Sheriff Jefferson

His breath visible in the night. A mingled mix of smoke and warmed fog lingered for a second before fading into the dark that so often covered Shadestump. There wasn't much to keep these lonely patrols from numbing the mind since neighbouring towns had gone dark, so Cole was finding what he could between drags of his cigarette to hold his attention. It would be easier to be distracted if it wasn't so accursedly cold he thought to himself. The damned chills were shaking him to his bone and it was all he could think about.

Until a scream rang out in the night, a girl's scream, he knew that scream. He took off sprinting in to the night towards it, wiping frigid tears off his face with the wind whipping against him.

**God he hated the cold.**

## Basic Information

### Affiliation

Sworn to protect all citizens of Shadestump

## Relationships

### Friends

The Hunger, Emperor Pyro, Ezra, Stelcil, Shroomy

### Kin

Henry Jefferson (Father)
Matilda Jefferson (Daughter)

Count Jefferson (Long Distant Ancestor)

## The Good Sheriff

Cole Jefferson was 24 years old when his father passed. It was a devastating blow not just to Cole, but to his whole town. Sheriff Henry Jefferson, the fourth of his line, was a beloved community figure, who had dutifully served Shadestump, for as long as most of it's inhabitants were capable of remembering, and as his Henry's only son, it was Cole's responsibility to step immediately into the role that his father once filled, as was Shadestump tradition. With the town Sheriff taking not only the role of law enforcement within the community, but also most matters of town delegation and leadership.

With such a monolithic weight upon his shoulders, Cole didn't have time to process his father's passing. Instead of grieving he was found throwing himself into his new position with the desire and fervor that he knew his father would have wanted to see from him. He was a far cry from the level-headed and wise Henry Jefferson that Shadestump had grown accustomed to, but within Cole's first few months the citizens found more of a compassionate, and empathetic town head then they had seen in many, many years.

## The Bad Crowd

Cole had been the town's enforcer for almost a year, and things had gotten messy rather quickly after his father's death. While Shadestump was a more quiet town it wasn't immune to it's share of hardships, especially not since the news of Henry's passing got spread around to the neighbouring settlements. Various bandits, raiders, and general snake oil peddlers were getting far too confident. Naturally Cole was feeling the pressures of the badge more and more with each passing day, but was lost on how to show his strength to the town, until Tia and Geoff Hendricks, the most prominent cattle farmers in town, came bursting into his office late one night. It took a good few minutes to get the couple calmed down and talking, but Cole was eventually able to get the full story through gasps and sobs. Bandits, ruffians, scavengers, whoever they were, had apparently broken into their property while they were out in the market selling the month's leather supply, unfortunately the Hendricks had left their daughter, Juno, behind to mind the farm while they were in town. By the time they made it back to their property, Juno and three weaned calves had been taken.

Cole didn't waste time with any more details, he grabbed a quick description of Juno and bolted for his horse. He raced into the night, holding nothing more than his revolver and flashlight and prayed that he'd be fast enough to catch up to those responsible before it was far too late. Trusting his gut instincts he sped down the main road leading away from the Hendricks' farm, there had been rumours of scavenger camps being set up in the shadow of a cliffside railway about an hours walk down that road, on his horse he could make it there in twenty minutes, which he was praying would be fast enough. The cold wind whipping at his face, flicking frozen chunks of the desert sand into his eyes, he flicked the reigns again and took off speeding down the road.

**God he hated the cold.**

He had been riding for about thirty minutes, lost deep in his own thoughts of Juno and a swirling mess of adrenaline, when a shot rang out through the night, shocking him from his stupor, and spooking his horse, who threw Cole hard to the ground, before a second shot came whistling through the night, tearing deep into his left hand. Cole hissed and hit the dirt, crawling fast to the nearest bit of cover he could make out in the inky darkness, before scrambling to ready his revolver, clicking the safety back while his blood pooled into the chamber. His gun loaded, he steadied his breathing and tried to ignore the creeping cold in his gashed hand, holding his gun level to his eyes he leant out, attempting to find a glimpse of his unknown assailant, fruitlessly sweeping his eyes through the blanket of darkness, until finally, he saw a glint of metal, a pistol, an even older model than his own. Two chambers barely glinting in the light of Cole's fallen flashlight, a modified flintlock he guessed from the barrel, which meant, they were out of shots...

Cole gritted his teeth and jumped up from behind his cover, loosing two shots directly where he suspected the bandit's feet would be planted, a suspicion that rang true, making it's results known immediately, a terrible scream of pain from his bandit attacker, but, "Hm, a woman's voice?" He thought that was a touch strange, most of the scavengers out here would never allow their women to hold a firearm... and the only settlement around here that taught basic firearm useage was Shadestump... Cole's blood ran cold and he swallowed hard as he pieced it together. "Oh dear"

Juno was fortunately mostly unharmed from the incident, besides the two new holes torn in her left foot, she just seemed relieved to see a friendly face. After apologising more profusely than he had even known to be possible, Cole wrapped her wound, and got her story as he did so.

Apparently the bandits that had seized her and the calves had simply assumed that she wasn't a threat to them in any regard, a choice they came to regret after they set up camp for the night, leaving Juno unsupervised, tied to their wagon of goods. She slipped through the knots with ease and searched through the wagon, finding the terrible Flintlock that Cole had observed earlier. Those two bullets were more than enough to dispatch the two bandits that had taken her though. Blowing their heads clean open while they slept, she then packed up camp, and began ensuring the calves were safe in the wagon before hearing Cole's furious riding approaching rapidly from down the road. Assuming it was more local scavengers coming to check in on the noise of gunshots, she had hastily reloaded two shots back into the pistol, and the rest was history.

Despite their incredibly bloody first meeting, Juno and Cole got along like a house on fire, and agreeing that it would be stupid to try and bring the wagon, it's horses, and Cole's own horse, through the dead of night in this part of the land, they set up camp together for the night. Cole finally enjoying some peaceful company and Juno enjoying teasing a still, incredibly apologetic Sheriff. They talked deep into the night, laughing and sharing stories of the various Shadestump townsfolk they both knew.

For the first time in a year, Cole was laughing.

## The Ugly Truth

Cole and Juno got along like a house on fire, never in Shadestump's long history had there been a couple more smitten for each other than the two star-crossed lovers that came riding back into town that fateful night. Within four months of their serendipitous meeting Juno had moved into the Sheriff's Office with Cole, and got straight to work picking up the many short comings of the struggling Sheriff. Suddenly the few "Wanted" posters adourning the town had gorgeous hand-drawn sketches of the perpetrators, the Sheriff's Office, months in disrepair had new shingles upon the roof, and the many public adresses that Cole was failing to do out of his fear of public speaking, were taken up by his new invaluable right hand deputy, Juno Hendricks.

With a new peaceful calm settling over Shadestump, the people began turning their eyes away from the desert and slowly turning torwards the Sheriff's Office, but years passed before Cole was able to stumble over the words that whole town was waiting for.

*"Juno, Juno Hendricks, will, well my darling, will you-"*

She smiled down at him, and reminded him that it was actually "Juno Jefferson" now.

The two were married the very next month in the town church by Father Killian, and only 2 years later, the beautiful couple were expecting. According to the big city hospital, it was going to be a girl. Juno picked the name out, taking the lead as she was known to do, the girl would be called... Matilda.

That was the last word that Cole heard Juno say.

*Matilda*. Their daughter's name, left in his mind, hanging there, as he watched his wife get rushed away by the fancy nurses, and those professional doctors. He held her hand while she got wheeled out of the room away from him. And hours later, a fancy nurse, and a professional doctor, came in and told him, Juno had passed. All that she had left him, her final message, was a healthy baby girl, and a name to go with her.

## The Fallout

Due to the Hendricks and Jefferson's high status in Shadestump, Matilda grew up raised by the whole town, she never knew a home absent of love, and Cole burned every spare measure of energy he had into looking after her and making sure she had everything she could want for. Although one day he knew the role of Sheriff would pass onto Matilda as a Jefferson, he couldn't bring himself to jeopardise any aspects of her childhood by training her for leadership and law enforcement. He decided he would wait until she turned 13, before she would learn any of the darker aspects required of her future career, an unprecedented move through the Jefferson lineage.

However it seemed that Matilda's life was going to be filled with unprecedented events... as upon Matilda's seventh birthday, within the year **1993**, the **Aberration** event rang out across the world. Devastating all modern settlements, deleting their communications and entertainment. Dooming most, but not all.

Shadestump, in it's backwater ways, did not rely upon a single electronic device within the town. Aberrant radiation washed over them harmlessly, failing to find a foothold in any aspect of life that the old country town held dear, until a year in, it had found it's foothold.

The Children.

## The End

His breath visible in the night. A mingled mix of smoke and warmed fog lingered for a second before fading into the dark that so often covered Shadestump. There wasn't much to keep these lonely patrols from numbing the mind since neighbouring towns had gone dark, so Cole was finding what he could between drags of his cigarette to hold his attention. It would be easier to be distracted if it wasn't so accursedly cold he thought to himself. The damned chills were shaking him to his bone and it was all he could think about.

Until a scream rang out in the night, a girl's scream, he knew that scream. He responded by instinct with a scream of his own, ***"Matilda!"***

He took off sprinting in to the night towards it, wiping frigid tears off his face with the wind whipping against him. He turned a corner desperately searching for where her voice had come from, until he saw it, a glow within the night. A beacon of horror that the citizens of Shadestump were frantically pouring out. The Church was burning.

Without a second thought Cole charged into the blaze, pulling his bandana over his mouth he ran to the top floor where he knew the children were. With no other signs of life visible to him as he made it to the nursery, Cole was in a near berserk state as he pounded against the sealed nursery door, eventually splintering the burning wood, and breaking through to see his daughter, and two other children, holding each other in the middle of the room, all three engulfed in flame, but unharmed. Without pausing to process the miracle in front of him, Cole quickly pulled a thick bedsheet off of one of the nearby cribs, and covered the children out of instinct, smothering some of the flames upon them. Allowing the three to clutch tight to him, the group rushed out of the church, before Cole, with a final sputtering cough, collapsed into the dirt, unconcious and surrounded by onlookers who rushed to his aid.

The story beyond this point was recorded by Dr Talbot Grimes, and can be found within Audio Log 11-01-2094[1]