Day 14e

Inside's where I'm running into the real problems. First thing I found inside were some cages, most pretty makeshift. Only one was closed and occupied, one guy inside looking dirty, beaten, and half-starved. He was weak, but begged me for his freedom. As I opened the cage and helped him out, he explained that there were others inside, women and children used for both labor and for the pleasure of the raiders. They had been picked up here and there, others dumped randomly when dead or dying. Yeah, these things happen. Not everywhere, not all the time...but, yeah.

I told him how to get to FestTown, then gave him some cover fire to make his way out, told him to stay low among the barricades and he hopefully wouldn't even be seen. I know neither of the raiders outside seemed to be firing at him. After that, I made my way further inside. Looked like the place was some sort of small office building, bunch of smaller rooms with desks and such. I found the other slaves huddled together in one room with a cookfire, obviously preparing some sort of meal for the gang, all chained together at the ankles. So far, no raiders. I was able to free them from the chain, keeping them quiet, and guided them to the door. I hid them just inside, the two raiders from outside were coming in, figured I'd ambush them as they came in. I readied Disc, but never got a chance to use it. As soon as the raiders were inside, the three woman jumped on them, frenziedly beating and kicking them. I just let 'em, though I kept an eye out for others.

Once they were done, I ushered them out the door, directing them to FestTown. I made my way further inside, looking for the boss and his lackeys. I admit to being a little overconfident, thinking that there could only be a few left. Anger didn't help any, especially since I found the final slave, the woman that had basically given up on life, on the way. And so I readied my shotgun and burst through a doorway into what turned out to be the back room of the place, planning to take them by surprise...

And found ten raiders waiting for me.

Luckily, only two had guns, while the rest were armed with clubs, knives, assorted close-combat weapons. I unloaded the shotgun into them as they came at me, both barrels. Pretty sure I saw one go down, but I was already backing out as fast as I could while they gave chase. Reloaded as I moved, got off another shot as they entered the hallway and I got to that first room. Definitely took out one with that shot, half his head splattered into the faces of the two guys behind him. Those two stumbled, not sure if they were actually hit or just thrown off by the gore. Dropped the shotgun as I went out, in favor of the rifle. Figured I can either pick it back up when this is over...or I'll be dead and won't need it.

Yeah, next time I go anywhere like this, I really need to spend some more time on scouting out any opposition. I think I got a little too cocky.

Day 14d

Alright, I can honestly say that that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but it also didn't go as bad as it could have. Most of the raiders are dead, and I managed to free three women, one man, and two kids that they had enslaved. There was a fourth woman, but...well, I got the chains off of her wrists, and she just sat there staring off into space. I tried to take her chin and lift her face, tried to look her in the eyes and tell her she was free. Her eyes didn't even register me. Instead, she just numbly laid back, began to spread her legs, and went limp. I didn't have time for anything more merciful, and I was feeling pretty angry by that time, so I simply put a bullet in her brain. There wasn't anything more that I could do for her, she was already long gone.

I had counted eight or nine or something, I think, when I recorded the last entry. Just two ladders outside, one wagon to carry their plunder. Between that recording and when I made my way up, I saw three of the guards get changed out, plus another guy stagger outside and just pass out in the dust. That made twelve, plus the boss. Long odds, but I figured I could narrowly handle it. Plus, getting rid of another scumbag raider gang plaguing the wastes would be worth my life, so I decided to take the risk.

Sticking with my plan, I waited until evening. I actually went during sundown, because I wanted to circle around some, instead of coming straight out from my hiding place and straight toward the doors, and this way would put the setting sun somewhat behind me. That way, any lookout that happened to be facing in my direction would have the sun in his eyes. I may have decided to do something risky, but I'm not a complete idiot. I'll take any advantage that presents itself.

I also left one of the firebombs in the carpile, with an extra-long scrap of cloth in the neck of the bottle. Lit it up before I headed out, and high-tailed it. I had almost reached the outer wall when it off with a satisfying 'WHUMPF!' sound. I saw every guard turn to look at the suddenly burning carpile, and then I threw my back against the wall, figuring that at least half would go investigate. I pulled out the other two firebombs, readying one in my hand, lighter in the other hand. I heard the door open and close, lots of alarmed shouting that all added up them being confused and sending guys to investigate.

I gave it a few seconds after that before I carefully peeked around the wall. Sure enough, six were heading towards the blaze with weapons ready, accompanying another with a bucket of water. I still don't know why the water, why they'd care about putting the cars out. I just wanted to draw some away, and make their eyes have to readjust to the light. Two remained near the door, including on of the lieutenants from earlier. So, I lit the other firebomb's MUCH shorter fuse, gave it a sec, and then tossed it right towards him. I saw him catch it before I ducked back around the corner, and then it went off, splashes of flame licking around the corner of the building. When I looked back around, both door guards were dead and burning, and one of the doors was gone, blown off it's hinges and inside. The ones that had gone to investigate the carpile had turned, of course, trying to see what was going on.

Half of them went down easy as I started firing, easy targets silhouetted against the distant flames. After that, the rest began to react, drawing weapons and scattering. I kept firing as I moved to the door, making my way in with only two left outside.  

Day 14c

Got my closer look, and then I decided to camp out here until nightfall. The cars I saw and moved towards are kind of piled up and tossed around together. More than a dozen of them, all tumbled together and crushed together, enough damage and rusted-out holes that I was able to get even closer than I thought, and get myself worked into a nice little space to rest and wait for dark.

Its a raider gang holed up in there. I don't recognize the emblem on the banner hanging from their wagon outside, but I know the look of the people. Its the look of a human predator. Male or female, they're all armed, swaggering, violent. In just the brief time that I watched them, I saw two separate fights break out and get ended, and nobody else gave them more than a brief glance. The banner's a simple section of cloth or hide with the emblem painted onto it, looks like just a circle with three slash marks diagonally across it. A pair of ladders have been set up to get to the roof, a couple lookouts up there with rifles. Some more down on the ground, most with close-quarters weapons. I've counted eight of them, total. Two of the ones on the ground are staying near one set of double doors, often signaling orders to the others or stepping inside. I'm assuming that the boss is inside and the two at the door are his lieutenants or seconds or whatever title they're using. I can make out some firelight through the doors, but nothing else.

And again, they're staying to just one end of the building. In fact, they seem to be watching the other end of the place just as much as any of the rest of the area. They've been there long enough to have also set up a few simple barricades. Mostly just some thick branches, scavenged signposts, a car door, things like that. Wouldn't really stop an attacker, but will cause them to slow and zigzag a bit to get near. Unless, like I plan to do, you want to sneak in unseen instead of doing damage as you go, in which case you'd just have to leap them carefully. Oddly enough, though, the barricades facing the rest of the building are more solid than the rest, and have some spiky bits.

Not sure what all of that means, but I have to admit that it makes me nervous. Especially since the old mart...is in the direction that these are watching so closely.

Gotta take care of the problem I can see, first. Even as I've been recording this, I've been siphoning off some gas left in these old rust heaps. There's not much, but I've managed to almost fill three old soda bottles I found in here. I love plastic, shit lasts forever. I'm using the gas to rig up some small firebombs. Hoping I can kill a couple raiders with each bomb, or at the very least confuse and blind them so I can sneak close and finish 'em off easy.

Day 14b

Yeah, there's something over there alright. And it's something human-shaped. Two legs, walks upright, all that. I'm currently camped a little less than a mile away. Far enough that I can make out the L-shaped building through the binoculars, and I can make out the shapes moving on and around it, but not much more detail than that. The fact that there's people there -or people-ish, anyway- alters things slightly. Just finished getting myself a light snack and some water, just enough to keep me fueled and hydrating, not enough to weigh me down. Gonna give it a few minutes to settle, and then I'm gonna creep a little closer. I've got some decent cover where I am, some scrub bushes keeping me hidden as long as I stay low. About a hundred yards up, there's some large rocks or old cars or something that I can easily hide behind and get a closer look at things.

The difficulty will be in getting from here to there. There's a few bushes, some low rocks, even a ditch that angles across part of the distance, but its still not much cover for that kind of distance. I'm gonna have to stay low and stay fast, and hope I'm lucky enough that they're either not looking this way or they're not looking this far. Or both. Both would work even better, really.

Odd thing I noticed, all of the movement seems to be clustered at one end of the place. And this is a pretty huge place. I can't really give an estimate from here, its too far to see clearly enough, but I'm currently guessing that the long side is a hundred yards long, the short side half that. I have seen some buildings this large...but never one still so whole. Again, I could be wrong when I get closer, but all the walls appear to still be standing. That's notable on anyplace pre-Cataclysm, but especially on someplace so large.

I've never been inside someplace so large, either. I just tend to shy away from 'em. Like, tunnels don't bother me nearly as much, even a large network of them; if I get attacked, it can generally only be from one or two directions at a time. Outdoors, I can generally see what's coming. Big place like that, though? I could end up surrounded, with just one small door to escape through and a struggle to even reach it. Or, a place that big, I could walk into darkness, only to have lights suddenly coming to life across some old tech tank or robot. At least with this place, I know it was just a store.

Day 14

Out of town again on another errand. There's an old store about ten miles from town, something Mart. Pretty sizable inside, the townsfolk have been there some in the past, to get canned goods, medicines, batteries. All kinds of stuff. Apparently, they had a pretty wide selection, plus the large building was, like, further divided into some other stores and businesses, which helped protect some of goods inside. The townsfolk scrounged up some extra bags, a flare gun, and even a small cart.

There's a couple reasons they've got me going on this scavenging run, instead of just sending a few townsfolk and maybe a guard or two. Max is still worried about Brother Francis and his church, worried the guy'll be back immediately and try something. We asked him to give us a few days before he came back, but the guy didn't seem exactly stable, and he may just snap if he just gets turned away again, whether he's early or not.

Other main reason's that a couple of the Guard thought they saw movement out near here, moving in that direction. Could have been nothing. Or, could be bandits, some sort of critter, maybe even a few Fallen I missed somehow. Point is, there wasn't any way to be sure without somebody checking it out. I volunteered for it. May not be as native to the area, but I've got a lot more experience at scouting. This way, I can take a look around, see what's what, and I can send up a flare if its safe for the town to send a couple guys to help pack it all up and haul it back.

I estimate that I should be able to reach the place within a couple of hours. I'll pause as soon as I have a visual on it, probably take a quick look through binoculars to get some idea of the lay of the land. And then I can rest up for a bit, maybe get a small bite to eat, some water. Any more detailed plan'll have to wait until after that. The townsfolk were able to give me a couple sketched-out maps of the place from their last scavenging run out here, but it's been nearly a decade since their last trip. Not that I can blame them, I understand it can be hard to leave those safe walls for a nearly six-hour walk. Just means I'm going to map most it out on my own, while I take care of whatever needs taking care of.