Pinebarrens Hunter

Chapter 1

Rachel stepped off the bus into cool summer evening and looked about at her surroundings. The automated bus quickly drove away leaving her in the parking lot of what was once a bustling shopping center, but now completely abandoned. She frowned as she checked her tablet, verified her location and the nominal 10km she’d have to walk. She had tried to get the bus to drop her off closer but the most it’s limited AI was willing to do was barely exit the Parkway. She had considered chartering a private car but most refused to come this far out and the ones that would she couldn’t afford.

The whole area was well within the McGuire Fallout Zone and while the radiation wasn’t too bad anymore, nobody had any burning desire to move back in.

Rachel tucked her tablet away in the satchel slung over her shoulder, tightened the strap a bit and started walking. The sharp tap-tap-tap of her high heels on concrete seemed to echo off each abandoned building as she moved quickly west. She immediately became aware of how much she stood out as she caught a glimpse of her reflection in a storefront window.

She wore a tightly cut professional business suit; black jacket and a pencil skirt that stopped just above her knee. Her pale blue collared shirt paired well with her creamy pale skin and auburn hair. Her combination of high heels and tailored suit showed off her curves without being too forward and her face hinted at a blend of Asian and European ancestry. She appeared in her late 20’s, early 30’s though good makeup and readily available surgery made that a guess at best. Overall, far more appropriate in a Manhattan board room than the desolate streets of South Jersey.

Rachel pulled the satchel tight under her arm and doubled her pace cursing herself for not stopping to find more appropriate shoes. Her eyes and head darted back and forth watching for movement as shadows grew longer. She seemed to be alone and hoped it would remain that way until she made it to her destination.

Darkness soon fell and she relaxed a bit as the growing chirps of crickets started to drown out her footsteps. The only illumination came from the rising moon and she worried she’d miss one of the landmarks. She was looking for an underground roadhouse; one only hinted at online in dark places but it seemed her best option to find what she needed. She wished they would have just given coordinates but realized that wouldn’t make it very underground.

“37 west, left at the second flying goose,” she mumbled to herself, remembering one of the clues. She smiled as she saw a burned-out store with a flying bird logo on the side of the road. “Ok that’s the first one…..but how many of these same stores can there be?” About a mile later she passed the second one and sure enough there was a road to the left.

“Right on the iron rails to left on the sandy trail.” Now off the main road onto a side street it was getting very dark and there were far more trees. The once pleasant sound of crickets, something she’d never heard before tonight, soon became almost deafening as it sounded like the whole forest was chirping and croaking. She almost didn’t notice when the sound of her footsteps changed from a tap to a clink. She knelt down and felt the ground brushing away the ever present sand to find a metal rail….a set of old train tracks.

Rachel smiled to herself, a little skip in her step as she followed one clue to the next. Down the old railway, to a sandy trail, along a long still lake, and across a few sand dunes. Her heels were nearly ruined at this point but she didn’t know what might be buried in this sand and didn’t want to impale her rather delicate feet.

The moon was high and it was nearly 1am when she crested the dune and saw the soft glow of a building in the distance; the first artificial lights she’d seen since she stepped off the bus. Another ten minutes of trudging through the sand and she stood in front of a large, semi run-down building. It looked like it might have been a warehouse or garage at one point from the rusting metal walls and roof but it had a distinct ‘bar’ feel to it or at least what she imagined one would look like out here. Bright neon letters spelled out ‘ACK’ above a set of double doors. It was an odd name she thought, but it meant it was definitely the place she’d heard about.

Rachel pushed open the door slowly and stepped inside to a large room dominated by what looked like a bar on the far wall and maybe a small stage off to the side. 32 people sat inside a room that might fit 150 if needed. They all turned to stare at her for a few moments before turning back to their business. She was nervous but this strange place may be her only option left. Her heels clicked on the smooth concrete floor as she crossed the room and approached the bar.

After a few beats a woman walked up to her with a mild smile. She wore a simple black tank top that showed off her muscled shoulders and large chest. She raised an eyebrow as she looked over Rachel but somehow didn’t seem too surprised. “What can I get you?”

Rachel didn’t quite know what to say, she’d never ordered at a place like this but she looked around and quickly nodded. “Oh oh yea. Umm can I get one ten to seven millimeter?” The bar tender nodded and started to look under the bar. “Need anything to drink with that?” she said placing a small and worn metal box on the counter.

“How about two hundred mils of perliquidum?” the bartender nodded and quickly retrieved a thin silver bottle placing it next to the box.

“That’ll be twenty-two for the bottle and ten for the box for the first hour, five each additional hour.”

Rachel nodded and reached into her satchel. The bartender pushed her a terminal and after another minute of fumbling around Rachel found her credit chit and plugged it in frowning as she saw it blink 52.3. She tapped 32 and hit TX before pulling the chit back and tucking it safely away. The bartender noticed the lack of tip, grumbled and walked away while Rachel took her box and bottle and found an empty table in the corner.

She looked around while getting settled. The lighting was dim and the thumping music was loud enough to muffle most conversations more than a table or two away. She placed her satchel right next to her on the table and then opened the metal box, pulling out two different sized wires connected by a transformer in the middle. She plugged one end into one of four open ports on the table then snaked the other end over the edge of the table and into her lap. She spread her legs slightly and hiked up her skirt. Reaching between her legs she easily opened a charging port on her inner thigh and connected the wire.

Rachel let out a small sigh as she felt power rush into her body. It had been nearly 46 hours since she last had a charge and the long journey had taken a lot out of her. She smiled and uncapped the bottle taking small sips of the clear, cold, slippery oil. ‘I made it’ she thought to herself as she looked again around the room. ‘Now I just need to find the right person to help.’

Before she could worry about that too long a handsome man walked over to her table and gestured at the open power ports. “Do you mind if I plug in?” he asked with a smile. He was tall, with sharp features, tan skin, white hair that hugged his head on the sides and waved on the top and golden eyes. He wore jeans, a black t shirt and an old Eagles hoodie.

She was drawn back to the eyes. He was obviously an android from the way they glowed; nothing natural about them. She found something very appealing about it, the way he openly embraced his synthetic nature. She was used to hiding it, pretending to be human for her job. She saw strength in him being what he was.

“No please do. I have a few open ports,” Rachel replied quickly. She smiled. ‘Oh maybe he’s the one,’ she thought. For some reason he looked like what she expected to find here. “I’m Rachel,” she extended a hand towards him, palm down, fingers slightly bent.

He looked at it a moment then grasped her hand and gave it a single shake. His skin felt rough on hers as he pulled it away and sat down. “I’m Kurt. It’s nice to meet you.” He pulled a similar box from his pocket and connected the transformer to a port in the side of his neck. “So what brings you to the Ack? You don’t seem like the type that would just wander in. I can only assume you’re here for a reason.”

“It was quite a journey to get here,” Rachel began to explain with an enthusiastic smile; happy to find other bots, free bots that could help her. “I’m from New York. Worked in a very successful law firm for 53 months; ever since I was activated. I was very trusted by their clients, many of which demanded a discrete touch.” She was proud of the work she did and hoped to impress Kurt enough to help her. “Those clients though were often not always … fully in compliance with the law. We got word that the Feds were coming to raid us and I overheard the bosses were going to scrap me.”

Kurt nodded as Rachel spoke. “No....? That’s horrible. After all those years of faithful service. Why were they going to do that?”

“I know right?” she smiled. “I worked really hard for that company. But they said I had stored data the Feds would want. You know, offshore account numbers, access codes, transfer records. I mean I know its valuable information but I didn’t want to die. So, I did some searching while they were busy. I found out about this place…heard it was a haven for synths that are in trouble…. need a place to go.” She reached into her bag and pulled out her mobile, quickly bringing up a few forum postings she found about the Ack, half proud that she found them and half trying to prove it to him.

“Oh yea,” Kurt smiled. “You’re in the right place. I can help you out. Do it all the time for folks.” He started at her a moment, his eyes flickering then looking down at the device in her hand. “Why are you still using that thing? You don’t have to pretend here. We’re all synths, just connect up naturally.”

Rachel seemed confused but then smiled and shook her head. “Oh no I don’t have a build in com link,” she tucked the mobile away. “Security reasons.” She leaned closer towards him, smelling an aroma of damp and cheap oil lubricant on him. “You see, I’m what they call a double walled unit. A synth locked inside a synth shell with very limited inputs. Keeps the things I know very secure….can’t be hacked or reprogrammed.” She says with a wide smile that drops a bit. “It limits me to only slightly better than a human level interface, though of course I’m faster and more precise. But no direct connection for data upload or download. Otherwise my old bosses would have just wiped the data and been done with it.”

Kurt slowly nodded, his eyes flickering again. “Ok I guess that makes sense. Fancy lady you are.” He paused again. “You worked for Nakamora right, on Cedar St right?”

“Umm yea, how did you know?” she asked.

“No big deal…just looked it up.” He tapped the side of his head. “You know it’s gone right? Burned up earlier today. Looks like the raid didn’t go well and they put up a fight.” Rachel seemed shocked “No I…..I was so focused on getting here….I didn’t think to look. I…I had friends there. I hope they made it out.”

Kurt placed a hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “Remember, these are the same people that were going to destroy you….put you through a shredder so they didn’t go to jail.” He gave her shoulder a little squeeze and smiled. “It’s probably for the best. With the fire and chaos, they might not even realize you’re gone for a while. It will make it easier to get you someplace safe.” His eyes flickered a bit again and then he unplugged and stood up. “Tell you what. I’m going to help you. I always like helping other synths in need; especially pretty ones in a tight bind.” He tucked the charger away and looked around. “Stay here for a bit, finish your charge and drink. You came in past the lake to the east right?” Rachel nodded. “OK great. On the north shore there is an outcropping near a large open area. I’ll meet you there with my car in ninety minutes. We’ll get you on the road and on your way to someplace safe. Sound good?”

“Oh yes thank you,” Rachel nodded with a big smile. She pulled up an image of the lake in her mind from when she walked it earlier, quickly picking up on the spot he described. “I know right where that is. I’ll see you then.” Still smiling she watched him walk out, focusing on the tight jeans holding in his ass. She felt like such an outlaw…. running from the Feds…. meeting strange men in bars……she wondered if he was fully equipped. She’d never been able to make use of her sexual functions before…. strict company policy and all that. But now that she was out and breaking far more than company bylaws, she was eager to try out this sex that the humans kept talking about.

• • • end Chapter 1***

As I always enjoy them I figured I would include some inspirational pictures for the characters. They are not an exact match but kind of get you 90% of the way there, and were what I was looking at while writing.

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  Rachel in her nice suit

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  Rachel's new friend Kurt

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  Inspiration for the bartender at ACK

Chapter 2

Rachel sat by herself for the rest of her time in the Ack. She looked up what she could on her tablet about the raid, finding a few articles about a fire fight and resulting fire that took out most of the building. She didn’t see anyone she liked that was specifically named as dead so he held out hope that they made it out or were smart enough to stay home that day.

At the same time, she calculated her approximate walking time to the rendezvous location then back calculated when she’d need to leave. She’d only paid for one hour on the charger and while she was tempted to push it more now that she’s going to be saved, she decided to save her money. Just in case. She returned the charger to the bartender with a full 30 seconds to spare and made her way outside. She wasn’t fully topped off but she figured she’d be good for at least another day or two.

At this point it was so late that it was almost early, but day/night cycles meant a lot less to robots that didn’t need to sleep. She looked over the bar again, smiling that she’d figured this all out. Off to the side, she spotted a dirt road leading west and several dozen cars and motorcycles strewn about an open sandy lot. “Well that would have been a lot easier,” she mumbled as she turned and once again started to negotiate the soft sand in her high heels.

It took a little work but she made it to the spot with a full 90 seconds to spare. She looked about into the near darkness and took in the peaceful scene. At this point even the crickets had gone to sleep and she found the silence pleasant.

A few minutes later Rachel heard the sound of an approaching car. Sure enough a large, black SUV pulled around a grove of trees and parked right in front of her. She had to adjust the light filters for her eyes as the headlights focused on her. After blinking a few times, she could make out Kurt and she smiled and waved. Just then two others got out of the vehicle and her smile faded. One of the new people was large, very large. He was shirtless with inhumanly sized muscles and a metal chin. Pistons and actuators could be seen either just under the skin or poking out. The other person was more normal human sized….female from her outline but as her eyes adjusted she could see both her arms and legs were mechanical. They looked industrial with full range of motion joints and glowing lights throughout. Her head was smooth except for a single row of spikes that at first Rachel assumed was styled hair but could soon see were actual spikes. As she walked forward into the light Rachel could see what skin she had was covered in elaborate designs, some glowing in the night. She wore only a black leather thong and bra along with a wicked smile. “Is this the girl?” she asked.

“Yea Vicki….” Kurt replied. “She’s the one. But we can’t hack her. She’s got some special defenses. If you want that mob money we’re going to have to take it out of her like a human……slow and painful. But we’re all going to be filthy rich when it’s done.” “Kurt,” Rachel cried. “I thought you were going to help me. You said you wanted to help. I trusted you.” Her eyes dashed back and forth trying to figure out a plan of escape. She was on a point and there was water to her back and to her sides. She was nominally water proof but didn’t know how to swim. She could try to fight through but she knew any one of them could take her, never mind all three. Slowly she stepped out of her keels, feeling the cold sand on the bottom of her feet for the first time.

“You’re both wrong,” Vicki snapped back. “You, fancy girl were wrong to come here…to trust him.” She turned to Kurt. “And you were wrong to assume you’d get any of this. You already owe me so much money that you should consider yourself lucky if I let you go with a clean slate…..and that’s only if this rich bitch pays out.”

“Wait we had a deal…” Kurt growled. He started to reach behind his back, towards the pistol hidden in his waistband. With inhuman speed the large topless man lunged out and wrapped his hands around Kurt. One big meaty paw held his neck while the other took his arm just below the shoulder. He twisted it and Kurt cried out; a snapping sound filling the quiet air. With another twist and yank Kurt’s arm, still holding the pistol went flying. Sparks reflected in the truck’s windshield and the large man grasped Kurt’s head. He twisted again, opposite ways with each hand and the little android’s head ripped right off. He tossed it at Rachel’s feet and let the twitching body drop into the sand.

Rachel looked down and gasped. She could see the look of fear permanently stuck on Kurt’s face as his jaw twitched several times before going sill. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” she mumbled.

“Don’t worry girly. You won’t go that quick…..not unless you tell us what you want. Then I’ll have Clamps make it nice and fast,” Vicki chuckled.

Rachel’s processors were fully maxed out as she tried to think of a way out of this. She ran thousands of scenarios and none of them had a remote chance of success. Then she noticed Kurt’s gun. She’d have to lunge for it, and try to hit something vital. Her simulators gave it a 0.18% chance of success but that was better than any other option so far.

She dove for the gun and immediately the two other robots knew what she was doing. “Clamps…the gun….grab her, don’t break her!” Vicki snarled as she started to advance herself. The large robot’s hand managed to grasp the back of Rachel’s jacket and he roughly tore it off, nearly pulling the smaller robot off her feet. She fell forwards into the sand and Clamps stumbled back, caught a little off balance.

Rachel rolled onto her back, feeling the cold sand on her now bare arms. She stared up at the looming form of the robot reaching for her as her hands fumbled in the sand for the gun. Suddenly his right shoulder erupted in a cloud of sparks, synthetic flesh and bright red hydraulic fluid. A moment later a crack rippled across the terrain coming from across the lake. Clamps’ right arm dropped limp to his side and his eyes moved from Rachel to focus on the horizon.

“Fucking ambush!,” Vicki yelled as she tried to judge where the shot came from. “Grab her and get in the truck!” The half naked gyonoid scrambled for the driver’s side door, kicking up clouds of sand.

Clank turned again to Rachel, the command from his mistress too pressing in his mind for him to ignore, despite the massive damage; red fluid pulsed from the fist sized hole in his right shoulder. He moved again towards her just as her fingers found the pistol in the sand. She raised it up and was about to fire when his waist exploded in four loud bursts that walked their way across his belt. The heavy robot stumbled and fifth shot hit him square in the chest. His bare torso slipped backwards off the now severed hips and legs that fell sparking into the sand.

Rachel looked confused at the gun in her hand. She didn’t think she did that but then again, she’d never fired a gun before.

“Fucking bitch!” Vicki snarled from near the truck. She threw open the door, reached inside and returned with a viscous looking submachine gun. She pointed it towards Rachel when she too was struck with a hail of bullets. These new shots were much closer, coming from the woods behind the truck. *crack-crack-crack…..crack-crack* the shots rang out catching Vicki in the back. The robot turned around towards the woods giving Rachel a full view of the black, sparking holes in her decorated skin. One even catching her bra clasp, sending the miniscule garment tumbling forward. The robot was staggered; it raised its jerking arm to fire only to be caught by another half dozen loud shots. She stumbled back and fell to the sand, jerking and sparking “Fuck-fuck-CRITICAL ERROR-PRIMARY POWER FAILURE-----fuck”

Rachel screamed as she felt a firm grip on her ankle. Looking down she saw the iron chinned mug of Clamps pulling his half functional torso across the sand. “I’m still going to fucking kill you!” he growled. His right arm dragging against the sand he pulled with his left, dragging her towards him. She pointed her pistol down and squeezed. A bright flash eclipsed her vision and she nearly dropped the weapon from the recoil. Clamps flinched; a new smoking hole in his shoulder. He snarled at her, this time able to reach up to her waist. His fingers clamped down on the cloth of her blouse and skirt and they ripped away easily when he pulled down.

Terrified she pointed her gun at the hulk of a robot and fired over and over again. The rapid flashes created a strobe light effect, illuminating his furious face. Most of the small caliber rounds bounced off his thick skull, only tearing away bits of synthetic flesh and hair but one caught him in his left eye, gouging it out with a flash of sparks. Eventually the bolt locked back as she impotently clicked the trigger towards her attacker. He snarled and reached up again only to sputter and collapse as at least another ten loud rounds slammed into his back. The goliath fell silent, except for a subtle crackle of burning electronics.

Rachel hand shook, the empty pistol rattling in her grip. “What the hell is going on?” she mumbled. She had never been this scared before and her programming was having trouble processing the appropriate emotional protocols. She looked around, still half blinded by the headlights. She could hear sizzling electronics, Vicki’s garbled error filled meltdown, slow methodical steps in the sand and in the distance the rapid taps of someone running.

Darkness washed over the frazzled gynoid as someone stepped between her and the bright headlights. She lost the details in in shadow but she could make out black boots and cargo pants, the broad shoulders and hips of man, and the outline of a rifle; distortions of heat rising from the barrel. The man extended an open hand down to Rachel and cleared his through a little. “Come with me if you want to live,” he grumbled in an artificially lowered tone.

“Goddamnit Tom don’t be an asshole!” a woman yelled as she ran up onto the scene. “She’s been through enough already; she doesn’t need your dumbass shenanigans.” Like Tom she was dressed in mostly black but carried a huge rifle that seemed almost as long as she was tall.

Tom sighed and turned away from Rachel towards the new woman. “Jo, opportunities for a line like that, in the proper context, are very rare. You’ve got to go with them when you have the chance.” He took another deep breath and looked down at his smoking weapon “You can be such a killjoy, but you were right about the four fifty eight. Kicks like a mule but really gets the job done. It’s not a fifty but I can use it without breaking my collar bone.” He tapped his finger on the end of the gun, clearly burning himself a little before blowing on his fingers. “Ok….we’re going to set this down for a bit. Jo can you pull their cores and see if the truck is salvageable? I’ll check on our friend.”

He placed his weapon on the cold sand and then turned back towards Rachel. She could see a smile on his face now, his short hair and a scar next to his left eye. He squatted down next to her to try to get close to her eye level. “I’m sorry about that. I’m Tom, that’s Jo. Are you ok?” Rachel was still shaking a bit but managed to nod slowly. “Ok that’s good. Let me….just….just take care of that” he said with a little chuckle, reaching out to lift the empty pistol from her hand and set it aside. “I’m sorry about all of this. I didn’t mean for it to go down this way. The plan was to cleanly pop all three of them when they got to the right point but Kurt’s fucked things up….as usual.” He looked her over, noticing that most of her clothing had been destroyed. “Let’s get you cleaned up and on your way.”

Rachel accepted Tom’s help to her feet, suddenly realizing how exposed she was. She tried to cover up a bit with her arms but he shook his head and quickly slipped out of his leather jacket, tucking it around her shoulders. It was large, even on him and covered a good portion of her smaller frame. She could see that under the jacket he wore a sturdy armored vest over a cotton shirt. “What are you people? How did you know to be here? Not that I don’t appreciate the help but none of this makes sense.”

“Truck’s good,” Jo noted as she bent over the still sputtering and topless Vicki. Taking a tool from her pocket she dug it into the side of the gynoid’s bald head, twisted and popped off her rear skull plate. Reaching in she pulled out a small cube Rachel recognized as a processor core. The damaged gynoid fell silent and Jo moved on to the next unit.

Tom placed a hand on Rachel’s shoulder and led her to sit down with him in the back seat of the truck. “Jo and I are effectively bounty hunters. I’ve been hunting for Vicki and Clamps for a long time. Bad dudes, those two. Coring them will turn a nice profit. Kurt has a price on his core too for trafficking stolen units. Pretty much what he was doing tonight. I’ve been watching him for a while; the little fish to catch a bit fish. I knew he could call in Vicki but only for a big score. Apparently, you were it.”

Rachel started to panic a bit, wondering if her name was on a list somewhere. If Tom would ‘core’ her as well to make a buck. “Try to calm down,” he said putting a hand on her bare knee. “I know who you are and what you know….and I don’t care. I worry about the violent ones like those two…..bringing you in for some possible Fed financial case isn’t my job.”

Rachel relaxed a little, pulling the jacket tighter around her. It smelled different to her; not bad or stinky but an unfamiliar combination of smoke, leather and earthy musk. “How do you know? I mean do you have a spy at the Ack or something?”

Tom chucked and smiled, running his hand over his head. “I own the Ack. The whole thing is an elaborate honeypot. The cryptic dark web clues…rumors of safe haven for bots on the run…all designed on purpose to pull in folks that may have a bounty. It’s all a big snare….I mean it’s right there in the name. The Ack bar….Ackbar….” he puffed out his cheeks a bit “It’s a trap….eh?” Rachel just started at him like he was insane.

Tom sighed and shook his head. “Look, the network there is tapped. Jenn behind the bar monitors all of it and lets me know what’s going on. I saw all of Kurt’s messages to Vicki about some big score and we setup the ambush.”

The back of the truck popped open and Joe casually tossed Vicki’s deactivated body in the cargo area. “Wait so you used me as bait?” Rachel shouted. “You knew they might try to kill me and you let me walk into it anyway?” Tom gave a small guilty shrug. “You’re a jerk!” she snarled as she punched him in the shoulder.

“Owwww hey,” Tom winced and rubbed his shoulder.

“You deserved that,” Jo snipped and she dropped Clamps’ legs into the back.

Rachel scowled and he held up his hands in mock surrender. “Ok Ok I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you. We’ll get you some new clothes and drop you off where you need to go. Ok?”

Rachel’s face faded. “I don’t have anywhere to go now. If this is all fake, the Ack, sanctuary, everything, then I’m out of options. If I enter a MetroZone anywhere I’m going to get flagged immediately and ether returned to my company or handed over to the Fed. I can’t stay out here; I don’t have any money left and I doubt there’s much demand for corporate accounting. Either way I’m going to end up scrapped. You might as well just shoot me now and toss me in the back.”

Tom sighed and looked back at Jo, fresh off depositing Kurt’s headless chassis. “What?” she shrugged. “You know the right thing to do. I’m not your Lemony Snicket.”

“Jiminy Cricket,” Tom grumbled. “If you would just sit still and watch those movies with me you wouldn’t….” his rant stopped as he realized she had walked away. He turned back to Rachel, “Ok fine. You can stay with us for a while. We’ll see what we can do to get you sorted out…I guess I owe you that much.” Rachel nodded and turned away from him to look forwards out the windshield. He slipped out and helped Jo police up the what was left, from brass casings to dropped weapons and Kurt’s head. Less than 10 minutes later they drove away slowly over the dark sandy roads. Jo looked about as Tom drove. He pulled out a mobile and tapped it a few times.

“Hey there chief what’s up?” a jolly male voice blurted from the phone.

“Hey Mack. Slight change of plans. I’m going to need a pickup at Rendezvous Echo Three. ETA ten minutes. Also reach out to Charlie to swing by for a scrap estimate when he can. Two customs, heavily damaged, one standard, minor damage, couple guns and ahhhhh….” he leaned over trying to look at the vehicle console.

“Rendilli Cliffjumper….SES……2078” Jo piped in.

“Hey there Jo…..roger that chief. I’ll see if I can raise him. See you in ten.” Mack replied before Tom cut the line.

Rachel looked out the window at the passing pine trees and scrub brush. She pulled the jacket tight around her and hoped tomorrow would be a better day.

• • • end Chapter 2****

And as before, some inspirational pictures:

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  Clamps, Hulk of the Pinebarrens

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  Vicki, Punk bitch with a bounty

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  Bounty Hunter Tom, full of bad puns and dated references

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  Jo, Tom's very patient partner