The Wastelands

Scott ducked back down into cover, when Bandit had taken the bottles. He wasn't hit by any shots, luckily. Alex was outside fighting the maniacs, so he was alone in the shop now. He grumbled a bit to himself. He could feel his hands shaking even more now. The raining gunshots put him off, but didn't freak him out completely, leaving him still able to put up a fight. When a quiet moment came up, he looked out over the unit he was hiding behind. He just saw a grenade flying into the shop. "Fucking hell..", he growled as he threw himself to the ground, covering his head with his hands.

There was no explosion. It had been so long since the army, he couldn't remember exactly when it would be safe to stand up again. But the grenade didn't go off. After a few more seconds, he got on his knees. He heard some yelling from outside, but he couldn't hear what was being said. He peaked out to the side of the unit, and saw Alex in the woman's grasp. His eyes widened slightly.

He got back into cover and slipped the bow off his shoulder. There was no shaking hands, when he reached over his shoulder to grab an arrow from the holster. He put it on the string and pulled it back. He crouched out of cover, and in the same second, he saw the woman being hit with one of the molotovs. He just watched for a few seconds, frozen in place. He furrowed his brows as he got back to reality. He took aim and send an arrow flying through the air towards the woman.

He knew she was going to burn up and die eventually, but waiting for that to happen would be inhumane. He'd rather take her out of her misery than see her suffer, no matter how cruel she had just been to Scott, Alex and even Bandit. He looked around to catch a glimpse of any other gunmen.

After she threw the grenade, she turned around, and threw Alex in the back of their car, it looked like a Honda, with the wheels of a monster truck, covered in spikes, and had a cow catcher in front. It also had an MMG on it, the bandit leader realized the grenade was a dud, and turned back to finish them for herself, she noticed Bandit, she was easily recognizable after all. She called out to her.

A bottle flew past her head, she spun to watch it crash into the ground “You have terrible ai-“ the bottle clocked her in the face, as it shattered, her face started to melt from the intense heat put off by the bottle, she screamed in pain, then screamed for the others to, “GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, I’ll handle this whore by myse-“ the arrow punched through her head, and she fell to the ground, dead. The car started to drive away, when it turned around and drove straight at them, then stopped, Alex leaned out the window, “Hey guys, I got us a ride, I call the gun!”

Bandit rolled her eyes with a snort and gathered the two remaining molotovs before she heard a thud from behind her and the rustling of a tarp.

"Oh hell no."

The coral-haired girl turned and sprinted back over the roof to the back, where she was presented with the sight of a raider tossing a tarp over the back of her truck. Her drone was in there, and she wasn't about to let him get away with both.

"Don't touch my stuff!" Her shout was angry, and the raider flinched, looked at the truck, and then sprinted in the other direction when he saw Bandit coming for him. She'd slid down the wall before jumping off and landing in a crouch next to the truck, glaring after the fleeing man.

She should probably check if her stuff was okay. With a sigh and another shake of her head, she flung the tarp off.

There was a person.

Bound, gagged, tossed in her truck alongside a backpack and some other items that definitely weren't Bandit's.

Bandit stared in shock for a moment before she snatched up a jagged price of broken glass from the ground and started sawing at the other girl's bonds. Clearly, the captive wasn't one to attack, and she wasn't going to just leave her there. She wasn't sure if the girl was awake or not, so she just worked quickly, turning her head before she shouted to her companions. "Guys! Situation!"

Hopefully they could hear her.

Being thrown down to the ground completely unaware of what in the world was happening hurt a damn lot. Of course, she hadn't been able to look back in time to see the raider creeping up behind her. Topei's repetitive warning squeals were always a second too late, but hey, she couldn't blame him.

"Damn bird," the guy muttered under his breath, as the small critter squealed on. Julie made a weak attempt to get herself back up on her feet, and found herself being pushed back down to the ground. She hesitated a second, then rolled onto her back and kicked hard at the figure stood before her. He jumped back a little at the surprise of the small attack, but other that that he didn't do much more than wince. It was good enough.

She took the next second to quickly jump back up on her feet, turn, and begin to run. Then she was suddenly grabbed by the arm, and the next events didn't go so well. Before she knew it, she was pinned and a rope was being tied tightly around her wrists and legs, digging into her skin. She struggled against it, but made herself not much closer to freedom. Then she was gagged. Her arm was in quite a bit of pain, and she could swear the man would have had a weapon. Honestly, she felt on the brim of passing out. God knows where her bird had went too, he had stopped chirping a while ago.

She ended up being carried off somewhere by the guy, practically useless to making any attempt of escape. Her backpack and quill, previously left against a nearby tree stump, was now slung over the mans shoulder. After a minute or two, the man slowed, then came to a stop. She was then thrown down out of the mans arms, and landed into what seemed to be a pickup truck. Her belongings were then thrown down beside her with a thump. She tried to mumble something, but no words came out. A tarp was then tossed on top of the truck.

Her attention was drew to the sound of an unfamiliar yell, and then she heard heavy footsteps fade off into the distance. There was a few seconds of silence, and then she was struck with a bit of fear as the tarp was flung back off the truck. Her eyes met with a coral-haired girl, and she was hit with curiosity. Was this another raider? Enemy? Or some sort of friend? Julie could do nothing but stay still and hope. Then the figure picked something up and started sawing at the rope tied around her. She glanced around, and then her eyes drifted back over to the girl, and she observed her before bringing her attention back down to the rope, and she silently watched as it started to break apart.

Another yell, and now she was aware that there were other people here. She really did hope that they were friendly.

Scott had a satisfied look on his face, as he saw the arrow hit the crazy bitch square in the face. It seemed the rest of the gunmen were either dead or had fled. He got on his feet and stepped out of cover. Then he walked out of the shop and towards the dead people on the ground. He walked over to one of the men first, placed his foot on his chest and pulled the arrow out of his skull. Then he walked over to their crazy leader and pulled that arrow out as well. He just got to put the arrows back in the holster on his back, when he heard some commotion behind the building. He glanced over his shoulder, to just catch a glimpse of Bandit running off.

Scott sent a quick glance towards Alex, before he started walking around the building. He had a firm grip on the bow, ready to shoot in case he saw any danger. When he rounded the building, he saw Bandit in the middle of freeing some girl. He grabbed an arrow from the holster and drew the bow, aiming towards the captured girl. "You're freeing a human you don't know the intentions of? Seems safe.", he grumbled at Bandit. His eyes was resting at the girl in the truck. He was ready to shoot if she tried anything.

Bandit shot him an unamused look, pulling the bandanna down so her voice wasn't muffled. "The raider put her in my truck, clearly intending to steal it. You really think she's that much of a threat?"

She freed the girl's feet but not her hands, and then pulled the gag from her mouth before looking back at Scott again. "If you're so concerned, ask her some questions before I cut her hands free."

Blue eyes drifted over to the girl, and she gave an upward nod. "Come on, sit up."

Scott scowled towards Bandit. She was too naive, and that could easily get her killed in a world like this. "I think everyone's a threat, until they have proven otherwise. Same goes for you by the way.", he growled, turning his attention to the girl in the truck. It wasn't his job to interrogate people. Alex was usually the one leading the word, when they encountered strangers. But he did have some questions, that could shed some light over the situation.

He continued to aim the girl, ready to let go of the string at any threatening movement. "What weapons do you have on you..?", he grumbled. Knowing her weapons gave him an idea of what he was up against. Someone using a knife as their only weapon, was probably someone who didn't have a problem with killing. Usually those were the kind of people who wanted to get up and close to their victims. Besides he had an idea that knives were mostly used for taking revenge, when killing in anger, or used by psychos who didn't care about distancing themselves from a kill. Although, someone only carrying a knife could also be someone, who just wasn't happy about weapons, but still needed something to defend themselves with.

"And, have you ever killed a human being?", he added. He wouldn't pass that test himself, but then again, he probably wouldn't trust a man like himself anyway. The reason behind the kill of a human was what mattered though. Killing someone in self defense in forgiveable. A cold blooded murder wasn't.

Another voice was heard. Julie turned her head up at the newcomer, and almost immediately was put on edge. She watched him uneasily as he approached, noticing the aim of his drawn bow, and flinched. She didn't know what to think of him. He definitely seemed to have his fingers loose on the string though. A single wrong movement, and that might be the end of surviving, she guessed.

She decided to draw her attention away from the man, and looked back over at the girl. She had pulled the bandanna down off her face, and she found that she had recognised neither of them. The fact she didn't really know anyone nowadays set her back into misery. She continued to listen, nervously looking over at the man every now and again with a slow movement of the eye, not wishing to alert him in any way. She then felt the rope fall away from her legs, and the gag was pulled away from her mouth. The girl gave her a nod, and with a bit of hesitation Julie slowly moved herself into a sitting position. She noted the fact that her arms would remain tied until she answered some questions. Questions wouldn't hurt, would they?

She turned her attention back to the man, and found that he wasn't going to let her go so easily. The arrow was still remained pointed at her too. Guess he really wasn't going to take any chances. She listened to the question, and waited a few seconds to see if that was all, then found herself faced with another. She took a quick breath, set aside the pain, put to mind the fact this information wasn't the worst to share, and then replied.

"Well if you really want to know, I... I just have a bow and a few arrows." Her focus was set straight at the tip of the man's arrow, drawn back in the very bow he had himself. She wondered whether to mention the small dagger she had in her bag. She kinda only used it for around hunting purposes really, and sometimes carving, so could it really be considered a weapon? It was a risk to not say anything about it, and she wasn't willing to take it if it might cost being shot right through with an arrow. "An' a small dagger I use for hunting, if you'd really count it."

She paused.

"Human being..?" A small part of her wondered if it was wimpy of her to admit it. "I've never killed a single person, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon." She honestly wouldn't want to bring herself up to the thought. Ever since the war, who knows how many people would've been killed anyway? Even when given a chance she never actually ended up finishing someone off, but once she'd been close to. She could barely remember that though, and that was in the past. Nothing to worry about.

I'd prefer it if a damn arrow wasn't pointed directly at me though, she wanted to say, but she decided she didn't really want any trouble. Stay on the safe side until she knew what was what.

Alex noticed the others weren’t coming out, so he got out around the shop, noticing the others were surrounding the truck. He walked over to the truck

“Hey guys, what’s going o- holy shit bandit kidnapped someone”

Alex looked in the truck, looking at Julie, he looked over at Scott, and nodded, “I’ll handle this, Scott.” He said. He turned over to Julie, “Alright, first question, where were the bandits going.” He needed to know if they needed to be prepared for more bandits on their way to Haven, “Second, why did they capture you?” He had literally no reason to ask this, why did he ask this question? He shook his head and said “Third question, why is there a bird in your bag.” he pointed to a pack that had been squawking for the past five minutes, maybe longer. He asked one last question, “last thing, do you know why that dog is following you?” He pointed to a dog hidden in the brush, approximately 26 feet to the north east, he didn’t know how he knew that. He did train his mind to read directions back in the academy.

He opened her pack, and a blue bird flew out, he took out her dagger and cut her bindings. “Keep an eye on her.” He whispered to Scott.

Scott's eyes was pierced to the girl. The wind was blowing leaves around in his peripheral view, but he didn't take his eyes of the bound girl. Looking at her, he gathered that she looked a bit nervous. He noticed her looking at the arrow, so he assumed that was what made her uneasy. Had she been looking around, he would have gotten the idea, that maybe she was waiting for someone to rescue her. But she mainly looked at the arrow, which in his eyes was a good sign.

She was carrying a bow and arrows, just like himself. That was a good answer as well. It meant that she prefered to keep her distance when shooting. It also meant that she wasn't a trigger happy maniac. At least it's pretty hard to be trigger happy when wielding a bow. He'd probably even be alright with considering letting her join them, based on the fact that he didn't have to deal with more gunshots. He was still a bit shaken up from the shootout before, not visibly though.

Her pause before mentioning the dagger, showed him insecurity. The fact that she seemed insecure, was a good sign to him as well. Had she been acting more tough, like she had control over the situation, she would seem much more dangerous. But she probably knew that she was in a fucked up situation, and that she had to be careful not to end up with a pierced skull. Fear was good these days. It meant that you hadn't gone completely insane, and that you still feared death. People who are willing to welcome death with open arms, are the people willing to do the most fucked up things.

From analyzing the situation, her answer to his last question didn't come as a surprise. Had she been answering differently, he would have probably doubted the truth of her last answer. But he trusted her. He couldn't picture her killing people. He didn't get to react much, before Alex had joined them. The sound of Alex being much closer than he had anticipated, startled him a bit. He kept a good grip on the arrow though, so no accidents happend. He even nearly pointed the arrow towards Alex, but stopped himself.

Alex seemed to want to question the girl himself as well, which was fair enough. As he trusted the girl now, he lowered the bow. He removed the arrow from the bow, and put it back in the holster on his back. He listened to Alex's questions, but didn't chime in. He just watched from the sideline, until Alex cut up the ropes. He was about to stop him, and wanted to say that they couldn't trust her yet. But he also knew they couldn't just keep her tied up. Thinking about it, he saw no good reason to keep her tied up. She had proven to be trustworthy, so Scott just let it happen. When Alex whispered to him to keep an eye on her, he nodded with a slight grumble. He was already planning to keep an eye on her, and Bandit as well.

She felt the nerve slipping down her spine, feeling every moment of silence was just another butterfly in the chest. Then there was another person. With a slight feeling of relief, she drew her attention away from the point of the arrow and watched as the other man walked over. He said a few sentences and now she knew something. Bandit. Scott. They must have been names, or possibly even nicknames. They might be secretive people. Small things, but at least she didn't know nothing about these people.

At once, she sensed movement, and looked over at the person who she guessed to be Scott. He had lowered his bow, and was removing the arrow before placing it back in the holster. She felt more comfort in her fear though, so she drew herself away from the relaxing feeling, and remained afraid. These people could have any tricks she didn't know about up their sleeve. And now there was more questions. Oh well.

First off, she didn't really have a clue where the bandit was going. In fact, she swore she had saw another one earlier, and when she thought about it, she doubted there would've just been one on his own anyway. He did say bandits too, so maybe these guys had crossed paths with them or something. Either way, she didn't really know. "I don't have a clue on where that guy was going, or any of the others if there were any, but I'm sure they were coming out of what you could probably call a forest back there," she said calmly. She couldn't point or anything, but she was sure they'd get the idea.

For second, Julie thought they would have captured her for a similar reason for trying to catch other people. Some unlucky people ended up getting killed instead of captured in those circumstances though. "Why they captured me? Info, resources, anything of use. What you'd expect I guess." If they needed information they just pushed you to the edge until they got what they wanted to hear, but who knows what sorta stuff that would be.

And wait, bird? Dog? It was only now she noticed the small bird had been squawking, but it's call was being slightly muffled from being inside... Well, a bag. "Topei-" The raider must have got so annoyed of him and thrown him in there to shut him up. Poor bird. Worry started to form, and she wondered if he was hurt, but the man had just went over to open the bag and the blue blur took instant flight and zoomed off high into the sky. At least he was okay. Then she noticed the rope be cut from her wrists. Finally. She pushed herself backwards to the side of the truck furthest from the others, so at least she felt she had a safe distance, and then quickly glanced back in the direction he had pointed when he mentioned a dog and almost immediately looked back. Dog? Wolf. She didn't want to say a word about it. She just decided to have a brief but better look at the three people around her. Then she started to hope the sudden movement hadn't startled any of them.

Scott. Right. Kali was reminded that she hadn't actually known his name until Alex uttered it again, and she glanced over to him even as she re-tied her shoe in idle boredom. She understood the need for questioning- and didn't appreciate the implication that she was naiive or untrustworthy- but she didn't get why Scott was so...jumpy.

It was three on one, and the girl had barely been set loose. Did he really believe her to be a threat?

Alex cut her wrists free, and almost instantly she slammed herself backward into the other side of the truck. Bandit even jumped a bit, even though she was expecting a quick response.

But her eyes were on Scott, muslces tensed and ready to grab him if he tried anything. Not that she thought he would, but...the guy seemed on edge. All the time.

Not a bad quality in stressful situations, but...a bad quality when trying to keep someone equally jumpy alive.

What was most interesting- and relieving- to Bandit was the fact that this new girl didn't know her. Or at least didn't let on that she did. Having a second person around that didn't know more about her on sight than she knew them was fantastic, really. It would allow her to actually get to know them.

"Alright, I have some questions of my own." She spoke up, eyes still warily on Scott for a moment before they drifted over to the girl. "Were you by yourself in the woods? When they got you?"

It seemed like an important question. The last thing they needed was a rescue mission coming for her and blaming their group.

She wondered if that wolf would come any closer. She doubted it though; a step out of that forest and he'd be in the wrong territory. He would probably know that. For Julie to actually know what he was really up to with following her might be nice. He might just be seeing her as an easy meal though. Maybe.

She sat quietly for a few seconds, beginning to feel the slight pain in her arm again, and then directed her attention back to the Bandit girl when she spoke up. She had questions of her own apparently.

Honestly, Julie felt the questions seemed to lighten the mood a little. Way better than people threatening her and that like most people she usually came across, practically forcing her to speak. She usually didn't though. That got those people, raiders, hunters, bandits, whatever they were, even more annoyed. She took a small and careful glance around at the truck she sat in, noting the position of her belongings still pretty much sat in place, and brought herself back to the current situation.

"Pretty much, yeah. It's just been Topei who's been keeping me company. The uh, bird." Letting them know she was practically alone might have been a bad idea. No one was going to come for her, were they? She was actually putting a little bit of consideration into just grabbing her stuff and running off, but she thought that might not be the best option right now. For several reasons.

"Alright, I've heard enough." Bandit stood up in the bed of the truck from where she'd been sitting on the edge and extended a hand to the girl to help her up. "Here. Did they injure you?"

She knew it was a risk, and that they might see it as her trying to take the lead, but she'd sort of been in this position not an hour before- and it wasn't a fun one to be in. This girl had made it pretty clear she wasn't about to murder them all, and she had a bow and arrow.

If she joined, it would be nice to have another long-range shooter. Bandit honestly didn't know how she'd survived this long with just a bat.

"Name's Bandit," she introduced. "You?"

Scott kept an eye on the girls. Everyone seemed very happy and satisfied with the new girl's answer. He still had his bow in hand, ready to draw an arrow, if it was necessary, but right now there was no reason to aim it at people. That didn't mean he fully trusted the two girls yet though. That would take time. They had proven to have positive intentions, but in this world it was hard to trust people, even those with positive intentions. He looked around, trying to pick up any sounds, smells or other signs of the mutated.

The commotion could have easily attracted attention, both from humans and the mutants. He didn't want to encounter either. He glanced towards to backdoor of the shop. It seemed sturdy enough, like it could keep both humans and animals out. He wasn't sure about the front of the building. Not really paying attention to Bandit's conversation with the girl, he interrupted. "We should either get going or get inside. These gunshots will have been heard from miles away.", he grumbled. He turned to look at Alex. He was usually the one making the calls between the two, so he felt like Alex had the last word.

Alex looked around

Julie watched as the Bandit girl stood up, and saw that she had lent out a hand to help her up. Did they hurt her, she asked? Well, they kinda did. She was a little surprised that she wasn't aching all over from being thrown down to the ground several times because of that raider from before. She felt a little bit of pain, but it must have numbed. Her left arm seemed to feel a little badly bruised though. Pain or not though, she decided it shouldn't be something for them to worry about.

She took a long few seconds before she decided to take her hand of assistance, and just like that, she was back up on her feet again. She glanced over at the others, looked back at the girl, and then replied in a more quiet voice, "I'm fine, thanks. Nothing a few bandages or something couldn't fix." That was kind of true, but it might cost time more than medication. Either way, she felt she would be fine dealing with it herself.

She carefully brought her hand back down to her side, and listened to the girl as she introduced herself. Bandit. So that was her name then. It was nice. Saying her name too wouldn't hurt, would it?

"Julie," she gave a weak smile, before noticing Scott speak up as well. Gunshots. Right. She had heard them, and started to think that staying in whatever this place was wouldn't really be the best. If they had been heard by other people, which they probably had been, staying here might be an easy guessed spot for them to hide, assuming they were going to go together anyway. If they really wanted, they could just leave her to run back to the forest whence she came. Guess she'd just have to find out. That other raider as well might have just went for backup.