun. It took a few hits before he was still and no longer breathing.
Dropping the gun, she slipped the 9mm's from her belt and sprinted for the door and the corridor, heading down to where she was before she'd decided to backtrack. Doors hadn't opened yet.
Sneaking across quickly so she was at the far door, she waited with pistols in hand even as she heard the pounding of feet.
Door flashed open and he was ou-
Crack!
Down he went, combat shotgun spilling from his hands as he clutched his leg. Swinging around the door to check and finding no one, she turned her attention to the man on the ground and kicked him over onto his back.
"You!" She replied with a second kick before she holstered one of her guns.
"Yes, me. You're the leader of the Tomahawks?"
He managed to spit at her, ugly man. "You'll fuckin' burn for this."
"Maybe but you'll go first and I'll take that for a yes. How long have you been out here for?"
"Fuck you."
Taking aim at his other leg she put a round through that. The resulting cry and him in agony actually made her feel pretty giddy. Considering what was going to happen to her if she had not gotten free, she was feeling an immense satisfaction at this point. "I have the ammo to keep doing this."
She didn't like the way he was painfully glaring at her while taking shuddering breaths. It seemed that he understood at least because he was no longer swearing at her. "How long have you been out here and why are you out here?"
"I brought us here a few years back. We wanted to get things working here, things that hadn't been salvaged already. The generator had been locked up tight and no one had cracked it till us, with a few parts we got it going again. We could range from here and raid what we needed, was dangerous but then we had a better idea."
"Better idea?"
"Parma lets us know when people are travelling by, we don't attack them. They send people out this way like you, on one errand or another, we sell them off to slavers up north. Money helps us pay for things to fix this place up."
She now knew why deep down she'd hated Parma. Those rat fucks, not just that Sheriff but Ellen as well. Totally taken in by her, but wait, this didn't make sense. "Then why did they attack the bridges?"
"Didn't need us anymore, they want to start selling people themselves so they screwed us. You were our last and with all the people we lost we were going to head out further west."
He was losing a bit of blood at this point, she wasn't going to have him for much longer. "Where is my stuff?"
"In that room just there." Pointing to the other door she hadn't tried, he asked, "I've told y-"
Crack!