Sara Weaver
Salem, Massachusetts - Late Morning
Sara scratched her head while she waited for the girl or Ace to say something to her but they were promptly interrupted by the sounds of gunfire. They were close from the sounds of it, and Sara didn’t flinch at the sound of them either. Her focused snapped to them like a bloodhound on a trail, and she bolted in the direction of them without hesitation. Handgun drawn she shouted out to Ace and Brandy while she left. “I’ll be right back! Don’t worry I’ll try and bring you back a souvenir!” As ecstatic as she may have appeared on the outside she was much more excited on the inside, her heart was racing and her whole body was tingling. It had been a while since she had gotten a chance to shoot somebody, and she certainly wasn’t going to miss one.
On her way down the road she passed a horse with a man and a woman on it. At first she paused in shock at the sight of a horse, but then she realized from the disposition of it’s riders that they may very well have been the source of the gunshots. “Hey you guys didn’t happen to leave any by chance!?” They were moving too quickly past her and must not have heard her because they kept going. “What the fuck? Who has a horse this far east?” It seemed odd to her but her body was pumping with adrenaline so she didn’t care to explore the subject further. She needed to see where those people came from, maybe they left something for her. Sara holstered her handgun for a moment so she could tie her hair up, and stash her gear behind some debris. She left her rifle and pack behind, taking only her handgun, knife, and a bundle of rope wrapped around her torso anything else would just slow her down.
Fortunately for Sara she could follow the horse tracks for about a half a mile outside of town to the site of the shootout. Two goons, left to rot. “Kill!” Sara ran over to the one, fetching a sword from the ground. She swung it around like a child playing with a stick, eagerly poking the fresh corpse with it. “They fucked you up good, huh buddy?” She stabbed the sword back into the dirt and got down on her knees to examine the body. She mumbled to herself as she checked the man’s body for anything good. “Chest wound….no two chest wounds. Injection site on the neck, were you shooting psycho you crazy bastard? You remind me of my boys, except they were a lot better at not dying, and they carried better shit.” Sara’s search didn’t turn up anything of spectacular value, just the sword and a large knife that didn’t seem to be as good as the one she carried. She took both of them, the sword she planned to keep, but the knife had to have some value to somebody. For the time being she left them both by the first corpse so she could search the other one.
“Ah man…” Sara recoiled at the sight of the other body, his head blown to pieces by a gunshot. “Nice!” She squealed with more joy than she probably should’ve. “You take anything for that headache big guy? Or are you just going to sleep it off?” Sara gave a slight smirk as she kicked the body, she knew he was dead it just felt right to kick him. Like before she knelt to examine the corpse but while she was doing so she heard someone, or something rustling in the ruins of a nearby house. She stopped what she was doing and sat down on top of the corpse's stomach, drawing her pistol and making sure her safety was off. Her stance was rather relaxed even though she anticipated an attack, her heart was still pumping in overdrive and Sara kept clenching her non shooting hand into a fist in anticipation. “Really jackass? I know you’re here, just get out here and get it over with.”
Then as if on queue another robed figure ran out from the rubble, this one much more alive than the others but not for long if Sara had any say in it. He was sprinting at her with a long blade in his hand, he was obviously deranged as he grunted and hissed like a beast as he ran towards her. Sara drew her pistol and cracked a shot off into the man’s leg, sending him tumbling face first into the ground. Before Sara could get up from her seat the man was already trying to stand back up, although with his muscles split and shredded he was struggling. “You’re flying high too? Good, means you’ll hang on long enough for me to enjoy this.”
Sara holstered her pistol and walked up the the struggling man, he cursed at her in an odd tongue while he violently swung his blade at her legs. “You guys are quite the collection aren’t you? The crazy ones are always fun.” With a swift and firm strike of her boot the blade flew from the man's hand and Sara collapsed onto his back, sitting on his neck, forcing his face into the dirt. “Psycho doesn’t help you breathe does it dickhead!?” Sara let him struggle for a few seconds before she shifted her weight onto the small of his back, letting him breathe. He gasped for his breath but once he recovered he continued the same deranged rambling as before. Sara grabbed the man's head and bashed it off the ground, but it didn’t seem to stop him. “Okay, I’ll stop when you stop.” She kept smashing the man’s head into the ground until his face was bloody and caked with mud.
Now his beastial screams were replaced with screams of pain. Sara realized that he was probably coming off of the psycho so she pulled her knife from its sheath and run it across the man's throat, causing him to gargle on his blood as he died. “I hate it when they start screaming. I’m not sleeping tonight now.” Sara nonchalantly removed the rope from her torso, tied it around the man’s ankles and started dragging him as he continued to choke on his blood. “I haven’t done this in years! This is getting my juices flowing, girls going to need to get a room here shortly. You know we used to string fuckers like you up all the time back home? Even had the Legion feeling the pressure for a while, nothing kills morale like trade routes lined with legionnaires...in the heart of Arizona. But hey you don’t care about any of this shit do you!?”
At this point the man had already died and while Sara was struggling to drag him she managed to get him to a nearby tree. She threw the loose end of the rope over a branch, kicked her heels into the ground and pulled the corpse into the air, securing it firmly. Know a corpse was strung up in a tree on the outskirts of Salem and while Sara was admiring her handiwork she heard the hum of a robot coming behind her. She turned to face it and was met with a worn but functional Mr. Handy.
“Good morning Madam! Are you the source of the disturbance?” Mr. Handy’s sort of creeped Sara out, she didn’t really care for robots in general but Mr. Handy’s were too friendly. It was unsettling. Still she didn’t have any reason to attack it, even though she was still rushing with adrenaline.
“Unfortunately not, except for that last shot. My friend over there is just hanging out until his friends come to pick him up.” Sara gestured to her trophy with a sneer.
“Oh my! Well I’ll say, your friend looks rather worse for wear Madam!”
“I know right!? Kids these days just can’t party like they used to. Hey since there’s probably going to be more of these guys showing up do you know of any place I could stay around here?” Sara didn’t really want to stay in Salem but she also did not want to miss an opportunity for round two, or three, or four. Honestly she could do this forever, she had forgotten what it felt like. It was better than sex, or at least the sex she remembered. It didn’t matter though, she felt good and it stopped her from thinking about all the fucked up shit in her head for a few a little bit.
“Oh well if you’re looking for room and board I know just the place! Follow me if you would Madam…? The Mr. Handy paused as if it were waiting for Sara to tell it her name.
“Sara…”
“Okay splendid Ms. Sara! Do come this way!” Obviously the Mr. Handy wasn’t too worried about the gunshots now and was more focused on showing Sara this place to stay. She didn’t know what to expect from this place, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should stay in town for a few more days.
On the way Sara grabbed her loot from the other corpse, and her rifle and pack from alongside the road leading into town. Sara remembered the horse but was now more concerned with seeing where this robot was taking her. She needed some privacy right now if she was going to dedicate the focus she needed to on investigating that horse and it’s rider. Her robotic companion lead her to a large abandoned structure, called a Convalescence Home. “Con..va..les..scence? Is this a whore house? Robot did you bring me to a whore house!? I don’t know if I should hug you or smack you right now.”
“Of course not Ms. Sara! Such an establishment is no place for a woman of your calibre!”
“I’d beg to differ…but you know whatever.” Sara mumbled to herself as the robot opened the door into the building, revealing a young woman standing behind the front desk. The Mr. Handy whirred into the building ahead of Sara and made his introduction for both of them.
“I’ve returned manager. Ms. Sara and her friends were the cause of the disturbance we heard earlier. She’s now looking for some place to stay.”
“Uh ya, let’s get that straight. I did not kill all of those people….unfortunately, and they were not actually my friends, that was a joke.” Sara shifted the weight of her pack so it sat more comfortably on her shoulders while she stepped up to the counter to speak with the woman. “I’m just looking for a place to stay for a few days, the robot brought me here when I asked. So do you have any rooms or do I just pick a corner and set up a tent? Not really sure how this stuff works, it’s been awhile. I’ve got money.” Sara pulled a large pouch of caps out of her bag and sat them down on the counter with a satisfying jingle. “Is this enough? For whatever?”
