Radiation: Tales of the New Age - Volume 1: Skallen

Chapter 3: Shopping for Violence

Jager walked down the dirt road of the small town, the sounds of children playing echoing through the alleys. There were several buildings to either side of him, most of them residential, strings of unlit lights spider webbing across the street, several other citizens walking down the cracked pavement, most of them wearing patchwork clothes or covered in dirt. Despite the town's apparent poverty, there was an air of positivity, which Jager happily drank in. He had hopped from settlement to settlement for months now, but most of the time they either had nothing useful on this 'Matriarch', or ran him out of town.

    He soon came to a general store and stepped in, causing the door to smack against a small bell. An old man popped up from behind the counter, a proud smile accented by a bushy moustache.

    "Come on in good sir, how can I help you today?"

    Jager walked up to the counter, eyeing the goods hanging on the walls and inside the display case. The store was filled with all variety of items, guns, grenades, and ammunition hung on the walls, while display cases lined the walls, all sorts of oddities and food inside.

    The old man rested his elbow on the counter.

    "What can I do ya' for, stranger?"

    Jager leaned up against the counter.

    "I'll be damned, you got quite a setup here old man, what are the prices on all this stuff?"

    "Well, anything under glass is about 10 of anything that'll fit in a pistol, and if you want a gun on the wall I'll take twenty of whatever it shoots, five of whatever it shoots for the heavier stuff. I also have some specialty items in the back, but for them I'll only take..." He sighed heavily, "Legion's silver."

    Jager cocked his head.

    "Legion?"

    The old man laughed.

    "You must be really new stranger, The Legion is a newcomer to these parts, and they own a lot of neighboring territory. Them folks in their red sashes and swords, they basically own this town."

    Jager slapped his hands onto the table.

    "Is that what those fucks are called?!"  He exclaimed.

    The Old man was taken back. "Yes, have you really not heard of them?"

    Jager nodded.

    "I've had run ins with them before, namely, some fat bitch on a boat that I stabbed."

    The clerk narrowed his eyes.

    "Was she wearing an ornate gold headpiece?"

    "Yeah, looked kinda like a lion."

    The clerk gasped.

    "That was you, all those years ago?"

    Jager nodded. "Yeah, why?"

    "That was one of the Matriarch's main Guards, a legion Praetorian."

    "Oh, neat, big words, what do they mean?"

    "She was one of the Legion Elite, and had been terrorising the coast. You seriously don't know?"

    Jager shrugged.

    "Well I'll be damned son," he patted Jager's shoulder, "That's amazing, but you probably are gonna wanna skidaddle as soon as ya' can. The Legion is crawling all ove-"

    The man was cut off by the entrance bell chiming. In walked three men, clad in mostly patchwork armor, but all wore a familiar red sash, fastened with a large golden pin near their shoulder. The only discrepancy being the lead soldier, who was wearing a tattered cape and a large red peaked cap, with gold embroidery sewn into it. They slowly walked up to the counter behind Jager, and there was several minutes of silence before the officer spoke.