7-19-15:LOG:Welcome to Redlands

Tallin decides he's put enough work into the task of clearing the upper levels for now. Even if he didn't agree, his body, has decided that for him. He makes his way back to his hellcat, sitting down and leaning back against it. With a sigh, he lets his body start to relax as he opens his pack to grab a canteen. "It's a start." He comments to himself as he opens the canteen, then brings it up to take a swallow. "It's a start."

Wyck has been busy hauling this to there, fixing that which keeps breaking and occasionally talking to them about the Wall. Yeah - it's just one of those busy days. Wearing the equivalent of a hooded poncho to shield his near-white skin from the blazing sun, he slinks from place to place around the compound like a dusty-sheeted ghost. Spying Tallin by his Hellcat, the young 'Wastewitch' wanders up and pulls up a patch of ground to take a rest. "How ya settling in?"

Tallin takes another sip from his canteen before offering it over to Wyck. "Define 'settling in'. I mean, these are good people, and I get along well enough I suppose. I'm not, really, the kind that settles anymore. I don't think I was ever supposed to." He glances at the youth. "Looks like you've made quite a home here. I'm glad you found somewhere your heart calls you to."

One would think that wearing a hooded poncho, even with a light-weight fabric, would make one hot out here in the sun. Wyck, however, seems to be quite comfortable. Even as he sits on the ground fairly close to Tallin, a faint breeze blows past the boy and to the man and one would -swear- that the air was chilled. "I heard that they're doing a run soon. Sounds like something up your alley." He starts and reaches up to adjust the fall of his hood in an attempt to keep the sun out of his eyes but still be able to look at his friend. "Not sure if they're heading to Barstow or maybe out to Tycon for parts."

Tallin nods slowly, leaning his head back to think about that. "If these reaches are as dangerous as I remember, they could likely use some help keeping them safe. That is something I can help with. I've got medical supplies, and knowledge, so I can help with injuries too." He turns his head, looking at Wyck again. "Yeah, if they want me to go, I'll do it. Likely of more use to them in that regard, as opposed to moving stuff, and trying to help them build. Been a fighter, scout, and medic, a lot longer than a builder."

Wyck nods to the man and folds his feet under him to create a small 'tent' with his poncho. Sunlight shall not touch him. Nope. "I'll tell Beka if you're up for it. I mean - it's probably nothing that you're not used to but when we head out we're not moving simple stuff. You'd be surprised at how many people will ambush the convoys that come out of here just to get the plants we grow." Gardens, it would seem, are the general flavor for the Paradiso colony. With an ample supply of sunshine, plenty of water for irrigation and the lack of Raiders, they are able to grow plenty of starters that people are looking for. Now hauling them is different than moving something like fuel or ammunition.

One of the women in the colony spies Wyck from a far and wanders over to him. Her long brown hair plaited up in a braid which she keeps pulled up off the back of her neck to stay at least moderately cool. "Wyck..."she becons, "thanks for ... whatever you did for little Hayden. He's feeling much better now." The Waste-Witch nods his hooded head and raises a hand to wave back in thanks. "Let me know if his fever comes back..."

Tallin waits quietly for Wyck and the woman to finish their exchange. There's many ways to tend the sick or wounded, many ways, and Tallin is quite content to not know how it was done. He himself has ways he would rather never explain. When the woman has gone on her way, Tallin looks at Wyck. "I can imagine what some would do to get plants, and water, out here where both can be difficult to find. These are good people, I can see that. I will protect them the best I can, from whatever may come to harm them out there."

There are a few times when the 'teen' in front of Tallin turns suddenly 'adult'. There's a way he looks at people or something he says that betrays his youthful appearance. "...even from your own kind?" he asks with an all too serious tone. It's a question that anyone would probably ask but hearing it from a seventeen year old, white-haired ghost of a boy... it's just somehow more disturbing to most.

Out of the din of the usual activities around the compound, the sound of an old bell rings in the distance. There's something insistant and somewhat worrisome about how frantically its being run. The ding-ding isn't the call for lunch or perhaps a prayer meeting - it's a warning. The compound pauses for a moment - long enough for people to realize what they're hearing and what it means and then everyone heads for the nearest building as weapon-wielding folk head for the direction of the southern gate - the one that leads into the Scrub Lands.

Tallin hops up, reaching behind him to draw.... one wicked looking gun. He looks down at Wyck. "Sometime, ask me how many times I fought my own kind, because what they did, I could not stomach. Tale of that, would in some eyes, brand me a traitor." He then grabs his pack, slipping it on while he runs for the southern gate, following the armed men.

This is not the first time the bell has rung - at least not by the reaction of the people in the Colony. True, people are nervous and such but there's not a sense of 'panic' among them. They know where they need to go, do what they do. Wyck matches Tallin step for step - at least for a while. His shorter legs are eventually going to fail him but he seems to be peeling off from the Nomad and heads for his winibago trailer along the way. Maybe he is grabbing a medic bag or a weapon?

It's only a few minutes to get to the southern gate, it's only a few blocks away from the compound around the base of the Tower. The southern gate, like the northern gate, is built out of trucking containers that have been stacked a few levels high with defensive positions on top. People are crawling up ladders and a few ramps to get to the top while a large steel gate blocks the entrance and a heavy truck is slowly rolling into position to reinforce it.

This is not their first rodeo.

Tallin displays his athleticism, kicking up speed to run towatds the truck. When he nears it, he leaps, catching the edge and pulling himself up. He crouches low, looking out at the land beyond the gate. The large 'pistol' in his hand, held ready in case he needs to use it.

The large, former garbage truck is parked in front of the gate just to make sure that no attempt to ram the gate would be successful. From his position Tallin can see a pair of Rovers seemingly on the run from a pack of Raiders on Hellcats. The Rovers pause just on the other side of the gate and one person gets out holding a pistol in his hand but has it slung so that he can't easily wield it as a weapon. Hands up in a defensive posture, he starts screaming that he has a pregnant wife with him and they need to be let in. The people on the wall are already assuming shooting positions - those with long arms are taking aim at the Raiders coming at them from behind. Whether or not they let anyone in - Raiders are always a 'shoot on sight' issue.

One of the colonists mutters something about 'Snake Men' being this close to the gate. By their tone it's an unfamiliar occurence and something that they should be worried about.

Tallin can understand the concerns of the people beyond the gate. Families to protect. He can understand their not wanting to open those gates yet. He however, is more than human, and he has less to lose. Deciding that if it is true, if there is a pregnant woman there, she needs protection. In his heart, a child deserves a chance to live... and he's seen too many lives, children included, cut short. He stands, then looks at the others on the wall. "I'm going out there to lend a hand. If it's some sort of trick, you'll have the truth placed before you." The gun is secured, before he hops onto the gate, lowering himself down, and then dropping to the ground below.

One of the colonists, apparently a person in charge of this shift on this section of the Wall, calls down for everyone to get out of the Rovers. As the raiders get within reach of the long rifles up top, a few shots are taken - not to warn them off but to drop them in their tracks. When three of them drop - two body shots and a head-shot, the rest peel back and drive until they're safely out of way. The colonists are nervous though - there's something about this situation that doesn't seem right to them. More than once you hear them comment that 'Snake Men never come this close' and 'They're never in this small of a group'.

A woman climbs out of the lead vehicle and sure enough, she looks quite pregnant. The bulge at her belly looks large enough to suggest that she's going to pop any day now. The others crawl out of the rear vehicle with their weapons held up and defensively so as not to be picked off and, with the shots fired at the Raiders behind them, do their best to move, slowly and on foot, closer to the gate.

Tallin frowns as he looks at the woman, then comments. "How far along are you?" He asks, his every instinct telling him to just draw and fire. There's danger here, and he can feel it, hiding under the guise before him. But he forces himself to keep calm. There's no point in calling them out just yet. Besides, it's possible she is pregnant. Yeah, if she's having a whole damned litter of kids in one go.

The woman doesn't respond to the question but then suddenly starts to run towards the gate and screams, "Save my baby!" The colonists scream for her to get back. Weapons are drawn, a warning shot is fired between her and the guy which is presumably her husband to keep him in his place.

You see that she's carrying something small and cylindrical in her hand and appears to be pressing herself against the gate as though she were somehow -willing- her baby to get free.

Tallin growls as it snaps clearly in his mind what this is. He's seen the like before, in a war long ago, in a land far from here. Suicide bomb. There's no clear telling how she will react to him moving her away. It's clear though, to him, how bad things can be if that bome goes off at the gate. He moves to her, grabbing her arm and throwing her away from the gate. If he's wrong, he'll happily accept the brands laid before him. But if he is not, he'll be comfortable in knowing, the gate holds.

You see that she's carrying something small and cylindrical in her hand and appears to be pressing herself against the gate as though she were somehow -willing- her baby to get free.

As the woman is thrown back, the other men - three in total- seem to flip from their 'running from danger' facade to a covert strike force and start to open fire at the guards on the wall. Unfortunately for them, the woman had already pushed the button on the remote detonating device. The explosion would have easily breached the gate - leaving the colony open to who knows what kind of attack. The guards above take out the would-be attackers in the wake of the explosion which knocks everyone either back, down or sideways.

Shortly after, as Tallin is checked for injury, one of the colonists claps him on the shoulder and tells him that he did a good job. Another, the shift leader of the wall guards looks at him from her perch and says, "Welcome to the Redlands..."