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Max strode up the creaky wooden stairs to the front door of the rickety trader's shack. The sun was high in the sky, but the air was still cool in the desert as it always was after the great war. Too many nukes detonating around the world had plunged the world into a chaotic weather environment, and even after a century since the last detonation the climate still struggled to recover.

Max could see himself in the filthy cracked window set precariously in the front door. His short cropped blonde hair exposed the many scars on his wind ravaged face and he could make out the lines of his shoulders encased in the hard leather armor common among wasteland raiders. The butt of a shotgun poked out behind his head from where he had it slung across his back, and even in the filthy glass his cold blue eyes pierced back at him.

Reflexively Max's hand patted the pistol strapped to his right thigh, and he could feel his shoulders relax at the reassuring weight of the large caliber pistol that hung there. Looking behind him to see if anyone was watching Max carefully turned the latch on the door and stepped into the large single room. Shelves were everywhere and a thick layer of wasteland dust seemed to coat everything giving the air a pungent taste.

As usual Max's stomach knotted up as he scanned the room with darting eyes looking for anyone who looked suspicious. In the wasteland if a person was not wary a person would be quickly dead. That was even more the case in the gangs where Max had grown up, and he learned the lesson well. The place seemed empty other than the ruddy looking trader that sat behind the front counter with his hands folded across his girth, a wary eye on Max.

"I need ammmo," Max lied, but he knew it was a common enough request that would not draw suspicion. He was mainly just curious what the shop might have for sale, and hopeful to pick up any information about the surrounding area before venturing further. He had been on the move for a long time, long enough that he had lost track, pushing west and he planned to continue doing so. Any information he could get from this trader about the surrounding lands would be helpful.

"Ya, I prolly got what ya need," the trader responded. Max doubted that considering the bare shelves and empty baskets around the large room. In fact it seemed as if the trader had nearly nothing to sell, and that realization made the hairs on the back of Max's neck stand up with a prickle. Out of the corner of his eye Max saw through side windows the shadows of severl large men moving around the rickety shack.

Quickly Max realized they were cutting off his retreat. Taking a deep breath Max tried to relax his body and not give away that he was on to the ambush. Looking at the empty shelves and turning over the occasional tiny trinket Max began maneuvering himself to the side of the room to keep both the trader and the front door in his line of sight. His right hand began to flex involuntarily as Max anticipated the showdown, his mouth now as dry as the desert and his heart pounding an unrelenting rhythm of chaos in his chest.

Sarah smirked as her target ran down the filthy streets of the wasteland. Her eyes narrowed as she unfulfilled her gun from its holster and aimed it at her bounty. Her breaths were shallow and steady, her eyes were narrow ans keen, her heart was steady and pulsing a normal rate. She slowly pushed in the trigger, a wicked smile tugging at her fragile lips. In an instant a loud bang echoed across the sky and through the wasteland. Her target stopped moving and stood there, a whole in the back of his head, and he then fell down still as a corpse. After all he was one.

She smiled and out her gun back in her holster, sliding down from her hiding spot on the top of a huge truck that was abandoned years way before her time. Her feet hit the solid ground, sending a thrill of excitement through her body. She grinned even bigger and ran to her bounty's dead body. She stopped before him and bended down, crunching beside her target. "You should know, being a bad guy means you have a bounty for your head." She whispered, smirking like a mutt.

She pulled out her knife from her back pocket and flicked it in her hand, catching it in the air. "Sadly, they want proof I killed you... so, I have to take back a eye." She grimaced as she did her least favorite part of the job, taking out their eyes. Her knife dug into the socket and she cut the cord, making a slushy and popping sound. She then put her hand out and pulled the eye out her targets socket. She gagged as blood covered her hand and gushed out his new wound.

Bursting nearly off it's hinges the front door slammed open shattering the filthy cracked glass window set in the front. At the same moment Max sprinted straight at the trader behind the counter whose eyes snapped open as wide as saucer plates. Max's pistol was in his hand and two rounds ripped into the chest of the trader spraying blood as the man fell back off his chair with Max's lean body slamming into him as he went over.

To Max everything was moving in slow motion. The counter was thick enough that the bullets that slammed into it sounded as mere hammer blows rather than ripping Max's body to pieces. The trader's mouth worked open in shut, eyes still wide, at sudden turn of events as he lay bleeding out on the floor. In a smooth motion Max drew his shotgun and fired 2 rapid shots around the side of the counter directly into the path of the thugs. Max felt cold inside and his heart seemed to stead now that the rush of battle was here, and he was no longer waiting for it. The knot in Max's stomach eased and as he reacted without thinking letting his body simply move as it needed.

For a moment the shots stopped and Max moved quickly, without hesitation, popping up from behind the counter to blast a final shot at the single remaining thug. The other man lay in a blood hulk on the floor of the shack, blood gushing from his neck where Max's first shotgun blast had caught him and nearly removed his head from his shoulders. The other thug took the full blast to his chest and sprawled to the ground in a wrecked heap of flesh.

A split second later, with the threat neutralized, time seemed to return to normal. Max moved to the bodies, first the trader than the thugs, moving as fast as he could without slipping on the pooling blood to check the three bodies. They had a few caps each, the impromptu money that was now standard fare throughout the wasteland, but not much of anything else. Their bullets were the wrong caliber for his weapons, and Max had no intention of lugging around bullets he likely would never use.

A quick search behind the counter turned up a few more caps, but Max's suspicions had been confirmed. The trader was broke and had taken to robbing potential customers to keep going. Max found his way to the back of the dilapidated shack and headed out the backdoor not wanting to take the chance that the gunfire inside had attracted anyone to the old shack.

Peeking out the rear door Max saw the street was mostly bare except for a slight form bent over a body in the middle of the road. Max froze a moment and watched. From this distance she seemed to be digging at the man's face. Had this person heard the gunfire? Max was not sure at this point. He crouched down inside the doorway and slid his pistol back into his hand while he waited. He could not make out any features other than the person was small, smaller than him anyhow, but out in the wasteland size meant nothing. He decided to wait a moment; with any luck whoever this was would be about their business and leave.

Sarah gagged as she put the squishy eye balls in her pocket. "Being a bounty hunter can suck sometimes..." She grumbled. She stood up, pushing off the hand surface of the earth. She reached for her eyeball free pocket and pulled out a paper, a paper with a face on it and e reward. "Maybe, I should go after this guy now.." She muttered to herself, her eyes narrowing in deep thought. She was about to do something when she sensed a pretense nearby.

She whipped around and dropped the paper, immediately pulling out her long range pistol. Her eyes buzzed around, searching for a face, a figure, anything that would match this presence. She hissed through clenched teeth as she saw know one, but she knew someone was there. "Who's there?" She called out, surprising her voice calm and serene.

Her heart pounded am against her rib cage and her mind scrambled around with thoughts. She gripped her gun tighter, clenching her teeth. "Come out!" She roared into the wasteland. She pivoted her feet and growled, snarling like mutt. "I KNOW SOMEONE IS OUT THERE!" She finally snapped. She wanted someone to come out, so she can kill their sorry ass.

Max crouched low in the doorway staring down at the young girl as she scoped the area. She did not appear to be part of the group that tried to ambush him, but he kept his pistol in hand just in case. She may not be with those thugs, but it did not mean she was not a threat.

Finally Max rose up, his hands spread before him, moving slowly as he straightened his legs and easing himself into the sunlit street.

“Not looking for a problem here,” Max called out to her with slow calm words. “I just need to make a little distance from my new found friends in there.” Max nodded his head toward the trading post and the 3 corpses inside.

Although Max’s pistol was still lodged in his grip he held it loosely with the muzzle towards the ground. “Just tell me which direction you are headed, and I’ll head the other way. Then we can both keep having a nice day.” Max’s mouth flickered into an involuntary smirk at the thought of getting jumped by 3 thugs as a nice day, but then this was the wasteland.

Sarah's eyes narrowed. "You murdered men? Do you know who I am?" She wanted to pull the trigger at this dude right when he stepped out of the shadows. She took a step forward, "I'm a bounty hunter, my stage name Python." She lowered her gun and tried not to let her hand that was on the gun control her body. She was just itching to kill this guy. She opened her mouth to speak, but a booming voice echoed in the wasteland, cutting her off from her next icy remark.

"SARAHHHH!" The voice screeched. She stiffened and she knew exactly who it was. She whipped around and was about to start off but a figure grabbed her and flipped her, throwing her onto the ground. "GENE! Let me go!" She cried. Gene was a bounty hunter like her and they work in the same position. Her jaw tightened as she kicked and thrashed as he pinned her on the ground. "No! This is your punishment for stealing my target!" He growled. His red eyes stared at her and his black hair made him look deadly with such a piercing gaze.

Max felt his stomach drop when she leveled her questions at him along with her pistol. Clearly she was not interested in a mutual parting of ways. Yet her questions about mursering men and whether he knew her identity clearly showed her intentions were not the same as those thugs. Who was she then?

“SARAHHHH!” came a screeching voice and Max nearly turned and fired on reflex. Then a seemingly crazed figure was on the woman, battling her to the ground with fierce anger. His black hair flew around him as she fought back with fierce punches. She was losing though and Max could see that in a moment the woman would be grappled into submission.

His raider mind screamed this was his chance to make a clean escape. Max though did exactly the opposite of his hated raider mind, more out of sheer spite than out of good sense.

Lowering his body and pumping his legs with all his might he sprinted forward and slammed his shoulder into the black haired man. Max heard a painful grunt of breath rush from the man as he was sent sprawling into the mud of the street. Max’s shoulder smarted with the intensity of the impact, but he pretended as if he was perfectly fine.

“I think you’d better move on red,” Max said smugly, trying to make a mockery of the man’s fearsome eyes. “This gal and I were having a polite talk that didn’t involve you.”

Sarah started to laugh, laugh hard. Gene glared at the man and then at her. She snickered and stood up, charging and doing a cartwheel, smacking Gene in the face with the sole of her foot. She laughed and did a black flip, grabbing her gun which was on the ground and aiming it at her bounty hunter friend. "Gene, please go." She said flatly and she motioned towards the man beside her, "You heard this dude. Now go." Gene growled at her words and ran away, glaring at her over his shoulder.

“This ain’t over,” coughed the black haired assailant as he picked himself up from the muddy street. His red eyes narrowed, locking with Max’s gaze before slinking away down the street.

The urge to punch a round between his piercing red eyes was overwhelming, but Max kept his trigger hand relaxed instead. He had given up the raider life, but he still struggled with the instincts that were beaten into him since birth.

“I’m Max,” he said firmly, turning to the girl once the other man was out of sight. “He a friend of yours?”

"I'm Srah Shills, and he's a colleague and kinda a friend." She laughed and laid on her back. She glanced at the dead body of the man she scooped his eyes out. "Being a bounty hunter is hard. Especially taking a life." She said as she stared at the body.

She knew how traumatizing it is to take your first life. When she first became a bounty hunter she was petrified and all the color drained out of her face when she murdered her very first bounty. She sighed and leaned up, pushing off the ground too look at the man who punched Gene. "Thanks."

The sound of boots crunching on gravel rapidly approached where the fighting had just occurred heralded the arrival of others on the scene. Around the corner of a nearby building came a blonde haired woman in what once appeared to have once been military fatigues, a dirty but easily visible white armband with a red cross on her upper left arm. Besides a medicine bag slung over her shoulder, it appeared she only carried a small rifle in a leg bag, the top flap undone and the weapon visible but not in her hands.

Slowing to a walk as she takes in the scene before her the woman closes in on the pair, looking between them and the body in the street. "Alright. What happened? I'm also going to need names....and hunter papers if that's what you are." Even as she spoke, the woman approached the body and kneeled beside it to examine it "...and are there anymore? Preferably still breathing?"

Max eyed the new comer, his eyes narrowing as if he could divine her true motives if he stared hard enough. With the ambush in the trader shack still fresh in his mind followed by the immediate confrontation with Sarah and the black haired man Max took several steps back. He did holster his pistol hoping that would be seen as a sign of good faith, but survival instincts were already looking for cover in case this turned into another fire fight.

"I'm Max," he patted his chest as he spoke to Sarah. "If you are a bounty hunter there are a few more back there in that trader shack you can check. Might be they are worth something to somebody." He was beginning to feel uncomfortable standing out here in the street, and wanted to get some place he was not so exposed.

"Who are you?" he eyed the blonde girl warily. He did not recognize her gang symbols, but then again he was farther west than he had ever been. A white arm band with a red cross seemed a bizarre sign for gang considering how easily it could so easily compromise stealth. Her close seemed to originate from before the Great War however, and maybe it was just part of the outfit. After more than a 100 years since the nuclear holocaust that wiped out civilization it was anyone's guess what those clothes and symbols meant.

Sarah looked at the woman and grinned, "bounty hunter ma'am. And no. I kill my targets, I don't spare them. What do you think bounty hunting is?" She asked. She put her hands behind her head and sounded free and chillax like killing a man was easy and not a big deal. "3-J." Sarah flinched as her walkie talkie went off and she slowly put it to her mouth. "Yes? Over." She waited and a static voice responded, "return to headquarters now. We have a new mission for you. Over." She knew who was talking and she knew it was her boss.

She sighed and looked at everyone, "well, guys. My boss needs me." She said awkwardly and she looked at the guard who tackled Gene and cracked a smile. "I like you. Ever need me call Hight Headquaters." Sarah looked at the woman and grinned like a bitch. "Look up on bounty hunters before you question them." She turned around and started to walk away with her hand still behind her head.

Chasity's dirty self sat on the edge of the street. She looked like trash, so, that's how people treated her. A dog ran up to her side. It was a stray. But, it liked Chasity. It wasn't a normal dog, it had the tail of a lizard, and bat wings coming out of its back, making it able to fly. "Hey Khan!" She grinned, patting the dog. He began to wag his tail, and sat on her lap. He began to lick her face, which made her laugh. She looked up to see the dead body on the ground. I guess she should be used to it by now, but it was so frightening. She held Khan tightly, he was her only comfort in life.

The woman continued to examine the body for a few moments before standing and pulling a small notebook from her bag. Writing down several things she spoke as she worked, her tone similar to a mother explaining to a child "Mercy. I'm the medic . I help the sick or injured...and record who was killed. Doesn't matter who, I've even treated raiders. Medics and their clinics are neutral ground out here in the west." Finished writing, she looks the man over "You must be from out east if you have to ask while I'm wearing my arm band. Now you said there are more? If you would, please bring them out here beside this one, I'll have to look at them too. Excuse me just a moment."

Snapping the notebook closed, the woman moves to block the bounty hunter from leaving "Bounty hunting is capturing a wanted criminal and returning them to face proper justice. Even I know sometimes death is the only option though. Now..." she holds a hand up "I need to see whatever you have that shows you are a hunter for....Hight Headquarters you said? Also...the name of the bounty or the reward poster. Give me those and you can go."

Max took as step back from the medic and put his hands up defensively. "That's great you are a medic, but I don't get involved in investigations." Max glanced around at the people beginning to gather around the scene, and the hairs on the back of his neck bristled. There were dozens of clean lines of sight which did nothing but push his heart rate up.

"There are 3 bodies in that shack right there," Max barked at some by-standards that had ventured closer to the grizzly scene on the ground. "Get in there and bring them out for the medic." His voice had snapped into a tone he rarely used anymore; the one he used when he would go on excursions. With eyes snapping open wide the by-standards nodded nervously and rushed into the trader shack to retrieve the corpses.

"Hey kid," Max said strolling over to the disheveled young girl sitting on the edge of the street with the mutated animal in her lap. "This is kind of a rough place right now, why don't you get back with your parents or whomever until we get this figured out, K?" he said, his rough voice now gone replaced with something more soothing.

"I don't have a home. Or a family." She says to the strange man. "I live everywhere, but nowhere. 'Sides I'm used to this by now." She gives the man a lopsided grin. His quick change in attitude was odd. He seemed angry as he spoke to the townspeople, but then he spoke kindly to her. "Do you have a family?" She asks out of the blue. She pet Khan while waiting for an answer. "Or a home? Is that why you're in this line of work?"

Sarah was at the headquarters with a big smile on her face. "Hey boss... oh." Her voice trailed off as she saw a fugitive looking at her with burning eyes with anger like coal and a face twisted up with anger. Her boss, Jim, was beside the man with a grin. "This guy will be your partner. He just got out of prison." Her boss laughed and Srah froze. "No... NO WAY! If your think ill talk with this guy than your Damn nuts!?!?" She screeched and took a step back.