<strong>HAVEL</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">So Havel's got his gun out, and it's pointed straight level at Yankee.  These cultists, they shake up some of the people Gomorrah, but none of 'em are armed, and while maybe it's a feat how they go barefoot on the hot black asphalt here, those yellow and orange and white skirts of theirs aren't majorly intimidating.  If there's anything, it's the way they stare, like the way a soldier who's been in too deep for too long loses himself in the distance.  That's the look on Yankee's face as they all come to a stop before the bikes blocking their way.  Like he's looking right through everything, not looking at anything at all.<br/><br/>The guy they call the high priest, with skin so dark it matches the asphalt below his feet, he looks to Yankee and he says, real passive but with some real intense <em>intent</em>, "Brother, God is watching."<br/><br/>Yankee's empty eyes, they turn up to the sky, and then they're back on Havel, looking right through him.<br/><br/>He's apprehensive, and Havel's counting down.  "Five, four."<br/><br/>Then Yankee's eyes focus, like they haven't since Havel's set sight of him.  Then he manages, desperate, "Fuck, Captain, get me out of here."<br/><br/><strong>Havel</strong>, what do you do?</div></div><br/><strong>RUTH</strong><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">It's pretty god damn hot out to be wearing a jacket.  It's a good thing Gomorrans got no issue staying hydrated.  Sweat comes easily out here.<br/><br/>Esther's place is like a proper compound, probably the most well-made building here and maybe the only one that stood here in the Golden Age.  It's big, compared to most other structures here, two stories tall and all.  The wall that surrounds it, that's new, built by Esther's clan in the weeks following her arrival.  A couple of her gang hang out up there most of the time, sitting in fraying lawn chairs and shooting the shit, shouting across the gate -- a big mess of metal plates and sheets and car doors and whatever that slides back and forth on wheels.  It's open most of the time; Esther's never had a real reason to really hunker down since she drove out her forebears.<br/><br/>When Ruth shows up, it's just like that, two guards hanging out atop the wall, maybe eight feet up, sitting on this mess of iron and steel scratch in ratty lawn chairs on either side of the gate.  One's Ratchet, this guy who slicks his hair up into a ridiculous mohawk like a foot tall with beetle guts.  Smells like shit, too, if you ever get too close.  When he sees Ruth comin' onto the compound, he hauls up his rifle and points it down, peeking down iron sights from his seat.<br/><br/>The other, she's a tiny thing, stands a good head and a half shorter than most of Esther's gang and laughs too much.  She's got a voice like a kid, but the things she says, you'd never for a minute make the mistake that she <em>was</em> one.  While Ratchet's peeking down his sights, this girl, her name's Dutchess, she's like, "Hey, doc!  The fuck you want?"<br/><br/>Ratchet says something like, "Ask her about the toll," but he's not yelling so much.<br/><br/>Dutchess, she's like, "What'd you bring to pay the toll, doc!"<br/><br/>Man, there's never been a fucking toll for Esther's gate.  <strong>Ruth</strong>, what do you do?</div></div>