IRC-Galleria

I headed north through Wellington, a ruined small town that had a supermarket, I didn't know what it was, but it had supplies. I decided to camp there for the night, since it was cold in the wasteland during the nights. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone rattling the markets door. I quickly shut the light and grabbed my 9mm, not knowing what to do. Horrific thoughts were running through my mind. Suddenly the door burst open and I saw three figures. They had weapons and handcrafted armor, one had a gun and two had somekind of melee weapons. They walked to the counters and stopped to chat, I just had to eavesdrop.

"I'd say that we got a pretty good catch from the merchant." On of them said. The largest one of them spoke next, I assumed from his posterior and his size that he was the leader. "It was too easy, like taking candy from a baby." He dropped the bag of spoils on the floor and continued. "I'm craving for a challenge. We should go for Paradise next." While he was speaking I was moving closer and by the time he had finished, I accidentally kicked down a can of beans, making a racket. They all heard it and the leader ordered the smallest, quiet one to check out the noise. I was hiding behind one of the counters and the small one started walking toward me with a baseball bat full of nails.

I rose on my knees and aimed at his head with my 9mm, took a deep breath, like I had been taught, and squeezed the trigger. All I saw was a flash in the darkness from the barrel of my gun, then I heard a grunt and saw the small one falling down on his back. The other two were startled for a moment and then they ran for cover. I heard a shout from behind one of the shelves, "Holy fuck! Someone killed Smith! Where the fuck is he?" By this time I had snuck behind one of the nearby shelves, then I decided to try and flank them. I slowly sneaked next to the shelf where I heard the shout come from, peeked behind it and saw the other two men with their backs towards me. I took two quick shots, one hit the smaller one in the back and one missed the leader. The smaller one hit the floor face first and bleeding heavily. Before I could take the next shot, the leader rushed at me yelling "I'm going to rip your fucking head off with my bare hands!" He leaped on me, taking us both on the ground, me on my back and him on me. He grabbed my throat and started strangling me on the floor. Somehow I still had a grip on my gun and hit him in the back of the head with the butt of the gun as hard as I could. He fell on the floor on his back, I stood up, aimed at his head and squeezed the trigger, I shot him execution style.

I stood there for a moment, my heart racing and I was just staring at the bloody body at my feet. I had shot him straight in the face, tearing his face apart and making him unidentifiable. The blood puddle under his head was constantly growing. Somehow I didn't even feel sorry for killing three people, I searched his body and I found a flashlight, some bottlecaps and shotgun shells. He had dropped his two-barrel shotgun when he rushed me. I walked to the shotgun, picked it up and noticed that the body next to it was still breathing. I loaded the shotgun, and shot him in the back of the head. It completely destroyed his head, there was just a bloody mess where his head used to be. I searched him too, but he was carrying nothing worth taking except caps. I didn't even bother to walk to the last corpse, he was dead, I was sure of it. I searched the bag of spoils, it had some caps, water and ammo for my 9mm. I took them, walked to my own backpack and took it, then I walked outside. It was still night. I knew that I couldn't stay in the supermarket any longer, because I didn't know if there were more of them coming, I guess they were using the market as a base of operations. I checked my compass, took a sip of water from one bottle and headed north.

I walked until dawn without stopping, my stomach started rumbling to the point that I had to eat something and took a little break to eat the contents of a box that was labeled "Macaroni and cheese". It tasted awful, but you'll eat pretty much anything when you're starving. I had walked for two days when I met another traveling merchant. I asked him for directions to TC-57, he told me that it was still a three days walk north from here. He also sold me a map that he had made of the nearby area. It had all the nearby towns on it and it cost me 50 caps. I thanked him for all the help and continued my journey. Mainly the trip in the wasteland was the same scene, deserted, with the occasional rubbled town. I slept only in the towns, sometimes waking up to strange noises the wildlife made.

The merchant told me that when I arrived at TC-57, I would know that I was there. After a few days I finally arrived, and surely enough I knew I had arrived at TC-57. It was an old army base with fortified walls, sparwling with life. I made my way to the main gate and proceeded inside. The feeling of a big city with organized security and merchants overwhelmed me. I asked a guard where I could sleep for the night, and he directed me to an old army barracks that was made into an inn. I bought a bed for the night and decided that I would start my search tomorrow, after a bed and a good nights sleep.