A Lawless Land

Guarded And Sheltered

In the midst of the ungoverned chaos, there was a small town with a wall built around it. One man had taken great care to protect his friends and neighbors from the terrible reality beyond their town.

His name was Leo Sheffield, a former deputy officer of the local Sheriff Department. He had a small group of men patrolling the wall, and had trained them himself. They accepted and revered him as their leader, but he had created a council to evenly and equally divide up responsibilities so the town would know who could help them with what.

As he was making his daily rounds, one of his men came running up to him, "Leo! We saw a big cloud of smoke about eight miles north of here. Should we send some people to scout it out?"

"What kind of smoke?" Leo asked cautiously.

"Very thick smoke, people are saying they heard something that sounded like an explosion."

Leo went up to the watchtower and looked in the direction of the smoke. It was thick. He wondered how something like that had occurred. He saw a figure in the distance, he picked up some binoculars and looked through them. He zoomed in on a woman, then noticed a short distance behind her, a dog was following her.

Queen saw the wall and rolled her eyes. If someone really wanted to get in, they would. She kept walking past it, but something made her stop. She glanced up at the tower and saw him standing there, watching her.

She looked straight at him, "don't worry, I don't want what you have. That is why you're watching me, isn't it?"

He said nothing. She turned slightly and the sunlight reflected off of something on her chest. He looked through his binoculars again and was surprised to see dog tags hanging from her neck.

Queen got tired of waiting and started walking again. She didn't seem to notice the dog following her. Leo climbed down and turned to one of the watchmen.

"I'm going to step out for a minute, get someone back up in that tower. I'll be right back," he went through the gates and went after her, "excuse me ma'am, do you know what caused that smoke back there? Are there casualties?"

Queen glanced over her shoulder, "yes. What is it to you though?"

"Because I want to know if there are people who need help or not," Leo answered seriously.

She suddenly turned to face him, "you'd go out of your way to help complete strangers? Even if they're horrible people?"

"Yeah, wouldn't you?"

She knew she had, but she couldn't tell him that, "not everyone can be saved, choices have to be made. In the grander scheme of things, sometimes you just have to let go."

"You were a soldier once, weren't you?" He asked her as she tried leaving again.

"What gave you that idea?"

"I saw the dog tags. Are they yours? Or did you take them from someone?" He asked warily.

She grabbed them protectively, still keeping her back turned, "it doesn't matter... Even if it did, I don't know you, and it's none of your business."

The dog growled at him from the side. It made Queen look over at him, "you again? Why are you still following me? Go on, get out of here!"

The dog disappeared into the woods along the side of the road, then she walked off. Leo stroked his chin, bewildered at what he had just witnessed. Why was a random dog following such a cold woman?

He returned behind the walls of his town again, deep in thought as he finished his rounds. His thinking was interrupted by one of the town's women. Her name was Pauline, her brother was one of the watchmen. Apparently she was coming back from bringing him lunch.