Tales of the Wastelander Ch. 26 - Teaser (Patreon)

“That you’re all pawns! You and your men have been played!” the bandit told him.

“Oh? How so?” Jarx asked.

“This place, this… town or whatever, the people here are not good people! They are easily just as bad as we are!” the bandit told him.

“Explain.”

“I’m a bandit. I steal, lie, and sometimes kill, but this robbing the people here, it’s almost like robbing other bandits! Like us, they have no problem killing people who get in their way, or won’t do as they’re told,” the bandit stated.

“And you know of this… how?” Jarx queried, curious about where this was going.

“Because we told him,” said a feminine voice to the man’s right. Jarx turned his head and there stood all four Meludgen women who had been found in the cart.

“Is it truly that bad here?” Jarx asked, not quite convinced of the veracity of the story he was being told.

“We’ve lived here for the better part of a decade and have seen this town go from bad to worse. Some of us grew up here and often wish we lived somewhere else. Somewhere better,” the lead woman told him.

“Please, elaborate,” Jarx said, his attention on the woman.

“This place started out OK, as there were many settlers who had come up to the north here to claim these lands. There was much hope as families came here, hoping to make a better life for themselves and their children. Sadly, that never happened,” she started.

“Because… why? How?” Yasha wondered, joining in on the conversation.

“Why is easy. The mayor, who has been the mayor since we got here, has always been a greedy and conniving fucker! Always wanting more for himself. More power, more land, more money, you get the idea. The council would have stopped him, but one by one, any councilors who could have stood up to him just… disappeared. Some folks believe they were murdered, because they would have stopped him,” the woman went on.

“They are that low?” Snahrk questioned.

“Much lower than you think. They are proud, arrogant and expect everyone to bend to their will. If you don’t, then they will push and bully you until you do as they say. If you still refuse to obey, then you die. No one resists their will and lives to tell the tale,” the girl told him.

“And… it gets worse,” the bandit piped up.

“How could it get any worse?” Jarx queried.

“Simple. Out in the forest, we were looking for a place to make camp, which was hard to find, had natural defenses, the usual. It was in one such place, where we found the bodies,” the bandit huffed.

“Bodies? What bodies?” Tohni asked, wondering what they were talking about.

“Bodies of people who looked like they were in the prime of their lives. Men, women… even children,” the bandit replied with a shudder.

“A bandit with a conscience? Will wonders never cease?” Yasha scoffed.

“Say what you want about me, bitch, but I’m no fucking child killer!! Children are innocent and should be spared the horrors that life spits at them!!” the bandit yelled, catching them all off guard. Tohni growled and marched up to the bandit and slapped him as hard as she could. The bandit cried out in pain and brought his gaze to Tohni, who looked ready to deck him again.

“That was for calling my sister a bitch! I’m the only one who’s allowed to do that! Anyone else does, and I will smack his face so hard that he’ll be crying for mama!” Tohni fumed, almost daring the bandit to say anything. The bandit opened his mouth, then closed it before looking chagrined and saying one word to the woman.

“Fair.”