Chapter 7: On the Road Again

After I finished getting my things together and making a breakfast of the dead raider’s food, I started back on the road to Boon. It was about mid afternoon, the sun was baking where it poked through the trees and my geiger counter made an occasional trill as I walked. I decided to pull up the R.A.S. and see what changes had been made.

Citizen: Donovan

5th Level Postman/ 1st Level Marshall

Patriot Points: 197

SPINES: Be the backbone of America!

Strength- 20

Perception- 15

Intelligence- 10

Nationalism- 3

Endurance- 23

Speed- 17

Job Abilities:

Neither Rain, Sleet, or Snow: You are unhampered by adverse weather

Express: You gain a 5% bonus to movement speed

Special Delivery: You can mark a delivery ‘special’ which will allow you to track it.

Under Cover: You may retain your previous job and those with the ability to read your sheet will see whichever job you choose to show.

You're Under Arrest: You may temporarily remove all job based bonuses from a target to ease apprehending them. This person will be highlighted in your vision while this ability is active.

Skills:

Walking- 34

Pistol- 8

Loading/unloading- 22

Customer Service- 12

Driving- 3

Melee Weapons- 4

Long Guns- 4

Investigation- 4

Tracking- 1

Virus:

Deadman- Bonus to all physical stats +5, negative to social based skills

Natural weapon- Teeth

Night Vision

@c#[email protected]!#$-*$^#&

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My new job was official, and all of its benefits were permanent as long as I didn’t get another system message like the one I’d received earlier. I focused on the area below the main citizen sheet, at the visual distortion on the end of it. As I did it slowly cleared, as if the system was trying to figure out how to quantify it.

Accelerated Healing

That explained why I wasn’t dead. I’d known a few other Deadmen who had similar abilities, though I hadn’t heard of any who’d gained the ability rather than been born with it. Usually it required high exposure to rads as well. I shook my head and stopped looking a gift horse in the mouth. This was helpful, it would keep me alive. I should still avoid getting shot. I was pretty sure a bullet through the head or heart would still kill me.

By the time I reached the campsite settlement the gloom of evening was starting to settle across the forest. I didn’t enter it, but I did get close enough to look in on it. There was a fire in its center, two bodies stacked on top of it, crackling and breaking down from the intense heat of the flames. I couldn’t tell at a distance, but I assumed those were the two raiders I’d killed. Aside from that I saw maybe a dozen people milling about. Some were watching the fire burn, others looked to be taking inventory of what they had left, and a couple were patrolling around the camp’s exterior. Clearly they’d learned some lessons from being taken.

I slipped away before one of the men patrolling could see me, and faded into the darkness. I got back to the path I’d been on and walked half the distance left to Boon. After that I moved off the path a few hundred feet. In spite of the nap I’d managed to snag under a pile of debris while riddled with holes, I was exhausted. I was certain my walking skill would take me the rest of the way even if I was dead on me feet, but seeing a deadman in the daylight was already scary, seeing one approach a settlement at night was another story.

I leaned against a tree, folded my arms across my chest, and closed my eyes. Sleep came quickly.

…

There was only red. A river of it flowed over me, and I could feel myself being pulled along by its current. I wasn’t alone in that red. Silver and black floated alongside me. The silver had small teeth and claws and the black stretched out with pointed spines. I watched as the silver and black attacked each other, then worked together, than fell back into attacking in a strange cycle, but all along we were being dragged along the current, moving inescapably forward. I opened my mouth and the red flowed down my throat. It had a familiar taste.

…

I woke with a coppery taste in my mouth and the familiar ache of the scars across my back. I spent a few minutes listening for any changes, smelling the air for anyone or anything nearby, but nothing registered. I pulled my canteen from my side and took a long sip, swishing the water through my teeth a few times before swallowing. I couldn’t fully close my mouth around my teeth without effort, so I usually woke up with a mouth as dry as the wastes.

I stood, throwing on my pack, and taking a quick inventory. Once I was certain everything was where it should be I started the rest of the walk toward Boon. I was a little late picking up their deliveries, but it wasn't like they could take their business elsewhere.

First I went to uncover my cart. It was where I left it, untouched. Even if someone had found it, the best they’d be able to do would be to turn it to scrap. It didn’t work for anyone, but me. I set it to follow and it did a brief back and forth on it’s treads, almost as if it was shaking off rust. Then it fell into its usual place behind me.

When Boon came into view it looked different than I’d left it. The holes made by the raiders' strange weapons had been patched with scrap metal and wood, and the market area outside of the floating portion of the town had walls built up between the stalls that weren’t there before. The place was also a lot more alive. People weren’t holed up in the center like before and I saw quite a few more people milling about the market than just the guards who’d welcomed me when I first arrived.

I approached in the same direction I’d first arrived, hands up and weapons holstered, cart clearly in view for them to see. When people started noticing me I didn’t see the usual guns up, or hear any yelling, instead people just stared. That made me uncomfortable. I was much more used to people averting their gaze.

When I reached the gate the smoking man was there waiting for me. He had sunglasses on that he slid back so he could squint in my direction. He finished a cigarette and lit another one, but didn’t speak.

“I’m here to pick up the deliveries you want to head back to along the route to Kind. You’re my last stop on the route. I assume there’s another courier that takes deliveries further West for you?”

The man nodded. “Come on in.” He walked through the gate and I followed behind, with my cart trailing me.

The stares kept coming and there was a kind of quiet I was unused to hearing in a settlement. It made my teeth itch and my hands crave the comforting weight of my pistol.

We reached the same spot I’d unloaded the cart, and the usual line of people with letters and packages stood waiting. The usual procession began, I took the packages, got the names and places they were meant for, and placed them in the appropriate box or bag. What was unusual was the mixture of awe and fear in their eyes as each item was handed to me. I had thought that between my stealthy approach and the dark no one would know it was me, but it was clear they knew I was involved.

Once the uncomfortable parade of stares and package handoffs was complete I began sealing lead boxes. The smell of smoke in the air told me that only the smoking man remained.

“Our people got away from those raiders.”

I sealed a box, turned my head toward him and nodded. “Good.”

The man walked a few steps closer. “Two of them said they saw one of the men that freed them.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. Said he was all teeth and muscle, dressed in black stained with blood, and wielding a machete.” His eyes went to my machete as he spoke.

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” I could tell he knew, but it was clear he didn’t want to push too hard. I had the sense he wanted to respect my desire to keep to myself.

“Ah, well… Anyone who would do something like that… they’d always be welcome here in Boon. Even if they were a Deadman.”

The ‘even if they were a Deadman’ stung, but I understood what he was getting at. I extended a hand his way.

He took it and gave me a firm shake. “See you next delivery.”

I nodded, finished strapping everything to my cart, and started my walk out of the town. The last two people I saw at the gate were a young man and woman. I recognized them, but didn’t realize where from until I was back on the road. It was the two people I’d told to keep quiet when I’d first infiltrated the Porto and hidden in the building. That explained it. I looked back at my cart and saw a small bundle of wildflowers tied together with twine tucked between the boxes. I took them and tossed them on the side of the road. No reason to carry any extra weight.

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