Dratin's Story

Dratin woke up after feeling the cold morning...or was it nightly chill? Whatever part of the 'day' it was the chilling wind woke him up from his slumber. As the man slowly stirred awake he did not need to get fully dressed. In this freezing cold a couple of blankets did not do its best to warm you up, so wearing your shirt and pants in bed really did keep some semblance of warmth. Of course a long-sleeved T-shirt and pants were trying their best to keep a person warm.

So began the morning routine, Dratin rubbed his hands together in the vain hope that he could feel some extra warmth. Next he gathered some wood and piled it under a pot raised high by a few metal poled and ties up together. He was not in a house but instead in one of the warehouses, since there were no convenient ovens to cook things in, or even microwaves people had to resort to the old fashioned way of cooking food. Inside the pot he poured some water inside and then placed some form of 'meat' inside. Going out to hunt could get some...interesting results. And by interesting he really meant disgusting and creepy. Roaches, the most resilient bastards on this planet. If they can survive a nuclear blast then the cold is nothing to them.

It was an...acquired taste...but saving canned foods for real emergencies was better then manning up to eat an insect. Dratin stirred the pot of water and roach meat before placing a lid on top of it to simmer for a few minutes. While he did this he began to put on his armor. He had to get to the town hall before everyone woke up to help pass it out and to make sure no one argues about another person getting a bigger piece of bread or some nonsense like that.

Once Dratin finished putting on his armor, he poured himself a nice bowl of Roach Soup and dug in rather quickly not wanting to savor the taste in the least. Once he was done he left the pot as it was for the others...if they were brave enough...to try the soup. Otherwise they could warm up by the fire.

Once he was near the door, he grabbed a rifle that was hanging on the wall and began to head to the town hall. You could say they were an emergency storage area, he and his team would collect whatever they could and in case they ran out of food they would be able to ration them. Of course they had to find out ways to sustain themselves...besides have everyone begin eating roaches...not only did nearly everyone despise the idea, it was not that delicious or filling unless you ate a good bit of roaches...As Dratin continued to think about the subject, he simply shook his head and took a seat near the town hall.

Bones suddenly opened her eyes, A loud crash bringing her to her senses. She jumped up from the small cloth bed and In a fluid motion grabbed her revovler pointing it at the exit of the room. A rat, A ridicously large rat had knocked over the many tin cans she had placed by the opening. The fire she had created before falling asleep was still lit, A small moment of worry washed over her by the fact that the rat had approuched her while the fire still was going, Those things could claw their way straight trough her. But that was a matter for another night! She was already completely awake, A unending amount of energy was surging into her. She lowered her gun, holstering it, rolling her cloth bed up and grabbing her large rutsack, flinging it over her shoulder as she quickly stamped on her fireplace and trecked outside.

Upon leaving the small apartment bones felt relieved, There was so little ash here. And the low amount meant a bigger chance of finding people! Wether that was good or bad was for her to see. She remembered the small tracks she had seen earlier, Perhaps something resembling a road. She readjusted the rutsack before shuffling away, following the small difference in ash indicating that something previously walked there. The thought that the tracks was just some animals hit her, but those quickly disappeared, The tracks are either indicating Human presence or animals, and she could make profit from both of them. A small smirk creeped onto her.

Soon enough, She saw what could only be called a settlement. A Makeshift perimeter enclosing a small amount of houses, People were moving around in the middle of the settlement, They looked tired, well that was natural nowaday. And they were all gathering in the middle, Their town center. Bones could not get a good look at the situation from the hill she was standing upon. She was still very much visible but even if the people noticed here it would not matter much, Hopefully they wouldn't open fire on her, A couple of ideas for greeting the people appeared in Bones mind. But in the end she simply decided to wait on the hill, The people present in the center didn't correspond with the number of houses, Not everyone had gathered yet. She decided to wait.

In the Town center a trio of older people, who's bodies weren't much good for the running and work that more streneous tasks were called for were set about divying up rations of food to everyone. These were the cooks, and despite their appearance they were pretty important people. It was their job to take whatever was found and given to them by the scavengers and other survivors and some how turn it into something that could be eaten without killing those who tried it. A daunting task to be sure.

One of them called out and greeted Maya when she came in, as did several others. She was immediatly plied with offered food from others, which she just as promptly turned down, or if it was insisted upon her she would take it and pass it immediatly to another person. She approached the line, refusing to be passed to the front. For the most part she was focused on her own thoughts, and thus didn't really pay attention to what was served that day. She took a bowl of it and went to sit down, but paused as she saw Dratin come in.

"Dratin, I'm leaving tomorrow for Camden to see if I can trade some of the Salvage we don't use from the last roam for supplies and food, You feel like joining?" She said to the soldier.

Despite having asked him though, she was still unsure if she wanted him to come with her. She had met him a couple times, and watched him break up fights when they started, and she figured she could trust him, but then she wasn't the trusting type. In the end she had decided that, seeing that the risk with going to Camden was so great, it'd probably be better for her to take someone with her, regardless of whether they could be trusted or not.

At the very least, when the Rekkers start gunning for us I can use him as a distraction, she thought to herself.

As Dratin watched the morning commune, he was soon questioned by a woman called Maya if he would like to join her. "If you are going out there then I shall assist you. Gotta be carful these days, no telling what bandit would jump you. And besides, more salvage for the town the better." He replied as he breathed into his hands.

Near the walls of the city however, some of Dratin's crew who were the cities watch noticed a figure standing on a hill quite a bit away. Was it bandit? If it was why would they stand in plain sight? Scavenger? A possibility, the town could have been a bandit camp and the figure must have been wary of it for good reason.

One of the watchman, a young man signaled the distant figure to come closer. "Hey! Person on the hill! We need you to come closer and ask some questions!" The man called out. Dratin made it their doctrine to ensure the towns safety. Question everyone, if they come closer be on guard, if they run prepare for a possible raid, if they were friendly and pass let them in if they want to enter.

Bones quickly found her place on the hill quite satisfactory the ash was so clear here and the overview she had found gave away for an unusually beautiful setting. Bones quickly found herself spacing out ontop of the hill quietly watching the scenery around her. Until she was suddenly snapped out of her tranze the people from the settlement was yelling at her. Bones focused once again on them, Hearing something about "Coming Closer"

Hmph, It bothered Bones that she hadn't noticed the people keeping watch, This really wasn't her day. But, Well she didn't want to make a bad impression, and after all, the fact that they had spotted her and yet decided against shooting her down only meant good! Hopefully she could strike some deals here and then get out without any new holes

Bones took a quick, Cheerful step down the hill, And immidiently slipped in the ash. A small deceitful rock was placed directly in her path, And unfortunely she stepped directly on it. And thusly Bones startled tumbling down the hill, A large cloud of ash forming around her and soon covering her entirely from vision. The mixture of Bones all-encompasing armor and the soft ash made the trip down suprisingly pleasant, Like spinning down on a soft layers of pillows. Unfortunely the same couldn't be said for the settlement, The large cloud formed by Bones soon swept through the houses, spreading slightly onto the town square before settling back down.

Bones had thundered almost onto the town square as she suddenly stood up from one of the many new ash piles on the square, She took a quick, Confused step to the left seemingly attempting to reorganize herself.

Maya was still waiting for Dratin's reply when the hard to mistake sound of an ashfall resounded through the town. She groaned then, grabbing the bowl of stew and literally chugging it as fast as she could while running to the door to see what had happened.

By the time she had gotten outside, the bowl was empty, and held in her hands with the preperation to throw. The reason for her preparation was simple, bandits and gangs had been known to cause ashfalls to hide their rush into town. For all she knew, they could be under attack right then.

She expected she wasn't the only one either, no doubt several of the villagers had whatever make shift weapons they had handy ready to fight against what they saw as an invasion.

The watchman chuckled a bit as they watched the lone traveler tumble down the slope. Of course as soon as the ash clouds began to wash over the town they covered their faces with cloth and masks to avoid breathing in the ash. They decided to wait a bit for the ash to clear up, it would have been hard to hear someone who had a muffled voice after all.

As Dratin looked out the window of the building, he saw a massive cloud of ash began to wash over the town and without hesitation placed a mask on his face and rushed outside rifle at the ready. It could have either been a bandit, or someone had tripped and fell. But in this world always assume the worst before making conclusions.

Bones was extremely dizzy after her daring descent, After a second of readjusting herself she finally took in her surroundings. She had basically fallen directly into the town. The ash was still raining down obscuring the vision in around half the town. This wasn't much of a bother for Bones, her armor kept her outside the reach of any ash. After a short moment she started to make out the many figures shuffling around her, it was the people living here. Bones gave them a short approving nod. They were quite brave for venturing out like that with so much ash swirling around. But only a short moment after noticing them Bones noticed an additional detail. They were all armed, This situation could quite quickly go wrong for Bones, They might think she had intentionally set of that ashfall

She took another look around her, There was a house relatively short from her. With one quick look to the side she darted towards the house. If she reached the house then maybe she could get somewhere to hide until everyone had calmed down. But the ash was too dense, The sprint was quite sluggish and before she had even realised she had unknowingly crashed straight into one of the residents, A young girl wielding a bowl.

Through the cloud if ash, Maya had watched the figure hop up and sprint right towards her. As the figure did, Maya dropped the bowl and readied herself, when the figure crashed into her she flipped them and slammed them into the ground, grabbing an arm and wreching it with all her force behind and up her back.

It was a move she had learned from watching Dratin and his security team practice military take downs.

The first thing she noticed about the woman was that she seemed covered in makeshift armor. This meant she had ready access to salvage and shaping equipment, which meant she was either a bandit or from one of the gangs in the cities. That said, those two groups were usually not so stupid as to walk into town like this, Hope had driven off raids before. Even if she was just a spy, she was a lousy one at that.

Still, Maya didn't feel like taking any chances. She reached down and began to pry the helmet from the persons head, mostly so Dratin could but a bullet in there if he had to.

Dratin quickly rushed up to the downed figure and aimed his rifle down right at her. "You move a muscle and you eat a bullet!" He warned the unknown person. Suddenly he heard rushing footsteps. "Captain hold up! Hold up! We can vouch for that person! They just fell! They were all alone, so sign of bandits! Hold fire!" One of the watchman yelled out.

"Is that so? Regardless we question everyone coming inside. Bandit or not this person might be a serial killer or just another passer by. You know the drill, we can't afford to be nice. Lets wait for the dust to clear before we begin anything. Maybe some bandits might be hiding out there."

Bones almost felt embarrassed, She had been completely played. She knew the moment that the girl executed her move, Bones had been pinned underneath her, Her one arm locked against her back. The other settlers was already noticing her, There was no point in resisting or acting hostile. She had been completely defeated.

Thusly she stayed quietly underneath the girl, the different guards approaching. Just as one of the guards instructed she didn't move a single muscle. They were yelling with everything they got, Bones could barely make any sense of it. But it seemed that she would for now atleast not be executed. The man who had earlier approached her started saying something about "We question everyone", Bones didn't mind, This would atleast give her a chance to escape with her life.

Everything was going.. Alright, but at that very moment the girl who had pinned her attempted to pry her helmet of, Grabbing both the sides of her head and pulling.

Bones grew furious. She could not have her armor removed here! No, No way! With one sudden action she used her free hand to throw a fist of ash directly at Maya. She was in a wild flurry, The amount of strength she recieved at that short moment was simply amazing. Adrenaline pumping trough her as she darted out of under Maya, She could not care less if the man was about to shot her, She would rather recieve a bullet than somebody violating her in that way. But Bones barely got anywhere, She simply escaped Maya, She moved directly towards Dratin, A clumsy dive barely landing her by his feet. With her back turned to Dratin she gave Maya a terrified look, It was visble how scared she was even while wearing her armor

A fistful of ash does not do jack to substitute breakfast, was Maya's first thought when Bones threw her off.

She stood up coughing and sputtering ash out of her mouth as she pointed at bones and tried to say "Hold her down, she's slippery"

It would take a moment for her to clear the stuff out of her throat, but when she did she made it very clear by her tone of voice, as she dropped to a knee in front of the stranger, her knife held out in one hand, that there would be no funny business of any kind. "You have two choices. You take off your gear and hand over your weapons until we've made sure your not a threat, or you die."

With her words, the rest of the townspeople stood near at hand, armed with whatever they could get a hold of. Each and every single one of them mirrored Maya's words with their own expressions. The Stranger might have had a simple accident, but it was an accident that had dropped them into a town that was far too cautious to let her get away with a smack on the wrist. After all that had just happened, She was going to have a lot of talking to do before she was allowed anything in terms of leeway.

"Calm down you! We are not here to steal your stuff!" Dratin yelled as he took quickly took advantage of Bones' back to him by unshouldering his rifle and placed it around her neck and using all his strength to keep her pinned. The watchman under his command now realized she was a danger and quickly went to their captains aid by grabbing her arms.

When one begins to fight like their life depended, it was clear they did not like a force check. He took no pleasure in using force, however he was not going to let this crazy person run around free. If he thought one life was at stake he was certainly going to make sure they were no threat to the lives of anyone. There were already problems with raiders, but right now they did not have to needlessly execute a random person who had yet to shoot first. At least this person could have stayed outside the town instead of entering inside the clods of dust. "You heard the lady! Agree to drop the equipment or we execute you on the spot! Just a simple check! We don't need to kill another person! So take a few deep breaths and calm down a bit, this is for your own good!"

Bones was breathing ruggedly, her chest heaving as the people closed in around her. The girl was atleast making her point clear, the wicked knife in her hand gleaning menacingly. Yet that knife wasn't nearly as worrying as the notion of being forced out of her Armor. Bones right hand started twitching slightly, She was sure that if the settlers hadn't grabbed her arms then she would have already shot the girl.

As Dratin's grip tightened around her she finally squeezed out some words. A rasp voice gliding out from her helmet. "L-let me keep the armor on, I'm... not gonna resist anything else... A revolver is strapped to the right side of my hip and the pockets only posses some of my trinkets" Bones moved her head slightly, Her black holes for eyes staring straight at Maya. "Im sick, Removing my armor would put us all in danger"

Of course, Bones simply said this to make sure that she wouldn't need to remove her armor. The man's grip was much better. If they really wanted to then they could remove her beloved equipment, the very thought of this made bones feel dizzy.

"If your sick then we can't have you in town, you might start an epidemic. We can't let you go either, cuz if whatever you have is already being spread, we need to keep you as patient zero so we have a chance of fixing it." Maya said, putting her knife away and standing up. Her next words were directed at Dratin. "Take her to Nicks place, if she's sick he'll deal with her, if not then you can keep her in one of the lockup rooms he jury rigged.

And with that Maya turned and left, confident the situation was well in hand. Everyone else also set about going back to their business. There was still a lot that had to be done, after all the world didn't stop turning just because someone made a ruckus.

"If your sick then we can't have you in town, you might start an epidemic. We can't let you go either, cuz if whatever you have is already being spread, we need to keep you as patient zero so we have a chance of fixing it." Maya said, putting her knife away and standing up. Her next words were directed at Dratin. "Take her to Nicks place, if she's sick he'll deal with her, if not then you can keep her in one of the lockup rooms he jury rigged.

And with that Maya turned and left, confident the situation was well in hand. Everyone else also set about going back to their business. There was still a lot that had to be done, after all the world didn't stop turning just because someone made a ruckus.

Dratin motioned for one of his watchman to take the weapon and search her pockets for any other weapon. Of course all they found were really trinkets. "If you are infected then the four of us are the first ones to go then, thanks for telling us sooner. Whatever the case onto Nick's place, he will check on you then you are going to lockup." Dratin sarcastically spoke as he released his rifle from her neck and pulled her onto her feet.

A pandemic was the last thing they needed, and if he were to die from some new random disease that would be a sad way to go. "Alright everyone! Shows over! Go back to your business, we got this handled." Dratin announced as he motioned for one watchman to man the walls. He and the others would escort the diseased person to Nick's place. And of course they made sure to avoid contact with the others in the chance they were infected.

Bones could only sigh as the men carried her away, Her lie did atleast help her keep her armor on. For now... The people were breaking up, Bones looked around at the many people. they were strong, for them all to arm themself and act this way required strength, Bones was confident that they could fend of a attack from the Raiders...

The watchmen who were escorting her was also clearly experienced, This town was strong, Bones liked that. The earlier rush from someone attempting to remove her helmet had washed away and Bones was slowly returning to her old cheerful way. "Man, you guys are quite strong, To think you can restrain one poor girl, Im quite impressed" Bones tilted her head as they contnued throughout the town and with fake admiration said: "Like really, You must be so cool~"

Dratin chuckled at the sarcasm coming from the person they were escorting to Nick's place. "Very funny, nothing personal girl. Just making your you did not put a bullet in someone's head...Because you seemed close to grabbing that gun of yours just to prevent someone from taking your helmet off. Maybe think twice before charging at one of us in the middle of the ash clouds? Maybe you wont get dropped on your ass and force us to haul you off." Dratin replied as they continued through the town.

Bones cheerfully looked at the man who had spoken up, It was the same man who had appeared and apprehended her. He had The impression of someone sad, Someone who had lost to much and only carried on since he lacked the strength to give up. Bones stared directly at Dratin in what became an awkwardly high amount if time, Pondering his character. Bones did atleast appreciate the small amount of humor that he just displayed. Bones talked again, With a voice made to sound childish and and sulky "It's not my fault that the hill was so unstable... You should atleast clear off the ash up there once or twice a year.."

Bones hung her head down, like a child who had been yelled at by it's parents. "It's you guys who are being too rough, I'm actually really nice once you get to know me!" Bones played with the idea of mentioning that she wasn't actually sick, But she quickly shot it down, It wouldn't be good if the guards here realized she had a tendency to lie.. Atleast not right now...