Thread: The Ruin of Mankind

X X X X Hunching further over the handlebars, Cali gave her bike a bit more throttle as she covered the final mile towards Guttergrudge, kicking up a large cloud of reddish-brown dust behind her. As the name might imply, Guttergrudge was certainly no luxury resort, but it was one of the larger settlements in the southern wastelands which Cali called home. She never permanently resided in one place, however, instead choosing to roam between town, picking up and completing bounties as she went. Upon reaching the outer gate which was fabricated from the same rather flimsy sheet metal as the walls, Cali brought the roaring beast below her to a halt. Pulling down the orange bandanna covering the bottom half of her face, she waited until the sentries posted at the gate recognized her and let her in. Being one of the very few women seen around those parts, and certainly the only one working as a bounty hunter, Cali was practically a local celebrity. The high profile came with more cons than perks, but she'd made examples of enough scumbags who'd tried to take advantage of her in the past that most of them knew not to mess with her by now. And in case that wasn't enough of a deterrent, the three severed bandit heads covered in distinctive tribal tattoos dangling from the side of her bike served as an excellent reminder that she could handle herself in the wasteland. Making a quick stop by the bounty office, which was really little more than a shack, Cali exchanged her gruesome trophies for a fistful of bottlecaps and took note of the newly posted bounties before turning in at the local tavern for the night. The next morning, she rode back out into the wasteland at dawn with a fresh tank of gas, the rising sun still at her back. She was headed east towards Bloodridge, a ghost town ever since the cliff that it was built upon had collapsed, taking half of the settlement down with it. A travelling merchant had posted a bounty, claiming that outlaws had robbed him of his entire stock of weapons and other valuable goods around that area. The promised reward was half of whatever was recovered, and it wasn't too far out of her way, so Cali figured that it could be worth it. Gear played a big part in staying alive, so she was always looking to upgrade and expand her arsenal. One could never have too many weapons in this day and age. That was doubly true in Cali's case, since she knew that it worked both ways and the bandits and outlaws had placed a hefty bounty on her head as well - or rather, on her entire body, since the payout was much larger for capturing her alive. And that was just in addition to every creep in the wasteland wanting to claim her as their own personal fucktoy, whether they dared to act on it or not. Basically, it meant that she constantly needed to remain on high alert, ever vigilant of threats. After scouting the area from a distance with her binoculars, failing to notice any signs of life, Cali rode up to the outskirts of the abandoned settlement to take a closer look. Clad in all black leather with her sawed-off shotgun strapped to her thigh, assault rifle slung over her back and machete hanging from her belt, she was ready for any potential surprises as she began investigating. Making a thorough sweep of the area, Cali kept one eye out for danger and the other one out for recent tracks or any other clues that might lead her to the stolen goods, hoping that she wasn't just wasting her time with a wild goose chase.