The Girl and The Beast VOl 1

The Story So Far

It's been over three decades since the Collapse.

A global conflict and mysterious virus catapulted human civilization back in time, sending the majority to the great beyond. The survivors: either mindless monsters who fed upon the living or the small minority who were their prey. Little was left behind but years of resulting nuclear winter, and spreading disease and famine.

However, beyond everyone's best hopes and dreams, the dust cleared and civilization began anew.

Slowly, people emerged from special fallout bunkers, spread across the globe. When they returned, they returned to a new world, a scarred world, irreversibly changed forever. They faced new challenges and rediscovered old ones. Ruined cities served as reminders of their faded and former glory.

Overtime order slowly returned to the wasteland. Government and other factions were set up and slowly spread to regulate conflicts in the regions. However, with much of the old technology and infrastructure being lost, buried or destroyed, it was impossible to enforce complete rule.

Life became much like the times of the early American west, people built small towns near what water was available, traded, and life progressed. People moved forward with their new way of life, clinging on to yesterday, hoping for a better tomorrow.

Raid parties would often form and take off into the wilderness in search of artifacts, scientific data, old weapons, raw materials, anything that could be salvaged from the Old World and used to improve life, often to the highest bidder.

This was dangerous work however, the animals too had changed, the predators grew in size and power to survive the harsh new world. As is always the case in history. Over time an order began to form in the world. An order of man, and order of beasts.

Welcome to The New World!

A giant sandstorm whipped across the dusty plains. Sage brush and tumble weeds were caught in the unrelenting sand cyclone, killing any living creature unfortunate enough to escape. The storm whirled and thrashed for the space of many minutes, as it scoured the plains of life, except for one, who was sleeping.

As the sands settled and the storm lifted from the plains the terrain was flat, bitter and unremarkable. Until a rock covering was removed and out of it, emerged a figure standing with their large brown overcoat and brim hat, mixing in with the brown of the desert.

“Now where did that dummy get himself off to?” The woman said to herself. She scanned the barren landscape, seeing nothing but flat badlands. Pulling her coat tight to her body, she looked to the skies, picked up a long wrapped object, and went alone in the desolate wasteland in search of her horse.

*

Nearby there was a small settlement by the name of Tinston. Although typically the wilderness was filled with wild animals, bandits, mutant gangs, and few wanderers, Tinston found itself to be an unusually peaceful place. A place usually for traders of artifacts and commodities, merchants, and hunters of the roughest kind, it was not a place one would expect to find an adolescent.

The Blonde haired, blue-eyed Lucy was about to turn seventeen and was dreading the thought of her coming of age. As she walked out on the dusty street to get supplies at the general store, her mind and stomach churned as she thought about the coming night.

The sun hung high in the air while Lucy, who was very fair skinned, picked up her pace, afraid of getting sunburn. She carried a large empty wicker basket and wore a light blue dress with a teardrop shaped pendant that beamed a radiant blue in the bright morning sun.

"I really need to get a hat, this sun is absolutely awful," She said to herself as she quickly walked down the street and into the general store.

She opened the door and the copper bell that hung over the door rang. There was a man sitting behind the counter. He had his feet up and appeared to be sleeping. "Umm...excuse me?" Lucy said cautiously unsure of what else to do.

"I heard ya come in. Get what you need and when you’re ready to pay, bother me then," The man said sharply, eyes shut and feet up, hardly moving an inch.

Lucy, though a little put off by the man's demeanor, began to collect the things on her list. "Alright first the basics. Salt, check. Eggs check." speaking softly to herself. She came to the end of her list. "Only oil and water left...ohh and oh I should get some sugar,"

She approached the man at the counter because he would have to get the rest of the items for her from the back. The man was balding and old. He creaked open his eyes and said, "You ready to pay?”

"Yes, just about, but I will need some oil, water and sugar."

The man slowly took his feet down and looking again at Lucy suddenly jumped as if hit with a cattle prod. "Are you ok?" Lucy asked, startled by the man's sudden reaction.

"Huh? Oh... yeah... I'm fine, I just realized I been a little rude is all. Sorry about that, just tired. Worked all night restocking after some earlier fellas passed through. Here lemme get that stuff for ya." The man took off into the back room only to poke his head out a moment later.

"What was it you'd be needing again mam?" He asked with a smile revealing yellowing teeth.

"Just a pint of oil, a gallon of water and about one hundred grams of sugar, if you have it," Lucy responded.

"Can do, me lady. Wait there, I'll be back in a jiffy," The man answered as he disappeared in the back.

Lucy's thoughts again drifted to her impending birthday and all that it implied. It was rare in these parts, so far away from the central city, to see girls her age wandering around. Which was exactly why she was there.

Given her blonde hair, fair complexion and general good health, any man would pay a small fortune to spend "time" with her. Being an attractive young woman had its benefits of course, like old disgruntled general store clerks would suddenly be nice to you, but there was always a price to be paid for unearned attention.

Before her thoughts turned for the worst, the bell above the door rang as someone else entered the store. At first all Lucy could see was a large brown overcoat and a brown hat as the person turned their back to her.

"Excuse me, miss," A voice said from behind. It was the man with the goods she had asked for. "Now if I could see the rest of the stuff you got in that basket of yours, I would be happy to total you up."

"Yes of course, here you go," She said handing him the basket and looking back again at the stranger, who was now looking at some shovels in the back, still obscured by their large overcoat.

"So, you in town just a few days, traveling through to Harston perhaps?" The clerk said as he looked through the contents of her basket and wrote in a small book.

"No. Well, yes and no. We are just in town a few days, but we’re not going to Harston. Actually ,just have some business to attend to right here," Lucy responded as she covertly watched the stranger making rounds in the back, all the while keeping their back to the desk where she stood.

"Oh, what kind of business y’all into? Merchants, traders?" The man continued. Turning around, Lucy glared at the man staring into his book. How odd it was that he would be so interested and asking so many questions.

"We're traders. I'm just their maid, so any real questions you would need to ask Dario. So how much is that total again?" Lucy stammered out, trying to end the conversation quickly before more questions followed.

"With the butter, bread, salt, sugar, oil, eggs, tobacco and water, that'll be 53 Doublons."

"FIFTY THREE DOUBLONS!" Lucy 's jaw dropped. "I was just in Dartwood the other day and bought the same things for just over thirty."

"Well with them mutants that be causing the ruckus up at the reservoir, the price of water and anything that uses it done gone way up," the shopkeeper explained.

"Listen. My boss is very precise about how much money he gives out, and if I come back without the stuff, he will be furious at me. There isn't any way, perhaps, I could get a teensy weensy discount, is there?" she asked in desperation. Lucy only had fifty Doublons and still needed to pick up something.

"How much we talking?" The storekeeper asked.

"I can really only afford thirty five doublons," Lucy whimpered out, ashamed to be asking such a steep discount.

The clerk seemed to be really thinking it over. He rubbed his bald head, and after looking in his book sighed heavily and replied, "Look, Miss. I get you’re in a bad spot, but I can't really afford to make anything cheaper. I'm hardly making a profit as is, but I can cut down the oil and eggs, I suppose. Anything less though, I'd be in the hole."

Lucy thought of what it would be like to return without all the stuff. Dario was always so quick to anger about the silliest things and would yell at her and then threaten in his usual way saying, “I can't wait 'til we can sell your fresh legs off, then Cortez won't give two rats about you. That day, I'm going eat ya like a steak and cut ya up like one,” With her birthday coming, she would lose her "fresh legs", and soon all of Dario's threats would become reality.

Then, like a tidal wave of light breaking through the dark beach of despair, a calm young female voice came from behind.

"I'll pay for it," The stranger that had entered earlier, approached the counter, took out a large bag of money, dropped it on the counter and repeated again, this time looking directly at Lucy who was standing to her left. "Don't worry. I'll pay for it."

Lucy looked up to see her rescuer as the woman's piercing emerald eyes stared back into Lucy's sapphires. With the range of emotions, she was speechless as the woman broke eye contact and proceeded with the transaction.

“So, how much was that again?" The woman asked in her deep voice.

"Oh, yeah umm...fifty Doublons young lady," The shopkeeper answered.

"No, the actual price before you dropped it," She said.

"Oh. It was only a small drop. Fifty will be alright."

"How much?" The woman asked again, pulling gold and silver coins with bank notes out of her bag without a degree of change in her voice.

"Oh, sorry, sixty. The total will be sixty Doublons," He answered. He shot a quick look at Lucy as blush came across his face.

"Very well," With that, she dropped a large gold coin on the counter with a smaller one and added, "I need one of those spades, and I need to know where someone can get saddle-”

The woman turned around and what had to be the biggest horse saddle Lucy had ever seen was lifted off the ground and placed on the counter. The woman did it with one arm which Lucy found very impressive.

The shopowner gasped as well at the enormity of the saddle. “umm, if I didn’t know better i’d say your saddle looks like it should be on a cadillac.”

The woman let out a snicker. “yeah he’s a big boy, had to get this custom made.” The saddle looked shredded and cut apart, and though enormous it had taken some punishment and looked absolutely unusable.

“Well If you have the coin I bet there is someone who could get him fitted at the stables at the end of town…” The man continued to detail instructions to the woman.

Lucy had been silent the entire time, emotions left her speechless. She thought of what she should do now, but it was so hard to decide. It rarely happened that people ever helped her without getting something in return. What did the woman want? Surely she wanted something. Yes, of course there was something she wanted; Lucy just needed to find out what.

"Umm..." Lucy started tentatively while the woman engaged in conversation with the shopkeeper.

" Yeah well the dummy got his last one shredded in a storm," Noticing she was being spoken to, the woman paused and turned to Lucy, "It's taken care of, you can go now."

Shocked again by the soft response, Lucy looked up. Not knowing what else to say, she simply and quietly replied, "Okay then; take care," She gathered her things, took the receipt and walked out of the general store, onto the hot dusty street.

She made her way down the small town’s grimy, sun-beaten street. Her thoughts, no longer on the situation awaiting her or the uncomfortable sun beating on her fair hair and skin, or even the next place she needed to go. All she could dwell on was her absolute inability to express how she felt.

It was strange to her, something she had only felt a few times in the last few years. She wanted to let the woman know how much she had helped. Had the woman not come, Lucy would have been forced to endure a verbal barrage of threats and insults. That woman, with her beautiful green eyes and deep feminine voice, had swept away in a moment, a despair Lucy didn't even know she had.

"Who would think there are still people around who help others, just because?" Lucy said to herself. "'Okay then, take care.' Goodness I'm so stupid! But what do you say to that, when someone just helps you out of nowhere like that?"

Lucy reflected on the words to say, only getting it as she saw a man walk out of a nearby saloon and tip his hat as he departed. “Thanks boys. I'll see ya’ll around."

"That's it!" Lucy erupted, halting suddenly on the street. She started walking again towards the hotel with her large wicker basket in hand, only now noticing the burden of the weight. The artifact shop was too far to run back with all the weight, she would need to drop off her things, and then run back to give the woman a proper thank you. That's the least she could do.

As Lucy's thoughts churned on what to say, she approached a large wooden building, that sat between the horse stable, and the town’s apothecary. The Smoking Tinston Hotel. The hotel was in part ownership by the Cortez family and their organization, and was the go to spot whenever they came to stay in the small border town.

Lucy entered through the wooden swinging doors and headed to the back corner of the large room. She walked along the edge as the middle of the room was filled with wooden tables, which were usually filled with drunken hooligans. However, it being midday, only a few were in the tavern, and most sat right next to the bar, which was arrayed with glass shelves filled with all the alcoholic favorites one could ask.

Morning moon, Barry Bosworth’s, there was even the coveted red bottle of the infamous mutant brew, The Wasteland. There were, of course, the other filler drinks that everyone had, but Lucy didn't know those as much. Domino never had anything but the very best.

Though it had only been twenty-two years since the first humans came back to the new world, Domino Cortez and his group of thugs, the sons of the morning, had quickly become a ruling body in the new world. To most people, the sons were an ennobled group whose principle objective was to strengthen and build back society and the scarred world.

The reality, however, was that by tactics of underground extortion, organized crime and murder they made moves to be the dominant faction in the western frontier. Lucy was always well taken care of in Domino's presence and hoped that Domino's past-self was buried under the rubble of a forsaken world. His feelings of kindness to Lucy however, had not been transferred to his son, Dario. Dario’s nature was and would always be that of a criminal who took and gave nothing back.

As she ascended the staircase in the back, the bartender called out to her, "Hey you! Dario was looking for you. Wondering if you had already come back with breakfast. He's waiting in the back, testing out that new six shooter of his."

Lucy cringed at the thought of seeing Dario. She slowly walked back down the stairs, took the door around the bar, and headed out through the kitchen to the back of the hotel. She heard gunshots and a group of men chatting. The bartender was right; he was busy playing around with his new gun. If she hurried, she could get his breakfast out of the way and be off before he noticed.

Hurrying, she took the eggs and oil, and seeing that the oven still had wood burning from the morning’s breakfast round, she quickly fanned up a flame and began making a breakfast sandwich, which Dario had requested earlier.

He always loved torturing Lucy like this. He already had eaten breakfast but just wanted Lucy's last day of sixteen to be horrible. She grabbed a hanging hot pad off the counter and, with a cast iron pan, began to cook and scramble the eggs. "Darn it...forgot the bacon," She said aloud absentmindedly, realizing that if she didn't get some quickly, the eggs would get cold without the bacon, and he would be mad.

Lucy, hoping that some bacon was left, ran out to the bar. "Hey, so sorry to ask, but do you have any bacon left? Forgot to get some. You can put it on our tab." She asked frantically, hoping for a yes.

"Sorry, Lass. Ain’t no bacon left," The Bartender responded. As Lucy's spirits quickly spiraled into self-loathing for forgetting the bacon, the bartender paused and continued"but if you want some breakfast sausage, there is still some left. It’ll go bad soon, so you can just have it. It's just there next to the stove."

"Okay. Take care," Lucy said as she ran back to the stove. Seeing the sausage was right where the bartender said it would be, a familiar feeling came back to Lucy, and she knew what she had to do.

Quickly rushing back to the bar, she looked across at the bartender who was talking to an old prospector. "Thanks for the bacon!" She blurted out.

The bartender surprised responded, "You mean the sausage?"

She rushed back out. "Yeah! Sorry! I meant sausage. Thanks again." With that done, she rushed back to the stove and finished cooking the eggs and four long links of sausage that were left.

She toasted the bread last and started thinking of ways to let Dario know the food was done without going out to him. The backdoor opened and Dario, the devil himself, walked inside.

"Yeah well well it’s about damn time I had one of my own," He said, continuing to speak to his friends while standing in the doorway, all the while not noticing Lucy. Frantic with Dario's sudden emergence, she took the two sandwiches she made, put them on a plate and then on the table, filled a glass with water, and tried to quickly escape before he noticed.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, take care, losers. See ya in a few hours," He said, finally waving his friends off and turning back inside.

"Wow, smells tasty in here. Took you long enough, though. I sent you like an hour ago," he said to Lucy, sitting down at the table and picking up his food.

"What the hell’s up with the sausage? I thought I asked for bacon?" He said with his mouth full of food while looking at his new gun. Dario had a habit of smacking his lips with each bite revealing whatever he was eating.

"Umm...well...the store didn't have any bacon and I thought sausage would, you know, be a good..." Lucy stumbled through her words and was unable to think of an excuse or make up a story fast enough.

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up. Whateva. I guess you need the practice with sausage anyway," Dario responded, laughing at his own perverted joke.

He had a belly that would bulge over his custom-made belt buckle, which he had engraved, under the image of a flaming skull, the words “D-Flame.” He often wore clothes that accentuated this even more with his tailored collared shirts and tight leather pants that were all but practical. This hardly mattered as the only time he went outside was to use the outhouse. His small beady eyes and slicked back black hair only completed the look of a man who would sell out anyone, even his own mother, to get ahead.

"Yeah..." That was all Lucy could think to answer with her head hanging down as she turned towards the door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Dario asked as he took another bite.

"I was just going to go outside. I figured you were done with me," Lucy said icily as loathing for Dario boiled inside of her.

"Yeah, cool. Just give me the Walkman, and I got something else I need you to pick up for your little party tonight."

Lucy froze as her brain ran at breakneck pace to find a way to explain why she hadn’t picked up the Walkman yet. The silence accentuated each painful second of realization as Lucy witnessed the relaxed countenance of Dario transform into a grim visage.

"Don't tell me you forgot it. Damn it, damn it, damn it girl!" Dario said, banging his fist on the table, food in his mouth, erupting in sudden anger.

"How many times do I have to make lists for you and tell you these things? Turn around when I'm talking to you!" He got up and descended on her, blocking the doorway.

"You retarded or somethin’? Cause I've only explained a million times that that Compact Disk player is one of the few that has ever been found. My old man would go nuts to see one after all this time. So, I pay a small fortune to get it for him on his birthday. Get repaired all nice and shiny, and you forget to pick it up!?"

He said this all while bearing down on her as she backed up, trapped between Dario and the far back wall. "I...uhh...no...I didn't forget...it was just..." Lucy stammered.

"Shut up!" Dario bellowed in her face. "I can't wait 'til tomorrow when instead of having to scream at you, I can just..." suddenly, with his small pudgy hand, Dario grabbed Lucy's even smaller throat, throttling her into the wall. She struggled vainly to scream and get away, but with the wall and Dario's fingers digging into her throat, cutting off air, she was helpless.

While his fingers dug in deeper, his eyes flickered over her soft features resting on the tear-shaped pendant on her neck. With his other hand he grabbed the necklace chain as if to rip it off, but then hesitated at the last second and let it go.

Dario spoke with a snakelike hiss as he held her face inches from his own. "You aren't going to get in my way anymore after you're sold off to the highest bidder and they throw you back like the worthless piece of meat you are. I'm going to cut 'daddy's little girl' to pieces, and not even the wolves will want your useless hide, you stupid, dumb, little..."

"Boss! Not tonight!" One of Dario's henchmen came in. "Bruises don't heal overnight. Come on. Just calm down; you wouldn't want to piss off Cortez."

Dario’s eyes flickered towards the henchman and back again to Lucy, a dauntless rage burning inside them. After a moment's silence and right before Lucy was going to pass out, Dario dropped her and yelled out, "I am freaking Cortez!"

Lucy laid on the ground, hunched over sobbing, gasping for air as Dario made his way to the table, pulled out the money pouch, and opened it. "How the hell? All the money is still here." Struggling to talk, Lucy's words stumbled out.

"There was a woman...at the store...she paid."

Looking back at Lucy with his menacing beady eyes, he spat out, "Save your dumb lies tramp. I don't care how you saved me money but I swear, if I find out you stole anything," He pulled his gun out and pointed it at Lucy, and after waiting a moment pulled the trigger.

The chamber revolved once and the hammer clicked; the gun was empty and silent, but the message was loud and clear.

With that, Dario picked up his second sandwich and while taking another bite said, "Remember, women are only good for two things: cookin’ and screwin’. You ain't much of a cook, and we'll see how you screw in a second here, won't we?"

Dario turned to his henchman who was standing in the doorway, "Bruno. Make sure she gets the invoice to get the Compact Disk player and picks up her dress for tonight. I want her to do it. Tramp has gotta learn how to work." Then Dario walked outside again.

Bruno helped Lucy up, giving her the money for her errands, as the bang of Dario’s gun rang out from behind the hotel.

End of Part 1