Travel Companions
Richard walked up to Tim and Daniel who were wearing huge backpacks and waiting for him at the main bridge that led out of the town. When Richard finally caught up they poked fun at him for being late. When Richard apologized though, they let it go and set out of the town. It always made Richard nervous a little venturing out of towns since the Wasteland was a pretty viscous place. Richard looked onward at the land and saw how desolate it was. There was no vegetation for as far as the naked eye could see, even the ground was cracked and rugged, and the dirt was as hard as clay that had dried. Richard knew though that as long as he was in a group he had nothing to worry about. Brokers were master navigators from their constant nomadic lifestyle of going town to town to gather materials and make a profit. Some people started referring to brokers as Jokers for their insane lifestyle and their habit of inflating prices on supplies a town needed. Richard would never call Daniel a Joker though, he respected him to much. If it wasn't for the ABA, life outside the Capitol Districts would be impossible. Tim was also no slouch, he was a renegade of the east men. He forsaked the war effort and joining an outskirt town within Capitol grounds. Having white hair, blue eyes, and pale skin though made him a dead give away of being an east men so finding work was impossible. That is until he was hired by the ABA to be Daniel's bodyguard. Soon enough though they became more than co workers; they were also best friends, acting more like brothers than professionals the majority of the time.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFwpTzpyych
Richard asked Daniel why the ABA didn't provide him with a vehicle outside Jacobstown. Daniel smirked "Oh they did; so I hired a bunch of mercenaries, loaded them up, and sent the caravan on it's way." Richard looked at him with a confused glare, he wondered why someone would hire guards and not go where the guards are. Tim saw this and explained "When I worked as a spy the greatest tool I had in my arsenal was disinformation. There has been a rise of raider attacks on this road towards Harlington, Richard. What do you think they are going to think when they see an ABA caravan?" Daniel finished his thought "They are going to think that it's easy pickings. Then when they pounce our boys going to wipe them out". Daniel raises his finger into the air, feigning holding a gun "Then, Pow! Gotcha suckers". Richard was impressed with the idea but asked "How do you know for certain that raiders are even in the area and will see the caravan". Tim said flatly "It doesn't matter, either we're going to pass their corpses and know it's safe, or we are going to know there are no raiders in the area for certain. Either way it was worth the credit investment". Richard asked "Why is that? I don't understand". Daniel chimed in "Safety is the biggest expense in this line of work. Big pay off but you can't make money if your dead". Richard now pieced everything together and for some reason was more relieved that he was traveling with these two, they obviously knew what they were doing.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDhlZWVeXrU
Daniel then stopped and got Richard's attention "Hey man I totally forgot but I need to make a stop. It won't be long but I have a bit of business out this way. Richard didn't know who could possibly live out in the wasteland, as desolate as it was. But since Daniel said it wouldn't take long he didn't see any harm in the detour, he may even find inspiration there for a future project when he gets back. They set out until they eventually reached a cave, then Tim stopped Daniel in his tracks. They both looked at him as Tim pulled out his gun and shot seven laser rounds so fast that they were only able to distinctly hear three. When he did this it sprung seven unseen bear traps from underneath the ground. Daniel just laughed it off and told Tim "Nice work man". Richard couldn't believe how casual he was about this situation, especially since one of the bear traps was merely inches away from where he was going to step. He then saw a man come with an antique Tommy Gun from within the cave. He quickly withdrew his weapon though when he recognized Dan and Tim. He called out to them "Hello my friends! I am sorry about the traps. You are early; we never got a chance to pull them out." Dan walked up to the man "It's all good Gary. We were passing by and I wanted to do some business with you while I was passing through. That is; as long as now is a good time." Gary eagerly accepted and told Dan to please follow him. Gary led all of them to a large man in the middle of the cave, a man was standing in attention and had a large scar on the left side of his face. He was bald and wore antique military issued armor that had a brown camouflage pattern. Richard could hear the sound of dogs barking and growling and the sound of cheering coming from behind him. The man snapped his fingers and Gary ran over and pulled out a metal table with wheels on them and set it in front of Dan. 725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ757xZDSUOi
Daniel and Tim seemed to know the ritual well, they pulled out everything out of their backpacks. Richard was shocked to see when they were carrying enough firepower to equip a small militia. The bald man smirked and asked "How much?". Daniel looked at him, meeting his smirk "Come on man, how long we going to do this back and forth. You know that the price hasn't changed". The bald man put his hand on his forehead and shook it, thinking things over to himself. Dan then took advantage of the moment and started packing up "Well I guess if your not interested". The bald man frustrated at his predicament went to pull out his gun, but he was to slow. Before the bald guy knew it Tim had his gun drawn and shot around his head five times, leaving an outline of the man's head in the cave rock behind him. Tim just held his gun out, turned on his laser sight, and hovered the dot in between his eyebrows. Just so the man knew his predicament well. Gary drew his Tommy Gun out and was ready to fire, but the uniformed man commanded him to stop. "Lets start over, I'm interested" the bald man said. "Smart man" Tim said before he put away his revolver. Daniel then implied that he didn't know if he wanted to do business with someone who is so quick to violence though, and pretended to continue to put his weapons away. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "What is it now?" Daniel responded as he stopped putting away his guns. "I'll give you all of it" The man said. Dan was intrigued "All of it?" to which the man nodded. "Awesome, we got a deal then" Dan said. The bald man ordered Gary to go get the supplies.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmzvCV2aBjg
Daniel and Tim knew it was going to take a while for Gary to pack up all the supplies they were trading the guns for so they told Richard to go ahead and make himself comfortable for a bit. Richard snuck by the bald man when he was engaged in conversation with Dan and went to the back room. His idle curiosity got the best of him, although what he saw was almost to much. Richard was absolved in the crowd who was cheering and placing bets on dog fighting. The area stunk of blood, liquor, and tobacco smoke. All around a large fighting cage were aisles for men who were cheering for the dog they bet on to kill the other dog. Richard didn't like any of this. The announcer on the loudspeaker called out to let the fans know that the last fight was underway. "Attention LADIES AND GENTLEMEN~! The last living opponents this evening are about to fight it out to the death. Richard watched in horror as two smaller cages were brought up through the floor of the caged arena through a mechanical lift. "On the left side we've a Jacketed German Shepard! That's right folks the official police dog of the capitol." Richard looked at the animal, it was a large German Shepard that had the top part of it's scalp, left eye, jaw, and limbs replaced with cybernetic components. The dog was more machine then animal, it didn't have a mind of it's own any longer. It was functioning purely off endorphines and hormones. It was obvious as Richard watched as this creature kept attacking the front of it's cage, eager to get anything in it's mouth and rip it apart. "And in the left corner~! We've a Arian Rottweiler! That's right folks, a military Eastman service dog! We've the two most viscous canine killers here for your entertainment to find out, which truly is the best killing machine. West versus East, who will come out on top?!". The crowd went absolutely crazy by this point eager to see the fight go underway. Unfortunately for them, Richard had no intention in allowing that to happen.
