Roar, Lioness. Roar

Shot in the Dark

Squids. Infected. Mutants. The Hunger. They have many names among the peoples of The Bright Waste. The name is unimportant. What matters is they were once men, human men, altered by a sickness born in the old world and thriving in the new.

The lore keepers of Phalanx and Cavalry claim the infection is judgment and punishment passed down by their Great Mother, a plague meant to wipe away the infidels and heretics. They believe wizards called scientists unleashed this plague while trying to replace The Great Mother and remake the world in their image. But everyone knows Phalanx is full of fanatics obsessed with singing praise to a goddess they believe is chastising them. Everyone knows fanaticism and insanity are twin sisters.

The Crones of The Edge claim to have seen the truth during one of their vision holds, massive orgies full of sex and psychedelics. They say there was a plague, quick and deadly, and the wizard scientists of the old world created a vaccine from substances stolen from the stars, beyond The Edge of The World. This liquid yellow magic killed the first plague, but grew into a new sickness within the broken bodies of the recovering. The Edge showed the crones the truth of it all: the masters of the old world crafted their own demise.

The cockless old fart who runs Market Town in the oasis believes they come from a corruption of the seedbag. He has personally removed bag and pole from each of his sons in order to keep the squids out of his home.

The cannibals of the south blame the infection on the spoiling of human meats. They make an effort to never let their pillaged meat go bad.

A cult to the east teaches that the squids were here under the earth long before the old world fell. The wizard scientists unearthed them and destroyed their world in a failed attempt to bury them once again.

The reavers of the nine clans don't care where the squids come from. They care about the facts. The infection can make a girl child sick with fever, muscle aches, and hallucinations. Most walk away with merely a rash. Infected male children always become slobbering brutes, driven by hunger of the stomach and loins. They eat and rape and eat. Over time the squid grows within and their transformation is complete. There is no cure for the squid and, once infected, no man has ever recovered.

Squids are the scourge of the new world.

Latisha and her Yellow Sun reavers run towards the mouth of the canyon as fast as they can, chased by the shrieks and howls of hungry squids. Forty maybe fifty squids follow in their wake. Tick leads their flight, being the fastest of the party. Her pack bobs up and down as she struggles to tie her broken waist strap. Her pots and kettle play a loud steady drum that echoes off the canyon walls. A dinner bell to each new monster awakened by the howls of their brethren.

"I told you to leave the pack behind!" Anya shouts, her abaya hiked up to not get tangled in her legs.

"I wanted my bag, just in case we needed supplies."

"Well now you're calling every squid in the area." Anya gathers her robes in one hand and throws the other one wide. "Come and get it! Come and get it! Tick's cunt is ripe for the taking!"

"Ripe and in need of a good airing out!" Rebel adds.

The reavers all laugh.

"You two are jealous because I smell like a real woman," Tick comments.

"No you smell like a cliff goat," Patch cuts in.

Tick glances back, her eyes making it clear this jab stings. Latisha chuckles to herself. Patch and Tick have become close of late. Leverage she can use later. The look Rebel sends her way says her second has noticed too. Latisha makes a mental note to use the information to her advantage before Rebel does.