Sadie dropped to one knee the very heart beat she heard the shots ring out. The HK23 that a moment ago slung from her hip was now in her hand as she panned for the shooter, her heart pounding a heavy cadence in her chest. As the bearded creep's head exploded Sadie rolled up to a new position hoping to give the shooter a tougher shot if she was next. The other scum bag had panicked waving his pipe rifle from side to side with wild eyes desperately searching. A moment later his chest erupted as successive shots smashed holes into him, and he went down in a flash of gore.<br/><br/>Sadie had begun creeping to the side angling for a large piece of granite that jutted from the earth just to her left. Powerful muscles in her legs and buttocks worked like pistons keeping her body in a straight shooting position, her hands up scanning for movement, as she angled behind the solid stone. "What are you playing at," she murmured to herself as no more shots rang out. Instead a woman emerged from behind an escarpment brandishing a sleek assault rifle. The woman was a little taller than Sadie, and strongly built; she kept the muzzle trained on Sadie who returned the favor with her pistol.<br/><br/><i>"Oh shit! Is that a pipe rifle!?"  </i>The woman exclaimed as she approached the two dead derelicts. She appeared amused at the vagabonds armament although Sadie felt relief. Had the two pigs had more accurate weapons they may have simply picked her off before she was able to get close.<br/><br/>"They aren't exactly class acts," Sadie replied her eyes narrowing as she sized up the girl. So far she had not detected any ill intent from the woman who seemed rather care free in her attitude; certainly she could have put rounds down range at Sadie had she simply wanted to kill. Instead Sadie decided to play the situation out rather than escalate it. With a flex of her powerful legs she rose up from behind the granite rock she had kept between her and the new girl, and let the hand holding her pistol slowly drop to her side. What the hell does she want? Sadie asked herself. Everybody wanted something, and Sadie was not ready to believe this woman helped her out of the goodness of her heart.<br/><br/><i>"Storms coming." </i>the woman said seeming to indicate the immediate threat to the both of them. Barely 50 meters distance was the large concrete building Sadie had been hoping to use as a shelter from the rad storm, and it occurred to her that this woman also intended to use it; possibly those pigs were as well which would explain why they all converged at the same spot at this moment. Was she offering an implied truce to ride out the storm? Maybe, Sadie thought. Or maybe she realized Sadie had better items than these dead idiots around her and used the temptation to find out everything Sadie possessed before making her move.<br/><br/>Still, there was something she had to do first. Something she was compelled to do, like a pressure deep inside her pushing at her chest and skull until she either gave in or she broke. Now that immediate danger seemed to be momentarily abated the impulse forced Sadie to an irrational act. With a smooth clean move she holstered her pistol. Without saying a word she rounded upon the dead vagrant with the beard and drawing her long combat knife she straddle him and slowly thrust the blade deep in his dead throat. Sadie's narrowed and the veins in her neck bulged as she pushed the knife in to its hilt as his still warm blood gushed out onto the dirt.<br/><br/>"Fucking pig," she growled before slowly sliding the knife out. Then with her face still flushed and her jaw jutted out she straddled the dead bum with the pipe rifle and did the same thing. When she slide the blade back out her powerful legs pushed her to stand. Wiping the blood with a soft oiled cloth kept tucked behind its sheath she stowed the knife and turned back to the woman.<br/><br/>"You must have taken care of the swine or we'd be getting shot at right now," guessed Sadie as she turned back to the woman. "They may have others that haven't shown up yet. Better if there is two of us to ride out the storm rather than one." Sadie figured the temporary offer of cooperation was implied already by the woman, but she would know in a moment if she was wrong. Walking back a few paces Sadie grabbed her long green rucksack she had dumped near the side of the trail just as those pigs had ambushed her. Slinging it over her left shoulder Sadie kept her right hand free to get to her pistol in case she was wrong. Trust did not come easy to someone like Sadie.<br/><br/>"We'd better get moving," she nodded towards the concrete structure as she spoke. Sadie headed off towards what appeared to be a side door rather than the main entrance as her bicep twitched in anticipation of having to draw her pistol quickly if this woman instead decided to make this a fight.